I love my mother’s banana bread. She makes the awesomest banana bread ever. But that’s just me. Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup banana (”or as much as you want”), mashed
2 egg yolks (put whites in separate bowl)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sour milk (1 drop of vinegar in milk will do it)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar in sauce pan. Put in large bowl.
3. Add mashed banana, egg yolks, milk and dry ingredients.
4. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into batter.
5. Put in greased loaf pan or muffin cups and bake for 30-45 mins.
I bought Ben Kaplan’s “How to Go to College Almost for Free” a few weeks ago and had every intention of reading it. I’ve now skimmed it. Twice. And I decided to give it to my nephew to read instead. My thought was that I’d let him get the info for himself and let him guide this process (with a little pushing on my part).
It makes me wonder if I’m punting or empowering him? I haven’t hung out much with my nephew over the years so I don’t know him very well. But he seems like the kind of guy that could drive this process. Is this too much responsibility to put on a 9th grader? Hmmm. I guess we’ll see.
I have given him some tasks. He has to make an appointment with his counselor to begin building that relationship. I never used my school counselors–my father guided me. But this is what they do, right? They work with kids to help them manage their high school careers. And if the kid is college bound, counselors have access to scholarship, grant and loan information and the experience to help with that too, right?
He also has to decide how much time he is willing to dedicate to this–and commit. I suggested 2 hrs per week. But given his school work load, I don’t know if that’s too much to ask. Kaplan suggested at least 1 hr per week. Maybe once we get over this learning curve, we can drop down to 1 hr per week? We’ll see how it pans out.
I don’t want to be too pushy and overbearing. I don’t want to be too passive and just let this die either. How do parents do this stuff??? This is all quite stressful for me. LOL!
There’s no reason you can’t start saving for your kids’ higher education now–whether they’re 5 years old or 15 years old or going back to school at 40. The good news is that saving doesn’t necessarily mean putting aside some portion of your check (though that’s probably a good idea too).
Here’s one way to save every time you spend:
I signed up with UPromise.com today and invited family to join my network. Peoples, if you’d like to help defray the exorbitant cost of education for a couple of bright kids that I know, please start your online shopping here. You’ll be taken to the UPromise link to begin shopping at over 700 online retailers (or find coupons and other deals)–usually getting some % off for starting from my guest link. No sign-up necessary, just click-thru. I will get 1-25% of your purchase “saved” to my account for Chris’ nephews–who would like to thank you in anticipation of your help!
So UPromise.com is like a frequent flyer or a cash back program. Whenever you purchase something with your registered card(s)–online or at a retail location–you earn points (1-25% of your purchase). If you sign up for UDining (you’re given the option when you sign up or you can sign up later), you earn points (up to 8%). If you sign up your grocery/drug store loyalty cards, you earn points. These points go into your UPromise College Savings Account as $$. You can use the $$ to fund a tax-free 529 , pay down a Sallie Mae loan, or to reimburse yourself for college expenses.
You can designate more than one beneficiary. So if you have one kid entering college before another but want to start saving for both, you can designate the older one to receive a greater percentage than the younger. Or you don’t even have to designate a beneficiary yet…so if you’re planning on having a kid but haven’t yet, you can still start building that college savings!
One of Chris’ nephews has big plans–he wants to go to either MIT or the US Naval Academy for college. He’s a high school freshman. While I absolutely applaud him, I worry about how the heck his college will be paid! Private school tuition? Books? Room and board? For four years? Ack!
He had a birthday last week, so I promised that I’d spend time with him to help him look for ways to pay for college. You can and should start as early as possible. This little series that I’ll stick into the College Prep category will chronicle what I’m sure will be our trials and tribulations. I figure it’ll help me remember what to do and what not to do when Chris’ youngest nephew gets ready to do this too.
My nephews seem to have figured out how to get money for college. Their mom was extremely helpful teaching them that. I’ll be calling on her and them to help me. Hopefully, this will help a few of you who glance at my blog occasionally.
I’ve got electronics that I keep around because I don’t want to throw them in the garbage (bad, bad, bad) but haven’t known where to take ‘em for safe disposal. Luckily, many of my friends had excellent info on where I can safely recycle. (Yes, I do know how to perform web searches and yet, I was still unable to find what I was looking for!) So here’s the shortlist:
TIME-SENSITIVE:
This Sat., Jan 9, 2010, 10a-5p
@ Taft St. Coffee House, 2115 Taft @ W. Drew
Texas Campaign for the Environment along with several sponsors are taking your electronics for free. Working or non-working.
LOCAL
Goodwill stores throughout Houston. Donation. Working and non-working computer systems, printers, cellphones, PDAs, monitors.
Westpark Recycling Center accepts 5 items per customer per month (though it’s not clear how they keep track).
NATIONAL
Best Buy Greener Together at all Best Buy stores. Limit 2 items per person per visit.
NATIONAL SEARCH
Earth911.com let’s you search for a recycling center near you.
Oh…and if you’re concerned about sensitive data on your computer, drill 3+ holes in your platters. More info here.
Thanks everyone for finding this info for me!
I just invented a new drink to accompany my cooking today. 
Maybe it already exists–who knows?
2 parts eggnog (Horizon Organic is awfully tasty)
1 part milk
1 part Kahlua
1/2 part Frangelico
More or less. Lip-smacking tasty! Some vodka to cut the sweet might be just the ticket.
Wait for it…
Yup. Just the ticket.
1/2 part vodka
I dub thee the Nutty Mexinog. Or should it be the Hyper Hermit?
bold (adj): fearless and daring. requiring or exhibiting courage and bravery. intrepid–a fearless, daring spirit.
My oldest friend suggested a few weeks ago, rather offhandedly, that perhaps this should be our year of being bold. He doesn’t recall saying it, but I do. It resonated with me and I have been repeating it like a mantra. I’ve mentioned it to a few people and their reaction has uniformly been one of surprise with a touch of alarm. They think, “How could JoAnn be any more bold than she already is?”
While I’m tickled that people think of me as bold, I feel anything but! I have done very little that smacks of daring and fearlessness…for me. For me, it takes courage to get my book(s) to a publisher; to pitch an article to Saveur (or Texas Monthly or National Geographic or any of a thousand quality magazines); to overcome any one or all of my self-sabotaging, destructive behaviours; to actually move out of my very cozy comfort zone into territories unknown.
Wouldn’t it be awfully clever of me if I could do all that with great economy, efficiency, and panache?
It’s time for me to grow, folks. Better duck–I’m about to stretch my wings!
