Coming Clean and Banana Cake

I am coming clean.  (sigh)

Here goes....

I've been very vocal about my position on  e-books.  I don't like them.  I like real books. I like how they feel and smell and sound (flipping the pages....) I don't want the world to become so techno that is looses sight of really good stuff!! I don't want libraries without books!! I love book cover art. I love when people have bookshelves all over their homes. You can learn so much about someone from their bookshelves! And then there was that issue with Amazon telling Macmillan (or some publisher that I can't recall at the moment) what price they could charge, and that publisher said "Amazon, you're not the boss of me!" So Amazon boycotted all of that publishers books, which means you and I were forced (if we had a Kindle) to boycott them too (very complicated issue).
I like books.
I even took the pledge to read the written word --I used to have the badge on my blog. 

But--but--but my mom got me a Kindle for Christmas.

I didn't want a Kindle.   I like books.  And bookshelves.  And bookstores with rows and rows and rows of books.
So when I opened it on  Christmas morning, and sat there dumbfounded  (my mother had also suggested only to exchange very small gifts this year--she's a sneaker, that one!!), my daughter-in-law, Sadie  knew how I felt and she began telling me all the positives about electronic readers.  For the record, she doesn't own one either, she kind of felt the same way I did. Either that, or they just ended  7 years of college and grad school, had preemie twins, who spent 6 weeks in the NICU, and decided that  the purchase of an e-reader could wait a while.  
But I digress... She was really selling that product to me, because she could tell I was dumbfounded as to why my mom would get me one, when I didn't want one.  But slowly as I sat there, watching my grandchildren open their gifts, a feeling of gratitude came over me--it was a gift, after all, a heart felt gift.   And my mom was so excited  (I talked to her on the phone), how can one not be thankful.

(my dad, on the other hand said this:
My dad.... "do you like it?" Me..."yes, I do".....dad..."Well, you're not a real reader then! I told your mother, real readers like books!" (he's a real reader... I just think he's jealous now. LOL )


So, I was okay with it.... I had a new gadget that I might use once in a while, when I traveled.   I'm not much for gadgets. But I got a nice gift. I was okay. Or trying to talk myself into being okay when  the Handyman leaned  over to me and said   " You don't want to be one of those old curmudgeons who don't like and won't use anything new fangled, do you?"



HELL NO, I DON'T WANT TO BE ONE OF THOSE OLD CURMUDGEONS!!!


That's always been a pet peeve of mine...old cranky people who won't flow with (accept )the times, won't learn anything new..... and there I was....on the verge of becoming one.

~whew~ Just goes to show....your mom can teach you lessons in life for as long as you live!!

And guess what?   I LOVE MY KINDLE!!  I.  Love. It.   While I still do love a good paper book, there is something to be said for the conveinence of having access to practically any book I want, at any time I want it, or any newspaper or magazine, or....I could go on and on.  That and I can make the print as big as I need it to be  ~grins~.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my confession...my  "comming clean" if you will.

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Even tho I read 2 books right away on my new Kindle  (Pillars of the Earth and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand--both very good, although very different from each other.  I would recomend them both),   I wanted to catch up with some of my favorite mystery characters this cold winter month  (In the Bleak Midwinter) and I have a bunch of them in my TBR pile, so I grabbed a Laura Lippman book to see what Tess Monaghan was up to.

In Big Trouble is only the 4th in the series--I  like to savour, okay--but I love Tess so much!  I love reading about 'her' Baltimore.  I love seeing how she solves the muders and how her relationsip with her boyfriend grows.  As I said, I have catching up to do... a lot of catching up, as in 10 books, (TEN BOOKS) since the Girl in the Green Raincoat just came out (it's the 14th in the series) and I am seeing lots of reviews on it in the blogging world.    I need a lot more  bleak midwinter days!  Days to curl up with my book AND....some homemade banana cake.

Yes, that's right---I made banana cake.  And then proceeded to eat half of it over the next 3 days.  The Handyman ate the other half.  It WAS NOT a 13x9 pan, but rather an 8x8 pan.  It was a snack cake!   And I snacked--more than I should have.

If you recall, I decided not to do any challenges this year, any blogging challenges that is  (except Cookbook Sundays--which is once a month and helps me with my own personal goal of working thru my cookbook collection).

But on Sunday, as I was looking thru my cookbook notebook (which consists of recipes from other people and/or magazines, I've collected over the years), I started thinking maybe I should just work my way thru my own  recipe collection notebook(s).   But then I thought better of it.   Or did I?   I can't make up my mind.

But I dont' want to bore you with my decision making process, so I will just leave you with this recipe for banana snack cake....the one I ate half a pan of while reading a great mystery novel.  But not all in one sitting, mind you.  It was  a 3-day read.

Banana Snack Cake

(from my friend Kathy Calkins in Grapevine, Texas.  It was scribbled down years ago on an old piece of computer paper--that old paper that was fed from holes in the side. Do you remember that? The continuous feed paper?)

We like this cake because it's just a bit denser than banana bread.  I don't frost it.  I just bake it and it's moist and thick and good, so we all grab a piece as we walk by and before you know it--it's all gone!

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

3/4 tsp soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup sour milk

3 mashed bananas

Mix first 4 ingredients, then add the next 4 ingredients.  Mix.  Add, alternating sour milk and bananas.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes in an 8" greased and floured pan.