Where's Kiki?

This afternoon, I sat down with my mom's recipe box and sifted through it.  I made note of things I wanted to make, and then started out a grocery list.  I know what you're thinking... "Where in the world is Kiki going to store her textbooks now?"

[Remember this from The Seventh Year Senior?] 

I'm sure I'll find another clever storage space... somewhere!

                                                                                  

Before I went to the grocery store, I did a little Google searching for meal ideas for Grandpa and me! In my browsing, I came across a recipe for mandarin orange salsa that I want to try with tilapia tomorrow night.  Well, the recipe called for red chili paste.  It wasn't until I got to the store that I thought, what in the world is red chili paste?  Better question: WHERE in the world is red chili paste?  After a few voice mails, I finally reached my brother-in-law, Mark.  AND... I found something close enough to it.  We'll see how that goes tomorrow.  

[On a complete side note -- spell check is underlining tilapia for me.  Why is that?  I thought of referring to it as tilapiine cichlid and even this is not making spell check satisfied.]   

So, after I went grocery shopping, I came home and made banana bread.  There were bananas on the counter that had become a little ripe.  Usually, I would just donate them to the landfill, but apparently I am approaching thirty and my mind is working a little differently.  Not to mention, Grandpa loves banana bread.  So, this is my first attempt at banana bread:     

Banana Bread

1/2 cup margarine, softened

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed banana

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

*This is the original recipe.  

I used 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar instead of all white sugar. 

Mostly because I love brown sugar.*

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease and flour one 9x5 inch pan

(I used two smaller pans because I'm still not familiar with where everything is in the kitchen!)

Cream margarine and sugar until smooth

Beat in eggs, then bananas

Add flour and soda - stir just until combined

Pour into pan and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour

Remove from pan, let cool, and then store in refrigerator or freeze

*Half way through baking, I sprinkled the top with brown sugar.  Again, I love brown sugar!*

So, let's just recap:

• I have dinner planned for tomorrow already.
• Fresh baked banana bread in the kitchen.
• One shed painted
• New batteries in Grandpa's remote.
• Grocery shopping taken care of.
• Caught up on two episodes of One Life to Live
• FINALLY tried the salted caramel mocha at Starbucks -- AWESOME!

And... it's only Tuesday!

Tomorrow is Wednesday.  Wednesday is garbage day.  I tend to forget that.  My iPhone is going to arrive tomorrow, so I'll just drag the garbage to the curb and wait for the iPhone.  I think I've done enough this week so far, so tomorrow can be a slack off day.  Or, not...