Monthly Archives: December 2010

green chile cornbread

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I made this green chile cornbread for the first time on Saturday. I’m not a big fan of cornbread, but baking with cornmeal makes me feel like a pilgrim, which I enjoy. Same thing happens when I use buttermilk.

The recipe is from simplyrecipes.com, and was indeed, pretty simple. Nevertheless, I managed to completely screw it up by simultaneously baking a birthday cake. Note to self: only bake one thing at a time. Pilgrims had fewer distractions.

After a few obscenities, I learned that this bread can, in fact, be made with water in place of milk..if you happen to accidently pour water into the dry mix. I also learned that you can mix the ingredients in a complete frenzy, out of order, and it still tastes ok. Just be sure to let it cool completely before cutting.

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup butter
1 ¾ cup milk (or water, apparently)
2 eggs
1 small can of green chiles
1 cup of corn (I used frozen)
½ cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese.

Method

Mix dry ingredients
Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl
Combine gradually
Bake at 400 in a greased 8 x 13 dish for about 35 minutes

snicker.doodle.

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Just saying the word is fun. Snickerdoodle. Like Yankee Doodle only cooler.

If I had a unicorn I’d name him Snickerdoodle.

I like Snickers. And snickering. And doodling.

You get the picture. Whipped these up last night for a cookie exchange at work.

Some people say chocolate and peanut butter is the best combination of flavors. I say it’s cinnamon and sugar. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is not just for children.

there’s fruit in my cookies

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I like bananas a lot. But I have this habit of forgetting to eat them and watching them turn icky brown on the counter. I hate wasting food, so I’ve developed a lot of ways to use them up. Banana bread isn’t one of my favorites so I’ve started trying other alternatives, like this.

Tonight I opted for an oatmeal banana cookie recipe from cooks.com.

3/4 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I used apple sauce)
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 very ripe bananas
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine ingredients in order listed. Drop by the tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 minutes or so, until edges brown.

we don’t need no, educaaaaation

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Last night I finished the statistics course in my MBA program. That was the eighth of twelve classes before I’m DONE.

As I near the finish line, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what I want to do with my graduate degree. My instinctive response is, “frame it.” Above that, I really have no idea what I’ll do with the degree, knowledge, or corresponding student loans, but at the very least  – I anticipate having a lot more free time.

I initially started the program after I made a career switch from public to private sector communications. Suddenly, a journalism degree didn’t feel like adequate preparation for navigating through a Fortune 500 environment. Just around the time I started thinking I knew everything (age 25), I was humbled by how little I knew about anything.

I could write a dynamo press release and edit websites in my sleep, but I was clueless when it came to practical knowledge, like finance, law or anything with numbers. I figured an MBA would open my eyes to the glorious fields of accounting and management in a more efficient fashion than googling every unknown term I heard.

This reflection has brought to light some of the undergrad courses I took that were really valuable. Oh – and those that were not so valuable. Here’s a break down:

Worth the Money:
Microeconomics
Media Statistics
College Algebra

What was I Thinking?
The History of the Beatles
Pilates
Geology

So maybe I didn’t always get the best academic bang for my buck, but I had a lot of fun along the way. Telling your parents you’re taking a 300-level history class as a freshman is impressive, until they realize it’s solely dedicated to John, Paul, George and Ringo.

And on second thought, I’m not totally convinced that it was journalism that was limiting; there’s a fighting chance it was my academic commitment at the time :-)