Day 35: 10/16/11 - "These Words"

"These words are my own
From my heart flown
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you
There's no other way
To better say
I love you, I love you..."


- "These Words" by Natasha Bedingfield


For Charity: In today's paper was the 2011 Charity Ball Association insert.  You'd think I couldn't find anything offensive about this but something struck me as odd last year and again this year when I looked at the pictures.  on every page I see well-dressed, well-to-do people showing off their clothes, their cars, their houses, their businesses, etc.  Sometimes there are children pictured with these people. What caught my attention was the fact that if the children belonged to the people in the pictures, they are listed by their first names.  If the children are coming from one of the charities, they are not named. My first thought was that this was done as a way to protect the children, but if that were the case, then why print the names of the other children?  The only two "less-fortunate" children who are named are two of the higher profile cases that also received newspaper coverage.  No need to worry about the privacy of the child then, right?  I hope that these pictures make these people feel good about themselves, and I hope they truly have given to these children.  But why not give them the dignity of printing their names?  Why make them nearly interchangeable with one another?  They are more than just "children from (insert charity)."  They belong to someone and they have names - next time use them.

Carob Banana Cake with Low Fat Cream Cheese Icing: I decided to use up my brown bananas and threw them into the carob cake I was making.  Then I remembered that I had some cream cheese that I needed to use, so I tried to whip up a batch of cream cheese icing.  Not the best texture that I've ever seen but it tastes pretty good.

I'm learning that carob, though very similar to cocoa, has a very distinct taste and flavor, so even though the initial look and smell of a carob cake screams "chocolate," the taste says something else.  I put bananas in this cake as well, so that impacted the flavor somewhat.  I think this cake would work better with a peanut butter frosting of some type, to help counter-balance the carob.  The cream cheese frosting is a bit too sweet (at least the way I made it) to truly work with this cake.

Here's the recipe for the cake:

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup carob powder
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup boiling water

There is no finesse to mixing this one together.  I throw all of the dry ingredients into the mixer and combine them on low.  I add in the eggs, vanilla, apple sauce, and bananas and beat to combine  I add in the milk and mix on low.  Then I add in the 1/2 cup of boiled water.  Pour the batter (it will be thin) into a prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool before icing.

The icing is just 8 oz of cream cheese, 1/4 cup of unsalted butter - softened, 1 cup of powdered sugar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Beat the cream cheese and the butter together until combined and fluffy.  Add in the vanilla and the powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  If you use a fat-free cream cheese, as I did, don't expect a thick icing.  The fat-free cream cheese will create a thinner icing.

Another Wasted Day: I had every intention of getting some things accomplished today, both work-related and personal.  And instead, I wound of wasting my time trying to figure out things that can't be figured out.  I then spent the rest of the day in the kitchen making my meals for the week (ones that I likely won't want within the next day or two - this has been my current MO).  Then I start to feel completely useless and think about all the things that I've done wrong and the things I could do better, but even this is not enough to motivate me to do anything.  I think the word I'm looking for is listless.