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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Friday Odds & Ends (Open Thread)

Friday Odds & Ends (Open Thread)

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Toward the tail end of the last thread, I mentioned I was baking banana bread. Tada!

Friday Odds & Ends (Open Thread)

My secret ingredients are extremely ripe bananas — you want them to be half a hour from so rotten they’re fit only for hurling (along with other spoiled produce) at a stage occupied by lying creeps — and macadamia nuts. The latter are spendy but worth it!

***

Still coming down from the high of the convention. I’ve watched a lot of them, including two previous during which I was genuinely excited about the nominee (Barack Obama and then Hillary Clinton). Nothing came close to this one.

The near-flawless execution is all the more remarkable when you consider the timing constraints. Kay is right; the Democratic Party is an American institution that has proved its resilience in this nutso timeline.

Talk about whatever!

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    Will you be sharing your recipe, Ms. Cracker?  Scritches to the house pups.

    Have not seen any of last night’s DNC.  Nor Wednesday’s.  In for a treat, you all tell me.

  5. 5.

    narya

    My secret for banana bread: freeze the overripe bananas as they occur. When thawing, sit them in a mesh strainer over a small pot; when they’re drained, simmer/reduce the liquid by at least half, and use that syrup in the bread as part of the liquid. It intensifies the banana flavor a LOT. Macadamia nuts sounds like a great addition (though I usually don’t put nuts in mine).

  6. 6.

    J. Arthur Crank

    Those loafs look good.  If I can’t have the actual bread, perhaps an NFT of that picture can suffice.

  7. 7.

    tam1MI

    @NeenerNeener: Yep, overripe bananas are the only way to make decent banana bread.

    If the bananas have not reached the desired state of mushiness, another way to achieve it is to slam them against the counter a bunch of times. Also a good way to work out your frustrations !😉

  12. 12.

    Mike E

    I compare the convention to the Paris Olympics, where the staging, setting and performances were so good it withstood the clumsy network(s) coverage to leave an overall positive impression. As a media cynic, I felt pretty good about it and I think many others will as well.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    My secret ingredients are extremely ripe bananas — you want them to be half a hour from so rotten they’re fit only for hurling

    My mother did the same, tho she liked them so ripe you couldn’t hurl them as they’d fall apart in the hand. Now I do it that way too. Use walnuts, black walnuts if I can get them.

  19. 19.

    Jeffro

    @HumboldtBlue: so that’s the new litmus test, eh?  whether or not James Comer perceives that a group “really respect[s] capitalism”?

    eff that guy.

    Speaking of ‘eff that guy’, guess who I saw in the airport yesterday as we headed home from vacation?  Devin effin’ Nunes!!

    I was sorely tempted to moo at him, but who knows how he’d react?  Plus, I couldn’t count on the crowd of normies to get the joke and join in.  But yeah, tempted!

  21. 21.

    HumboldtBlue

    Bananas are the canned tuna of fruits. Nasty, just nasty and should never be eaten by anyone with taste buds that actually work.

  23. 23.

    Josie

    I add 1/2 cup of dark cocoa powder and some chocolate morsels to my banana bread because everything is better with dark chocolate.

  24. 24.

    narya

    @Betty Cracker: I stole it from Cooks Country a million years ago! And I use butter (and less of it) rather than shortening or oil, because I like the flavor better.

  28. 28.

    Ken

    I am also a fan of very overripe bananas for banana bread, but there was one time I opened one up and there was a hiss of escaping gas. I didn’t use that one — couldn’t be sure just what had been fermenting in there or what else it might have excreted.

  30. 30.

    Jeffro

    btw this probably came up while I was out running errands this morning, but…did y’all SEE that horrendous picture of trumpov down at the border?  I guess he sweated off half of his bronzer or something, and he’s grimacing like he’s trying to pass the entire McDonald’s menu out his rear end?

    jee-ZUS, what a pic!

    I’m sure Harris/Walz 2024 has it up in a half-dozen different social media ads alread

    one Twitter user: “he looks like some kids found him in a river” LOLOLOLOL

  31. 31.

    Hoodie

    @HumboldtBlue: He has to be one of the dumbest motherfuckers in Congress.  3M, Target, United Healthcare, Medtronic, etc. . . . yeah, they don’t understand capitalism in Minnesota.

  35. 35.

    Josie

    @Hoodie: ​
     When you see a rep like Comer, you have to wonder about the people who elected him. They must be dumber than he is.

  38. 38.

    cain

    @Betty Cracker – my wife makes a version of banana bread made with protein powder – the kids love it. They all have various dietary restrictions – carbs being one of them and so they love the high protein version of this.

  39. 39.

    BR

    One thing I find really interesting in watching Roland Martin’s interviews at the end of the day yesterday with a pretty wide swath of Black commentators, a lot of them immediately brought up Harris’s foreign policy section of the speech and they felt like she threaded the needle on it. I don’t know how representative they are but it was striking.

  40. 40.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Hoodie: ​ 

    It’s so absurd. Minnesota has been a center for business and manufacturing in the Midwest since there has been a Midwest.

    I love this documentary from Twin Cities PBS.

    Flour Power explores how milling made Minnesota. The story charts the growth of wheat farming, the harnessing of water power, the founders of the flour milling industry, and the expansion of the industry into global purveyors of industrialized food products.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Hoodie:  And Comer is so generic looking.  He richly deserves to be hassled in airports and everyday life.  Even by cows with an internet following.

    Did the Nunes cow retire?

  44. 44.

    scav

    @cain: What’s worse, how are they going to tell if that’s not a Minnesotan sitting right there next to them!  The Carhartts?  The flannel shirts?!

  45. 45.

    narya

    @Elizabelle: I use butter–it’s nearly a one-to-one substitution. For two loaves, I’d probably start with two sticks of butter (maybe a little less, but I’m an inveterate tweak-a-little-in-the-moment person). I’d also use brown sugar instead of white, or half & half.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @Josie:  Thank you.  I rarely bake, but always have butter and olive oil in house.  🫒🫒🫒

    Had to take the laptop in for service yesterday.  Would rather have it back and miss the emojis.

  49. 49.

    Tony Jay

    @HumboldtBlue:

    You are 99.9% right. Vile things that monkeys only eat because they need a break from eating each others’ poop.

    The 0.01% were you’re wrong is banana bread. Yummy yummy get in mah tummy. With or without custard, but then again, to paraphrase Devin Nunes’ favourite line, everything tastes better with custard on it.

  50. 50.

    Keith P.

    @narya: That’s my secret for ice cream – most recipes tell you to macerate fruit so it’s soft when frozen, but it adds too much sugar (IMO) to the fruit.  Instead, I’ll freeze the chunks of fruit, thaw them, refreeze (optional), and then mix into the ice cream.

  51. 51.

    narya

    @Elizabelle: I also save any sour milk that develops at my house and use that when I need liquid for baking. Also: buttermilk will last forever (unless it gets moldy); ignore the date on it.

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

    Speaking of ‘eff that guy’, guess who I saw in the airport yesterday as we headed home from vacation?  Devin effin’ Nunes!!

    I was sorely tempted to moo at him, but who knows how he’d react?  Plus, I couldn’t count on the crowd of normies to get the joke and join in.  But yeah, tempted!

    You shoulda given in to temptation!  I’d have joined right in, once I knew who you were mooing at.  (I don’t watch enough TV, either directly or online, to know what half these people look like.)

    Or at least you should’ve gone up and asked him how his cow was doing these days.

  54. 54.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @HumboldtBlue:

    There was something going around the miasma of right wing noisemakers a couple of weeks ago about socialist inclinations among the Scandinavians that immigrated to Minnesota in the 1800s, I shit you not.

  55. 55.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Old School: Well that led me down an interesting rabbit hole. My first thought was “the Newseum in DC does that.”

    After which I found out the Newseum doesn’t exist any more. That was an amazing resource, I’m so sorry they closed. I wonder what happened to their incredible collection.

    But then I found this Wikipedia article about them, which mentions they were funded by something called the Freedom Forum. Which is the host of the link you posted.

  58. 58.

    narya

    Okay, since this is a cooking sub-thread, I have to tell you about this week’s halibut. I was roasting a whole bunch of tomatoes (Romas, mostly); quartering them then throwing them into a big bowl. I tossed in some olive oil and then put them on sheet pans (and parchment) in the oven . . . and found myself w/ a big bowl of tomato water. I also had a tomato/peach salsa planned for the halibut for dinner (garlic, salt, maybe some basil? I forget). First, I strained out the seeds. Then, I put the halibut into some of the tomato water with some salt and let it brine a bit. I caramelized an onion (because I always do that). I pan-cooked the halibut, then put it in the warming drawer. I put all of the tomato water into the pan and reduced it by at least 2/3, then added some butter (because always), then the onions and salsa, just enough to warm it all, and served it over the halibut. OMG. My “don’t waste anything!1!” mantra served us well! Served with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and garlic toast.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    @Ken: OMG so good (and thanks for the link!)

    My two faves:

    “It’s truer than the last time I said it — he looks like a handful of bleached anuses scattered on a plate of day-old polenta” — Popehat

    “That’s a guy who lied about the zombie bite.” — High Plains Biffster

    Nightmare stuff fer sure!

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    @HumboldtBlue: Blocked and reported! ;-)

    Indeed!

    I’m also in the “bananas are perfect in recipes a half hour before they disintegrate” school.

    Here’s my 3-ingredient recipe for banana chocolate chip muffins:

    N overripe bananas
    N eggs
    2N oz. Kodiak chocolate chip muffin mix
    (Ex. 4 bananas, 4 eggs, 8 oz. mix)

    Mix well, put in muffin pan, bake at 400° for ~21 minutes. Rotate halfway through if your oven has hot and cool spots.

  62. 62.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    About all the recommendations for near-rotten bananas: aIf you ever pick up plantains out of curiosity at your local grocery, they should be used when in that stage too. Cut them up and fry them. Delicious!

    A plantain is actually two different very distinct foods. If it’s green, it’s very similar to a potato and you can treat it like a potato, either frying slices or boiling it and mashing it.

    But when it’s yellow going to black, then it has that sweet flavor like a banana but richer. I imagine you could make a banana bread out of it, come to think of it. But too many stores trying to carry plantains get them in an in-between stage, when they’re not useful to use for either type of dish.

  63. 63.

    Wapiti

    @Hoodie: We just did a road trip to Missouri and Indiana and stopped in Austin, Minnesota on the way back to Seattle. Austin is the home of Hormel and has a SPAM museum. Capitalism on display.

  65. 65.

    Jeffro

    @lowtechcyclist: I should have!

    I always run in to the wingnuts, never the Dems.  (Probably for the best – I would probably fanboy out over a couple dozen Ds at this point).

    It’s really strange.  I have bumped into Clarence Thomas in an elevator, stood in a chow line with Karl Rove, and sat next to Ben Carson on a flight back to DC once too.  (Y’all don’t get mad at me, these were all accidents!)

  70. 70.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Ken: couldn’t be sure just what had been fermenting in there or what else it might have excreted.

    Typically sugar.  Then again, not all alcohols are created equal.

  71. 71.

    Eunicecycle

    @narya: I do the same! I usually just have one overripe banana at a time so I keep them in the freezer (peeled in a container) until I have 3 or 4. I use the liquid and all and eliminate the other liquid in my recipe.

  78. 78.

    scav

    @Ken: They share food in “church“!!  Repeatedly.  As a part of their so-called religion!  Those hotdishes reek of the sulphur-infested pits of Hell!!!!!

  83. 83.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @schrodingers_cat: Because my mind is weird, that comment just threw me back to organic chemistry lab. I would leave the lab every week smelling horribly, as whatever we were putting into the air and our lungs that week permeated our clothing.

    Except the one week we were making esters. Then everything smelled like (very artificial) bananas. It was a welcome change, to be honest.

  84. 84.

    trollhattan

    @KatKapCC: Trump today has all the appeal of a 1977 Sedan Deville with vinyl landau roof and opera windows, plus continental kit in back.

    dealeraccelerate-all.s3.amazonaws.com/ofm/images/5/5/5/555/19538eb4a9f14_hd_1977-cadillac-coupe-devi…

    “It’s yuge, it’s klassy!” (You know damn well he owned one.) He’s mired about fifty years in the past and while no normal dude person ever compares his looks to a woman’s, this brag is turbocharged in its absurdity.

    Am sensing he’s so far past his sell-by date that a metric buttload of MAGATs are staying home in November. There is no there, there and they can’t be bothered anymore.

  91. 91.

    HumboldtBlue

    DougJ:

    I have never been a supporter of Donald Trump, but after both Beyoncé and Taylor Swift failed to show up at the Democratic convention, I am left with no choice but to vote for him for the third time.

  92. 92.

    sdhays

    @Jeffro: I once was having dinner at a restaurant and who should come in with his wife but none other than Newton Leroy Gingrich.

    Ruined the meal. Never went back and the restaurant is now out of business. (Probably due to the pandemic, definitely not because I didn’t go there again.)

  94. 94.

    trollhattan

    @sdhays: Jesus, that would give me PTSD. Newt’s one of history’s most repellent politicians. Was his Stepford Bride along?

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @3Sice: Walz worked for a tanning bed factory in Arkansas.

    Aha! The one fact that I needed to complete my conspiracy theory!!  Now I have incontrovertible proof that he’s a Chinese Communist deep agent!!!

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    @OzarkHillbilly: It seems to be the key to that perfect flaky pie crust, perhaps to the bane of pie-loving vegans worldwide. Mom always used 50/50 lard/ butter in hers.

  98. 98.

    dww44

    @Betty Cracker: Thanks for the recipe.  The Crisco is an ingredient not in any of my recipes.  Also in what thread did Kay post this:

    Kay is right; the Democratic Party is an American institution that has proved its resilience in this nutso timeline.

  100. 100.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: I’m a little disappointed DougJ went with the obvious, when “the violent protests promised by our pre-convention reporting failed to materialize” was sitting right there.

  101. 101.

    AM in NC

    Ha! I made banana nut bread yesterday. My secret ingredient is using 1/2 very ripe bananas and 1/2 frozen bananas (frozen when they are getting over ripe) sliced and dehydrated a bit on a sheet pan in a low temperature oven.
    i wanted more banana flavor but simply adding more bananas made the texture claggy. Semi-dehydrating frozen bananas intensifies the banana flavor without adding more liquid to the recipe.

    And I use pecans in my bread. Because I grew up with pecan trees. Love them.

  102. 102.

    dww44

    @trollhattan:  the formula/recipe for Crisco was developed andintroduced by a businessman in this town who proceeded to build his very own mansion up on the hill where all the rich notables lived

    Crisco, created by Macon cottonseed entrepreneur Wallace McCaw, first landed on shelves of American grocery stores in 1911. The product was made by Procter & Gamble, which had in 1909 bought McCaw’s manufacturing company at Hazel and Fifth streets for $1.4 million to start researching hydrogenation

  106. 106.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @TBone: ​

    I like maduros (the fried sweet ones) but at a Peruvian chicken place I used to frequent, they had a choice of regular French fries or fried plantains and I always used to go for the plantains.

    My wife got fond of a Dominican dish called mangú so I learned to make it. It was while going through the recipe that I thought, “isn’t this exactly the way that you make mashed potatoes?” Not that I’ve ever made mashed potatoes, but I’m pretty sure if you treated the platanos exactly the way you treat potatoes, you’ll end up with a decent mangú.

  109. 109.

    tam1MI

    @Hoodie: He has to be one of the dumbest motherfuckers in Congress.  3M, Target, United Healthcare, Medtronic, etc. . . .

    Not to mention the SPAM Museum!

    Okay, maybe this isn’t exactly 💯on point, but come on! It’s a museum about SPAM!

  110. 110.

    Fraud Guy

    Not sure of provenance, but our Sams Club has had a 32 oz Macadamia nut container on sale for about $11 the past month, and I stocked a few.  Not quite as soft and buttery as the Moana Kea, but still good, and a great price.

  111. 111.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: One thing I noticed when I moved from Augusta County to the east side of the Blue Ridge is the fried pie makers on this side make their crusts with vegetable oil instead of lard. An inferior product by Shenandoah Valley standards.

  112. 112.

    Salty Sam

    I thought of Rikyrah when I read this at Charlie Pierce’s site:

    ”Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech was not lyrical. We already had lyrical with the Obamas. And it was not folksy and jovial. We already had folksy and jovial with Tim Walz—even Santa Claus isn’t as folksy and jovial as Tim Walz.”

  113. 113.

    NeenerNeener

    @raven: Yep, a few times. Lots of little electric shocks that make whatever pain you’re feeling seem not so bad after all. The TENS unit I got recently from WalMart didn’t work past the first hook up, but the one I got from Amazon has been pretty decent. Woot may even still have a unit on sale.

  116. 116.

    narya

    @Geminid: Good lord–that’s an inferior product by ANY standard. The whole point of butter/lard/shortening is that it creates little pockets of steam, i.e., makes the whole thing flaky. Oil is gonna make a soggy mass. You can do crusts that don’t work like that, in a sablee or sucre crust (which use butter), for example, but oil? No.

  117. 117.

    Betty

    @raven: Yes. I use mine for lumbar stenosis. It’s helpful. I usually do about half an hour first thing in the morning.

  119. 119.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I had a delicious breakfast sandwich on a croissant to rival any I had in Paris, at the boulangerie down the street not more than an hour ago, but that banana bread is making me hungry!

  122. 122.

    Victor Matheson

    Yeah, but if I put macadamia nuts in the bread, then I can’t share any with the puppy.

    (On the other hand, that might be more a feature than a bug…)

  129. 129.

    louc

    @TBone:

    I came here to post about this. One of the parks is Jonathan Dickenson, and it is one of the most pristine locations of scrubland left in Florida. They want to knock down the Hobe Mountain observatory tower and build in a rare scrubland location.

    Growing up in South Florida, I have fond memories of family camping trips there. When I moved to West Palm, I used to go kayaking on the Loxahatchee River into JD. We’d see osprey, sandhill cranes, herons, scrub jays, eagles, an occasional bobcat. This infuriates me so much.

    Here’s the petition and info.

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