Green beans and beets with tasty red wine vinegar dressing

This salad makes me feel happy whenever I make it and eat it. It is my original (albeit simple) creation. Bon appetit!

1-2 pounds green beans
1 can beets, sliced
2-3 tablespoons of good red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of olive oil
FRESH ground black pepper (this makes the salad)
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar

Boil the beans, strain, add ingredients, and toss. By my estimation, the whole salad, which can be split up into 2 meals, is 4-5 weight watchers points.

Banana Bread Recipe, Courtesy of Robin's Mom, Sue

To my friends who request this recipe over and over, I memorialize this recipe here so that you can access it any time. My good friend, Robin's mother used to make and send this banana bread to us in college. When we were roommates, I dreamed about packages arriving with the bread or couldn't wait until Sue would come to visit and give us a fresh loaf.

10 years later, at my competitive ex-boyfriend's insistence, we had a banana bread baking contest. I won, hands down, using this recipe, even though the judging was conducted by his friends.

Anyway, here's the recipe, and enjoy, thanks to Robin's mom, Sue!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large, ripe bananas (ripeness is key to this recipe)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon-sugar mixture (for topping)
1 Tbsp. melted butter (for topping)

Instructions

• Cream the butter and sugar
• Beat in eggs one at a time
• Mix in mashed bananas
• Sift dry ingredients and stir into the banana mix
• Add the choc chips (I prefer milk choc because semi-sweet is too bitter paired with the bananas)
• Pour into a 9x5x3 loaf pan (make sure to grease the pan, of course)
• Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

While the cake is still warm, pour melted butter over it and sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture over.

Bon Appetit!

Dior Gray - Mistake or Triumph?

This winter, tired of the wedgewood blue walls of my living room, I thought I would try to modernize the space more by painting it gray. I was transfixed by Pratt and Lambert's Rialto when I saw it on the walls at Lawson and Fenning. But my good friend, Mark, recommended that I not use this color because it would "close in" my living room. Instead, I collected many other paint chips ranging from off-white to charcoal. I settled in the end on Dior Gray by Benjamin Moore. My friends, Ivy and Waiyi, inquired, "are you sure you want to go that dark?" Being bold (and also because I'd already purchased two gallons of the paint!), I answered, Yes.

What I didn't realize in going so dark was that none of my furniture, flooring, or ceiling is modern to match the charcoal and heathery tones of Dior Gray. In any case, here is the result. I welcome suggestions on how to (inexpensively) enhance the ceiling color or create throw pillows to make this work better.

Next time, I think I will play it extra safe with something like a beige-gray or very light off-white gray.

No Subtitles Necessary

I enjoyed this documentary about Lazslo and Vilmos very much. I had no idea these two cinematographers escaped communist Hungary with hours of film about the revolution to become two of the ASC's most sought-after camera men. Films that they've worked on include the Deer Hunter, Frances, Easy Rider, Paper Moon, and Deliverance.

I highly recommend No Subtitles Necessary and plan to view as many L and V films possible, esp the campy low-budge ones I'd never heard of before. (They weren't allowed to join the union when they got to Hollywood and were told to come back when they "learned to speak English!" Hence, the low-budge work to get by at first).

http://www.lazsloandvilmos.com/.