Television ads go bananas
By LOU GREENHAW
Contributing writer
I have lots of pet peeves about television, but there is one group of commercials that I find extremely offensive. It seems that the theme of several car commercials is to make light of certain religious practices.
One commercial involves an Amish man who has a car hidden because it is so great to drive. Maybe the car companies decided that since the Amish don't have televisions that it is OK to make fun of their beliefs because no one would see it and complain!
Now two different car manufacturers are poking fun at the Catholic confessional. One man tells the priest he thinks he stole a car because he got such a good deal on it, and the priest abandons his parishioner to run buy one for himself.
Where will this stop? Will the U.S. Army have ads showing a Mennonite Brethren boy sneaking out the back of the church to join up? Will an orthodox Jew serve pork hot dogs at the church picnic because they are so good? Will a wine company show Baptists using their wine for communion because it is so wonderful?
I'm not Amish or Catholic, but I find that the ad company has crossed the line on this one. In my opinion, a person's religion should not be the target of advertisers' attempts to sell something. Because of that, I'm not going to buy a car this year!
That is my soap box for the week, and I'm sure that people will be happy if I get off of it! Now on to more important things like cooking! I made my grandma's banana cake this weekend, but I tried a new frosting recipe that I liked a lot. I will include the old and the new frosting. It is a great way to use up brown bananas. At my house, bananas are green or brown. I can't seem to get them eaten when they are yellow. I've heard that inner city kids miss questions such as the color of bananas on IQ tests because they don't ever get the perfect ones. I guess my kids will just have to live with lower IQ scores, too!
BANANA CAKE
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed well
1/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time beating after each. Add bananas. Mix. Add buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well. Sift together dry ingredients and add to mixture. Mix well. Pour into a well-greased and floured 9 by 13 pan or two 8-inch cake pans. Bake at 350 about 35 minutes for the large cake and 25 minutes for layers.
GRANDMA'S BANANA FROSTING
1 banana, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Mix well and frost cooled cake. Add more powdered sugar if needed to make spreading consistency.
BANANA FROSTING OPTION
1/2 cup mashed bananas
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup coconut, toasted
2/3 cup finely chopped pecans
Combine bananas and lemon juice. Beat butter. Add sugar, bananas, and milk and beat until fluffy. Add additional milk if needed for consistency. Stir in coconut and nuts. This will frost the layer cake. It is too much for the cake left in a pan. The remaining frosting can be frozen.
