Most of you know me well enough to know that I am happiest in my kitchen. I love making ordinary food for the people that I love. I am not a fancy cook. I don’t do gourmet. I like meat and potatoes, soups, casseroles and even Jello salads. I hear that’s “Mennonite.” I’m also advised that it might actually tell the rest of the world how old I am. (I’m 70, thank you very much. I can make all the Jello Salads I want to).
One thing I developed a love for as a child was banana cake. A recipe came with My Sweet Mama’s first Sunbeam Mixer, and it has been a family favorite for years. It’s a good way to use up those bananas that got away from me on the cupboard. This happens to me with great regularity, unfortunately, but I always like to think that I can use them up in banana cake or muffins or something!
Now, I have a husband who is one of the kindest men I have ever met, and even brown bananas on the countertop, drawing sour flies in their season, do not often ruffle his feathers. He may tell me about his desire for a banana cake when he sees them starting to send a brown puddle out from under them, but he does not scold. However, it does embarrass me, causing me to scramble for a recipe that I can use, or else peeling and mashing and freezing them for later use. (Sometimes, depending on the state of decomposition, I will look around to see if anyone is watching and wrap up the offending fruit in a discarded plastic bag and tuck it way down in the trash can where no one will see it).
I have an unwritten rule that says I cannot buy new bananas when there are some at home on the counter. However, early last week, I realized that my stash of Fruit Slush was getting a bit low. I use a lot of bananas in fruit slush and I was hungry and there were some really beautiful bananas in Food Lion when I went in last week. I knew there were three bananas turning black on my counter but they were not terribly far gone. I purchased the new ones, resolving to make something with the three at home. And I did! I have a recipe for a banana streusel muffin that Daniel and the rest of my family really like that calls for three ripe bananas. So I made the muffins, and don’t you know, they were gone before I turned around twice! So one night when the local family was coming for supper, I inquired as to whether any of them had some overripe bananas they wanted to get rid of, and sure enough! Deborah had exactly enough at Ambleside Cottage and she brought them over and I made another batch.
It was the same story. They disappeared just as quickly! I was a little nonplussed because, having given up candy (Not sugar, just candy– and believe me, for this old gal, that’s a sacrifice!) for Lent, I was kinda hoping to have them for some legal snacking! Then I remembered that I had some mashed bananas in my freezer. I scrambled through the assortment of containers and found one that I could actually tell had bananas in it, so I hauled it out and left it on the counter to thaw. It was a bigger container than I had remembered using for mashed bananas, but I did see bananas! When it was thawed, I transferred it to another container and put it in the fridge until I was ready to use it. It had more liquid than I remembered, but freezing does strange things to fruits and vegetables, so I didn’t think much of it.
Our friend Flori, from Guatemala was here yesterday afternoon, and I asked her if she wanted to help me make some more banana streusel muffins. She eagerly mixed the streusel while I made the batter. I reflected again that the bananas were pretty juicy, and there was more than I needed, so I put them into a strainer and let some of the liquid off before adding them to the batter. Everything went fine. They mixed up well, and looked great. Flori put the muffin papers in, I put the batter in and she sprinkled on the strudel crumbs. All done! And then, as we cooks do, I licked the spatula.
H-m-m-m-m-m-m. Something was not right. The flavor, while good, was off somehow. I scraped some more off the side of the mixing bowl and had another lick. This definitely had something in it that was not banana! It wasn’t big, and it was tasty, but it wasn’t banana!
Well, I’ll be a worm in the mud!!!
It was pineapple!
“We might have a problem!” I said to Flori-girl.
She looked at me wide-eyed. “Problem?” she asked anxiously.
“Yes,” I said, ruefully. “I’m pretty sure we just made a batch of banana streusel muffins with Fruit Slush instead of banana!” We both tasted the batter again, and it definitely had a banana/orange/pineapple flavor. It struck Flori’s funny bone and she laughed and laughed and laughed. I had to laugh, too, just watching her, but I wondered just how this was all going to turn out.
“That’s what I get,” I told Flori gloomily, “for not labeling my containers when I put them in the freezer! The thing is, I don’t remember ever putting a container like that of Fruit Slush into the freezer EVER! It just doesn’t make sense!”
We put them in, baked them according to directions and when we hauled them out, they didn’t look too different from usual. Not quite so puffy (probably too much liquid) and a little more brown (higher sugar content, maybe) but they didn’t look like a total flop. And the taste was also acceptable. Not as strongly banana, so I’m not setting forth the discovery of a new recipe, but in spite of such a mistake, they are still getting eaten.
And maybe next week, I will find the right container, and all will be well!
Delaware Grammy 