by Joanne Wiklund
Unless you’re a trained knife wielder like a chef I know, cooking is more pots and pans than knives. I have about three knives I wield on a regular basis, including my one small paring knife I occasionally use to open packing boxes. I watch the way Rachel Ray uses knives in her kitchen on her 16 year old television show. I love to watch her cut celery or scallions, barely lifting the point of the blade off the cutting board, using the motion of her shoulder instead of her wrist. She started doing recipes for 30 minute meals and now features some of the country’s top Iron Chefs on her show.
I still “Trash Grandma’s Kitchen” on occasion, making use of my dishwasher at the end of a two or three hour session. I goofed up on my last online grocery order. I shared with a family member, but I’m still only down to 30 bananas. (They are usually six in a bunch.) I ordered three bunches, but got double. Six bunches, 36 bananas. (I believe they are Irish Bananas because they are so green.) But I’ve started cooking: banana cookies, banana bread, banana pudding… I tried doubling the banana cookie recipe I have and went to Siri on my phone to find me a larger recipe. She came up with several stand alone recipes and a cookbook titled “111 Recipes For Banana Cookies.”
The recipe I used was substandard. The cookies spread out like tortillas and stuck to the pan. I chiseled them off and adjusted the flour content. They still were large and stuck. I chiseled them off the pan, leaving behind patches of stuck cookie. I decided since they were so thin, I’d make banana Whoopie Pies. I frosted one cookie with butter cream frosting and stuck another on it. Copyright isn’t a problem, because they were obviously not Whoopie Pies, but Whoopsie Pies. They taste good. Today I’ll use the small recipe I have. I also have a recipe for singer Amy Grant’s grandmother’s banana bread. But it’s a large recipe requiring two loaf pans. I only have one. Cooking can be so frustrating. Food has become more important since we’ve been home so much. Recipes old and new are fun to read. And use. Especially ones that call for bananas.
Psalms 103:5 “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Matthew 6:11 “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Romans 12:20-21″Therefore if then enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”