Kitchen theology

I've been doing a lot of baking lately. Pies and cobblers and such, as fruit comes into season... and, this week, banana bread.

Banana bread is one of the first things I remember cooking. I learned how in my grandmother's tiny kitchen, when I was pretty tiny myself-- but feeling very grown up as she tied one of her aprons around my waist.

I use Gram's recipe, of course. It's a simple one, really: butter and sugar, eggs and flour, baking soda... and bananas. The key is, you don't go out to buy bananas for bread, at least not if you expect to use them that day. The bread takes most of its moisture from the bananas, and will be much better if they are older, soft and dark-- not spoiled, but well beyond the stage that most folks care to eat them. If you can't get to the baking before they go bad, you can even toss them in the freezer, and thaw them when you feel like cooking. They will be soft and liquidy and mildly icky... and will make wonderful bread.

Gram was fond of this recipe. It soothed her frugal, farm-raised, Depression-era soul, to not let old bananas go to waste, and in fact to turn them into something wonderful, right when they looked their worst.

You know, I learned a lot about the way God works from my Gram, and her banana bread.