Usually the ripe bananas become banana milk shake or banana pan cakes. Today I thought I will make banana walnut bread. After scrutinizing various recipes on the internet finally I got hold of one that was very easy plus it demanded very few ingredients. I checked my pantry and fridge for the ingredients. Hurray!! I had all the stuff needed to bake a banana walnut bread. I followed the instructions in the recipe word by word . Mashed the bananas, mixed the butter, sugar,flour, salt, baking soda in the right proportion as mentioned. Poured into a greased pan.Then I shoved the mixture into the so called oven which I had. Licked the remaining part from the bowl to check for the sweetness. It was perfect. When the timer went off I took the bread out. It looked fantastic on the outside. I poked a toothpick and it came out clean.
I was very happy that it had turned out as expected. I let it cool down on the rack for some time. After my kids came back from school I wanted to give them as the snack. Both of them came back . With all excitement I slid the knife through the bread. :((((( What a flop !!! It was neither like a bread nor like a cake. It had the consistency of some Indian sweet. Little guey, little solid,,, don't ask me I can't explain more than this....How can I go on explaining my failure in baking....??
I decided to the gunea pig. First I wanted to taste it. I tasted it . Thank God the taste was kind of OK. Why wouldn't it be ok if a whole lot of butter, egg, walnuts, banana and sugar went into it. I put the slices on the plate and gave my children. At the outlook my son asked, "Mama what is this?" I had no words to say. I kept quite knowing the fact silence is the best answer at times. Then my daughter , who is the quality checker of my house put a piece into her mouth and then said "Oh it is supposed to be a banana bread." "Not bad!" I was happy that she could figure out the taste of it. After getting the approval from his sister my son bit into a piece of the bread. Till then he was reluctant to taste. Usually I can dodge him by giving anything when he is watching TV. Today the show was coming to an end when I handed over the snack to him hence he became quite watchful about what went into his mouth. After tasting a piece he said, " Mama I like it . It is nice and guey." so finally I have passed the test.
Now coming to the point where my calculations went wrong!! If my husband had seen the over ripe bananas either he would have eaten it or thrown it in the trash. There ends the story of the over ripe bananas. Unlike him I wanted to recycle the bananas into some edible product. I convince myself that my thought and effort were to be appreciated. . On the flip side if I think about it I feel what a waste of time and things. Instead of having the heart to throw just two bananas I used butter, egg, walnuts, sugar which are all much more expensive than the bananas. Plus the electricity used for baking. Plus the time I spent on making it , cleaning the place followed by the cribbing about cooking all the time. When put together, I could have very well gotten a nice banana walnut cake from a bakery for my children.
I too fall into the general category of women not wanting to waste anything. Compared to men we claim ourselves to be very intelligent. There is a proverb in Tamil which goes like ”மிளகு போவது தெரியாது, கடுகு போவது தான் பெரிதாய் தெரியும்.” The literal translation means, we ignore things which are in the size of pepper being wasted but make a big issue when a mustard size thing is wasted." Meaning we ignore the big problems in life but worry about the smaller issues in life. Women usually consider themselves to be economical in spending. But we can spend thousands of rupees on one single silk saree which we will wear once in a life time. We will buy jewellery but will feel bored to wear it after few times. At the end we justify our stand saying it is all investment.
Anyways I turned the bananas into a bread somehow. Luckily it turned out to be edible . For the mistake in the consistency I would very well blame it on the oven. Final decision is next time I see an over ripe banana it just goes into the blender with milk to be made into a banana milk shake. Saves my time and energy. Anyhow tomorrow breakfast is going to be the banana bread...Anybody willing to drop by???
