Monday, February 19, 2007

Old Banana Freedom

Important Old Banana Update: I thought you would be so glad to hear that in an act of bold kindness to me, my husband ate a banana that was turning brown. I mean, there I was, asking myself the question "Will I REALLY be able to throw that away and not freeze it?" Everything in me was, well, clenched. And then there was the peel, emptied of my need to decide.

I'm watching the five that are currently yellowing in my kitchen and telling myself, "You can do it, Ginger. You know you can."


I put my dukes up to whatever god is in charge of banana bread-on-the-fly and threw out all the old bananas in my freezer. There were 24. I had 24 old bananas in my freezer. Because someday I might make banana bread.

It was like risking the wrath of some meaner, more survivalist-oriented version of the pillsbury dough boy.

And now I have no backup plan, no means of pulling off a homemade baked good on the spur of the moment. I am embracing the bakery. I am saying yes to the high skill level of others. I am eschewing homemade.

Who knows what will happen to me at Christmastime (which is in like 11 months). I don't know what will happen. This is a crazy I-don't-have-any-way-to-make-banana-bread sort of a ride. Hold on tight--no! Don't hold on tight. Let go. Put your hands in the air. Feel that feeling like you might fall off.

Yes.
I have no bananas.

But what if you need to make banana bread, Ginger? What will you DO?

I don't know. I really, honestly, don't know. I'm shaking my head as I write this. I just don't know.

But when I peer into my freezer and see the vacated place that those bananas held, I have a feeling that seems like . . . freedom.

5 comments:

Amy said...

I didn't know bananas could be frozen. If I can freeze them, that means I can stockpile them and refuse to buy them when they go up over 40 cents per pound.

My deep freeze is my favorite major appliance.

Puttermeister said...

Freedom....but for how long? What will you do when next you spy a banana browning on the counter? Will you resist, or will you succumb? And what will you fill that space with?

I'll be looking for the next installment in this saga, let me tell you.

--ginger. said...

See, now owning a deep freeze would not be a good move for me. Think of all the things I would freeze . . . I would be a slave to old frozen food. I quiver at the thought.

And yes, the bananas that are currently on my counter are taunting me as we speak. They're beginning to brown and I can hear them whining to be put in the freezer. I'm going to stand firm, though.

Anonymous said...

I thought I was alone, a lonely obsessive compulsive banana conservationist! The answer is...smoothies. A blender leaves no evidence of over ripened fruit, creates little kitchen mess and leaves my family with the illusion that I have prepared them a savory and nutritious breakfast meal. Even better may be all the freezer space left for fozen mangoes and berries to disguise the plainess of banana.

Marty Robertson said...

I am sure that I still have bananas in our freezer back home. It's kind of a security thing for me. I like bananas. And who says you have to make bread? Make smoothies. Make chocolate covered frozen banana treats. Mash them up and make an banana ice pack for Pete when he gets muscle strain from working out. Bananas are medicinal. They are good. Stock up. You never know when you might just need one!