Sprung At Last

The Road to Nowhere

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One evening in late January, The Child and I drive over to Whole Foods. It’s early evening, still light out but drizzly in typical Seattle fashion. We have to go to the other side of town to get there, on local roads.

Suddenly, The Child says, There He is. She points to The Departed.

He’s walking on the sidewalk, with his company laptop in a bag slung over his shoulder. He’s headed in the direction of the apartment he moved to when he left so abruptly.

That’s odd, I say. Why would he be walking with his laptop?

Maybe he wanted to use the WiFi at Starbucks, says The Child.

He has WiFi at home, I tell her.

Maybe he didn’t want to be at home, she says. Maybe he wanted a change of scenery.

Maybe, I say, but I also point out: That doesn’t seem like him. For eight years, he barely left our house.

It’s rather odd, we agree, but we are at a loss to figure it out.

Banana Coconut Muffins

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Yes, I know. This is my third banana muffin/banana bread recipe.

Indulge me.

The Child, it turns out, bought me a really nice muffin pan for Christmas, along with some cookie sheets. I already had some nice cookie sheets but I’m not complaining – having a lot can be handy. But my muffin pans were not good, and the pan selected by The Child – well, it is a very good pan, thick aluminum with big cups for big muffins. The only thing to do, then, was to make muffins.

I had some overripe bananas – I usually do, which is why I so often make banana bread. But not long after Christmas, I ran across a copy of The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion in a used bookstore. I’ve heard wonderful things about King Arthur recipes from numerous people recently, so I bought the book.  It contained yet another recipe for banana muffins – completely different from both Fannie Farmer’s Banana Bread and Biloxi Banana Bread.

The King Arthur book contains a base muffin recipe, and then a list of ingredient combinations that can be added in to make whatever muffins you like. It is a spectacular recipe – yes, spectacular – because the muffins rise beautifully, yet have a fine, moist crumb.

The bananas are not mashed and blended into the batter the way they usually are, but rather diced finely and mixed in with the coconut at the end. I wondered if this might result in less of a banana taste in the muffins, but it really didn’t. I loved the added flavor and texture of the coconut, but it could easily be omitted if one didn’t care for coconut.

Banana Coconut Muffins

Banana Coconut Muffins
 
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Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 3½ cups unbleached all-purpose or cake flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 2 bananas, diced finely
  • 1½ cups shredded unsweetened coconut
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and lightly grease 16 muffin cups or use paper liners.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with a handheld or stand mixer until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl to make sure all the butter is incorporated, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  4. Add the vanilla and sour cream and mix until incorporated.
  5. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low-speed just until the batter is smooth. Add diced bananas and coconut and stir just to incorporate.
  6. Fill the muffin tins and bake for 18 to 24 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  7. Remove the muffins from the oven, cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove the muffins from the pan to finish cooling on a rack. Muffins left in the pan to cool the entire time will become tough from steaming.
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This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Why not swing by and see what other simple pleasures await?

Christmas Shopping with The Child, Part 3

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Once she had recovered from the near-miss at the Splat Ball stand, The Child was more reluctant to venture too far from me. This suited me fine as the mall was by now getting fairly crowded and I was getting tired.

She inquires what I was doing right before I came to get her. I tell her, I was looking at pans in Macy’s.

Oh! she says. I just remembered I need to look at something in Macy’s, too.

We head to Macy’s, where I am instructed to wait among the handbags on the first floor, while she heads the escalator, to housewares.

My phone pings with a text.

If u were to have the most perfect set of pots ever, than what would it be? she asks.

Uh-oh. I do not want to send her over to All-Clad or Le Creuset and have The Child realize that Mommy has champagne taste and The Child has a beer budget.

Ohhh, I don’t really need pots, I reply. I need baking pans.

Also, I add, almost all my corningware has been broken.

Okay, thanks! She replies.

A few minutes later, the phone pings again.

So, she wants to know, you mean the kind of pans you would put in an oven?

Yes, I tell her.

Okay, she says. And then: Does it matter what kind of metal they are made out of?

Aluminum works very well, usually, I tell her.

Okay, thanks!!!!! comes the reply.

She comes down the escalator not too long after, with a large bag and a pleased expression. I’m done, she says.

Then she adds, I hope you won’t be able to guess what I got you.

No, I tell her. I won’t even try. I love surprises. Especially when they are happy ones.

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