A wet month

Among the many things I have not been blogging is how much rain we are getting, in part because this seems like bragging.  I realize that many of our local crops require a very rigid sun/water/ temperature routine (on the other hands the catch-as-catch-can farmers market sellers have stalls overflowing) so all this rain is not a good thing in that way.  After the fires the first year we had this house & every couple years after that pretty much up until the year before last I have vowed not to complain about the rain.

But.

But the pressure in my head has been killing me.  My allergies are on wild monkey at the wheel overdrive & my ear are popping like that monkey is sitting on my brain flicking a clog/pop switch at random. 

Speaking of monkeys, we have had so much rain that we seems to be looking at an early banana crop.  We had some verrrrrry cold days last winter & I did not have my hopes up for bananas at all, but those distinctive purple petals showed up on the walkway last week so I looked up.  Sure enough, two purple blooms are emerging.  I have been reliably told that the variety we have is "lady fingers" which have a very distinctive (wonderful!) flavor & do not ship well at all so they are a strictly local pleasure.  & by local I mean my own house & maybe a few friends & neighbors.

In a not entirely unrelated note:  we have been doing a lot of gardening this year & I plan to di up some of the young banana plants that are encroaching on other parts of the yard.  If anyone (locals only again, sorry) is interested let me know.

52 Photos Project: Dessert

Have I told you about my diet?  I don't think I have, so settle in for a small talk about feast & famine.  I started when I visited my parents this summer & brought it home & now A is doing it as well....& doing much better than me.  I have gone down a size but he has lost 15 pounds.  Jerk.

Anyway.  The diet is, in a nutshell, 500 calories one day as much as I want the next.  Yes, there is more to it than that but I said this was the nutshell.  I am finding this do-able, long term.  There is almost no day that is so hungry that I cannot make it to the next day.  One of the unexpected side effects has been a greater appreciation for the food we DO eat.

Which brings us to the bananas.  I have posted about the bananas before, we had a bumper crop this year.  & we have been talking about bananas foster for....a while.  This past Sunday. A made pancakes & bananas foster for breakfast.  Because on not-500 calorie days, that's how we roll.

The dessert-for-breakfast was so delicious the only picture I took was when it was almost all done; the pancakes were made & A was working on the nuts & fruit & rum part.  Once it hit the plate, we started eating.

That foil thing is what was left of a stick of Crisco. 

So here is the 52 Photos Project for this week:  Dessert.....for breakfast. 

Yes, we have no bananas

Actually, we have lots of bananas.  Seven blossoms worth.  & the first set are just starting to ripen.

Banana blossom - no, really

Banana blossom

For the first few years we lived here, the banana tree had no fruit. Finally, the tree matured or A's standards lowered sufficiently that the branches that hung out over the walkway too far (quite far, I admit) were not cut back.

Last year, we had the most blossoms of any year & for the first time no hurricane came through, blowing the top-heavy stalks to the ground. At least, they did not fall until after the fruit was almost ripe & then it was because the stalks themselves could not hold the weight.

I had heard that large-scale produce growers primarily cultivated fruits that could survive the shipping process. I thought I knew what this meant; I have grown tomatoes & I know what happens when they rub together, even in the basket from the garden to the kitchen. But I was not prepared for these bananas.

As they ripened, the fruit fell out of the skin. Short, but just as thick as conventional grocery-store bananas, these are sweeter & have more flavor, & what flavor! The week they all ripened, all four blossoms together, ruined more-available bananas for me for months. There were so many, all at once & if we did not collect them, the bugs ate them & if we did not eat them, they rotted in a matter of hours.

Fortunately, I know the secret of truly remarkable banana bread. It seemed as though there was a loaf baking in every pan we own. A has always been a fan of my banana bread; the secret is lemon oil mixed with real butter. OKay, not so secret, but try it. I do not know if it is the oil or what, but somehow it just does not freeze well (it does make great french toast, though). Even A cannot eat two loaves of banana bread a day.

This same week, A's parents returned from where-I-cannot-remember, both of them sick with a lingering cold. His father in particular was pitiful. I have watched this man eat everything, everything anyone ever put in front of him. One of the first meals I ever served them, he cleaned his plate complaining that I had burned the meat (I had, it was horrible) & then went for seconds (there was plenty, I really made a mess of it) & complained & ate until everything was gone.

But this cold had knocked out his appetite. He did not want to eat anything. He was like an old dog refusing to eat what he could not smell. Except, we discovered, fresh-as-fresh-can-be bananas. & when they were gone, a loaf & 1/2 of banana bread made with real butter & lemon oil.

Now, we have a blossom again. I noticed it a couple of weeks ago, but in the past few days it has really started to grow. Almost daily a petal peels away & the small, white, slug-looking bananas push off their outer layer & a new ring of green banana bunches forms. All the while, the flower hangs lower & lower, & another petal curls back.

It is like watching time-lapsed sex.