Contexts of normality

I post so sporadically sometimes, that I wonder if my writing is simply a product of my attention deficit tendencies. Of course, it has been a bit of a dry spell in the kitchen, so I can always use that as an excuse, but not for the past two days or so, that would be a complete lie. In fact, in the past few days, the kitchen and oven have been a whirling dervish of production, heating up the house because the gas furnace just isn't do its job all that well. Not that I mind the cold. Nonetheless, my "water in the desert" style of posting is merely a reflection of the usual problem, which lies in not having much interesting to talk about.

I truly feel like I spent the greater part of my youth (I can say that now, because it's almost gone) trying to make myself less weird, even though less weird also means less interesting. It was my goal to present myself as normal to the world, because deep down, I felt like I was odd, in the wrong way, and I selfishly didn't want people to know what I did in my free time. I believed too fantastically in things like zodiacs, had very little friends and often went on adventures by myself, once even short-circuiting out the lights in the house. I thought that sticking the flat end of a small key into the crevice of a light switch would reveal a hidden door. I also liked to separate bean mixes in my spare time, especially 7-bean mixes, and read erotica voraciously as a third grader. I liked writing about sadistic murders happening alongside sexually charged and romantic story lines, even though I really had no idea what sex was, but I was certain I liked cowboys so that made sense, right? I was even weird enough to show my sixth grade math teacher my stories. His only comment was, "I think your main character has far too complicated a name (the name was Lekyia)." Maybe I liked leeks a lot in sixth grade, I don't know.

Either way, now that I'm older, I feel that I have completely achieved a state of normality, at least, in the context of the world. That's what young kids really don't have, I think. They lack sight of context, or the realization that the variations of people out there are so great, that being "not normal" is, in fact, completely and utterly normal. And there's something a little sad but comforting in that. Adults may have to be interesting in a very different way than children, but at least we're all normal.

Here's a banana bread variation, based off this past recipe. Banana bread is a very normal and common thing, and it's very difficult to think of anything interesting to do with it that hasn't already been done. Either way, this recipe is very similar to the past recipe, with some minor changes in spicing (so it smells better while baking). I have also chopped up the walnuts in this case and added them straight to the batter, and then sprinkled the top of the loaf with cinnamon sugar and crushed up heath and toffee bars. Evidence that I can reproduce recipes successfully, thank you very much.

Toffee-Topped Banana Walnut Bread
1 large loaf

6 small black bananas
6 TB Crisco shortening
1 C light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 TB white vinegar
1/3 C 1% milk (skim or 2% also work)
2 C all-purpose flour
1/3 TB cinnamon
1/3 TB nutmeg
1/3 TB ginger
1/3 TB cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 C walnuts, roughly chopped
1/4 C chopped toffee candy pieces
cinnamon sugar, to sprinkle

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a loaf pan.

Microwave the bananas, covered, for 3-4 minutes, until they've released their liquid. Using a sieve, strain out the liquid into a small saucepan and put the liquid onto the stove under med-high heat. Boil and let reduce down to at least 1/2 the volume. Meanwhile, place the solid part, the microwaved bananas, into a large bowl and add in the shortening and light brown sugar, mashing it all together until everything is evenly distributed. Once the liquid has reduced down to nearly a syrup, add the syrup back into the banana-sugar-crisco mixture and stir until cool.

In another small bowl, roughly beat together the eggs with the vinegar. Making sure the banana mixture is cool (so that the eggs don't cook), add the egg and vinegar mixture into the banana mixture and mix. Here are your wet ingredients.

In a large bowl, sift together all your dry ingredients, except the walnuts and toffee. Add your dry ingredients bit by bit into the wet ingredients, folding (don't beat or else you will activate gluten and toughen up the batter) it in until everything is wet and evenly distributed. Add your chopped walnuts and mix. Your batter is now ready.

Pour batter into a buttered loaf pan and shake until the dough is even across the pan. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar and toffee pieces, leaving the center line uncovered with toffee so that the rising of the bread while cooking isn't inhibited. Bake for 60-70 minutes at 350 degrees. A metal loaf baking pan will take about 60 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Once cool enough, remove from pan and let cool even further on a baking rack.