WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU ROTTEN BANANAS...

make banana bread!

Woke up this morning and realized that this bunch of bananas is pretty much past its prime (ya think?)!

As I was in mid motion to the trash can I thought about my mother. Not because of the trash can, but because of the bananas. Mom would take these and make banana bread. I just know she would.

Just last night I sat at dinner with our neighbors Vince and Karen, and we discussed childhood memories. Kitchens, and aromas, and scents and food that takes you back to a different time in your life.

So I'm standing in the middle of the kitchen, thinking of last night's conversation - thinking about my mom and my childhood - and the smell of baking banana bread. And I set the bananas back on the kitchen counter.

Kids off to school, email checked and answered, dogs fed and laundry started...and I pulled out my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook that I received for my 12th Christmas.

Thirty minutes later one big loaf of Banana Walnut bread is in the oven - minus the walnuts, because I didn't have any.

And even though it's only been baking for 15 minutes...the entire house smells like cinnamon and bananas. And if I close my eyes I can see the kitchen on 149th street in Omaha, NE. Harvest gold and avocado green plaid wallpaper, with the yellow wall phone next to the refrigerator and the crocks of silk plants lining the tops of the kitchen cupboards.

Yep - just like that.

Thanks to some rotten bananas.

The problem will be keeping the loaf in tact until the kiddos come home. But I'm psyching myself up - really I am!

What aromas take you back? What could you smell right now, and be transported back to a kitchen in a different time?

Think about it - and then treat yourself by making it happen!

until then - - -