banana bread muffins

1 january 2010

inspiration: banana bread muffins
location: my apartment
thing i love: their deliciousness

So after a long night of fun celebrating New Years' Eve, most people spent New Years Day either nursing a hangover, eating black-eyed peas and cabbage, or a mixture of the two. I, personally, spent the day standing in the kitchen, cooking some deliciousness to take to the ranch for New Years' weekend, the afore named "New Years' Bikini Blowout."

I told my friend Chris that I would cook something fun to bring up since we were coming late, and so I made chicken tetrazzini and cranberry-orange bread pudding, but the real inspiration of what I made was the banana bread muffins I made from my Meemaw's recipe.

The reason for the inspiration is that her banana bread is heaven. Truly the most delicious bread I have ever eaten--it is delicious in flavor, moist (yeah, I used the word, even though I hate it), fresh, and filling. I don't remember if she actually ever made it for me, as my memories of the recipe lie in the Thorpe family cookbook with the name with 'Cecelia' written on the spine that graces the bookshelf of cookbooks in my mother's kitchen, but the taste of the bread reminds me in every way of my grandmother. Her very demeanor is the same as that bread: warm, enveloping, and fills you with a feeling of love that is so homemade/organic.

I love my Meemaw's banana bread. It couldn't be simpler to make, but it is perfect. I have never had any other that compared, but it reminds me so much of Meemaw when I enjoy it, that I could just be a little biased.

I had a little bit of a challenge when making these muffins for the ranch, as I had never seen them in muffin form before....only as a loaf. So, I called my mom and asked if she would dictate the recipe to me and let me know if she had any tips for making them into muffins, a less messy version of the loaf (easier to transport too). She gave me the recipe, and making them into muffins was a snap. It only took half the baking time, and they came out perfect.



Biting into the finished muffins was such an inspiration. It felt like Meemaw was in the kitchen with me, watching me create these delicious snacks for my friends...my surrogate family.

It is always so special for me to cook for my friends. Its different than cooking for family...to have your friends take part of something you have constructed is so memorable, creating a family feel when you can all sit down and enjoy a home-cooked meal together, enjoying conversation and delicious food.

So to welcome in the New Year, my friends and I all got to enjoy meals together at the ranch, sitting and talking, and taking the time to be a part of each others' lives.