the ecosystem of emotions

I knew that I’ve been saving this banana bread entry for a reason. I may not have known it then, but I knew that there was a reason behind the unrelenting writer’s block I’ve been battling each time I attempt to put into words how delightfully pleasing this bake was to the family and me. And to think that I could only begin to seek comfort in these long overdue photographs, and reminisce beautiful late afternoons, all thanks to a horrid shopping experience I had yesterday.

Indulge me on a little rant here. Or if you’d like, you can skip this lil part, for I promise you a great banana bread awaits by the end of it.

//begin rant//

As you know, the mister’s birthday was sometime last week, and being the missus comic book geek that I was, I placed an order for the hardcover edition of Absolute DC: The New Frontier at Atomic Comics; a local comic book store at Bugis Junction, on the 21st, about 3 weeks prior to the mister’s birthday. The lady told me that the shipment would arrive in 2 to 3 weeks’ time, but when I called on the week before the birthday, she said it would arrive either the coming week or the next (note: now “2 to 3 weeks” has become 2 to 4 weeks). And so, yesterday the mister and I dropped in at the store, to check the status of the comic, and lo and behold, what did the mister hear? The lady spoke to a man at the cashier’s (the co-owner), asking if he had already placed the order, to which he replied he knew nothing about it, and there was a 10-sec “I told you to do it-No you didnt” moment before his very eyes. And they said all this in Mandarin, assuming we didn’t understand a word (we’re Malays, but living here in Singapore, it is inevitable that we understand a lil bit of Mandarin here and there), after which the man casually replied “Two weeks’ time”.

Honestly, the audacity of it all! I would have already been very ticked off if they had said they had forgotten to place the order, of which of course, there would’ve been the retort of me calling the lady two weeks ago, which would’ve served as a reminder for her. But to think that they did not have the decency to admit their mistake, opting instead to divulge it in a language they assumed we did not comprehend, and thereafter having the nerves to make us wait for more than a month for a mistake on their part, which they never admitted to? The sheer audacity.

//end rant//

Pardon me if you’re taken aback by the amount of anger and frustration in the afore paragraphs, but I just needed an outlet to let it out.

But having gone through all that, there has to be an emotive balance somehow, and I found them through much love from everyone else around me. And that includes a certain Mrs. Hockmeyer.

She was generous enough to share her lovely banana bread recipe sometime ago, and wouldn’t she be smiling with a warmer smile in her heart knowing that what started as a humble family favourite has now become a much-loved recipe tried by people from all walks of life, all over the world.

This is one banana bread you would love to have unadorned. Such is the beauty of the recipe that it tastes great on its own, without the addition of nuts or chocolate or spices of sorts. Just banana, in all of its goodness. The only change I made to it was to reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup, I was surprised to find that it did not compromise the taste at all; the amount of sweetness was just right, and it was testamental when it was wiped out by the family in a jiffy.

Just between you and me, as I’m typing this entry out, I’m already yearning for a piece of Mrs. Hockmeyer’s banana bread. How lovingly nostalgic.

in the name of love

How do you celebrate the birthday of a self-professed cheese-loving comic book geek who just turned a quarter of a century?

1) With a bag filled with cards and gifts. Why have one card, when you can have gift tags attached to every present, with clues on one side, and your personalised message on the other?

2) With the whole Super Mario gang (Yoshi not included). Toys are a must, and since the birthday boy had been eyeing the Mario gang as of late, why not bring them to the party?

3) With home-cooked food; deep-fried chicken fillet and potato salad. But of course, don’t forget to bring cutlery as well, or you’d be reduced to attempting to use the chicken fillet as spoons for the salad, thereafter giving up, and using your fingers.

4) With a virginal cheese attempt at macaroni and cheese [ignoring the fact that it's the first time ever that you've willingly touched cheese and actually dared to cook with it, and that the only way you can gauge if it's done is by the level of nausea you feel; "the more nauseous I feel, the better it is for him"]. And henceforth heave a sigh of relief that your life-long worries were over, and that the birthday boy really seemed to enjoy it, while you try to maintain a smile and keep a safe distance from the cheese breath.

5) With a Superman cake, of course! All comic book geeks deserve a home-baked Superman cake, albeit it is pretty apparent from the uneven layering and creases that it is the baker’s first attempt at fondant/sugar-crafting. But hey, it’s the thought that counts, and in this case, it’s the *cough cough* scream upon opening the cake lid that counts.

i’m spinning around

Yet another long-bookmarked recipe struck off the list. I’ve always been a fan of aesthetics, so it was no surprise that these cookies got me at ‘marble‘. Apparently the huge cookie I made for the mister did more than satisfy him; it left him wanting more. The usual “What shall I bake today?” garnered a typical resounding “Mooties!” from him, and I thought what better time to try out these cookies.

The cookies were crispy on the edges, but soft and chewy towards the middle, which makes them perfect for the soft cookie-loving yours truly. My only gripe was that I did not have chocolate chips at hand, for even though these cookies were chocolatey (the cocoa dough was hard to resist!), I believe they would have been absolute heaven with large semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks. So I ended up with shavings off a chocolate couverture block. But then again, don’t take it from the chocoholic, since the mother just ‘complained’ of [most of] my bakes being too chocolatey, while the mister insisted on two separate occasions that these cookies tasted just like Chipsmore cookies, which I interpreted to mean overdosed with chocolate chips.

(Recipe at the end of the post)