Seeing

There was a time when it would upset me.  Hearing his voice.  Seeing his glasses on a table top.  It took me a while to adjust.

We were tight.  The two of us.  I was the first granchild.  The only girl grandbaby for 18 years.  Seeing that in writing strikes me only now.

He died suddenly in 2001.  For years afterwards, my grandma kept the outgoing message on her answering machine.  His message.  His voice.  The first time I called and heard it after he died, I hung up without leaving a message.  I couldn't speak.

Grandma still keeps his eyeglasses sitting on a table or counter top.  I first noticed a pair in the bedroom where everyone puts their coats.  Then another set on the kitchen counter.  And on the bathroom counter sitting by the sink.  Pretty soon I realized there were pairs in every room in the house.  Folded like crabs waiting to pinch some memory out of me.

My grandpa was involved in the Lion's Club, which is committed to providing glasses to people in need.  He collected old eyeglasses like nobody's business.

He had a passion for his Lion's Club.  Another way he supported the club was by buying copies of their annual fundraiser cookbook and passing them out at Christmas.

This Buttermilk Banana Bread comes from Home Cookin': The Lions Clubs Cookbook, Volume 3, 1999.  I'm not a big banana bread kinda gal, but I do like the use of buttermilk here.  When I bake this, I think of my grandpa.

Notes:
* Call me weird, but I like to bake quick breads in an 8 x 8 pan.  It becomes more of a cake than a bread and seems to bake up evenly moist.  When I bake quick breads in loaf pans, the outside usually ends up overdone.
* I would love to stir in some pecans, but The Boy likes "smooth food."

This week's See Ya In the Gumbo potluck is HERE

Printer Friendly

Buttermilk Banana Bread
from Home Cookin': The Lions Clubs Cookbook, Volume 3
1 3/4 c flour
1 1/2 c sugar (I use 1 c)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 c)
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/4 c plus 1 tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 c chopped nuts (I omit)

Add ingredients to bowl in order given.  Pour into a 9x5x3" greased loaf pan.  Bake at 325 for about 1 hour and 20 minutes.  I use an 8 x 8 cake pan and watch.

 Check out these parties I'm linking with this week: