Grandma Bessie’s kitchen was always warm. I remember looking up to the white oven and being shooed away and warned of the heat as I came in through the back door. In the winter, we came in the back door because often the front porch was covered up in plastic to seal out the North Dakota cold. That back door led to what Grandma called the back porch, which was merely really a small hallway to enter the house. To the left, inside the back porch, was a small dresser, lined on top with a row of silver coffee cans filled with wax paper and mostly homemade cookies. The first chance I got, once I was in Grandma’s house, I would peel back each plastic lid, to see what was inside each can. When I was very little there were lots of choices: chocolate chip, crumbly peanut butter printed with the back of a fork, sometimes oatmeal raisin, a sugar topped gingersnap, a cakey molasses cookie with sour cream frosting, and always store bought Cameo cookies. Now that I am older, I am amazed at how well prepared she was for guests and grandchildren. Grandma Bessie was also resourceful and inventive. She made dish towels and placemats out of old flour sack and crocheted the edges. Another thing she did was bake her banana bread in a silver coffee can; a can just like the ones she stored the cookies in. That is the one trick I learned from my Grandma Bessie’s kitchen.
So, when I was reading a food blog I like called Whipped, I found a recipe called My Favorite Banana Bread Recipe. I was looking for a replacement one, since my standby with oatmeal was boring me. This one calls for real butter, and I used the good stuff. The only thing I did differently was I baked it in an old coffee can, like Grandma Bessie use to do. I baked it 70 minutes, a little longer than suggested, probably because of the can. I greased the can with butter and flour Pam spray. It popped out just fine!
Do you have a trick you learned from your Grandma’s kitchen? Please share!
