The Household Desk: Love Is a Batch of Grandma Edith’s Banana Cookies

Submitted by Teresa Todt, Illinois

My Grandma Edith’s house was heat and welcoming. However what I keep in mind most are the mouthwatering smells coming from her oven.

I recall fondly the knotty pine paneling on the partitions in her kitchen and the massive spherical desk positioned in the midst of the room. On days I might stroll to her home after college, I might typically discover her sitting at that desk sipping on the spot iced tea, her favourite drink, from a tall glass. The day could be excellent if I additionally found a freshly baked batch of her banana cookies cooling on the countertop.

Grandma labored outdoors of her house at a time when most girls didn’t. A number of mornings per week, she could be up earlier than daybreak, headed for the native restaurant she and Grandpa owned. Artwork’s Motel and Restaurant was fairly a well-known landmark on previous Route 66 in Farmersville, Illinois.

There, she would put together a number of of her well-known pies, rolling dough and shaping crusts into artistic endeavors. Her mushy pies have been my favourite, and she or he made all of them: banana cream, lemon, butterscotch, and coconut cream, each piled excessive with mild meringue toasted to perfection. My mother instructed me clients would drive greater than 25 miles simply to have a chunk of her mom’s delectable pies, solely after an order of her well-known fried hen. Twenty-five miles was fairly a trek again within the ’40s!

After midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, my household would arrive at Grandma’s home, the place a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pastries galore would cowl her lengthy rectangular eating room desk. This desk was reserved for particular events, and Christmas was probably the most particular of all. To today, I’ve by no means seen or tasted a fried egg as fairly or as scrumptious as Grandma’s. The perimeters resembled crocheted doilies, with designs in intricate element, crisp and filled with taste.

I liked all the things Grandma Edith ready in her kitchen, however her banana cookies have been my all-time favourite. And never simply mine. Grandma’s giant household, and particularly her grandkids, made these cookies disappear as quick as she pulled them from the oven.

Grandma touched a lot of lives over her 80-plus years, and she or he had a novel manner of creating every one in all her many grandchildren really feel liked and particular. She was forward of her time in some ways, however to a younger youngster, she was merely Grandma, somebody who liked me unconditionally and taught me many issues all through my lifetime. She’s nonetheless instructing me as we speak.

Her freshly baked banana cookies have been simply one of many methods wherein she shared her love with household and pals. She readily shared her recipe with anybody who requested, so her well-known cookies dwell on. And each time I bake a batch, most not too long ago for my grandsons, I keep in mind the love inside these knotty pine partitions and my candy Grandma baking yet one more batch for these she liked.

Grandma Edith’s Banana Cookies

Makes about 30 cookies

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 400 levels F. Frivolously butter a cookie sheet.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt collectively and put aside.

In a separate bowl, use a hand mixer to beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs till creamy. Stir in mashed bananas.

Add dry substances to moist, and stir simply sufficient to combine collectively. Don’t overmix.

Drop batter by rounded teaspoon onto ready cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Let stand a number of minutes earlier than eradicating to a cooling rack.

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