Sweet Banana Pups!

Sweet Banana Pups!

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

I took a bag from the freezer, opened it to take out frozen pieces of banana.  I love to freeze bananas… did you know you can make ice cream, or a smoothie from them?  I learned that sometime ago, reading on the computer.

There isn’t a certain way you ‘have to do’ when using frozen bananas.  Sometimes, I put the frozen pieces of banana into the blender, add a little crushed ice, and blend.  It makes good banana ice cream… the texture is wonderful… you can add a little cream, or milk to make it creamier.

Sometimes, I put the frozen banana into the blender, put just cream in with it, blend.  It’s so smooth, and creamy.  You can add peanut butter, peanuts, just whatever you like.  I don’t usually add anything.

One can make banana bread later with the bananas that has been frozen.  This is what Skip does.  He can puree it, add his other ingredients to it… bake.

I blended the frozen banana pieces with a little crushed ice, cream (like Half and Half we use for coffee).  The texture was just right.

I walked out on the porch to sit on the cushions that cover the built-in bench at one end.   I was going to sit there and enjoy my banana ice cream.  It taste so good that it’s hard to believe you have a dessert that isn’t chock full of calories.

I sat there enjoying the sunshine, looking off in the distance at the little fish pond.  I was thinking about Lena, whom I had written about this morning.  Today is her birthday.  Lena died last August, 2011.

I ate part of the banana ice cream.  I felt something bump my elbow, looked down.  Kissy, our Rottie, was standing there… he wanted some banana ice cream!  Chadwick walked up (our special mixed pup)… he wanted some, too!

I sat there in the sunshine on those brightly colored pillows, and fed those Pups banana ice cream.  I love watching their ‘baby mouths’ as they each took turns to get their spoonful of banana ice cream.   They closed their eyes when they ate it… how precious!  Life is good!

My heart melted as I watched our Pups enjoy that ice cream… Banana Pups, that’s what they are!  I watch their little-big faces, their expressions of pure trust, innocence… spoilness!  Their little-big baby mouths making sounds like a baby eating… it melts my heart every time!  My heart swells with such love.

Oh, how I love our Banana Pups!  Those sweet banana pups!

S’more No More…

A S’more; melted marshmallow and milk chocolate between two graham crackers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

S’more No More…

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/ aka Granny Gee

She stood in front of the electric stove holding a fork in her hand.  On that fork was a giant marshmallow… she was holding it over the electric burner… toasting it.

On the counter sat a honey graham cracker with a little square of Hershey’s chocolate on it waiting for that giant marshmallow.  She moved the fork around as the marshmallow turned golden.

She put the toasted marshmallow on the chocolate square, put the honey graham cracker on top, squeezed gently.  Her mouth was watering… she’d never eaten a S’more… she had it almost to her mouth when….

Her hand dropped the S’more!  It was no more, it had fallen… to the floor!  She was so disappointed as she bent down to pick it up, throw it into the trashcan.  She really wanted to kick the trashcan, but… of course she didn’t.  It wouldn’t help a thing.

She patiently put another giant marshmallow onto the fork after placing another square of chocolate on a honey graham cracker… she put it over the electric burner to toast.  She really was looking forward to eating a S’more.

As the giant marshmallow toasted she thought about how she’d seen on tv a campfire with kids all around it… all holding a branch with a marshmallow on it.  Someone had the honey graham crackers ready, chocolate and all… as the marshmallows toasted, they were quickly placed on them.

Her giant marshmallow was ready…. she gently placed it on the square of chocolate, placed the second honey graham cracker on top.  She couldn’t wait to taste the S’more, she’d never tasted one and she was fifty-six years old!

She turned to the sink to place the fork in it to wash later.  Her mind was on that S’more, she turned back to get it.  She looked on that countertop… the S’more was gone!  The S’more was no more, it was gone!  What?

She looked around, no one was there.  She walked to the doorway of the living room…. the pups were lying on the carpet… sleeping.  Her husband was asleep on the sofa.  How did that S’more get gone?

She walked back to where she last saw the S’more, tilted her head looking all the while at the spot where she’d put it.  How did it get gone?  She didn’t feel like doing this again… though her mouth still wanted to taste that S’more.

She stood there puzzled… her husband and pups were asleep.  There wasn’t anyone else in the house that could just walk in to get her S’more!  Granny Gee squinted her eyes in concentration… she was thinking.  It was her nature to ‘figure things out’…. no mystery was safe with her.

In concentration, she closed her eyes to picture what ‘could have happened’.  She pictured in her mind a pup coming into the kitchen to get her S’more…. but, she discarded that thought.  Her pups had never done that.

Once she left a piece of steak sitting on a platter on the countertop… one hour later she came back… the steak was still sitting there.

Granny Gee tiptoed back to the doorway to peep at the pups, and at her husband.  Skip!  Her mind began picturing Skip sneaking into the opposite door of the kitchen, waiting until she was preoccupied with toasting her marshmallow… then, grabbing her S’more and running quietly back to the living room…..to lay on the couch, pretend to be asleep.

Granny Gee ‘knew’ in her mind that Skip got her S’more.  She just knew it.  She walked softly past the sleeping pups, to the couch to peer down at Skip.  Granny Gee ‘knew’ he was the culprit.

She leaned down, she thought she saw the beginning of a grin on Skip’s face.  Why it must have been her imagination!  But, no.. wait…. is that a crumb on the corner of his mouth?!!!

Skip!  Skip got her S’more!  She knew it!  She just had to make him say it…. open his mouth to show her the evidence!

Granny Gee reached her hand out … she was going to open Skip’s mouth.  Before her hand touched his mouth… Skip’s eyes opened wide, he began choking as he laughed.

As he laughed so hard, crumbs of honey graham cracker spewed from his mouth.  It was hilarious… Granny Gee was laughing now.  She had to pat him on the back as the crumbs made him cough.

Granny Gee solved the mystery of ‘why’…. the S’more was no more!