The Station Fire in the Angeles Nat’l Forest is unbelievable. Just last night it doubled in size from 40,000 acres to 85,000 acres. As of this afternoon, the reports are that it has grown to 105,000 acres. It is being reported that 2 firefighters have died, at least 21 homes have been lost, and over 4,300 families have been evacuated from their homes. The fire has moved at record paces and the authorities have estimated full containment will not be acheived until September 15. The damage and threat stretch from Pasadena to Acton.
This timelapse video of the fire captures a glimpse of how intense this fire really is.
I noticed the other day while putting away groceries that my freezer was awfully full. This morning, while waiting for my coffee to brew, I decided to investigate. You won’t believe what I found. Well… I guess maybe the title gave it away. Bananas. 29 to be exact. Yep. 29 bananas.
Naturally, the next question a sane person would ask is, “why do you have 29 bananas in your freezer?”
Well…I like bananas. I like to have them on my cereal. I like to have them on my ice cream. I like to eat them as a snack. (Did I just write the beginings of a children’s book?)
I usually buy a bunch of bananas when I do my grocery shopping, but my husband and I do not tend to eat all the bananas I’ve bought before they begin to brown. I think there is something in my kitchen that causes fruit to ripen at a record pace. Maybe it’s the fact that my fruit bowl sits in front of the sunny window. Maybe it’s the fact that the house was built in 1948 and people who lived in 1948 didn’t have a real concept of air circulation. Maybe I just expect bananas to last longer than is reasonable.
Anyway, I don’t like to throw away bananas just because they’ve got a few bruises on them AND I have a great recipe for banana bread that calls for 3 extra ripe bananas. It’s my mom’s recipe. It’s delightful. So I put the over-ripe bananas in the freezer for future banana bread.
It’s been a while since I made banana bread. Obviously.
After throwing away the 12 frozen fruits that were unusable, I was left with 17 for making bread. I can make 5.6 loaves with those 17 bananas. (I had to use a calculator…) My husband observed that Jesus fed 5,000 with fewer loaves and that we should generally shoot for fewer than 10 bananas in the freezer at any given time. I guess I know what I’ll be doing tonight. Given that Mr. J is back on his low carb diet, I’m going to have about 5.6 banana bread gifts to give to 5.6 lucky people.
