The Spotty Banana….

hate waste.  Seriously, aside from littering, it’s among my biggest pet peeves.

When I see someone grab 30 napkins for an iced coffee, my blood boils.

When people go through the drive-thru and order a walk-in amount of food, backing-up the line of people waiting in vehicles that are just burning through fuel, I want to go all Towanda on their asses.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Light pollution makes me want to take a hostage.

Anytime I drive by an office complex or through a major city, all I can see is the draining of resources.

And I hate to admit it, but even my own kids suck at light conservation.  Anytime they travel from one room to another….every….single….light along the way, must be turned on.  Even in broad daylight.

It pains me, deeply, that while I have taught my children many things, I have apparently failed to teach them that the exact same mechanism that provides light, also has the power to extinguish it.

And while I’m on a roll here, riddle me this, bat folks….is artificial lighting really necessary when nature’s light bulb provides hours of natural light?

That’s a rhetorical question.  Turn off the f*cking lights.

Also, people toss so many things that could be repurposed into something useful, or made new again.

Some of my most favorite possessions are things I’ve salvaged from someone’s curbside trash.  I pulled my current deck furniture from a Salvation Army dumpster.

Don’t ask me how I came to be shopping in a Salvation Army dumpster.  It’s not that interesting a story.

Anyway,  I stripped down the set, painted the frames and added new cushions.  You’d never know it had been destined to take up real estate in a landfill for all eternity.

Even my house was a well loved, but deteriorating relic, when my husband and I bought it a little more than two years ago.  It’s a historic, New England, saltbox colonial farmhouse that was built in 1731; before there was a United States, or a Declaration of Independence.

After we bought it, we embarked on an eight month restoration/renovation project with a local contractor.  And we still aren’t done.  Now begins a long list of DIY projects I’ve been tackling one room at a time, as we continue to breath life into this old beauty.

But the thing that really chaps my ass, is the wasting of food.   I mean, come on, there are hungry people, like next door.  Maybe not literally, but you know what I mean.

12.6 million US children are “food insecure,” which is a nicer way of saying, hungry.  Yet, in the US, we waste approximately $160 BILLION dollars in food a year; 150,000 pounds of food EACH DAY.

I think I inherited my focus on minimizing waste from my great-grandparents, who I spent a considerable amount of time with as a kid.  Both grew up on farms in Pennsylvania Dutch country during the Great Depression and they carried the memories of that experience with them for the rest of their lives.  Nothing went to waste; least of all food.

When my grandma cooked, it didn’t matter if she was making food for 20 people or two.  She always knew the exact right amount to make so that there was just enough leftover for supper (lunch) the next day.

At Thanksgiving, every bit of the turkey was used.  After the meat was carved, my grandma would take the carcass and boil it down in a large pot, making broths she froze for later use in soups and stews.

With the bones, we sat around her kitchen table and made jewelry, like wishbone necklaces and ribcage earrings.

Just kidding, I don’t know what she did with the bones.

Anyway, my point is this.  Waste not, want not, ya know?

The other day, I purchased a bunch of banana’s.  And before we managed to get through them, they reached a state of spotty, mushiness that made them unappealing.  When the fruit flies started to circle, my husband asked, “Should we just toss these?”

“Um, have you just met me?” I asked.

Old Spotty Banana Bread Recipe:

  1. Wave the fruit flies away from 2-3 very ripe (aka, spotty and borderline not edible) banana’s.
  2. Preheat oven to 350
  3. Mash bananas with fork until smooth.
  4. Stir in 1/3 cup melted butter
  5. Mix in 1 tsp baking soda and a pinch of salt
  6. Mix in 3/4 cup sugar, 1 large egg (beaten) and 1stp vanilla extract
  7. Mix in 1 1/2 cups flour
  8. Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for approximately 50 minutes to one hour.

3 thoughts on “The Spotty Banana….”

  1. Oh man… I can relate to this on a higher level. In the previous place I rented I lived with 3 other people, not friends. My OCD was going crazy DAILY because they would leave the lights on unused. Often overnight. I also have a pet peeve of people throwing things that are obviously recycled, like paper, into trash together with household waste. Makes my blood boil…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Right!? I am not ashamed to admit that I noticed one of my neighbors REFUSED to recycle. So, I went to our town hall and paid $10 for an extra recycling bin and then left it on my neighbors doorstep with a note that said, “This is not a subtle hint.”

      I mean, c’mon! We’ve got ONE planet.

      Liked by 1 person

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