Adventures in Hospitality: Keeping Up with the Bedelias

This long weekend, Ian and Daniel have been in serviceable mode, making food for each other and the rest of the family, but the most recent treat is definitely the best. Ian made me a dish he calls "Mashed Banana," no doubt inspired by the moment, in one of her books, when Amelia Bedelia is babysitting, and she follows written instructions to give the baby a "mashed banana," by mashing a banana still in its peel and handing the whole product over to the baby in the play-pen. Ian asked me if I'd like "mashed banana," and I tried to discourage his hospitality - especially since I already know the "recipe" from the Amelia Bedelia book - but he still handed me a banana, in its peel, thoroughly "mashed" from without. However, Ian's recipe had one ingredient that Amelia Bedelia's didn't: every bite of the banana, which was extraordinarily sweet, coincided with a highly granular crunch across the entire surface of food.

Ian had added his own touch of "sucrose" to the dish - which admittedly made it taste much more interesting, and perhaps better, if somewhat too sweet - and he was very proud of his enhancement to the recipe, and has since made one for himself.

Originally, he had asked me if I would like a "banana split," and, although I knew what he had in mind had to be radically different from what you might be served in a traditional ice cream parlor, I still said "yes." When the offer shifted from "banana split," to "mashed banana," I suddenly became hesitant. Yet there was a story behind it, which he subsequently provided, to fill in the darker patches of this enigma:

"Daddy, want to know what happened when i was making you a banana split?"

"What, I asked him, and a very sensible explanation followed:

"I tried to split the banana with the peel, but it got mashed instead."

(July 4, 2011)