San Geraldo was back having fun in the kitchen yesterday afternoon. He made three loaves of his delicious banana bread (his mother’s recipe). Our friends here all call it cake. The bread/cake is even more delicious than it used to be since San Geraldo now uses Canary Island bananas.
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| FRESHLY BAKED CANARY ISLAND BANANA BREAD. |
Now everyone knows (don’t they?) that peanut butter and bananas are delicious. So I figured peanut butter spread on Canary Island Banana Bread would be even better. That was my breakfast today. It was even better than I imagined.
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| BREAKFAST. |
Sticking to my peanut butter theme for the next meal (but foregoing the banana bread), San Geraldo made me PB&J — a peanut butter and jelly (actually orange and elder flower marmalade) sandwich. Of course, San Geraldo’s version looked nothing like any PB&J sandwich I’ve ever had. Anywhere.
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| PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY (PB&J) A LA SAN GERALDO. |
Between breakfast and lunch, we went downstairs to Café El 90 for coffee. San Geraldo bagged up a loaf of banana bread as a gift for the owners Domenique and Yvette, and the cook, Vanessa.
Note: The following information might be helpful before you read further.
• San Geraldo is half Norwegian.
• The Norwegian word for cake is kake (sounds a bit like kah-kah).
• The Spanish word for poop is caca (sounds exactly like kah-kah).
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| BANANA KAKE. |
Every morning, San Geraldo scoops out the cats’ litter box, bags up what he scoops in a clear plastic bag, and takes it downstairs to the trash. I don’t even like carrying the bag because I can smell the cat poop right through it. In addition, if I do take the poop downstairs, I seal it in an opaque bag, so no one knows what I’ve got.
It’s one of the many ‘subtle’ ways in which San Geraldo and I differ.
This morning, San Geraldo took the bag of cat poop in his right hand and headed out the door. However, in his left hand was the bagged-up banana bread, which he was about to switch into his right hand along with the bag of poop. Of course, I stopped him.
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| CAT CACA. |
“Jerry, don’t do that! Give me the bread!” I whined.
He laughed and responded, “What?!? I’ve got kake and I’ve got caca.”
As I took the banana bread from him, I muttered, “Damned kids.”
I searched for The Muppets’ version of the “Peanut Butter & Jelly” song. I couldn’t find it. I think this is even better…
Note: My sister Dale and I were very young when Harry Belafonte first made the “Banana Boat Song” popular. Our disabled cousin, Stevie, who adored Dale, thought the lyric was “Dale” and not “Day-O.” He wanted the song played every time he saw her.
