Baking Powder Drop Biscuits

I whipped these together this morning for breakfast for Benji and me, and took the leftovers to Eryc and Sophia for afternoon snack. This is a classic recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which my mother bought me years ago. However, I have used this page so many times that it has fallen out and is gone forever, so I’m forced to find it online at epicurious.

I don’t have the patience to roll out biscuit dough, so I make the drop biscuit variation, which are wonderfully easy and tasty. They have a light, fluffy texture and a hint of sweetness. We topped them with the last few drops of a delicious floral honey that Alison brought me from Provence seven or eight years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what kind of honey it was because Ben scorched the label in the microwave, so now all we can read is “miel” and “fleurs.”

The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute butter (yum) for shortening (yuck). What a great way to start spring break!

Banana Bread

Home from a weirdly grueling morning and early afternoon at the Museum of Nature & Science with the Davises... this seemed like the perfect comfort food snack going into the weekend. It’s also the best use of sad looking, overripe bananas.

I love this recipe for its simplicity--all you need are 2 eggs, 3 bananas, 2 cups flour, ¾ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda. Done. If you have walnuts, lovely. If not, lovely. Sophia and I make this once or twice a month (we alternate with Fannie Farmer’s Pumpkin Bread). It’s so simple that she can do nearly every step by herself.

I love The Fannie Farmer Cookbook for old-fashioned basics like this. My mom originally bought the book for me for the French toast recipe, and I’ve used it so much that the pages are falling out. In fact, the book automatically opens to the banana bread page and has to be held together by a rubber band!

As a side note, I read a fascinating book in January 2002 about the birth of the home economics movement and how it “ruined” home cooking for decades. Fanny Farmer herself is complicit in this modernization of American cooking. Interested? Check out Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century by Laura Shapiro. A fascinating book for anyone interested in American food culture.

As I sit typing this and listening to Joseph snore, the house is filled with the most wonderful homey smell. Yum!