Banana Muffins - Yummy!!!

I will never be disloyal to Joan Burstyn's banana bread, but what do you do when you have 2 bananas instead of 3, and half an hour instead of an hour?

Here's the solution, adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Lowfat Favorites - thanks Nancy for this great cookbook!!!!

I cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup oats
2 eggs
2 tbls oil
2 mashed bananas
1/2 cup yogurt

preheat oven to 400 F(200 C) and grease your muffin cups
sift dry stuff except oats. add oats. mix up the wet stuff well. add wet to dry and mix till just mixed. put in muffin cups. bake 20-25 mins (took a little longer here). leave in tin a few minutes if the kids can wait. loosen each muffin with a knife around the edges before tipping out. one batch is almost gone the next morning - try a double batch if friends are over!!!

Coming Out Again

I think I want to rename this blog and call it, "It's complicated."

Alen was home sick and heard some young teen girls gathered outside our house talking and saying, "That's the yard of the lesbians." She was pretty sure one of them lived in our building.

I had a pretty good idea of who it was and while Alen was dubious about it, I decided to go talk to our new neighbors. I thought about what I would say for some time. On the one hand, what other people think of us is none of our business. On the other hand, my kids also live in this building.

So I asked to talk to the mom privately, and I told her what happened, and that I thought it might have been her daughter, but that I was not sure, and her first response was "my kids have no idea about you. We haven't said anything. It's a completely private matter." These kids are about 13 and 15. I'm not sure what planet this lovely woman is living on.

I said, "Well, we don't keep it a secret that we are two women raising two kids."

She said, "No of course not, it's nothing you need to hide."

And there we have the dilemma in Israel - it's nothing to hide but it's a completely private matter.

So I said, "well, it's totally your call, but maybe you want to talk to your daughter. She might have questions about it."

Then she told me about her teenage son who has become orthodox under the influence of Shas type activists who were in another part of our town influencing teenage boys but have supposedly left, and how against it she and her husband have been and how she would never mention something like this to him (her son) because of the attitudes of that segment of the religious population.

So I said again, "it's totally your call, but maybe you want to talk to your daughter."

And she told me she was glad I said something to her, and she thinks we're great and our kids are great.

And I'm left wondering, if she talks to her daughter, what on earth will she say? That it's a totally private matter not to talk about but nothing to be ashamed of?

Stay tuned for why I'm ambivalent about joining a speakers bureau for GLBT issues. It's not what you think.