bananas – Kaluhi's Kitchen

In most African homes, bananas are almost always present. They serve so many purposes, the main one being dessert. As an African child, whenever you craved something sweet while at home, you would be handed a banana to calm those cravings down. Going to school and had nothing to carry for break? Worry not, bananas were always there to save the day. Too hungry while you waited for supper/lunch that’s taking too long? Grab that banana. Going for a long trip and you’re reaching for something mom packed? Guess what you find first? Bananas. While I disliked that growing up, nowadays I snack on fruits since it was how we were raised. The best way! And despite bananas being among my least favorite fruits, I still find myself reaching for some when my rumbling tummy needs some soothing.

With only bananas at home and me craving something a bit indulgent, I decided to make a banana milkshake. But you know with me, something has to give. It is no ordinary one since I added a homemade salted caramel that’s so easy to make ant takes your banana milkshake from basic to fantastic!

Like majority of Kenyan teenagers, I lived out my high school years in boarding school. I was in a Catholic boarding school and it was strict, to say the least. One of the things that I found really bizarre, was how it was imposed on us to carry the same things (snacks, jam, hair tiers, etc) and the many things we were not allowed to have at all (perfume, deodorant, face wash etc). The logic was that they were trying to make us all equal, and that the things we carry from home may go against that. Their intentions were good, but this made some of us mischievous and wildly creative about how we could sneak in the “forbidden” things. One of the snacks we were allowed to carry were these biscuits, only two packets, to last until the next time we returned home, which was about 6-8 weeks away. To break the monotony, we would put tastier snacks in the boxes of the marie biscuits so that they pass past inspection without raising any suspicion. One of my favorite to sneak in were Oreos. I mean, they are so tasty!!! That worked until we were caught and had to get more creative ways of sneaking them in.

When I posted a sneak peek of today’s post on Facebook and Twitter, I got the impression that majority of you thought we shall be baking oreos. Sorry to disappoint you, but that will not be what is going on. I have oven issues as highlighted in this post. However, we are going to use oreos that are ready made and reinvent them into something even tastier.

I decided to make an oreo icebox cake, incorporating kiwi fruit and strawberries, which happen to be the colors of our national flag- black green and red. On this Jamuhuri day, this post is so befitting. I think its an interesting recipe, read on 🙂