Mothers Day Edition

A treasured recipe from my Mom, to You!

Greetings Friends, 🥂

Wishing all the Mother’s a blessed and joyful day today! Mother’s Day is one of the busiest Sunday’s in the Food & Beverage industry. If you’re a brunching place, you expect to absolutely crush it and even restaurants that are closed Sunday will usually open for a special Mother’s Day menu.

What does that mean?

Like all big restaurant holidays… you’re gonna be in for a long wait, reservation times usually lag, staff stress levels are high and kitchens run long ticket times… ironically, the optimal time to take out mom for a special is not on Mother’s Day 😂

Since I’m no longer running my own restaurants, it’s been a joy to cook meals for my parents on special days and avoid the crowds: Win-Win! This is another benefit to upping your cooking skills… you have more flexibility to avoid the crowds and still do something/special.

However you spent your day, making memories and spending time with loved ones is an increasing rarity… enjoy it to the max! 🙌

Today is the final day to get that 15% Mother’s Day discount on the Octopod Knife and Cutting Board. Use code “MOM” on checkout… it’s not too late

Everyone has a unique family background… some great, some not so great… as my mom was an avid cook I’m going to share a little background of growing up and how she was a big factor in my love and passion for cooking and all things culinary. 🙏

Following, I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes, straight from Momma Octopod’s collection. Some recipes are nostalgic, which this surely is. Add to it, when the recipe is actually a “Best In Class” and its even more special. That’s how I feel about Momma Octopod’s Banana Bread. 🍌 🍞 🤤

Yes… I will die on this hill… the best Banana Bread on the planet 🌏

Momma Octopod Cooks

To truly appreciate my mom’s cooking is to first understand that she came from a house where her own mother rarely cooked. Granny Octopod loathed cooking. As such, she had a few recipes she would occasionally make (I can still taste her spaghetti sauce), but mostly was frozen dinners or eating out.

Fast forward to when Momma Octopod met Pappa Octopod, she decided that even though she didn’t grow up in a house of cooking, she wanted to provide that for my dad and wanted to raise her kids (that would come later) in a home environment where cooking was important.

So Momma Octopod started investing time to learn to cook.

No, she didn’t take culinary classes. This was before Amazon Prime, Video Masterclasses, YouTube instructionals and 15 different cooking channels.

Momma Octopod learned how to cook through buying/borrowing cookbooks, and cooking with other ladies that were well versed in the kitchen. Through some trial and error, she developed over the span of decades an extremely well rounded repertoire from savory, to baking and pastry. She had a knack for it as well… not mandatory, but helped a lot especially with her own enjoyment.

So this sounds all grandiose and tasty but there was another reason for the dive into cooking at home.

Growing up, the Octopods lived for a considerable time overseas. Finances were tight… extremely tight sometimes. I don’t have much memory of this from my childhood because my parents were really good about not letting on just how tight things were for many years.

So being in another country, cooking at home was a necessity to keep costs down. Also, many favorite foods from the USA 🇺🇸 weren’t readily available which meant that if the family was going to eat 🇺🇸 food, it would be made at home. Pappa Octopod rarely cooked, but when he did, it was grilling sirloin steaks over charcoal. I can still smell that aroma right now as I write this. Usually for a birthday or special meal.

Another thing I still admire was how efficient Momma Octopod was cooking in extremely small/tight kitchens. In the 🇺🇸 where everything is Super-Sized, incl kitchens, being in other cultures and countries brings you back to reality… and out necessity comes creative adapting.

Mind you, these were not gourmet meals… lots of casseroles, bakes, roasts… but always some sort of vegetables incorporated, and something sweet to end dinner (Pappa Octopod requirement 😂 )

So out of a lot of simple food, I grew up understanding what real food tastes like… from a Mom who didn’t grow up with that at all. Some people say that cooking is low ROI… I would say turning an entire family generation from frozen dinners to quality cooked food is a wonderful and important achievement.

How did Octopod start cooking? As a mischievous child, I frequently got into nonsense if I didn’t have enough to do. Homework and chores were easy to do for me, so I usually had excess time. To keep me from bothering my siblings, Momma Octopod had me start baking bread on the daily for dinner each night.

I can still remember it… just using the recipe off the Fleischmanns yeast packet, I made the dough, kneaded… then punched down (my favorite part), then shaped and baked the bread for dinner. This went on for a while and I ended up being a good baker… (a precurser to the dough rabbit holes I went down later for sourdoughs, pizza 🍕 , and fermented doughs 😂 ).

Holidays were always very important meals… from helping finish things, to being the go-to many times once I was cooking professionally… all of this started from my Mom making a choice that cooking was important, and that naturally enriching our families love of good food. From Tuna Casserole to Roast Duck… Mom always made it taste it good… and she still makes the best sandwiches ever 🥪 🙌 (I still can’t crack that code 😂 )

So that’s a little background about Momma Octopod and how cooking played a vital role in family life, and for a majority of my career-life in the Culinary World.

It’s never too late to start traditions or just making some small steps in cooking more for yourselves and loved ones. Yes, inflation is high, you can save some $$$… but also, most of the time… your food will just taste better than going out to most restaurants.

To you, Momma! 🥂

Now I’ll share a most treasured recipe… but first!

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Momma Octopod’s Banana Bread

This is one of those recipes that has never been able to be topped… and trust me, I’ve tried a lot of banana breads.

The difference is in the batter, how the bananas are used and a few other nuances that make this over-the-top delicious. It needs no toppings… just eaten straight is pure bliss. However, if you want to luxe it up… spread some softened butter on each slice and that’s straight nirvana 🙌

So let’s cook this up… I’ll go into detail on the notes and tell you how to make this Best Banana Bread Ever 🍌 🍞