The "aha" moment!

My husband, Mark, likes to shop. I know that I have stated that before but no matter how many times I say it, it will never express how much that I am elated that he does. It saves me from having to enter a store! This shopping thing seems to be something that runs in his side of the family as his father loved to shop as well. Although, this usually is not a problem (Much to the contrary..it is a huge help!), occasionally I have to question some of his purchases. Case in point being a pair of cowboy boots for a toddler. Not that years ago, I would have complained because admittedly, the things were darn cute but the timing was just bad. What in the world was I to do with toddler size 3 cowboy boots? Our kids were all grown and definitely out of toddler shoes of any kind. I finally wound up donating the boots to charity and all was well. Recently, he came home with squeeze bottles. Squeeze bottles! I pondered these for a few minutes and asked "What are these for?". He looked at me in all innocence and said something or another about "I am sure you will need them sometime." Yeah, right...now I was the proud owner of eight two-cup-size squeeze bottles. I put them on the shelf with all of the other "need it sometime" items. I was sure that they would sit there collecting dust until I could stand it no longer and out they would go.



Then today when I was making banana bread the "need-it-sometime" arose! I was baking the bread in the miniature loaf pans and the miniature muffin pans. There is a certain difficulty in filling these tiny pans and I, for one, am not so deft at doing it neatly. I was making a huge mess filling pans that only take about a tablespoon of batter. As I was slopping stuff everywhere, my thoughts ventured to the shelf and the squeeze bottles! An "aha!" moment struck! I needed those squeeze bottles or at least one of them! I whipped one out of the package and cleaned it thoroughly. With the aid of a funnel, two cups of batter went in and the cap was replaced. Now for the moment of truth...would this work? Ready, set, nope. Squeeze as I might, no batter came out the hole in the cap. The lumpy bananas were just too large! Well, that was easy to fix! I grabbed a handy pair of scissors and attempted to snip off the end. That did not work so the kitchen shears were the next tool to be put into use. Even those would not cut the quarter inch thick tip. So...out came the butcher knife! Nothing is safe with that! I lopped off the end and filled the pans with ease. My lumpy banana bread batter squeezed right into the teeny-tiny pans! I have cute little, bite-sized loaves of banana bread!



So now, I have to concede that sometimes Mark's on-a-whim purchases come in handy! I am quite sure that somewhere, somehow those other seven squeeze bottles will prove to be useful. Lets just hope that does not encourage him to buy several dozen more!