Why My Wife is Mad About Me and Cinnamon!
A while back, my wife had made a dish with saffron. It was called "Saffron Spice" and was quite tasty. But my children aren't very keen on saffron and neither am I. So instead of that, today's meal had coffee, cinnamon sticks (trust me, they are addictive), nuts (to add flavor), and liqueurs which include brandy or cognac.
My sweetheart used to love hearing my children getting excited over saffron: so today when I asked her what she thought I might want to cook, she said she wanted to make saffron cinnamon cookies. She made cinnamon cookies (Saffron Spice again), and my family got together to help decorate them. It took us almost all day to work out how we would decorate the cookies, but we eventually got it right! It was such a hit with my kids that they were so excited when we served them!
My wife was correct in her assumption: that saffron is somewhat related to cinnamon, and she also pointed out that saffron has a kind of nutty odor to it. She also said that saffron is sometimes green in color and sometimes yellow, and these differences are actually what led me to think of electrical banana. Electrical banana, indeed. If you are wondering what an electrical banana is, well let me explain. It's a type of fruit tree that grows upside down and has small, purple blooms.
I have two children: David and Jennifer, who like to visit various stores to see the new things they can make. Today, as a birthday gift, my son bought us a book that had this concept, and within the pages of the book there were recipes for eleven cakes that were delicious and very different from the traditional cakes everyone was serving at their house today. The cakes were called "13-week old electric bananas." In the recipe there were only four ingredients listed, which included a pinch of each: lemon zest, ginger, cloves, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and salt. These spices were used sparingly and instead of using honey, brown sugar or butter, we used Saffron strands. Isn't that funny?
The next day, as we were all sitting around the table: my wife began to explain how cinnamon and saffron are related. I thought to myself, "I'm just mad about saffron." But my children kept silent, because they don't understand what saffron is and weren't convinced that saffron and cinnamon go together. This time I decided to explain it to them.
"Saffron strands come from a flower called the saffron flower," I explained: "The flower has a scent like cinnamon but with a stronger flavor. When the flower is put on food, it produces an aroma that is like honey and it's delicious!"
My kids looked at me with surprise and said, "You're not crazy, Mom, we've been eating saffron strands for years."
