[What I had for breakfast today: a delicious chicken tamale from a cart on Sebastopol Road]

Every so often I get fixated on banana bread and have to make it right away.

I don't entirely understand why; banana bread is not something that would ever make it onto a list of my favorite foods. There's just some undefinable nostalgia attached to it, something linked to those very first few times I baked anything at all. I would have been in high school, probably, and I remember feeling giddy with the way I could turn flour and a few other things into something that would feed people and make them happy. (Baking things would also reliably get my high-school boyfriend to come over, and I would be a big liar if I told you that didn't result in my being a more practiced baker.)

Today I was jonesing for banana bread again. Kamal and I made banana nut muffins, following the recipe linked to in this article. I'm usually pretty loosey-goosey about following a recipe, but after reading about this one I didn't dare experiment--it sounded like messing with perfection. Other than using a muffin tin (it made twelve lovely muffins) instead of a loaf pan, which meant my baking time was more like 25 minutes instead of 65, I didn't change a thing.

Kamal was a tremendous help, especially when it came to the important task of cleaning the mixer paddle.

These hit the spot, absolutely. I would have taken a photo of them for you, but I was too excited to eat them. We shared them with friends and every banana-y bite is gone.