There’s more than one way to slice a banana.

I haven’t cooked a thing in the last six months.  That’s not true.  I have cooked my weekly batch of oatmeal and my one-whole-egg-plus-three-egg-whites scramble every morning.  I’ve also cooked at least fifty English muffins slathered in peanut butter and sliced bananas, and cooked a bazillion or so no-cook salads for lunch.  But, I haven’t done any REAL cooking lately simply because I’ve been swamped with work (and life) and because it was just way too friggin hot this summer to bother with anything involving the oven.  As I sit here eating my late night peanut butter toast that I slaved over a hot toaster for, it dawned on me that just because I’m not cooking doesn’t mean we can’t talk food!

A month or so ago, my mom came to visit, and since I was under the weather she cooked me one of those peanut butter and banana English muffins I mentioned earlier.  My whole life, I’ve been making this little snack with strategically placed slices of banana perched atop the muffin halves, so you can imagine how baffled I was when my mom appeared with this:

I may be slightly biased, but my mother is clearly a genius.  Seeing how she swiftly sliced the banana in half rather than trying to finangle a dozen slippery slices of banana atop the melting peanut butter has forever changed me.

What kitchen secrets have your genius parents enlightened you with?