Banana [Nut] Bread

I don't know about you, but I like my bananas to be just past the stage of green when I eat them. Heck, I don't mind if there is still some green on them! But I hate, hate, hate, when they have any brown spots. Yuck! Unfortunately, this means I have to buy bananas in very small quantities - say, 2 at a time. And that is annoying. But when I don't do that, I often have 2 out of the bunch that get all brown before I have time to eat them. Whenever this happens I have a craving to make banana nut bread. But like I said previously, I usually only have 2 - and the recipe calls for 4. So what's a girl to do? Luckily, the lasted time I got this urge some nice person at work left 4 almost-completely-brown bananas in the break room. SCORE! So I took the 2 that looked the worst and brought them home to add to my overly-ripe bananas. I have to say, mine were a little more juicy than the work ones. If I hadn't been so impatient I would have let them stew for a day or two more. But I wanted banana nut bread, and I wanted it like 2 days ago! So I didn't procrastinate!

This is my mom's "famous" recipe. It's really only famous to her family and maybe some friends, but I adore it and think it's just the best around. I have also come to realize over the years that I prefer plain old banana bread, rather than banana NUT bread. Call me crazy. So I did not add the nuts to this recipe. After all, the original owner of the recipe (aka, mom) did say that nuts were optional!

Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening (I know what you are thinking; it's probably the same thing I thought when I read the recipe: "Shortening?!? People actually still use this stuff???" But, yes they do. And don't try to substitute with butter. Just buy the smallest thing of Crisco you can find - because let's face it, you won't probably use it that often! Unless of course you live in the deep south and then I've been told it's a staple to any pantry. However, aside from what some people may say, I do still believe Florida is a southern state, or at least north Florida is. So I guess I fall into the "south" category, but I still have never used Crisco in my adult life to cook, until now. Anyway, just bite the bullet and add it to the recipe. Oh, and if some true southerner out there can tell me how I'm supposed to store this stuff, that would be great! )

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ripe bananas

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) (see it says it in the actual recipe!!)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Blend the shortening and sugar. Yes, it is a ton of sugar. Don't pay attention to that. Your ass may not thank you later, but your tastebuds will!

3. Add the eggs to the mixture and beat.

4. Mix in a separate bowl the flour, soda, and salt. Then slowly add this to the sugar mixture. Remember: SLOWLY! Trust me, you want to listen to me on this one! If you don't, you'll have a poof! of flour all over your countertops and in your hair. Good times!

5. Mash the 4 bananans in another bowl. Then add them to the mixture.

6. Add the vanilla (and nuts if using them).

7. Pour mixture into one large bread pan or use 2 pans like my mom. My mom uses 1 large and 1 small pan. Well I only had large or, well, large. So I thought I'd try to use just one pan. All of the mixture fit after all! Well, beware. I got lucky, but don't fill your mixture up too high because remember the bread will RISE! Mine turned out fine, but others may not be so lucky!

8. Bake for 60 minutes. As you can see, I overbaked just a tad. I was always taught to stick a toothpick in the center of the bread to see when it's done. If the toothpick comes out clean, it's done. Well my toothpick wasn't coming out that clean even though the edges looked done. So I baked for a tad longer. I probably shouldn't have!!! I'm sure the middle was done enough and because of the extra minutes my edges are sort of brown. :-( But it was still good!

9. If you want, you can let it cool. But I prefer to cut me a slice as soon as I can stand to touch the bread and then slather on some butter. Yummy!!!