I love my husband. Since being married, we have lived now in three different houses.  This last move was obviously the most substantial – 2,000+ miles is nothing to sneeze at.  Something I didn’t anticipate was having to completely restock my kitchen.  I tried to bring over as many non-perishables as I could, but the pantry was still pretty bare once we arrived. (Tylyn requested that I mention that we did manage to bring all of his hot sauces – I’m not joking when I say there are no less than 18 different bottles of hot sauce and that’s not including the jars of sport peppers, hot giardiniera, and various Chinese chili pastes – but we’ll get through those in another post.  He’s very proud.)  As I was saying – I managed to whip through those non-perishables we did have in our pantry pretty quickly now that I have no job to fill my hours.  So it wasn’t surprising that before one of my awesome husband’s grocery runs I hastily called after him as he was leaving “get flour!”  For someone who spends so much time in the kitchen you’d think it would be logical to have large quantities of your staples, but I’m not always logical.  Thankfully I married someone who is :)He’s a good man.  Ten pound bags always seemed too big, and my previous kitchen was so small.  Now I have counter space for days, so there’s no excuse not to have these accessible at all times.  I would also like to point out that every logical person has their limits.  For example: Tylyn loves bananas.  Unfortunately we can’t seem to get our kitchen cool enough to keep bananas from ripening too quickly, and despite his love of them – Tylyn won’t eat spotty bananas.  And after purchasing probably 10 bananas, this is what was left after less than one week.Now I know exactly how to fix this problem.  I have a number of recipes that require these deliciously ripe bananas, but this time around it’s about getting back to what tastes like home.Yes!  Mom’s best banana bread recipe.  I remember as a kid waiting for bananas to get spotty because I knew what came next.  Oh it’s like a little slice of victory.  You haven’t won this round spotty bananas!  I will bake you into something delicious and consume you with copious amounts of melty butter!! Mwhahaha!

Forgive me, I get a little carried away sometimes.  I digress, grab those bananas and get to baking!  Your efforts will be rewarded.This recipe yields two loaves, but I have done it in an 8×8 or as muffins as well.  Just adjust your time for muffins.

Banana Bread

3 Ripe Bananas – mashed
1 stick of butter – softened
2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
chopped walnuts – optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder together and set aside.
2. Cream sugar and butter together with electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and mix.
3. Add mashed bananas and stir well (can be done by hand or with electric mixer).
4. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir by hand until combined.  You want it to be smoothish, but don’t over mix
5. If you’re adding the walnuts, pour into chosen pans first and then sprinkle nuts over batter and press down slightly.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes if making in an 8×8 or loaf pans.  If making muffins check at 20 minutes.
7. Try to restrain yourself from eating a piece right out of the oven – it’s very hot and I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.

We like big, thick slices in our house.  Also notice that it doesn’t get very tall.  I’m okay with that.  I’d rather have banana bread that’s on the short side than something that didn’t cook evenly because I tried to load it all into one loaf pan.And like I said before – copious amounts of melty butter! I know it’s hard to tell, but that shiny top means I’m about to eat something warm and extremely delicious.  Don’t sell yourself short – you should really try this. Remember, you’re eating bananas so it’s kind of healthy…Okay, enough pictures – time for a well deserved breakfast.

Now go, make something delicious!