banana bread.

banana bread is my favorite morning bread. there is just something about made from scratch, in a loaf pan, warm from the oven, banana bread. yummy.

most importantly, there is something about taking old bananas that no one wants to eat...and making something fantastic with them.

my mother is a wonderful cook. a chef. whatever you want to call her. she had a great restaurant for several years called "the invisible chef". she did catering, lunches and take out dinners. everything freshly made. nothing fried. soups, salads, breads, desserts, etc.

it was great. lucky for dad, spencer and me...we've enjoyed her cooking forever. i can remember sitting down at our kitchen table and telling her i was bored. asking her what i could do. she would give several ideas...you know, like ride your bike, go for a walk, play school with your sister (we had a playroom with a real live chalkboard AND with those metal chalk holders like all the real live teachers had. these rocked my face off. actually, they still do. we had a marker board too. but i liked the chalkboard better. the marker board eraser always needed to be washed out. and we never did it. and so when you tried to erase, it would leave old black specks. yuck. i was...and still am so lazy.)

anyway, spencer and i would sit down and complain about how there was nothing to do, and we would end up watching her cook. we always joke with her about how she rarely let us "help" her...because you see, there is a certain way things should be done in her kitchen. like, there is a proper way for the dishwasher to be loaded. and for the soup to be made. and for the cheese to be sliced. etc, etc.

i always wondered why my dad's plates/bowls/cups never made it to the dishwasher. but he always said it was because mom had a certain way of doing things and it was just easier for her to do it than for him to do it and get it wrong. because of course, she would re-do it.

well, looking back on it, he really should have just learned her way...the "right" way. amen, mom. amen.

so we would end up sitting and watching her cook. bake. roll out dough. whatever. i always thought i'd learn something from watching her. and maybe i did. but i never learned the secret to banana bread.

mine is always either too dry. or too few bananas. or too many bananas. or too burnt.

anyway, last night i discovered a recipe for a perfect banana bread. from katie lee joel's cookbook, "the comfort table".

here it is. oh, i leave out the nuts. but do whatever you like.

nutty banana bread

2 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 medium bananas, mashed
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

preheat oven to 350. grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan. in a small bowl, mix the flour, soda, powder and salt.

in a medium bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla until well combined. alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk in three additions. gently stir in bananas and nuts.

pour the batter into the loaf pan. bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. let the bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes. carefully turn out the loaf to finish cooling on wire rack.

if you don't have buttermilk, which i never do. do this. take a measuring cup. add one tablespoon of white vinegar and then add regular milk up to the one cup mark. stir and let sit five minutes. and voila! you've got yourself some buttermilk!

here is my little monkey enjoying some banana bread and strawberries. which he's now enjoying whole. oh, ps. aunt carol, he's eating off his plate you gave him :) and isn't trying to hurl it off the table! yay!