An Appealing Subject

Somebody's Best Banana Bread

Ingredients:
6 large, over ripe bananas, mashed
4 eggs, well beaten
1 stick butter
1/2 cup oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts
2-3 Tbsp grated lemon or lime peel
Instructions:
Beat bananas, add eggs and set aside. Cream margarine and oil with sugar until fluffy. Add banana mixture and juice; blend well. Add flour, soda and salt; stir until smooth. Fold in nuts and peel. Pour into 2 well greased and floured 9x5 loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.
*This recipe turns out best if you take bread out of the oven slightly under-baked.


Last night I started a blog about how much I appreciate my family's ability to laugh no matter how bad things seem. I'd never had that outlook on life before. I usually expected the worst and was not surprised if and more probably, when it happened. Then I could think about it---a lot. Why? How? If only!!

This family always expects the best. Some folks would certainly say they often don't get it but around here the thinking is "you're pretty much where you're supposed to be---now what are you going to make of it?"

As an example: I simply can't turn down a bargain. It's almost pathological and I'm sure could be explained psychologically by stuff in my past. However, once in awhile I'll do something that makes the kids throw up their hands. The pile of rotting bananas in the previous post was pretty reprsentative.

I had purchased the whole bag for a dollar. They looked great at the time and I went home pleased-as-punch with my bargain. Never mind we already had several other bananas in the fruit bowl at home. A horrified Carole found the new bag the next day and dumped the contents on the counter. I simply couldn't believe my eyes! What had happened to all that ripe and lovely fruit?

Carole grabbed the camera. (This was not the first time this kind of thing had happened.)

"Ma. This is going into the mug-shot file of 'Mom's Greatest Bargains.' Otherwise you won't believe it the next time." Then we started to laugh. We both knew it will happen again so we made the best of it. We baked banana bread.

Like my life, something lovely and delicious out of something long past its prime.