Banana Bread

Bananas are not exactly my favorite food (ok, I hate them).  Banana bread, though, is absolutely wonderful.  I have no idea why that is; it's just one of the great mysteries of the universe.  It's also pretty easy to make!  To do so, you will need: 1 3/4 C flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 1/4 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/3 C shortening or butter; 2/3 C sugar; 2 eggs, beaten; and 1 C mashed banana.  You can also add a 1/2 C of walnuts, but walnuts are gross, so I leave them out.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x5" loaf pan.  In a smallish bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, sugar, and eggs.  And in a last bowl, mash up your bananas.  The recipe calls for 1 C, but I just used three bananas.  It ended up being closer to 1 1/4 - 1 1/3 C, but that's fine.

Now add the flour mixture and the banana into the sugar/shortening/egg mixture, alternating between the flour and banana, beginning and ending with the flour (so mix in flour, add banana, mix in flour, add banana, mix in the rest of the flour).  This is the point where you'd add the walnuts if you were so inclined.  Your batter should be nice and thick when you're done.  Spread this in your greased loaf pan.

Bake this for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes or so, then turn it out of the pan.  It's also all ready for eating! 

Ok, maybe I got a little carried away with the butter...

And now you've got yourself a great snack and/or breakfast!