Banana Bread

I love to collect cook books. I like to find cook books from different places I’ve been or old cook books that almost tell a story. I look through them and wonder sometimes what was going on in their lives at the time. How many families enjoyed this cook book before it ended up here. What memories were shared.

Growing up we had one of those cook books in our house. It was a cook book put together by a bunch of women in a small neighboring town called Vernon. Filled with pages and pages of favorite family recipes. Some of the women I knew or knew their children/grandchildren. I would sit and look through the pages and even though I knew some of them their recipes had a story to tell. Or at least I thought they must. Some of the recipes were past down generations. There had to be stories.

The cookbook as you probably guessed was called The Vernon Cookbook. It definitely got used over the years. It would have its own story to tell now. It’s been abused. Passed around, spilled on, and written in. Memories were made. If I remember right it was the cause of my sister and I getting into a flour fight. Not really a fight but boy did we have flour from  one end of the kitchen to the next. I don’t think our mom appreciated it at the time though.

This recipe is from that cook book and one our family has been using for years. Well kind of. As I mentioned before the cook book had been written in. You would find that either my mom, my sister, or I had altered many of the recipes. That’s the funny thing. I love cook books but I don’t use them for there intended use.

Banana Bread (the altered altered version)

• 1 C. Mashed Bananas ( the ones hanging around about to go bad)
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/4 C. Milk
• 1 tsp. Vinegar
• 1  C. Sugar
• 1/2 C. Shortening
• 1 Egg
• 1 C. White Flour
• 1 C. Wheat Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 C. Nuts ( I also like flax seed, sun flower seeds, pepitas…….)

Now you might think this sounds crazy but it really makes a difference in how the bread turns out. I think the original recipe called for buttermilk. We didn’t have any so this is what we did and you want to do this first. In a small cup mix the milk and vinegar together and set aside.

Mash your bananas in a small bowl. Usually two is about a cup. Put that aside.

In a large bowl cream sugar and shortening together. Add the egg and mix well. You’re supposed to mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together in another bowl. I don’t like messing up more dishes than I have to so I just kind of scoot the egg mixture to one side. Put the flour to the other side. Add the salt and baking powder on top of the flour and gently stir only the flour to combine the salt, baking powder, and flour. Then I mix that with the egg mixture. It’s going to be thick and seem more like a cookie dough at this point. Stir in the bananas.

You were probably thinking I forgot the baking soda! Add the baking soda to the milk. Yes, to the milk. The milk has vinegar in it though! Yes, I know it won’t be the volcano experiment we all did in school. I promise! Lol. It will bubble a bit. Stir until baking soda is dissolved then add the milk mixture to the dough and stir well.

If you like nuts….add them now. It’s up to you. I myself like nuts 🙂

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!