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Debby's Favorite Banana Bread
Comes with all the memories of childhood, of family dinners where there were more opinions than the vegetables we kids refused to eat from our plates.
Many Sunday afternoons were spent at my great aunt's dining room table. When I think of my favorite comfort food - banana bread, Auntie Nina's kitchen immediately enters my mind.
Cutting one thick slice after another, slathering on the butter, then washing it all down with cold milk straight from the cows in the barn, iIt seemed that Auntie Nina always had a loaf on the counter just in case company dropped in. The sugary sweet aroma of ripe bananas takes me back to my childhood and that white-shingled farmhouse with its enormous kitchen.
At least that's my story when my husband asks why I've allowed yet another bunch of perfectly good bananas to go rotten. Not to mention, it makes great French Toast, too!
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I like the Crisco butter flavored best)
2 eggs
2 cups flour (sifted is better but not necessary)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 soft, ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Cream sugar and shortening; add eggs, flour, soda, bananas, vanilla and chopped nuts. Pour banana bread batter into 1 greased and floured bottom only loaf pan; lightly sprinkle top with brown sugar; bake at 325° for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Grandma Ada's Wacky Cake
The cupboard's empty – no store-bought mix on hand? Here's a quick from scratch chocolate cake recipe that you can rely upon. Yes, you can even mix it up in the pan since it isn't necessary to butter it!
1 ½ c. flour
1 c. sugar
3 slightly heaping tablespoons cocoa
½ t. sale
1 t. soda
Stir together with a spoon – no electric beaters necessary – in an 8x8 baking pan. Make three holds in the dry ingredients … fill them with the following:
1 T. vinegar
1 t. vanilla
5 T. melted margarine (or 4 ½ tablespoons melted butter)
Pour 1 c. cold water over the mixture and stir together carefully. There will be some small lumps (don't worry!).
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Stick a toothpick in, and if no crumbs stick, it's done.
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