Going totally bananas

I have two banana-related recipes that are too good not to share..... Both recipes are from Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks, but one (the banana bread) is from the 1960's and one (the banana chocolate chip bars) is from the year 2000. Whenever we have a couple of bananas sitting around getting ripe, Andrew gets a gleam in his eye and starts subtly hinting that it might be acceptable if I use them to make some baked goods....

Banana Bread (like my mom still makes):

Ingredients:

1/3 cup shortening (buy the Crisco sticks of shortening-- they're the easiest!)

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (about 2 medium or 3 small bananas)

1 and 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream shortening and sugar together, and then add the eggs and mix well. Add the bananas and mix well. Sift together dry ingredients, then add to mixture and mix well. Bake 45-50 minutes in a 9x5x3" loaf pan (greased on bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides). Bread stores best (once it cools) in either foil or a zippered plastic bag.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bars (perfect to bring to work-- they are always a big hit):

(The font looks wonky from here on forward because I copied and pasted this from an e-mail I had sent, and this dumb blog program makes it impossible to fix text issues unless you're good with html, which I am not....)

Prep: 20 minutes
Bake: 25 minutes
Oven 350 degrees

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2-3 medium)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 6-ounce package (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1) Grease a 15x10x1-inch baking pan; set aside.

2) In a medium mixing bowl, beat the butter or margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt; beat till combined. Beat in the egg, bananas, and vanilla till combined. Beat in flour till combined. Stir in chocolate chips and, if desired, nuts.

3) Spread in the prepared baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven about 25 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Makes 36 bars.

Nutrition facts per bar: 117 calories, 5 grams total fat (2 grams saturated fat), 16 mg cholesterol, 92 mg sodium, 17 grams carbohydrates, 0 grams fiber, 1 gram protein.

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In other news, I was going through some clothes back in the deep dark recesses of my wardrobe while Sonia took an epic nap the other day, and I found some interesting items. First, I found work pants in 4 different sizes-- that's what happens when you lose 30 pounds, go through 9 months of pregnancy, re-shed those same 30 pounds, and then get pregnant again 3 months later. Second, I found my old t-shirt that says "I'm the Evil Twin"-- too bad it's horrible faded and misshapen (I donated it to the bag of rags we use for cleaning). Third, I found this:

When I was in 3rd grade, my maternal grandmother (aka Meem) crocheted matching sweaters for all of her grandkids who had been born so far (Niki, me, Jordan, Lindsay, Jake, and possibly Ben, but I can't remember if he had one or not). I am so excited to have Sonia wear this cardigan some day! It's a seriously awesome sweater-- there's a zipper and everything, and it's far superior to anything I have crocheted to date. I wonder if my siblings and cousins still have their sweaters....