My Augusta friends are coming tonight!  YAY!  Tomorrow we’re heading off to an arts and crafts festival(love ’em!).  We’re belatedly celebrating a birthday tonight, but they’re already had cake a time or two.  So I thought I’d make banana nut bread instead.  Jesse doesn’t like nuts in her food, so you’ll see that there are several ways to make it- with or without your choice of goodies. 

This is a recipe I made up on my own.  Although those types of recipes usually tend to be the tastiest, I’m usually not creative or patient enough to find what really works. But, without being too conceited, I think this is the best banana bread recipe out there!  Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!

Ingredients: 3-4 ripe(read: almost black and ready to head to the garbage) bananas, 1 good splash(about 1 tsp) of vanilla extract, 1 -1/2 self rising flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/3 cup melted butter.  Here are all the optional “goodies” I’ve added: 1/2 cup chopped nuts(pecan, walnut, cashews…although the cashews tend to be a little chewy when baked), 1/2 cup cranberries, a handful or two of chocolate chips, you can really put most anything in here!

Directions: Preheat oven to 350.  Mash bananas.  (I have a potato masher, but you can easily use a fork or your hands.)  Add sugar, egg, and vanilla flavoring.  Mix.  Add flour and mix well.  Add melted butter, and whichever optional goodies you want.  (It’s pretty common for me to add nuts, cranberries and chocolate chips.  But remember the more stuff you add, the longer it’s going to take to cook.  So don’t add a full 1/2 cup of each one or you’ll have a gooey center when you’re done!)  Pour into a greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 mins. 

Happy baking!