Florida Adventures, part 3 ...

... the final adventure (until Thanksgiving). I've had a wonderful trip, but its definitely time to go home. All this travel in the past month has quite worn me out. I look forward to a couple weeks in New York before the craziness of back to school ensues. Of course, tomorrow morning I will get the distinct pleasure of having airport craziness ensue at 7:00 am (leaving the house at 6:20 am!). A 9:00 am flight seemed like a great idea three weeks ago but was it really? Stay tuned to find out.

Anyways, tonight I made banana bread using my mom's recipe. When I was growing up, this was THE banana bread. It could often be found as an after school snack, or even dessert if I was really lucky (we weren't a big dessert during the week family). It is a quick and easy recipe, mixes right into one bowl and can easily be adapted. My mom traditionally makes it with raisins, which is a delicious variation. Today I subbed chocolate chips for raisins, both because I do love a chocolate chip banana bread (or anything really) and because my mom is serving it as a dessert option at a dinner tomorrow. And we threw in some oats, but that too is optional. The bread is equally divine without. I would perhaps not suggest trying all three variations at once, that might be overkill, but feel free to substitute your own preferred banana bread flavorings (rum, coconut, nuts or whatever).

This is the banana bread batter heading into the oven.














And this is the final result -yum!












Banana Bread
Mom's recipe


3 ripe bananas (4 if small)
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup oats (optional)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (or to taste, also optional
1/2 cup of raisins

Mash bananas with fork. Stir in other ingredients. Pour into buttered loaf pan (ideally 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches). Bake for one hour in a preheated 325 degree oven.

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