Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

One of the first things I learned to bake as a child was banana bread. It’s a child-friendly recipe that has been handed down in my mother’s family from her Grandmother Johnson. Each generation of women in our family makes this recipe with slightly different ingredients depending upon what she has on-hand in her pantry.

My Great Grandma Johnson made it with white sugar and butter. My Grandma Camp made it with Crisco shortening because there was a butter shortage during World War II and made it with the shortening thereafter, because that was the way she liked it.

My Mom originally made it with Crisco like her mother, but currently makes it with butter like her grandmother. (We’re avoiding those trans-fats now.) She is the one who discovered that you can use vegetable oil for part of the butter and it bakes up very moist, almost like cake. She also uses brown sugar for part of the white sugar which is equally delicious.

Making this recipe was the beginning of learning graciousness and hospitality with family, friends and guests for me. My Mom simply showed us by example these lessons. At holiday times, she frequently made 5 small loaf pans of bread with this recipe instead of the two large loaf pans, so she could give them away as gifts.

She taught us to value our family and our history by noting on her recipe cards which family member gave it to her. She experienced the joy of making these recipes with those family members and the additional joy of teaching younger family members to make them too.

Thank you Mom for teaching me so many wonderful things.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Love, Ellen

Ellen Wass Beckerman
Writer/Photographer/Graphic Designer
Photography portfolio: www.istockphoto.com/zmacgal
www.gardentextures.com

Great Grandma Johnson’s Banana Nut Bread
(Waity Rebecca Douglass Johnson’s recipe. She lived from September 18, 1894 to January 29, 1991. Age 96.)

1 and 1/2 cups white sugar
(you can part brown sugar such as 1 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar)
3/4 cup butter or shortening or oil
(I sometimes use one stick of butter which is 1/2 cup and then 1/4 cup walnut oil)
3 eggs
2 cups mashed bananas
(bananas that have a few brown spots on the skins are at the perfect ripeness for this recipe)
3 and 3/4 cups flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Measure and mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt) in one bowl.

In another bowl, cream the sugar and the shortening (or butter whichever you are using). Add eggs and bananas and mix. Add the dry ingredients from the bowl into the wet ingredients gradually. (It’s easier to mix, if you don’t dump it in all at once.) Mix well.

Pour into two greased loaf pans (use butter, shortening or spray to grease pan). For a glazed, crusty top: sprinkle sugar on top before baking. Colored sugar makes a pretty top.

Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees F.

Bread is done if you insert a toothpick, pull it out and it comes out clean. If toothpick has dough on it, continue baking 5 or 10 minutes longer.