How it came to be that I was making banana bread at an extremely early hour....OR...Proof positive that I am going....well, bananas

Yesterday, I got up (at my usual un-godly hour) and made not one, but TWO, loaves of banana bread, instead of following my usual routine of coffee, blog-reading and newspaper (in that order, thank you very much).  Why, you ask?  Good question.

But the answer to that all started two weeks ago....

(hmmm, I'm beginning to sense a theme here....every post lately seems to have a back-story.  Maybe I should post more often just so you are all up to date on the mundaness of my life....)

Anyway, two weeks ago a work-friend had a get together at his home to celebrate another's promotion.  He asked that we provide a side dish.  I decided, at the last minute, of course, to bring banana pudding*.  I figured, it's fairly quick; it's easy; it would be cool (because dear God, in heaven!  It has been HOT here - so hot, that I'm fairly certain that, somehow, I've been transported back to Texas!) and because I had the majority of the ingredients, except for the bananas.

Surprisingly, I don't have a recipe on hand for banana pudding, so I looked one up on the Internet.  There are many, many various ways to make said pudding but I knew the basic ingredients and that there is an easy way to do it.  So I found a recipe that fit the criteria.  But, I was a bit confounded as the recipe as it called for fourteen (yes, you read that right, FOURTEEN!) bananas!

Being the stickler I am for following directions (quit laughing!) I trotted off to buy fourteen bananas.  I figured this quick and easy recipe wasn't going to be as inexpensive as I'd hoped; especially considering I only needed the ONE ingredient - but, what the hey, I was committed (upon retrospect, maybe I should BE committed).

Nevermind the fact that I picked up a few other items (yes, I know I was only there to get one item - obviously I am a multi-tasker) while at the grocery store, even so, I clearly remember that the sign said that the bananas were $0.69 a pound. So, despite the fact that I am not a math genius (I still question the multiplication tables on a daily basis), I was a bit puzzled when I got home, looked at the receipt and realized that somehow these fourteen bananas (which surely weigh much more than a pound) only cost me $0.29.  I was stumped.

But I let it go, because 1) I didn't have the time to think about it and 2) it was some kind of complicated math problem and I didn't want to go there.


At any rate, as I began to assemble the banana pudding it TOTALLY became clear to me that I wouldn't need all fourteen bananas.....so I left about six or seven of them out (yeah, see how much a stickler I am about rules?).

According to all that partook of said (HUGE) banana pudding, it was DELISH.

Anyway....that leads us back to me, being up at an un-godly hour, making two loaves of banana bread yesterday morning....

Seeing as we had quite a few of (by now VERY) ripe bananas left, Mr. Sweet-tooth (aka Man-Child) began badgering me to bake something.  Throwing around guilt-inducing phrases such as "You NEVER bake for ME anymore" and "Don't you realize I'LL be going off to COLLEGE soon and you won't have ANYONE to appreciate your mad skills in baking anymore."  (what can I say?  He learned from a pro.)

So, eventually, of course, I caved and promised to make him banana bread.  And proceeded to put it off.  Over and over.  Until finally the guilt kicked in....and I knew if I didn't make the bread the bananas would get too ripe and would have to be thrown out (mainly because they'd be so gross I wouldn't want to touch them).

But the night before I was too tired - so, stupidly figured I'd make it in the morning (conveniently forgetting, in my exhausted stupor, that banana bread is a little bit more involved than, say, banana pudding).

And then, promptly forgot about it.  Until yesterday morning, when in the middle of my normal routine I remembered.  And then realized that I had far too many overripe bananas for one loaf.  *sigh*

Well, in for a penny - in for a pound; as I believe the saying goes.

And THAT is how it came to be that I was up at a crazy, early hour making two loaves of banana bread.

At least the recipients (Man-Child and the office) were grateful, especially once they realized it was still warm from the oven.


*Thank heaven for the look-back ability (due to History) otherwise I may have NEVER found this recipe again; see!  I'm NOT crazy, it really does say you need FOURTEEN bananas.  Go ahead, try it.  And you only need about six bananas or so, if I'm remembering correctly.  Apparently, it's REALLY good.