morebananasDo you remember the song, “Yes! We Have No Bananas”?  That song was on top of the hit list in 1923 for 5 weeks. It was written for a Broadway musical and sung by Eddie Cantor at a time when bananas weren’t as plentiful as they are today.

Now, I can hardly look at our huge stalks of bananas without singing that song, only my words are slightly different.  “Yes! we have more bananas, we have more bananas today.”  This is a big stalk I saw today for the first time, it was hiding behind some lovely heliconias.   The trick is to give them away or to use them as they ripen, which happens quickly.  My best move would be to go to Wikipedia and find ideas for using bananas. This is the first one I found and it looks really, really good:

Recipe for Homemade Creme de Banana

  • 2 medium-sized bananas, peeled
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or a 2″ length of vanilla bean
  • 1 cup sugar syrup
  • 3 cups vodka
  1. Mash the bananas, and add the vanilla and cooled syrup to the vodka.
  2. Shake gently, steep for 1 week. Strain and filter. Drink now, or age 2-3 months for best results.
  3. Double the sugar for “Creme de Banana”.

Optional flavorings: a pinch of cloves, a piece of cinnamon stick.

Friends ask me to make old-fashioned banana bread, I use a long-time family favorite recipe with chopped walnuts and it’s always good. It could be that my friends are tired of only getting raw bananas, or are they really  trying to help me cope with my overabundance of bananas?  No matter, here’s my always popular recipe:bananabread

Banana Bread with Walnuts

1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
5 very ripe, peeled and cut up bananas
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour or whisk in 2 tablespoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt to plain flour
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts or pecans

Turn the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottoms of 2 medium bread pans with wax paper and spray with Pam.  Put butter and sugar into a food processor and mix until creamy.  Add one egg and a big spoon of flour and mix, add another egg and another big spoon of flour and mix, then add the last egg, the bananas and the remaining flour and mix.  Fold in the chopped walnuts and spoon the mixture into the prepared pans.  Bake about 45 minutes, until a skewer pushed into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Let stand to cool slightly before removing for pans.  No butter needed, if you serve warm.

If you have a good banana recipe to share, please send it to me, I need all the help I can get!