Sweet Home Banana

"I like to ate ate ate apples and bananas

I like eat eat eat epples and benenes

I like to ite ite ite ipples and bininis

I like to ote ote ote oplles and bononos

I like to ute ute ute upples and bununus"

Barney

The big, purple dinosaur. Not the big, yellow congressman from New York. No politics on Saturday.

Since it is Saturday, that means one of two subjects at When Pigs Fly. Football or food.

It's Heisman day, but I don't have a dog in the hunt. If I had had a vote, I would have been monumentally conflicted among the three eventual finalists - Bradford/Oklahoma, McCoy/Texas, and Tebow/Florida. My sentimental choice would have been Tebow. My pragmatic choice would have been Bradford. My honest choice would have been McCoy. We'll know tonight who gets the really big trophy.

Nobody's team plays today in Division I. But, during awards week, I must note the accomplishments of USC's defense and tip my hat to Rey Maualuga. He was awarded the Bednarik Trophy for best defensive player in America, and it's the first such trophy for a USC player. With all the great guys who have gone through that program, it's a surprise to learn that.

Anyway, Rey entered USC in 2005 as a really rough-edged boy who couldn't control his temper and was set to lose his father to cancer before his first appearance in the Rose Bowl that season. That was the infamous national championship game against Texas. By the time the team took the field, 19 defensive players had been lost to injury in the course of the season.

Rey was grieving, distracted, and confused. Brian Cushing had a separated body part -- maybe the entire side of his body -- because he literally played with one of his arms tied down, essentially behind his back. The second and third string substitutes did their best, but couldn't bring down the slippery man-child from Texas who has subsequently blown up in the NFL.

Rey had a couple of encounters between his fists and the faces of others. But, with the help of defensive coach and mentor Ken Norton, Jr., Rey not only put himself on track. He has flourished and should go really high in the NFL draft next spring.

Anyway, a million hat tips to Rey -- Fight ON!!

In the food category, I see by the countertop that I have two darker-than-dark overly ripe bananas again. You know how this happens. Someone just has to have bananas, so you buy a bunch. Schedules intervene, people change their minds, appetites grow weak for yet another banana. Next thing you know, two or three pitiful orphans lay there with no place to go.

Several incidents of orphan bananas ago, I realized it was past time for me to locate the banana bread recipe that would work at our altitude. In the early days, I would brazenly try to follow altitude adjustments to the baking recipes I brought from non-stop success in California. I would extrapolate the steps off websites from the ag departments of prominent universities. Too frequently, the outcome went down the garbage disposal.

I finally wised up. A lot of people had been here longer than me. A lot of them had been fiddling with recipes long enough to know a success when they saw it. Now, when I need help, I do a Google search for the item I want to make and add the word "altitude." It's fairly amazing what I find.

The recipe below calls for three or four bananas. I only have two today, but have made the recipe with just two bananas a couple of times, to great success. The only change to the result is a smaller-sized loaf overall, but just slightly smaller. I have found that the blacker the skin of the bananas, the better. The inside fruit is so pulpy, it's difficult to remove the skin. But, the mushy insides make the best bread.

If you're don't live at 6100 feet above sea level, I don't have any idea whether this recipe works for you. But, chances are pretty good that, if you live 2000 feet above sea level or below, you already have a great banana bread recipe and don't need any help from me.

6100 Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method:

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

CRD Notes:

(1) Like every other banana bread recipe, the baking time is an estimate. I set the timer for 30 minutes and add more time in 10 minute increments until the center looks (mostly) baked.

(2) Banana Nut Bread lovers can add chopped walnuts or pecans in whatever quantity suits them. Based on my experience in the food labs at Sun-Diamond Growers of California, I believe that a course chop is optimal for baked goods, especially brownies. But, if you don't like the texture, you can chopped them more finely. Just don't chop them into dust. You'll get whatever fiber the nuts provide, but you won't get any flavor. Toasting course-chopped nuts in a 350 degree oven (four or five minutes) before adding to the batter will also improve texture and flavor.

(3) If you're not going to serve the entire loaf at once, snugly wrap the leftovers in plastic wrap.