Welcome Fall: Banana Nut Bread

Mmmmm...October is here already!  Autumn is my favorite season of the year.  Blue jeans, boots, hoodies or sweaters, boots, bonfires, football - and yummy fall food, of course!

My husband teaches at one of the area high schools, and I work for the local university.  Usually, I am fortunate enough to be able to take vacation when he is off for breaks.  For Fall Break this year, we travelled to Chicago for a few days, and now we are spending the week with my in-laws in Effingham, Illinois.  This afternoon, while Mom and Dad Walls were at work and Aaron was napping, I decided to do a little baking.  I have long sworn by the following banana nut bread recipe, and many claim that it is the best they have tasted (of course, my friends and family may be a bit biased, but I will take their praise anyway!)

Right now, we are enjoying still-warm slices of banana nut bread topped with a little butter, mugs of hot apple cider, and a little Cardinals baseball time!

The finished product - a few slices later!

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2  to 2 cups mashed bananas (about 5 medium)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I prefer walnuts, and am not real precise with the amount - typically 2 handfuls)
1 recipe Streusel-Nut Topping (to follow) - the topping is optional, but it really makes the recipe!!!

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease bottom and sides of one loaf pan (9x5x3).

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine eggs, bananas, sugar, and oil.  Add egg mixture at once to flour mixture.  Stir just until moistened (batter will be lumpy).  Fold in nuts.  Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle Streusel-Nut Topping over batter.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.  To prevent over-browning, I generally cover loosely with foil the last 15 minutes of baking time.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

Streusel-Nut Topping: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour.  Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, cut in 2 tablespoons of butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbles.  Stir in 1/3 cups chopped walnuts.





Best served warm with a smear of butter!

Grandma Poor's Monkey Bread

Let's revisit my food heritage.  I grew up in the deep South: big fluffy biscuits served up with real butter and blackberry jam or honey or sorghum were not just for breakfast.  The meat was fried (well, just about everything was fried if we are going to be honest.  I mean, doesn't everyone grow up with a set of cast-iron skillets and a Fry-Daddy in their kitchen?).  We ate grits at breakfast, and our beans (pinto or green) were slow-simmered with fatback or a ham-bone.  The cornbread was never made from a box and wasn't sweet - my family made it with white corn meal, buttermilk and in an iron skillet.  We had Church fish-frys with fish our daddies caught and hushpuppies our mommas made, and Fifth Sunday "Dinner-on-the-Grounds" potlucks with Gospel singing and enough food to feed a whole passel of hungry Baptists.

And so, even though I am grown, and have learned a thing or two about nutrition and healthy living, I can't deny my roots.  I still enjoy good down-home style cooking, though I do so in moderation now.  This New Year's proved to be an opportunity for a bit of such indulgence.  Aaron and I traveled to Murray, Kentucky for the holiday and stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Poor.  Although she and Grandpa have lived all over the country, she is a Southerner at heart, and Grandma is an amazing cook!  For New Year's brunch, she made biscuits served with butter and jam or honey, gravy, fried country ham and scrambled eggs.  Then, she made Aaron a birthday treat for us to bring back to Tennessee: Monkey Bread.  The smell of the cinnamon and sugar and butter and biscuits baking together for this ooey-gooey treat made my mouth water, even after the hearty meal we had just finished!

So here's to a Happy New Year - with love and laughter in abundance, good food and fellowship in plenty, and indulgence in moderation!

Grandma Poor's Monkey Bread
4 cans of biscuits - halved if you get the 10 in a can packaging or quartered if it's the 8 in a can packaging
2/3 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1 cup chopped nuts
Angel food or bundt cake pan

Sprinkle 1/4 cup chopped nuts in bottom of greased pan.
Toss halved or quartered biscuits in cinnamon sugar mixture and put into pan, then nuts, repeat, more nuts, repeat.

1 stick of butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
Cook together until it boils.
Pour hot syrup over biscuits and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cool 5 minutes and turn out on plate.

Going Local: The Health Nut Sandwich Company

Sooo...in all the hustle and bustle of post-Christmas/pre-New Year's office work, I forgot to order lunch until rather late today.  Last week, local company The Health Nut Sandwich Company left a menu at our front desk detailing some yummy-sounding breakfast and lunch options (and for delivery, no less!).  Not only do I love food, I also like to support local businesses, so I decided to give them a try.

I placed my order online right around 1:30, which is normally when they are finishing up deliveries for the day.  I didn't realize how late it was until after placing the order, so I called to make sure it wasn't too late for today's lunch.  Proprietor Sarah Claeys quickly called back to confirm my order.  I had originally ordered the All-American: oven roasted turkey, tomatoes, red onions, cheddar, and field greens served on whole grain bread with your choice of mayo, grainy mustard, or honey mustard on the side, with a cup of Tomato Basil Soup and an organic Gala apple.  Due to the lateness of my order, they were all out of soup, so I chose the Barley Salad: pearled barley with mushrooms, onions, walnuts, parsley and garlic, tossed in a savory balsamic dressing.  Sarah called back a few minutes later to offer me a choice of the whole-grain bread or a toasted whole-grain baguette for my sandwich.  Personal service and attention to detail are big pluses for me, so I was definitely impressed by her efforts to make sure I really enjoyed my lunch!

When Sarah arrived at the office, she even brought me a Smoothie to go along with my meal because of the time confusion with today's ordering.  Extra little things like that really make me appreciate a business.  I enjoyed having the opportunity to talk with Sarah about The Health Nut Sandwich Company.  They have been in business since September, and I regret not having tried them before today!  Their use of fresh, natural, local, and homemade ingredients fits my (attempted) healthy lifestyle focus.

And those fresh ingredients definitely suited my tastebuds!  My sandwich was sooo good.  The whole grain baguette had texture and flavor, and the stack of turkey and crisp lettuce with tomato, red onion and a wedge of cheddar cheese made for a hearty sandwich that was filling without leaving me feeling overstuffed.  The barley salad was as equally good.  The texture of the barley pearls was not too chewy, the nuts were still crunchy, and the onions and mushrooms were tender.   I finished the delicious fruit smoothie, so the Gala apple will have to go into the fridge for tomorrow afternoon's snack.

Health Nut Sandwich Company brings new life to the traditional "brown bag" lunch.  Not only was the food well-prepared and full of flavor, but the service was excellent, and the price point for lunch was very reasonable: $10 or under for a fabulous meal delivered directly to my desk means a lot in these leaner economic times!  I will definitely be ordering from The Health Nut Sandwich Company again!  Maybe next time I will try breakfast: the "Marina" wrap with eggs, tomatoes, pesto, mozzarella, and spinach grilled in a whole-wheat wrap sure does sound tasty...