Thank You Mrs. Guay!

Like all grandmothers, mine is a wonderful cook (they both are actually). My Grandmother Irish always remembers which baked good is the favorite of each of her children as well as grandchildren. I have too many favorites from Grammy's kitchen to list, so I have taken up the art of cooking. Now I can have my favorites whenever I want them, but I do have to clean up the kitchen. Since today was yet another snow day I decided to make one of my favorites, Mrs. Guay's Banana Bread. Mrs. Guay was a family friend from Pine St. in Rumford (the street that Irish's Market was on - more stories about that later). Here is the recipe from my red plaid cookbook that my Mom hand copied many family recipes and stories into.

Mrs. Guay's (family friend from Pine street - Grandpa's store)
Grammy uses just this one for her famous banana bread.
1/2 c Crisco
2 eggs
3 - 4 ripe bananas
3 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c sour milk
1/2 c nuts
1 1/2 t baking soda

Cream sugar and Crisco. Add eggs and milk which the baking soda has been added to. Add bananas, nuts and then flour. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

I have made a few "modifications" to this recipe over the past few years. When I have fresh applesauce I use it instead of Crisco. Also, if I want to make it a little healthier, I use 1/2 white flour and 1/2 whole-wheat flour.

There has always been a bit of a discussion surrounding the bananas between my Mom, Grammy and I. Mom and I put are old bananas straight into the freezer until we have enough of them to make bread. My Grandmother has a Cool-Whip container that she mashes the bananas in and stores them in the freezer. Once the container is full, she knows that she has enough to make bread. Not sure who's method is better, but I can tell you that the bread is always a hit!

Enjoy ~ SJ