How WASPs Eat [banana bread]

When I ransacked Grandma Glass of Milk’s bookshelf, I came away with one extra book that represents my WASP heritage.  A Junior League cookbook.  The Atlanta Junior League’s Cooknotes to be exact.

If you’re not familiar with WASP cooking, this reference is a great place to start.  Junior League cookbooks are another.  They capture the mayonnaise and cream cheese-filled essence that is WASP food.  For those of you who don’t know, WASPs are super busy people who can’t be bothered to cook anything too involved.  We have tennis lessons, tee times and trips to the spa filling our days, no matter the season.  When we do find time here and there in our day planners, we can hardly be bothered to stand over simmering sauce.  When we can be bothered to eat, we have no regard for nutritional value.  Don’t talk to a WASP about seasonal, local ingredients.  We like seasoning packets and bouillon cubes.  Come to think of it, I think we invented semi-homemade cooking.

And we never show up anywhere empty handed.*  At your next WASP gathering, bring this banana bread, it’s guaranteed to please.  This was the first Cooknotes recipe I attempted and my husband declared it his favorite banana bread.  That’s no small feat, because a)  I thought I had found the definitive banana bread already.  Perhaps that was only the definitive muffin.  This is a great way to use up no less than 5 over-ripe bananas, and b) he doesn’t really like sweets.  We kept it all to ourselves and found ways to use it all week long.  He likes his straight-up, but I found that a nice layer of Nutella doesn’t hurt.

It also serves as a nice mix-in to an ice cream sundae.

To make one loaf, you will need:

• 5 ripe bananas
• 1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix (I used white because I always have a couple of boxes on hand), 18.5 oz.
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 C chopped nuts (optional–I didn’t have any on hand)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan (my loaf pan is 10 inches and the bread came out fine).  In a large bowl, mash bananas and add remaining ingredients.  With an electric mixer (I used a whisk), mix two minutes at medium speed (by hand, just whisk until everything is pretty smooth, with few lumps).  Pour into the loaf pan and bake one hour, or until a cake tester comes out clean or with a couple crumbs.

*And a little disclaimer since despite the great need, the world still doesn’t have a sarcasm font–I’m just joking about all this WASP stuff.  It’s great being a WASP and we’re not all that bad.  Most of us aren’t nearly as stuffy and obnoxious as you might think.