by Melissa Meyers
Everyone needs tried and tested comfort food recipes. This banana bread recipe I have been making since 2002 fits the bill. It comes from a cookbook I was gifted for our wedding by my Aunt Joan and Uncle Cal. Nothing too fancy, just your typical Betty Crocker Cookbook for a new bride.
Growing up in a family with two sisters, and a brother, and a mom who ran an in-home daycare, I felt like I knew how to cook. This one had lots of fun recipes to follow, but as I made my way through many of them, I realized I knew how to bake, not necessarily how to cook. But, I donned my new bride apron and began to experiment.
The first time I came across this recipe, I wondered if the buttermilk was really essential. Who has buttermilk on hand? I decided to follow it through and procured some from the grocery store. There isn’t anything else really special about the recipe. It is a basic sweet quick bread. But, add that buttermilk, and you will have moist banana bread with an incredibly complex flavor. You’ll never go back. Over the years, I have added chocolate chips, walnuts, or pecans, sprinkled on the top. I don’t like to mix them in, just a hint of crunch on top.
The heavy cookbook went with us to Afghanistan. This was pre-reliable internet days. It acquired all sorts of notes about modifications and substitutes for ingredients in the margins next to numerous recipes. It acquired splatters of dough, batter, and oil from cooking with my children. A very precious list of produce through the seasons was listed in the back, so I could remember what I could find in the nearby markets depending on what month it was. The binding cracked and was repaired with red duct tape. The slipcover tore and was thrown away. The white cover became dirty. Frequent recipes that I leaned to make were jotted down in the sections of the cookbook in blank spaces for easy reference.
And then, we had to leave. Kabul 2014. An election year. The city became charged with violence. For the first time, we felt like we had reached a tipping point. Nine years of living in Afghanistan, and we knew it was time to go. Our house was hastily packed. We had so many things we needed to bring, like the kid’s favorite toys and an Afghan silk rug, I really didn’t want to leave. The cookbook was ten pounds. Everything we were taking had to be fit into airplane bags. So, I left it. The cookbook that had moved with us from Rochester to Kabul to Mazar-e-Sharif to Faizabad and then back to Kabul. Abandoned in a box for people who were staying behind to sort through.
Imagine my surprise when months later, I received a package in the mail. No return address. When I opened it, there was my cookbook. Dirt, splatters, notes and all. It had come back to me. When someone was going through our things, they saw the cookbook, and all the love poured into it over the years. They decided I needed to have it back. It traveled by plane in someone else’s luggage, someone who had been a short-term traveler, and wasn’t trying to pack nine years of things into too few suitcases. And they mailed it to me.
Anyone else looking at its frayed and duct taped cover would think. It’s time you threw that out.
But I know its story.
Buttermilk Banana Bread
Heat oven to 350 degrees, grease 2 medium-sized loaf pans, or 4 mini pans
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter softened, 2 large eggs, 3 very ripe mashed bananas, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, and chocolate chips, peacans, or walnuts to sprinkle on top as you like.
Mix sugar and butter in a large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla; beat until smooth.
Separate bowl stir flour, baking soda and salt together. Incorporate slowly into wet mixture. Do not overstir. Divide evenly into pans. Sprinkle with toppings.
Bake for 40-45 minutes in minipans or until center comes out clean when you stick a knife or toothpick in. For medium sized loaf pans bake 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes until popping them out of pan.
Enjoy. Warm. Or Cold.
Melissa Meyers is co-editor of The Stir, wife to John, and mother to Malcolm (20) and Emily (17). She is a Neonatal Nurse and Creative Writer, who is always looking for ways to communicate God’s truth through stories. She is the author of, Beneath the Ancient Dust: Inspirational Stories from Nine Years in Afghanistan and The Snow Trillium. Her hobbies are drinking coffee, reading, and taking long walks. She will accept an invitation for coffee anytime and loves to hear how God is working in your life.