It’s garbage day and you know what that means. I’m taking stock of how much food we waste, which thankfully, has greatly improved since I started paying attention.

I can’t seem to win with bananas. Either I have too many and am stuck with a whole bunch of brown ones, or I run out and they are a ‘go-to’ food item for my one-year-old when he won’t eat. And with bananas quickly approaching $1/lb around here, I really don’t want to waste them.

Bananas will last in the refrigerator for about a week. The skin will become very dark brown but the insides will be fine. I also slice them up and make banana pancakes which my kids love.

Of course, there’s always banana bread, right? I got a recipe from my mother-in-law, it was the house recipe from Braddock’s Tavern in Medford, NJ. I don’t know what happened, but recently that recipe has just failed me. It doesn’t work, I don’t know if I was recopying it and missed an ingredient, but it would always undercook, overcook or not congeal. It would just become really hot batter, and not form bread.

So for now, I’ve switched to this recipe. It’s easy and it’s ok, not great like the Braddock’s recipe, not nearly as rich or as fattening. Oh well.