It was hot and dusty and crowded, and my funnel cake cost $6, and we couldn’t find the way out of the parking lot, and I didn’t get to browse the exhibition halls, and we picked the shuttle train whose driver just went on break, and my camera battery died, and it took us three tries to find a bathroom.

But to experience it through the eyes of two excited three-year-olds? Totally worth it.

(See all my state fair photos here)

In our family we like to play a game called Buy Bananas And Then Watch Them Turn Brown Instead of Actually Eating Them.

Luckily, in our family we have multiple generations of good cooks, too, so I have a few recipes to put the mushy bananas to use.

Banana Oat Bread, my mom’s recipe

1 tsp. basking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
oleo
¼ cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
flour
quick cooking oats
brown sugar
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan.
In large bowl, mix baking powder, baking soda, salt, 2 cups flour, 1 cup oats, and ½ cup packed brown sugar until blended. With pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion cut in ½ c. oleo (1 stick) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in mashed bananas, milk, vanilla, eggs just until flour is moistened. Spoon batter into pan.
Prepare crumb topping: in small bowl with fork mix 3 Tsp. oats, 3 Tsp. brown sugar, 3 Tsp. oleo. Sprinkle evenly over batter.
Bake bread 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes, remove from pan and finish cooling on wire rack.

(UPDATE FROM MY MOM: per the email I just got from her, “The recipe does state to bake an hour & 10 minutes but I think that is too long. Normally banana bread only takes 40-45 minutes or until brown & a toothpick comes out clean. Don’t know why this one says to bake it for that long.” I baked mine for a little over an hour, but my oven’s kinda wonky, so I’d listen to my mom. She’s always right, just like all moms are.)

Banana Oatmeal Cookies, my grandma’s recipe
1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¾ tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
¾ cup Crisco shortening
1 egg, beaten
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 ¾ cup quick rolled oats
½ cup chopped nuts

Sift flour, sugar, soda, salt, spices into mixing bowl. Cut in Crisco into dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly. Add well beaten egg, bananas, oats, nuts. Beat until thoroughly blended. Drop by teaspoon about 1 ½ inches apart onto very lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake 12-16 minutes, remove from cookie sheet immediately.

(UPDATE FROM MY MOM: per her email, “Dad loves to eat those cookies frozen right from the freezer.” Bonus serving tip!)

Now go forth and get the ripe bananas from the top of YOUR fridge and get to baking. And sorry about getting that Gwen Stefani song stuck in your head.

I’m mooovin’ on up, to the east siiiiide, if by “movin’ on up” you mean “switched from Blogger” and by “east side” you mean “Wordpress.” It’s not quite a deeeeluxe apartment in the skyyy-hyyyyy, but check out my new digs! Fancy, huh? I’ve got a favicon and a contact form and threaded comments, pretty much everything but a wisecracking maid teasing me about my height.

There’s still some tweaking and settling in to be done, so bear with me if anything seems wonky or broken (or better yet, let me know—you can use my contact form!). And I’m out of Jeffersons references, so time to end this post like George slamming the door on Bentley.

Okay, seriously, I’m done now. Enjoy the new site!