When I was about four or five, I lived in Denver, CO, having moved there from north Florida.  My mother was commencing a spiritual journey (this was the seventies) which placed her at the feet of Guru Maharaji whose Divine Light Mission was then headquartered in the Mile High City.  It was during this time that I kissed Guru Maharaji’s feet and I wore his picture around my neck.  We lived upstairs from a kindergarten and shared with them a kitchen. That was a plus, because I attended the kindergarten and then at the end of the day I never had to go home because it was my home!

I had my own room and a bunny rabbit, which, in my memory, did not have a cage and was hard to catch because she preferred to stay under the bed.  I don’t remember her name, though several years later, living in a different geographical state and exploring a different spiritual state of mind (no more Guru Maharaji), I had another bunny named Sweetwater.

Our car in Denver was an ancient hand-me-down white BMW which had a hole on the floorboard of the back seat so that you could watch the road whizz by underneath.  In the slushy winters, that hole was real adventure.  My mother once changed the clutch on this car herself, but she never got around to fixing the hole or the back seat.  Whenever the brakes were applied, the back seat, one long black sun-cracked upholstered thing, came loose, and my sister and I, or whoever was in the back seat, would be thrown forward, risking falling into the hole in the floorboard.  But that was kind of fun, because in the end, we always made it home to our little kindergarten house.

The kitchen, as I mentioned, was downstairs but we ate our meals upstairs.  After the school day, my mother would take over the kindergarten kitchen and continue her various explorations, this time in the realm of nutrition.

First she renounced white bread (being southern, that must have been a big deal for her) and then she became a vegetarian.  She also developed a deep belief in the powers of sauerkraut.  It’s funny, because she has no memory of this today, of the hundreds of quarts of sauerkraut she fed me and my sister, but I know it’s true and that it’s not just my own childhood fantasy because my sister remembers the same vinegary torture.  Maybe she blacked it out, but for a certain period of time, we ate an inordinate amount of sauerkraut in our little family.

Another time my mother attempted to make brownies.  I’m not sure what went wrong with the recipe, but it turned out rock hard, a real coal-black tooth chipper.  No matter, my mother cheerfully presented us with “rock candy,” and it was delicious, and because you had to suck it or risk dislocating your jaw, it lasted a very long time.

Another time my mother cooked pizza, whole wheat crust and lots of toppings, –black olives, onions, green peppers, red peppers.  Pizza ready, she took our meal upstairs to our makeshift dining room.  Unfortunately, on the way upstairs, the pizza fell down the stairs, toppings tossed high and low.  A true pioneer of the ‘five second rule’ my mother rapidly threw everything back on the pizza pan and we proceeded to our little dining room.  Truth be told, the pizza was delicious that night, no disaster at all.  As my mother says “dirt don’t hurt.”

Because we were poor, unwitting cooking disasters were called experiments and nothing was ever thrown away.   And black bananas were the perfect opportunity for making her famous banana bread.  If you know my mother, even if you have just met her once, you have probably eaten her delicious banana bread.

My mother can’t remember a lot of things, even though she’s not that old (I forget more every year as well) and she doesn’t remember where she got this recipe.  It is truly delicious, and easy too, a plus because my children like to bake with me.  And smashing up bananas is the perfect job for a toddler chef.

Mom’s Banana Bread

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, grease and flour a Bundt pan.

3 Eggs

2 Cups Sugar

1 and 1/2 sticks butter

2 ½ Cups Flour

1/3 Cups milk mixed up with

1 tsp. Baking Soda and

1 tsp. Vinegar

4 ½ Bananas

Let the milk/baking soda and vinegar sit until the milk has started to curdle, it only takes a couple of minutes.  Then mix everything up and put it in the greased Bundt pan or a couple of greased loaf pans.

Put in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for at least an hour, check with a toothpick and remove from oven when the toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!