I was trapped in the house all weekend not being sick. With little else to do other than watch TV, read, play with the cats and feel sorry for myself, I decided to dust off an old recipe and make some banana bread with those bananas that were close to (but not quite) rotting on the top of the fridge.

BANANA NUT CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD

   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method

 --------  ------------  --------------------------------

      1/3   c            Butter or margarine,

                         -softened

      3/4   c            Sugar

    1       ea           Egg

    1       c            Mashed banana

    2       c            All purpose flour

    2 1/2   ts           Baking powder

      1/4   ts           Baking soda

      1/2   ts           Salt

    1       c            Chopped pecans (or walnuts)

      1/2   c            Chocolate chips (or more if

                         -desired

      1/2   c            Buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg and banana. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nuts and chocolate chips. Add this mixture to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir until just blended. Pour batter into a greased and floured loaf pan (9x5x3 inches). Bake for 65 minutes, or until bread tests done. Cool in pan for about 5 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack. Makes 1 loaf.

The recipe is awesome. If you don't have or like buttermilk, you can always substitute vanilla yogurt. It makes the bread more moist, but it needs to cool down before you slice it.