Bananas: Holiday-Style, Husband-Pleasing, or Elegant!

After last week's post on all things bready, I wanted to continue checking out old banana bread recipes. If the novelty has worn off of plain old banana bread but you still have leftover bananas, and you want to go to a different time and place (say, winter holidays in the mid-20th century), then The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking (the editors of Favorite Recipes Press, 1972) offers a couple of unique banana bread recipes.

If you can find a cup of mincemeat somewhere, there's good old Banana-Mincemeat Bread.

Or if you're the type who actually likes holiday fruitcake, then Banana Holiday Bread might be fun (if you didn't use up all the dried and candied fruit on Wednesday's beef tongue).

For those who are cooking to please a husband (the highest calling non-libbers could hope to aspire to in the '70s🙄) who isn't into mincemeat or candied fruit, then something more basic, like a banana pudding, may be in order.

I've tried to figure out what "Husband-Pleaser" was code for in the old recipes, and my best guess is that the recipe would not involve a mix. (Feel free to speculate if you have better ideas.) (And "Jiffy" in the recipe title is usually code for using a mix.)

And finally, if you're tired of all this comfort food and want to make something a little more elegant with your extra bananas, I offer Elegant Banana Pie.

I'm not sure what's so elegant about banana slices suspended between layers of cinnamon-coffee gelatin, but the recipe says it's elegant, so it must be true!

Have an elegant weekend at home! (I will elegantly be watching some horror movies hosted by Joe Bob Briggs as I sip canned wine from Aldi. It's pretty good, and they deliver!)