Well, technically, they aren’t stolen, at least this one isn’t.  It was given to me a long time ago, by my neighbor.  Two doors down from my house as a girl, this great family moved in.  They had 3 kids, just like my family; two girls and one boy, all about the same age as myself and my brother and sister.  We all became fast friends, parents included (I know, right?).  Every year at the holidays their mother, Pseudo-Mom as she became known, would make 2 things that I would die for each year.  Banana Chocolate Chip Bread and Pumpkin Bread.  As we got older, and things changed (because things always change) sometimes we wouldn’t get any, or there wasn’t enough for everyone to have more than one piece, so I asked for the recipes.  They were so good, and I wanted to be able to make them whenever I wanted to. 

Thank goodness I did, because now I make them for my friends at the holidays (when I get around to it, that is).  This year I started early, buying bananas and letting them go black way back in November, then freezing them in a bag.  It’s February now (which means I didn’t make a single thing for Christmas this year.  Go ask my sister how upset she is) and I needed to use up the bananas, so I broke out the ol’ “stolen” recipe and got to work.  My apartment smelled so intoxicatingly delicious last night it should have been illegal.  I half expected someone to come knocking on my door from down the hall looking to see what it was that smelled so good.  Thankfully that didn’t happen because not only did it smell great baking, its probably the best batch I’ve ever made.  Apparently Mr Alton Brown knows what he’s talking about when he says you should freeze the ripe bananas, cause it creates this banana juice when they thaw.  (Something about ice crystals freezing and puncturing the cell walls of the banana).  The loaves came out great, didn’t stick to the pan (melted chocolate chips are like little, dark, tasty suction cups sometimes) and they’re so moist-no giant glass of milk necessary (though, entirely optional).  The best part is, it’s fruit!  And I don’t have to choke down a pasty banana to get all the goodness of it.  Mary Poppins was wrong, it’s not sugar, but chocolate chips that help the medicine go down.

ps it’s a “stolen” recipe because I fully intend to make money off it when I’m up and running.  Psuedo-Mom, you can eat it for free anytime you visit!