Banana Bread by Alejandro Kisting Garcia

I glared down at the recipe for my families’ famous Banana Bread, with nostalgia as loads of memories from when I was a kid came back to me. This was my first time making it since then, and I was ecstatic to make it on my own.

I did not realize how long of a tradition this Banana Bread had been in my family until it was mentioned at a family gathering for Thanksgiving. When I realized that the recipe is not difficult to make, I remembered making it with my mom as a kid, and decided to make it the second I got home from visiting family a few days later. I refused to take any help from anyone in my immediate family while making this, so it would be a personal task and achievement.

I quickly preheated the oven to the standard temperature of three-hundred fifty degrees, and got to work baking. I was so excited that I didn’t care that my clothes were about to get very dirty. I then decided to multitask, and melted the butter in the microwave while also mashing the bananas into a bowl, something I absolutely loved doing as a kid, a way of contributing to the Banana Bread my mother prepared. Then, as the microwave beeped, I took the butter out and mixed it in with the Bananas.

I then remembered an important ingredient while baking, Baking Soda. Without it, the bread wouldn’t rise in the oven, so I added that quickly along with the salt to the bowl. The oven beeped signifying that it was heated and ready, which made me very happy thinking that I was close to carrying the family tradition of this Banana Bread into my generation. With that, I added sugar, vanilla, and an egg into the bowl, and combined. Finally, realizing that I almost forgot the most important ingredient, Flour, I added it, and mixed until the Banana Bread mixture was ready to be baked.

Before I could put my finished mixture into the bread pan, I had to grease the pan. In order to do this, I smothered some vegetable shortening into the pan, and spread it out in a thin layer. Then I covered it all in flour, so the bread would pop out easily once baked. Once my pan was prepared, I poured all my batter in, with loads of nostalgia and happiness dumping into one pan.

I made sure to bake this bread to perfection, as if it was under cooked or over baked, the recipe wouldn’t be satisfied, and it would put a bad look on my baking skills and attentiveness. Once a knife came out clean, I took the bread out, let it sit for about three minutes, then flipped it onto a wire rack for cooling. A feeling of pure joy filled my body, knowing that I continued the long-lasting tradition of baking this bread in my family, and did the recipe justice. I made sure to enjoy every crumb of it until it went bad, for around four days sitting at room temperature.