I love fragrant plants. Thanks for all the varieties that are mentioned! I'm going to check the ones out that I don't have. Since Winter Honeysuckle was mentioned I went out and took a picture of mine so people would know what it looked like. I've read that it isn't a particularly pretty bush, but I think it IS! This is not the best picture in the world, but here is the arching, graceful, green bush. And it wasn't covered during the freeze: And the white fragrant flowers: Click on the thumbnail if you want to see a larger view. I wanted to check the scent as to whether it smelled like Earl Gray Tea or Gardenia, but my nose was too cold. LOL

I made these and they were pretty good. Dense and moist. I used sweetened coconut because that's what I had on hand. I baked mine just a few minutes more. It also happens to be pretty diet friendly and gluten free (as long as you have gluten free oats). Bonus! The website where I found it is listed at the bottom. Deanna Wholesome Banana Chocolate Breakfast Bars 2 cups rolled oats or mixed rolled grains 2/3 cup ground flax meal 1/3 cup dried, unsweetened grated coconut 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 4 1/4 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate 4 very ripe, medium bananas 1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla extract 1/4 cup canola oil Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a 8x8 pan with non stick spray. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oats, flax, coconut, and salt. Set aside. Chop the chocolate so the largest pieces are about the size of a chocolate chip. Set aside. In another medium mixing bowl, combine the bananas, vanilla, and canola oil, and mash thoroughly using a potato masher. Add the oats mixture and mix well. Fold the chocolate in gently. Pour into the prepared baking dish, level the surface, and slip into the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, until the top is set and golden-brown. Let cool completely before slicing into bars. If you're not serving all the bars at once, I suggest you cut out only what you need. Cover the rest with foil and keep at room temperature. http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/11/wholesome_banana_chocolate_breakfast_bars.php

GWlolo, the recipe that Annie posted is the Rose Levy Berenbaum recipe. We've been using the recipe that Nancy wizardnm has posted for years, and we like it very much. I like tons of nuts in mine so I add extra walnuts. I make it with pecans for Christy. It's such an easy and fast recipe and I like that too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Recipe Cook's Illustrated Recipe Introduction Here's the recipe I used for years at the deli. We made 10 loaves at a time, never had any that didn't sell. We did it with nuts and with out the nuts. Even after making thousands of loaves, I still love banana bread. It's best to use very, very ripe bananas. I draw the line when I see mold. I remember goofing once and adding twice the amount of butter, it was very rich that time, a little over the top. You can use plain yogurt as the recipe calls for or buttermilk, but we often didn't have either so we very often used whole milk with a teaspoon of vinegar stirred into it. You couldn't tell the difference. List of Ingredients 2 C unbleached AP flour 3/4 C sugar 3/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 C chopped walnuts (toasted if you have time) 3 very ripe bananas, mashed well ü C plain yogurt (buttermilk or sour milk works also as noted above) 2 large eggs, slightly beaten 6 Tabsp butter, melted and cooled 1 tsp vanilla Recipe Preheat oven to 350ð. Grease and flour bread pan. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl, stir in walnuts. In a medium bowl mix together bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to the dry, mixing gently with a spatula, just to combine, batter should look lumpy. You don't want to over mix. Scrape batter into loaf pan. Bake about 55 minutes, until loaf is golden and a toothpick comes out almost clean. It can have a crumb or two, but you don't want wet showing on the toothpick. Cool about 5 min., then turn out of pan to finish cooling on a wire rack. Makes 1- 9" loaf. Nancy

Thanks for the kind words all. The first slice (the end, my favorite) I kind of went uh-oh, but the next couple slices were pretty darn good if I say so myself. I won't hesitate to make it again but the biggest hassle is waiting for the stupid bananas to over-ripen! When I'm in the mood to bake, I want to bake NOW! :) I might try the other recipe out tonight. Never thought of peanut butter on banana bread but when you think of it peanut butter on bananas is a common thing for a lot of people. I appreciate all the suggestions. I use nothing but unsalted butter these days. I had a batch of frosting that was so salty it wasn't edible and I said that's it. I was buying salted and unsalted and I went, what's the big difference I like them both. When I'm frying in it I usually am adding salt to the food anyway so might as well just buy nothing but unsalted. And no Jasdip, not unsalted Parkay! ;) I also learned years back what a difference pure vanilla (real - not imitation) makes and it sunk in that the little bit you use, the expense isn't significant. I never thought about the difference between bleached and unbleached flour but that's a good point. I have a couple I want to try that use whole wheat flour in it. Maybe I'll come up with a combination that I like better between them all. Be a terrible thing to have to taste test all these recipes, isn't it? :D I'm a cinnamon nut so that gets added along with brown sugar but the caramelized apples sound great. I have some Haralsons here too. But I want to try to follow the recipe as close as I can for the first time, then doctor it up and experiment with it. Grainlady, that pan you mentioned - I might have one of those! In a bunch of stuff I either got from my dad or maybe in some auction stuff but that pan sounds familiar. Wasn't sure what I'd use it for so I don't think it's even in the kitchen. I'll have to check the basement and garage. The other thing I've decided is I probably won't buy brown sugar anymore. Get a jar of molasses and make my own when I need it. Well maybe - let's not rush into this stuff. Lefse season is here and I do like my brown sugar on lefse! Which is something else I want to make soon! And although I'm not too much on pineapple, that Hawaiian recipe does have my tastebuds interested! Guess I need to buy more bananas!