"The word 'muffin' was invented to give us permission to eat cake in the morning."

So said Aaron Cohen, a house guest this weekend.  Aaron and his wife are good friends of my son Greg and his wife, and their boys are inseparable.  The heavy snow up here midweek proved to be too great a temptation for Aaron and Greg and their boys to resist, so up they came for a weekend of skiing, snow boarding, serious sledding, and for Aaron, at least, serious eating.

Soyer jumping off a neighbor's dock onto Lake Garfield on Saturday

Dinner was late Friday night, due to the traffic they encountered leaving the city.  Dinner's highlight was the oft-requested double-baked potatoes, which I enjoy as much as anyone else.  Saturday morning Greg made the guys eggs and toast to prepare them for the morning ski jaunt.  Soyer opened the foil package containing half of the banana bread I'm requested to make for each visit.  It's not just any old banana bread.  It's heartbreakingly delicious.  Aaron had never had it, and once he tasted it, he moaned with pleasure.  And made the comment that entitles this blogpost.

The recipe comes from my daughter Debbie, a caterer in San Francisco, whose baked goods have no peer.  Her chocolate truffle cookie recipe is in one of my first posts, and you could do a lot worse than checking it out and making them for yourself.

But in honor of my weekend guests, here's the decadently delicious banana bread recipe:

	4 c bananas (approx 8 bananas)
	3 c flour
	2 1/2 c sugar
	1 1/4 c veg oil
	4 eggs
	1 T vanilla
	1 t salt
	1 1/2 t baking soda
	1/2 t baking powder
	1 bag chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a long loaf pan .  I use my pullman pan, which is 13" long.

Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a large bowl and set aside.

In food processor, mix bananas, eggs, vanilla and veg oil together until smooth.

Whisk banana mixture into dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips (or nuts or anything else you care to throw in.

Transfer mixture to greased long loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until done.

Can also be made into muffins.

You simply can't believe how delicious this is.  It makes a very big loaf, but since it freezes well, you can always just serve half of it and freeze the other half for the next time the family visits.