Banana Butter

Yesterday was a snow day from school. The kids were all playing peacefully and Sawyer was being entertained with all of his older siblings home. It was bliss ... at least for awhile.*

I was looking through my recipes yesterday and saw one for Banana Butter. I stopped and remembered the six (!) bananas I had sitting on my kitchen island that were overripe. I usually toss the bananas to the chickens, but that's when I have one or two. Not six. I think I am over banana bread right now and I really have no room in my freezer for any more leftover bananas for smoothies. (And honestly, I can only eat bananas when they are perfectly ripe and have only a few sprinkles of brown on the peel. If I try to eat overripe bananas, I gag. I seriously gag.) Banana butter it was.

Oh. My. Goodness. I did not realize just how good this stuff would be. I thought I'd share it with you in case you had some ripe bananas hanging about your kitchen, too. Sadly, I do not remember where I found this recipe because it was saved on my hard drive.

Banana Butter

• 5 ripe bananas, peeled**
• 3 1/2 TBS lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Break bananas into pieces and either place in food processor with lemon juice or put in saucepan and blend with immersion blender (like I did) until smooth. Add sugar and spice and heat over medium heat until it starts to boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. Store in refrigerator in airtight container. (**I used six bananas and kept the proportions as listed above. This recipe made 1 1/4 pints + a few extra tablespoons for "sampling.")

I then made some bread. And some barbecue sauce, just because I ran out the other night.

*Joe called in the early afternoon and I told him how peaceful the house was. Shortly after that phone call, all heck broke loose and it was wild and crazy. The rest of the day went downhill very quickly. In fact, when Joe left to take the four older boys to scouts, he told Spenser and Sawyer to be nice to their mama.