Banana Bread

1 cup sugar
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbl orange juice
2 eggs, well beaten
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
¼ cup chopped nuts (optional)

In a small bowl, stir soda into orange juice (will foam slightly). In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. To butter and sugar mixture, add all remaining ingredients including soda and oj mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add nuts if desired. Pour into a 9 x 3 x 5 bread pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Note: I have used this recipe at least 100 times and have never had a bread pan. I just pour the batter into a 9 x 13 cake pan. It doesn’t take quite as long to cook and is easy to cut into little squares for serving.

Also, my sister makes this with frozen orange juice concentrate instead of sugar. I'll try it and let you know how it goes...