bibliosylph's Cranberry Banana Bread

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or shortening
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped cranberries--fresh or frozen

Mix sugar and butter in a medium mixing bowl until completely blended. Add banana, juice and eggs, mixing well. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until moist. Stir in cranberries.

Spread batter evenly in a greased 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a rack, then remove from pan and finish cooling.

** some notes: If you want to add nuts, I'd suggest 1/2 cup of pecans, well chopped. And if you want the bread to be sweeter, make the cranberries into sauce, following package directions, but using half orange juice and half water. Then drain the cranberries and measure out 1-1 1/4 cup of them for the batter, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid to use in the recipe in place of the orange juice.