By Mary Jo Spiegel
Enquirer contributor

"Dear Saucy Cook, whoever," writes Rose Ann Shelby of Cheviot, seeking a recipe for banana bread.

Rose Ann inspires my New Year's resolution: To use up those blackened relics on my kitchen counter, which are proving Groucho Marx's quote, "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."

Annoying insects aren't the only ones who like them. Bananas rank as our favorite fruit, and judging from the number of bananas I spied on a recent tour through the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden commissary, they are mighty popular with any number of beasts.

"We go through 1,575 bananas a week," says Barbara Rish, zoo spokeswoman.

Among other things, they are baked up as a treat in gorilla rice bread - a treat that is, um, healthier, but not too terribly different from banana bread. For baking, the blacker the banana the better (OK, it shouldn't' be liquid or fuzzy). Many recipes call for mashed bananas, but if the fruit is ripe enough, it will mash in the making.

(By the way, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden offers commissary tours in November and December, including a sample and recipe for gorilla rice bread. Contact 559-7767 or www.cincy zoo.org.)

• Here's a version for Rose Ann from Donna Wetick in Milford, combining bananas with other favorites. Wetick just calls it "banana bread," but it's much more.

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

2-3 ripe bananas

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup chopped peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With mixer, beat oil, sugar and bananas. Add peanut butter, egg and milk, mixing until blended. In separate bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Add flour mixture to banana mixture. By hand, fold in chocolate chips and peanuts. Bake about 1 hour in greased 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Makes 1 loaf.

• Karen Ward in Fairfield has been making this bread since she received the cookbook Happy Living! A Guidebook for Brides from Shillito's in 1968 during her bridal registration. She says buttermilk gives this bread its wonderful texture.

Buttermilk Banana Bread

1/3 cup melted shortening or vegetable oil

3/4 cup sugar

2 ripe bananas

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With mixer, beat oil, sugar and bananas. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well. In separate bowl, whisk together baking powder, soda, salt and flour. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to banana mixture, gently mixing entire time. Bake about 1 hour in greased 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Makes 1 loaf.

Can you help?

Marilyn Baltzersen in Covedale helps by offering this tip: For a more intense banana flavor, freeze very ripe bananas and thaw before baking in breads.

Susan Parrish Moore in Winton Place wants your recipe for making General Tso chicken at home.

Send food questions, tips, recipe requests and recipes to Saucy Cook, the Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202. E-mail: maryjo@saucycook.com. Include name, neighborhood, e-mail and phone number.