I don't know that I've ever heard the Chiquita banana jingle, but I *am* very glad to hear that you know better than to put bananas into the refrigerator (you'd be surprised at the dumb things that people--even people in food service--do with food).
And yes, the paper bag thing works quite well for ripening fruit--particularly if you're buying groceries that you're planning to use later on in the week (buying a perfect peach that you're going to eat tomorrow is all well and good, but three or so days later you're going to want to turn it into a fruit smoothie if you want to save it at all). And growing up in a family of six that did the majority of our grocery shopping every other week... well, we learned a lot of great tricks.
Bananas *can* be stored in the freezer, by the way. Not whole and in the skins--at least I don't think my mom ever did it that way--but if your bananas *do* happen to go brown before you can eat them and you're at all interested in making yourself some banana baked goods, you can store overripe bananas (or stewed pumpkin or whatever) in the freezer until you've gathered enough to make a decent-sized batch (my mother being a baker, a decent-sized batch of banana bread was about four to six large loaves of it). And certain grocery chains--Cub Foods being one of them--will sell their iffy-to-overly-ripe fruits and vegetables in bulk for about a dollar or so per bag (that is how you cater a breakfast where you need a whole lotta banana bread/muffins for a *very* low price).
*laughs* I feel like I should be using the standard Food Network line. "Need more ideas? Check us out on the web at www.foodnetwork.com!"
Re: Yellow bananas
And yes, the paper bag thing works quite well for ripening fruit--particularly if you're buying groceries that you're planning to use later on in the week (buying a perfect peach that you're going to eat tomorrow is all well and good, but three or so days later you're going to want to turn it into a fruit smoothie if you want to save it at all). And growing up in a family of six that did the majority of our grocery shopping every other week... well, we learned a lot of great tricks.
Bananas *can* be stored in the freezer, by the way. Not whole and in the skins--at least I don't think my mom ever did it that way--but if your bananas *do* happen to go brown before you can eat them and you're at all interested in making yourself some banana baked goods, you can store overripe bananas (or stewed pumpkin or whatever) in the freezer until you've gathered enough to make a decent-sized batch (my mother being a baker, a decent-sized batch of banana bread was about four to six large loaves of it). And certain grocery chains--Cub Foods being one of them--will sell their iffy-to-overly-ripe fruits and vegetables in bulk for about a dollar or so per bag (that is how you cater a breakfast where you need a whole lotta banana bread/muffins for a *very* low price).
*laughs* I feel like I should be using the standard Food Network line. "Need more ideas? Check us out on the web at www.foodnetwork.com!"