Banana Nut Bread

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour two standard 9x5 loaf pans and set them aside.
In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar and butter. Beat until well creamed. Add the eggs and beat until fluffy. Gradually add the flour beating on slow speed until well mixed. Note: the batter will be thick at this point.
2 cups sugar, ½ cup butter, 2 eggs, 3 cups flour
In a small bowl, add the baking soda to the buttermilk and stir together well. With the mixer at low speed, slowly add the buttermilk to the sugar, flour, and egg mixture.
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda, ⅔ cup buttermilk
In a small bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly. I use a fork to do this, but you can use a potato masher if you'd like.
3 ripe bananas
Add the mashed bananas to the batter. Mix at low speed until well incorporated. Stir in nuts, salt, and vanilla.
½ cup chopped pecans, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans.
Bake at 300 for approximately 1 hour or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove loaves from the oven and cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Turn the loaves out on the rack and let them cook completely.