Kelly Cline's Fall Harvest Banana Bread

2-3 bananas, mashed 1/2 cup vegetable oil 3 eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract 1 1/4  cup  white sugar 2 cups self-rising flour, sifted 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup dried blueberries 1/3 cup dried cranberries 1/3 cup golden raisins 1/3 cup dried apricots, finely diced 1/3 cup chopped dates 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mash bananas then add the oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar and mix it together well.  In a seperate bowl mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, dried fruit and nuts and mix well.  Dump the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until well blended.  Pour it into greased and floured or parchment lined regular sized bread loaf pan.  Bake until toothpick or knife comes out clean... start checking around 30-35 minutes.  The original recipe never gave a time and I didn't think about keeping track when I made it this last time. It freezes really well, so you can make it ahead... also if you want to serve a slice as a dessert, drench the warm loaf with an icing made of a 2-3 tablespoons of rum dissolved in 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, pour it over the loaf while still in the pan when it is fresh from the oven.  Let it soak in for about 10 minutes before turning the loaf out to cool.  top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and fresh banana slices and it is simply TO DIE FOR.