Going Banana's!!

If your Mom is like my Mom, then at some point when you were a kid you were probably called a little monkey. Well, I think my Mom may have been on to something because I absolutely love bananas! They're so much fun and so versatile, plus, there's the fun of "unwrapping" them like a little gift from nature :-) You can deep fry them, use them as the basis of a breakfast smoothy, use them chopped in fruit salad or as the basis for one of the best desserts - a banana split! And that is barely scratching the surface!! Picture Bubba in Forrest Gump talking about shrimp and you'll get the idea :-)

As I said, I really love bana... *knock knock* Hang on... I'm not sure who that can be 'cos I'm not expecting anyone.

I'm back. It was the Other One! She had her driver knock so that she didn't have to take a risk of chipping a nail on the door handle *sigh*. Oh well, it's kinda nice to have her back. She's been a bit scarce lately, something about a private jet and a week in the Bahama's (or some such place). I confess I wasn't paying much attention when she was warbling on about it a while back. I guess I suspected that it was the booze taking her on a fantasy trip... however, she was definitely gone and now she's back looking like she spent the week being primped and primed by a Hollywood glamour squad. From the top of her artfully highlighted 'do' to her perfectly pedicured toes and the 'honey bronze' skin tone in between, she certainly looked like she'd had a good time.

I'm just a little concerned because I just overheard her telling a very envious Miss Twinset that she brought back a little Christmas booze... To the novice reader, this may seem like nothing important, but let me tell you... I'll bet her plane came back loaded to the gills with illegally imported booze! As long as she doesn't store it in my garden shed again... Anyway - I digress!! Miss Twinset has been a little miffed that she wasn't invited to go, but I've set her the task of coming up with a drink to compliment our topic of the day. Should be interesting!
So, where was I? Oh yes, I was talking about how much I love the humble banana. Now... if I'm going to be picky, there is one downside to this great fruit. It can go rotten surprisingly quickly! I can assure you that there are many old wives tales about how to stop that from happening, but I've tried a few and the only one that really works is this... buy them semi-ripe and eat them fast!!

Ok, so you bought them green and before you'd had time to blink they ended up like exhibit A to our left over here. Eeeww!! Yes, most of us know that often the skin is like this (shudder) and the inside is still fine, but I can promise you that if you had felt how squishy this banana was - gulp - you would know that the inside was definitely not for eating. I tossed it at the Other One and she caught it! I'll have to pay to dry clean her suit, but it was well worth it!

All is not lost though and I promise that you don't need to throw them away. There is an elegant and delicious solution to the problem of what to do with a squishy banana (or 3). Banana bread! It's a very easy recipe and there's a really good chance that you'll end up leaving your bananas to go a bit over ripe on purpose :-)

Ingredients

125 g Margarine
125 ml ( ½ cup) White Sugar
3 Eggs
3 Bananas
3 ml ( ½ tsp) Vanilla Essence
400 ml (1⅔ cups) Flour
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Bicarbonate of Soda
10 ml (2 tsp) Baking Powder
45 ml (3 tbsp) Milk

Method

1. Grease a loaf tin. Cream the margarine and sugar with a wooden spoon.

2. Add the unbeaten eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly. Mash the bananas with a fork and add to the mixture with the vanilla essence.

3. Sieve the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and add to the mixture with the milk. Mix well.

4. Place the mixture in the tin and bake for half an hour at 180°C. Reduce heat to 140°C and bake for a further 30–45 minutes, or until nicely browned and baked through. To test if ready, push a skewer or knitting needle into the loaf. If this comes out clean, the cake is ready. If some of the cake mixture sticks to the skewer, the cake needs more baking time.

There's something very homely about the smell of baking banana bread! Sigh :-) I add a twist to the recipe though. Just before I put the tin in the oven to bake, I cover the top of the loaf with a layer of white sugar. This melts in the oven and just adds a bit of extra crunch to the finished loaf. You can see the 'crust' in this pic. Doesn't that look good? When the loaf has cooled off, remove it from the tin and store it. Mine is wrapped in tin foil to help keep it fresh - although if I'm perfectly honest, this loaf really won't last that long.

I'm from a monkey-ish family when it comes to banana bread!



Light and fluffy and full of banana goodness!



You can eat it plain, with butter, with jam or even use it as a base for trifle rather than a plain sponge. French toast... with cheese... Sorry - I'm getting caught up :-)

As you can see, I went the extra mile during research for this blog. It's a dirty job, but one I'm happy to do for you lovely readers!

I have to say that I'm impressed with Miss Twinset. She presented us with a bottle of banoffee vodka, thereby giving us something that is not only topical, but delicious with the added benefit of using up some of the booze they have stashed all over my house! If I can get the recipe out of her, I'll share it, but for now I think it's time for me to go enjoy all the fruity goodness going on in my kitchen.

Until next time...

Can You Believe It?

Eh herm. *cough*. I'm sorry to interrupt you all, but I'm not sure that you've noticed. Well, you might've done, but those two in the corner are certainly oblivious. Yesterday (Sunday) it was 10 weeks until Christmas morning! No. I'm not kidding. Yes. I'm quite sure!

The Tipsy Tarts have been storing up anything with an alcohol content for months in preparation. That means that somewhere there is a stock of wine, vodka, brandy and sherry (and possibly even paraffin) large enough to blow a side off of my house if one of them drops an armed cigarette holder at the wrong moment. Hopefully it's at The Other One's house. Heaven knows I've hunted everywhere around here and no sign of it, so keep your fingers crossed! I asked them if they knew what the 10 week countdown meant and the nearly incomprehensible slur that I received in reply was that it meant less time to hit the liquor outlet stores. I suppose it's my own fault for asking during Happy Hour (which runs from 9am to pass out on a Sunday in case you were wondering).

Actually, what it means is that you have a list of things to do between now and then!

• NOW is the time to bake your Christmas Cakes (you'll find the recipe in a previous blog)



• Take a good look at your Christmas card list and check that you've got addresses for all those that you want to post to.



• Check with your local post office what the costs are for mailing and what the deadlines are for your overseas cards



• Decide if you'll be designing your own card or buying cards from a local store. If you are designing / making your own, you'll need to get a move on!



• Design your email cards and get them ready for sending.



• Compile a list of everyone that you intend to give a gift to and decide on a budget for each person. Remember that you don't need to give a costly gift to everyone you know and that it's also OK to set a spend limit on gifts among friends!



• Speak to your family and decide who is hosting which meals during the Festive Season and also decide who is going to cook or clean or supply alcohol.

If I think about my Grans, I realise that both of them lived through the Second World War and that is why both of them used to say that it's about the people you spend the day with and the meaning behind the gifts you give. So... if you don't have a lot of money, don't be afraid to think outside the box. Make a voucher book offering to wash a friends car or cook someone a great meal. Be creative. It's not about the dollar value... it's about the thought you put into it!

Now... I have to love and leave you because there is a suspicious looking trail of glitter in my kitchen that I simply have to sweep up. Seems as if Ruby is really looking forward to the Sparkly Season ahead! Me too :-)

Until next time...

Orange You Glad You Did?

I don't know about you, but there are days that just scream "cake" at you.  OK, if you're me, then almost every day screams "cake" at you, but we're not only talking about me now are we?  Now - if you have a decent bakery nearby - it's a simple matter of trotting down there (to burn off calories in advance) and getting a slice or 10 of whatever takes your fancy.  However, if you're not so fortunate, you may be limited to the mass produced, overly cream filled and largely tasteless options served up by the local supermarket and that simply won't do.  I've tried it.  Trust me.

So what do you do when the urge to pull a Marie Antoinette strikes so hard that you can literally feel the pounds moving in on your hips?  Why, you bake of course!  Now, now.  I can feel the vacuum as you all recoiled from your screens in horror.  It's really not as complicated as it sounds.  In fact, I may even have told you the recipe before, but just in case...

First, decide how many eggs you want to use (depending on the size of the cake)

Weigh 6 eggs 

Flour, Sugar, Butter - all the same weight as the eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1.5 - 2 teaspoons of baking powder


Cream sugar and butter together until smooth.  Sift flour and baking powder together into a bowl. Add eggs and flour to butter and sugar mix alternating.  Add vanilla essence.


At this point in time, you could just stick this into a dish / cake tin and bake it in a 180 degree C oven for 40 - 50 min and  you'd have a delicious vanilla sponge.  If what you want is a vanilla sponge :-)  


I have to tell you that when the urge hit me a few weeks ago, the day wasn't merely screaming "cake" at me, but it was being rather specific.  Orange cake with orange butter cream frosting to be precise!  So... once you have your cake batter ready, you add the grated zest of 1 - 2 oranges (to taste) using the proper tools.  A regular grater definitely won't do!  Also add the juice from 1 of the oranges.  Once you're sure the batter tastes sufficiently orangey, then put it into the prepared dish and bake.  


Word of warning to the wise... do NOT let the Tipsy Tarts taste the batter.  You need to keep in mind that their taste buds are finely tuned to distinguish between 80% proof vodka and 100% proof jet fuel and that they will end up adding all sorts of things until they can taste it and let me assure you that cayenne pepper and garlic in cake batter is never a good idea!  Nope.  Never!


Once the cake is out of the oven and cooled down, you make your butter cream icing and add orange zest and juice as before until it is all yummy and orangey.  Ice the cake generously (or to preference) and then?  ENJOY!!  I had mine with a cup of good coffee, chilling with my feet up and a good movie.  Believe me... you won't regret taking the time to make something delicious to indulge in!
 

The Tipsy Tarts argued that while cake may have been what my day was yelling at me, "cocktails" was what theirs was yelling at them. Hardly surprising if you consider that their motto in life is "Somewhere in the world it's martini time!" 

They had taken a few shots of vanilla vodka, fresh cranberry juice and a little sparkling lemonade and served it over ice on a few curls of lemon rind.  I was a little afraid to try it while I baked, but it certainly seemed to make them very happy!  Perhaps I'll see what they cook up this weekend?

Until next time...

Just Like My Gran!

I haven't been very good about blogging over the past several months. Part of it is my own failure to just sit down and make time and part of it is the pressure I've been putting on myself to constantly write long, humourous, involved posts. However, there is something that I read the other day that was a timely reminder... You don't have to post a long post when you blog, just say something. So. Here it is. Something.

Until nex...

Ok. I'm kidding. I would never leave you with just that and even though the nature of this post will be somewhat serious, I can't seem to stop just a little light-heartedness from creeping in. I've given the ladies the night off (something I'm sure their livers will be grateful for) and asked Ruby and Phin to pop in tomorrow. You see, I want to reflect on two people that I loved greatly and who are both now gone. This is not an easy topic, but one that I want to address.

I would like to very briefly mention my two Gran's. My Ouma (my Dad's Mom) died a few years ago, but my Granny (my Mom's Mom) died only a few weeks ago and was buried this past Tuesday. I did not spend nearly enough time with the first due to the distance between her home city and ours, but the latter lived with us when I was a child. Both were amazing women who had such strength.

My Father can cook, clean & sew better than most women I know thanks to her revolutionary (for the time) ideas that my Ouma had that boys should be well prepared! It didn't hurt that she was a Nursing Sister and so was a working Mom. With 4 growing boys, she wouldn't have a lot of time to do all that was necessary, so they were taught to pitch in and help. She also worked hard to stretch tight budgets and cook creatively - something that continues to inspire our creative kitchen endeavours today!

My Mom learned all the usual skills, but the stuff that stuck was the sewing, baking, knitting and other home crafts. Her upbringing was strict and loving (same as my Dad), but she was also given some freedoms that helped to shape her life. My Gran - the woman that I knew - was shaped in part by her experiences of being in a POW camp in Indonesia during WWII. She always had a sense of economy and hated to waste food. It also made her quite practical about a lot of stuff... something that I have come to respect in later years.

It is my Granny that took the lead in inspiring this blog because I so clearly remember her cooking or baking or making jams. From fun days out picking wild blackberries to eating fresh baked apple and blackberry crumble several hours later... Well, I thought she was a magician! She also loved to knit, sew, crochet and garden. I could go on for hours and hours about them both... but I won't do that here.

Suffice it to say that I believe that the strength of your blood comes from the ingredients that go into it. It's what we get from those that came before and what we will ultimately leave for those that have yet to come. I have the most amazing parents because their parents were moulded the way they were and in turn... I am the person I am due to the lessons that I've learned.

So - to my Granny and my Ouma - thank you for being just exactly who you were and for shaping me. I am now officially no longer a grandchild as you've all passed, but there is no void... you filled it with your experience, your love, your inspiration and the children you left me who are my parents.

Until the next time I find myself Just Like My Gran...

I Feel the Need...

... the need for CHEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!

I shall start by confessing that the idea for this blog was hatched in my head yesterday morning, but now I'm not really in a cheerful and chatty mood because one of my beloved furry kitty children is missing. He didn't come home last night and based on his normal behaviour, that means that something is deeply wrong. I'm staying hopeful that he will come home, but in the meantime, you can imagine that I'm in a really heart sore state. It's times like these though that the subject of my blog can be eerily accurate.

You see, when you're sad or miserable or even just had a crappy day, there is nothing quite like a bit of comfort food and if you were raised in the Western World, a "go to" comfort food is Mac & Cheese! I mean, if you live in India, it'll most likely be something else (most likely involving curry) and in the rain forests of the Amazon it may be bat or bug, but for most of us... mac & cheese! Now, there are many perfectly good "cheats" out there... microwave meals that will get you comfort in mere minutes, but if you have the time... I highly recommend making this one from scratch. Yeah, I know... I'm confusing you all, but I said you could cheat, I didn't say you always should :-)

Now... I'm not going to tell you how to boil pasta. At least, not today. I'm fairly sure that there's an entire blog in that one! So - suffice it to say that you should boil pasta and don't underestimate things and only cook a small amount... you're going to want a second helping (and possibly a third!). So while the past is cooking you need to gather your cheeses of choice. I say "cheeses" because although this can be made with just one cheese - a strong cheddar for example - it is far more fun to play with the flavour and use more than one. I confess (reference store cupboard cooking) that I don't keep varieties of cheese in my fridge, so I bought some specially. I can't really afford some of the more exotic cheeses, but you should experiment with your favourites and try some new flavours and you could be very surprised at the result. I already had cheddar (the big red thing), so I bought some mozzarella (the pale stuff) and a teeny tiny bit of blue. It's pre-packed small like that for lunchboxes and picnics, but works just as well for only needing a tiny bit for cooking :-). NOT pictured is the cream cheese. He was particularly shy and lurked out of camera shot... mostly because he was too heavily branded to appear in the shot!

Now you start your sauce by making a basic roux. What? No. Not a baby kangaroo.... Unless you are a kangaroo yourself and are married to a kangaroo, there is no way you could make a baby kangaroo. And certainly not in your kitchen... with cheese. NO - I will NOT entertain the idea of a turkey baster.... Do you mind if I climb out of the hole of kangaroo genetics and head back to the kitchen? Oh thank you. So as I was saying... you start with a roux. This is flour and butter (or marg or oil). Melt the butter in a pot and stir in some flour until you have a thick paste. Now start adding milk to the mix until your paste has become a thick sauce. Now, you add your grated cheese while keeping the mix on a low heat and stirring continuously. I used about 200g of plain cream cheese to add some richness, about 10g of blue cheese to add a bit of tang and "lots" of cheddar and mozzarella. For the quantity I was making, I also added 1.5 - 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard as well as black pepper and salt to taste.

By now, your pasta should be cooked (but if not, it's not serious... just wait for it to get done). Drain it and then stir the sauce into the pasta (not the other way around, just in case you have too much sauce and not enough pasta lol). Then transfer this to your ovenproof dish of choice, coat liberally with cheese and oven bake for 20 - 40 minutes or until the cheese is a bubbly golden brown.

Now - there are some fun things you can add to this dish. You can fry up some chopped up onions and bacon and mushrooms and stir that into the mix. You could add just about anything to the dish to turn it into a solid and filling meal. Personally though I think that it's good just the way it is.

Unfortunately, it was sooooo good, that it's all gone now. I had some and shared some with my folks and I have to confess that I definitely didn't make enough :-) So. As I don't have any comfort food here to see me through my worry, I'll settle instead for a cup of hot chocolate drunk next to a crackling fire!

Until next time...

Cheat 'n Eat

This isn't a commentary on diets and eating plans, nor is it a suggestion that you go out for dinner with partners other than your own... Far from it. In fact this is about it being ok to "cheat" to get to the food you want to eat :-) The idea came from Ruby, although indirectly to be honest. You see, she has this itty bitty wand with bigga lotta power and when she feels like it - which she often does - she uses her awesome powers to grant me shortcuts around the kitchen! No, unfortunately it isn't as spectacular as going to sleep with the kitchen looking like a bomb hit it and waking up to a perfect and sparkling one. What she does is make sure that stubborn, baked on food washes off quickly or she stops the oil from spattering all over the stove. Little things that make a big difference!

It got me thinking about cooking and shortcuts in the pursuit of food. Let's be honest... unless you're home like Miss Twinset or have staff like the Other One, the chances are that many of us are out at work all day and coming home hungry and hurried. Yes, I can cook a meal from scratch, but if there are shortcuts that exist... why not use them to cut down on the time it takes to get rid of the "hungry" part of my day? Before you all gasp in horror... I'm not suggesting that we live on take-away food (although there is some good stuff out there), what I'm suggesting is that we make use of all those wonderful cook-in sauces & premixed packs (you know the ones... just add 400g of chicken, some milk and an onion). Even frozen pastry or oven chips are a shortcut to getting a meal done!

You see, a real chef would tell you that you should make pastry from scratch because it's simple and it tastes better, but it also takes a while! Yes, you could peel potatoes and cut them up into chips, but that also takes time. When you need to get a hot, tasty meal on the table, there is nothing to stop you from making use of these "time saving devices". Yes - technically it's cheating - but it works!

So - thanks to a mischievous and mostly good natured red sparkly kitchen fairy - the "Cheat" is officially on the list of things TO DO!!

Until next time...

A Wonderful Winter Warmer!

It's a truth that cannot be denied... I am a Winter person! Now, I can hear many of you poo pooing the idea... (What? Of course I can say that. It's a real saying and nothing to do with something yucky and deeply personal... go back to your martini and be quiet)... where was I? Oh yes, with many of you not agreeing with me. You see, I don't like being too hot and after all, even if you're starkers, you can still be totally too hot! Not. That. I. Will. Be. Getting. Starkers. I'm sure that some well-meaning nature types may try to protect the rare albino specimen that will be my untanned self!! But enough about that. Basically, in Winter, you can always grab a warmer jumper (sweater) or sit next to a roaring fire and then there's all the yummy food and drink... like hot chocolate and mulled wine - that got the Other One's attention! Even with rain or snow, it's a far more personally comfortable time of year, but that's just me. If you're a Summer person, you'll have a whole slew of reasons why that is and that is good too. For the record... I like ice-cream in Winter 'cos it doesn't melt so fast :-)

Anyway, this wasn't just an opportunity for me to tell you dodgy personal things or my theories on weather, but actually about food. In particular, a particularly good Winter Warmer that you'll always find in our home throughout the season. Hearty Vegetable Soup! Now... there are some cooking shows that will claim that you can make this by using up whatever is in the crisper of your fridge, but I can tell you for free that I wouldn't recommend trying it with the contents of MY crisper (chocolate, garlic butter and an ostrich egg. It's a long story. No. I said no.). To be honest, I use up my veg for my meals or I freeze the extras, but if you're the kind of person (yes YOU Miss Twinset... I've seen your OCD fridge!) that regularly has these things in your fridge, you'll save yourself the step of going out to buy the ingredients (or defrosting them). For the rest of us and in particular, the Other One, we'll need to go and buy the ingredients. Now, as you can see, they don't look like much, but for those of you who know the story of "stone soup", you'll know that you can make a lot with very little. In particular, we're going to make a delicious and nutritious meal out of just the simple ingredients you see above. Yes, you could use celery instead of the celery leaves, but it's all the same in the end.

What you need to do is peel and chop all the veggies to about the same size. I'm not suggesting that you measure them and draw attention to the under-achieving bits, but as long as they're roughly the same size then it'll all cook at the same speed. Heat up a little oil in a large pot and start by frying the onion. How large? Well, my darling Miss T, that depends on how much soup you intend to make... I use a 5litre pot and make about half. Now, back to the onions. You want them to be "sweated down", but as my Dad often says... if it's brown it's ok, if it's black ... it's buggered! So preferably, before they get brown and definitely before they go black! When the onions are ready, add the carrots, potato, turnip etc and fry them up for a bit. Add the tomato towards the end of your frying period and don't worry if the veg are still crunchy. After all, it's a soup and you're going to be cooking it a bit to get all the flavour to mature (and to give the veg time to soften lol).

Now at this point, it's important for me to make sure that the Other One doesn't chuck a quart of vodka into the pot. I know that many soups and stews incorporate alcohol and I have every intention of trying a few this season, but vodka is NOT an ingredient in my veg soup... although I'm touched that she was willing to sacrifice some of her stock for my meal :-) Anyway. While the veggies have been frying, you need to prepare your stock. You can use fresh or powdered - whatever you prefer. In fact, you can choose beef stock or chicken stock or vegetable stock according to your personal taste. I use a veg stock cube infused with olive oil and black pepper and mix (roughly) as per directions. Pour this into the pot and add tomato paste which will enhance the taste and give it a great colour, along with fresh cracked black pepper, seasoned sea salt, garlic salt and any other herbs or spices that you'd like to add. Just remember that the flavour will mature as all the ingredients cook up, so don't over spice at the beginning of the cooking process! The final touch is to add the celery leaves (unless you used celery, in which case it's already in) and an ingredient that has recently been introduced to the recipe... corn! You can either cut corn off of a fresh cob or you can do like I do and buy a tin of fresh corn and chuck it in! Less clean up :-)

It's important to taste the soup regularly and add more salt or pepper if necessary and equally important to remember not to leave the soup to boil for too long. You bring it all to the boil and then turn the temperature down low and let it simmer gently for a few hours until the veg is soft and the soup is just right. You may ask what you can do while you're waiting for the soup to cook... well, with the Tipsy Tarts around, this is never a question I have to ask and I can almost guarantee it's going to involve alcohol in some form or other. In Winter, a great red wine is never far from Miss Twinset's hands, although she likes to indulge in a warming sherry (or 10). The Other One swears by her spirits (and not the ones that go bump in the night), but she's intrigued by other options like Gluhwein or Irish coffee and the only way to get her to be quiet was to promise to try them with her... so keep a look out!

Ok, so when you've staggered from the drinking side of the kitchen back to the stove and discovered that the soup is ready, dish yourself a large bowl full, grab some home-made seed loaf and curl up next to a roaring fire. Enjoy a little Winter Warming!

Until next time....