TRADITIONAL SHORTBREAD

These have so many fond associations for me, I wonder how many batches of shortbread I have made over the years?  So popular in my house I cannot make enough, perhaps because I only do them at Christmas time these days.  I got the recipe from the Mary Berry Aga cookbook and have never looked back! It is now reduced to a sticky note because it is so simple, but I am going to share the recipe here and will do the conversions for my American friends.  I keep meaning to convert to cup measures as opposed to weights, one of these days!

• 8 ozs all purpose flour
• 4 ozs sugar
• 8ozs butter (2 sticks) at cool room temperature, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 ozs cornflour (corn starch) or fine semolina
• Metal baking pan, approx 11" x 8" or equivalent (for 2 batches, really no point in making one!)
• heat oven to 350F (or 325F Convection)

Put all ingredients in a food processor.  I actually put in the flours first a whizz for a while to take the place of sifting, then add the sugar and butter last. Do not over-process, stop as soon as it  binds together. Tip into a metal pan that you have buttered (I use Pam for baking) and pat with spoon or your hands til even, should be around 3/4 inch thick.  Prick all over with a fork and bake for around 50 minutes til just tinged golden.  Sprinkle with more sugar as soon as you remove from oven and cut into desired shapes.  Leave to cool in pan, remove and store in airtight container.
Notes:

• I have substituted the cornflour with ground almonds
• you can put dough in fridge for at least half an hour, then roll out to half to 3/4 inch and use cookie cutters for desired shapes. Usually this is better thinner than 3/4 inch so you will need to bake for less time.
• I continue to experiment with the butter temperature. If it is fridge temperature you get very short shortbread, but it is difficult to prick with fork as it all sticks to the fork.  I have resorted to putting in oven for 5 mins to soften then taking out and pricking, seems to work pretty well. I usually take the butter out of the fridge as my first step.
• I have to admit I never do just one batch but my food processor can only deal with one batch, so I do work with these amounts but keep the ingredients at hand and do multiple batches.  Today I did 5, once you have everything out it is pretty quick to keep going!

SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT FOR ME

Knew I wanted something fishy for dinner tonight, had nothing in particular in mind so decided to browse through recipes I have saved.  I find that too often, if I do not cook them immediately they end up in my binder, forgotten!  I found 'Okra and Tomato Stew with Savannah White Shrimp and Sausage'.  Probably meant to be a summer dish but seemed perfect for a wintery evening to me.
First clue was that it is not Okra season but I am not that easily put off, zuccini would substitute nicely.
Recipe worked out pretty well, quite delicious really and who knows how different it would have been had I found okra?  The broth part of my stew was pretty thin and I suspect that okra might have thickened it. But, I simply and confidently laid a soup spoon for everyone to eat the broth and it was really tasty.

SUGAR COOKIES FOR JOSEPH

So who am I to argue when he requests sugar cookies instead of shortbread!!! This happened last weekend and I turned to my collection of Cooks Illustrated for the tried and trusted recipe.  They were not a success - hence no posting last weekend!  They were burnt on the bottom, having followed every instruction exactly.  So, I could not be defeated and had another go at them today.  I changed 2 things, I bought 2 cookie sheets, yes shocker, I have never owned any, and I  looked at Epicurious for a recipe that had a lot of positive reviews.  Success all around, all I have to change next time is the glass I use to press them down and maybe not let Joseph add the sugar that was left in the bowl at the end! They were also easier to deal with, you put the dough in the fridge for between 1-24 hours and it is so much easier and less messy to deal with than the recipe we used last week.

PORK CHOPS!

I have fond memories of having delicious pork chops as a child but have almost always have been disappointed with them for the past few decades! Have tried various cooking techniques with some success but never had an 'aha' moment......  Apparently all to do with breeding very lean pigs and we all know that it is the fat that keeps the meat moist and tastes yummy! Nikki at work mentioned having cooked really good pork chops and I demanded the recipe and I have to say they were really good.

Recipe was from Cooks Illustrated so cannot provide a link so here it is:
Combine in a small bowl:

• 1tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Pat 4 pork chops (I inch thick is best, cut through fat in 2 places) dry and season with spice mixture. Put about 1/2 cup flour on a plate and dredge chops with flour, transfer chops to plate, keep flour. Let chops sit for 10 mins.  In the meantime fry 3 slices bacon over medium heat. Remove bacon and enjoy the snack!  Re-coat chops with flour and fry until browned, about 3 minutes each side.

Maybe not quite as good as the memory but really enjoyable, will definately do these again, thanks Nikki!

DESSERT FOR TEENAGERS

HALLOWEEN WHOOPIE PIES:  Back to my very fist post on this blog!  I made these again but decided to go for orange filling just for fun at this time of year.  Was not too happy with the shade or orange, had yellow and red food colour, thinking that would be all I would need, oh well, they got the idea!

Last time I did these I delivered them to a friend who was going through a tough time with her health and I did not eat one.  This time I tried a bite and thought they were just ok!  Joseph said the filling was not sweet enough, I thought the cake part could have been richer, denser and moister........ will work on this .......

MY FRIENDS ARE TURNING 50!

How did that happen?! We had a joint celebration last night for Julia, John and David, none of their birthdays are imminent, David's visit from the UK drove the date.  The boys got to choose dessert, apple crumble with custard for Bammy and Eton Mess for Jonesy.  Have made crumble tons of times over the years, from a well worn recipe in Delia's first book,  in fact, my whole book got so worn I am on my second edition of it! The recipe has evolved over the years, and as I described it when discussing this meal, has become almost muesli-like, which I didn't think John would go for, but Julia demanded that I at least add almonds!  Went straight to Delia on line for these 2 very English desserts, as I have discovered she is good at updating recipes. Came across Apple and Almond crumble,  perfect! Changed it a bit, inevitably, used 1.5 lbs granny smiths as we cannot get bramleys in the US, and used 8ozs of blackberries.  Also, used the cinnamon in the apple mix but left it out of the crumble, I like cinnamon but not when it overpowers.  I thought it was pretty perfect, first time I had started with whole almonds, and they provided excellent amount of crunch.
Next to the Eton Mess.  I was so happy to have this requested, I have looked at this recipe many times, thought it looked yummy and easy, and it was.  Not much to add except to say I would have preferred there to be more strawberries and I would save a few to garnish with once you have mixed everything together, so add at least another 4 ozs.   David, who is the expert was very complimentary, don't know if he was just being gracious but I'll take it!

Update a week later:  I made this again, luckily I was cooking for a different group and was keen to try to get this right, so I did pretty much double the amount of strawberries and I much preferred it. Used the same amount for the puree and used the extra for the ones that you chop and mix with the cream etc.  I also saved a few to garnish the top and was in general very happy with the result, and was happy to accept the compliments of my fellow diners!

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY ANNABEL!

Quite an honour that Annabel chose to have her birthday lunch with us, my traditional roast chicken is one of her favourites.  Keeping this honest I must say that she had her sleepover birthday party last night, but I will take what I can get!  I still remember the evening that Julia told me she was pregnant, we had not known each other that long - another blog......!
Perfect day to eat lunch outside, it was warm but not sunny, so very comfortable.  You will have no trouble finding various roast chickens on this blog, but the star today was the lemon cake Godfather Uncle Iain brought for the celebratory dessert.  Quite delicious, and perfect for Annabel's sophisiticated taste buds at the grand old age of 10!
I used to do an orange and almond cake years ago that I had forgotten about, it was a middle eastern recipe. Apparently this cake was a variation of a similar recipe, adapted because of Annabel's love of lemon cake.  The link is to a Martha Stewart cake which looks ok BUT when Iain sends me the recipe for the real deal I will add it......

SALMON FOR JOSEPH

Alan has been traveling lately and I am feeling very hard done by as a single working commuting parent! Last weekend Joseph and I only managed to have dinner together once and I wanted to cook something he likes that would also be healthy! Came across a salmon recipe when I was browsing through my various cookbooks for inspiration. I had printed it from the Weber site a couple of years ago and had never made it.  The recipe seems to no longer be on the site, but it was short and easy:

Pepper-Crusted, Maple-Glazed Salmon
Marinade:  In a freezer bag, mix together  3/4 cup of maple syrup and 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Add 4 skinned salmon fillets, about 6 ozs each. Press as much air out of the bag as you can and squish around to make sure all fillets are coated. Marinate in fridge for at least 4 hours but ideally 24 hours, turn occasionally.   Remove fillets from marinade and brush or spray both sides with oil, then coat top side only with 1/4 cup cracked pepper, divided between the 4 fillets.  Cook as per your favourite method.  We did not BBQ, I start the fish off in a very hot pan on the stove top for a couple of minutes then put into the oven til it is done through, mine took about 5 minutes but of course the thickness of your fish will determine the time.

Notes:  Can marinate for up to 48 hours but only prep with pepper just before cooking.  Easy to adjust the marinade for however many fillets you are cooking, keep proportion 3 parts syrup to 1 part soy; there was quite a lot of marinade,  I'm sure the above amount would be fine for at least 6, so if you are doing more do not increase proportionately.

I bought wild Scottish salmon from FishTails in New Canaan, which no doubt contributed to why it was so delicious!  I also bought a jar of cracked pepper, saved time.....  Apologies for picture being soft, taken on my phone as Alan has our camera with him - how sad is that, a shared camera......

SUMMER DESSERT.

No Bake Berry Pie

Have made this several times and enjoy it each time!  Usually wait til later in the summer for the best berries, but this year could not wait.  It is a Cooks Illustrated recipe, so I cannot post the link but it is pretty simple, here it is briefly:

• Make crumb crust with 9 Graham crackers and 2T butter, bake at 350 for 15 mins, cool.
• Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 3T cornstarch, pinch salt in medium saucepan.
• Puree 2.5 cups mixed berries in food processor (then strain if you like, I don't)
• Add puree to saucepan, mix, bring to boil over medium heat, stirring, til thick.
• Remove from heat add juice from one lemon, set aside to cool slightly.
• Melt 2T redcurrant jelly. Mix with 3.5 cups mixed berries.
• Pour puree onto base, top with berries and put in fridge for at least 2 hours.
• Serve with whipped cream, I add 1T sugar to 1cup cream and 1t vanilla.

Difficult to cut small slices with this pie, so really only serves 8.  Can easily make 'fuller', more graham crackers, more fruit and glaze, you should get 10 slices at least that way.


There were going to be a bunch of kids at this event, my son requested chocolate covered strawberries. Seemed like a good idea to continue the berry theme and always practical to have something the teenagers can grab as they fancy.  Had not made them before so did a bit of research.  First recipe I came across added butter or shortening to the chocolate.  Did not like the idea of that at all so continued digging.  Soon found this recipe and it worked treat.  I read some of the comments added and used the directions for tempering the chocolate which someone had added, it was fun and a first for me.  I did not bother with the whole toothpick part. Recipe rather casually said to put them onto wax paper to cool.  I was a little concerned about this, having heard this is the tricky part of making these.  It worked a charm, they came off very easily and looked and tasted wonderful, well as wonderful as forced strawberries can be, which sadly we have all got used to! I did some of each milk and dark chocolate, hopefully pleasing all.
Took this to a Memorial Day dinner party at the Tavernas and had one of the beast meals I have had in a while!  We had a Mediterranean style meal, steak kebabs with a Tzatziki style sauce, orzo salad (courtesy of the Muirheads) and a green salad with peaches and Parma ham, thanks to Jules.  All brilliant, but the star of the evening was definitely the Grilled Chickpea Flatbread.  I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to plan to grill these in a dinner party situation, but that's the Tavernas for you!  It helps that both of them cook and so does their 15 year old son.  Another memorable day with friends.
If I find the recipe for the steak marinade I will post it as it was really excellent.  I have now added the Fine Cooking website and All Recipes to the webistes I use.  You have to create an account for the Fine cooking one, takes 2 minutes and is worth it.

SHRIMP & SALAD SATURDAY

I love shrimp,  can eat them every day of the week. Hopefully one day I will master Prawns Peri Peri, which I grew up with, will post when I do!  In the meantime, this was a Saturday evening supper, after a wonderfully busy day of tennis and gardening.
No recipe for the shrimp, little too chilly to BBQ so I skewered them, with some cherry tomatoes, as you can see, doused them with chilli oil and cooked under the broiler for about 10 minutes. Served with lemon slices, yum!

Have an actual copy of the current BBC Good Food magazine, which I love and the Pickled Radish & Cucumber salad was from there.  This was fantastic, I will definitely do it again.  Wonderful for a party too as you can do it ahead of time.

CURRY IN A HURRY!

Prettty much.... one of those unseasonaly cold May weekends and it just had to be a curry.   As usual had a lot going on, no time for a 2 hour simmered something spicy!  BBC Goodfood to the rescue, had the recent issue (thanks Annie): Lamb Keema with peas did the trick! It is a minced lamb curry so no need for long, slow cooking.  I got to the kitchen at 7 and we were eating at 8.30, and that included making my own Garam Masala!  Only because my local supermarket did not stock it, but pretty easy and very satisfying - not to mention wonderful aroma.....  Of course I made enough for us to have it mid week a few days later and it was even more delicious second time around. Picture is pre coriander addition,  as my son has decided he does not care for it, takes after his sister, subject of another blog! I served this with a brown basmati rice to which I added ginger and turmeric, pretty good, she says.

DINNER FOR ANNIE

The cloud of ash from the Iclandic volcano meant we spent some wonderful extra time with our dear friend Annie, who had come over for Chelsey's wedding.  She is a fantastic cook and we had done some recipe catching up over the couple of days we had been together. So, what to cook on our first night at home together.  Didn't have tons of time, got home early afternoon.  I had mentioned  OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS WITH CARROTS AND POTATOES and she requested it.  Have done this once before, exactly as per recipe and it was great.  Did a variation this time, used fresh rosemary insttead of dried thyme and roasted the vegetables and chicken separately to save time. Did not disappoint, a great, adaptable, weekday family meal.

SOMETHING FISHY WENT ON!

When I was planning the meal for some friends who were coming over for dinner last night, it was one of those freaky very hot days for April.  Had already decided to cook fish and remembered something I had done last year just for Alan and I that I mentally earmarked as a good dinner party dish.

GREEK STYLE MAHI MAHI was what I decided on. Only problem was that there was no Mahi Mahi to be found.  We have a pretty good fish monger in New Canaan and he had some Scottish salmon which had apparently flown in the night before! It worked really well and looked very pretty too.  Served this with TOASTED ORZO WITH SAFFRON AND FENNEL, as suggested in the fish recipe.  It was really good, little tricky to make as you do not drain once cooked, so you have to get the amount of water exactly right.  My quantities were different, so I calculated the amount of water, used a bit less and kept additional water just off the boil in the kettle.  I did need to add some more water and it all worked out fine.  Val did a delicious green salad to go with, which had a lemony dressing.  Her new trick was to add thinly sliced brussel sprouts which added some great crunch.

 Another delightful and delicious evening, around my table with friends.

NOT THE SUNDAY ROAST!

Julia's brother and niece are visiting from London, wanted to try to give them some 'taste' of our lives.  We have had some freakily warm weather recently which probably affected my decision to do Beef Salad with Asian dressing.  This is a very short recipe I cut out of the NY Times some years ago, have made it maybe 6 times, and it is always good.  Makes me think of my nephew, Sean, because I did it for him and his Dad & brother a couple of years ago and he really enjoyed it. Anyway, back to the present - it was a chilly, rainy day BUT this only takes about 10 minutes on the grill,  Alan was stoic and it was wonderful!  Good dish for a dinner party, all the prep can be done in advance, all you need to do is grill the meat and toss the salad.  I change up the lettuce, today it was a mix of cos and baby arugula. Very important not to overcook the meat, it turns into leather!  Alan cooked it perfectly and ours was sumptuous!

Dessert for the boys!

BLOOD ORANGE POLENTA UPSIDE DOWN CAKE:

Was going to be a gorgeous day, who would have guessed after that big storm just one week ago! Another wonderful dinner planned at Julia's, with good friends, Iain & Rick who we just do not see often enough.  Bamfords were joining too, so, OK, a few few girls present but the boys visit was the reason for the gathering.
As happens so often, leafed through the current Bon Appetit and decided to make this cake.  Was thrilled with it, pretty easy, looked good (presentation always important!), and the fact that I was not allowed to bring home the left-overs is proof that it was delicious!
Not much to add to this recipe, don't fuss too much over making the orange slices too perfect, the baking covers the imperfections. The first layer should look good, choose your  best slices, after that don't worry too much.  Also, recipe said to bake for 45 mins, mine was done after 35.
One thing to add, I really still enjoy reading the actual magazine, rather than 'browsing' on line.  I also love that I can then save the recipe in my own file on Epicurious, so much easier to organise recipes that way.  I wish that all the recipes in the many cook books I own, were available on the Author's web sites.  Some are but many are not.  As I have already paid for the book I feel I should be able to use the recipes  from the site.  There has to be a way to figure this out.  Maybe I should start a group on Facebook to see if anyone else feels strongly about this, perhaps we can affect some changes!!

YOUR CHICKEN MY CHICKEN!

It has been a stormy weekend!  My good friends were without power and we discovered that we both had a chicken in the fridge, planning to do a Sunday roast chicken.
I was going to do the standard sage and sausage meat stuffing, not sure what Julia was planning with hers.  As we were prepping we (she would say 'I'!) starting talking about my chicken vs your chicken! MINE was a Bell & Evans and HERS was a Stop &Shop, Natures Choice.
Turned a routine Sunday into fun almost dinner party,  relaxed, family style.
Here are the equally delicious chickens, photo does not do them justice, sorry! Let me know if you need 'recipe'.  Few roast veggies to go with, of course!

CASSOULET & PROFITEROLES

Charlotte was in the mood for cooking Cassoulet, luckily for her friends! I offered to bring a relevant and, hopefully, worthy dessert.  I browsed through my cook books and looked at Epicurious and decided on Profiteroles.  The recipe I used was actually from La Varenne school of cooking.  A very long time ago, when I lived in London I collected this series of partworks from The Observer, which was 'the other' Sunday newspaper.  I still have this collection, in the binder which I must have sent away for!  I use quite a few recipes in here, the classic French Apple Tart which I did for Elizabeth is from the same series. I cannot find this recipe on line and so have substituted one from Epicurious, which looks very similar for the pastry. This recipe calls for the choux puffs to be filled with Ice Cream, which I'm sure is pretty good but I prefer the classic Creme Patisserie.  I include here recipe for Custard from Delia, which is very similar.  Make sure it is thick enough, maybe use a little less cream and make in advance so that it can chill for at least an hour before you use to fill the profiteroles.
Have to apologize for the picture, I forgot to take one before it got devoured, BUT it did look spectacular, was much admired and was really quite delicious!
(Note 1: in order to get the Delia recipe you have to become a member, which only takes a few seconds and if you remember to un-check the relevant boxes you won't get any unwanted solicitations from them!
Note 2: This is not the Cassoulet recipe Charlotte used, but looks pretty good to me.)

Here is chocolate sauce recipe I used, which in one opinion voiced last night, 'made the dish!'

• 1001g/7 ozs good dark chocolate (I used Green & Black organic)
• 60g/2ozs butter (I only ever have salted butter)
• 5 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons rum, brandy or Grand Marnier (I used a Remy Martin, thanks Tim!)

Put first 4 ingredients in microwave safe bowl, microwave until chocolate almost melted, but still some visible chunks. (Can do this old fashioned way, bowl over simmering water, if you prefer). Remove and beat until smooth and glossy.  Stir in liqueur. Reheat gently in microwave just before using.

Here is what they sort of looked like! I made them smaller, more or less bite sized as that is how I like them.

VEGETARIAN VALENTINE!

Tiffany and Noah came for dinner last night. It was a multi celebration, both their birthdays were in January and mine was a few days ago, what to cook??
I got a Kitchenaid standing mixer for my birthday, long overdue, in fact most of my 'cooky' friends can't believe I have not had one for years! My wonderful husband added Thomas Keller's 'Ad Hoc at home' to the birthday gift so I had to find something to use both of my new toys, and of course satisfy vegetarians and carnivores.
Leek Bread Pudding served with Slow Roasted Tomatoes was the answer.  Here is the tomato recipe as I cannot find link and it was pretty easy:

• 12 plum tomatoes
• few sprigs thyme
• Half cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Heat oven to 200 degrees F.  Line baking tray with foil.  Skin tomatoes (he suggests coring then making a long cross on other end, worked really well) by plunging into boiling water; as soon as you see peel coming away put them into water bath to prevent cooking and cool enough to handle and peel.  Cut in half length ways. Put cut side up onto tray, drizzle oil over them, making sure oil goes into crevices in tomoatoes; scatter thyme and season.  Bake for 5 - 6 hours depending on size.  My tomatoes were pretty large so I did them for 6 hours and honestly, although they were delicious I think they might even have improved with more time.  Do not be tempted to over-season, the long cooking time concentrates the flavours. These will complement all kinds of dishes, we are planning to use the leftovers with some steal tonight.
The Leek bread pudding was absolutely delicious.  I could not find brioche or a pullman loaf the recipe called for, so used challah, which I have used before in bread pudding.  It was very light and pretty rich.  Only thing I would say is that, next time, I would prefer this as a smaller part of the meal rather than the star.  I also thought there could have been more leeks, recipe called for 2 cups, I would try 3 next time. And the last thing is that it is difficult to distribute the leeks evenly when you mix with the bread as per the recipe. I will add the leeks when you do the layers with the bread and cheese next time, I think, put a layer of leeks under the cheese.
I added some roasted vegetables and chicken thighs to the menu.  More of that in next post!

PERFECT LEMON BARS!

Thanks to Elizbeth, she posted this on her blog and she is right, this is the best Lemon Bar Recipe, from Ina Garten. She does a different crust which I also copied and it is excellent. Here it is, with a couple of modifications, sorry we all have our tried and trusted methods! 

    * 2 cups whole wheat flour (this makes it nutty and interesting)

    * 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting

    * 1 tsp salt

    * 2 sticks butter, at room temperature but cool

Pulse the flour and sugar in a food processor and slowly add the butter until crumbly, not quite holding together.  Pat into a 9×13 pan,  put in freezer for about 20 mins, then bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until the edges started to brown. Pour Ina’s filling onto the warm crust and return to the oven for 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely, dust with powder sugar and cut.  I find the few mins in the freezer makes the crust crumblier and more delicious, and does not add time as the filling took about 40 mins to make.  If you are a quicker baker than me then adjust the time in the freezer accordingly!

These freeze really well for 6 weeks or so, max. MIne never last that long! T

STEW FOR A CHILLY WEEKEND!

Have to admit this dish was made a couple of weekends ago when it was really cold, Beef Stew with Herbed Dumplings. I had made this some years ago and lost the recipe then came across it by chance recently, tucked into a cooking book! It was a little more trouble than I thought it was going to be, but worth every minute, it was really excellent. Did enough for 2 meals, of course, as usual it was even better the second time around. Couple of tips for the second meal, the dumplings did not re-heat well, do enough to eat with the first meal only. Make sure the portion you keep to re-heat has a bit more juices/gravy than you would normally have as it does seem to disappear.

BANANA BREAD

This has been a family favourite for a while. Had a glut of bananas recently (Alan and I really should talk to each other when we both food shop!) and decided to try a different recipe. Leelee had mentioned that she had made Banana Bread and it was fantastic and I always think mine is pretty good, not fantastic! So, went to my usual source, Epicurious.com and found this recipe with rave reviews. Sorry Aunty Elaine who supplied the passed down, family recipe, I think I am going to be making this new one from now on!

UPDATE: Having made this many times now I have a few notes:

• It is really important to have really ripe bananas and to mash them, not just chop them.  I have learned the hard way!  I found it affects the cooking time a lot if the bananas are not ripe enough, the less ripe the bananas are the less cooking time you need. Once I realised this is seems pretty logical as the riper they are the moister they are.

• Even if you have overripe bananas, you need to cook it for less time than the recipe says.  Hard to say exactly how much less as my 2 loaf pans are both a different size from what this calls for, but probably at least 15 minutes before the given time I would take it out and check it.

• the order of the recipe annoys me.  First, turn on the oven, immediately put the walnuts in to roast.  Then whisk the eggs and sugar which takes 10 minutes,  during which time you can be sifting the flour etc.
• I added an improvement by accident one day!  I had mashed the bananas in 2 bowls, I think Joseph was helping when he was little.  Anyway, once I had put the mixture into the loaf pans I spotted the bowl with half of the bananas that I had not yet added.  Improvising, I added them at that point, scattered them across the top of the loaf and used a knife to mix them in as best I could.  The whole family LOVED these loaves, they had extra gooey bits of banana through the middle and that's how I have made them ever since.  I have often wondered how many wonderful dishes have been created or improved by accidents.

Apart from that it is still my go-to banana bread recipe!

BEFORE THE CAKE......

Harlan's party was at lunchtime and I made 2 chillis, meat and pinto bean. They were fine, I asked Dave to do a salad to go with and he came up with this spectacular and delicious one which was devoured pretty quickly.

ROAST BEETROOT SALAD, WITH APPLES, ARUGULA, GOAT CHEESE AND SPICED PECANS.

We roasted the beets the night before in a little orange juice. Peeled, cored and sliced the apples then did this fancy trick: bring pan of water to the boil, add a pinch of saffron, it will turn water bright yellow. Cool water right down then marinate apple slices for about half an hour. Does not affect flavour much but turns them a gorgeous light yellow and stops them from turning brown between making and serving the salad, genius! He roasted the pecans in honey, 350 degrees for about 12 mins (watch them, they burn easily!), prepared a largish bowl with some sugar and cayenne pepper to put nuts into immediately when they came out of the oven. Tossed them in the sugar and pepper. The dressing was simple too, olive oil, white balsamic, little honey and salt and pepper. It was so good I did a version of it 4 days later on Christmas Eve........

HARLAN'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Pros and cons to everything: having Harlan's birthday on the 23rd Dec means that they were visiting for Christmas and we could celebrate together. Chelsey did a great job with a 'Were the Wild Things Are' theme. She found a cake on a party website that was easy enough and I offered to make it. Have to admit I used Duncan Hines mix, Devils food cake, I think. Have been using this for years, started when I asked a friend and excellent caterer for a chocolate cake recipe (I found that the English cake recipes I had seemed not to work so well over here????!!!!). Anyway, knowing it was for Joseph's 5th birthday party she recommended Duncan Hines and I have used them many times since. His birthday is a couple of days after Christmas, another excuse for using a shortcut! The frosting (icing to me!) is the recipe my mother used when I was little, start with soft butter and beat in confectioners sugar til it tastes right, add flavouring and colouring as desired. I was pretty happy with how it turned out and Harlan seemed to enjoy his first birthday cake.