winosandfoodies

A Wedding Anniversary and Banana Bread Recipe

 

You'll find the Banana Bread recipe at the end of this post. But first I want to share my wedding anniversary with you.

Despite being married for 32 years today is my eighth wedding anniversary. That'll happen if you choose 29th February as your wedding date. Which we did. You see we had been living together for seven years  so we needed a wedding date that stood out.

This was our first new years eve together. Three weeks earlier our eyes had met across a crowded room.  It was maybe a week later we were introduced by a mutual aquaintance. It was love at first sight.  Almost immediately we moved in together and have been together ever since.

Because I knew I'd be going through chemo when our anniversary day came around we celebrated back in November. We spent a couple of days at one of the Spicers retreats. This time Spicers Clovelly Estate in Montville, the one with the fabulous Long Apron restaurant.

The gardens were full of sculptures.

Relaxing places to sit and relax.

Inside in the library......

...and outside in the garden.

Breakfast was served on the patio in the sun.

Unfortunately it was too dark in the restaurant to take any photos of our degustation dinner.

Finally, that banana bread recipe.  I've been reading the blog Recipe Rifle for a little while now. Which is where I came across this recipe.  It is from the Leon 2 cookbook. I've adapted it slightly by replacing the pecans with walnuts (which I didn't bother roasting first). I didn't have any spelt flour so used plain flour instead.

Banana bread (adapted slightly from the Leon 2 cookbook)

50g walnust nuts
150 veg oil
200g dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
350g ripe skinned bananas (about 3 bananas)
75g natural yoghurt
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
225g plain flour
1 extra banana, peeled
2 tbs caster sugar

• 1 Pre-heat your oven to 170C and butter a 2lb loaf tin and line it with baking paper.
• In a bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, vanilla and eggs.
• In another bowl, roughly mash the bananas.  Add the youghurt and mix together. Sprinkle over the bicarb of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and stir again.
• Mix the banana mixture and the sugar/egg mixture together. Chop the walnuts toss those in too. Then sprinkle over the flour and stir until things are only just combined. Do not overmix. Spoon the batter into your  lined tin. 
• Slice your spare banana down the middle and place one half on top of the batter, then sprinkle over the caster sugar. The banana half will sink into the mixture during cooking.
•  Bake for 45-50 mins.

 

I apologise for the layout of this post. I seem to have a bug stopping me from creating paragraphs.

 

Shrove Tuesday 2012 - Pancake Recipe

 

 

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday. Which means it is time to eat pancakes or crepes if you prefer to call them that. Here is my favourite Robert Carrier crepe recipe. It will make 8 thin crepes. Just enough for two people.

Ingredients
75g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium eggs
30 ml melted butter
150ml milk

Method
Sift flour and salt into bowl.
Beat eggs, stir into flour mixture with milk.
Add butter and mix through.
Strain, stand for 2 hours.

To cook.  Place 1/4 cups into medium frying pan and swirl to cover base. When dry on top, flip over and cook other side. I served them with maple syrup today.

 

 

 

January and Roasted Pear Salad Recipe

 

Okay, skip to the end if you are just after the roasted pear salad. I was back into chemo on 3rd January so we made the most of the few days beforehand with a family New Years Day and Chris' birthday lunch.

 

Summer is all about stone fruits and berries.  Here in Australia they.are.the.best.

 

For the family lunch I dipped some in dark chocolate which I had tempered in the Thermomix. So easy.

 

There were platters of meat and Crystal Bay prawns,  the only seafood I will buy from a supermarket.

 

....and salads made with  tiny beetroot heads roasted in olive oil and a sprinkling of salt, then tossed through with some vine ripened tomatoes.

 

Once chemo kicked in I couldn't have cared less about food.  I've taken up rag knitting. Hopefully it will make the chemo days pass quickly.

 

 

I promised you a Pear Salad so from the files here it is. After much experimenting over autumn and winter, with roasted pear as the base and various cheeses, nuts and sweeteners here is my favourite.

 WARM ROASTED PEAR SALAD (quantities will depend on amount of people being served)

INGREDIENTS

•  ripe firm pears
• olive oil
• Salt flakes ( I use Maldon)
•  feta cheese
• maple roasted walnuts. I used this recipe and omitted the sesame seeds. The nuts can burn easily so watch them constantly and keep checking they don't overcook.

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
• Cut pears in half,remove core, place in a baking dish
• Sprinkle pears  with a few drops of olive oil and salt.
• Roast until pears are cooked thru and slightly caramalised on edges, about 20 minutes.
• Remove from oven, scatter some crumbled feta cheese over and top with some candied walnuts.