{quilt} while you're ahead

*2**2016 banana bread

It was early, the house was asleep and the bananas were slowly killing themselves in the fruit bowl.  

I had to rescue them.

My to go to recipe for banana bread is from the brilliant Tessa Kiros' "Apples for Jam".

Here's what you need:

(Yes my cookbooks are a mess.  I can't keep them clean no matter what... I'd like to think my grandchildren one day will get all dewy eyes and think "ohhh, grandma must have used this recipe all the time..."... no? Deluded, I know, in a skip they'll go most likely...)

Anyway, you cream the butter and the sugar, add the bananas (i use two instead of three), the eggs and vanilla.  No cinnamon in this house.  

Then I sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and mix it all together with the milk.

Bob's your uncle, in the oven it goes at 180C for 50 minutes.

Let it cool down if you can wait that long. I dare you.

In an airtight container it'll keep for a few days.  I dare you not to eat it all, but if you manage that.. try toasting a slice and smearing with Nutella.

 

Oh Lord....

 

116-2015 - Swedish cookies -

My online stalking of Lotta Jansdotter carries on.

Yesterday, whilst wearing my new pjs bottoms (from her pattern) I bakes cookies from her recipes.  

In the interest of not losing readers I'd like to point out that I was also wearing a top and was not, as my previous sentence implied, baking half naked.

Also, if I was less lazy I would go downstairs into my study and take a picture of the cover of the aforementioned book... but the key of my study is upstairs in the pocket of the jeans I was wearing yesterday and there it shall remain for the time being.

(The study is locked because ALL the Christmas presents are in there and I have extremely curious kids)

AAAAAaaaanyway... 

 

The recipe cards were taken from Handmade Living btw.

I started with the 'vanilla bagar'  - I'm learning Swedish too.  But I hadn't realised that the dough needs to be refrigerated sooooo

I moved swiftly onto the 'choklad snitt'

... which were really easy to make and even easier to eat.  I had to put them in a container with a lid because left out on a plate were too tempting.  And I need to squeeze my behind into a pair of ski pants that look terribly small soon so the lid is my friend.  Out of sight, out of mind... that's the idea anyway.

And the horns? I hear you ask? Well... they'll have to wait till I brave the crowds and pick up the ordered big bird from the shop.  Ugh... parking is going to be a nightmare and I really don't want to go but Mr M had strategically arranged to meet a mate for lunch (cunning plan that was) and yours truly is stuck with the bird.

I have a date with a turkey.

Sigh.

And then with the horns...

(nobody can resist sticking a finger in the dough overtime they pass by....)

 

Happy Christmas to you all... see you in a few days!

108-2015 - how to eat a 'pandoro' -

A tutorial.

First of all a 'Pandoro' is a traditional Italian Christmas cake.  It's traditionally plain, light buttery sponge, although the one I have here has chocolate in it as well...  (oops)

 

So this is what you do:

1) if you're a kid you fight with you brothers/sister for the right to the box.  It makes an excellent cardboard  helmet.

2) Inside the box there's the cake wrapped in a thick plastic bag and a sachet of fluffy, powdery vanilla sugar:

3) Open the bag and pour all the sugar on top of the pandoro like this:

4) close the bag and give it a good shake!

5) now grab a big serrated knife and slice yourself a big piece and eat it,

6) and then eat another one.

7) go for a long walk to burn off the calories...

 

 

107-2015

Do you know how children sometime come up with totally random sentences that have nothing to do with what they're doing and where they are?  and you can see there's a whole lot more in their heads that just didn't make it out?

That is me.

In my head  you and I have conversations all the time... In my head I write blog posts constantly.  Seriously.  It's been like this for years.  Unfortunately life gets in the way of blogging, right? and most of the stuff stays in my head.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing.  Probably.  Most likely.

So if suddenly I start talking about sandwiches you'll have to excuse me because in my head we've been talking about sandwiches for days.

I know, I know.... I'm sorry...

Growing up in Italy sandwiches were not a big thing.  You only ate them on school trip or picnics.  School finishes at lunchtime, shops and offices close down for a few hours and people go home and have hot meals. Very civilised you ask me.  Also, when I was young the only sandwich bread available (in square format that is) was about as soft and as moist as a slab of concrete on a hot summer's day... and my mum never used butter, only a quantum thick layer of mayonnaise if I was lucky... shudder.

So when I started working in this country and was forced to stay at work at lunch... sandwiches became a staple in my diet.  Urgh. I certainly didn't miss them when I stopped 'working' and even if overtime I relaxed a bit... I still feel guilty when I feed them to my children.  

Sandwiches are not real food.  

And I know it's not true.  Rationally I know they can be delicious and nutritious and blah blah...

But still.

Anyway to cut a ridiculously long story short I was in Marks and Spencer the other day looking for school trousers because No 2 had the audacity of growing out of his school trousers in two months and I my eyes fell on this:

On those days when I felt like treating myself I'd buy this sandwich.  When I didn't have any edible food in the house, or got up too late or whatever... this would have been my preferred choice:

mmhhhh...

(I actually can't remember if if was from here or from another well known high street vendor but either way, the ingredients were exactly like that)

And you know what? I had one of those Proust?madeleine feeling... it tasted like work afternoons, like deadlines missed and clients chased and bad tea and that sinking feeling of never having enough time to do it all... like dark winters and drinks after hours...

Amazing how food can do all that.

So forgive the randomness, I just wanted to share.  Not the sandwich... that was gone pretty quickly!

 

(My other favourite sandwich from a coffee place near work was a baguette with chicken, lemon mayo and grapes.  Trust me.  Delish!!

What's your favourite filling?  And please don't say marmite, don't even try)

 

... bet you're glad you've wasted ten minutes reading this, right?

 

80-2015 "Stanley's tomato soup"

Soup season is upon us.

I'm actually very happy because my AGA has just being turned on, the last few radiators are being installed and the sun has come out of the clouds.

It's getting warmer.

Anyway, soup.  I love soup.  I still haven't managed to impart my love of soups to the rest of the family so today I'm trying a new recipe.  Fingers crossed, people, fingers crossed.

When I say Stanley I mean this guy:

... because, come on, who doesn't have a secret crush on the lovely Mr Tucci? 

Anyway, the book is not bad either, lots of easy recipes (although he does tend to over-do it on the anchovies, but hey, nobody is perfect right?  I'm sure he's not the type of man who squeezes his toothpaste tube in the middle so it balances out..)

 

Squishing the plum tomatoes with my fingers was a surprising pleasant experience, just saying.

And you know what? It tastes deliscious, especially when it's buried under a mountain of mature cheddar cheese and accompanied by buttered soda bread

... mmhhhh...

Now I feel rather stuffed.  I better go walk the dog..

78-2015 - first cake -

I had to try the new oven... All clean and shiny... I gave the honour of 'first cake' to a recipe passed down from my grandmother to my mother and now to me: a traditional Italian crostata.

Delish!!!

 

To tell you the truth it came out a bit weird looking. The ratio jam to pastry should be more on the jam side... And I blame two things: the dish was probably too small and I put one extra egg white which made the pastry more puffy and crumbly.

However... it tasted absolutely delicious.

I used plum jam which for some reason is really hard to find in this country... (It's all about raspberry jams and marmalade - incidentally I put the latter on the same bottom shelf with lamb, raisins, anchovies, smoked fish and cardamom.... Enough said).

Anyway, if you feel to make Nonna Fatma's crostata, here's the recipe

250gr of plain flour

125gr of unsalted butter slightly softened

110gr caster sugar

1 egg

1 yolk

(But if use two whole eggs it comes out wonderful anyway... Just a softer/stickier dough)

 

Combine all the ingredients with your hands in a bowl. Roll out to 5mm thick and line a pie dish, but set aside a small amount for decorating the top of the pie. Cover generously with jam, and decorate with the remaining pastry.

In the oven at 180C till golden brown.

Eat hot or cold.

Posted with Blogsy

70-2015 - postcards from Thailand -

A long taxi ride took us away from Bangkok to a famous floating market. We knew it had become a real tourist destination and not much was left of the original produce market... But still, if you squinted and skimmed your eyes past the plastic and the cheap sarongs... You could still find a little magic. A little. (There are better less touristy markets around, but only on the latter part of the week we were told. If you ever go to Bangkok go Thursday to Sunday, it seems to be a much better time)

 

 

The gondola had me puzzled I have to say... (Being Italian and all..)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a bried rest by the pool we did what every visitor to Bangkok does... We went to a football match of course!

What? No?

We'll you don't live with this lot obviously ...

Actually it was fun.

Slightly surreal seeing a an English team plus there was no food or drinks served in the Stadium so we went hungry and crowd safety was slightly dodgy... But it was fun.

 

 

Until... It was mostly wet.

Ridiculously uncompromising unquestionably tropical thunderstorm kind of way wet.

Ankle deep wet.

Down to your pants wet.

 

 

Our shoes may never recover.

Pizza in the room at midnight was enjoyed by all.

And Liverpool won 4-0.

 

Posted with Blogsy

58-2015

The big circle of life.

Old house new house

Clean clothes dirty clothes

Eating cooking

 

 waking sleeping

... and another cricket game...

Sigh.

44-2015

Today

 

39-2015

Randomness.

- All the boys have now gone back to school.  The only noise breaking the silence is the extractor fan over the cooker.  There's a vietnamese beef curry slowly cooking in the oven and if I don't leave the fan on I'll forget it's in there and leave the house without turning it off with disastrous consequences.

- By the way, don't ask me how I know, but if you REALLY burn a chicken curry (on a really slow hear... for about 5 hours) you have to throw away the pan because it will have fused with the chicken AND your house will smell for weeks, and you'll try everything even wiping down the ceiling and everything in sight and repainting the walls too.

- So don't burn food, ok?

- My mum's dog looks like a polar bear.

- Anyway, school... summer term.  Cricket.  I'm glad they didn't ask me about cricket when I took the Citizenship test... (there was a question on Christmas pudding though).

- It's boring.

- No 2's matches are now 30 overs long.  LONG beeing the key word here. Almost 5 hours.  And he has a match every 3 out of 4 Saturdays till mid July.  Plus mid week matches.

- Shoot me now.

- Last week I went for a lovely walk with a friend. The boys played in the woods.

- It was whole terribly wholesome and nice.  She has a wonderful house too

- Yesterday No 3's hockey team (aka County Champions) almost won the West of England tournament.  They went down to a dodgy decision in the final.  Losing 1-0 because the referee doesn't know the rules stings a little.  And it's hard to explain to a nine year old about human fallability... 

- No 1 is out of his cast and is, for now, all in one piece.

- We had a family outings to the rugby and watched Gloucester sailing in a blaze of glory to an epic win.

- In my absence yesterday No 2 uploade 18 go-pro videos onto my computer.

- Why?

 

- Sigh.