Fresh Tomato Salsa

The idea of making your own condiments used to seem pretty time consuming to me, I mean you can just grab a jar at the store and you're good, right? But now that we pretty much home make all of ours - pesto, pasta sauces, salsa, salad dressings, hummus, etc - I'm never going back. For one, the taste is so much better and I find that when making your own you end up using much less salt and sugars than store bought sauces. You also know what is going into it, and in turn going into your body, and you're able to experiment and play around with flavours. Plus, it really isn't hard or time consuming at all, promise.

Salsa is probably one of my favourite condiments, but only when it's fresh and with that perfect amount of acidity. Not the sweet, saucy stuff you get at the store. Luckily for me, Richard makes a mean salsa that always gets tons of compliments when we serve it at parties. I love having it in giant mason jars in the fridge, ready for quesadillas, beans and rice or oven baked tortilla chips!

Fresh Tomato Salsa

1 lb ripe plum tomatoes

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 or 2 fresh jalapeno's seeded and minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp. fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tsp salt

Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise, and gently squeeze out as much of the pulp as you can, roughly dice them and place them in your kitchen mixer or blender. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix together and taste to adjust the seasoning to your liking. This is a pretty free form recipe, if you don't have fresh tomatoes just use canned diced ones and drain them if need be. 

Makes about 3 cups, store in a jar in the fridge if you can make it last that long. Yum!

Bagels, take one.

I really love bagels. Really, really. I like mine either toasted with a bit of butter, fresh and plain or as a delicious, dense base for a sandwich. When I was growing up in New Zealand the bagel situation was pretty dire, there was one great bagel bakery in Auckland that we would visit whenever we were there and bring bags and bags back for the freezer to escape the supermarket white bread with a hole in the middle fate.

Bagels have always been something I've wanted to try making myself, but always seemed way too daunting. The whole boil then bake part sounded like it was going to be tricky and time consuming, but it was actually really easy! The dough is simple, the boiling isn't scary, and even though you have to wait for your dough to rise it's enough time to go and do something else. We're inundated with BC blueberries at the moment, so since we had a bunch in our fridge and freezer I thought rather than start with a plain bagel I'd go straight into the fruity and sweet! I looked around at a few different recipes and techniques for this, so I'll just write down what I did. I'm not sure if next time I'd use dried blueberries or not, as the kneading part was.....interesting. I'd not even thought about the fact that they'd be so juicy, but thankfully I hadn't added all my flour so I was able to save the dough and it all worked out in the end!

Blueberry Bagels

Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 pkg, I think?)
- 5ish cups flour
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups blueberries, fresh, frozen or dried.

Method
1. Combine warm water, yeast and sugar and leave for 5 minutes. Your yeast should start rising and bubbling a bit, if not then your yeast has expired.
2. Add salt and about 4 cups of flour, taking your time to mix a bit after every cup of flour.
3. Fold in the blueberries and kneed your dough to combine (this is where it gets messy if your blueberries aren't dried, don't worry though it'll sort itself out). Once it is fairly combined, continue adding the remainder of the flour. This should soak up any blueberry juice that's escaped to make your dough sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for around 10minutes until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
6. Place your dough in a clean, oiled bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Place somewhere warm (I use my oven, make sure it is turned off and remove it before preheating!! I....did not.) and leave to rise for an hour.
7. Once your dough has risen, punch it down and break it into 10-15 pieces depending on the size you want your bagel. You then want to shape it into the bagel, either by rolling it into a ball and poking your thumbs through the middle or rolling them into snakes and joining the ends. The second option can be tricky because when they boil the puff up and can come undone.
8. Cover and leave the bagels to rise for 25min, and bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add a couple teaspoons of sugar to the water. Preheat your oven to 400 F
9. Oil or dust with flour/cornmeal your trays*. Once your bagels have risen again, start boiling them. Place as many as will comfortably fit in the pot and submerge. Cook for 1min and flip to cook for 1min on the other side. Remove and place on the prepared tray.
10. Bake your bagels for 10min on each side, remove and let cool. Enjoy!

*I used oil, as the fancy bagel said too, but I found it pretty tricky to remove them from the tray. So I'm not sure if I didn't use enough oil, or should have just floured the tray.

This recipe could be used as a base really easily, just take out the blueberries and have some seeds ready to dip your bagels in once they come out of the boiling water for a savoury bagel. Yum!

Berry Crumb Cake

I know we've only just started Spring but I've slowly started to see summer fruit creep into stores over the past couple of weeks, and for this I am very excited ( Not that I'm not enjoying the 'now', because let's face it, I could eat rhubarb for every meal if I got the chance). So many of my favourite things make appearances in the summer time! Corn, peaches, nectarines, plums and berries. So many wonderful berries! Last year I found myself stopping to pick wild growing blackberries on my way to get gelato even, I was basically the embodiment of summertime!

We try to eat as seasonally and as locally as possible, so despite seeing big juicy strawberries at the store today I'm trying to hold off until some B.C. ones are ready or until I can go pick my own. Luckily we had some frozen berries left over from last year plus some we'd picked up from the farmers market (side note: do you also eat frozen berries as if they're candy? Especially blueberries and raspberries? I could seriously eat a whole bag full, no problem) which was perfect as I'd been meaning to try out the crumb cake that I had seen over on Vegan Yum Yum for awhile, and what better accompaniment is there to struesel topping that juicy berries?

I made it a few weeks ago when Maya came over for the bunting shoot, and followed the recipe pretty much exactly, save for dropping frozen berries over the top of the cake batter before adding the crumb topping. It was delicious! It makes for some serious size crumbs, which is exactly how I like it, and you could do the same thing with other fruits you might have handy such as peaches or sliced pears. Vegan or not, I'd recommend giving this recipe a go. I remember before I was vegetarian even and a bunch of my friends became straight edge and vegan, I couldn't begin to comprehend how you'd give up meat, let alone dairy! I mean, what on earth would you eat?? I guess I've taken a bit of a gradual path starting of vegetarian, but now that this is just the way I eat it surprises me when people ask me that same question. There are so many good vegan recipes out there, and I'm going to try and post more of them on here for you to try out. It's not just all lentils and celery sticks!

I hope you're all having a fantastic Tuesday, any summer fruits or veg that you're waiting anxiously to arrive?

My Place and Yours, My Secret Weapon.

I've been a bit bad at keeping up with the My Place and Yours posts due to sickness, but when I saw that the latest one was a shot of your 'Secret Weapon' it was too fun to resist. You really should go and take a peek at what others have done! My secret weapon is soup. The above is a delicious yellow split pea soup (recipe to follow) I made today for lunch (and then ate again for dinner with many, many biscuits), but I really love all soups. Meatless, natch.

If you talk to my aunt, you will hear many a story of me turning my nose up and pumpkin or vegetable soup when I was younger, which to me is totally crazy as I'm now basically obsessed with it. Due to my soup love, I have tried out many a recipe and can whip up a pretty mean potato and leek or ginger carrot batch. I love that you're really just building on a (perfect) base of onions, garlic and oil and then adding whatever spices, seasonings, veggies or beans take your fancy. Yum! It is perfect for the cold weather we're entering into, and a steaming bowl with biscuits make me a very happy lady!

Hearty Yellow Split Pea Soup

You'll need...

- 2 cups of yellow (or green) split pea

- 2 onions, chopped

- juice of half a lemon

- 1 Tbsp olive oil

- 2 celery stalks

- 3 carrots

- 2 potatoes

- 5-6 cups of broth or water

- Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Throw the oil and onion in your pot, cooking on medium-high heat until the onion is soft.

2. Add veggies and saute for a minute or two.

3. Add split peas and broth, bring to the boil.

4. Once boiled, turn down to a simmer. Cover and leave for around 20 minutes.

5. You can blend the soup or leave it chunky, and if at this stage you want to thin the soup just do so by adding more broth/water in batches.

6. Before serving, stir in some lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Lemony Soda

It is no secret around these parts that lemon soda is weakness of mine. I've sampled all sorts, some too sweet, some not citrus-y enough, some with not quite the right ratio of lemon to lime or to soda. I must say that Limonata is by far my favourite. There is only a hint of sweetness, and is so perfectly sour and sharply fizzy. It's all I ever want when it is hot out, so imagine my excitement when Jeannette told me that she had made her own limonata. Um, sounds like perfection! I'd mused over making my own lemon soda of some sort before, but the call of San Pellegrino was too strong. It turns out it is incredibly easy, and truly does taste just like the soda! Because I don't like it too sweet there isn't much sugar involved, and the sugar that is used is agave nectar so all the better for us. Needless to say, I went out to grab some club soda and got straight to it. Now I'm totally hooked! If you are partial to a sour and citrus-y drop, then I highly recommend whipping up a glass or two!

Homemade Lemon Soda (h/t Jeannette)

- 1 glass club soda

- juice of one lemon

- 1 or 2 tablespoons of agave nectar to taste

Mix it all together and that's it! I found that the agave sinks to the bottom a bit, so its a good idea to give it a few stirs as you're drinking (and not keep adding more agave as I initially did), which probably means you'll have to buy some fun swizzle sticks to go with! Yum! (Also, as I've recently found out that the devil Nestle are the distributors of Limonata in North America, which is such a bummer and makes me want to steer clear of it, although I will confess that I had it this morning at breakfast with Diandra...)

Oh, and that would be cherry pie up in the corner of the shot. Such a perfect combo!

I hope you're all gearing up for a lovely weekend, we're going to be busy over here! Lots of orders to fill, products to photograph, bags to be sewn, and the like. It's the last few days of the Home Sweet Home housewares market over at Poppytalk (be sure to check it out before it finishes, there are so many lovely things), but as we have loved it so much we'll be staying on for the Back To School one which starts Monday.

Happy weekend sweets, I'm off to cut up burlap sacks!

xo

Black Bottom Cupcakes

I have a second batch of these in the oven as we speak, and yes it is 12.30am. I do all my best baking at night and we have 'Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte' on (we're on a bit of a Bette Davis kick at the moment) Last Saturday night Richard and I were craving something sweet, and all I could think about were cupcakes. Seriously, obsessing over the idea. There was a bit of a debate over chocolate versus vanilla (chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting? with vanilla frosting? vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting?) and then I stumbled upon these while browsing Joy of Baking. I'd never even heard of Black Bottom cupcakes, but the thought of Devils Food Cake and cheesecake in a cup was just about the end of me. The best part was that we actually had all the ingredients, and we never have cream cheese (I'd been intending to make carrot cake, still hasn't happened).

They were pretty simple to whip up, and not surprisingly we couldn't wait for them to cool before testing them. They were out of control. Seriously, still warm dark chocolate cake with a melty cheesecake filling. Why had I never heard of these before??

I didn't think it could possibly get any better than that, but the next day after having a pancake brunch we had some left over blackberry and strawberry sauce so that afternoon Richard and I decided to pour some over our cupcakes. Absolute heaven! There was even enough sauce left to be used as an impromptu jam on my toast the next morning. Yum! It was a good food weekend. I'm not sure how normal it is to get quite as excited (read: hand clapping in delight) about good food as I do, but there you go.

Strawberry Shortcake & friends.

We've been getting lovely red strawberries in our Spud harvest boxes for the last few weeks, and while I normally just eat them fresh (read: grabbing them out of the fridge whenever I walk past), this week I decided to be a little more fancy. Richard suggested strawberry shortcake, which I resisted at first because I didn't think that I liked it. I've never been a big scone fan at all...or cream for that matter, but hearing Richard describe the way he liked it totally had me drooling so I went out to pick up some whipping cream that very day! I used this recipe and everything turned out really perfectly! I actually really loved the scones, and ate one (or two) sans strawberries and cream. They were lovely, buttery and light, and with just the right amount of sweetness. As both the scone and cream were sweetened, I decided to use very little sugar on the strawbs so as to not go into sugar overload.

To make things even more perfect, my lovely neighbour Jeannette (if you don't already read her food blog, you should!) came down to join me on our balcony for shortcake and limonatas in the sun. So beautiful, even if I did get a little too much sun. Oh! And I got to use my new-to-me cake stand that looks like a giant doily, and is every so slightly crooked.

Such a lovely end to a somewhat grey and migraine-y weekend beginning (does that sentence even make sense? You know what I mean!). There were even enough strawberries left over to have with coconut milk ice-cream (which is AMAZING by the way) later in the evening, for our second round of visiting friends.

I love summer!

Hot Cross Buns: Take Two

Determined to eat my own home-baked hot cross buns this year, I gave them a go again yesterday. Despite my flat and doughy mess of the day before. Even though I knew what my initial mistake was (attempting to cook them at 200 degrees.....farenheit) and that this was an easy enough fix, I was secretly scared that I was just crap at making hot cross buns. So I tried not to get too excited.

But look!

I used Pip's fantastic recipe, found over here. I loved following it, especially as part of the method was 'go back to bed for about an hour' or 'Knead together with springy, spirit fingers...' Haha, too good. It was easy to follow, worked like a charm, and now we have delicious treats to go with our tea. What more could a girl want?

I've always loved the carrot & parsnip combo, mashed together as part of our meat & three veg. Yum. So the other night when we had an abundance of both, plus potato and leek (another delicious combo, especially in soup) I saw the perfect soup opportunity. It was totally made up, and also involved cumin, coriander and a healthy dose of coconut. Oh goodness, so so good. Those flavours are perfect together, and I love the way the sweetness of the carrot and coconut compliment the onion-y leek. I'm going to rework it a little, I'd love to try it with coconut milk this time, and then actually record the recipe to share with you all.

Of course, biscuits are a must too, as with any soup or stew. For now, here is my go to recipe for those...

2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp. baking powder

4 tablespoons butter or shortening

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup milk

Sift Flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cut in shortening or butter. (this is where I use my hands by rubbing the butter into the flour). Add milk gradually, stirring until soft dough is formed. Turn out on slightly floured board and lightly "knead" for 30 seconds, enough to shape. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 inch floured biscuit cutter. Bake on ungreased sheet in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits. You can also make tiny tea biscuits that are only 1 1/2 inches wide with a small cutter or glass bottom. These are great served with tea, jam or honey. Makes 24

Taken from Old Fashioned Living.

Catching up (with vegan blueberry muffins).

I am so, so tired tonight. I feel like I've been constantly on the go in the last wee while and I think it all just hit me tonight once I got home from work. In saying that, I've been getting lots done and I'm looking forward to sharing secret projects with you once they're finished!

Tonight, instead of 'working' I decided to pop on the radio and do some baking. I am a sucker for a good blueberry muffin, and believe me these are good. I've realised recently that I'm not actually a huge muffin fan, despite thinking that I am. I can make an exception for these though.

The recipe is largely made up, and vegan partly because we had no eggs and partly because we're meant to be cleansing at the moment so no refined sugar....sigh.

Ingredients
2 1/2 c flour (I used white, but would normally use whole wheat if we have it)
1 c agave nectar
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
2 ripe banana (mashed)
2/3 c soy milk
2/3 c vegetable oil
2 c blueberries

Method
1. Preheat oven at 400 F. Combine all dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Combine mashed banana, milk, oil and agave
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then throw in the blueberries and give it a bit of a mix. Remembering that you don't want to over mix muffin mixture as they won't be lovely and fluffy.
4. Spoon mixture into greased muffin tins and sprinkle a mixture of sugar and cinnamon on top.
5. Bake for 20-25min.

Just so you all know, there is a large can of Kilkenny Cream Ale that only just made it out of the photo up above. I found it in the fridge tonight and decided to drink it while baking, straight from the can. I'm a classy wee thing, I'll tell you that.

Chili for when it's chilly

The snow is still falling here in Vancouver, it started up again on Saturday evening and is still going strong. I am still excited to see it, and check out the window every five minutes to make sure that it hasn't stopped!

We've spent pretty much the whole day inside, aside from a quick walk to the local market for dinner and baking necessities. Richard whipped up a big batch of our favourite chili and I added some heart shaped biscuits for melting butter and dipping. Yum!

This recipe is so easy, delicious and nutritious so I thought I should share it with you all! Great for warming yourself up over winter! It's taken from Alex Jamieson's 'The Great American Detox Diet'. If you soak your own beans, you might want to add some salt.

Ingredients

2 c corn

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

15 oz can red kidney beans (1 1/2 c cooked beans)

24 oz can diced tomatoes

Method

1. Saute onion in oil over medium heat for 2 min.

2. Add corn, tomatoes, beans, garlic, chili powder, cumin & cayenne. Stir well and cook for 2 min.

3. Simmer on low for 20min.

Easy, huh? So good too!

We curled up on the couch with our supper, half watching 'Raising Arizona' and half watching the beautiful winter scene outside our window - I love how the snow lights up the sky! It was lovely and cozy with the Christmas tree lights and solstice candles glowing while we filled our bellies.

Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year?!

Late night cookies

I should most definitely be in bed, but instead I am watching/listening to old America's Top Model episodes on Youtube, organising our den and my newly acquired fabric and yarn from up north. I'm being sustained by tea and the best vegan chocolate chip cookies ever.

Chocolate chip cookies are always a treat, and I've been playing around with the perfect combo of added extras - I think I've found it!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 c vegan organic sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1 c melted vegan butter (I use earth butter)

1 mashed banana

1 c oatmeal

1 c coconut

1 c chocolate chips

1/4-1/2 c chopped pecans

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Cream together butter, banana, sugar and vanilla.

2. Add flour, baking powder, oatmeal and coconut. Combine.

3. Add chocolate chips and nuts, stir and fold these into the mixture.

4. Bake at 350 F for 12-15min.

Enjoy!

God Bless (North) America

So perhaps I am a little late to the party, with it already being November and all, but can I just say that Vancouver is putting on a Fall like no other! I'm not sure if it is just due to being away from home, but I really don't think I have seen colours quite like I have been when walking the Vancouver streets this past month. Not only are the trees celebrating, but thanks to Thanksgiving and Halloween it seems like everyone is celebrating the very fact that it is Fall. I love it. Those holidays add a whole new meaning to this longtime favourite season, and I love that it means you decorate with pumpkins, drink tea, wrap up in quilts and smell the leaves.

Living in the Southern Hemisphere you don't have pumpkins in October, so not only do we not decorate with them, we don't really bake with them either. I've noticed many a pumpkin recipe in blog-land and this unspoken understanding that pumpkin baking/cooking is just what you do in October. Strangely, I hated HATED pumpkin when I was little, so I guess making up for lost time (and just being way too excited at North America and is decorating holiday festiveness) means that I have embraced it wholeheartedly.

These pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies were my first pumpkin baking attempt, and boy were they good! I used Celine's recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel and can I just say - that woman is a genius, and will probably be the death of me. If I keep reading her blog for much longer you may literally have to roll me out of the house.

My pumpkin excited-ness got the better of me and I ended up with WAY too much puree, which lead to these delicious treats. Very easy, moist and with a slight nutty crunch due to the seeds.

Ingredients

2 Eggs (or equivalent egg replacer)

1 1/4 c Sugar

1/3 c Oil (I used sunflower)

1 c Pumpkin Puree

2 1/4 c flour

2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp each Cinnamon, ground Cloves, Nutmeg

1/4 c Yogurt

1/4-1/2 pumpkin seeds

What to do...

1. Mix 'eggs', sugar and oil.

2. Sift (really, I am very rarely bothered to do this) dry ingredients together.

3. Add egg mixture, pumpkin and finally yogurt to the dry ingredients. Fold in pumpkin seeds, but be sure not to overwork.

4. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. You might want to sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on top before doing this, to add a little extra crunch.

A quick note...if you're using canned pumpkin puree, make sure to get the unsweetened sort. Also, for an egg substitute I usually use half a banana per egg needed.

Happy Fall everyone, and Happy November too!

xx

Hey Hey, My My and twisted tea cakes.

Last Wednesday I got to see someone who, in my opinion, is one of the greatest musicians of all time. I discovered Mr. Young fairly early on, and developed a bit of an attachment. I'm sure much to the horror of my boy-band listening friends (thankfully I also loved NKOTB).

I didn't think Neil Young would ever be someone I would get to see live, so jumped at the chance when I heard he was coming to Vancouver. To be honest I was a little worried that it wouldn't be everything I'd hoped(i.e.Massey Hall in the '70s), and that he'd be a grouchy old man not wanting to play any of his 'hits'.

Lets just say, it was incredible. For a guy in his 60s, he totally rocked out! He pulled out so many classics, Cowgirl In The Sand, Cinnamon Girl, Heart of Gold, Hey Hey, My My, Old Man and of course Rockin' In The Free World and many others. He did a fantastic rendition of A Day In The Life for his encore while pulling strings off his guitar, and I was smitten.

Now If only could convince Joni Mitchell to tour....

Ok, completely unrelated but please observe the following.

Why yes they are small morsels of chocolatey, cookie dough goodness. I realise they have nothing to do with Neil Young (although I'm sure he'd like them), I was too excited to not share these with you.

Inspired by the Russian Tea Cakes Julie had bought over the other night, I wanted to make some for myself. However, Richard was begging for chocolate chip cookies....and I of course didn't have all of the ingredients for the tea cakes. So I did them with a twist.

Check out that chocolate! Ok, here's what you do...

1 cup butter
1 teaspoon/good squeeze agave nectar (the real recipe calls for vanilla, but I didn't have that - of course you may use what you like)
6 tablespoons icing sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the 6 tablespoons icing sugar and flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When cool, roll in remaining icing sugar.

Real Russian tea cakes use chopped walnuts where I used chocolate chips but a) we didn't have any left and b) Richard wanted the chocolate.

Needless to say, they're amazing. Especially when eaten warm with a spoon. Perfect for a quick late night treat, enjoy!

I sure wish I could yodel.

Today was a lovely mellow day. Sleeping in, hanging out and chatting with Richard, lunch on The Drive at little nest, chatting about consignment possibilities with Heather at Lucky Rooster (love), thrifting and a walk home past Casa Gelato aka my dream world. I even got to wear my new etsy purchase from the wonderful Rhiannon at Toast Clothing. I love, love it. So perfect for a sunny day, comfy and comes with a little piece of home (that's a fantail on the hip!). Make sure you check out her store and blog, so good.

Tonight was especially exciting, as we were able to make our first dish using veggies from our garden. Hoorah! Well, technically we have used the basil, but I don't think that quite counts like this does. When I got home from our trip out, I noticed that our rainbow chard had totally wilted in the sun and I think it was also just getting a little big. So I gave it a big drink and decided to harvest some of it tonight. It was delicious! I made a lime coriander noodle dish with tofu (when I say dish, really I just made it up) and it was simple and lovely.

Just saute some mushrooms and capsicum (bell pepper) in olive oil and garlic for awhile, throw in your chard and continue to saute for another 5 min or so. I then covered the pan to let it all steam together for a few minutes. Thoroughly squeeze half or a whole lime over the veggies and add coriander depending on how strong a flavour you like. Add enough noodles for the desired end amount and saute for 5-10 min. Throw in some tofu and heat through so all the flavours and goodness mix together. Voila! Haha, not so exact I know, but it is very simple. I'll write down the recipe next time I make it.
I'll leave you with this, my accompaniment for the evening.

Goodnight!

Banana pancake goodness.

This is just a quick one, as I am really really meant to be tidying our house as we speak. We have both been sick in the last little while, with Richard only just returning to work tonight after 2 weeks off, so I am sure you can imagine what a treat our house is at the moment.

But. I wanted to share these with you.

Neither of us felt that much like cooking this evening, so I decided on banana pancakes. And yes we did eat them on the coffee table (the dining room table is covered with my latest thrift store finds, but more about that later). They were delicious, moist and just the right texture. You know, a few crispy bits on the outside, hot and a little runny from the banana on the inside.

You too can make these treats!

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon natural unrefined sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk (I used soy)

2 tablespoons oil of your choice (I used sunflower)

2 ripe bananas, mashed

Method

1. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix together wet ingredients in another (make sure you beat the egg first).

2. Stir two mixtures together, don't worry about the lumps.

3. Lightly oil your skillet and heat it over a medium-high heat. Pour or scoop around about 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Cook until golden brown (your first flip will be when you see bubbles on the top of the batter) on each side.

4. Eat and enjoy!

Of course, these are easily made vegan just by using an egg substitute (which we sadly didn't have).

Time to tidy. Enjoy your day!

Peace.