Banana bread and more

Herrrooo!!!
I need my backside smacked for being such a bad blogger of late... Finding the time to fit everything into my schedule is a challenge to say the least but sure, anyone who knows me, knows I love a challenge. But blogging seems to get lost in the midst of things but I promise to become better!!!
I spent a bit of time out in the garden this morning in between the downpours... the weather has not been kind at all so far this year but I did manage to dig out the last of my potatoes and dug out some more parsnips for a mid-week beef stew.
My glass house has taken a fair battering from the winds during January with me losing half the glass out of it, hopefully that will be all the damage and I will leave fixing it until mid February until Mother Nature cools herself a bit!!

Potatoes roughly washed and dried

Parsnips

Battered glass house

I will give you this recipe for Banana bead that I make, it also features in the the book Calso Cooks: Real Food Made Easy

Basic Banana Bread

I have called this ‘Basic Banana Bread’ because there are lots of things you can add into the recipe like nuts, seeds, dried fruit etc. but this is plain, however the taste is far from ‘basic’ or ‘plain’. Banana bread, whilst in the oven, fills the kitchen with a warming sweet smell, then fresh out of the oven with a cup of tea… well, I’ll let you decide!

(Tip: If you have no buttermilk for the recipe, use ordinary milk with a teaspoon and a half of lemon juice or vinegar whisked in to curdle it… works a treat.)

Makes 1 loaf:

285g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon salt

225g caster sugar

110g unsalted butter plus extra for greasing

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas

85ml buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°c. Grease an 8x5 (or similar) loaf tin with some butter. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a medium bowl.

In a large mixing bowl cream together the sugar and butter using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy looking. Add the eggs, mashed bananas, butter milk and vanilla and mix well. Fold the flour mix into the wet ingredients until just incorporated and pour the mix into the greased tin.

Place in the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 1 hour until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few mins in the tin before turning out onto a cooling rack.

And in other news....

I have started back training again last week. I hadn't really kept up with much during autumn or winter so it is great to be back to it. I designed a new workout that see's very little weight training but more body-weight being used. Between the pull up bar, old plastering tressils and then push ups, roll outs etc. I can feel such a change in my body after just one week so that is motivation to keep at it. I even done my first 4 mile run last week in easily 9 months so if the winds calm tomorrow I will be out in the morning to do another one.

That's all from me for now.... toodles!! :)