Sunday 19 October 2014

Now I'm Cookin'!

Outside our weather is almost like early summer. Inside, however, it's chilly. As a matter of fact, my hands are a bit cold sitting here in front of the computer, and I must have got cold in bed the other night because I dreamt that I'd put on the heating (haven't yet). My solution is to start using the oven more, and what better way than to make something like banana nut bread from some too ripe bananas.

 I must admit that the banana bread in the photo is from a previous loaf, but I'll be making more goodies later on this month. It's my friend Chris's birthday on the 31st and she's requested two cakes to take to work - a chocolate cake and a pineapple upside down cake, so I'll need to buy more eggs and pineapple.

Just as soon as it cooled down, I made a batch of cornbread mix and made a pan full to enjoy for a few days, or I thought I'd be enjoying it for a few days. One night after work I took out a couple of squares to have with my dinner and discovered mould on all of it, which was more or less half the pan. I'm not sure if it was because I put the cornbread in a zipper bag and left it out or what. As I stated at the beginning, it's warmer outside than in my house. Anyway, the next time I make it, I'll store it differently. I'm grateful to one of my Multiply friends for sharing the link for recipes in a jar where I found the recipe for cornbread mix. Luckily, we can get cornmeal, because of the number of Latinos who live here.

Another one of my recipes that I'll have to put on hold is the recipe for my laundry detergent since one of the necessary ingredients is temporarily, I hope, out of stock. I'm sure I've mentioned before that borax is something that you can find only in very small quantities in Europe, because it's been deemed harmful to the environment. I've found a recipe that calls for citric acid, which is the ingredient I need. According to the internet, it can be found at supermarkets. Well, I haven't found it at any that I go to. It's something that I order from my homeopathic pharmacy.

My post today is going to be all about food and recipes. We met up for lunch yesterday at the place where my friends and I usually eat at the first of the month, which surprised them at the restaurant. There were only four of us, but one of our friends we hadn't seen since before summer. She's retired and goes to the beach for the whole summer. After lunch I'd been home about 2 hours when her husband called me to ask if I knew where she was. I told him she'd gone to see the new language academy with Chris. I called Chris and also sent her a WhatsApp, called Enrique back and gave him Chris's number. Apparently her telephone was switched off too. To make a long story short, he called me not long afterwards to let me know she'd finally come home. She'd been with Chris while she was cleaning up (they don't have anyone to do the cleaning yet), and anyway they live in another neighbourhood and she was using public transport.

That's my week gone. Hope yours was a good one and hope Monday doesn't come too soon for you. Have a good week.

3 comments:

  1. Nice to meet up with a good friend you hadn't seen in awhile! I haven't made banana bread in a long time. I bought some pumpkin bread at the store yesterday. We had some with breakfast this morning, and it is not very good. I was so disappointed. Guess I need to get my mom's recipe out and make some for us. Chocolate cake and pineapple upside down cake - yum to both! Your birthday friend has good taste!! :)

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  2. Anything homemade is usually better than pre-packaged stuff. Besides, you know what is in your food.

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  3. After reading your post I have a huge desire to spend a day baking! I love banana bread. I recently went to a Pampered Chef party and instead of the Pampered Chef making the recipe, she had us break up in groups and we each made a recipe. The one she gave to our group to make was a Pineapple Upside Down Cake..I never had made one before. It turned out pretty good. I bet your friend's husband was happy when your friend got home. I always worry about the kids or Walt when I can't get a hold of them. Have a wonderful week, Brenda!

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