Now before you get all excited and think I’m being a bit risque with the title of the post -this banana bread has Jack Daniels Bourbon in it. See? It was perfectly innocent. Shame on you for thinking otherwise!

Sorry about the photos today - we ate half the bread before I remembered you. Please don’t be offended.

I’d like to tell you a great story about the time I visited a little town in Kentucky and saw a very old Bourbon distillery. Except that is the entire story, so it’s not that great. I did go there though, where ever there was….. I can’t remember the town’s name. Ahh the joys of Peri-menopause, my once razor sharp memory is now as sharp as a spoon.

At home I’ve had to start using a diary.

“So what?”,
I hear half of you saying. I’ve never had to use a diary at home - at work yes, but home no. I could always remember what was going on, for not just myself but for everyone in the house.

Piano lessons, hiphop, dentist’s appointments, vet visits, school concerts, haircuts and birthdays. Now unless it’s written in my diary (personally illustrated by Isaac with a green slime monster with candy canes! The Christmas monster maybe?) it’s forgotten about.

I’ve decided that Jacked-up banana bread is a mighty fine way to console myself in my fuddled middle aged state. It’s a recipe that seems to originate with “Mrs Hockmeyer” and then has morphed into something else entirely. It’s almost become an internet heirloom (if there could be such a thing?) with so many bloggers posting this in various forms. Deb from Smitten Kitchen is the one that thought Jack Daniels would be a good idea. She was right!

I cut large thick slices of this as soon as it came out of the oven, popped a scoop of vanilla speckled icecream on top and then completely unnecessarily poured a little hot fudge sauce over it. I can’t even begin to tell you how good that was. Yes, I’m speechless. I think you just need to make it. Write the recipe down and put it somewhere you won’t forget it. Mine is going into my green monster diary with the candy canes.

This is a great way to use up those bananas that are past their best or languishing in the freezer.

Jacked-up Banana Bread

adapted and enjoyed via Joy the Baker, via Smitten Kitchen via Simply Recipes etc.

• 3 to 4 ripe bananas mashed
  1/3 cup melted butter
  1 cup light brown sugar
  1 egg, beaten
  1 teaspoon vanilla
  1 tablespoon bourbon (if you have an unsteady hand and accidentally add a little more it seems to be fine!)
  1 teaspoon baking soda
  Pinch of salt
  1 teaspoon cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  Pinch of ground cloves
  1 1/2 cup of flour
  3/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds

 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Mix the melted butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then spices.

Add baking soda and salt and mix.
Add the flour, mix. Add the chopped almonds and stir gently until just mixed through.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured or lined loaf pan.  

Bake for roughly 1 hour. I started checking mine after 45 minutes.

Cool on a rack or slice while warm and serve with icecream and chocolate sauce.

Don’t forget to write it down!

P.S My little Bird’s Nest Cookies were in the Dominion Post this week, how exciting is that!

P.P.S My lovely husband bought me an apron from Flirty Aprons. These are seriously cute aprons! I believe Mothers Day is coming up, so if anyone wants a new one, check those out and drop your guy/girl some strong hints about Marilyn aprons and high heels. That ought to do the trick.

I’m fairly sure that most people think that behind every food blog is a slightly rounded woman. I’m pretty sure often you’d be right. It’s hard not to cook so many delicious things and start to look something like a cinnamon bun shape yourself!

I’ve been trying to be more conscious of getting a decent amount of exercise to offset the tasty things that come out of the kitchen. Today we spent an hour or so walking about the Otago Peninsula, walking the Sandymount track. We saw two amazing landmarks called Lovers Leap and the Chasm, unfortunately our photos really don’t do them justice. This is about 20 minutes away from my house.

This is a photo heavy post, but I really wanted to share this amazing afternoon with you out in the fresh air in New Zealand. It’s days like today I really appreciate living in this little country at the bottom of the planet with the Hobbits.  All these beautiful images are on a 50 minute walk.

Driving up towards Sandymount and looking towards Dunedin city - where we call home. This and the next two photos comprise the Otago harbour the city is situated on.

Looking down towards Port Chalmers.

At the end of Sandymount Road this is the view from the carpark over Hoopers Inlet, there were actually a couple of hang gliders out there but they are too small for you to see.

We walked through this dark tunnel of old macrocarpa, all the tree limbs left leaning towards the sun, there is so much leaf litter underfoot you barely make a sound as you walk.

At the end - you come across this, a very typical NZ vista.

You round the corner and you see this beach, it’s truly breath taking. It’s  called Allans Beach.

Follow a sheep track around the tussock covered hills

To the cliffs and the coast.

As I mentioned above, I have no photos of the chasm and Lovers Leap, the photos we had just did not do them justice at all.  Have a look at a blog called 12 foot 3 for a selection of great photos of Lovers Leap and The Chasm.

I do indeed feel lucky to live here and have such amazing scenery practically on my doorstep.

Days like today need to be savored.

A little reminder too, one more day to comment on the previous blog post to be in the draw to win a $50 voucher.

Wheee it’s a giveaway! This giveaway is only available to Aussies and Kiwis, sorry everyone else!  I had a very friendly chap called Victor contact me about doing a promotional post for a website called Groupon (yes it sounds like coupon!) I don’t normally do this type of thing, but he offered me two $50 vouchers for my readers - so on your behalf I accepted graciously. I know you all like free stuff! There is one website with deals for Kiwis at Grouponnz and another for Aussies here at Groupon Austrailia.

They have some amazing deals on there that you can spend your $50 voucher on. To give you some ideas they have baby slumber pods, Sworovski crystal jewellery and personalised iphone cases. As well as things you can hold in your hand and get in your actual post box, they have some really fantastic deals on travel and holiday packages (Thailand anyone?). These are really heavily discounted and just amazing value. I’ve got to say, I’ve got my eye on a trip to Wellington. I’d like to see my darling daughter when she gets back from gallivanting all around the world!

Just to make it clear, I am not gaining anything from promoting this other than the opportunity to give you a $50 voucher. Neat huh ?

Ok, so what do you need to do to be in the draw for one of two $50 vouchers?

All you need to do is visit either Groupon Austrailia or Grouponnz and leave a comment telling me what you would like to put your $50 voucher towards. I’ll do a random draw to see who the lucky ones are.

Edit: I’ll leave this giveaway open until April lst (NZ time) for the one voucher and 24 hours for the other, I noticed some of these deals have quite tight time limits on them!

Now for all you folk that can’t participate in the giveaway, I’m sorry! I do have an interesting recipe for you all. These are bar cookies, a New Zealand slice. This recipe came from a fundraiser cookbook back in the 60’s. If you’re a sixties Kiwi kid like me no doubt you’ll recognise this slice; you might have had some in your lunchbox as a child.

The interesting thing about this is that my recipe for jumble is completely wrong. Somewhere along the way it morphed into something that only barely resembles the original. It’s now more like a chocolate, coconut version of ginger crunch. The original jumble is soft and cakey, but you can almost break your teeth on this version if if you’re not careful! It is not a soft slice. So just to be clear, if you wear dentures - this one is not for you! Alternatively if you would like to make a soft cakey version, simply add an egg to the mix.

This is so sturdy it makes it the perfect candidate to be rattled around in a lunch box and still be presentable at lunch time when your hungry little person is looking for their treat.

It will keep well for a couple of weeks in a sealed container.

Lunchbox Jumble

• 100g butter (softened)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of dessicated coconut
• 1 tspn of baking powder
• 1 large Tblspn Cocoa
• splash of milk -  just enough to mix to hold the mixture together
• whole egg (optional) if you would like a soft version.

Cream together the butter and sugar

Add the remaining ingredients and press into a Lammington pan (30 x 19 cm)

Bake for roughly 15 minutes at 180C 350F until the cake begins to move away from the sides of the pan and springs back when gently pressed with your finger.

Ice/Frost with a simple confectioners sugar icing.

• 2 cups icing/powdered sugar
• 1 large T butter
• 1/2 tspn vanilla
• 1 large T sifted cocoa
• boiling water to mix

Ice this while it is still slightly warm. Sift dry ingredients into a small bowl, add the butter and vanilla. Add boiling water slowly in very small amounts and stir until a spreadable consistency.

Sprinkle with a little dessicated coconut. Cut while still slightly warm.

Good luck to those of you keen to win a voucher! Remember to leave a comment to be in with a chance to win.

This is the fennel that I planted in my garden this year. I was not all that hopeful that it would do well, but unlike my zucchini it actually thrived! I have so much fennel I was struggling to find ways to eat it. I make a mean fennel and cauliflower gratin and a fresh, crisp fennel and apple salad. The leaves are frequently tucked in little parchment packages with salmon or tossed with vegetables. But I felt like I needed something else to try, something that would really wake up my taste buds.

I hunted about online for some inspiration and stumbled across a recipe feature from one of my favourite places to eat, Riverstone Kitchen in Oamaru.

I was a little hesitant when I initially saw the quite large quantity of herbs in this recipe. Look at all that wonderful fresh mint and parsley, I love being able to pick things out of my garden and eat them within the hour. I piled in the herbs in the amounts suggested and thought it might have been a little much.

I should have trusted the wonderful chefs at Riverstone, the balance of flavours is just right. Mint and Lemon should get married, those two flavours just seem to work so well together.

Salad of Fennel, Baby Peas, Feta and Lemon.

Serves four

2 medium-sized fennel bulbs
Small red onion
150g sheep’s milk feta ( I used cow’s milk feta)
200g baby peas ( I used frozen and thawed but not cooked)
Cup flat leaf parsley, picked
Cup mint leaves, picked
150g baby spinach leaves
Juice of 1 lemon
40ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Finely shave or slice the fennel into a large bowl with a mandolin or very sharp knife. Try to keep it nice and fine.

Crumble the feta over the top and add the remaining ingredients. Toss together gently and serve.

Drizzle with a little extra olive oil to serve if you wish.

As soon as I took a mouthful of this my mind was racing .. did I have enough ingredients to make this again?

The recipe states that it serves 4 - but honestly I could easily have sat and eaten at least half of this on my own without any trouble at all. But of course that would be greedy, wouldn’t it. Wouldn’t it?

Teamed up with a nice piece of grilled salmon and some new potatoes this would make a very elegant and memorable meal.

Outside of the kitchen this week it’s the Fringe Festival in Dunedin. We didn’t have a huge amount of time to visit performances between dance lessons, piano lessons, husband crashing into a mirror and destroying half a jewellery shop (another story for another time), hair cuts and purchasing of shorts for Isaac’s triathalon.

We had just enough time to visit the Mad Hatter’s tea Party art installation under the overbridge (Isaac found that itself amusing - how could you possibly go under the overbridge?)

He could not resist poking the licorice alllsorts to see if they were real. It was also quite interesting to see people’s reactions as they came across this massive table filled with oversized food and teapots.

Hopefully I’ll get to see a little more of the Fringe festival and be able to share with you.

Till next time!

I’ve been meaning to give you this wonderful recipe for a tangy French lemon and yoghurt cake for quite some time and finally I have managed to get my act together to post it for you. You’ve all been in my thoughts, promise!
I’ll tell you all about the new pet after you’ve salivated over the cake for a bit.

I’ve had this recipe for a long time. It’s completely delicious. It’s a large cake. People will ask you for the recipe. You can pretend it’s all yours and I won’t mind one bit. Tell them it’s been in your family for centuries and it’s been handed down from mother to daughter or father to son - whatever suits you! I won’t tell anyone.

It’s a grown up cake. You can produce this for special occasions and people will declare you an amazing baker. The compliments will flow with this cake and there won’t be a crumb left.

It’s damp, lemony and fragrant. What more could you want?

Warm out of the oven you slowly drizzle a lemon and yoghurt glaze on the top. It seeps into the cake to give it the characteristic shine and tart lemon bite. 

Please don’t substitute margarine in this recipe. It really does need the flavour and the fat from butter to taste right. There are some things you just should not muck about with - this is one of them.

French Lemon Yoghurt Cake

(adapted from Essential Baking)

• 225g/8oz unsalted butter - softened
• 300g/10 1/2 oz caster/superfine sugar
• 4 large eggs separated
• 2 t grated lemon zest
• 85ml/3fl lemon juice
• 250ml/8floz plain unsweetened yoghurt
• 285g/10oz flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt

For the Glaze

• 115g/4oz icing sugar/powdered sugar
• 2 T lemon juice
• 3-4 T plain unsweetened yoghurt

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and grease and flour or line a large cake pan with parchment - it must hold at least 3 litres/4 2/3 pts. You can cook this in a bundt tin if you wish - but make sure it is well greased and floured.

You will need three bowls to make this cake. It’s worth the dishes!

Make sure you have your lemon juice and zest all ready to be added in at the appropriate stage.

Cream your butter and sugar together in a large bowl and add in your egg yolks one at a time. I was lucky enough to have some beautiful free range eggs on hand from my wonderful friend to make this with.

Your butter and sugar should be pale and thick.

Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and yoghurt and stir to blend. It will look like it has curdled at this point, but don’t worry - it always looks like this.

In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.

In the third bowl - beat the egg whites and salt to stiff peaks.

Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and add in a spoonful of the egg whites to loosen the mixture.

Add in the remaining egg whites and fold until just mixed.

Pour into your prepared cake pan and bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. In a bundt pan this will be roughly 50 minutes. If you have used another type of pan start to check your cake every 10 minutes after 40 minutes in the oven and keep checking until your skewer comes out clean.

Let stand for a few minutes then turn out and cool on a rack.

This cake can be a little fragile when warm so go carefully.

For the Glaze

I like to glaze mine when slightly warm so that the glaze soaks into the cake.

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl - stir in the lemon juice and yoghurt to make a smooth glaze.

Put the cooled cake on a cake rack over a large flat dish or piece of parchment. Pour the glaze over and let it drip down the sides.

Serve with yoghurt or cream on the side.

Now - to tell you about the pet. His name is Steve - he doesn’t really move a lot, only when he needs to. Isaac decided he was a stationary pet. He lives in a willow pattern ramekin on the window sill.

When he needs to move .. he moves with the speed of a predator. He waits… for his prey to come to him.

Not everyone’s cup of tea perhaps?

Isaac is a little afraid of insects. I thought this might be a way to help him overcome his fear. He has a total fascination with Steve and checks his water daily. No pet could be more loved.

We read all about this great little stationary pet on flytrapcare.com. Everything you ever wanted to know about your Venus Fly Trap. I had no idea they were native to the US. I imagined them growing in some misty tropical jungle somewhere.

He had a friend over to play today and both the boys were completely engrossed with catching bugs for the fly trap. They decided that slaters ( woodlice) were no good since the last one made the trap go black. The harvestmen that they caught was too light to trigger the trap. Isaac explained to his little friend that the bug had to touch two hairs on the trap to trigger the closure.

They poked around in the vegetable garden a little more and found a centipede to feed to Steve.

They counted the legs.. they remarked on it’s colour, they talked about the differences between centipedes and millipedes and where they thought they lived.

Steve - is a wonderful pet - if not completely traditional.  He’s led to many learning discoveries for Isaac. If you have a child with an inquiring mind - this might be a fun thing to introduce to them. I’m just hoping Steve survives the winter - since it gets fairly cold here. It is officially the last day of summer here tomorrow (I think) the leaves will start to change and the mushrooms will start to appear under the trees and in the grass.  Isaac tells me that Steve will hibernate - so perhaps he’ll be alright.