Sunday 23 February 2014

National Banana Bread Day

Today is National Banana Bread Day and in honour of today I made - what else - banana bread.

As mentioned in my previous post, Monsieur Cuisine and I have been on the move and in that move I have gotten rid of a few things to make life simpler and also we had to downsize to move to a place downtown. What I did not realize until today is that I must have gotten rid of my loaf pans. Of course this problem did not surface until I needed said loaf pan to put the dough of the banana bread into. So, I improvised and made the banana bread in a cake tin and it turned out really well. A banana bread cake, if you will. Although I do have to say that I like it in the loaf shape. It is easier to freeze and is not that large so would fit in my now small freezer. Again, I improvised and cut it into quarters and froze it that way. All in all, it made for a tasty, moist and delicious bread to have with my evening tea.

Here are a few images of its progress as it was being made.

About to mix the dry and wet ingredients.

Ready to go into the oven.

Fresh from the oven!

Getting ready to cut into quarters.

Ate this with my tea. Had help from Monsieur Cuisine of course!

Thursday 6 February 2014

Food Memories

I came across a quote today on a great blog called Foodimentary. The quote said: "I strongly believe that culinary love is not about having a French Passport, but about what you feel." Albert Roux. I truly believe this. You do not need a fancy chef education to enjoy or make wonderful food. Be it French, Italian, Spanish, etc.; all you need is love of food and love of the taste of food.

My mother is Latina and all my favourite memories growing up were around a dinner table. Food was the main part of us all coming together to talk. We connected strongly and daily. We didn’t have much, but my mum made sure we had food – good food. She made a lot of it herself and when my Abuelita (that’s grandma to you English speakers) came to stay with us, she spent most of her day in the kitchen cooking up these delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners. She made porridge taste so good, I never turned it down. And to this day, people are surprised to say I like porridge. It is all in how it is made. And like the quote, I have fond memories and feelings surrounding that time with my Abuelita.

I know I haven’t written in almost a year. I know, I know, it is inexcusable. I promise to try and write more this year. Monsieur Cuisine and I have been on the move (we moved three times in the last half of 2013 *irritated face*) so I have not been able to cook too much with my pots and pans in boxes. Now that we are settled again, I have been in the kitchen a little more and have been tweeting. Check out my twitter handle @Madame_Cuisine. I have also had to make a few dietary changes this last year: no dairy and cut down on gluten. It has been a bit of a challenge to say the least on the first change. I love yoghurt and cheese, so that has been tough. I am not a big bread fan anyway, so that adjustment has not been too hard.

So, here is to 2014. Here is to more writing, more cooking and sharing more with family and friends. And sharing with you of course!