Veggie Baby Food: Banana Pudding

You know those days when everything gets on top of you? Stuff you didn't realise was weighing you down all becomes too much to carry? Then it takes one tiny straw and your camel's back collapses.

I had one of these days recently. I had been plodding along in my usual fashion, one foot in front of the other, trying not to get swamped in new-mother-juggling-work land. Or what I thought was my usual fashion. I hadn't felt any different, yet here I was after a slight public disappointment with hot tears pricking my eyes and a lump in my throat. An overreaction by any stretch.

As I sat in the car ready to go home, I caught hold of myself and wondered what the hell was wrong with me. Breastfeeding hormones? Tiredness? I'm not usually so sensitive. Sure I'd been looking forward to getting something done that needed to be done, and had met yet another roadblock with time ticking away too fast... but to want to cry? I've yet to see a man cry with frustration, but it seems women are born for it. Thanks, Eve.

I realised I'd been absorbing a lot of negativity without knowing that I had, and that I normally wouldn't. Things people had said to me that caught me off guard, butting heads ever-so-politely with well-meaning people which meant holding my tongue, lack of sleep, not eating anywhere near right, and the feeling that I was always one step behind everything in my life, running to catch up when I'm usually so organised. I sat there thinking "I've been holding on to that? Really?" about random things people had said...  and I hadn't noticed until it was too late. Positive Pete had a Negative Nancy moment. And I can't say I liked it.

So I did what I always do when I know things just need some time to work themselves out in my head without overthinking it - I cook. It keeps my brain from overload and is an excellent distraction. Bananas have finally come down in price to a reasonable level, so I bought a couple and made Veggie Baby a banana pudding from a cute old book from 1985 I had laying around about baby food called Feeding Baby. There's a bunch of cute stuff in there, like warnings that "a chop bone could poke into an eye"... OK!

This banana pudding is way cuter than an impaled eye, though. I bet your little one will love it.

BANANA PUDDING:

Mash half a banana with 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 tsp rice flour and 1 egg yolk. Pour into a small greased custard cup and bake in a moderate oven 20-30 minutes until set. Wait until cool before serving.

Ahh cooking. Where would I be without you?

Banana waffles and butterscotch sauce

Waffles were definitely something I never ate until I was an adult. That whole small-town girl thing, supermarket didn't stock such nonsense, and people definitely didn't have their own waffle irons. I'm not entirely convinced they were even available in Australia.

My mama bought me one for Christmas when I was about 23, and I was far too excited than a normal person would be at the prospect of making my own waffles. My only problem was I didn't have any kind of electric beater (or even hand-cranked one) with which to beat my egg whites, as the recipe suggested.

That so didn't stop me. I sat in front of the tv with a big bowl, some egg whites and a whisk and beat them by hand until they were firm enough. No kidding. It took me about an hour and I never, ever did it again. That poor waffle iron got put back into the cupboard until I could afford electric beaters!

I still don't have electric beaters, or a mixer of any kind. but I DO have an electric whisk attachment to my stick blender! Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Some people still look at me incredulously when I tell them I beat my butter and sugar by hand. I like to think it's because I'm old-fashioned and I enjoy having one bicep bigger than the other, but it more truthfully is because I'll never in my whole life ever be able to afford a KitchenAid mixer.

For these waffles, I used the basic waffle batter recipe that came with the waffle maker (whoa, extreme! I know!), except I added mashed banana to it. Easy peasy.

The butterscotch sauce is even easier. You have butter, sugar and cream? you have butterscotch sauce!

You got a door? You got a gym!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cream
3 tablespoons butter

Directions:
1. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a saucepan, then let simmer, stirring, two minutes until thickened.

The Royal Wedding and Prince William's favourite Banana Flan

I, for one, love a wedding. The gowns, the flowers, the love, the food. Especially the food. I made sure my wedding featured a buffet, as the first thing guests complain about is teeny portions, or worse... a cocktail reception. Turns out I wasn't really hungry and hardly ate a thing, but people still rave about the food almost four years later - I must have done something right!

Veggie Dad and I ready to eat. My poor wind-tunnel hair.

I was even so excited about the royal engagement, I made Eton Mess a little while ago. It was worth every sinful, cream-covered bite.

I can barely even begin to imagine how amazing the food will be at the royal wedding tonight of Prince William to Catherine Middleton. I'm almost more interested about that than I am in the dress... almost.

After a bit of digging around, I found out what Prince William's favourite dessert was, and figured I'd see if I could replicate what was once created in princess Diana's Royal kitchen by royal chef Darren McGrady.

Mr McGrady's website says that in 1993 he moved to Kensington Palace as their private chef, and for the four years until Diana's death, he took control of the family's day-to-day menus and the preparation and catering of private and official lunch and dinner parties.

One firm favourite was this banana flan. Crumbly shortcrust base, sweet pastry cream and bananas topped with melted apricot jam.

You think YOU could resist? I couldn't...

Mr McGrady also (very generously, I thought) provided the recipe for the oficial wedding cake Prince William has chosen to go along with the traditional fruit cake - Chocolate Biscuit Cake.

I am totally going to be having my own royal tea party to mark the occasion... what will you be doing?

Royally delicious.

Banana Flan recipe here

Banana pineapple cake

Scene: Back porch.10am.  You're busy organising your lesson for tomorrow on privacy law and confidentiality as it pertains to writers. You're having a delicious piece of home-baked cake and a cup of coffee with just a hint of vaniila.

Enter: creepy bird.

This is not the first time creepy bird has crept up on you. Once he and a friend advanced on you so eerily that you had flashes of Hitchcock's The Birds and you retreated to the safety of indoors.

Not today. Today you will stay. Today you will fight.

Creepy bird has already been shooed out of your indoor sanctuary that morning. He's getting bold.

Creepy bird leaps onto the table and creeps ever closer to your delicious cake....

But you are vigilant. You watch closely, munching the cake. He creeps over to your left hand side. You bang the table and ask him politely to leave.

He merely jumps on the chair next to you. You move your cake to the right hand side and continue your surveillance. He cocks his head and looks at your cake. Eventually you relax. He's not pecking your eye out, nor is he getting tangled in your hair. If he moves a muscle you will spring into action.

Or so you think.

Suddenly, when you least expect it and you're deep in the subchapter of telecommunications and tapping phones, a flash of black and white explodes from your periphery, almost hitting your nose. It swoops down over your plate, clutching his prize in his beak and dropping it mere inches from you. Eating it. Triumphant. Ignoring you.

When you've recovered from your heart attack and your cardiovascular system calms down, you mourn your loss, cut another slice of cake, reheat what's left of your coffee and marvel at how delicious your cooking is even the wildlife risk their necks in order to eat it.

It is only fair that you share the recipe. It comes with a bird warning.

Ingredients: 

1 cup raw sugar
2 tablespoons honey (or another 1/4 cup sugar)
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3-4 medium ripe bananas
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp salt
450g can crushed pineapple, drained
A sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon (optional)

Method:  

Preheat oven to 180C

1. Mix sugar, honey, butter, eggs, bananas and milk.

2. Add flour and salt and stir.

3. Add drained pineapple, nutmeg and cinnamon, if using.

4. Pour into cake tin and bake 45 minutes. Test after this as it may need a little longer.


You can substitute the pineapple with apple, pear, peach... any fruit almost. Or leave it completely out. It makes a good, moist cake that's not overly sweet. You can frost it, or just smear it with butter, like I do, and keep out of reach of birds.

Adapted from Betty Crocker Bananaberry Bread

Banana Nut Coconut Cake

More than just your average banana cake!

The original recipe had four bananas in it - imagine how many vitamins would be in that! Seeing as I don't eat much cake, and there's only two of us, I halved it. The full recipe is available here. I got mine from the American allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner iPhone App... safe to say I'm obsessed with recipe applications ;-)

Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 1/2 bananas, mashed (reserve the other half for the frosting)

1 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup shredded coconut

FROSTING

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar

1/2 banana, mashed

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake tin. I used square. no big deal.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together white sugar and butter. Add eggs and mashed bananas.

3. Add baking soda to the flour, and add to the mix alternately with the buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla, then fold in the pecans and coconut.

4. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Method:

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in mashed banana, pecans, coconut and vanilla. It was a bit thick at this point, so I added soy milk one teaspoon at a time until it was spreadable and mixed thoroughly. You can use regular milk, but I never have it.

It's no oil painting, but it tastes good!!

Banana Nut Coconut Cake