Gluten Free Banana Bread

I don't know about you, but I seem to be throwing away over-ripe bananas all the time during the warm weather - even the chickens are sick of them. This super easy gluten free banana bread is my solution and the absolute favourite in our house at the moment. I baked a loaf a few days ago, and it was all eaten up before I could photograph it. It is so easy and really delicious. I wanted to save some for the girls' lunchboxes - not a chance. Today I had another go whilst everyone was out. Mission accomplished.
It's definitely my kind of recipe - mix all the ingredients together, put in a pan, bake, eat. Simple.
I'm pretty sure it would work just fine if you used regular flour instead of gluten free, but I haven't tried, so I don't really know.
I found the recipe online and unfortunately the link doesn't work anymore, so you'll have to make do with my version. I have made some amendments after trying it out a few times.

1 cup gluten free self raising flour
1/4 cup almond meal - if nuts are an issue just use the extra 1/4 cup of flour
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup sugar - I used soft brown sugar. I reckon muscovado sugar would taste fantastic.
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
2 ripe bananas - mushed up with a fork
1 heaped tsp cinnamon
The original recipe suggests changing things up by adding 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries. That would be nice. I'm going to give chopped dates and nuts a try sometime. I think the girls would appreciate chocolate chips too.

Place the mushed bananas, eggs, oil and sugar into a mixer, blender or food processor, or do it by hand. Mix until smooth.
Add all the dry ingredients - flour, almond meal, baking soda, cinnamon, and mix until smooth.
Pour into a loaf pan lined with baking parchment and bake in the centre of the oven at 175 degrees C, for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The original recipe says bake for 60 minutes, but mine would have been over done and burnt to a crisp by then. Maybe it's because my oven is fan-forced.

Leave in the pan until cool enough to handle. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I sliced it while it was still slightly warm, and spread with butter. Scrumptious with a nice cup of tea or glass of milk.

It's great lightly toasted too, but take care as it's quite delicate - use the grill rather than the toaster.

Enjoy!

Edenstar

I've been thinking a lot about whether or how to write about Edenstar. The highs were so high, and the lows so low. It's been difficult to think about,and I have mentally put it away in a box and shut the lid tightly. Since it has been such an important and almost all consuming passion, and taken up 10 years of my life, I decided it would be good, even cathartic. I warn you, it's a long story with lots of pictures. I may be a basket case (again) by the time it's finished.
I started my kid's fashion brand, Edenstar, in 2003 when my girls were just 2 years old. After working in the commercial fashion industry as a designer since 1987, I became driven to put my ideas into my own boutique brand for my own kids after doing it for others for so long. It also gave me the flexibility to work around my family's needs, or so I thought. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The first collection - Summer 2003 - We sell to 8 local stores

I survived on adrenalin in the early years, working from home and around the girls. Mr. B was on board and designed graphics, did the photography, the accounts and all the back end admin as well as working full time in a real job. Friends caught onto the excitement and gathered over tea and cake to help hand embroider skirts, sew buttons on shirts and pin tags onto garments. The girls were the cutest models, and the brand was fresh and new. Boutiques lapped it up. Our wholesale business grew quickly. It was hard work but so much fun.

Winter 2004 - Our first order for New Zealand; Summer 2004 - We take on a NSW sales agent

Reality set in when I started showing at trade fairs and wholesaling interstate. Together with two other local brands, Purebaby and Mill & Mia I travelled around Australia putting together mini trade shows from hotel rooms and having the best of times. We had such a laugh and supported one another through the chaos.

Winter 2005; Summer 2005

A few years on and things escalated when I became friendly with sisters running another local brand, Moppit, and we travelled to New York together to meet sales agents and show at trade fairs. This period was equal parts excitement and terror. Showing at an international trade fair was absolutely exhilarating, and Edenstar won the award for Best Newcomer. It was great to have the Moppit girls to share with. We are good friends still.

Winter 2006; Summer 2006 - The collection that won us the Best Newcomer award at New York's ENK Children's Club Trade show

The business had outgrown our tiny home. There were rolls of fabric in every room, and you couldn't see the lounge room floor for boxes when we were packing orders. I almost despatched our old cat to New Zealand once when he fell asleep in a box full of stock.

Winter 2007; Winter 2008

So we took on a small warehouse. It was too ambitious financially, and somewhat cold and unfriendly. We had no choice. Stress was at an all time high, and I felt as if on a hamster wheel, running at top speed, getting nowhere, and unable to get off. We were exporting internationally by now. We had sales agents on the East and West Coast's of the US, the UK, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and locally Sydney and Brisbane, a distributor in Spain, and were the in-house brand at the gift shop of the Palm Jumeira Resort in Dubai (the one where Kylie sang at the opening!). I was travelling to trade fairs both here and in New York. I was exhausted, terrified, and guilt-ridden, but driven on by the promise of elusive financial success.

Winter 2008 - We get an order from the fashionable Scoop chain in New York; Summer 2008 - We get an order from the prestigious Selfridges in London

The high point was when Edenstar was included in a book - Kid's Fashion Designers - published by Daab, an international distributor of design books. We were the only Australian brand included. It was good for the ego, but meant nothing in real terms. I just couldn't give it up. Like a class A drug, so addictive and harmful. It looks pretty in the pictures, but it was ugly behind the scenes. Edenstar had become a monster.

Winter 2009; Summer 2009 - The Global Financial Crisis takes hold and our Northern Hemisphere orders are cancelled

At this point the Global Financial Crisis hit. Perfect timing. Stock for our international orders was in the warehouse ready to ship. Most were cancelled as global panic ensued. We were left with A LOT of cancelled stock we had to pay for. It was a disaster.

Winter 2010; Summer 2010 - The local retail market is still afloat and we scale down production.

Mr. B put his foot down. As a director of the company he ordered a halving in expenditure, or he would close it down. He was right. I can see that clearly now. We moved to cheaper warehousing and I halved my assistant's hours. I felt crushed and my designs suffered. I was pretty much on my own, trying to keep my head above the water, and diversified into women's wear hoping that retail market might be better. The first signs were encouraging, and I really enjoyed the change, but that sunk too in the coming year.

Winter 2011; Summer 2011 - Australia finally feels the effects of the global economic downturn and we call it a day for children's wear.

We came to a cross roads when retailers stopped paying their bills and our warehouse lease ended. I felt trapped, but couldn't see a future without Edenstar. It defined me.
Then fate stepped in and my Mum became gravely ill in the UK. It was sudden, and instantly things became clear. Edenstar was put on hold and there it stays. Mr.B was very kind. There could have been finger pointing and 'I told you so's', and it would have been deserved, but Mr. B came through for me when I was at my lowest. For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health . . . . 

Things slowly returned to a new and better kind of normal. I'm happier than I've been for a decade. I hope never to put Mr. B and the girls through that again, or myself for that matter. I'd like to say I've been the victim of the world recession, but that's not entirely true. Ambition played it's part. I did it to myself, and it wasn't pretty.

The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I feel like a recovering drug addict. There, it's on the page and I feel all the better for it. Now you know.

Summer 2011; Winter 2012 - Edenstar women's wear only lasted a couple of seasons, but I loved it.

Oh Well . . . .

Those beetroot I raised from seed and planted an age ago - you know, those beetroot that I've been watching and waiting and watering and wishing . . . . Well, I vowed that I would give them a couple more weeks and then that was it. Well . . . . someone else has started harvesting them without asking. I'm not happy. I found little shrivelled beetroot corpses dug up and carelessly tossed on the ground twice over the weekend. I suspect the pair of charming (hmmph) blackbirds that have been visiting the garden and scratching up all the mulch in their quest for bugs. Not so charming as it turns out.
Reluctantly I decided that I would pull up the lot yesterday, a little prematurely, rather than lose them all.
It seems that good things come to those that wait. It was with surprise and whooping delight that I found buried treasure. OK, it's not exactly an abundant crop of harvest festival proportions, but it's actual beetroot that I can do something with. I am as proud as if I had given birth to them myself.
I prepared them soooo carefully. Precious, like gemstones. We had an absolutely delicious and super healthy beetroot and lentil salad with rocket and goat's cheese, with pan fried salmon fillet for dinner tonight. Yum. Food does seem extra special when you grow it yourself.

Looking skanky - not much happening here; Shrivelled discovery.

Good things come to those that wait.

Look at the colour!

Roast beetroot and lentil salad with goats cheese

 

My Happy Place

You know when something horrible is happening, like a visit to the gynaecologist,  and you mentally put yourself in your happy place? Well this is mine. It's my back yard, and it's extra special now with the recent addition of some new garden chairs. After having sat on the step all these years, Mr. B and I treated ourselves for Christmas to these rather elegant new garden chairs. They have completely changed the way we use this area, and it seems new somehow. I dream of years of lounging in the garden. Let me dream.
Early last year we triumphantly brought home two vintage timber 'mortar and pestle' type objects, used for grinding grain in Africa, we were told. We had stumbled across the first and only warehouse sale of Fenton & Fenton, a hip and bohemian home wares / furniture store. I'd like to say that I'm at the cutting edge of every design event in my local area, but it was just luck. It's what you do with luck that counts. We turned them upside down and have been using them as stools / side tables. I love the contrast of the old, decrepit timber and the contemporary lines of the stunning new chairs.
This backyard has been a labour of love over the 16 years we've lived here. It belongs to the house we actually live in, not my veggie garden backyard next door. When we moved in it was all cracked concrete and brick paving, with a big old washing line, a derelict tin shed and an ancient grapevine supported on rickety old scaffolding posts covering half of it.
These days it's a tiny, lush oasis in the midst of the crowded workers cottages and narrow streets of our inner city suburb. Many of the plants have been with us for years, or inherited or gifted by friends and neighbours. Almost all are in pots. The lush bamboo screening the back wall was bought from the Botanic Gardens plant sale, just a stick in a pot, when we first arrived in Australia in 1997. A neighbour from up the road had 2 olive trees too many for her place and we snapped them up. The largest palm, a Strelitzia Nicolai / giant bird of paradise was adopted from out next door neighbours when they first moved in and re-did their front garden. It's massive now. You should have seen the palaver when we re-potted it last year! 
We have built this place organically, over many years. There were no designer plans or instant transformations. We created this ourselves, and I love it the more for that. I love sitting out here, under the shady tree. It's my happy place.

Breeze Highback chairs by Cane-line from Casualife, African timber side tables from Fenton & Fenton

An eclectic mix of plants; View of the house from my chair; View of the sky from my chair.

Breakfast; Succulents; Cacti and succulents - Mr.B's babies.

Scenes from The Dog Park - A Parallel Universe

When everyone has left the house each morning, Annie and I enter another world. It's a secret world unknown to those who have important places to go - our local off-leash dog park. We spend an hour or so in another dimension with a sort of informal dog walking 'club'. Our obedience trainer and her gentle and dignified German Shepherd, Sara, walk here daily. Many of her training 'pupils' and other doggy people she's met over the years, her 'groupies', gather every day for relaxed conversation and rambling about the park whilst the dogs all rush about, socialising and being active. We can meet forty dogs here some days. Joyful chaos.
We've met every type of dog imaginable. Last week we laughed at Monty, a young Bernese Mountain dog, playing with Winston, a Shitzu mix pup. Little and Large, a comedy duo. There are Great Danes and Chihuahuas, pedigree dogs and bitzers like Annie. There's even a Pit Bull terrier who visits occasionally - an awesome presence, but even tempered and well-behaved. A credit to his owner. We once met the most unusual pair, Pharoah hounds, also known as Maltese Rabbit dogs. They look like Anubis, the Egyptian dog headed god. I'm learning a lot about dogs.
It's been great for Annie, who was not well socialised when she came to us. She has grown to be comfortable and confident around other dogs, and has made some firm friends and playmates here. It's been great for me, as a first time dog owner, to hear everyone's doggy experiences and kindly advice.
The other unexpected and delightful outcome of what could be considered a chore, is that I've made friends and acquaintances way outside my usual social circle, and have amusing anecdotes and gossip to tell Mr. B on a daily basis.
People in every stage of life from their 20's to their 80's turn up unfailingly and chat about last night's TV, sport, politics, religion, and of course, dogs, all the subjects off-limits at a dinner party.

See you later - Annie can't wait a moment longer; Chase me, Henry!

A cool guy in his 20's, looking the worse for wear after a night of clubbing, may be talking to a lady in her 80's about the latest political stuff-up. I'm talking to an anaesthetist, about scuba diving in The Galapagos Islands, where he's just been. A couple of ladies of a certain age are chatting about last night's episode of the BBC series Broadchurch. These ladies love a murder mystery - quite bloodthirsty. A particularly lovely lady encouraged me to harvest and preserve my olives. She even brought me her recipe.
Of course everyone's different, and some quite opinionated. There have been heated discussions with passions running high, but it's a bit different here it seems. All is forgiven and forgotten by the next day. Someone said to me last week 'What happens in the dog park stays in the dog park'. He was talking about dog's behaviour, but I see a parallel. There are a lot of kind and clever people here.

Let's rumble - Winston gets Minter on the ground whilst onlookers gather round.

I've breathed a lot of fresh air, learned a lot of things and  met a lot of people in this park. Annie and I turn up every day, and hate missing even one episode. It seems that nothing is off-limits for discussion, and honest opinions can be aired. It must be healthy. Maybe it's this particular setting, slightly apart from real life - a parallel universe.

The park matriarch - the gentle and dignified Sara.

Jamie's Tomato Chutney

After having picked a little over 2 and a half kilos of tomatoes in one go last Friday, then even more over the weekend, I officially pronounced a glut. Today I decided to make Jamie Oliver's Easy Tomato Chutney.
I made this last year and it was so delicious that the girls were hanging around the kitchen drooling this afternoon. Miss E even wanted to help, which is rare, and then asked to lick the bowl. Anyone would have thought I was making chocolate cake.
It really is super easy, absolutely yummy in a sticky, sweet, jammy way, and just gorgeous with a bit of toast and cheddar. The only downside is that it only keeps for up to 4 weeks in the fridge, not for years like your granny's.
Here's the recipe. It makes 1 jar. I made 3 times the amount. Try it. Thanks Jamie!

250g red onions, finely sliced.
500g mixed tomatoes, roughly chopped.
1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced.
75ml red wine vinegar.
140g brown sugar.

Put everything in a pan. Season to taste and give it all a good stir.
Bring to the boil over a medium heat and simmer until it's a jammy consistency. Jamie says 30 - 40 minutes, but mine took longer. You may need to lower the heat. Keep your eye on it so it doesn't burn and catch on the bottom of the pan as the burnt taste will spoil the chutney (I did this last year). It will be a dark, rich red colour and reduced by about half.
Pour into a sterilised jar and leave to cool before transferring to the fridge.
It will keep in the fridge for up to 4 weeks, Jamie says, but I doubt mine will last that long.