A Berry Good Day.

Its raining, its pouring. Well not quite, it's sprinkling at the moment. The few heavy falls we had overnight were much needed  though it rained on the parade (s'cuse the pun) of a couple of family members who were hoping for a motorbike ride today.

For me, it's tucked up inside and having a quiet day I think. The dog is curled up in her little bed beside me in the office and it's looking like it could be time to put the fire on soon.

I made a Berry Clafoutis a few weeks ago; might just make another for desert tonight. It's a nice warm desert on a cold and rainy night. Lovely with cream or ice cream.

Can recommend this Banana and Raspberry bread.
I was very good and had just one - no - two pieces. I sliced the rest and individually wrapped half and popped them in the freezer. It freezes beautifully.





Ingredients.
150g butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 ripe bananas, mashed (1 cup)
2 cups S.R. flour
1 T.spoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen. - thaw frozen on  paper towel before using)

Method.
Preheat oven to 180c.   Grease and line loaf tin.
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating mixture after each egg.
Stir in mashed banana. Sift flour and baking powder over banana. Stir until just combined. Add raspberries.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Check skewer comes out clean. Cool in tin for 10 minutes then lift out and cool on wire rack. YUM!

Mid-Winter???

Arrggghhhhh!! Don't you hate it when you write a long post and it disappears into the ether!? I've been up since 4am so I guess I can excuse myself - I obviously hit the wrong button.

It's hard to believe we're in mid-winter as the weather has been gorgeous; 24 here yesterday! We've had weeks of day time temps of around 20c and though it dips overnight it hasn't been too bad. Winter popped in for a quick visit the night before last- it was only 2c here so quite chilly when I got up. We had a small frost, only the second since we moved here almost 4 years ago. It can get cold enough but seeing we live on a rise or at least a small hill, usually a breeze keeps the frosts away. I remember growing up in an area where the ground would be thick with frost and the water pipes would freeze overnight! Our hands and feet would sting with the cold. My father told me oranges need a couple of good frosts to sweeten then so I was thrilled to see the white ground. No frost today though; it was 11 when I got up and it's quite windy.

Our mini frost.












It was a perfect yard day yesterday so edges were snipped and I whizzed about for a few hours on the "dear oh dear" (the John Deere ride -on mower) We got a trailer load of "woof wood" (Mark says that's the noise it makes when it catches alight. lol) and it's all stacked ready to go. We moved branches that had been blown down by a wind and stacked it ready for a bonfire. We might wait until Jordan returns from Canada and have the family out for dinner and a sit around the fire.

We had a guy move the container for us this week in preparation for another shed to be built. There's always something going on!

Today is gardening, planting and making a few pizza bases to freeze. In this weather I usually sit the dough in a window to rise. :) The wind has gotten up quite strongly now though the sun is still out and a visitor who's just dropped in for a morning coffee tells us the weather is supposed to turn nasty this afternoon. Best finish this and get outside to start the day.