Hearts and Crafts

Happy Love Day!
(Start of Love Week, Day 1: Hubby & Craft Love)

This love hedgehog was a happy little handmade felt project gifty
for my lovable hubby on V-Day.

The template can be found here.

xoxox

Martha Stewart's Banana Bread (Gluten-Free)

This comforting and more-ish banana bread stays moist for days; something of a feat for many gluten-free breads. The original, gluten-filled recipe can be found at marthastewart.com.

This was the first recipe where I didn't substitue cup-for-cup with gluten-free flour. Instead, I went and found a site which lists what the weight of a cup of rice flour is versus a cup of normal cake flour (btw, it's quite a bit heavier), and so modified the recipe accordingly. This handy trick allowed rice flour to stand alone as the flour of choice without dragging the recipe down to a heavy end-product. You live and you learn, right.

OR = Original Recipe

Ingredients:

• 113g/1 stick butter (room temp)
• 75g sugar (OR: 1 cup)
• 2 large eggs
• 195g rice flour (OR: 1 and a half cups of cake flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup mashed bananas (very ripe)
• 125ml/half cup buttermilk (OR: 125ml sour cream)
• 1 tsp cinnamon (OR: 1 tsp vanilla)
• 125ml/half cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
  

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (OR: 350 fahrenheit).
2. Butter a loaf pan.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs and beat.
5. Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and mix till just combined.
6. Stir through bananas, buttermilk and nuts.
7. Pour into the prepared loaf tin.
8. Bake for around 1 hour 10 minutes, but start checking from 40 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven when a cake skewer comes out clean, rest in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out to cool.

Substitutions for eggs and nuts:

My thanks to Rahel from TX on her wonderful feedback and tips! Here they are:

- 2 heaping tablespoons of condensed milk in place of the eggs; and

- reducing sugar to 3/4 cup if using the condensed milk; and

- leave out the nuts!

Snapshot-of-life #16

Whatcha doing?
Nothing...just hangin' around.

Snapshot-of-life #15

Colourful postage stamps from a colourful country.

Snapshot-of-life #14

When you're three-and-a-half,
even a stuffed frog dressed in armour
is fair game for a sword fight.

Snapshot-of-life #13

"I'm sorry I missed your last class," she said.

I patted her shoulder and told her that it's ok, she's moving on.
"Just like you," she answered without missing a beat.
And just like that,
the last two years of this chapter of my life drew to a close
and it was time to go.
When one door closes, right...

Snapshot-of-life #12

"What are you drinking?" she asked.
"Cocoa," I answered.

"Ah, lovely. Made with milk and sugar?"
"No, just cocoa powder, water and coconut oil."
The look of disgust told me exactly what I'd always known -
this was a beverage of acquired taste.

Snapshot-of-life #11

The Imogen Heap concert yesterday was

entertaining on so many levels.
A dynamic package of nuttiness and superb talent rolled into one.

Snapshot-of-life #10

The freedom to watch Sunday morning cartoons...
...by choice...
...as child-free adults...
...after a full night of sleep...
...is a thing of beauty.

Snapshot-of-life #9

We grabbed our 6-year old niece's kaleidoscope viewer
and saw each other's smiles in a new way.
The novel way to clone.