FLEEGLE, BINGO, DROOPER AND SNORKY...

Are you old enough to remember The Banana Splits? Which one was your favourite?

I must admit to Fleegle being mine. I wonder if it was the ears??? Or might it have been his fireman's helmet? There is something about a man in uniform...

For those of you who claim to be too young to remember, the Banana Splits were a fantastic, if rather disturbing, bunch of animals (well men in furry suits really), who shared a house and it seemed to me had life pretty much sewn up (excuse the pun).

You can find out everythingyoucouldeverneedtoknowaboutbananasplits by clicking on the following link;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Splits


And now for more banana related musings.

Despite cookery lessons from my mother, baking has never really been my strong suit...

Don't get me wrong, I can just about rustle up an edible meal without the need for hospitalisation, but when it comes to traditional homebaking of cakes, breads and biscuits, I'm just not up to the task in hand.

This wasn't a great help when I found myself with some rather sad looking bananas nestling up to the apples and limes in the fruit bowl. I knew they were pas their best bad when Hubby stopped taking them to work after Wednesday.

So, what does a girl do when faced with such a dilema?



I had already established that blackbirds don't like bananas so in desperation I decided to thumb through my cookery books to see if they held any clues as to what I could make with them.

Hallelujah! Queen Delia Smith came to my rescue with her All In One Banana and Walnut Loaf!

Attracted to the 'all in one' aspect of the recipe I decided that this might just be simple enough for me to try. The less science involved the better chance I stood of some kind of success.

So I began by finding all of the relevant ingredients, well I had most of them, who needs an orange and a lemon zest after all? I chucked in a few sultanas instead (nobody would know) and who really can tell the difference between a large and a medium sized egg? Apart from a chicken?

With simplicity being the watchword, everything just got mixed up a bit and poured into a loaf tin. OK so I had a near miss with the pouring element of the procedure but most of it went in the tin. At least more went in than all over the kitchen surface so that had to be a good thing.

I carefully placed my handywork in the oven, set the timer and waited, and waited and waited. When the buzzer went after 55mins I slowly opened the door to see that it had at least risen. Although it did look rather anaemic. So I shut the door and waited for a further 10mins after which things were looking a lot more promising.

I almost pulled a muscle taking the loaf out of the oven. It was not exactly what you would call lighter than air. I reckon it weighed as much as a housebrick but it did at least look vaguely edible and do you know, when we cut into it the next day I was pretty impressed with myself.

Here's a photo. What do you think?




Feeling hungry? Make your own by checking out Delia's idiot proof recipe below. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Happy Baking!

Hx


http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/banana-and-walnut-loaf,1090,RC.html