birthday meals and afternoon teas - in pictures

Oops have been away for a while, sorry! Worry not, I am in the best of health - despite being more lumpy than the average person - and have been catching up with a lot of lovely people, including going for a meal for Jess's birthday last night. I was rather inspired by the risotto di verdure I had; it came with pretty much every green vegetable you can think of, and parmesan and cream. Here is the obligatory food pic to show you how green it was:


and here are we!


I AM behaving myself quite well on the alcohol front, possibly for the first time in my life. You are free to express your amazement... Had a glass of red wine last night but apart from that (and a G&T at lunchtime today - blame Georgina) I haven't really wanted to drink. There's no reason why I can't drink from 48 hours after chemo, but I just feel as though my liver has enough to do without trying to process Merlot as well.

Today the aforementioned Georgina came over for lunch and afternoon tea in the garden - as did my uncle and aunt and wee baby cousin (who is now 5 and would probably kick me for calling him a baby). We stuffed ourselves with scones and tea and clotted cream and I was annoying and took lots of photos of everybody. Small selection below:

clotted cream - mmm artery-clogging!

The star of the show was however the chocolate banana bread that Georgina and I made. It made a fashionably late appearance due to a loooonnnng baking time but goodness me it was popular! It was a bit crumbly because we couldn't wait for it to cool before we sliced it - in fact it was kind of grabbed at and eaten in hunks...

We used a recipe by Molly at Orangette but crossed it with a Gluten Free Girl chocolate banana bread recipe, and added white chocolate chunks (inspired by a wonderful-smelling but sadly gluten-y version at Atlas deli, which Georgina ate while I watched jealously and dribbled a little). Here is the result...

Sorry for the transatlantic "cups" instead of plain old English weights, but they're honestly not tricky to use - just get something say the size of a Moomin mug and make sure you use that one to measure everything out.

1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 ripe/practically black medium-size bananas
2 spoonfuls natural yoghurt
1 cup Dove Farm self-raising gluten-free flour
1 cup Juvela GF bread mix (no reason why you couldn't use 2 cups of either, but I wanted to mix it up a little).
1 tsp baking powder
2 large heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 cup white chocolate, cut into chunks
½ cup dark chocolate chips
a handful of ground almonds for the hell of it
Small chunks of candied ginger - as much or as little as you like, but do put some in because it is SOOOO GOOD.

Erm what did we do next....

1. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla in a food processor because that is the best part and you get to eat some when it ACCIDENTALLY goes up the side. Then add the egg and beat some more.
   
2. Mush the bananas in a bowl with some yogurt (pretending that they are Hodgkin's lymphoma and you are ABVD splatter splatter DIE!!! ahem if you are normal you can omit this role-play). Add to the food processor and whizz.
   
3. Mix the flours & ground almonds, baking powder and cocoa powder together in another bowl, then add them bit by bit to the rest of the mixture.
4. Fold in the chocolate chunks and chips, and the candied ginger.
   
5. Empty out into a lined loaf pan, stud the top with walnuts, and then lick the bowl.
6. Bake in the oven at 170°C for agesssssss - it must have been an hour - until a skewer comes out clean. You might want to put a bit of tin foil over the top to prevent the cake coming out too brown - ours was maybe slightly burnt-looking, but no-one cared because it tasted buonissimo.

I really think I should stop talking about food - have just had Welsh rarebit/rabbit/whatever with the family, and eating is now over for the day. I feel quite sad. So moving on! To side-effects from chemo-schmemo. These have pretty much all gone now, except for a few odd pains in the drip arm, a bit like when the dacarbazine was going in. Not entirely sure what they are; phlebitis maybe!? The appetite is most evidently back, and I still have all my hair.

Am slightly nervous about next Thursday already but trying to stay positive and not psych myself into being sick BEFORE the chemo, which is apparently surprisingly easy. Any ideas for chemo entertainment welcome - so far I am planning on making father dress up as a jester and dance for my amusement.