last night someone said i don't update this blog often enough for her liking. so, here's that banana bread recipe for anyone who might be out there. knock yourself out people.
oh, and another thing. i remembered last night that keli said i have a lovely small of my back, if there's a way to express that with grammatical precision. i thought that was just fantastic. and i wasn't quite sure what to do with it. so i thought i'd post it on here for safekeeping.
and speaking of grammatical precision, here is a quotation from nick thorpe's book.
"'What does qualification mean?... Grammatically, a qualification limits the meaning of a sentence. And that's what qualifications seem to do to people.'"
there's an incredible book i picked up in a bookstore in dc, called olsson's, actually it was in viriginia, which my friend britt who takes incredible photographs took me to because she used to work for the company and they were going to exhibit some of her work, anyway finding this book was one of those moments where the world shunts on its axis just a smidge and something feels like it clicks into place like that game - with the optimistic title downfall - i had as a kid where you turn cogs to try to get all the little red counters to trickle down from the top to the bottom (does anyone know what i am talking about? and all this on a dry day...only market spice tea for me) anyway this book is amazing and i was reading it in the sun outside common grounds the other day before work and thinking about what the hell my life was all about (see below - this prompted last night's amusements) and wondering why writing about poetry mattered and why sitting with someone who has 24 paracetamol gnawing at their liver in the A&E of the ulster hospital matters and whether it matters more or whether it matters differently and stuff like that
the book is called bodies in motion and at rest: on metaphor and mortality. it is by thomas lynch. and there are just far too many provocative and profound passages to quote. if you come across it, i recommend picking it up.
here's something else instead, from morton flack's first trip to church:
"On the wall is a flag, the Australian flag. There's a reading-stand thing up there, too, and a picture of the baby Jesus. They all look like they're going to a dance or something; all got their best clothes on, and there's me and Mum in our thongs. We sit down at the back. Mr Watkins gives us a little blue book and a big thin book. They got songs in them. Hymns.
'What's hymens means?' I whisper in Mum's ear.
'Hims. It's hims,' she says. A lady is looking at me all read. 'Just old-time songs, Ort.'
Hims. Makes me wanna giggle."
Tim Winton.That Eye, The Sky. London: Picador, 2003. 145
what you need:
100g sultanas
75ml bourbon or dark rum
175g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
half teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar
2 large eggs
4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed
60g chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and floured or with a paper insert
what to do:
Put the sultanas and rum or bourbon in a smallish saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain.
Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3 and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, drained sultanas and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit.
Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 to 1 and a quarter hours. When it's ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.
Makes 8-10 slices
