Banana bread

I have just bought a new* copy of the House and Garden Cookbook (Octopus, 1987), edited by Alice Wooledge Salmon. Online.  It is well out of print.

It is an odd thing for me to buy, perhaps; it was done on impulse: I was only checking the title of the book for this post, and then found copies of it available. I have just about internalized its contents. I can see its pages as I type this. The book lives in my mother's considerable kitchen bookcase and I can't count the number of recipes we've adopted from it as our own: yellow pepper soup with buttermilk,  gateau Victoire au chocolat, prosecco jellies, tomato roulade, off the top of my head. Lunch Under the Tree** classics, every one.

If you come to own it, I think it will become one of your favourites, too.  I love the way it is layed out, the themes within it, and what I remember of the photography.

This banana and macadamia nut bread comes from it, too. Another reason to purchase a copy. Wholewheat and white flour, sour cream, bananas, the nuts, and coriander. It is wonderful. In November I add cranberries to the batter.

* I notice that the remaining new copies at Amazon have been sold since I posted this. Used copies are still available there, or try a Web search for other sources.

**Lunches Under the Tree (Down the Ages):

The Collinses come to Visit
The Frenchman's Trial by Lunch
The First Blogger's Lunch
Tweede Nuwe Jaar
My Mother Cooks, I do Flowers and Table
Lunch for Three