Banoffee Pie

Yes, I am aware I said no more baking for a while but some days the only thing that is right and good and decent is caramel. 

Sometimes your day is complicated, confusing and rushed. No matter how hard you try. No matter how organised you believe you are. There are some days when you just end up chasing your own tail. 

But things look brighter when you arrive home and you discover a can of condensed milk and some ripe bananas. 

And just when you think life can't get any better, there is whipped cream too and as you plonk yourself down on the couch and push all the regretful, worrisome episodes of the day to the side...you wonder why things seemed so bleak and overwhelming to begin with.

and that, is the magic of caramel.

Banoffee Pie

Base

1 cup of self-raising flour

1 cup of coconut

100g melted butter

combine ingredients, press into a pan and bake for about 15 minutes

Filling

1 can of condensed milk

2 tablespoons of golden syrup

30g butter

combine ingredients in a saucepan and place on the stove on medium heat. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for around 5 minutes until light golden brown.

Pour mixture on top of prepared base and place in the oven for 15minutes, place in fridge to cool.

Topping

slice some bananas, whip some cream - combine and dollop on top of cooled pie

The Wedding Rant

Yep, it's finally happened - The Wedding Rant. We are in the process of planning to move (of course) and the man of the house sold the bedroom television so now I have been left alone with crazy bride thoughts that have overspilled into a blog post.

Weddings are frightening and exciting things aren't they? Mine seems to have snuck up on me. We got engaged in January 2011. So many people have cute engagement stories. Ours involves moving house.....surprise, surprise - I am only up to my 5th house in 3 years. I was covered in dirt and sweat and had moved about 100 boxes, a fridge and a washing machine, cleaned a house and survived a house inspection. He had spent the entire day flying back to me and our new house. Obviously it was the right time.

We figured we would give ourselves a fair bit of time to plan and save money and set the date for September 29, 2012. On reflection I don't think we did either of those things overly well!

Planning things from far away is tricky. When I organise anything I like to be right there in the middle of it all but so much of this wedding had to be done online, on the phone and in bits and pieces when we managed to get out of the bush and back to reality.

Things got out of hand quickly. I had hardly said yes when we realised we HAD to book a venue and we HAD to organise the ceremony and we HAD to find a decorator and we HAD to start looking for a celebrant and we HAD to invite this person and that person. Weddings are just one massive to-do list of booking things and keeping people happy.

Which is okay, because we are fairly easy going people and like keeping people happy. We are quite organised people and generally book things well in advance and we (he) has pretty good taste and usually book good quality things. And we are actually awesome and suit each other perfectly.

So why am I ranting? Why am I sitting here wondering if it's too late to choose a different wedding dress because, even though I love mine, it might not be right for a beach wedding. Why do I keep dreaming that when my florist arrives with the flowers they are all dead and she tells me over and over, "That's how they come."  Why do I keep thinking about how to explain to my future husband about rolling up the sleeves of his shirt so they don't look bunchy? Why do I only feel good when I am on a treadmill or eating carrot sticks and celery. Do you know what's disgusting? Celery. It's really bad. I keep thinking about my hair - the colour, the length, the style. I don't think I've ever thought about my hair this much.....okay that is a lie but this time it REALLY matters! And the tide. Beach wedding....the tide is something you never think of when you see all the lovely pictures of people in suits and dresses smiling and laughing by the water's edge. The tide is apparently "low" for our wedding day. What does that mean? Is my beach wedding actually going to be a mud wedding?

Okay....I think that's everything that is on my mind at the moment.