nature's candy

After another raucous double header, featuring highly sociable Friday and Saturday nights, this afternoon it's been nice to relax and recover. I made my friend Ryan afghans while we listened to the new Jakob Dylan album, and the new one by Damien Rice. Having spent most of yesterday drinking $8 bottles of Jacob's Creek sparkling with strawberries, I thoroughly enjoyed my vege feast from Fidels on Cuba St this morning.

 There's roast tomato, thyme cooked mushrooms, a crispy shelled homemade hash brown and a big ol' pile of spinach under them there scrambled eggs. It really hit the spot. While making afghans I quite fancied a banana smoothie - so often in cafes they're bland and overpriced, and I reckon my recipe rules. Perusing my latest Dish magazine, I announced that berries are nature's candy. I've declared grapes nature's candy before, but Ryan disagrees. He stands by bananas being the true nature's candy. I remain unconvinced, but if you've got some overripe bananas in your freezer and don't feel like baking them , they're perfect in smoothies because you don't need ice.

Banana Smoothie
1 frozen or fresh banana
A couple of tablespoons of tinned crushed pineappple, with a little juice
A little vanilla ice cream, or yoghurt if you have either snouting around
A dash of runny honey
A little pinch of cinnamon
A drop of vanilla
Milk

Put all ingredients in a blender, then add milk - but not too much. It depends on how thick you like your smoothies. Blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Ryan is self-proclaimed food trash, and wasn't going to have one because of the pineapple, but I bullied him into trying it and even he said it was delicious. Not as good as the afghans apparently, but a nice healthy alternative to chocolate milk (sort of) when hungover and craving dairy. I'm now going to whip up some strawberry mascarpone tarts to take to my friend Claire's for dinner. And on the blog this week? My wine matched degustation dinner at the Tasting Room, Toast Owhiro, cheap malaysian and stories of my dilemma with lamb. Watch this space.