Day 139: Banoffee pancakes

If there is one night in the whole week that justifies a dessert like Banoffee pancakes then it’s a Friday night. As I mentioned yesterday, Dear Husband has turned a Friday night into CTM night (that’s Chicken tika masala, just to remind you). That said, I just had to blitz out another dessert. I also had to use up the remainder of the dulce de leche from the Banoffee pots from the other night. Well, I too hate wasting food so everything needs to be used!

To make the pancakes, I sifted self-raising flour into a bowl and added caster sugar, a beaten egg and milk. I brought it together and then dolloped four pancakes onto a frying pan with melted butter in it. When making pancakes, I always use an ice-cream scoop so that each pancake is the same size. That wee trick is extremely handy on a Sunday morning when I so often make pancakes stacked one on top of the other with bacon and maple syrup. Anyway, getting back to tonight, once the pancakes were ready, I served them with some freshly whipped cream, dulce de leche and sliced banana. Oh, and a big cup of Barry’s tea, of course.

The verdict…

I’m not sure if I should tell you Dear Husband's verdict. Ah, what the heck, of course I will. I have to! He reckoned that maybe the dessert didn’t go with the CTM. He gave the recipe 5 marks out of 10. To be honest, I think he just associates pancakes with Sunday morning breakfast and I think I’m the same which is why I can’t really fault his verdict of 5 marks when that’s exactly the same score that I gave the recipe also. The pancake mix is the exact same pancake mix I use from Rachel’s other book Rachel’s Favourite Food so there is nothing for me personally to really differentiate between the two. It really is a great pancake mix though albeit for breakfast.  

Overall, it was an extremely easy recipe to make but, in all honesty, I don’t think I’ll make this particular version of pancakes again. I’ll stick to pancakes on a Sunday morning with bacon and maple syrup for Dear Husband and Dear Son and the plain pancake mix for me and Baby Daughter which is what we’ve become accustomed to on a Sunday. Therefore, sorry Banoffee pancake recipe - you haven't made The List.

On another note, last week, I slowly came to the realisation that I am well and truly through a substantial part of this Challenge and I always had it in the back of my mind that when I do get to the inevitable end, I’m going to do something special. So even though ‘something special’ would (ideally) involve me getting a brand new kitchen (I have dreamt up my dream kitchen many a time!), I settled on something much more realistic – or so I thought. But I’m telling you, whenever I do get a new kitchen, I really am going to town with it and have every gadget under the sun in it. I do love gadgets and I absolutely love kitches! Anyway, I decided that I’d book dinner in MacNean House in Blacklion, Cavan which, as many of you already know, is owned by renowned chef Neven Maguire. So, there I went onto the iPad to Google it, arrived at the website only to see the message along the lines that (as of 3 September 2012) they were now taking bookings for the first half of 2013! Uh oh, I really am going to have to wait for this dinner, I thought. I had heard Neven on the Ray D’arcy Show earlier this year and clearly remembered him mentioning about a waiting list so I was kind of prepared. So, I picked up the phone and dialled; it was engaged so although I would usually ring and ring and ring until the person at the other end picks up, I just left a message. I pondered how long it would take for them to phone me back (I'm not exactly the patient kind) but I was pleasantly surprised that Andrea (who was lovely on the phone) rang me back within about 20 minutes. I politely said to her that it would probably be easier if she could tell me the next Saturday night that they would have a table available but I was shocked to learn that it would be Saturday, 16 March 2013. I then asked if they had anything on a Friday night and she said they had a table in February and it just so happened that they had a table on the night of my birthday so I took it as fate and booked the table. I am lucky in 2013 you see as my birthday is at the weekend (instead of during the week) which means that Dear Husband can’t do what I call the “two-for-one meal deal”. What’s the “two-for-one meal deal” you ask?  Ok, here’s the low-down. My birthday is in February as is, of course, Valentine’s Day. My birthday is the week before Valentine’s and both days are more often than not week days; therefore, in the weekend in between my birthday and Valentine’s, we end up going out that Saturday night for my birthday and Valentine’s; hence, the name “the two-for-one weekend”. I have such fun every year with that one. Around that time of year, I regale everyone who comes into our house about the “two-for-one” because, the best part is, if I really, really wanted to go out both nights, Dear Husband would instantly oblige; however, the real reason is that I have a rule whereby I don’t go out on weeknights but sure, where would be the fun in telling people that?!  :)