Sunday 14 April 2013

The Pleasures of Pinning

I suspect it was one of the bloggers I follow who led me to discover Pinterest a couple of years ago. I don't really remember just how it happened that I got started; I was so taken with the idea of 'curating' my own boards. "Yes, but how is it different from bookmarking favourite sites?" I was asked by a friend when I first tried to explain this (at that time) new enthusiasm. "Well for a start there are thumbnails which I find easier to scan through than URLs or phrases and I can follow other users' boards based on the same interests as mine and I find that leads me to sites in ways that Google doesn't." Pinterest has come a long way since then and the little red P button pops up on websites all over the 'net.
I suppose I could have easily entitled this post The Problems of Pinning and talked about the copyright issues - I have had images from this blog pinned and the first I have realised this is when I notice a spike in views of a particular post and pinterest shows on the list of traffic sources.
It is all too easy to keep pinning stuff to read later without checking the original web source, so it doesn't always encourage in depth reading. I am only just getting my magazine clipping habit under control and I seem to have acquired a digital version. Like any other diet, a steady diet of inspiration does you good only if you digest it.
With this in mind, I decided to put some of my pins to  practical use and review or edit my boards. Three bananas in the fruit bowl were getting blacker by the day, challenging me to do something wonderful with them, when I remembered pinning a recipe for Banana Bread.
Even though reading through the ingredients, at first it seemed undo-able with such a US bias, after reading on through the comments and applying a little culinary commonsense, I decided to carry on. The results were great. It turned out to be one of those 'disappearing' cakes though to be honest, most cakes are around here.
I made the following substitions/adjustments
  • For the applesauce I simply added the same quantity of sunflower oil (which I was using for the oil ingredient anyway)
  • For the buttermilk I used half milk, half natural yoghurt
  • For the lemon juice, which I didn't have, I used nothing. As it is mainly to stop the bananas from going brown I got everything else ready first and then mashed the bananas. As they are in a cake batter to be baked would it really matter if they discoloured a little before being cooked?
  • The oven temperature would be 175 deg C.
  • I used 2 small loaf tins 12 X 22 cm and it took 45 minutes before the cakes passed the "skewer comes out clean" test.
  • I stuck to the cup measures as most of my measuring jugs have cup markings at 8 fl oz. Even if US cup measures were any different, because all the ingredients are measured in cups, the important ratio would be maintained.
  • I added half a teaspoon of cardamom powder simply because I have had a bit of a thing for cardamom ever since I had  wonderful Turkish coffee last time I was in Adelaide. I could have used a little more.
Is it the best banana bread ever? Can't say as I haven't made it very often before but I will be checking out the local farmshop to see if they have any age-ing bananas so I don't have to wait too long for them to go brown/black and soft.
Does it keep well? Who knows!

I'm also grateful to Pinterest for helping me to wear my favourite jeans again. (This is in no way related to the cake recipes of course.)
Firstly for the idea of sewing elastic into the back of the waistband to stop them gaping. This is a problem I often find with jeans and trousers so I was glad to give this a try.
And it works and is very comfortable. I made sure not to stitch over the centre back belt loop so I can still wear a belt if I want to. At least now I don't have to.
The other problem was the zip not staying up. This was a problem right from the start and had I not bought them and then gone to Oz for two months I would have returned them to the store. By the time I got back, the return-by date had gone and I had resigned myself to wearing thigh length shirts and sweaters. Then I found this idea of using the ring from a keyring through the slider so that it could be slipped over the button and stay up. I suppose you could also use a loop of  strong yarn for this.
Both of them are "why didn't I think of that" ideas and I am very glad that somebody else did and passed them on.
So thanks Pinterest, for the help and the fun.


1 comment:

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