Do you remember Sunday mornings as a teenager? You kind of drag yourself out of bed, you can’t really focus, and you don’t feel like talking. You’re moving, hunting for food, but really you are still asleep.
Every Sunday at my place I entered our kitchen in this state and was greeted by a loud and cheery ‘Morning!’, followed by a sip of his coffee and an amusing story about what had happened around town the night before.
If it got to 9am and we hadn’t seen him we started to worry.
He lived around the corner from us and appeared at our house every morning and night. He went to school with my Mum and was a little tormented by my Dad; he would never have thought back then they would grow up to be such close friends.
There are no words that can encapsulate this man. He can be happy and sad, laughing and crying, and driving you crazy while you are enjoying his company. I think my favourite memory of him is when he came to our wedding.
We had a small wedding. Writing the invitation list was hard. We had lived in many states and everyone who was attending, including us, would need to travel. The man I speak of and his lovely wife accepted the invitation and did the trek. We are so glad they did.
Our wedding was more of a five day event. All the guests arrived Wednesday and stayed through to Sunday. My old neighbour scarcely knew a soul. All the more fun I suspect.
By the Saturday he had well acquainted himself with every corner of the crew.
One of the highlights of my wedding is when he took over the microphone at 6pm to sing ‘Coward of the County’ to everyone. I loved it! It felt like a little of my hometown was with me.
He certainly was, and so often is, the life of the party. One of my friends came up to me on the Sunday after our wedding, pointed to my old neighbour and said ‘he should hire himself out!’ He had kept everyone well and truly amused and ensured a great time was had by all.
However, behind every good man is a good woman and I can’t help thinking that they just don’t make them like they used to. His wife is the tiniest thing I have ever seen, but she is an incredibly strong, gorgeous, hard working lady and an exceptional Mother with a heart of gold. I love this man to pieces but how she has survived a lifetime with him I will never know. Bless her. I hope she has reached an age where she can simply laugh at his antics and leave the rest behind.
Every memory I have of you makes me smile. Be it the Sunday morning you spontaneously combusted into tears when ‘Teddy Bear’ came onto the radio, or the many days when Dad would get frustrated trying to get away from you so that he could get some work done. The more frustrated Dad became the louder you, myself and Mum would laugh! I am looking forward to getting back and having a cuppa with you and catching up with your wife. I suspect you may be in your prime, all your kids grown, the grandkids around, I reckon you’d be enjoying this phase of life.
You’re a good man with a good heart and its always been fun having you around.
Slap Dash Hot Cross Buns
ok, they are really hot cross bun inspired muffins
juice 1/2 an orange
1/2 cup currants
1 tablespoon honey
3 ripe bananas (400 grams)
zest of one orange (1 tablespoon)
1/2 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/4 cup arrowroot flour, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon concentrated natural vanilla extract
2 teaspoons mixed spice
4 eggs
1 tablespoon macadamia oil
syrup
juice 1/2 an orange
1 tablespoon honey
Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Grease a twelve hole muffin tray.
Place the 1/2 cup of orange juice and currants in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and leave it for 5 minutes while you start the muffins.
Place the bananas into your food processor and pulse until smooth, add the flours, pulse to combine, add the eggs, vanilla, salt, spice and zest, pulse to combine. Add the oil, combine. Add the honey and bicarb to the currant mixture, stir to combine. Add this to the cake batter. Combine. Spoon the mixture evenly into your muffin holes and bake for 25 minutes.
Once the muffins have been in the oven for 20 minutes start making your syrup.
Bring the orange juice and honey to the boil, once it is bubbly and frothy stir it for a couple of minutes. Turn off the heat. The longer the syrup sits the thicker it will become. Spoon the syrup over your hot muffins and leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tray. These muffins are fabulous eaten right away. However, they are still delicious the next day, when the syrup has set. My family love tucking into them for breakfast on the weekends. Enjoy.
You can make these with a bowl and spoon or a mix master or beaters, simply mash your banana first.