These are photos

 
This applesauce bread-that?s-a-bit-cakey is based on my original vegan banana bread recipe from my first cookbook, A Girl Called Jack. Photographs of that banana bread are sent to me on a near-daily basis, with an especial flurry at weekends, and I am delighted to receive them. It remains one of my favourite recipes, but every now and again a reader gets in touch to say that they just really don?t like bananas. At all. It seemed a shame not to share the simplicity and deliciousness of one of my favourite recipes with bananaphobes, so, I set about creating one just as simple, with Something Else.

The Something Else turned out to be applesauce, made from stewing apples ? this can be cheated in the microwave for an even simpler version, or use a jar of shop-bought apple sauce.

As this is a yeast-free and quite dense bread, it will work well with gluten free flour, simply add a splash of water, and then another, towards the end, and mix in well to form the dough. Gluten free flour tends to need more liquid than its regular counterparts.

As ever, my ingredients are costed at Sainsburys because that is the closest supermarket to where I live, but others have similar ingredients at similar prices. If you find an amazing bargain ingredient, please comment and let us all know!

Serves 8 in chunky squares or slices, 9p each.

2 small apples, any kind will do, 40p (80p/4, Basics)

1 tbsp bottled lemon juice, 3p (50p/250ml)

100ml vegetable or sunflower oil, 10p (£3/3l)

225g plain flour, 8p (Basics, 55p/1.5kg)

1 1/2 level tsp bicarb, 3p (85p/180g)

1 tsp ground cinnamon, depending on taste, 7p (Fairtrade, £1/38g)

optional: a generous handful of sultanas or mixed dried peel

First dice your apples, I leave the skin on mine with a quick wash under the tap, as there is fibre in the skin and a lot of the vitamins reportedly sit just beneath. You won?t notice it anyway, as it will be mushed down and baked into a loaf! Toss them into a pan with 1 tbsp lemon juice to stop them from browning. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for around 20 minutes or until softened.

Preheat your oven to 180C and lightly grease a loaf tin. (If you don?t have a loaf tin, a cake tin will do,  or even a baking tray).

Take a large mixing bowl and add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. I have deliberately not put sugar in this recipe as I find the small cheap apples sweet enough, but if you have a cooking apple or a more tart variety, you might want to add 2 tbsp sugar to the mix. Stir it all together to evenly distribute. 

Remove the apples from the heat and drain any excess water. Leave it to one side in case you need it later ? not all dough is created equal and this water will be apple-flavoured! Mash the apples with a fork, adding the oil to create a loose applesauce mixture.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour in the applesauce. Mix well to form a thick batter, adding a splash of the reserved apple-water if necessary. It should be reasonably stiff to stir but not dry and cracking.

Dollop the dough into your vessel of choice ? loaf tin, cake tin or on a baking tray. If using a baking tray, flour your hands well and roughly shape your batter to hold it together somewhat. Err on the side of tall and round as it may spread as well as rise.

Pop it into the oven for 40 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

And enjoy!

Jack Monroe. I am on Instagram and Twitter at @MxJackMonroe and my recipe books are available to buy here,

here in the manual

Last night I fancied a curry, a nice hot curry to warm the very cockles of my draughty flat, but like so many evenings of the dreaded ?cooking for one?, I just couldn?t decide what curry to have. I opened the fridge, glowered at a bunch of onions and a handful of mushrooms, and took to Twitter with a poll. It?s my new favourite way of, to coin a phrase, Making Your Mind Up. (I challenge you, Brits of a certain age, to not take that on as an earworm now. I make no apologies.)

The poll returned me a mushroom rogan josh over a korma or vindaloo, and I set about making it. Recipes online vary wildly, from the eyebrow-raising ?take a jar of madras paste? on the BBC Good Food website, to paprika, to Jamie Oliver?s cloves and allsorts. I picked all the bits I liked from about seven different recipes, made it vegan, adjusted it to taste as I went along, and when done, carried the pan to bed and devoured the lot.

Here?s my mushroom rogan josh, so delicious that I had it cold for breakfast this morning, smeared on toast with a fistful of spinach, too.

Serves 4 at 26p each (or would have done, if I wasn?t such a chomper). All prices Sainsburys, Basics range where available, as that?s where I shop. I do get spices from a brilliant ethnic grocer, but don?t expect you all to make the trip to Southend for them.

2 medium sized onions or one massive one, 9p (70p/1.5kg Basics)
4 fat cloves of garlic, 8p (30p/2 bulbs Basics)
4 cardamom pods, 10p (£1/28g)
2 tbsp oil, 3p (£3/3l sunflower oil)
1 tsp coriander/dhaniya powder (£1/ )
½ tsp turmeric, 2p (£1/48g Fairtrade)
a few pinches of cinnamon, 1p (£1/45g)
a few pinches of chilli flakes, to taste, 1p (£1/42g)
200g mushrooms, 45p ( 90p/400g Basics)
400g chopped tomatoes, 35p (35p/400g Basics)
a fistful of fresh coriander, or parsley if cori isn?t your thing, 10p (80p/28g)
50ml coconut cream/full fat coconut milk/coconut yoghurt/you get the drift, 18p (90p/250g coconut cream) (not essential but good to temper the spice if cooking for young mouths or people with less of a tolerance for the hot stuff. Non vegans can replace it with natural yoghurt)

First peel and finely slice your onions, and peel and smash up your garlic. This has a relatively long cooking time for one of my recipes, so you can just lay the garlic on the worktop, place the fattest knife you have flat across it, and firmly drive the heel of your palm down to crush it. Please be careful. Please don?t drive your palm into the sharp bit. Please chop it in a regular fashion if you have any concerns about this. Finding a soft, creamy, still-slightly-pungent broken clove of garlic in my dinner is one of my favourite foodie delights, but if you feel differently about this, chop it up finely.

Regardless, throw the onions and garlic into a pan. Break the cardamon pods (see garlic method above, or carefully halve them with a sharp knife) and release the seeds. If you don?t have cardamom, a just-as-good substitute would be star anise, fennel seed or caraway, but just a little.

Add the oil and bring to a medium heat to warm the pan through. Stir to disturb and stop the onions from burning, and inhale as the cardamom seeds toast, pop and release their delicate, heady fragrance. You deserve this. Love yourself. Treat yourself. Enjoy. I find cooking for one such an indulgent pleasure, such a selfish moment, a treat. Those of you who follow me on Instagram will have noticed I often cook very late at night, when the boy-child is sleeping, when the last emails have been answered, when peace has been restored to my chaotic home, I stand over my hob and delight in the selfish pleasure of satisfying my senses, one by one by one.

Give it all a few minutes, and when the onion starts to soften, add the remaining spices. In goes the dhaniya, the turmeric, the cinnamon, a pinch of salt, a crack of pepper, with a stir. Slice your mushrooms and toss them in, coat them in the spices, and let those, too, soften for a moment.

Pour over the tomatoes, add 150ml water, and stir. Bring to a bubbling boil, then reduce back down to a simmer. If you?re cooking rice with it, now would be a good time to pop that on. (For what it?s worth, I cook my rice with a few pinches of turmeric, cinnamon, and a fistful of sultanas. Sometimes I add a cardamom pod or star anise or two, sometimes stir through coconut milk or cream at the end to make a sticky kind-of-pilau-risotto. Sometimes it takes a bunch of spinach, parsley or coriander for colour and goodness, other times I leave it yellow and glorious.)

Cook until the sauce has thickened, around 20 minutes, and then taste it. Add salt if you like it, a dash of lemon to brighten it, and serve with a dollop of coconut cream on top.

Jack Monroe. I?m on Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr @MxJackMonroe

This BritMums Affiliate Marketing Masterclass is sponsored by affilinet.

Affiliate marketing is a way that many blogger and social influencers highlight products and services to their readers while also making the most of their relationship with their loyal readers. Our Affiliate Marketing Masterclass, presented with and sponsored by affilinet, tells you all about how affiliate marketing works and how affilinet can help you.

This second instalment describes what an affiliate marketing network is and its role.

Affiliate Marketing Masterclass:
Instalment 1? What is affiliate marketing and how does it work?

 

What is an affiliate marketing network?

?A type of ad technology business that works with thousands of publishers from newbie bloggers to very large portals, and supports the development of relationships with advertisers of all sizes.?

An affiliate network acts as the intermediary between Publishers and Advertisers. Networks handle fundamentals such as payments, tracking transactions and provide a consultancy service to both parties. Networks are the facilitators, working with advertisers and publishers to nurture mutually beneficial partnerships, which could be either individual relationships or a more automated approach (which we?ll address in another Masterclass article).

For publishers ? like yourself ? this means an affiliate network is a one-stop shop for all your affiliate needs, including suggesting potential commercial partners, invoicing and more!

Affiliate networks also provide you with all your reporting requirements, so you?re able to see exactly what is going on with your affiliate activity. If you?re used to using Google Analytics, then you should have no problems navigating round a network reporting interface. We will be covering reporting in more detail later in the series.

For advertisers, working with a network gives them access to a pool of quality publishers ready to promote their brand.

Why work with a network?

Not only does the affiliate network have all of the above; they have knowledgeable teams who know how to help publishers generate and nurture a new stream of revenue. They also make sure that the advertising does not impair the credibility of the publisher?s site, especially when it comes to content publishers like you.

Who are affilinet?

affilinet is a performance marketing network, founded in 1997 and owned by digital business giant United Internet Group. Our offices in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands offer local insight as well as international reach when required.

Our advertising platform automates display and native advertising for thousands of publishers from bloggers to large online portals. We also handle administrative tasks such as invoicing and payment, so bloggers can concentrate on what they?re best at; creating fresh, compelling content for their readers.

Look for the next instalment of the Affiliate Marketing Masterclass the second week in February. Got questions? Let us know and we?ll get answers!

What?s next?

To find out more about what you can do with affiliate marketing and how to work with affilinet click here.

To sign up to affilinet and start making money from your blog click here.

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Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Demi Moore, Brian Cox, Michael Wincott, and Aaron Poole star in Forsaken.

In 1872, JOHN HENRY CLAYTON (Kiefer Sutherland) retires as a gunfighter and returns to his hometown of Fowler, Wyoming in hope of repairing his relationship with his estranged father, REVEREND CLAYTON (Donald Sutherland). However, he soon learns that the town is in turmoil, as the railroad will be coming through the area and a criminal gang is terrorizing ranchers who refuse to sell their land. John Henry is the only one who can stop them, but his father does not want his son to return to a life of violence.

Jon Cassar directs the film which opens in the US on 19th February 2016.

News

News on the net

Emma Bailey, who blogs at My Pretty Mummy, asks ?Is this the end of the photo album??

When I was a child, we had a bookshelf in our living room, and on the bottom shelf was a row of photo albums. Every so often, my mum would pull one out, blow off the dust, and we would peer over all the grainy, out of focus, old family photos from when we were little. Each page revealed slightly discoloured but precious memories. Each printed photo had been timestakingly placed in its slot, with a little note scribbled next to it. Isle of Wight / 1992 / First family holiday not in a caravan?or something along those lines.

Flash forward 20 years and the age of the photo album has gone. We live in a digital world, and capturing memories has never been easier. In an age where every piece of technology comes with a camera attached, we are using social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and even blogs as our personal modern day family photo albums. And it?s great!

Memories can be captured in an instant, as they happen, and shared with everyone at the click of a button (or swipe of an iPhone). My Facebook photo albums store my entire family?s life, from the day my youngest started to walk, to her first day at nursery, to meeting her baby brother for the first time. My Instagram feed is full of those fleeting, too-quick-for-a-proper-camera pictures, easily edited so instead of looking grainy and blurred, they are arty and cool. More importantly, my house is not full of a hundred photo albums filled with pictures gathering dust and ageing in the corners.

Where my pictures are now

The platform I use most to store my most precious family moments is my blog. I started it when I was pregnant with my first child and have captured every single important step in our families lives since. It?s become my personal and most important online photo album. Those tiny scribbles you used to see in your parents albums have transformed into longer, more honest posts which encapsulate exactly what I was feeling at the time the photos were taken.

We of course have some printed photos in our home: a few favourites from our wedding day, a couple of our favourite pictures of our children hung in the living room. But I will always love posting my photos online the most, because I can share them. I can share them with family, friends and anyone else I choose. Although my blog and Instagram are public, they don?t have to be. Sharing photos of your children with others is a choice, and a different debate. But the fact that my children?s grandparents can instantly see a photo of my daughter dressed up in her school uniform on her first day of school is priceless to me.

So goodbye grainy, dusty old photo albums. You will not be missed!

Emma is a mum to Alice, 3, and Thomas, 1. She is a blogger and vlogger and writes at My Pretty Mummy.

What do you think about the transition from printed photos to digital ones? Do you miss old-style photo albums?or do you still use them? Share your thoughts!

relief

About

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