Date Nut Bread and No Looking Back

Possibly the last baking of the year, a date nut bread thing.  Some now reposing in the freezer for the next invitee to afternoon tea.  Some in the fridge for me to eat at whatever meal I think fits.  Could be breakfast, late night, mid afternoon, no rules on this.

Showing you here in the cast iron pan I swear by for baking.  I took a slice out to show you the crumb, nice texture, and to demonstrate how cleanly it comes out of the pan.  

The recipe is adapted from the one I use for my trusty standby banana bread, from the Sunset recipe book from the 90s, held together with masking tape and rubber bands.  Instead of bananas, which I didn't have, I used dates, which I did.  I'd already done all the work on soaking (they were dried), boiling and pitting, for the roast veg dish I did for Christmas, so they were ready to go.

Added in a handful of crushed walnuts.  And the last spoonful of homemade cranberry sauce. And, since the dates weren't as moist as bananas, I added in a sploosh of milk.  Worked fine. Those books that tell you you can't experiment with baking are all wet.  You can, within sane limits, substitute practically anything for anything.  Liquid for liquid, solid for solid, I mean by sanity.

And this is likely to be the last entry in Field and Fen for the year. But I am not going to do the thing I really dislike about end of year stuff, the lookback.  For one thing, I have a terrible memory for what happened when and where and to whom, and I have a massive aversion to looking back.  Life is forward movement to me. I do study history, largely to inform myself of the origins of what's up now, not just for nostalgia.  And when it comes to blogs, we can all scroll back if we want to see that stuff again!

The Dollivers point out that it would be good to look back and note all the stuff I failed to make for them, but that's a different sort of lookback. And I pointed out that dolls with new silk dresses have no standing to complain about what else they should have, neener.

The other thing is that is makes me feel really tired to look back over what I've done, and the more I've done, the tireder I get.  I read yet another book about writing a journal recently, since I often wonder if it's a good thing. I have never succeeded in writing more than a couple of little entries.  But some people have a shelf full of journals, their lives chronicled right there.  As they say, it's just the kind of thing you like, if you like that kind of thing.  For me, it's exhaustion on a shelf.  But I like to read about it, anyway. 

A friend of mine, now departed, used to say she loved watching DIY on HGTV.  Not that she wanted ever to do it, just liked watching other people working!  That's me and journals.

However, moaning aside, I do want to wish you, and all of us, a wonderful New Year, hoping for better things for many of my friends for whom this has been a very hard year.  

Take care of you, first, remember the oxygen tip.  Then your nearest and dearest, including your animal friends.  And thank you everyone who has emailed, commented, texted, written, and been in touch as a result of reading my blogs!  I'm honored that you do this, and I treasure every word from you.