Found a way to publish photos (I think!). I thought it would show on this page but it could be my browser. If you see a little square in the top left corner of this post, click on it! I thought I'd try it out with a pic of my award winning pesto. Yes, in September 2004 I submitted 175g of basil pesto to the Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society's annual show in Adelaide, South Australia. 2004 was the year of embracing my inner grandma, you understand.
I also entered a banana cake and some friends entered some preserves and anzac biscuits (I always thought the latter might be a bit ambitious for a beginner, but he insisted). I slaved away over my banana cake, making about four of them before show day; trying out different oven times and temperatures, ratios of banana to flour, a horrid icing accident and experiments with shape.
Indeed the time and effort on the banana cake, which I was sure was going to be my stellar baking product, meant that I whipped up the pesto at 11.30pm the night before.
Needless to say, my pesto won second prize (and the money was as much as second prize in a beauty contest in Monopoly - $10!) and my poor banana cake didn't rate a mention in the top six. Whilst it never happened during my pre-show warm up, my show banana cake was not fully cooked all the way through!
It's true, friends. I don't talk about it much and I'll thank you not to mention it. Let's focus instead on the eminently edible pesto, which I served up to a couple of lucky people with grilled cherry tomatoes and potato gnocci.
