Razena Schroeder

By the Sunday morning (the day of my cancelled flight) my throat felt scratchy and my head felt heavy and congested, like I had a cold coming on. I felt like I did the first time the smell of burning oil fumes reached me at an audit client nearly twenty years ago, the week before my father passed away. In the deepest darkest hour of the night when I thought my final breath would leave my body, the only thing that kept me fighting for another breath was the love of the ones who love me. I have spent so many years living alone that sharing meal times with my brother’s family made me realise how much I missed that family bonding time.

I have tweaked Mummy Rachel’s recipe slightly with the addition of coffee to the chocolate slab cake recipe. The ingredients for the icing in the original recipe were a bit vague and this one is more reminiscent of the chocolate slab cake that I gorged on many years ago. Add the sifted icing sugar, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract and beat until fluffy for at least 1-2 minutes. The self rising flour in the recipe can be replaced by 2 1/4 cups cake flour + 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder.

This scrumptious olive oil dairy free Banana Bread with self rising flour and brown sugar is delicious and flavorful and best eaten lukewarm. When my friend brought a birthday card for me to sign for one of our Directors, I decided that it was as good a time as any to try out this new olive oil banana bread recipe with self rising flour and brown sugar. * To make dairy free banana bread with self rising flour I prefer to use olive oil, but you can also make your banana bread with coconut oil or vegetable oil. This scrumptious and memorable olive oil dairy free Banana Bread with self rising flour and brown sugar is delicious and flavorful and best eaten lukewarm.

Since my mother’s death she spent as much time at our home as with helping my Aunty Dija down the road. Like my own mother, Aunty Dija loved pretty things, and Rufkah and I often accompanied her on her retail therapy excursions in Garlicks / Greatermans on a Saturday morning. After Aunty Dija’s husband passed away I spent much of her Iddah period with her, because she didn’t like to be alone. I learned how the 5 year old Aunty Dija felt abandoned by her parents when they sent her to live with her mother’s sister Attie, because my grandmother was too ill to look after both Aunty Dija and my year old father.