Sun-Dried Tomato and Carrot Bread

 I cooked for my parents' New Year's Eve party, and it was an odd night that lasted forever.  It's funny how time works.  In a year where all those dinners and moments and relationships flew by, its last hours lingered on.  People had left early and it was just a couple of us in the living room, with a perceptible air of impatience, all of us chatted about ancient civilizations, checking our watches and waiting for the hands to meet at 12 o'clock.  I hate wasting time and there is nothing worse than just sitting there waiting for time to pass. 

 I used to imagine having this magical time reservoir box, where I can collect and retrieve time.  On flights across the continent where even after countless movies and attempts at falling asleep, time doesn't move, you take those hours and put it in this box.  Then when you come by those moments in a lover's arms, knowing goodbye's upon you and you clench onto every second but then hours slip away, you retrieve the flight time that you've previously put in and you add a couple of hours to that moment.  Ah one can dream.

Here's to time better spent in 2015.  And yes, I made this bread for the party, it's not completely irrelevant. 

Recipe adapted from Marcus Wareing
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients
250g flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
50g parmesan, grated
50g sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, diced
50g carrots, diced into 5mm cubes
3 medium eggs
50ml olive oil
flaked almonds and black sesame for sprinkling


Method
Preheat the oven to 180C

Put the carrots in a pot of cold salted water and bring to a boil and leave to cook for a couple of minutes until tender.  Drain.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and parmesan. 

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs with the olive oil and milk.  Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and carrots. Stir the wet ingredients together with the wet.  Pour the batter into a bread tin.  Sprinkle with flaked almonds and pumpkin seeds and bake 25-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.