Sunday 16 December 2012

Muisbosskerm - LEKKER







We were fortunate to visit the Muisbosskerm last night, with the brother and in-law-sister-to-be!
This is the original and first open air restaurant in South Africa...  All the dishes are prepared on open fires in front of the guests.  The number one and only rule: EAT AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE!

The menu

Starters

Traditional West Coast Bokkoms
Peaches 
Sweetcorn and butter

Mains

Smoked Snoek
Angel Fish
Yellowtail
White Stumpnose 
Cob
(All Char grilled)
Deep fried hake

Seafood Paella 
Springbok Potjie
Tripe
Waterblommetjiebredie
Cinnamon Sweet Potato 
Baked potato crisps
Green salad
Lobster
Fresh clay oven baked sourdough bread 
with green fig preserve, apricot jam and
'korrelkonfyt'

Dessert 

Koeksisters
Watermelon
Melon
Coffee

We say: "YUMMY"



Friday 7 December 2012

The Santa Shell Project





We've been up to a few family Christmas Projects this year and have been savouring all of them!

The Santa Shell Project was one of the ideas we've been inspired by while on our day trip to Cape Town for Nikah's birthday.

We went to the beach last Thursday as we had another scorcher!
And collected a few shells, we hand painted them to decorate our front porch and possible travelling Christmas tree.

We are celebrating our first of many Christmas dinners this Saturday, so we decorated accordingly.

They are super easy to make and gives an unexpected festive twist, to what could be a rather expensive affair.



Monday 3 December 2012

Nikah Says:.....

Aan tafel gisteraand gesels ek met Eugene, sy sê so ewe vir my: "Mamma nie praatie, mamma eet!"

Vanoggend toe sy my wakker maak, kom lê sy styf met haar koppie langs myne en sê: "Mamma, Nikah lief baie!" Wow, seker die mooiste ding wat enige ouer ooit kan hoor!

En die heel beste...

Net nou stap sy heel ontsteld die kamer binne met ietsie in die hand en sê: "Stoute dorin, Nikah byt het."

Ooh, ons love jou Sooo BAIE!!!

Stamping all the way to Potato Land




Since we live right in the middle of the largest Potato producing region of our country, 'Die Sandveld', we only saw fit to use this amazingly versatile veggie for something other than mashed-potato! 

We've printed on all sorts of mediums, napkins, t-shirts, cardboard packaging tags...  All you'll need is a few potatoes cut in a perfect half, (it should be an entirely flat surface).  Some sort of carving knife, reference material, a paintbrush and fabric paint if you are planning on stamping on anything wearable , or washable!

A few Christmas boxes is definitely going to be filled with some of this AWESOMENESS...

Keep your eyes peeled for a few other handmade Christmas goodies, we've been up to!

More posts on final products coming soon!

Saturday 1 December 2012

Second Bithday Part I




We've been away from home for a month!
Thus, way-far-behind in posts, but we'll try to make up as the year comes to an end...

Our little girl turned two, while we've been away, so there wasn't a major 'opskop' like we held on her first year.  But we had so much fun, being at the beach, baking her Fishy cake, going to the aquarium, having friends over for dinner, and giving her presents a whole week long, with that I think we made up for all off it!

Inspired by the beautiful coastline of SA!

THE FISHY RED VELVET BIRTHDAY CAKE:

Sift together 350g cake flour, 300g sugar, 1tsp cacao and 1tsp salt.
Blend together 1cup buttermilk, 1tsp bicarbonate of soda, 2 eggs at room temperature, 375ml of oil, 1tsp vinegar, 25ml red food colouring and 1tsp vanilla essence.
Combine with Flour mixture to form a dough, cast in three prepared individual 18cm diameter round baking tins, bake for 40min at 180 degrees Celsius.

Icing:

Mix together 250g cream cheese, 250g butter at room temperature, 2cups icing sugar and 1tsp vanilla essence.

Spread in between to layers of cake and cover the top.

For our aquatic friend, we placed two circular layers on top of each other, sliced it in half leaving a strip of approximately 6cm to form a rectangle through the center of the circle.  Then we iced the two halves back together, cut four triangles from the rectangular piece and used them for the fins.  Decorations were smarties, waver biscuits with a marshmallow and shortcake tumble as the eye. 

Yummy!