Uncomfortable Food

I must really start growing a herb garden. Buying all these fresh herbs every week and then having to chuck them away, is costing a small fortune. The problem is that we have never lived in any place long enough for me to start something permanent like a herb garden, but I guess I could invest in a mobile one. One in a pot, I mean, not on wheels.

This week has announced loud and  clear that winter is on its way. Last year I missed summer completely. I spent winter in the UK and winter in South Africa due to a series of rather unfortunate events and miscalculations. It did however, really make me appreciate summer this year, even if it was in the UK. But now, alas, it is over. I think the rain is here to stay and thus our evenings of BBQ's will probably have to be put on the shelf till next year, or at least until we get so fed up, that we get out the Golf umbrellas and light a fire under their shelter.

Winter weather calls for winter food. On Friday, I started Mia and her friend off on the "rain-equals-pancakes" tradition,however, they were not very keen on the idea. That left us mommies stuck with a pile of pancakes and nowhere to go. Not that it was a problem as one of us were pregnant (not me!) and found a safe place to give these golden lovelies a home.

Sticking to the general idea of winter, Stefan and I decided to opt for the Comfort Food option last night. Now, I have a bit of a problem with the term "comfort food". Isn't it an odd way to describe food? Does it imply that there are in fact foods that are uncomfortable? For me most foods are pretty comforting but I suppose the "uncomfortableness" of a dish solely depends on your audience and of course, your attire. Eating a messy hamburger with all the trimmings, while wearing a lovely silk evening gown, sitting across the table from William and Kate, may become pretty uncomfortable, for both them and you. On the other hand, sharing this dish with someone like Harry and Chelsea on a beach in Cape Town, wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, may be a lot more satisfactory and yes, comforting. And isn't it true that most comfort foods leave you feeling rather uncomfortable after you've eaten them? I mean, the whole point of these dishes is that once you start eating them, it is impossible to stop. Lets face it, you end up feeling rather bloated and uncomfortable, not to mention the uncomfortableness you are going to feel for the next week trying exercise away all the calories you've just gained. So I guess, to correct myself, Stefan and I chose to make the most uncomfortable food ever last night, pasta. As I wrote in a previous blog, Fluffy Pasta, for me there is probably no better (un)comfort(able) food then pasta. Actually anything starchy will do, but I am particularly fond of pasta. I have probably made every version of it before, except one, and that was Cannelloni, so it was time to tick this little box in my recipe book. But let me start off at the beginning...

To Start:

Last night was a rather cheesy affair yet again. We started off the evening making something that was introduced to me by one of my brother's friends, Blommie. I have no idea what his real name is, but when you meet Blommie, his nickname makes perfect sense. Blommie worked as a waiter in a restaurant near Stellenbosch called the Buena Vista Social Cafe.
It is probably one of my favourite places to go to when I am in the area. Good food, fantastic atmosphere and good waiting staff, what more can you ask for? We were confused as to what to order for starters and he said that we should leave it up to him. Fifteen minutes later he returned with a plate full of little deep fried golden brown little dumplings shaped thingies that turned out to be heaven in a batter. They are probably better known as Jalapeno Poppers. When we were at Kingston market yesterday morning to buy ingredients, I saw Jalapenos on special: 10 for a pound. It is amazing what memories food can bring back. That night, was the last time I had Jalapeno Poppers until last night and the last night that Blommie's dad was alive. He was shot the next day. I guess I will always think of him when I eat these.

My local Jalapeno provider

Sun dried tomato and olive heaven

The poppers are dead easy to make, although very messy. Our Jalapenos were a little bit big for the recipe and I had to cut them in half. I think it would work better with smaller ones as these were rather hard to stuff, but after deep frying anything, who cares about the size. They were delicious. We replaced the bacon bits that the recipe called for, with sun dried tomatoes which worked  very well. Of course ten of these giant poppers were far too many for us, but I am relieved to say that they even work as a cold dish. The leftovers were rather yummy this morning, even after spending an evening in the fridge.

Giant Jalapenos

Stuffed with cream cheese and sun dried tomatoes

Dipped in flour and milk

Rolled in bread crumbs

Deep fried until golden brown
(make sure the oil is not too hot, otherwise
the batter falls off the peppers)

..and serve with a good sprinkling of Chilli

Mains:

For main course it was the pasta dish of all pasta dishes; Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni with a Courgette salad and a lemon, garlic and chilli dressing. I promise to move onto a new chef if I can find one whose food I enjoy as much as Jamie's, or if I go bankrupt while trying to work through his recipes,whichever comes first. It is blatantly clear that Jamie has got no money problems. His recipes are filled with really extravagant ingredients. No Jamie, Parmesan does not grow on trees. There is a reason why some people put their cheeses into Swiss bank volts for safe keeping, it is a very expensive cheese, Mr. Oliver. So, when a recipe calls for 4 hand fulls of Parmesan Cheese, one can appreciate the financial dilemma. We drastically cut it down to 2 hand fulls, and I must admit, it was just as good. So unless you are a Mr. Oliver with LOADS of Parmesan in the bank, you can definitely cut down on the amount of cheese he puts in this recipe. It is very rich and very filling but wonderful! It was a bit of an ordeal getting the Spinach and Ricotta mix into the Cannelloni tubes as we had no piping bag or any other bags in the kitchen. The only plastic bags I could find was Ella's nappy bags, so yes, we ate Cannelloni filled with Ricotta and Spinach, piped into the tubes with a Tescos nappy bag. That is what parenthood will do to you.

We will not show you pictures of the piping fiasco,
but it turned out neat and tidy afterwards.

I cannot even begin to describe how good this was

At least the salad was rather easy and basic and light. It went well with the heavy creamy pasta and is perfect for people, like my mom, who do not like the "rawness" of ordinary salads. The Courgettes are cooked beforehand and left to cool and marinade in a wonderful dressing of lemon, olive oil, garlic and chillies. Although, for my mom, I would make sure to leave out the garlic too. People from Pietersburg just do not seem to appreciate the garlicness of garlic.

Courgette salad, with lemon, garlic, olive oil and
chillies.

Stefan and I must really take a course in
food styling!

Dessert:

I had no idea what to make for dessert, but thankfully, Nacori came to the rescue. She facebooked me a recipe for Chocolate Cobbler. The great thing about this recipe is, is that the ingredients are simple and I had all of it in the house. I find it fascinating that you can use the same ingredients in a different way and come up with a whole new dish. I cannot recommend this dessert strongly enough. It is dead easy to make, it is dead cheap, and it is death by chocolate! It goes well with either ice cream or cream, but I enjoyed it just by itself. It is one of those perfect recipes for when you are having people over for dinner on short notice and do not have time to run to the shops. Thanks Nacori, I can see the future filled with a LOT of Chocolate Cobblers.

Cobbler: Step 1

Cobbler: Step 2

I left out taking photos of Step 3, but this is what it
looked like after Step 4 (the oven)

And this is Mia, after Step 1 and 2

Stefan and I had an early night. I was exhausted after not sleeping the night before. One would think that a 4 month old baby would be the one to keep you awake, but no, it was my three year old. Sigh. There is a beautiful Afrikaans saying:"Magies vol, ogies toe". Translated it means when your tummy is full, your eyes want to fall closed. Well that was exactly the case last night and leaving all the dishes on the table and the kitchen in a state, I fell asleep, comfortable in my uncomfortableness.


Until next week....

PS. Please feel free to try out any of these recipes by following the links. I would love to hear your comments and suggestions. I still want to try out Gillian's lemon bake pasta, but I will wait till it is my turn again to choose.

Celebrating Poverty

A few years back I took an American tourist on a sightseeing trip around Cape Town. After showing her all the attractions,we ended up at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. I eagerly showed her around the craft market, pointing out all the bits and bobs made out of old LP's, coke tins and a bunch of other recyclable materials. Not very impressed, she turned around  and took the wind completely out of my sails with the words "You guys really know how to celebrate poverty". With that we left, me feeling deflated, her probably annoyed that there was nothing "proper" for her to buy.

I haven't though about that moment for years, until I looked for the recipe that Stefan chose for this week: Paella. According to my research, Paella was considered the poor man's feast and originally contained no seafood. It was usually made in the open field by labourers using whatever meat they could find. This usually included chicken, rabbit, duck and snails. Rice was always readily available and was also the best way to fill up a lot of hungry tummies for very little money.Today paella is the most popular dish in Spain and there are literally hundreds of variations.

So why can't we celebrate poverty? I am not saying it is a good thing to be poor, but poverty often leads to incredible creativity. There are many examples of this throughout the world. Struggling people come up with the most creative ways to feed their families and decorate their homes.Coming from South Africa, we are used to people getting creative to do just this. All around the streets of Cape Town, you will see people using different ideas to make money, to decorate and construct their homes and to dress. Something the IKEA culture of Europe has destroyed here. It is awful to walk into people's houses and they all look the same. IKEA display number 12 or 13. It is so boring.

I know many people see the squatter camps around the Cape Town area as an eye sore, but I find the way the houses are constructed, just beautiful. I know it sounds corny, but I see it as beacons of hope, as people looking to better themselves and struggling but not giving up.On a field trip at university I had the opportunity to visit the Noordhoek informal settlement. There was nothing informal about it. I was amazed at how organised it was. There were streets and plot numbers and a whole committee running the area. We went into some of the houses and I was gobsmacked at the way the woman made their houses beautiful.If you want to know what I am talking about, take a look at a book called Shack Chic. I fell in love with these little houses, and although I know there is a lot of heartache and pain behind those doors, I still love to draw them. I can spend hours on one of my drawings of these little streets, but have not spent one second drawing a row of houses in Knightsbridge or Oxshot.

Rhino for Sale on the Oprah website for $350!

Missing Home by Margie

Anyway enough about that, last night it was our turn to try this poor man's feast. We were seven people all in all, but there was a catch for the guests: Every one had to help and was responsible for a course. The "Single until Monday" man and The Newlyweds, were responsible for the starters, The Hosts for the main course and The Old married couple for dessert.

The Cooks

Our "Single until Monday man" got off to a flaming start preparing his little starters. Blinis and caviar! Yes, we had caviar. Nothing poor about that! It was the first time I tried caviar and I loved it. Not everyone did, but I thought it was brilliant.We will forgive Tony and Nadia for buying ready made, as they are currently in transit and do not have their own kitchen.

The man in action

Creme Fraiche and Lumpfish Caviar-ing

Starters check!

We chose a Jamie recipe, again. I am sorry, but I really love Jamie's food. It is not fussy at all. His is a bit different from the traditional paella recipes. It contains no chicken or fish or dreaded peas (I hate peas!), but rather pork belly and chorizo and seafood. We had the pleasure of visiting the Cobham Farmer's Market, on the appropriately named Leg o Mutton field, that morning. We bought almost all our ingredients there, so all the meat and seafood was Organic and Farm Fresh. The only thing with Farm Fresh meat, is that it doesn't come in neat little packages like in the supermarket. Who would have thought that a Pork Belly actually had a skin, complete with nipples! Poor Nadia and I had to "de-nipple" the poor pig and de-beak the squid, before we could get started. Not as easy as it sounds. I was sharply reprimanded for my lack of sharp knives. Stefan and I will definitely have to invest.

Pork Belly complete with nipple!

The Newlywed de-nippling the poor pig!

After choosing a "Recipe Master", we were all set to go. Nadia, Mark and I did most of the prepping for the
Paella, while Tony was our "Recipe Master", a good role for him as he could practise giving orders. This skill will come in handy when he starts his new job in a few weeks. Unfortunately though, our Recipe Master abdicated after the preparing was done but his successor did a wonderful job. She was known for the rest of the night as "The Recipe". We also had "The Light" (holder of the torch) and "The Stirrer" (Paella stirrer that is).

The Stirrer and The Light in action.

What a feast. I could eat Paella every night. The last time I had it was in Spain and I think ours was MUCH better. Who said too many cooks spoil the broth? We had seven and all was wonderful. I was so glad we had the girls there who have both made this dish before as I would not have known what to do. A great help indeed!

Now doesn't that look good?

The dessert was the cherry on the cake or rather, the strawberries on the cream. Finally I got my cream! Pavlova with fresh berries. Karen made the meringue from scratch and filled it with delicious cream and berries. Yum! Yum! We all had a piece, but Nadia and I polished it off.

Before: How gorgeous!

After

What a brilliant evening. It was so much fun listening to our 80's classics and having an uninterrupted adult conversation, although the subject matter was a bit strange. We again got to bed very late, or very early, depending on how you look at it, but it was worth it. I would like to thank all the cooks for their input, The Stirrer for stirring, The Recipe for reading and The Light for shining his torch so well. We should definitely invest in an outside light as well, but then The Light will be jobless and it is a recession at the moment. One has to be considerate. Lastly I would like to thank all those poor Spanish farmers for having the creativity to invent this feast. I am seriously considering changing the name Fat Saturday to Paella Saturday.

Please remember to send any recipe ideas or challenges to satfatterdays@gmail.com (Not a spelling mistake, the other name was already taken!)

Until next week...

Hard Pill to swallow

I had to write a very hard letter today. It was to an old family friend, who recently lost her daughter. The little girl was only 5 months old when she died. This is devastating as you may imagine, for a rather newlywed couple, both not even 30 yet.

The mother is questioning life, why we are here? Why are we born? Why do we exist in such a cruel world and she is looking for answers from me. Why from me, you may ask. Well, about 14 years ago, I went through a terrible ordeal. Without getting into too much detail, it involved a friend and I being kidnapped and spending a good few hours in the boot of a car. It was a horrid experience and my friend and I were blessed to escape with our lives. She wanted to know from me how do you forgive God after something like this happened to you. How do you keep on believing in Him and how do ever trust Him again. And my answer? You decide to. You make a decision, and you stick to it. That is how you do it. Only after you made this decision, can you carry on with life. Otherwise you end up bitter and twisted (for lack of a better description).

I do not believe God “punishes” us, or lets us down. I believe we live in a fallen world, with fallen people who decide to do terrible things to each other. I believe that we live in the Devil’s playground and that we need to pray for God’s protection every day. I did not pray for any protection that night or at any point in my life before that night. I thought I was fine living with one foot in the world and one foot in heaven. But that is not how it works. You cannot play in the Devil’s playing field and not expect to get hurt.

It is in the loneliest, saddest periods in our lives that we have the greatest encounters with a loving God. I do not know why this is, but when everything is going well, we often forget about Him and live as though we do not need Him. Only after we have suffered and decide to believe in Him again, can we truly say “Praise the Lord” and not use it as a “Christianese slogan”. Only then.

Chicken, Chocolate and Head lice

There are a few things they do not tell you before you become a parent. Combing head lice out of your own hair (after catching it from your daughter who caught it at nursery) on a Friday night is one of them. It never crossed my mind when I held my beautiful baby girl in my arms for the first time that I'd be spending a Friday evening delicing my hair! Completely grossed out, I became obsessed with the process and went to bed at about 1:00am, lice free, thanks to Hedrin (The "one application lice killer"). Anyway, I am sure that is a little more information than most of you needed, but I blame the fact that I completely forgot to prepare the dessert for our Fat Saturday, the night before as the recipe instructed, on my preoccupation of ridding myself and my family of this disgusting infestation. But like I said, parenthood is full of surprises.

Last night Stefan and I got to bed far too late. We were both very tired when Ella, our youngest, decided to wake us up at 6:00 am this morning. That is another thing they don't warn you about: No more lazy Sunday mornings. We must definitely start our Saturday evening's cooking earlier next week, cause today has been a very long day. It is just so much fun to have a "grown up" evening that we forgot about the time. Listening to music in which the lyrics do not describe a buses wheels going around and around or begging us to clap our hands if we are happy and we know it. Spotify is just great, all the classics and all free! Wonderful invention.

But I digress, what was on the menu last? Aha! It was indeed a Fat Saturday, although it did not contain as much cream as I first envisaged. I opted for cheese instead, lots and lots of cheese. I love the stuff, any shape, make or form, so I chose a three course meal, that contained three different types of cheese. It was a cheesy feast.

For starters: Mushroom and Haloumi skewers on the BBQ. You may wonder why we are cooking everything on the Weber, but here in the UK we make use of every opportunity we can get to BBQ. Summer is almost over and then we will spend many a winter night wishing to light a fire again, so while we still can, we are making the most of it. The Skewers were very easy to make and a great starter. As I said before, I was preoccupied the Friday evening, so I only let the ingredients marinate for half an hour, but it was still good. I think I will however, in future, do it the night before, just so the flavours can really infuse the ingredients. A very delicious snack indeed.

Marinated the mushrooms, courgettes, red onions
in garlic, lime juice and coriander

Make a few kebabs and cook on the BBQ

Kebabs for two

I am particularly proud of the main course I selected: Stuffed Chicken Breast with Parma ham and a Red Pepper and Cherry Tomato sauce. Chicken breasts are notorious for being dry and I seldom order them in restaurants. I find them difficult to cook whole: too long and they are dry, too short and you die of some sort of food poisoning. I was going to give it a try anyway, and selected a recipe that guaranteed loads of flavour and moisture. The chicken breasts were stuffed with mozzarella and cherry tomatoes and then wrapped in parma ham. We made sure that our chicken was free range and organic. Stefan and I saw a movie about two weeks ago: Food Inc. It was scary stuff. I vowed never to eat a Big Mac hamburger again. Have you seen what McDonalds do to their meat? I also took a pledge never to eat or feed my family chicken that was not free range or organic ever again. I was never a great believer in the whole organic thing, but after seeing what they do to our food, especially meat, I am now a devout Organiee. Even if this means that we only eat meat once a week.

With Ella asleep and Mia playing Snow White-Snow White, I got to prepare the organic breasts earlier the afternoon. It was not as hard as I thought it would be, but PLEASE do not cut right through the chicken breast as I did with the one. A very blond moment! You are supposed to make little pockets by making a small incision on the side of the breast and then stuff with the mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. I managed to save the breast, because of the parmaham wrapping. It kept the whole thing nicely together, otherwise I would have cried. Organic, free range chicken is NOT cheap!

Me in action

Stuff chicken breasts with mozzarella and cherry tomatoes

Wrap in Parmaham

Serve on Potato Rosti
(My very bad attempt at food styling!)

We made Potato Rosti as an accompaniment. Because of the starter we decided to add no extra veg and I am glad we didn't, we would have been stuffed. This is a really good dish and I will make it again, however t I will reduce our cooking time, We were so scared that it was going to be raw that we overdid it a little, it was not dry, but could have come off about 5 minutes earlier. I'll stick to the cooking instructions next time.

Dessert: Tiramisu! I told you it was a very FAT Saturday. Nigella of course always helps when it comes to sweet things. We tried her traditional tiramisu, but with rum, not Baileys. It worked well. However, we couldn't finish it. It was too much. Stefan had the rest for breakfast this morning. He had no idea that he would be playing "hide the glass slipper" a few moments after that, but as I said, parenthood is full of surprises.

Tiramisu

Next week we are having friends round for our Saturday feast. So much pressure! We decided that we are all going to help prepare the food, the question is just what to choose. Stefan is going to have a hard time!

Until next week...

Pretend-Pretend

Purple Fairy for Mia
by Margie

I am too old to play "pretend-pretend". Mia, my eldest, would disagree, but at 35 I am too old and too tired. I mean, why keep up the pretense?Yes, it is official:  I HATE exercise. Every ounce of my body revolts against the idea of putting on a pair of trainers and hitting the tarmac. But I, I suppose, I have to do something to counteract the impact of my new pet project. It is awful, awful, awful and I would avoid it at any cost, if only I could.

In fact, while I am at it, there are a few things that I am sick of "pretending" about. I think one reaches an age where you realise that you do not have to impress anyone anymore. You can truly just be yourself. It is okay to admit liking Kylie Minogue and Nine Inch Nails. It is even acceptable to admit liking the odd "Take That" song (but I don't think I am ready for that yet. Baby steps, Margie, baby steps.) I, however, will restrain myself from publishing all the things I am sick of pretending to like or accept, for fear of being sued for hate speech. I mean, if Oprah got sued by the beef industry for saying she is not eating Hamburgers anymore (I kid you not! The trial went on for several years), who knows what can happen if I say something like;'I cannot stand watching Steven Spielberg's movies', for instance.
Tomorrow is Friday. Two more sleeps, then it is the day I have been looking forward to all week. Poor Stefan has been working almost every night this week. I can't wait to catch up with him. It is nice having someone around that I do not have to pretend with, I can just be me.

The menu is planned. I am not giving anything away, except that there will be some form of chocolate...and cream, lost and lots of cream.

O yes, if you have any recipe ideas to forward or challenge us with, please send them to satfatterdays@gmail.com. (No it is not a typing error, it was the only email address that was still available!)

Until Saturday....

A Not so Fat Sat...

Dinner by Candlelight

Children are amazing things. When you want them to sleep, they don't and when you don't want them to sleep, they do. Last night was no exception. Trying to get these two girls to sleep was a mammoth task. I think it was a sisterly conspiracy to sabotage their parent's evening. Bed time is usually at 7:30pm sharp, but last night it was closer to 9:00pm before I got them both settled down. So dinner was LATE, very, very LATE. Two exhausted, but determined, parents tried their best to get on with the evening they planned.

Stefan's choice last night: Tuna. I am embarrassed to admit it, but we have never tried to make tuna at home before. (Except for the obvious tuna mayo sandwich out of a tin. How sad is that?) Well, my personal chef for the evening surprised me with Sesame Encrusted Grilled Tuna steaks on the BBQ. ( He adapted the recipe slightly, but kept the basics the same) To accompany this, he made asparagus with a lemon butter sauce and glazed carrots with herbs, and Savoy Cabbage, again, all on the BBQ. The recipe for the asparagus called for the white ones, but we couldn't find any at the market, so we stuck to the green.

Ingredients: Tuna, Savoy cabbage, Carrots. Asparagus,
Sesame Seeds and various Herbs and Spices.

The food was simple, and not as fattening as I would have like it to be, but delicious. He is getting really good with the whole veggie-on-the-barbie-thing. On Wednesday evening, we had an old friend round for dinner and he made each of us a vegetable parcel on the Weber. This was almost the same, but with more herbs and loads more butter. A very good idea if you are having people round and do not feel like standing in front of a hot stove making veggies. You can make individual parcels, or big one's like we did, they both work a charm. You just pop them on the BBQ for about 1/2 hour, and you can sit back and relax and have some lovely olives and bread.

Asparagus Parcel before

Asparagus Parcel after

Parcels and Tuna on the BBQ
( The parcels take about half an hour, Tuna only a few minutes)

The finished parcels

It was so good to finally sit down after a hectic day, with a nice, but odd, glass of wine and some delicious food. Stefan bought a bottle of wine, Tio Pepe, that read wine on the label at the back, but sherry on the front. It said that it was a good accompaniment for fish, which it was, but it was very odd to drink sherry that is a wine, that is a sherry? It worked well with the salty fish though.

Kids finally fast asleep, us grown ups could have our first proper conversation in ages and because it was only us, we could break the all time dinner party rule: No discussion of Religion or Politics. We debated both. A nice change from talking about which colour dress Barbie should wear.It is amazing how two people can live in the same house, and not get the chance to have a good old chat. That is why we started this tradition, to have a chance to catch up, to touch base with each other, and I think it is hear to stay.

We ended off our meal with a delicious array of fruit, again bought at the market. Watermelon and Litchis. In South Africa I took eating these for granted. Not anymore, here in the UK,they are a rare delicacy, worthy of a Fat Saturday dessert.

Thanks for an amazing evening Stefan. Next week is my turn again. I am not going to be as healthy, that I can promise. I feel a desperate need for "something deep fried and smothered in chocolate" to quote the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2. (Man, I've been watching too many kiddies movies.)

Until next week.....

This is an awful photo, but it tasted a lot better than it looks!

Sweet Friday

Oh my word, today was just a horrible day. My three year old woke me up with the following phrase (and I translate): "Mommy, I want a white bride princess Barbie, NOW!" And so it began.....She continued to repeat this phrase about a million times in the space of three hours.I was going to go mad if we stayed at home the whole day,so I packed up the girls and we were off to Garsons Farm for some tea and cake. Usually the  goodies at the Farm Shop makes Mia forget about whatever she's been crying about. But no, not today. What a mistake! The "White Bride Princess Barbie" phrase continued despite me trying to  bribe my little girl with all sorts of yummy things from the Shop. I know you are not supposed to bribe children with food, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Nothing that this wondrous shop could offer could replace a "White Bride Princess Barbie". Not the fudge, not the Belgian waffles, not the chocolate brownies. NOTHING. So without spending a penny at my all time favourite food store, we were back in the car and back home in 15 minutes.

The crying continued, and continued and continued until a very red and wet little face came down the stairs and asked "Mommy, can we bake some chocolate cake?" Why not? Anything to get the Barbie phrase out of my head and my house. So we baked the all time favourite chocolate cake that Ouma Magriet passed on to us. The most kiddie friendly cake you can possibly bake: 7 1/2 minute Chocolate Cake. It is brilliant as it bakes in the microwave and kids can practically bake it themselves (or at least they feel like they've done it themselves) I include the recipe below. Try it next time your three year old decides she wants a Barbie!

After icing the cake with chocolate stars and Sprinkles. we did not hear the Barbie phase until a few minutes ago, when Mia's dad took her off to bed. She said: "Good night Mommy, and tomorrow, we'll get a White Bride Princess Barbie".Sigh.

Thank goodness it is "grown up" evening tomorrow. Just Stefan and I and something delicious. I wonder what he is cooking up?

7 1/2 Minute Chocolate Cake

1. Beat 2 Eggs

2. Add:
1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Castor Sugar ( can use ordinary sugar )
4 Teaspoons Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

3. Mix in another Bowl:
1/4 Cup Cocoa
1/3 Cup Sunflower Oil
1 Cup Boiling Water (make sure the cup is full, otherwise the cake is dry)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

4. Mix everything together
5. Spray a microwave safe container with non-stick spray and line with Kitchen Roll
6. Bake in Micro for 7 1/2 Minutes (depending on the strength of your micro, mine usually goes for 8 minutes)
7. VERY IMPORTANT: Let it rest inside the micro without opening the door, for 10 minutes
8. Cool down and ice.

Mia and her cake.
(Icing by Mia)

Fluffy Pasta

My friend’s brother always dates “fluff”. They all look the same. I can never tell them apart. Same hair colour (blonde of course), same body shape (big to medium sized breasts with no ass or hips) and they all dress the same. It is like they belong to some kind of club where you have to wear tight jeans and strappy white tops to be a member. Okay, I am not being fair; you can wear black strappy tops as well. The only real distinction between them is there weird and fantastic names and the accessories they wear (although most of them come with oversized sunglasses as standard!) Anyway, they are a bit like pasta dishes. Weird names, different accessories, but when you get down to it, all a bit the same. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE pasta. It is my number one comfort food, but I am not fussy when it comes to pastas, they all taste good and you are sure of a good time when you spend your evening with one. Nataniel, a great South African icon and cook once said that he hates pasta, because the whole plate tastes the same, but I guess that is what I find comforting about it. You know when the first bite is good; the whole wonderful plate that lies in front of you is going to be good. I guess that is why my friend’s brother dates the “fluff”. If the first bite is good, he knows the rest of

the plate will taste the same. No surprises.

It is only Tuesday evening now, but I am so looking forward to Saturday. One can only eat so many Ryvitas and cottage cheese. Only 4 more sleeps! I have no idea yet what Stefan is conjuring up on Saturday evening, but secretly, I hope it is not pasta.

Fluffy the Monster
by Margie

The Beginning

My husband and I rarely get to go out. With two small children and living a long way from any family we hardly ever get the opportunity to try out new restaurants. When we do, it is usually the types that have kiddie menus and high chairs.Feeling rather sorry for ourselves and bored of staying home and watching telly every Saturday night, we decided to copy dear friends of ours and make Saturday nights "grown up" nights, complete with "grown up" food. Each Saturday one of us would get the chance to try out a new recipe. Something weird and exotic that we have never made ourselves. No holding back on any ingredients, nothing is off the table. Bring on the cream, oil and chocolate. Now because I am ALWAYS on some kind of diet, I have decided that on Saturdays I will let my hair down so to speak. So from now on, Saturdays are know as FAT SATURDAYS!

Last night was my turn choose. OOo...how exciting! So many recipes and so little time. I spent Friday evening surfing the web for ideas. I am such a fan of Jamie (Oliver that is) so of course I had to try one of his recipes, and then I thought, when considering deep frying something, who better to consult than Nigella. So armed with some recipes from these two foodies, were off to Waitrose to buy ingredients. What a joy. Coming from South Africa, we are used to good food, but the ingredients that you can find here in the UK are just awesome. WOW. It takes forever to shop here, there is just so much choice!

We invited Mark, a good friend of ours over as well, the evening was getting more and more exciting. Now Mark is one of the friends who we stole the idea from. He and his wife are just the most incredible cooks. They love their food and it is always a joy to get tips from them.

So kids off to bed, after a hearty meal of Chicken Nuggets and carrots, we were ready to start.

The recipes I chose were rather basic, but it was stuff that I've never tried to make before. First off we started with Nigella's Salt and Pepper Squid. I don't know why I have never tried to make calamari before. It was SO easy and I just love it. (Although I do have a few burn marks from the oil splattering in my face. OUCH! I am definitely investing in one of those oil-shieldy-thingemajiggies.) This recipe was particularly good and if I must say, the best calamari I have ever eaten! Give it a try!Thank you Nigella! We did however, add a little garlic mayonnaise to the recipe, that I concocted myself. It just added that little punch. It was very easy: one clove of garlic, half a red chilli finely chopped, some smoke paprika mixed into some good mayonnaise. What a joy!

For mains I opted for Steak. I just loooovvvee steak. But, Jamie style steak was on the menu tonight. As I was the only girl (Mark's wife and daughters are visiting in South Africa), I decided to go for one of Jamie's Boys Night in recipes: Jamie's Best chargrilled Steak with Salsa Verdi. I had never tried Salsa Verdi until last night and the reason I chose to, was because it contained two ingredients that I am not particularly fond of; Anchovies and Capers. But, vowing to try new things, I must say, I am glad I took the risk. I would however, recommend to use a food processor when making the salsa, otherwise it involves ALOT of chopping. I found this out the hard way. Now I must admit, we did not follow the WHOLE Jamie recipe. I did not make the mushrooms and I did not wrap the steak in bacon. I don't know, I think the salsa was rich enough, bacon would have pushed it over the edge, maybe next time.

Of course Stefan "braaied" the steak just perfectly, rare, just the way I like it and the salsa was just perfect accompaniment. Of course no steak if complete without chips, so we made the best chips we could think of. Yes, we even used a recipe for this! Auntie Donna Hay's chips. Nothing too complicated, just thinly sliced, tossed in sea salt and olive oil and then baked in the oven till golden brown. YUMMY! O yes, and there was salad too. I almost forgot, the Caprese Salad with Red Peppers. I used a Jamie recipe again, but made a few adjustments. Well, actually, the adjustments happened purely by mistake as I had read through so many recipes, I got confused and bought Goats cheese instead of Mozzarella. However, it worked out just great. I also added some thinly sliced courgettes. Wafer thin, peeled with a potato peeler and marinated it in the dressing I made of lemon juice, olive oil and chillies.

Well the evening was supposed to be rounded off with a fruit salad made from fresh cherries and strawberries that we bought at Kingston market that morning, but we were all too stuffed. Has any one else every shopped at Kingston Market? What a joy. A great place to get your fruit and veg, IF you are going to consume it the same day! Things are often a bit overripe and must be used almost immediately. Nice shopping experience though.

Anyway, the cherries and strawberries were enjoyed today. They were wonderful over ice cream. So it is back to Monday and dieting, until next Saturday. I wish I could only eat once a week and make it worth it, because last night was great.

O yes, next time I will take proper photos. I was stupid not too, the only ones I've got are of the left overs. Silly me.

Untill next Saturday....

Left overs. Tasted even better today