I'm back...

 It is weird living in another country. You seem to forget where your actual home is. When you leave, you are all excited about going "home" and then when you are "home" you miss "home". Man it is confusing. I have no clue where home is anymore, all I know is that it is stressful going there, and it is stressful coming back. I wish I could go into more detail, but I guess the things that happended are too personal and I have to find a way of dealing with them myself. So I've decided to focus this blog on the lighter side of the events of the past few weeks when Fat Saturdays went  to Crawley and global, or rather African.

Fat Sat Part 1: Mia's Birthday

 

I am a mother ridden with guilt. My mother gave me the best birthday parties any child could ever imagine. I have the most wonderful memories of our "Shopping Party", " Maypole Party" etc etc. Every birthday I could request whatever cake I wanted. My poor mother! She made a cake that looked like a nurse when I was 5 and just came out of hospital, I had a kitten cake, I remember a Bennie Boekwurm cake and loads more. Before I had children I promised myself that I was going to do the same for them, a little too confidently I might add. So once again, this year, I asked my little girl what cake she would like for her fourth birthday party. The answer came as no surprise, a pink castle cake with all the trimmings. Well, little did I appreciate what my poor mother went through. There I was at 2 o'clock on a Friday evening, covered in pink icing and feeling very tired and upset that I took on such a mammoth task without having the proper equipment. At some point during the night, I felt like taking the pink pile of goo and dumping it all in the bin, but as my late nights at Archi school taught me, leave it till morning and decide then. Well, the person that had to be impressed, was and Stefan and I trekked this massive pink edible mountain through Crawley County Mall to the venue where Mia had her party. She was happy and I was happy that I could give my little girl the same thrill I had when my mother unveiled my cakes, although it cost me a lovely white shirt and a pair of trousers. I don't think I'll ever get the pink stains out of them...

My wonky pink castle cake

My mother did once again not disappoint. When we arrived in South Africa for Mia's actual birthday, guess what was waiting for her? The cake that tops any birthday cake I could ever make, a Barbie Princess cake! Who can beat that? I know it took a lot of work, but thanks Granny! What more could a four year old girl ask for, she got the castle and the princess living in it. WOW!

Ouma se Barbie koek

Fat Saturday Part 2: Madeleine

I have this friend called Madeleine. She is tall, has long black hair and wears contact lenses. She dresses in colourful clothes and sings while she plays the piano. She loves music and reading, hates racists and bigots and once you've tasted her cooking, you'd never want to eat any one else's. She is funny, she is bright and she is the most laid back person you'd ever meet. But what I love most about her, is that she will always take my side. I can tell her anything. She is always there for me, although she lives a gezillion miles away. She is my bestest friend in the whole wide world and I love her more that words can describe. We have been through so much together and we survived. Sometimes I cannot believe that we made it through that horrible night, but here we are, almost 15 years later, still friends and still alive. What a blessing.

I was so looking forward to spending a Fat Saturday with her and we did it in style. She invited friends around for dinner to her beautiful flat in Pinelands and we were going to do it like South Africans with "Kerrievis" for startes and "Vetkoek and mince" for mains.

We started off the day ingredients hunting at the Stellenbosch Slow Food Market. (I am so glad that I did not take alot of money with me. This is a place that you can get seriously fat with a capital F.) It is held every Saturday morning at the Oude Libertas Theatre in Stellenbosch. The food..the flavours..the wine. Too much to describe, best go try it out for yourself when next you are in the "bosch". I can however recommend the Moroccan pizza we had, which was somewhere between a pizza and a clazone. There is no better way to spend R50!

At the Slow food market

After this it was home time, and vertkoek making time. Now we are two pure bread South African girls. Can you believe that neither of us had ever made "Vetkoek" before! This was an injustice that had to be rectified and Madeleine jumped into the phone to dial her mother, the walking "Kook en Geniet". When Madeleine phones her mother at unexpected times, her mothers response is usually: "Watse resep soek jy?" (What recipe do you want?") before she even says "Hello". Armed with her "Vetrkoek" recipe, we started the lenghty, but well worth process. Mads, although you were not that impressed with your creation, the rest of us thought it was wonderful. Thank you to Pierre, Willemien, Nicky and Madeleine for the wonderful evening.

Fat Saturday Part 3: The Wedding

Weddings are emotional and stressful. I have just returned from such an emotional roller coaster. It was my little sisters wedding and she was beautiful. Probably the most beautiful bride I have ever seen. It was an absolute pleasure baking 260 heart shaped cookies, making 137 place cards, 26 menus, a table planner and decorating 12 tables. It was an absolute pleasure to see her so happy and it was an absolute pleasure meeting her new husband. One of the drawbacks of living on a different continent is that you are not always familiar with the people your siblings are betrothed to, but I think they both made a  good choice. I am so glad that I could be a part of their beautiful day.



My heart shaped cookies



I cannot however, restrain myself from offering little free advise to the owners of  LaPineta in Stellenbosch.Although your food was gorgeous and your venue stunning,  it is usually frowned upon when:

1. You make the bride cry the night before her wedding by referring to her as an unprofessional bride. As far as I know my sister had not made it her profession to be a bride. In fact I did not know that one could become a professional bride. No, wait a minute, I guess there are a few of them about. I am sure the likes of Angelina Jolie is selling seats to her weddings by now. She probably has a team ready to "wedding" her at any given moment. They are probably on 24 hour standby, armed with the latest Vera Wang gown and a truck load of confetti. You never know, you never know.

2. When you shout at some of the guests to "Gee Pad!" (Get out!) of the dining hall when they are examining the table plan. I think there is a more polite manner of asking people to exit the establishment, but that is just me.

3. When you ask the person setting the tables for 137 guests,  to start at 12:00am on the day of the wedding (and the wedding starts at 5pm). The person in question had to attend a family breakfast, help the bride get dressed, help the flower girl get dressed and also get herself dressed. People (meaning me) do careful planning before such an event and it is not always possible just to hand things over. Oi vey. What a headache.

But considering all the above, it was a wonderful wedding and everything looked great, if I must say so myself.

My heart shaped cookies in action

This Saturday coming up I going to opt for take aways, I do not want to see a cookery book or recipe near me. Time to sleep and recover, if the kids will let me. Ok, maybe not, maybe I will conjure up something for the hubby and I. I have missed him since I've been gone. We'll see...we'll see...

Untill next week...