Wrapup for the month

So, another month has gone, fast!!

1) We were chatting about a friend visiting from the States. Told the kids that I’ve always loved her name , Jessica ,and that was our girl name if Andrew turned out to be a girl. Andrew pipes up – Mom I don’t think you would have been able to cope with two girls. Lol! Cheeky monkey!

2) Rolo – Cookies is now a firm favourite in our house. Chocolate cookies with a Rolo centre. Life couldn’t be better.

3) Happier times now that it’s cooler during the day. At least I can go for a run at lunchtime without fear of expiring of heat 

Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding

With the cold evenings upon us this is the ideal pudding to serve. You can make ahead and freeze it until ready to use. Nifty hey?
Recipe came from Sarie Kos Spring 2011 edition

Self Saucing Chocolate pudding
140 g (150 ml) butter
140 g 70% Dark Chocolate
3 eggs
3 egg yellows
85 g (100 ml) castor sugar
45 g (85 ml) Cake Flour

Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius.
Melt the butter and the chocolate
Beat the eggs and sugar until light.
Add the chocolate to the egg mix. Beat in the flour

Pour into small bowls. I used ramekins. Bake for 10-12 minutes. If you leave it too long your pudding won’t have any sauce inside.
You can keep the mixture in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Bake it then for 15 minutes or freeze it in the bowls and bake for 25 minutes.

Sorry for the quality of the pic. I took it from the magazine.

A Chef in my kitchen (fantastical potato salad thrown in)

In the beginning of the year Pierre’s brother came to visit. He is a fully fledged chef with his own restaurant, and always shows us some tips and tricks in the kitchen. He showed us how to make this German/Austrian Potato salad. Apart from being very tasty it’s not made with mayonnaise as we know it – so cuts down on quite a bit of fat.
Potato Salad
8- 10 medium Mediterranean potatoes (this recipe doesn’t work so well with other potatoes- we tried- you get the Mediterranean potatoes at Woolworths)
Boil them in their skin until cooked through
Sauce Ingredients
30 ml of Olive oil
Tablespoon of white wine vinegar
250 ml of vegetable or chicken stock made with the water the potatoes were cooked in (the water has starch in so makes the sauce go thick)
About 5 chopped up spring onions
Mix all the sauce ingredients.
Peel the potatoes. Careful they are hot.
Mix sauce with potatoes in a bowl and let it cool down.
The salad’s taste improves over time so it’s ideal to make it and leave it in the fridge and eat as and when required.

Wrapup for the month

This month calmed down to a managable chaos, amd I’m feeling slightly more in control.
Three things
1) Both kids have done so well this term. It’s gratifying to see after the struggles we’ve had last year.
2) Carmen decided she is also playing golf now. Coach says she has some real talent. We are now a fully fledged golf family. Mom being the supportive spectator
3) It was Hubbies birthday. Took him out for a lovely dinner. Happy birthday babes! Have an awesome year!

The Joy Diet

I’ve read Martha Beck’s Joy Diet before, but think I was just in too much of a hurry to take it all in. I’m busy rereading it – slooowly as it is intended.
This little mantra has stuck with me

May I be happy. May I be well. May I be free from suffering.

I wish you all the same.

Happy Easter!

Logic Puzzles

I quite like to do logic puzzles. We are also at the same time reading one of the next books in the train your dragon series by Cressida Cowell – How to be a pirate. I thought I would try my hand at putting a very basic logic puzzle together based on the book. Let me know how you and the kids do on it!

How to be a pirate logic puzzle

Hiccup, Bloodbrains and Smellalot want to get to Skull Island. They have a boat and a float with sails and a canoe to get there. Can you work out who gets to go in what to the island?
1. Hiccup doesn’t like to row.
2. Smellalot doesn’t know how to sail.
3. Bloodbrains fought hard to sail in the boat but didn’t win.

Boat with sails Float with sails Canoe

Hiccup
Bloodbrains
Smellalot

Shortbread

Ever since we’ve been away and the kids tasted Shortbread , they’ve been onto me to make some. This recipe comes from Sharon who together with her husband Aiden ran a guesthouse in Swellendam. The recipe is real easy and quick to make. It makes about half a baking sheet of shortbread.

Sharon’s Shortbread

750 ml (3 cups) cake flour
250 ml (1 cup) castor sugar
250 ml (1 cup) maizena
350g butter at room temp.

Rub buttert into dry ingredients until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Grease a baking tin (22cm X 22cm). Press dough lightly with and evenly into tin. Prick it with a fork all over. Bake at 180 deg C for approx 40 min until golden brown. Sprinkle with castor sugar and immediatly cut into fingers.