Weekend Tunes: Goldfish

Performing 12 December 2009 at Menlyn Park in Pretoria
Details at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191180622728&index=1

Music to buy at http://www.goldfishlive.com.shopdirect.co.za/

Fort Knox by Goldfish

The Porter Estate Market

When: Saturdays from 9:00 to 13:00
Where: Tokai, on the Chrysalis Academy grounds (directions)
Entrance fee: R5
Website: http://www.pepmarket.co.za

Here are some photos from my trusty digi-cam (always tucked into my bag) from our many market visits, of which each was very special in its own way; if not for the food, then for the people/dogs/setting/company.

Breakfast is highly recommended in the form of grazing from stall to stall, all laid out on one of the rustic wooden benches or tree-trunk tables. Our faves include: moer koffie with condensed milk (served in tin cups), cherries/peaches/apricots/red peppers from the fruit and veg stall, chocolate macaroons (gluten-free) served in little pyramid packets, any pesto from Pesto Princess, raw honey from the honey guy, snoek pate from the fish guy, and goat's milk feta from the Imhoff table.

This outing is one of the things we miss most about living in Cape Town. So if you are in the environs, then please make the trip (often) to treasure this little unpretentious gem of a market...you wont be sorry!

Travel Diary: Hout Bay, Cape Town (at sunset)

Walking on the beach at Hout Bay during sunset is great for a couple of romanticised reasons:

1. holding your loved one's hand and chatting (thanks bu *kiss);
2. enjoying the view of the sun setting over the mountains (see pics);
3. the lighthouse beam from Kommetjie;
4. the fishing boats coming back into the harbour; and
5. the vast array of trotting, barking, playing dogs (as below) that see the beach as their personal playground which I, personally, find amusing to watch (obvious downside - owners that don't pick up their doggy's doo-doo leads to eewww).

Sometimes, one is lucky enough to catch some insight into other people's lives too. On just one random day we witnessed:

1. a wedding party taking pictures on the beach;
2. two sets of religious groups holding baptisms in the harbour waters; and
3. a wedding couple heading to the pier for pictures.

All in a good day's beach walk :-)

So feast your eyes on...

...the sunset (numero uno)...
...the sunset again(numero duo)...

...a little scruffy-do :-)

Travel Diary: Gordon's Bay, Western Cape

G-Bay is situated on the northeast corner of False Bay, about 30 mins drive from Cape Town. Not much goes on here from the view of a passer-througher, and even the "beach" is a little underwhelming BUT the views over False Bay when you get up high enough are pretty spectacular.

That being said, I highly recommend 20 Protea Place as a port-of-call should you be passing through this merry haven. What makes it special is that it is a 5-star self-catering "guest house", with each apartment lavishly decorated from the pages of some uber stylish, shee-shee-poo-poo decor mag. It is tres fab!

Feast your eyes on...

...the kitchen...
...the lounge...
...the dining room...
...le boudoir...
...the balcony with view included :-)

Travel Diary: Hermanus, Western Cape

Happy December everyone! I hope it is indeed a festive month which is sparkley and full-o'-fun :-)

Now, back to the travel-tales.

Herm-se-anus (as I like to call it) is about 90 minutes drive from Cape Town, and we were lucky to be there at the tale-end of the whale season (pun intended).

While the guest house wasn't that great, while still being on the pricey side (it was run by a European woman who talked like Edna from The Incredibles and oozed condescension out of every pore), there was a really cool little dachshund there called Max who made up for his owner's severe lack of gentility and charm.

Walking the cliff path into town is highly recommended, as is eating at the Ocean Basket during whale season. From our window table, we saw at least seven full leaps by a whale right out of the water, which was awesome!

Feast your eyes on...

...Max...

...the view along the cliff path...

...the whale-tale fountain :-)

Travel Diary: Noordhoek, Cape Town

Hubby and I recently spent an awesome week planned around the Johnny Clegg concert (pics to come) in our favourite South African city (and ex-home town), Cape Town.

One of the guest houses we stayed at was Bazara in Noordhoek - a funky, reasonably-priced place with a fabulous view and a lovely resident golden retriever. It's close to both Long Beach and Chapman's Peak Drive, both of which deserve a chunk of your time.

Feast your eyeballs on...

...the suite...
...the view from the deck...
...a delightfully friendly dog named Bungo...
...the sunset...
...the beach the next morning...
...and a view from Chapman's Peak Drive.

Blog link love....

When I can understand its content (you'll see what I mean),
I love this blog.

Most importantly, I love the man who writes it :-)

The lastest post has a personal touch to it which saw
us on the balcony using lots of masking tape to fix
the damage, and to try and prevent some more of the same
to whatever was left of our internet connection!

http://localloop.co.za/2009/11/power-over-ethernet-makes-cat5-cable-less-tasty/

"The Shredder"

Coz sometimes...

...life's like that.
(Painting courtesy of the study
room at school, artist unknown)

Gluten-free bread recipe version 1

I made this recipe up as I went along (the benefits of a having been a chef...written recipes are optional).

If there were ever a bread that TASTED like french toast, this is it - it's very eggy, so be warned if that's not your thing in terms of flavours...

Red pepper and feta loaf

62.5g butter (melted)
2 eggs
1 cup rice flour (Entice Rice Flour works well)
1 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp creme of tartar
pinch of salt
1 small red pepper
1 round of feta

- Mix together and put in a buttered loaf tin.
- Bake for 25 mins at 180 degrees celsius.

Born-up-a-gluten-free-tree! For those of you wondering why this is my oft-used key phrase, it's just a silly play on bon appetit :-)

Crumble Cravings

I had only two pieces of fruit left in the fridge the other day, one apple and one nectarine, which I was planning on virtuously eating raw as part of lunch when I realised with glee that I also had the makings of a crumble topping.

Below is the recipe for the two-serving gluten-free crumble which resulted, and I have to say, it was one of the best I've ever made.

Apple-Nectarine Crumble (as pictured above)
(Serves 2)

Crumble:
- 70g butter (just over 1/8 of a 500g block of unsalted butter)
- 6 Tbsp rice flour (I use Entice rice flour, available from most Super Spars)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 Tbsp cane sugar
- 2 Tbsp medium desiccated coconut

- Use a food processor to make the crumble

Base:
- 1 apple
- 1 nectarine
- 1/2 tsp cane sugar
- 50g flaked almonds
- juice of 1 lemon

- Butter the base of a baking dish.
- Add base.
- Put over crumble as topping.
- Bake for 10 mins at 200 degrees celsius, shuffle crumble lightly using a fork, and then bake for another 10 mins at 175 degrees celsius.

As Isadora Duncan said:
"Virtuous people are simply those who have not been tempted sufficiently..."

Well, I was tempted, and my resistance crumbled :-)