2016 July 1
HONEY catches more flies than vinegar...
In Joburg,
it’s cold! But we don’t complain too much cause the sun is shining
brightly!
Yes, we are
using Honey in this issue! I found it soooo weird searching for recipes,
that both sugar and honey is used ... really? Why? Honey is plenty
sweet already. So these recipes (yes, they ARE ALL SWEET RECIPES!)
all uses honey!
Quite a few flour-less recipes as well. The old-fashioned ginger cookies were really
good ... but I still struggle to keep my cookies crisp. These cookies
were rock hard, but when I packed them into cellophane bags, they weren’t
crispy anymore.
If you’re
celebrating Xmas in July ... enjoy. Enjoy the fabulous Winter meals ...
soups, stews and hot chocolates!
FOR THE REALLY LONGER CHATTIER VERSION – make a
cuppa and sit comfy:
If you
crave some good soup, go to Mugg & Bean. Roasted Tomato &
Basil Soup, served with toasted Mozzarella sandwich – R49,90. Oh my
goodness ... this tomato soup is rich, creamy and has a dollop of basil pesto
on top. And together with this toasted cheese sandwich ... pure
heaven!!!!!!!!
For a quick
dinner, make fish nugget tacos. Buy a packet of taco shells.
Use frozen fish nuggets. Cut fresh cabbage finely. Guacamole.
Tartare sauce. Bake fish nuggets in oven (or fry in pan), put taco shells on baking
sheets for last few minutes of fish nugget baking time. Assemble.
It was sooooooooooo good and different. It’s an excellent idea for a
small dinner party. Replace fish nuggets with cooked shredded beef /
chicken.
Freak
shakes ... Craft, 4th Avenue, Parkhurst. Yes, they are
expensive at R95. Personally, I think the one that I chose
(caramel milkshake, topped with whipped cream, cheesecake and sugar bark)
wasn’t quite worth the money. Afterwards I had such a sugar rush, I felt nauseous and had a headache.
My other friend had the trio of hot
chocolates and said it was really yum.
But the picture below show this freak shake (chocolate overload, topped with whipped cream, brownie and
chocolate shards) – wow, I should have chosen that one!
For winter, Craft
now has hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and churros.
For a
while, we’ve been craving pea and ham soup. I found a recipe, used frozen
peas and fresh peas, but although it smelled like pea soup, it didn’t taste
like peas. Then I bought a packet of split peas, but it says on packet ..
do not soak. Well. I boiled those peas for more than an hour ...
they were still rock hard! So next time I will soak them overnight and
see how it goes from there.
Hein went
overseas for 7 days (Denmark & Switzerland) and I searched for a place to
stay while he was gone ... I chose Sunsquare hotel, Montecasino.
Also, if you’re a regular at Montecasino (no no, I’m not implying you gamble
... we go to Montecasino for movies, restaurants and drinks.) Till 31
July 2016 Montecasino has a voucher deal (https://www.tsogosun.com/montecasino/offers/real-deal) for R300 that’s really amazing.
You can have a meal for 2 (at certain restaurants), free entrance to bird
gardens (normally R70pp), free drinks (at certain restaurants), discounts on
burgers, etc. I was booked in from Friday 24 June 2016 till Monday 26 June 2016.
What a
fabulous weekend I had! I invited my niece Didi to stay over the Saturday
night.
Friday 24 June 2016
I booked in at Sunsquare Hotel .. on the dot 2pm.
From this picture you can see the room outlay ... left is the shower (NO
FROSTED GLASS DOORS)
Mugg &
Bean has a hot chai latte with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Real
good. For dinner, I went to Jenda (https://www.zomato.com/johannesburg/jenda-food-wine-fourways) and had a small pan of black
mushrooms, topped with bacon, pesto and blue cheese and baked in the
oven.
Saturday 25 June 2016
Saturday
morning I lazed in bed till 8am. Refused to drink hotel room instant coffee (such a
snob) and went down for breakfast. Aarya is the Sunsquare hotel’s
restaurant. I was sooooo looking forward to the buffet cause
there’s usually salmon ... but nope. They have a wide variety of dishes
... cereals, fresh fruit (I had the papino’s (small pawpaw) every morning), yogurts,
cold meats, cheeses, breads and pastries, muffins and croissants, an ‘egg and
omelette’ stand, a waffle stand and hot dishes .. mushrooms, chicken livers,
haddock in milk, chicken and beef sausages, bacon, baked beans, spaghetti with
veggies, hash browns and mince.
Since
Sunsquare is popular with business people, some items on the buffet menu are
changed daily. I had fruit, some toast and jam, mushrooms, hash browns,
sausage and bacon. AND FILTER COFFEE!!!!!! After filling my tummy,
I drove to Sandton train station to pick up Didi after 12. Drove back to
the hotel and had burgers at Gourmet Garage.
Her burger with blue cheese
sauce was real good.
I had a falafel burger .. tasty, but falafel
(chickpea) bit dry. But the chips and sweet potato crisps were yummy.
A visit to
the bird gardens was next at 3pm. I just loooove the flight of bird
shows!!! It’s every day at 11 am and on weekends / public holidays at
11am, 13pm and 15pm for 30 minutes. This crow is throwing tins in the bin.
It’s just sooo cute and funny.
Afterwards we walked for an hour through the gardens. There are pythons,
cobras, poisonous frogs, bats, lemurs, 1 sloth (think Zootopia movie), loads of
different kinds of birds ... even family of a Hadida in a salmon colour!
Quite nice actually.
Our throats were dry, so we walked to 3Sixty bar
inside the casino part. It’s quite cool ... the counter at the bar is
frosted ... we ordered 2 free cocktails (from the vouchers) and a cappu.
Cocktails were really good, but strong!
There are
so many little shops to browse in ... Big Blue is one of my favourites!
By 7pm we sat down for our free dinner at Mythos Greek Restaurant. You
can choose a veg or meat mezze platter. We chose the meat platter (but the veg platter is also really good!)
Well, let me tell you... it’s
plenty for 2 people! It has pita breads with tzatziki and taramasalata dips,
chicken kebab (chicken sooooooo soft), meat kebab (meat very soft), chicken
livers (yumyum), beef strips (a little bit chewy), 2 small meatballs, 4 prawns
and some soft calamari in butter sauce. It’s served with a small Greek
salad.
We sat right next to the ‘pathway’ so that we can check out
fashion and people. It was just very entertaining! Food was
just amazing!!!!! Every single time we’ve ordered that platter, we’ve
been impressed. Needless to say, we couldn’t finish everything.
After walking
around some more (good exercise this walking) and watching all the teenagers
(looooads of teenagers at the square and walking around) we eventually returned
to the hotel room. Now these rooms only have a queen-sized bed. So
I was a bit freaked out ... joked that we’ll put a pillow in-between us.
But no-one snored (well Didi didn’t say anything) and we had a really good
night’s rest.
Sunday 26 June 2016
Next morning we lazed around a bit. oh boy ... the
shower. Again, I totally freaked out. I’m such a private person; I
always dress in a cubicle at the gym. So I told Didi to read a book while
resting on her tummy. Nah, she’ll just watch tv. NO NO NO.
The TV was RIGHT NEXT to the shower. So she turned away and I had a real
quick shower. Heehee. But luckily the hot water steamed up the
shower doors.
Couldn’t
wait for my filter coffee ... breakfast room was so filled up, we had to sit
outside. Next to a heater and with a canvas ‘wall’ at least. Didi
chose a freshly made waffle with cream and choc sauce and some savory
thingies. I had a bite of her waffle and it was really good. I
stuck to my papino pieces and some savory dishes. Quite a few ladies
chose the spaghetti with veggies.
A movie was
in order ... we decided to watch The Boss.
With the movie, we got a free
popcorn and medium soda. While salting the popcorn, this young girl
DOUSED the popcorn with salt. My eyes went really wide!!!!! Movie
was really funny. We packed Didi’s stuff and I dropped her off again at
Sandton train station. Back at the hotel, I read a book and listened to
the people on the square. Kids loove the water fountain and splashed all
around.
For dinner
I went back to Jenda and had a chicken tacos plate. Oh my golly .... the
tacos were so small!!! 4 of them on a plate... each taco as big as my
thumb!!!!
Filled with
shredded chicken, topped with cheese and served with guacamole, sour cream and
tomato cubes. Real good.
At 5pm the
movies were soooo busy, so I decided to wait till 8pm. I indulged in a
Pecan Choc Sundae at Spur and watched The Angry Birds at 8pm.
What a cute
movie!!! Really enjoyed it. Walked through the casino, played R50
and won R150. Immediately took my money and walked back to hotel
room. This was now around 10pm ... and the square was empty.
Totally empty!! I was a bit afraid and walked really fast to the hotel.
Monday 27 June 2016
My plan for
my last breakfast at the hotel was defo a waffle. As I walked in, I
ordered a waffle. When the plate was delivered, I cut the waffle into
squares. 1 square was topped with papino’s and Brie cheese. 1
square topped with chicken livers. 1 square topped with bacon and cheddar
cheese. 1 square topped with chicken sausage and mushrooms. It was
delightful and I couldn’t finish everything, but this is a real ‘Alma-waffle’.
Packed my
bags and picked up Hein at the train station. All in all, it was a
fantastic weekend!!!! A mini-me-breakaway.
I’m sure by
now your cuppa is finished (or maybe you’ve refilled in the meantime) and
you’re salivating over the freak shakes ....
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