2017 May 2
April is gone ... the Easter bunny, chickens and eggs
(well, the chocolate ones) are packed away ... and we’re entering the month of
May!
On 14 May,
it’s Mother’s Day in South Africa – if you’re battling with ideas, have a look
on my website: http://www.xcentricideas.co.za/images/2006/XCentric%20Ideas%202006%20Issue%205.pdf
This issue was inspired by a fellow Virgin
Active-er ... Nina and her mom Donna. Nina helped her twins’ school to
bake pancakes and of course there were leftovers taken home. When I spoke
to Donna a few days later, I suggested she uses leftover pancakes to make
‘cannelloni’ .... instead of using pasta tubes ...
But of
course that conversation sparked something ... ideas of how to use leftover
pancakes in creative ways. And my goodness, what splendid ideas I
found!!!!
When I told my Thursday aqua teacher, Tina, about
my pancake issue, she said that in Austria they have this dessert, called
Kaiserschmarrn (The
name Kaiserschmarren is a compound of the words Kaiser (emperor)
and Schmarren (a scrambled or shredded dish). )– it’s
basically torn pancakes mixed with fruit. What a brilliant idea for a
dessert using pancakes!
And...
before you flip ... (hahaha, pun intended) ... there are 3 gluten-free recipes
in this issue ... so no excuse for the Banting-ers and gluten-intolerant
friends.
You can
bake your own pancakes, buy them fresh from most Pick ‘n Pay and Checkers
stores (normally at the entrance) or buy them frozen at Woolworths.
Most of the
recipes are in full ... some of the recipes are just suggestions ... but
REMEMBER ... you can substitute ingredients to your own liking!!!! Don’t
just look at the recipe and think ... nah, I don’t like this... look at the
recipe and tweak it to your taste!!
Pancakes
can be frozen – here’s how. https://www.leaf.tv/articles/how-to-freeze-crepes-and-reheat-them/
Are you
aware of National Food days? I presume it originated in America and there’s
almost every day some food to celebrate. What a fun thing for a company
or school to celebrate:
May 2
National Chocolate Truffle Day
National Chocolate Truffle Day
May 4
National Candied Orange Peel Day
National Homebrew Day
National Hoagie Day
National Candied Orange Peel Day
National Homebrew Day
National Hoagie Day
May 5
National Enchilada Day – Happy Cinco de Mayo!
National Enchilada Day – Happy Cinco de Mayo!
May 6
National Crepe Suzette Day
National Crepe Suzette Day
May 7
National Roast Leg of Lamb Day
National Roast Leg of Lamb Day
May 8
National Coconut Cream Pie Day
National Coconut Cream Pie Day
May 9
National Shrimp Day
National Shrimp Day
May 10
National Liver and Onions Day
National Liver and Onions Day
May 11
National “Eat What You Want” Day
National “Eat What You Want” Day
May 12
National Nutty Fudge Day
National Nutty Fudge Day
May 13
National Apple Pie Day
National Apple Pie Day
National
Fruit Cocktail Day
National
Hummus Day
May 14
National Buttermilk Biscuit Day
National Buttermilk Biscuit Day
May 15
National Chocolate Chip Day
National Chocolate Chip Day
May 16
National Barbecue Day
National Barbecue Day
May 17
National Cherry Cobbler Day
National Cherry Cobbler Day
May 18
National Cheese Souffle Day
National Cheese Souffle Day
I love
Reese’s Day
May 20
National Quiche Lorraine Day
National Pick Strawberries Day
National Quiche Lorraine Day
National Pick Strawberries Day
May 21
National Strawberries and Cream Day
National Strawberries and Cream Day
May 22
National Vanilla Pudding Day
National Vanilla Pudding Day
May 23
National Taffy Day
National Taffy Day
May 24
National Escargot Day
National Escargot Day
May 26
National Blueberry Cheesecake Day
National Cherry Dessert Day
National Blueberry Cheesecake Day
National Cherry Dessert Day
National Beef Day
National Grape Popsicle Day
National Grape Popsicle Day
May your
month ahead be filled with good health, good food, good company and good
spirits (yes, it does include brandy, whisky and rum – hahaha).
Remember:
every story has an end ... but in Life, every end is just a New Beginning!!
On Friday
evening, 7 April 2017, we drove to A la Turka in
Centurion. From the outside it looks like a plastered-over castle, but
then you step inside ... my goodness!!!! You have to read my Zomato
review on it. (https://www.zomato.com/pretoria/ala-turka-restaurant-doringkloof)
Decor is just amazing!
Food is a bit expensive but really worth it. Hein and I shared a platter
for R350 but we couldn’t finish it! Everything was just yummy. Of
course I opted for dessert, but not wanting to go for the obvious Baklava, I
chose Turkish Delight Ice Cream and it was really delicious. This belly dancer has a candelabra filled with burning candles on her head - while she danced!
Belly
dancers weaved between the tables and invited people to dance with them.
I thought – heck why not – and the 1 girl showed us a few moves but yikes,
after a few minutes my calves were complaining, so I sat down. But that
got me thinking of dance exercise ... I’ve already done line dancing, but
felt in the mood for something different ...
I thought
about pole dancing ... but after watching a video, decided that’s (a) really
too energetic and acrobatic to my taste and (b) I really don’t like wearing
shorts. So I searched for belly dancing classes and found a lady not even
3 km from our house!
On Thursday 20 April 2017 at 10 am I walked into the
class (there were the teacher Shalimar, me and 2 other ladies) and knotted on a
hip scarf with dangling ‘coin-sequins’ and the music started ....
Shalimar was really patient ... she showed you a few moves, then added music
and we shook, shook and shook our hips. At one stage we had the
tambourine and then we also danced with a chiffon veil – weaving it all
around. Class is for 1 hour and it was really fun!
Saturday 22 April 2017 we celebrated our birthdays by visiting a stunning fish restaurant in Morningside Mall, Love Fish
(I’ve talked about this restaurant in my email July 2016) (https://www.zomato.com/review/OEyYpo) – When we
walked in, I thought the waitress looked familiar ... but only on hearing her
name (Sparky) did we realize she served us in July 2016. And she
remembered us!!! She even remembered where we sat!!
Looking at the
menu, we decided to only have a few starters. Salt & Pepper Squid was
a no-brainer, but then we also tried the chilli fish bites (sooo yummy ...
crispy outside, soft inside), the seared tuna (it was melting in your mouth but
it could have been seared a little bit more on the outside), the smoked snoek
samoosas (oooooooooooooh this was absolutely our
favourite!!!!!!! They use phyllo pastry to wrap the smoked snoek in and
bake it in the oven .... it’s to die for!) and the duck & halloumi spring
rolls (it was good, but not wow).
For dessert we had the Rolo Banana
spring rolls with coconut custard sauce and it was perfect! Not too big,
not too sweet, not toooooo ‘naughty’ ... just right! Their prices aren’t
ridiculous but the flavours are just soooooooo amazing!!!!!!!!
Experimenting
with muffins, I’ve managed to find Orange Jaffa Cakes (why do they only have 11 cakes
in a packet???? I need 12 for my muffin pans! Urggghhh) and
decided to make choc orange muffins. I bought Golden Cloud choc muffin
mix (500g), mixed it according to instructions on packet but then also blended
in some preserved citrus peel (those ones in the little square box). At
the bottom of my cupcake wrappers, I placed 1 Jaffa Cake, then the choc-citrus
peel mixture and baked it. It was absolutely delicious!!!!!!! And
it made 24 muffins!
Yesterday
I’ve experimented with the strawberry Jaffa Cakes ... I used Golden Cloud
vanilla muffin mix (500g), mixed it
according to packet instructions, drained 2 tins of strawberries, cut it up and
added it to the mixture, as well as a bit of pink coloring. My muffins
were really pink! But the taste was good with the Strawberry Jaffa Cake
at the bottom.
My niece, Llanda, received Protea colours for cheerleading ...
we went to the ‘blazer-giving’ presentation on the Friday evening, 14 April 2017,
and it was heartening to see that their team was the 1st All girls
team from SA ... going to Orlando America for competitions! They left on
Sunday 23 April for 2 weeks and I’m sure they’re having a blast!! The
other mixed team also went over, although for some of them it was their 3rd
or 4th time. Who knew cheer leading is such a sport!
The next
day I made bottle cap earrings for my other niece Didi (Llanda’s
sister)! 6 pairs of Coca Cola, Sprite, Fanta, etc. ... I first had
to punch a hole in the bottle cap, then drilled it. It was super cool ...
Didi gave me some of the bottle caps and I made myself long dangly earrings.
Now have
you ever heard of SHARK biltong??
My dad’s family is from Gansbaai, West Coast, and I remember eating shark
biltong WAY back then. When my aunt Esme visited Joburg in February 2017,
I asked her about the shark biltong, but she didn’t manage to find some.
Last weekend I saw my aunt and she gave me A WHOLE BAG of shark biltong.
Oooooooooh, it is sooo yummy!!!! Not as pungent fishy as ‘bokkoms’ or
anchovies, but nice and salty. I’ve been offering shark biltong to my gym
buddies, but only a few brave ones tried it. Heehee.
On
Thursday, 27 April 2017, it was a public holiday in South Africa and we were invited
to a Greek friend of ours, Myra’s 60th brunch in Benoni. Thinking it will only be a
few people, we arrived at another family member’s house and goodness ....
tables were set for about 30 – 40 people! We felt truly blessed to be
included in their family celebration. It could have been in a hotel ...
there were cereals, yogurts, cheeses, Greek cheese (similar to ricotta) that’s
to be eaten with honey and cinnamon, different muffins, fresh fruit, waffles,
different kinds of breads, croissants, bacon, scrambled eggs, chipolatas, fried
Halloumi (that was by far my favourite!!!!), tomatoes, mushrooms ....
what a lovely morning! After brunch, the men gathered in the ‘man cave’
where a selection of over 800 different kinds of whisky were on display!
They sampled one whisky, Snow Grouse, and that’s actually kept in the
freezer!!! Hein really really loved it.
A big cake
was cut and Myra made an emotional speech. The cake was the original
‘rainbow’ cake ... 3 different colored layers – not bright colors – with
coconut in. Real good!!! Galaktoboureko was another dessert typical
Greek dessert ... phyllo pastry around set custard shaped into rolls. And
of course – don’t forget the real Greek coffee!!!! Mildly sweetened
served in gorgeous little cups!!!!!!
Saying our
goodbyes, we drove back home for our next social event ... a street braai in our complex. Quite a few of
the complex owners joined us with their own meat and drinks. The weather
was luckily not too hot and not too cold (sounds like Goldilocks and the 3
bears) and we spent the afternoon under gazebo’s chatting, eating and drinking.
When I’m
stuck with ideas for dinner (can you believe it), Hein’s always ready to
suggest something. One of those was curried fish.
My goodness, I couldn’t remember when last we had curried fish, so I wanted to
buy some at Woolworths (had it before and it’s real good). Alas, it was
Easter weekend and curried fish was sold out. Pick ‘n Pay ... also sold
out. Tins of curried fish? Nope – nothing! Only on Monday of
Easter weekend did I find some curried fish at our Pick ‘n Pay. R57 for a small
container. Yikes. The taste was really good, but the fish was SOLID
... it could have been pork. So I decided ... I’ll make my own!
Googled for
a recipe and decided to use frozen hake fillets. Making the sauce with
loads of onions was easy, submerging the fish into the sauce was easy ... then
it was refrigerated for 2 days before we tasted it. Taste was fabulous,
but once again the fish was solid. I realized that the frozen hake
fillets weren’t defrosted completely before I submerged it in the sauce ...
also I shouldn’t have cooked it in the sauce for 20 minutes!!!! But I
will definitely make it again ... now that I know what not to do. It was
heavenly with fresh white bread!
Last year I
decided to knit myself a jersey, but I
made up a pattern in my head. Well. It didn’t work out like
planned. I finished the jersey in a few days, but there were real
flaws. This year I decided to again knit myself a jersey ... a green
one. I went to Kismet Yarn shop in Deco Park, looked at the patterns and
chose 1 ... but the wool for this pattern was just plain boring and also quite
expensive. So I shelved the idea.
But Friday
I decided I’ll try again ... this time I had a plan ... I walked up and
down the shelves filled with wool, chose a wool in the color I liked (nice and
chunky wool) and at a reasonable price and then I asked the lady ... please
find me a pattern. I just wanted a plain jersey. She struggled a
bit ‘cause of course I told her ... I don’t want a round neck, I don’t want a
cowl neck, I don’t want a turtle neck ... I told her to also look at the mens’
sweaters and Eureka ... found a pattern perfect for the wool! Bought the
right knitting needles, paid R271 and now I have to gather the courage to start
knitting .... (to be continued) ... okay so I started to knit and our
lovely cat-daughter Sammy was quick there to help me ... grabbed my BIG ball of
wool and walked off with it.
I’m sure
that by now your icy glass is hot, your hot mug is cold, your bubbles are flat,
the door is unlocked and you’re on your way to one of the above-mentioned
restaurants – or to buy fish for curried fish – or buy wool for a jersey.
I ALWAYS LOVE
TO HEAR YOUR STORIES ... so email me with your news and pictures.
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