Where have I been?

After a loooooong delay and pause in my blog posts I am happy to report that I am back!

So what have I been up to you may ask. Well here is the short version:

I've been cooking:

We had a lovely "Greek" inspired August Kitchen Counter Club!

I've adopted a dog:

Meet Rosco, aka Mr. Wakkie

I've been exploring our "back yard":

A trip to Hartbeespoortdam

I've gotten up close and personal with the wildlife on the farm:

I've spent some much needed time with my family:

The past few weeks also included experiencing SNOW in Jozie, reading, writing, designing, planning, configuring, preparing and embracing my home again.

I think I can now honestly say that I am okay with the idea of staying in sunny South Africa for now.

Have a lovely weekend dear readers and I am looking forward to bringing you some inspirations and new creations next week.

A special thanks to my sister, Bianka, for some of these amazing shots!

DIY Thursday_ KCC Burger Night

This month we had a KCC meeting with a twist -  2 of our regular members could not make the event so instead of postponing or canceling the night we called in the heavy artillery and seeing that it was Burger night it wasn't too difficult to convince the guys to wear our pink uniforms (smile!).



For Burger Night we made the following recipes:
Buns from here
All other items from here

The burger buns:

The Buns

Sweet Potato Wedges

 Tomato relish

 Pink peppercorn sauce

Grilled Bacon

Beef Patties

Our YUMMY end result:

Hungry now?

KCCC_ Pizza adventure

A belated post that was meant to be written yesterday already... better late than never I suppose!!

I know it is not a DIY Thursday, but I really want to share this wonderful KCCC evening with you - we had such fun! KCCC May month was pizza month and we made the most delish pizzas from scratch with no other kitchen utensils than what we all have in our houses!

We started by making a pizza dough recipe from Ravinder Bhogal's book Cook in Boots (a great book that I can definitely recommend!)

The pizza dough after being under a warm grill for 5 minutes

The base is then turned around and ready to receive the toppings.

What is so wonderful about this dough is that you only need to make it approximately an hour before you start making the pizzas and the fact that you grill it for 5 minutes and only then start layering on the toppings ensures you have an amazing crisp and crunchy pizza crust when you eat – this is almost always where homemade pizzas fall short!

Our ingredients included:

Fresh Rocket and Basil leaves, straight from the garden

 A selection of cheeses: Mozzarella, Brie and Gruyere.

Something meaty: Parma ham and chorizo sausage

Caramelized onions and poached Rosa tomatoes in white wine and thyme

 Tomato paste and fresh Avocado pear

With these ingredients we managed to create a feast that looked something like this...

 

Making the dough is probably the most difficult part of your evening, from there you only need fresh and interesting toppings, a very hot oven and some hungry customers… how easy can it be!?

Perhaps this post inspires you to rather DIY it than order in when your next pizza crave hits?

DIY Thursday_ The KCCC: February French

As previously mentioned when I first introduced the KCCC, this month's theme was February French and not only did we have fun making the recipes, we also celebrated Carina's birthday.

We started the night with a very easy, yummy and rich French Onion Soup and ended it off with DELICIOUS Creme Brulee - need I say more? 

Here are some photos of us doing it in French.

French Onion Soup:

This pile of chopped onions provided some great entertainment and tears!!

After the soup had simmered for an hour; pop in the bread and the cheese

and bake it under the grill until the cheese is melted and crispy.

Creme Brulee:

Carina "pudding queen" cutting the vanilla pods

The custard boiling

Straining, stirring and cooking the custard

Adding the sager to be caramelised on top of the Creme Brulee

Anyone for a bite?

Our stylish birthday girl

4 Happy customers (and cooks)!!

DIY Thursday_ The KCCC is born

I decided to include the birth and the progress of the newly formed Kitchen Counter Cooking Club (The KCCC) on DIY Thursdays because it is something that we are doing ourselves and there will probably be some interesting recipes and tips to share.

The club was formed with the idea of cooking, friendship and learning in mind and after our first meeting it is clear that we will be able to tick all 3 boxes.

What is this club exactly? Well in short: we are 4 friends that will meet monthly to cook and learn interesting recipes in order to broaden our culinary skills and experience.

At our first meeting we had to get all the administration, likes and dislikes and allergies cleared up - what would be the fun if someone could not eat the end result! We selected someone to take notes and someone to type up the month's recipes and notes; we are hoping to have the year's experiments and learning printed in a bound manual at the end of the year.

The KCCC_ January: Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Hoisin Peanut Dipping Sauce

This is a common recipe that you can easily get from most cooking sites on the Internet; see the recipe we used here. 

Also try Foodgawker or Punchfork for some great recipe inspirations!

Let the cooking begin!

Some of the ingredients used.

The veggie and herb mixture.

The Hoisin Peanut Dipping sauce.

Making the rolls, yummy!!

Meet Suzie, Tanya and Carina and see our team gear!

Dinner on the stoep - a well deserved prize!

We have preplanned our monthly "themes", so watch this space for February French!