October nibbles

• Favourite October meal? It was all about the Roasted Carrots with Chili and Feta for me. Hey, I'm a girl of simple tastes. Although I have to add that TheHusband really enjoyed the Roast Potato, Chorizo & Broad (Fava) Beans.

• Gives new meaning to I can haz cheezburger - Cheese & Burger Society.  My favourite? The Mona Lisa or The Couch Potato for those indulgent days. Heck, I won't complain about the Macho Nacho either.

• Sad, but true - 1 in 4 kids are bedroom diners. Isn't eating supposed to be a social event?

• Have an abundance of fruit on your hands? Well you'll never wonder what to do with 'em again once you've mastered this basic formula for a fruit crumble. 

• An excellent tutorial on how to temper chocolate for so you can make those lovely  white chocolate mendiants at home.

• In the mood for a slightly healthier milkshake option? Look no further than the spud shake. Yup, it uses mashed potatoes for that rich creamy texture sans cream. Nice one, right?

• Which also brings me to the FFF* for the month. As usual, drumroll please...... and the winner is.....The Daily Spud! Hailing from Ireland (where else?), The Spud claims to really really love potatoes. And it shows. From dips to breads, the ubiquitous potato salad (of course), pies and even desserts. All with either a focus on potatoes or a decidedly Irish spin. You gotta love a one-track mind, right?

*Favourite Foodblog Find

Savoury Crumble

So things are in disarray at chez Pot to put it mildly. Boxes are strewn everywhere, some already filled and tightly duct-taped, others still waiting to fulfill their destiny and spending their time hiding from the cats who have deemed them the perfect toys. Diving underneath them, running over them, climbing into them - yup, it's a grand old time to be a kitty at the flat. Add to that rolls of tape and string and you've got the makings of cat paradise. I think they'll be quite disappointed once we're settled in the new house and all the packing paraphernalia has been tossed out. 

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Spicy Cilantro-Peanut Slaw

The weather outside does not correspond to this summery slaw in the least, but we can pretend right? Besides, the sweaty sunny days of summer will soon be at our doorstep (oh happy day!) and for the folks up at the top end of the globe, I'm sure there's still a few t-shirt days left before the freezing begins in full force. 

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Roasted Carrots with Chili and Feta

So there I was. Harbouring fugitives. They certainly weren't welcome and I knew the situation would have to be resolved before things took an ugly turn. Everytime I turned my back, there were a few more of them. I needed a solution - and quick. There was also the other matter. The one of the growling monster within. You know what I'm talking about.

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Rainbow Chard Gnocchi

What a jampacked weekend! Went shopping for kid's presents (it's almost as much fun buying 'em as I remember it was playing with the toys), had way too much fast food, met up with an old varsity friend and reminisced over cocktails (aaaah the cocktails...), begged for secondhand boxes at the supermarket, packed a substantial portion of our kitchen cupboard contents and gave the insides of the cupboards a fresh lick of paint. Industrious, right?

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Dolmades, South African style

I am to dolmades what TheHusband is to hotdogs. Or chow mein. Or pizza for that matter. In other words, addicted. Whenever I spot them in our local shopping haunt's deli section I have to grab a small container to scoff as snack before supper time. Containing just 4 or 5 dolmades, it is usually enough to satisfy my gastronomic desires.

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Klapperys (Coconut Ice)

Behold the kerkbasaar (church fete). Tables as far as the eye stretches packed full of cakes, knitted toys, secondhand goods, and tiny sets of clothes for all the little girls' dolls. Lucky draws (the so-called 'tombola tafel'), the heady aroma of pancakes (crepes) sprinkled liberally with cinnamon and sugar, the sizzle of vetkoeke frying in hot oil and the comforting flavour of a good old kerrie (curry) wafting in the air. Served alongside generous spoonfuls of sliced bananas, desiccated coconut and Mrs Balls chutney of course.

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Smoked Snoek & Sweet Potato Chowder

As someone so eloquently put it "Stellenbosch has decided to receive its annual rainfall in one evening."  Spring is most definitely *not* in the air at the moment, despite the colourful blooms adorning the leaf-filled trees and the intoxicating smell of jasmine in the air.

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Fennel, Olive & Orange Salad

So I'm really starting to get into this running jogging semi-jogging business. How the heck did that happen? Fitness is a bit of a foreign concept around Casa del Pot. We had a gym contract for three years (it was part of a discounted price okay) which ended in July and guess how many times we went? Probably not even twenty times altogether. Horrible, I know.

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Roast Potato, Chorizo & Broad (Fava) Beans

In the Afrikaans culture, the stereotypical male's favourite meal is "rys, vleis en aartappels" (rice, meat & potatoes), which to be honest, has never really appealed to me. I mean, where's the vegetables people? The vitamins & minerals? Or are we on a one way track to scurvy-ville?

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Baked Spring Risotto

Growing up, you could say we were somewhat adventurous eaters. Our family has always eaten a wide variety of vegetables (no picky eaters at our table!) and my brother and I acquired a taste for olives rather early on in our lives. My mom is fond of recalling how the two of us (still preschool and early primary school at that stage) used to pick all the olives out of the salad before the other guests even arrived at the table. What? It was good. And quite frankly, at the age of 6, etiquette was the last thing on my mind.

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