Date Night May 2012

G and myself had our second date night on Friday, from the date night anniversary gift.

The rules of the date night:
Take R50 each, go to the grocery store, split up, purchase ingredients for the set amount, no peaking at each other's purchases till you home, put ingredients together and made dinner.

We go to the grocery store together, decide that R50 each is not enough so we change the amount, I needed to purchase a few things for the house so we walk around doing that together, we then split up to buy our ingredients.

I go to get milk and then walk towards the isle that has the mexican food, all week I was thinking maybe we should have some tacos. I haven't had them in years, I get to the isle and guess who is standing in front of the mexican good... G!

So we both had the same type of food in mind just a different variation of it!  We decided that since we both had the same thing in mind we might as well just shop together!

We bought our ingredients to make nachos!

We assembled the nachos together, G started the fireplace in the lounge, we poured 2 glasses of wine, ate nachos and just enjoyed each others company.

All in all, even though we both landed up in the same isle and shopped together we had a beautiful evening.

Till next time
L

G's Birthday 2012

G celebrated his birthday last Sunday.  We invited some family and friends to join us for a potjie*

We had the kids with us for the weekend so 12pm on Saturday night the 3 of us were walking into our bedroom with a cupcake and pressies singing "Happy Birthday" to G.  


The next morning, I got up bright and early and made him a delicious breakfast in bed.


Just before everyone arrived we decided to make some roast potatoes on the fire in our flat cast iron pot, G started those while waiting for everyone to arrive - they were awesome!

 As soon as the potatoes were finished we put the potjie on, it takes about 3 hours to cook.

Despite the weather being quite overcast and chilly we all sat outside and chatted.  It was a lovely afternoon.
Once the potjie was just about ready we added some dumplings and 30 minutes later were eating this delicious potjie, perfect winter day food!



G play's Gear of War on Xbox live, so I made him a birthday cake with the Gear's cog on.  I made a rectangle cake as the base and then a round cake which I molded into the cog for the top.  Both were carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

We were both very happy with the end result.


At the end of the day, we both said that we are going to go away for our birthday's next year. :-)  As much as it's fun having everyone celebrate with you, it's a lot of hard work. We'll see though...


Till next time,
L

*Potjie: Stew cooked on a fire in a cast iron pot

One Year Anniversary!

G and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Monday.

I can hardly believe that a year has gone by since I walked down the isle and married the love of my life!

G started his leave on Monday, so we got to spend a lovely day together.  We went out to run a few errands on Monday morning, on our travels we decided to have lunch at this burger restaurant in Cape Town it was DELICIOUS!  I'm pretty sure that they make their own burger patties and they had this delicious relish that they put on the burger, yummy!

For dinner we went to this beautiful restaurant on one of the wine farms in Durbanville, it was such a beautiful evening. 

All in all it was a wonderful 1st Anniversary!

We decided before the time that we were not going to buy each other gifts, so I made us a similar version of this.  G liked it, it's not quite a present and it's something fun for both of us to enjoy.
We did get totally spoilt by friends and family which was unexpected.

We are leaving at the end of this week to go on holiday, we can't wait! It is going to be bliss to just relax, read and enjoy the beautiful sea view from the hotel.

Till next time!
L

Bobotie Recipie

Bobotie (pronounced: ba-boo-eh-tee) is always something that I have wanted to make in the back of my mind it always seemed so complicated, about 2 months ago I found this really easy recipe in the Home Magazine.  It was possible one of the hottest day's in Cape Town and I decided to make bobotie, it's not quite a "summer meal" but it was delicious anyway and I'm glad that I made it.

The recipe:

2 onions
30 ml butter
1kg beef mince
1 slice of bread
10ml turmeric
15ml curry powder
10ml salt
1.25ml pepper
2.5ml ground nutmeg
5ml salt
125ml vinegar
22.5ml apricot jam
15ml chutney
1 tin cream of mushroom soup
125ml sultanas
2 eggs
375ml milk

Saute the onions in the butter until glossy, then add the mince and fry until brown. Soak the bread in water until soft, squeeze out all the excess water and then add it to the mince with the rest of the ingredients, except the eggs and milk. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes and spoon into a greased dish.

Preheat the oven. Beat the eggs into the milk and pour over the mince, then bake the bobotie until golden brown on top.

I served mine with yellow rice with raisins, I also added little bowls to the table with chopped up banana, coconut, plain yogurt and a sambal made up of chopped up onion and tomato mixed with balsamic vinegar.  Everyone can choose what they want to add to the bobatie and rice.

We all started eating quickly, so I only managed to get one photo of my mom's plate before she started.

Till next time!

L



Oh the smell!

We have a bottle store close by that sells export wine at really good prices, I was driving past on Friday so I popped in and bought 2 bottles of wine.

I put them in the boot of my car in between some juice, strategically placing them so that they can't roll around and bump into each other.
I somehow knew I shouldn't have put them in my boot but of course didn't listen to my gut feeling!

I made sure that I didn't drive like a cowboy, just in case.
I wasn't far from my house when I heard these bottles rolling around, argh!  I drove extra, extra careful.  I took the first turn off just before my road and I heard "CLINK" 2 bottles of wine knocking together.  By the sound I just knew that one if not both had broken, this was then confirmed when I got the "whiff" of red wine.

The two bottles had bumped and the bottom of one had a clean break, which means that a WHOLE bottle of wine emptied in my boot.

I cleaned as much as I could, took the base part out and hosed it down.  I had some more shopping to do so after cleaning it I popped out.  I got home, left all the windows of the car open and went to finish up a few things in the house. About 30 minutes later I open the garage and all I smelt was wine!

I wiped out the boot one more time this time taking my spare tire out only to realise that most of the bottle of wine was sitting in the base of my car. I finally managed to get all of the wine out of my car but unfortunately not the smell.

5 day's later and I have a off wine smell in my car a smell I am not quite sure how to get rid of!

I got this really nice smelling spray when they serviced my car the last time, I have been spraying that to try tone it down a bit. At first I just had a sweet off wine smell but now it seems the wine smell is less at times.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of the smell?

Till next time
L

My 31st Birthday

It was my 31st birthday last Friday. Initially I decided that I did not want to do anything for my birthday, G and I would just go out for dinner somewhere special.
Well then my mom had her say and next thing I knew we were going to her house on Friday night for dinner and I had 19 people invited to our place for tea and cake on Saturday afternoon.  This all happened between Wednesday and Thursday evening! So I didn't have much time to plan.

My day started off with G bringing me tea in bed and my pressie.

I booked myself a manicure and pedicure for the afternoon which was absolute bliss!

Friday night was lovely, my mom invited very special family friends to join us. The 5 of us enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner with lot's of laughs and good conversation. It was a wonderful way to end off my day. I got totally spoilt, my parents have me THREE full body massage vouchers! How awesome is that...

My mom baked me this amazing birthday cake! Vanilla cake, with 4 layer's inside each separated with butter icing and then covered in melted chocolate YUMMY!!!

Saturday morning we spent getting ready for the tea and cake. Thankfully our dining room is big enough to move our dining room table to one corner and set up a table with beverages, so the flow is quite nice and everyone can help themselves and I don't have to spend the day serving everyone.

It was a lovely afternoon and I got spoilt rotten!

My mom got A & M to sing happy birthday to me with sparklers, it was so cute.

Of course, as usual we had enough cake to feed a small army.  There were so many delicious eats, it was quite difficult to choose.

Sunday, my mom and the kids came to our place and we took it very easy.  We had toasted sammie's for lunch and spend the afternoon swimming, it was a lovely afternoon.

All in all, I had a lovely 31st birthday weekend!

Till next time!
L

Melkbos Beach

G got home from work on time last night, this hasn't happened often lately as he has been so busy. For the last couple of months even when he has arrived home on time it is with this laptop in hand so that he can carry on working. 

Last night I was very excited to see my hubbie walk through the door on time with no laptop bag in hand, yay :-)

Supper was ready so we ate and then went for a walk on Melkbos* beach. It was a little windy but it didn't matter it was still beautiful!

I grew up in a seaside town and Fish Hoek beach is really beautiful, I would often go for a walk on the beach in the evening and watch the sunset while walking. There is something so tranquil about the beach.

Since I have moved to the Northern Suburbs, there are not many nice beaches. The only one that I like is Melkbos and that is about a 20 minute drive, so we don't go very often.

Last night was a real treat, as you can see by the photo's

G walking, I love the pattern in the sand it was so pretty

Such a lovely end to the day!

Till next time!
L


*Melkbos is an Afrikaans word for Milk Bush

I saw this saying on facebook the other day:

"In order for you to insult me, I would first have to value your opinion!"

I really enjoyed this one because I have a few people that I would LOVE to say this too right now!

I won't of course because I am bigger than that but the thought was nice anyway.

Till next time!
L

3 posts in one week, I think it is a new record for me!

I saw this saying on facebook the other day:

"In order for you to insult me, I would first have to value your opinion"

I had a really good chuckle at this saying because I have someone in my life right now that I would love to say this too, not to be nasty but just because they are acting that pathetic!

G and I went out for dinner last night, it was really nice to get out of the house for a bit.  Yesterday I felt some cabin fever. I guess working from home, does that to you!
We went to the waterfront for supper, the food was good but the service was terrible. It's really disappointing. It is the Fourth time we have been to this restaurant in the last 3 months and every time the service has gotten worse, I don't think we will go back which is a pity!

I was so tired when we got home, I was sleeping before I put my head on my pillow.

It is going to be another scorcher in Cape Town today, 34 Degrees Celsius - ouch! We will hopefully spend the day sitting under fans and swimming in the pool.

Hope that you all have a good weekend!
Till next time.
L

Our first sleep over

As I mentioned in my previous post, my parents are fostering 2 children.  We have been spending just about every weekend with them since they arrived. 

Most weekends they have come to us and we have spent the afternoons swimming, it has been great fun.

A the younger of the two is 3 and a half and has progressed to swimming around the pool with is water wings, he has been doing really well even doing bomb drops into the pool - he is quite brave!

Last weekend my parents had friends stay with them from Australia so G and I offered to take the kids for the weekend, our first official sleep over - yikes!

Friday morning, I drove through to my parents house to spend some time with their overseas guests and to pick up the kids when they have finished school.

M who is 7 was so excited, I don't think that she kept quiet for even one second on the drive home. 

I had my first official shopping trip with the 2 kids, all by myself! It didn't go to badly, I put A in the trolley and told M to walk next to me and hold onto the trolley.  It did however take me just over an hour to to a 20 minute shopping trip but we had fun and they were really good little helpers.

By the time we got home, G had arrived home from work. The 4 of us worked together and made some pizza's for supper.  We made popcorn and watched a bugs life together, the kids loved it.  It landed up being quite a late night with us only getting to bed at about 11pm.

G and I both had a terrible nights sleep, we put both kids in the room with us one of a mattress and the other on a bed made out of the cushions from our sofa.  Both of us woke up I don't know how many times during the night.

We survived our first night - whoo hoo! Even though we had sleep deprived eyes the next day!

Everyone was coming to our place the next evening for a braai, so the next morning G & M made us Jamie Oliver's breakfast pancakes while A and myself made meringue baskets which was part of our desert for our guests.

We all seemed to work quite well together and of course the best part about any sort of baking is cleaning the bowl and the beaters.
A of course LOVED this part as you can see in the photo

We spent the morning playing xbox and can you believe shopping again! Even though I had spent way more time at the shops that I was meant to the previous day I still forgot to get a few things.

The afternoon was spent with my parents and their friends, we swam and had a braai* made some cocktails and ate far to much food. It was a good day all round.

It was quite late when they left so the G, the kids and myself showered and got straight into bed.  We slept much better this time round. 

We survived our second night - yay!

Sunday, we made pancakes for breakfast. Played some xbox, (we are trying to teach them how to play) we then decided that instead of taking an afternoon nap we could all rest and watch a movie.
After that we went for a swim, possibly the most important swim of all!  A decided half way through that he didn't need his water wings anymore so he took them off, called G and said I want to touch the bottom of the pool!  He then proceeded to swim without them, even jumping into the pool to try touch the bottom, we were so proud of him!

With all good things they of course have to come to an end, we packed bags and headed off towards my mom's place to drop the kids off.  We spent a lovely evening with my mom and brother having dinner and just chatting and then headed home to get ready to start another week!

We survived our first sleep over - *jumps with excitement*

Can you believe it's February already, 24 day's till my 31st birthday - why oh why!

Till next time!
L

* Braai is the Afrikaans word for barbecue

The adventure of the keys!

I thought about this incident this morning and couldn't believe that I have blogged about it yet, we have laughed about it so many times over the last couple of weeks that I have to document it...

My parents have 2 foster children, they arrived about 2 months ago.  We have been spending a lot of time with them in fact most weekends my mom has been coming through to our place with the kids, since it has been so hot we have been spending loads of time outside in the pool.

For the sake of the story I need to tell you that our home is like a mini fort we have slam lock gates on every sliding door, proper gates on ever door, burglar bars that are secured into the wall on every window.

When we go swimming, we usually go out of the sliding door from our bedroom it faces the pool and we have carpets in our room so it's safer if the kids feet are a little wet when they come back into the house.

About a month ago, G and the kids go out to the swim my mom and myself follow shorty. As I go out I push the sliding door closed to stop the wind from blowing our blinds to shreds as I do this I hear CLICK!!  The door locks, someone must have moved the latch on their way out of the door.

Now another history lesson, we ALWAYS as in ALWAYS take our house key's outside with us because we have a remote with a panic button. We have never used the panic button but we always have it on us just in case.  This particular day both sets of keys were happily hanging in our entrance hall - what was that about Murphy's law!

We are now locked outside our house with no key's, no phone's and no way to get in and because this isn't funny enough I am in my bikini with a towel wrapped around me!  I usually wear a sundress over my costume but for some reason I took it off in the house and walked out with my towel wrapped around me - once again what was that about Murphy's law!

G said that I should ask one of our neighbours to phone a locksmith, my mom and myself look at each other see adventure and say we will first try get the key's ourselves.

We start looking around the garden for some tools to take with us, we land up with the long pole with a brush on the end that we use to clean the pool, a few sticks and metal poles and 2 garden chairs.

We make our way to the gate on the side of the house, did I mention that we are big on security? Just because having a gate isn't enough we have a gate with spikes on top and in the middle. Of course they are only there to make situations like these a little more interesting...

I put a chair on either side of the gate, hold onto our neighbours wall and with lots of concentration and prayer that my foot doesn't go through one of the spikes I manage to slowly climb over the gate.
Hurdle number one - CHECK! Now my mom's turn, she repeats what I did but uses the garage windowsill instead of our neighbours wall.

We are both in our driveway, one gate down one more to go.
Did I mention that I happened to be in my bikini with a towel wrapped around me which just happened to keep falling down while I was trying to climb over the gate.

I grab the chairs put one over the next gate and into our courtyard, this time I still have spikes but no wall and no windowsill so  with a lot more prayer that I once again don't put my foot through one of the spikes and that I make it over the gate without falling, I manage to get over gate number 2.

YAY, me!

We decide that since there isn't anything to hold onto my mom would stay in the driveway and give me moral support while I try get the key's.

The fun begins, I have to try push the key's off the key holder in our entrance hall through yet another gate.
I take the long pole put a smaller stick inside it (thankfully it was open at the bottom) and managed to lift the set of keys off the key holder.

*does happy dance*

I turn the pole around putting the brush inside the house, I have this in the bag don't I...  All I need to do is sweep, sweep, sweep the key's towards me and we are done!

HAHA, now that would be way to easy wouldn't it.

The pool pole is not long enough and I don't have control over the pole if I put a smaller pole inside it because it moves around to much.  I tried and almost lost the pool pole in the house too.

My mom starts looking outside the house for anything that she can find to help me get the keys towards the gate.  Can you believe she manages to find a cable tie and a whole reel of wire.  Of course everyone has these things lying outside their house just for these situations.  They didn't help but nice try.

My mom then suggests that I break a branch off one of the trees that I have in my courtyard and lodge it in the bottom of the pool pole with the thinner stick.  I am willing to try anything to get my key's so I break a branch off the tree my bare hands (note the dramatic effect) I lodge it next to the stick and away we go.

I move the pole into the house, 5 sweeps later and I have my key's in my hand!

*sigh of relief*

Lessons learnt:
- Never go outside without your key's
- Never close your sliding door
- Always open another door (just in case)
- Don't leave your key's in the entrance hall
- Always take some sort of clothing item outside with you
- Never pass up the opportunity for an adventure

Till next time!
L

This and That!

My dad has come home for a month's leave, it has been so lovely to have him home and to spend some time with him.  Since my dad was away for Christmas and we have family friends visiting from Australia we decided to have a 'Christmas lunch' for my dad not all the trimmings but some of them.  I have all of my table decorations that I can still use and my mom was going to make roast pork, I would make deboned stuffed chicken and away we go - any excuse for a Christmas lunch, right?

3 day's after deciding we would do this on Sunday my dad got a call to say that he has been promoted but he needs to leave on Sunday, 3 weeks early! I am very happy that my dad has been promoted but seriously 3 weeks early...

We have decided to cancel the Christmas lunch and have a braai instead, which will be just as much fun.

I have had quite an interesting week, I love it when you can see how challenges in your life make you grow and make you stronger.

A few months ago I had something happen to me and I seriously freaked out, over the last few weeks I have been praying about it and trying to see where I went wrong.  Today the same thing happened and through Gods grace I was fine, I didn't freak out and didn't get annoyed I actually laughed it off and took it from where it came!

Don't you just love it when God moves you forward and you learn and grow and allow Him to build your character.

It has been very hot in Cape Town over the last couple of weeks and I must say that I am loving the sunshine!  We have spent a lot of time in the pool and in the sunshine I have my tan back, yay!

My herb garden has taken a bit of a beating though, the week that I was sick my mint chocolate died! I know, I feel terrible although I didn't really use it much but it is the type of herb that has to be watered everyday and of course because I was sick I didn't so that combined with this heat I know have a brown shriveled mint chocolate bush.  I am not sure whether I am going to replace it or not, maybe with something a little more hardy that doesn't need so much attention. Right now I think I'm in denial though and just trying to ignore the fact that I once again didn't succeed in growing a mint bush!

Till next time!
L

Christmas is over!

Christmas is finally over in our household, yes a little late but I only took my Christmas decorations down this morning! Shocking, I know!

My original plan was to take them down last Sunday but my body decided to pick up a tummy bug and I have been woman down all week.
Today is the first day that I am feeling better.  Our cleaning lady is here today so if I didn't take the decorations down this morning I would have had to wait another week and I am probably already pushing it since we are almost half way through January!

I must admit that I have enjoyed the decorations more after Christmas, we seemed to spend more time in the lounge with the lights on once Christmas was finished.

Someone joked with me the other day and suggested that I just keep my decorations up until next Christmas and although it was a joke it was rather tempting.

Things have been relatively quiet in the L household.  Last weekend we spend just about the whole weekend in the pool, the weather was lovely and the water 31 degrees.  I also got to try out my kitchenaid that G got me for Christmas, it's awesome!  I made us home made pasta, what a pleasure and Malva pudding, both turned out lovely.

I spent most of this week in bed!  Isn't it funny that when we are really busy we want time to rest and wish we could sit and do nothing except relax well this week I got that and it was nice for one day but then I felt like I was going crazy.

I am the type of person that sits in front of the TV and crafts at the same time, I usually can't just sit and watch.  This week I didn't have the energy to do anything else but just lie there and watch and geesh it got frustrating!

Good thing is, I am up and about and again and on the mend.  I also lost a few kilos, which I know in theory you put back on again when you are better but I am going to try my utmost to keep them off.

Till next time!
L