Reflections in, on and round about…with a lot of cooking on the side
I have been planning to share another episode in my sourdough journey for a while. It was prompted by my newest market product which garnered orders for 160. Yes, you read right. One-hundred-and-sixty. Pita breads using wild yeast. Oh, and that excludes the batch I make each week for the market... I started working on … Continue reading Pita Breads with Natural Yeast – Sourdough
The other day, someone asked me, Do you miss him? I was a little girl – probably nine or ten – when I first encountered a death in the family. My father’s mother. We called her Wee Granny. I don’t remember her. Hardly surprising because the only time I did ever meet her, I was … Continue reading Different people. Different grief.
On Saturday, 8 July, I had the privilege of joining a cooking class. With Chef Kurt, owner of The Fat Lady's Arms. It was the most fun Saturday afternoon I've had in a long while. Especially on a cold and miserable winter's day as it was, yesterday. First - A disclaimer - and more … Continue reading Cooking class(es) with Kurt
For the first time in 23 years, I celebrate The Husband's birthday without him. He didn't "do" birthdays. I did. That photograph, I took of him in 2016 and used it for the invitation to celebrate his 70th birthday. Seven years ago. Exactly a month ago, on 5 June, I said goodbye to him forever. … Continue reading This day, 23 years later, will never be the same
I have been making my own wholegrain mustard for a while, now. Well, until December 2022, I hadn't made it for a while. The first time I made it was ahead of a Sunday supper. I cannot remember why I needed it, but none of the shops had any. For love nor money, we could … Continue reading Keener than (wholegrain) mustard
There are some days that one never forgets. What happened, where you were, what you were doing and what followed. I was standing in my kitchen starting to get supper ready when I heard the news that Queen Elizabeth II had died. It got me thinking about how, in my life, I've lived history. It's … Continue reading Some September Stuff
Whenever I hear Abba's Waterloo, my eleven year old self remembers the first "pop" song that appealed to her - the very first time she heard it. https://youtu.be/3FsVeMz1F5c It was a weekday afternoon and the radio was on - we had one of those radiograms that had the radio in the middle, a turntable on … Continue reading Six decades, only six songs? Impossible
The Husband groans every time some of my regular customers arrive at the market, bulging bag in hand and make a bee-line for me. I take great delight in these deliveries: they're usually glass jars (and the odd bottle) that they have emptied and saved. Sometimes for me to refill or to fill afresh. Before … Continue reading The quest to use less plastic
For the last couple of days, I have been musing on the heady, awful and wonderful days of the mid-1980s. At the moment, there's a kind of pall hanging over South Africa which is a function of the nearly fifteen years of electrickery drama, ongoing corruption and impunity, only the surface of which Zondo has scratched. … Continue reading The dying memories of the 1980s: looking back to look at the now
I have a to-do list of promises that is as long as my arm (and the other and both legs) of recipes that I've said I'll write up and share. This promise was made two years ago. It's weird that it's two years ago. It also seems that the phrase "two years" is running through … Continue reading Sourdough – it’s a journey of constant learning