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This was a reasonably quiet week for events, but a
crazy week for us at home, as we had to get the house and the food ready for
John's 70th birthday celebrations on Friday 27th and Saturday. We had wanted to
do the Saturday party as a picnic somewhere nice, but it was too much of a
challenge at this time of the year. Everywhere is booked for weddings and
Christmas parties. We couldn't afford expensive function places and even if we
had, they wanted to sell us their own food and wine and we wanted to do our own
catering, and, especially, bring out some great bottles from our cellar, which
we did.
So, somehow, after cooking all week, we
managed a family dinner party on John's actual birthday and then managed to
squeeze 30 people into our small house. Lynne has vowed never to attempt this
again. She said the same after John’s 60th, when we had 60 people. Presumably,
there will only be 15 for his 80th! There was lots and lots of food and drink.
Thank you to the friends who contributed, we are very grateful. Did we mention that
we also stripped and painted a wall, replaced some decayed planks on the deck
and coated it with preservative and repotted all our planters...?
Oh, and as if that was not enough excitement, on
Tuesday, John had his second cataract operation. All is well and his sight is
much improved. Nowadays, it's just a five hour visit to hospital and a 20
minute op.
Beer Festival Braai at Hamiltons The
festival was held last weekend and on Thursday night before that, we were
invited to join other media and the exhibitors for a braai there. We tasted
lots of the different new beers and ciders and ate a good braai. It was a great
fun evening, except for the exercise we endured getting there.
We learnt an important lesson. NEVER leave the house
for a function without checking a map. Lynne spent her ’Tween years living in
Green Point so we decided to take the bus there and Uber back. She knew how to
get to Hamiltons Rugby Club. Or did she? Had we checked a map we would have
seen that the Green Point Golf club has now blocked the way she knew and we had
a very , very healthy 4 to 5k walk first through the beautiful Green Point park
at twilight and then onward in almost a circle to get there! Well, we do need
the exercise.
2015 WWF-SASSI Trailblazer Awards at The Table Bay Hotel Every
year SASSI (South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) award chefs and
others who support the initiative in some way. This year the awards went to
seven chefs. The Media Award
went to a cookbook author, Daisy Jones, a journalist, for her cookery book,
Star Fish, published by Quivertree Press. Daisy’s cookbook is a collection of
recipes using only green listed seafood. SASSI is aimed at informing the
public how their choice of fish for consumption can help determine the future
health and productivity of our oceans. We were invited to the awards ceremony on
Monday evening.
Elgin Christmas Tweet Up at South Hill The
Elgin Winemakers Guild decided to reward all the hard work by the Tweeters this
year with a last tasting for 2015 and Christmas lunch party in Elgin at South
Hill. Transport was arranged for many of us from town and a great day was had
by all.
This week's recipe was served at John's birthday lunch and had everyone
demanding the recipe. It is the easiest ice cream recipe ever, it does not take
a lot of time to make, has only four ingredients and does not need either an ice
cream maker or lots of stirring to break up ice crystals. It comes out of the
1973 edition of the Cookery Year Book, which Lynne has used for years. Their
recipes are faultless. This quantity would fill one ice cream container. Make
this before the end of the strawberry season and you can have strawberry ice
cream in the middle of the winter.
Strawberry Ice
Cream
500g fresh strawberries - 175g icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice - 600 ml whipping or double cream
Wash and hull the strawberries and cut them in half.
Put them into your liquidiser or food processor with the lemon juice and icing
sugar. Add the cream and blitz. You can do this until completely smooth, but we
like it with a few small pieces of strawberry still remaining for texture.
Freeze. It is soft serve and can melt quite quickly. You don't have to take it
out to defrost a little, as you do with normal ice creams. We know you will
enjoy it.
3rd December 2015
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