Never Enough Pudding

I have shared before, that as a young bride my cooking skills were best described as basic but enthusiastic. What I lacked in skill, I made up in research and a fearless spirit that I could do anything if I tried hard enough.

I guess it was all the research and experimenting that helped me gain confidence and an ability to prepare meals that no longer leave my family wondering if they could still get Mr Delivery.

One of the first pudding recipes I found, I tried out for my first dinner party (non family). I had never made a pudding before and at that stage we were still addicted to the ready made Wooloworths chocolate pudding. The couple we invited had been married a while and the wife was an accomplished cook, so you can see why I was keen to show my skills (however non- existent they might have been).

I am proud to say that it the pudding was a huge success and as since been served at many a winter dinner party. The rich chocolate sponge with a sweet thick dark sauce never fails to impress. I can not remember were I found this recipe, so I can't give credit - but I will highly recommend it to any novice wanting to impress dinner guests.


Chocolate pudding with Sauce

Batter
250ml Flour
65ml Butter
200ml Sugar
1 egg
15ml Baking Powder
2ml Salt
30ml Cocoa Powder
200ml Milk 2ml Vanilla essence

Sauce
500ml Water
375ml Brown Sugar
30ml Cocoa Powder

First make the sauce
Mix all three ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar has dissolved and starts to boil.
Boil for about 5mins and remove from the heat.

Batter
Cream together the butter and the sugar.
Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the sifted dry ingredients alternatively with the milk.
Stir in the vanilla essence.
Spoon the batter into a greased glass oven dish (1.5l -2.l dish with a lid)
Pour over the sauce and place into a oven at 180°C for about 40 minutes.
Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.
This is one of those "magic puddings", where the sauce disappears under the sponge.
As the pudding cools, the sauce becomes very thick, so it's best served hot.

I leave you with the sage words of William Blake

" You never know what is enough
unless you know what is more than enough!"

The Photos are coming back!

I have managed to restore some of my pictures. I deleted an album from my computer, and without knowing ended up deleting 2 years worth of pictures from both my blogs!

I will try to restore them slowly - but it takes ages and I do try to complete some work (for which I get paid for) each day, no matter how hard it is some days!

Thank you for your patience and if there is something specific you want to see, just give me a shout and I will load it promptly!

A Girl in a Canyon - Part 7

Waking up on the last morning in the Canyon was best described as "bitter sweet". Before this I had never really appreciated what that expression meant, but now I do.

It is sweet because you know you have achieved something you never thought possible and bitter because you know that life is supposed to return to normal - with all the expectations and complications.

Cellphones, TV's and computers will once again become part of my life, and no matter how hard I try, I still have to accept them as part of my life. I have to find out about plane crashes and children raped and murdered by their uncles. I have to be at certain places at certain times, listen to people I have no interest in.

So it's with a heavy heart I packed my bag one last time.

The last day was an anti-climax. It only lasted about 3 hours and the last hour you are very aware of civilization as you walk along a water pipeline.

Much of the way we spent talking about cold beers and cheese burgers. But while we were excited to finish, we all had a feeling of - "What now?".

How do we explain the beauty? We were all different people to what we had been just 6 short days ago. I was scared that I would not be able to express myself to people, to show them just how wonderful the absence of civilization is!

Instant gratification is not how life is supposed to be. You supposed to work for things, you supposed to stop and rest, you supposed to listen to silence. It's not about finding yourself - it's about loosing yourself. Just being happy that you have lived another day, not made another million!

I realize that this all seems very "airy fairy" - and until you have gone to places that are totally out of your comfort zone, you'll keep thinking that. It's actually so on the ground and real - there is nothing mystical about it at all.


I end with a quote from Bill Bryson:

“. . . I happened upon a path that vanished into a wood on the edge of town.”

A Girl in a Canyon - Part 6

This is a day of miracles!
On the 5th morning I woke up and as usual did the aches and pains inventory. As I lay there I was not sure if I was dead or paralyzed! I felt nothing, not one single pain anywhere!

For the first time I jumped out of my sleeping bag (instead of the usual leopard crawl) and did some squats just to check - nothing! Where was the pain? It was a real miracle. The going was so much easier, even my bag felt lighter. I had even managed to work out how to put it on without help - much to the relief of the guys!

This was big daddy of the entire hike. We covered about 35km, mainly because the going underfoot was so much better than previous days, to the extent that it was the day that we finished feeling a lot fresher than the previous days.

We went past the grave of a German Soldier, who had been killed in a battle with the Nama people of Southern Namibia, way back when there was a strong German military presence.

Norman took a big fall in the river, so he had to use the washing line that night to dry his "delicates" on the make shift washing line.

Dinner was pasta with a tomato and salami dish which went down a treat. We even had some chocolate pudding, which I found really lifted my spirits, because I could not help feeling a little sad knowing that tomorrow this would all end.

A Girl in a Canyon - Part 5

So, as you can see, the first 2 days left me emotionally and physically drained. I was still getting used to "wild living" and pushing my body to limits I didn't know I could reach.

We decided on day 4 that we needed to get an earlier start in the morning - which is not that easy, because it is still dark until about 7am, and as I have explained, dark is dark in the canyon and you have walk carefully.

Having had a great sleep, I woke up full of the joys of spring - except for the pains in places, you don't even know are places. Packing up and having a quick breakfast and coffee is not a 5 minute job and never took us less than an hour, no matter how quickly we thought we were working.

We set out from our camp site, which was at the 20km mark (approximately). I could not believe we had been hiking for 2 days and had only covered 20 kms, we still had another 60 kms to go! Keith was not worried, because he had read that the first 2½ days were the slowest, because of the rough terrain.


We quickly got into the routine of hiking for an hour and stopping for 10 minutes to rest. The views were spectacular and as fore casted much easier. By lunch time we were going at a good pace and covering long distances. I found a second wind, and set the pace, together with Anthony. I even managed to forget how heavy my bag was and the bleeding hips.

We stopped that night on beautiful stretch of sandy beach next to the river. Once again the boys spent an hour collecting fire wood. We sat around that night, marveling at the beauty of the night sky. My spirits were high and I knew now that I could do anything and I had managed to over come huge personal obstacles.

Looking for firewood is a big job - here's Jason setting out again.

Keith was suffering with terrible blisters on his toes. We still have not worked out exactly why he got the blisters, as you know our boots were well walked in and he had never had a minute's trouble before. I think it shows just how hard the terrain is there.

Just to show you how we had to adapt to cooking, this is me sitting in the kitchen preparing supper!

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson