Goosebumps and berries!

I was so excited when I saw that my Cape Gooseberry has started flowering and then ....


jumped for joy when I spotted it has a little baby berry too!

Happy birthdays at Magica Roma

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. Thank you to all my blogging friends, family, other friends, children and husband - I felt like a princess, all the phone calls, presents and then ending with a fantastic diner at my favourite restaurant.

I thought I would review the restaurant we went to last night - Magica Roma. It is by far my favourite restaurant in the whole world. It is my first choice for any occasion. The only catch is you can't just walk in and think you'll get a table. You have to book, and if you want to go on a weekend, you better book very early in the week.

I have never been there that every table is not taken, and while the restaurant is full, you never get the feeling that it is too noisy or too full to enjoy. The service is excellent; I certainly would not want to work there - the owners walk around and check on every single table, every single meal. A secret to success - there is no compromise when it comes to quality.

It is not cheap, but you certainly don't mind paying because you know the food is first class. As someone said you could pay more, but you certainly couldn't get better food.

My personal favourite is the calamari tubes with chilli and garlic, served on a bed of roasted vegetables - heaven on a plate. Keith's dish of choice is the pizza, with Parma-ham, artichokes, olives and chili. They have a wonderful selection of dishes, but not too many as to confuse and intimidate.

I finished off my meal with a tiramisu - only because it was my birthday and why the hell not! I was planning on going for run this morning, but they way it was raining, that will have to wait, until then I'll just wear my elasticised waist jeans!

Hutton Food challenge

This week Hutton set a food challenge. The rules were strict and I admit it took me a while to think up something without breaking any rules.

The challenge was :

You can take part even if you are not a foodie.
Simply devise a recipe using the following 4 ingredients (aubergine, sweet potato, carrot and chili) as the main part.

You may not use oil,milk or sugar

You may add ingredients (1 or more)

Water is a freebie!
Nothing can be more than a 1/4 of the total recipe.

I made carrot and sweet potato crisps with an aubergine and chili dip.


Sweet potato and Carrot crisps

Thinly slice the sweet potato and carrot, with a vegetable peeler or a mandolin.
Drizzle with a little butter (I would normally use olive oil), season with salt and place in a single layer on a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven (160°C) until browned.
You have to keep an eye on the oven, and turn the crisps ½ through.
It takes about 15 -20 minutes depending on the thickness of the vegetables.
Remove from the oven and place on kitchen paper to cool.

Aubergine Dip

Roast the aubergine whole until very soft.
Scoop out the flesh and place in a processor.
Add a little garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, some chilli, 1 teaspoon tahini, salt and pepper.
Process until smooth - check seasoning and adjust if needed.
Serve with the crisps.

Sole Mates

We have had the strangest weather this last month. One day we are freezing cold, snow on the mountains, rain lashing down and then we have days like Sunday and you think it's November.

Everyone has some kind of cold or flu - either recovering or catching. Keith is the only person I know who never gets flu sick, just goes to show smoking does not kill you! (Only joking!)


Last week I managed to pick up sole on special, this is a very rare treat for us, as they can be pricey and I can be very cheap when it comes to buying fish!

I prepared them very simply, lightly dusted with flour seasoned with salt and black pepper and fried in olive oil. Before I fried the sole, I fried one thinly sliced lemon until it started to caramelize and then added the fish and the juice of one lemon. Just before it was finished cooking I added some caper berries.

The fried lemon works as a great accompaniment to the fish, not only does it taste great, it looks good too.

Walking Around

We were blessed with a fantastic weekend. The weather warmed up, we won the rugby and so everything in the land was great!

Sunday morning, after church we decided to take a long walk - all around our beautiful city.

We started in Green Point, and ambled through the Bo-Kaap, surrounded by the inviting smells of curry and roti, all we hoped for was that some family would invite us in for lunch!

This suburb has a wonderfully rich history. Bo-Kaap is a small residential area above the Central Business District. It has a population of over 6000 the majority of whom, more than 90%, are Muslim.


The residents of Bo-Kaap are mostly descended from slaves who were imported to the Cape by the Dutch during the the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They reigned from Africa, Indonesia, Java Malaysia, and elsewhere in Asia. They were known as "Cape Malays", which is an incorrect term as most of Bo-Kaap's residents are not entirely of Malaysian descent.

Houses are mainly semi-detached but free standing homes can also be found. The people who settled in Bo-Kaap were craftsman, free traders and freed slaves.

After the Bo-Kaap, we took the long hill up Kloof-Neck Road.

The cable-car was stuck yesterday, and I hope there were no people in inside - they would have had a long wait if they were!

Once we got to the top of Kloof Neck Road, we had the glorious views of Camps Bay. Beauty like this takes my breath away every time I see it.
The two refurbished 12 pounder cannons (hauled out of the Glen, a forested valley below). These were used by the French and Dutch forces to deter English soldiers from attempted invasions.
We descended Camps Bay Drive and walked all along the beach. There were a few people on the beach enjoying the Indian summer.

We walked all the way along the coast, through Clifton, Sea Point and Mouille Point to the Waterfront and then cut back on Portswood Road to Main Road where our car patiently waited for us.

The walk was about 20kms long and took us 3.5 hours. Our feet hurt from pounding the pavement and sleep came very easy last night.