local things I love

1. Minato, one of Cape Town’s best kept secrets in sushi. I love the dodgy little entrance hidden just off Long Street, the typical Asian decor (by this I mean pine furniture, Japanese prints and shirts on the wall, fake plants and low lighting) and the hand printed signs, oh those signs…

2. Melissa’s The Food Shop. Not only is Melissa’s a local legend with amazing food, snacks, buffets, coffee and pretty things for the home, they are also a new client of mine. I am delighted about their new hamper selection – the solution to my xmas present issues. There is one for my dad (The Gentleman’s Pack, with biltong, coffee grounds, rusks and marshmallows at only R190) one for my Gran (The Cup of Tea Pack with White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies and Janice Rabie’s beautiful porcelain mug) and one for my Mommy (Afternoon Tea, with butter biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, nougat and meringues at only R155). Easy to see where I will be shopping before I head out to the coast (bonus, some of their stores are NOT in malls!).

3. Street art. Found / snapped lately.

32’C, sunny, no wind, counting down the days till holidays. I love this place.

Friday

Friday consisted of:

sleeping late (for the first time all week I got up without seeing the 05:.. on the clock.) Got up at 9am!

invoicing clients (pay me!!!)

doing all the work I didn’t get to all week – including the exciting post about the Wine we will be tasting at this year’s Swartland Revolution.

Some grocery shopping and muffin baking and making “the best broccoli ever” to have with the steaks H and I had for dinner.

Getting excited to play Bingo only to realise I should have booked weeks ago.

Spending the night at home getting a bit creative and handy… made some things for the City Bowl Market where I had a vintage stall…

A week without blogger…

Ok, so I know I am not the world’s most regular blogger… And it’s not like I have a huge following and fans waiting for an update, but I do need to blog to stay sane, and for the last WEEK blogger has been giving me issues. First the server was down for 2 days, then I could not log out of my one account into another (I manage 5 blogs, for myself and clients)…

And, as life would have it, it has been a jam packed week full of things I wanted to write and blog and post about…

So here we go, what did I do in the last week…

We started (and finished) filming the pilot lookbook for Lembrancas Vintage clothing shop. The idea is to pitch similar lookbook videos to local brands and designers, and as a pilot / portfolio piece we got all our friends and contact lists together and shot for 16 hours (to make a 3min video!)

Watch this space for the final product, coming soon!

On Saturday afternoon I took a trip to Kalk Bay with the girls, we shopped for vintage finds, ate ice cream in the cold and had a glass of wine (Paradyskloof Cab Sauv Merlot – keep it in the family) at Polana.

These lil birdies loved the sweet water at the China Shop (a whole HOUSE filled in every hook and corner with china. cups, plates, pots, saucers… china for Africa…)

On Sunday we woke up to a misty grey city and I decided that it called for pancakes. By the time we got to the late afternoon pancake mission it was clear skies with only a slight remembrance of the morning’s grey weather in the chill in the air. But I baked non the less.

Flapjacks, banana flapjacks, nutella flapjacks… you name it, I baked it. Good Sunday!

On Monday (after a few meetings and a bit of thrifting) I spent the afternoon sowing with sussie. I have the machine but I am absolutely USELESS with it, so sussie does the sowing and I do “assistant seamstress” jobs (like making tea, cutting off sleeves and taking out stiches that went off the beaten trail…) We are making alterations to items that will be on sale at the Treasure hunting is fun sale at Beleza on 26 May 2011~

Yesterday I voted, I did it for Cape Town…

and afterwards went to a studio in Newlands to style a very cool shoot with photographer Amy Scott and Roxy Joubert from Grace Models. Here are some behind the scenes images, the real ones (which I am super excited to see) will follow sooooon!

And there you have it… Another week gone by…

I also sold my canvas at the Street Exhibition and saw some cool artworks there, but that deserves a whole new post…

Paella on Pasella

The entrance to Giggling Gourmet on Napier Street, De Waterkant.
Paella with Shrimp, line fish, chicken, mussels and fried Squid tentacles. As well as chorizo and olives.

The space has lots of equiptment for cooking classes, and reminded me of High School Home economics class. Fond memories.

Like I mentioned before, I helped out in the Huisgenoot / YOU magazine kitchen this week. My first little shadow mission was on Monday when I joined the Food-Editor, Carmen Niehaus, on the set for Pasella.

The story was on Food from the remaining four countries in the World Cup. We were shooting on location from Jenny Morris’ new Giggling Gourmet space in De Waterkant.

The warehouse turned cooking class venue is ideal for team buildings or just cooking lessons.

Jenny represented the Dutch with a stunning Pea and Ham soup, Carmen and I (well her on camera, me behind the scenes) prepared a Spanish Paella before I was served lunch by the legendary Jenny Morris herself.

After the lovely lunch of tossed green salad, rye bread and napoletana and spinach penne Reuben prepared some Uruguayan meatballs and after I left the went on to prepare a German desert.

Check out Pasella on Wednesday evenings on SABC 2 for all the recipes and more!

what did you have for lunch?

I did some shadow work in the Huisgenoot/YOU magazine kitchen this week and spent quite a bit of time looking through food magazines. Just last week when we were at Neighbourhood enjoying beers and snacks compliments of the awesome people from Grolsch (its even better when the beers are good!!!) Herman tasted peanut satay for the first time.

And then had a double chicken breast in peanut satay burger at Hudson’s Burger Joint on Saturday when it happened to be their very affordable deal of the day.

So when I saw the recipe for easy peanut satay chicken breasts i roughly noted it in my trusty moleskin, and prepared it the first chance I got to cook in the kitchen.

It’s delicious, quick and cheap. Just the way i like it.

Quick Chicken Satay:

boneless chicken breasts

chilli powder (or cayan pepper)

lemons (one per every chicken breast being prepared)

crunchy peanut butter (one tablespoon – 15ml – per every chicken breast)

sugar (0ne teaspoon per chicken breast)

Grill the chicken (dusted in a splash of lemon juice and chilli powder)

Mix the rest of the lemon juice, peanut butter, sugar and some chilli powder together.

Sautéed potatoes

I used one potato for every person I was cooking for.

Cut in small blocks and fry over relatively high heat in a butter and olive oil mix.

Serve with a simple salad of mixed leaves, roma tomatoes and some fresh feta.

yum in 20mins.

How a homemade quiche and a long weekend inspired a blog…

It started with an unusual craving for more bacon after my coffee fuelled breakfast with A at beleza. And it ended with half a quiche recipe (thanks google) and a thought – to share it with no one, and then everyone.

It was in a conscious attempt to spend more time by myself that this beautiful creation, this old school celebration of good food – was created. The first baking to take place in my new flat. The first triumph for living and existing on my own.

I copied the crust recipe

and decided to let the bacon and the contents of my fridge dictate the filling.

I should have probably checked how many eggs to use, but so you learn.
And so I enjoy an afternoon in my own company, with a good meal complemented and amazing white wine by the AA Badenhorst Family.