I’ve been busy

I know, I know..It’s no excuse. But I have been busy. And I am sorry.

But here’s what’s going on in my life. I have started a new job in Stellenbosch. It is so good to be back here. When I studied, I loved this place, and I have missed it ever since I left. The commute to work and back is a bit hectic, and I leave every morning at 6:40 to be here at 8:00. Granted, I do get here early, but only slightly. And I’d rather be early than stuck in traffic AND running late! If you’d like to check out where I’m working now, you can go to http://wemer.co.za/

My man’s sister is getting married in one week! I am very excited! The bachelorette party that we threw for her, was a HUGE success, and so much fun! I will upload some photos soon, I still need to work out how much internet I can use at work…nudge nudge.. I am also working my butt off with Jillian Michaels‘ 30 Day Shred. Good lord, it is intense. My knees are killing me today. There’s this move in level 2 that I absolutely despise… It’s pendulum lunges with bicep curls. And my lower back hurts. But not the muscles, oh no. It hurts like…I don’t even know how to explain! It’s the lower bones of my back, behind my hips, I guess. I’m sure it’s from doing all those crunches. I should invest in a yoga mat.

I am completely obsessed with baking right now, and I’m collecting recipes like a spinster collects cats. It’s ridiculous. I haven’t done much baking yet, but I will. I promise. Speaking of, I really want to bake something for the office, but my boss is allergic to  gluten… Any suggestions on a good gluten-free recipe that will win the hearts of my colleagues?

And then, big news, my baby sis just got engaged! It’s really weird, I remember her as this little clumsy tomboy who supplied us with endless hours of entertainment (unwittingly), and even more hours of frustration and all out screaming matches! How fast time flies. I should be careful, I am nearly on the verge of having an existential crisis at the ripe old age of 25. And I am already paranoid about my wrinkles.

Also, I want to bitch about how difficult it is to buy something online from an international website, and then to get it shipped to South Africa. The actual buying – that I can do with my eyes closed, trust me – but actually getting my purchase here, now there lies the conundrum. Like: I really wanted to buy a case of Ball’s jars, those gorgeous mason jars. But I can’t get it here. And yesterday, I wanted to buy Organix Hydrating Macadamia Oil Intensive Moisture Hair Mask, but the shipping is LUDICROUS! It’s almost double what the damn mask will cost me. GAH!!! It’s time I move to Europe, I think.

If only.

Anyway, I should get back to work. At least it’s Friday. OH! Wait! I haven’t even told you yet…I AM NO LONGER WORKING WEEKENDS! Halle-frickin-lujah!

Much Love, dolls.

Just Dance

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

These are some shots I took for a friend’s End of Year Dance Recital. She runs a dance academy in Cape Town, with kiddies from as young as 5 up to 17 year olds. It was a very long day, but I had so much fun, and made a fair amount money too! I’m also sponsoring a shoot or two at her annual golf fundraiser. If you’re interested and you live in Cape Town, you can click on this link to contact her: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RSDA/261781197172371?fref=ts

As always, I ask to respect the copyright I have on these images.

Much Love

 

 

 

By the Way

Hi kids,

I’m detoxing again this week (ugh!), so there will be no Try-It Tuesday. I know we skipped last week, but there is NO WAY IN HELL that we’ll be doing some fancy schmancy new recipe, and I can’t have any. So. There. I said it. Not happening this week. On the job front, well, it’s not looking so rosy. But I’m going on interviews, and trying my best. It’ll work out. Right? Right? I hope so.

I’ve also realised that I really should stop watching TV series aimed at teenagers. First, I’m 25. Second, the hopefulness of youth rubs off on the viewer. The hope of life and love being epic and perfect creates a false security. And did I mention, I’m 25? No more. Vampire Diaries? Out! (I’ll miss Damon, though) Awkward? Definitely OUT! Glee? Done. Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl? SO out. I’ll miss them though. Especially Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder). Good lord, that man… He does things to me. Dirty things. Unspeakable things. I need to stop.

Since there will be no recipe this week, I shall share our Red Hot Chili Peppers concert with you. It was an awesome night. And day. Epic overall. I went to meet my sister in the early afternoon in the city. She had the afternoon off, and I had the day off, so we decided that we should start drinking. And so we did. We had a good couple of beers, mixed with some old fashioned gossip, a touch of crying and a dash of heart to heart. Much needed bonding. We met up with our men, and went for drinks at friends since we didn’t want to see the opening act, which happened to be Die Antwoord. Blegh. Anyway we walked down to the stadium, thoroughly juiced and super psyched for RHCP to come on.

We (I) went photo crazy! It was unbelievable. I loved every minute. The boys were not so much interested in seeing the band, nor were the friends. Turns out everyone came, just because my sister and I so badly wanted to go. The upside of that was that our boys were just hanging at the bar, and kept our drinks filled while they were chowing down on hotdogs, and slurping their beers. I so love concerts. The vibe. The people. The electricity in the air. The fact that you can lose your inhibitions, go crazy and weird, and nobody cares. Which is exactly what we did… See the video. Speaking of, to film the video, I just arbitrarily handed my (NEW) iPhone to a random guy behind us. Thoroughly boozed, and completely entranced by the good vibes of the show. But he didn’t run away. He gave it right back. Lucky drunk me. Faith in Humanity restored. Anyway. The Peppers rocked our socks off. It was so worth the hangover. And the severely stiff joints, since we walked just about right through the entire CBD of Cape Town to get back to the car. With my sister bitching because they didn’t play Otherside. But they played very few new-ish songs, mostly old, dusty, well-loved tunes, which is amazing. You can view the video here: http://youtu.be/S5lP5HwrHLY. Fair warning: it is dark, and blurry, but the sound is pretty good and you can see the silhouettes of the drunky-singy-bouncy-jumpy-sisters. And on this note, enjoy the show (and apologies for the crooked landscape of the stadium, I was trying out the Panorama function on my phone, and cropping it off doesn’t look right):

Standing in line to
See the show tonight
And there’s a light on
Heavy glow
By the way I tried to say
I’d be there waiting for
Dani’s the girl is
Singing songs to me
Beneath the marquee

Greenpoint Stadium

Sis & Hubby

Bro-in-Law

The man & I

Sisters

The man & I

Sisters

Bromigos

Much Love <3

Hello Darkness, my old friend…

Hi friends,

I have some sad news to share. Due to financial losses, and the general downfall in the photographic industry, the company who owns the shop I manage, has decided to close my shop. I am being retrenched. As soon as possible.

I am not really sad about the shop closing, this place was sucking the life and light right out of me. Much like a Dementor. It was feeding on my happiness, my positivity. I am angry however. I am angry that they waited so long to realise that we were going down. I sent through a four page proposal with ideas and suggestions on how to possibly improve the shop’s turnover. I sent that through in JULY of last year. I sent it through TWICE. I was ignored TWICE. Gah! That infuriates me. What’s even more infuriating, what gets my blood boiling, is that the labour law in my country stipulates that when retrenchment takes place, the employee (me) must be given the opportunity to offer suggestions to the employer (them) on how to possibly avoid retrenchment. I did that. Long before the R-word was put on the table. But now, to cover his ass, the big boss “wants to know my ideas”. Can you friggin believe it? The nerve. I looked him straight in the eye and told him: “All due respect, if you were going to take my suggestions seriously, you would have done so when I sent them through last year. It’s too late now. There’s nothing to be done now.” That seemed to wipe the smug, self-satisfied smile right off his face. Mumbling about how he never got them was just the cherry on top of the self-important, egotistical, self-serving douchebag. Clearly, denial is something you learn at prick-school. I was fuming. I have to pay the price for their negligence. That’s not fair. It’s a slap in my face. I tried. They failed me. And now, I have to pick up the pieces.

What’s worse is that I am scared. Shitless. I need to find a job. Quickly. I have a mortgage. I can’t afford to be unemployed. I’ll lose everything. I am so stressed. I’m emotional. Tense and teary. Frazzled and fearful. I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this mess. Is this bad karma? Is it because I am a mean girl? Because that kinda feels like overkill for punishment, don’t you think?

I went on a interview last Friday. I don’t think it went well. I didn’t get good vibes. I did look amazing though. Dress for the job you want, right?

This is a mess.

Try It Tuesday Results: Jamie Oliver’s Golden Chicken

Hi kids!

I’m so sorry it’s been so long, I’ve had such a hectic past couple of weeks! Let me fill you in: Red Hot Chili Peppers was AMAZEBALLS! So great. My mom and her (new) hubby bought a house. We had a lovely girls night out, my sisters, my mom and I. The three sisters..we had a huge fight over pianos. Still haven’t quite sorted that one out yet. I am knee deep in Maid of Honor duties and organizing the bachelorette party. AND we’re starting to plan our Christmas in Europe! Lah-di-dah! The list goes on and on…But let’s move on to the real reason we’re here. Our second Try It Tuesday experiment. This time, it was the man’s turn to decide on a recipe, but to my shock and horror, he decided he would cook it himself.

Now here’s the thing. I love the man. Truly. Madly. Deeply. (Savage Garden, much?) But he’s not exactly known for his culinary skills. He can do a mean breakfast, and he can do pre-made frozen burgers and fries, or fish fingers and peas…But a full proper meal? Haven’t seen it. So I was nervous.

Turns out I’m a controlling, mean, psycho bitch when someone else is in my kitchen. With zero patience. I mean, I barely gave him chance to start, and I was already yelling at him for not preheating the oven, and taking too long with the onions. Gosh, that was a side of me I did not want to see.

Anyway, he decided he would try a recipe from my new Jamie Oliver 15 minute Meals recipe book (which he gave me for Christmas along with my kick ass food processor). The recipe is Golden Chicken.

You can find it here: http://www.redonline.co.uk/food/recipes/jamie-oliver-s-golden-chicken

We left some ingredients out, like the spinach and leeks. We also used a gelatinous stock pot, instead of a stock cube, since that’s what we have. I also couldn’t find fresh sage at the supermarket, so we used dried.

He started by slicing the potatoes and chopping the onions in the food processor.

He then browned the chicken, got the onions in the oven, and boiled the potatoes.

Everything happened so fast, but in all that chaos (and my shouting), bacon was fried and chopped, the potatoes added to the onions, with cream (we used 250 ml instead of 100 ml…oops) and parmesan, and back in the oven AND the peas were cooked!

When it all came together, it ended up being a very satisfying dish, and the man did well. The chicken was just slightly over-cooked, because we don’t have a mallet and had to pound it with a can of mushrooms. He had to cook it for much longer than was intended just to get the middle part cooked. But the flavors were very good. But the highlight for the dish, hands-down, is the potato gratin. Oh Em Gee. It was so good, I stood over the baking dish, long after supper, with my fork and ate right out of it. I just couldn’t stop. I have a love affair with potato. In any form. It is a very gratifying relationship. Look how gorgeous they came out:

And the dish comes together like this:

It was lovely. And we agreed that the next time he cooks, I will be half-way done with a bottle of red wine before he starts! He really did a good job though.

I will be trying my hand at shortbread this evening. I have an urge to bake!

Stay tuned for more kitchen (and life) adventures!

Much Love

Results: Try-It Tuesday’s Creamy Bacon & Pea Pasta

Hi kids!

So our first Try-It Tuesday was a success! I overcame my fear of new foods, bit the bullet and did it. Now, the reviews are somewhat mixed, depending on who you ask. The man loved it. And I mean LOVED it. Stuck his finger in his bowl and cleaned it out. Loved it. But he’s easy to please. I had a few complaints… Firstly, the peas were somewhat undercooked. I followed the recipe, which said to put the peas in the boiling pasta water one minute before the pasta is done. Which I did. I thought that to be somewhat ambitious, so I let the peas cook for an extra two minutes. They were still not properly done. I guess American products’ cooking times are not quite the same as they are in South Africa. The second complaint was that the cheese did clump a little when I started with the melting part… A last complaint is that I like a little bit of sweetness to offset the saltiness of bacon, and it just was not there. But, on a positive note, since the recipe calls for hot sauce, I bought my first ever bottle of Tabasco! I went for the Chipotle variety because I adore the smokiness of it. And it was a good buy.

Here is a link to the recipe I used: http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/14350/

First off, the cheeses I used were Mozarella and Gouda. Second, I used Low-Fat Plain Yogurt. So here we go…

I got the pasta water boiling, generously salted of course, while I started to crisp up my bacon.

After that, we got working on the cheese. Luckily, the kitchen control freak in me allows for help with grating the cheese! Look at him being all helpful and domesticated!

I popped the peas in the pasta water, strained the pasta and peas after 3 minutes, dumped that into a serving dish, poured in some of the reserved pasta water, the yogurt, some of the cheese and the hot sauce. I mixed ferociously and got quite demotivated when it started clumping. I added more cheese, bit by bit, stirring all the while, and finally added the bacon when it was more or less smooth.

I decided to pop it into the oven for about 10 minutes, just to get all the cheese melty, and out it came. I then just adorned my creation with salt and pepper, and dished! Here’s what we got:

So all in all, not a bad one. I’d probably adapt it a little to add some sweetness. Also, cook the peas for longer! Next week is boys choice…Don’t know if I should be scared or… Nevermind. I am scared. But that’s kind of the point of this experiment. I think.

Much Love.

A new tradition: Journeying into the Culinary Abyss

Hi friends!

So the man and I (but mostly me) have decided that we will be starting a new weekly tradition. We’re calling it Test-It Tuesdays. (We’re open for suggestions on what to call it…I’m not sold)

What it boils down to, dear friends, is that I talk the sumptuous talk, but I don’t walk the delectable walk. What am I on about? Well, I say I am a foodie. I say how much I love food. Yet, I rarely, and I mean RARELY, ever try any new recipes. Gasp! I know, shocking! So the point of this tradition, a challenge if you will, is to expand our culinary knowledge, and explore the unknown tastes the world has to offer. Every Tuesday, one of us will pick a new recipe to try. It has to come from either one of my (many) cookbooks, or my Recipe board on Pinterest. And when we’re through with that, which is highly unlikely since I spend my life on Pinterest, we will move on to the greater source known as “The Internet”. Exciting, yes?

So, tonight, on our debut of Test-It Tuesday (seriously, not sold on the name), I have first choice. So I have picked Creamy Pea and Bacon Pasta. Sounds boring? Just you wait… But honestly, there’s bacon. There’s pasta. And peas (which we love). There’s even “Creamy”. What’s not to LOVE?

In about 4.5 hours, I will start my recipe, and photograph the whole experiment. Then I will post it. Along with the link to the recipe.

Fair warning though, next week will have to be on a different day, since we are going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers next Tuesday. Oh Em Gee, I cannot wait! And also, in other news, I got a tattoo. A post will follow with those details.

For now, I will pore over the recipe, and start mentally preparing, and maybe even a little actual drooling. And again, any suggestions on the name of our experiment/quest/challenge WILL be considered. Anything.

Much Love, as always.

Ring Finger Tan Line – maybe ill be better at blogging than marriage. or maybe ill just eat some chocolate.

I just stumbled across this blog from my daily Pinterest addiction.

She’s quite entertaining, and I relate, since she’s about my age, but seems to have her life a bit more together than I do… Maybe not. But her blog is about all of the things I love most: Food, Photography, Sex and Profanity. Love it.

Ring Finger Tan Line – maybe ill be better at blogging than marriage. or maybe ill just eat some chocolate..

Piped Bench Cushion–{Pretty Handy Girl} | The CSI Project

Yet another DIY idea. I would so love to try this (when I eventually get my arse in gear and make the bench for our garden). I looks (fairly) simple, so this is definitely worth a try.

Piped Bench Cushion–{Pretty Handy Girl} | The CSI Project.

DIY Project 4: Studio Lights

This one actually looks pretty simple, and if it works properly, then it should be an asset in any home studio. I’d use a white umbrella, and spray it silver or gold on the inside though. This is one I’d probably try first.

Make your own studio lights for under 20$.