A week or so ago I was tagged for a MEME by Anne of Anne’s Food. She was one of the first bloggers I started reading and I’ve always been drawn to her clean clear style, so different from my wildly undisciplined ramblings. She has a few other points in her favour, not least her gorgeous cats, her hair colour (some of my favourite people are redheads) and her passion for food. This woman eats well!!! In fact some might consider a week’s stay at her house a gourmet holiday. Thanks for tagging me Anne. Here goes. But first I need a cup of coffee and a little something to nibble. I’ll tell you at the end of the post what these are, if you haven’t guessed already.

Right, now that I’m all set:

What were you doing 10 years ago?

10 years ago I was getting ready for my daughter’s 1st birthday and a trip home to South Africa. I was a stay at home mom until she was 2 1/2 and we lived in London, far from family support and not very well on one income. BUT, my daughter had everything she needed and was a chubby, giggling ray of sunshine in a sometimes grey and grimy London. No wonder I was looking forward to Easter in Cape Town.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

One year ago I was finally coming to the last days of one of the most difficult jobs I’ve ever taken on. Not the actual job, but emotionally, mentally and physically it drained me dry, and very nearly put me off cooking (tragedy!!). It started out as a 3 month part-time consulting job and ended up as 60-70 hours a week for 18 months. I wasn’t the only one sighing in relief when I finally left. No regrets though. You live and learn and the experience has made me stronger. I am quicker to stand up for myself and am learning to say No. Politely of course, but firmly nonetheless.

Five snacks you enjoy

• Fresh croissants at 10 am, with a double shot cappuccino to dunk them in
• Biltong, preferably ostrich or kudu, at anytime. The South African salted and dried meat or game similar to American Beef Jerky.
• Marmite toast at 10 pm
• Homemade ice cream at midnight
• Biscotti, any kind, anytime, and failing that, South African buttermilk rusks.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

Let’s go multi-millionaire here, shall we!!!

• I’d set up trust funds for each of the children in my family so that their educations and futures were as secure as possible.
• I’d give more money to animals and kid’s in need. I can’t bear to see either in such desperate straights as they so often are in Africa.
• I’d take some time off and travel with my daughter (and nephew) because I think that the best gift you can give your children is a knowledge of other cultures and to encourage an attitude of tolerance and interest towards them.
• I’d open several artisan food shops encouraging local artisan cooks, bakers and suppliers to get involved. They would all be next door to or including book shops with really good coffee and super comfy armchairs, and staff that never asked you to leave.

Oh boy! Only five things?

• I’d have lots of dogs and a big garden and an even bigger kitchen. Preferably in an old farmhouse or converted barn on a cliff overlooking the sea in Italy. Yep! That oughta do it.

Five bad habits

• I am always late for everything. I never mean to be but the earlier I start getting ready the more time I think I have and the more I think of to do before I set off for wherever I’m going.
• I don’t sleep. I have got myself into the worst habit of all and one that is near impossible to break. I read, watch television or work late into the night, or just lie there staring at the ceiling until almost 5 am every night/morning. Then I fall into a deep sleep until 7.30am when my alarm goes off, hit the snooze button every five minutes for 25 minutes, then haul myself out of bed and into the day, to get out of the house by 8.15am. Did I mention that I’m almost always late?
• The more work I have to do the more arbitrary tasks I come up with in order to procrastinate for as long as possible. I will typically start baking chocolate éclairs at midnight before a big meeting the following day. Surprisingly though, I always do my best work when under the pressure of a deadline. Plus the more non food related work I have the more I bake. Good news as far as my daughter is concerned.
• While quite loud and chatty when with friends and family, or once under the influence of half a glass of just about anything, I’m generally pretty shy with strangers so tend to do a Prince Phillip by blurting out the most inappropriate thing I can think of, often expressing opinions diametrically opposed to my own. It seems to be getting worse the older I get.
• Doing the absolute opposite of what I’m told to do on any given occasion. A reflex action I’m afraid.

Five things you like doing

• I love baking (who knew?)
• I love reading and will read almost anything except horror. Same with movies - I read more, but don’t mind watching what South Africans call ’skop, skiet en donner’ (action movies - literally kick, shoot and beat up) with my husband. I tend to draw the line at slapstick like Dumb and Dumber, and horror. Bad karma.
• I like doing girly things with my daughter, and not so girly things. One on one time is peaceful and precious. When my husband is away some of my favourite time is when my daughter and I are both curled up on the sofa together, reading, with the cat in between us.
• I love anything arty and creative. I’m pretty into cake decorating, but not as you know it.
• I like imagining that one day I will have a dishwasher, and someone to fill and empty it, and to hoover and clean windows, and valet cars, and empty the rubbish, and do the ironing….

Five things you would never wear again

• Gold lame hot pants - oh that wasn’t me, that was my sister. My older sister, and she would still look incredible in them.
• A snake skin cat suit - oh that wasn’t me either. But my neighbours are convinced that the first time I came to view the apartment I have lived in for the last 6 years I was wearing one. I can only think it was one of my fake leather trousers days, perhaps topped with my equally kitsch fake snake skin plastic trench coat (it rains a lot in England) and my fake snakeskin stretch stilleto boots. I’ll never wear those again, but only because I literally wore them out.
• You’ve probably guessed by now that I don’t really have a restricted sense of style. Which translates into there is probably not much that I could state with absolute certainty that I would never wear again.

Five favorite toys

I’ll go with Anne here and start off with

• My kitchen aid stand mixer (although I would like both the pasta attachments and the mincer and sausage maker kit)
• My computer
• My camera will be one of them when I figure out how to use it properly.
• My Cake box. This is a large tool box filled with all my food paints and tools for painting, sculpting and decorating cakes. I try not to get it out unless I have a couple of days to spare because once I start I never know where it’s gong to take me.
• My debit card. I always seem to need so much when I have no money, and conversely never need anything when I can afford it. The second occasion arises only very infrequently.

And lastly I’m going to tag five bloggers that I haven’t linked to before, because I read them and would like to know more.

• Little Foodies
• More than burnt toast
• Jugalbandi
• Thyme for cooking
• Finding La Dolce Vita

Hope none of you have already been tagged with this. No pressure if you don’t want to do it

Now no prizes for guessing that the nibbly snack shown above is indeed buttermilk rusks. A South African twice baked sweet roll, our answer to Italian biscotti or Scottish shortbread. Perfect for dunking in tea, or just nibbling and leaving a trail of crumbs. Try this recipe here. They’re one of my five favourites.

Tags: baking, biscuits, sweet kitchen

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