Irene dairy farm

We went to the Irene dairy farm this past Sunday and absolutely fell in love with it. The atmosphere was relaxed and the weather was great. One of the many awesome things about this place is that it's just around the corner from Jozi.
Pretorians [well, I assume that most of them were] really embrace this place. The parking lot was full and the entire place was buzzing with people and children playing in the glorious sun.

There's also a lake on the property with pretty swans and koi fish - all of them very carefree and oblivious to curious onlookers.

There are 2 restaurants on the farm – The Barn and The Deck. We chose The Deck to have our Sunday brunch and I had an open beef sandwich with French fries. It was average and my fries were dry so I didn’t bother taking any pics of it [sorry]. I was surprisingly ok about it though. I guess it was the whole excitement of being on a farm [typical city girl].

The property also boasts an awesome farm shop fully stocked with all sorts of nice treats like home-made jams, cakes, pastries, cheeses, quiches and cold meat. It also had a very small town, country feel to it. Too precious.

We got our dessert from here. There was quite a selection of sweet things but we settled on lamingtons with a caramel treat. Moist, coconutty and sweet. These were definitely worth photographing.



Perfect way to spend a Sunday....

The root of the matter



How deep are your roots?

Dinner for one

I love cooking for people and sharing meals. There are times, however, when I enjoy solo meals in front of my TV or in bed with my favourite tune playing in the background. I had one of those moments a little while ago when I was making fish pie. I got the recipe from a colleague - tweaked it a little and loved the result.

Ingredients:

• 6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 1  cup fresh spinach
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 chopped carrot
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup cream
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 1 teaspoon English mustard
• 1 cup finely chopped parsley
• ½ kg haddock or hake fillet
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Place potatoes in boiling water and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to the potatoes. Once cooked, drain water and put aside. Most recipes recommend that you mash the potatoes but I didn’t. It’s up to you.

Steam spinach in a colander for approximately 2 minutes. Once cooked, drain any excess water from the spinach and put aside

Place chopped carrot and onion in a pan and fry in olive oil until carrots are almost cooked. Add cream, a handful of cheese, lemon juice, mustard, and parsley – remove from heat after about half a minute.

Place spinach and fish into a baking dish and mix together. Pour half of the creamy vegetables over the fish and then potatoes on top of that. Top with the rest of the creamy vegetables and cheese and place in oven – bake for about 30 minutes

Once cooked, remove from oven and serve with chopped parsley. Not the prettiest of dishes but very very tasty

 

Somefing earfy

My Sunday was spent at the Cellar Rats Wine festival in Magaliesberg. It wasn't the classiest of events but great fun nonetheless. My partner-in-crime and I aren't big drinkers but always find ourselves at these occasions for some reason. The highlight is always the characters we encounter and not necessarily the wines on offer [Sad, I know].We're both lightweights and get super excited after a few swigs. And then it goes downhill from there...

Anyway, I don't know much about wine but I know when I'm enjoying it and I know when I'm not [that makes sense in my head somehow]. I discovered my favourite wine at the event - Idiom Viognier. The wine boasts a bouquet of orange, lime and peach blossoms with notes of honeyed fig. Opulent texture, rich nougat on the palate and a long lingering almond aftertaste. Doesn't that sound sexy? Idiom have a whole range of wines and this is their only white wine.

While I was trying to figure out how they got nougat and almond in the Viognier, my dear partner was in stitches and clearly concentrating on something else. Once he had composed himself he managed to relate what he overheard - two interesting individuals who were standing next to us were discussing their wine preferences and the one says to the other: 'I'm looking for somefing earfy'. We had a good laugh all the way back to Jozi.

Wisdom

I attended a talk last night that put so many things in percpective. The speaker used so many food analagies that made me feel like he was talking to me alone. It was brilliant! This is one of them:

When you're full, you become picky

We're not meant to get everything we want because we'll never appreciate any of it the way we really should. Even the hedonist in me agrees...

Pregnant like a problem

One of my really good friends is due to give birth very soon so we went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate this joyous event [I was thrilled  that we didn't have a typical baby shower for her - story for another day]. We had a table booked at the Green Peppercorn in Morningside shopping centre. This is one of my favourite restaurants simply because the chef takes his job very seriously - from starters all the way to dessert.

I had a starter goat's milk cheese and spinach tart with pickled onions. I really could've ordered another 50 of those things but I physically could not consume more than the one [this is because my mom and I had a serious lunch a few hours prior that left us both feeling very ashamed]. It looked delicate and oh-so-pretty and tasted that way too. Delicate and pretty...

Time for dessert finally came and I most certainly had space and appetite for it. My heart was set on the chocolate fondant with berries and vanilla ice cream. Our waiter said it would take 20 minutes to prepare and I was more than happy to wait. [It has to be made to order and served straight from the oven otherwise it becomes another chocolate cake]. Anyway, my friend and I decided to share it and I had the honour of taking the first bite. It had a crusty exterior and a soft, warm, molten gooey centre. I really nearly wept from excitement... 

The only unfortunate thing about that evening was that I didn't have my camera with me to capture the magic we consumed.

We all went our separate ways at the end of the evening and I couldn't help but feel happy and grateful for 2 things - my taste buds and great friends - even the one who's pregnant like a problem :-)

Thyme on Nicol

The weather in Jozi has improved dramatically. I went from wearing thick black stockings and a turtle neck to a summer dress and sandals in just one week - love it! So my Saturday morning started at Thyme on Nicol - an awesome eatery inside Pick 'n Pay's new flagship store on William Nicol drive. They had an awesome selection of cakes [which I surprisingly didn't have], sushi and breakfast menu.

I had medium poached eggs, salmon and rocket on toasted ciabatta - heaven on a plate and just what the doctor ordered. I washed it down with fresh strawberry juice. Bliss...