Monday 30 November 2015

Updates - From The Garden, About The Blog and A Preview into 2016

Life has been all sorts of hectic lately. Which is a good thing. It is what I want. It is what i have been working towards. However, in order not to get completely overwhelmed and lose track of absolutely everything, I have had to take a step back. To plan things properly. 

I am very excited to say that after 3 years of registering a domain and renewing and doing nothing, we will actually go live with our website in 2016. The goal is to launch by the end of the first quarter at the latest. The website will have a section for the blog and so much more. All things 'From Uzo's Food Lab' related. This is a roundabout way of apologizing for the sporadic posts. Its also manic season for the bakery which leaves very little time to post. 

Exciting and busy times ahead. One of my major dilemmas is finding the right person to design the site without mortgaging my future children. Any recommendations will be very helpful.

Before we go all Idris Elba and Common sexy with the blog, here are a few updates from the garden:




Pepper harvest - sweet banana, cherry bomb, green bell, jalapeno and  Hungarian hot wax varieties


Ripening cherry bomb pepper



Tomato harvest - large cherry and striped stuffer varieties


Spider plant. I am making an effort to introduce inedible plants into the garden


Brussel Sprouts forming. Its been trial and error but i have it right. Finally 



Begonia plant. Its so pretty i think



My very first beef steak tomato from the garden



Black truffle tomato coming in

With the Christmas season here, I would love to know what will be making it onto the menu this year?

Enjoy!!!

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Kitchen Tip - How to keep cake moist



To prevent hard, stale tasting cake, use slices of bread. Attach slices of bred to the cut exposed part of cakes with toothpicks. The bread keeps the moisture in.

Enjoy!!!

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Drowning my blues with Boozy Iced Tea


Have I mentioned that I do not drink alcohol? Well I do not drink alcohol - usually. Sometimes though, life just deals all sorts of hands and short of screaming - maybe crying and screaming, some alcohol is needed.

Shall I go into details? Let me see - after getting excited about a potential business opportunity, it fell through. The same day, I went to the garden for some stress relief and saw that plants in 8 pots had just died. As a result of some pest I am sure. Then - the bakery staff forgot a pretty big order and the client showed up for pickup at 4pm and everyone was confused. To cap the day off, I reached for a baby wipe to clean my face and some how grabbed antibacterial wipes instead which resulted teary eyes and bruised skin.

I was completely drained. One would have thought that I would simply crawl into bed and sleep but I was too wired. I knew this day deserved some alcohol. Down to the kitchen I went to make some boozy iced tea  - only a handful of readily available ingredients required, cold, kind of healthy and just what I needed...

To make a small pitcher for 1, you will need: 2 green tea bags (You can use any kind of tea you like including fruity flavored varieties), fresh basil or efinrin (African basil, scent leaf) leaves




You will also need cold water, sugar to taste and of course alcohol - I used citrus flavored vodka


The wonders of no recipe required. Simply chuck everything into a little jug and stick in the fridge or freezer for all the flavors to come together. I stuck my pitcher in the freezer and went up to take a long shower.


After about an hour, the boozy tea was wonderfully chilled and ready for me. Delicious. Refreshing. And also ensured that I slept very well.

Enjoy!!!