Cucumber Boats

Who says you can't play with your food? I have fun making healthy and tasty cucumber boats in this video.

Coming Soon.......

Combining my 3 loves: Food, Brain Power & Mother Africa and working with the amazing Mayowa Fabode.

Are you ready?

Smart Entertaining - Antipasti Platters

 

 

It is so easy to spend all the time in the kitchen or shuffling between your guests and the kitchen if you are having company over. An easy way to get around this is to assemble antipasti platters especially if it is a casual get together or a movie night or a girl's day in.

 

All you need is a nice platter that is big enough to hold all the various things you want to serve and you can get as creative as you can. You can use a extra large wooden chopping board or even a big square of unused tile.

 

These platters allow your guests to graze, make their own combinations and gives you time to play the hostess role and truly enjoy your event.

 

I suggest a nice mix for your platter - some vegetables, different kinds of deli meats, a carbohydrate component like bread or chips, some cheese and some kind of dip or sauce. You can even have 2 platters and designate one to fruits - different kinds of fruit and a sweet dipping sauce or syrup.

 

My platter below has: bread rolls, cheddar cheese cubes, smoked gouda cheese cubes, salami

 slices, smoked ham slices, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks, mixed bell pepper strips, olives and a dip made out with olive oil, black pepper, salt and paprika.

 

 

These platters also look pretty and photograph so well.

 

Enjoy!!!!!!

Food Porn!

Comfort food. Eba, Okro and fresh fish stew

With Love From South Africa - Food Adventures Part 1

One of the things i love about visiting different countries are my food adventures. I make it a part of my itinerary to visit restaurants and markets and talk to foodies if i can. I never documented my food adventures before so i just have personal notes here and there and of course my memories. Not anymoooooore :-)

My hubby and I spent a few days in Johannesburg, South Africa last month and i managed to take a few pictures of a few meals we had:

Decadent chocolate birthday cake for hubby since we got in on his birthday - suprise in cahoots with hotel. It was soft and moist and not too sweet with layers of chocolate mousse. We shared a slice and gave it away to the hotel staff.

One evening, we chose to have dinner at Trumps Steakhouse which was recommended by one of hubby's friends. We started with this calamari dish. A lot of the time, calamari appetizers are breaded and fried rings - sometimes good, sometimes awful, chewy and overdone. This dish was calamari tips seasoned with salt and white pepper and grilled very quickly so we could taste the freshness of the calamari. It came with the veggie garnish - which i ate except for the tomato(anyone who knows me, knows i dont do fresh tomatoes :-)) and their version of tartar sauce - which i thought was over worked with all sorts of veggies and herbs so i ignored that as well. 

Whenever I am faced with a lot of choices at a restaurant, i look for combination plates that allow me to sample the items i am most interested in. Which is what we did. We ordered this platter to share that had their "award winning" fresh caught prawns, wings and a half slab of ribs. The wings were grilled and tossed in a sweet/spicy barbeque sauce that was average at best. The ribs were fall of the bone soft and juicy but a little lacking in flavour. The star of the plate - the prawn. Grilled prawns with shell on simply seasoned with cracked mixed peppercorns and salt and drizzled table side with garlic butter. So yummy. The platter came with a side plate of mashed pumpkin(think baby food consistency) and creamed spinach. We tasted both and didnt bother after a bite each.

Part 2 - coming up.....