Christmas is coming to Bah Humbug House

The cookery school evening was a great success. We were all paired up and given an apron and a big chef’s hat with our name on. Then we set to. We had very well explained recipe sheets and all the ingredients were at our work stations. The difference between this and H.E lessons at school was in the amount of beer and wine dispensed during the evening! My partner and I had to make chicken and peanut stew and spicy bread. When everyone was done cooking, we sat down and the food was served. Delicious. The stretch limo was also a great laugh, we scoffed the two bottles of fizz before we got to Joburg. There were 6 of us and capacity for 10. The gate man at our estate had a great time letting is in and out!
On Saturday we went to Cullinan, a diamond mining town about an hours drive from here, where the Cullinan diamond (strangely enough) was found. It was huge and was cut into 9 big stones and 96 small ones. Some of the big ones feature in the Crown Jewels and of course the famous Burton Taylor diamond was from the Cullinan. The museum there was excellent and the original mine managers cottages are all lovely shops, coffee shops and restaurants.
The mine is now owned by De Beers and still produces loads of diamonds today. We visited the actual mine head, the “big hole” which is …well… big!
Sunday was too hot to be bothered doing much!
Thanks to all who have sent Christmas cards, we have received some. I have a problem in that my address book is in the freight which is STILL NOT HERE. So if you don’t get a card, it’s not that I am ignoring you, its just that I don’t remember all the addresses, the old grey cells are not what they were!
It’s hard to think it will be Christmas in two weeks! Everyone here is getting ready for their summer holidays, we see people buying suitcases whenever we are at a shopping centre. Most people seem to head for the beach at some point over the two week break. I am looking forward to visiting the game reserve; we have arranged to go on the game drive at dawn on Christmas morning!
On Friday we are having some people over for dinner. I have succumbed to pressure from Les and bought tinsel, crackers and tiny Christmas tree table decorations. I was aiming to be a bit “Bah humbug” since we are not having a “proper” Christmas but now I have bought it all, I am quite looking forward to decorating the braai area for Friday. I’ve even bought a Christmas CD, Mariah Carey’s one which has a lot of carols I remember the girls at GHS singing, in fact there are even some I’ve sung in the Staff choir!!!
I am going to try making another traditional dish tonight, it is called bobotie and is basically like moussaka without the aubergine or lasagne without the pasta. So you’re thinking, that’s just mince then? ~Yes, that’s right, but quite spicy and served with a savoury white sauce over the top then oven baked. The sauce has egg in it to make it rise up like a moussaka topping. If this sounds expert, it isn’t! I’ve eaten it and looked at a recipe but this will be my first attempt to make it. Bon appetite!