Visit to sunny South Africa

May is supposed to be cold and rainy, but we were blessed with beautiful weather both weeks. Visiting the country of my birth is always a special time. The Western Cape is a beautiful place. Mountains, the sea, lovely wine farms - nothing like it in the south eastern U.S.

We had a list of foods to eat while we were here and managed to find time to have most of them. Some of the things I miss the most are the foods I grew up with.

Here are some from the list:
Koeksisters -  a donut type of pastry, fried then steeped in ginger flavoured syrup.
Boerewors - farmer's sausage; beef, pork, pork fat and spices. Grilled on the bbq
Droewors - a dried version of the above
Sweetie Pies - a marshmallow, chocolate covered confection
Melk Tert -  a custard pie with subtle cinnamon flavour
Snoek - a popular local fish from the barracuda family.
Fish and Chips - fried with delicious batter
Kabeljou (Cob) - another local fish
Custard sauce
Mebos - ground up dried fruit pressed in to a flat cake and covered with sugar
Dried fruit in general
Scone - English style, not hard and dry like in the U.S. - with jam and cream

We ran out of time to have Biltong - the S.A. version of jerky, chocolate logs - another kind of candy, soft serve ice cream with a flake inside, and more I can't remember right now.

As always, we try and catch up with family and friends during our visit, but time is so short it is hard to do. I always say I'll stay for longer next time and this time I mean it!

I'm at the airport in Johannesburg, waiting for the flight home. Back on U.S. soil tomorrow.

Graduation Day

Younger son graduated from college on Friday. Yay :) To celebrate the family helped prepare a delicious meal of rouladen, potato dumplings, red cabbage and green beans with mustard vinegarette and carrot cake. Rouladen is a recipe my South African mom got from her German M-I-L. Thinly sliced beef rolled around bacon, onion and garlic, then browned and braised. Sauce thickened and finished with sour cream.

Here are pics of the proud parents and the great food.

Meatball Eggplant Pasta Sauce

Here is something different for you to try if you like eggplant. Next time I make it I'll post a pic.

Meatball Eggplant Tomato Sauce

Meatballs:

1 to 1 1/4 pounds lean hamburger

2 to 3 Tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 small clove garlic, finely chopped

1 slice bread, made into crumbs in a processor

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped finely

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (fgbp)

Mix together and form into balls. A little larger than golf ball size works well.

Eggplant: One large, diced into 1 inch cubes. (Don’t make them smaller or they will disintegrate.)

Sauce:

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

1 large clove garlic

One 16 oz can diced tomatoes

One 16 oz can (or 2 x 8 oz) tomato sauce, or one 6oz can tomato paste plus 8 oz water

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

fgbp to taste

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

Olive oil

In a wide, shallow pan with a lid, sauté onions till softened but not colored. Add garlic. Stir till you can smell the garlic.

Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasonings, and eggplant, stirring to mix.

Nestle meatballs in sauce, partially covered (so sauce can thicken a bit) and simmer gently till meatballs are done and egglplant is soft, about 30 mins.

Serve over your favorite robust pasta, such as shells, dumplings, linguine. Parmesan on top is great if you have it.

My first pattern, packaged and ready to find a vendor!

People are always admiring my quilting tote, so I have designed a pattern for one that I hope to sell at a local quilt store. Here is a picture of the totes on the front cover:

The sample I made for the store looks very much like the one on the left.

I am working on a quilting workshop where my students can learn a skill (curves without curved piecing and a stack and slash technique) and then finish their sample block as a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt for Ami Simms' Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Here is the small quilt I will use as a sample:

It is 8.5" by 10.5", small enough to fit into the Priority mailer.
I'm hoping to inspire some quilters who haven't heard about the AAQI project to make and donate again in the future.

April is "Adopt a Greyhound" month

If you are considering adding a hound to the family, take a look at the Southeastern Greyhound Club website (www.greyhoundadoption.org) to learn more about what great pets Greyhounds are. SEGC is part of the national organization called Greypets of America (www.greyhoundpets.org) where you can find a listing of adoption groups in your area.

Our Donna just celebrated her 11th birthday and Lucky will be 13 in May. They are wonderful companions and easy dogs to take care of. Here is a great picture of them in the back yard. Aren't they cute!

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Life remains hectic. Time for some relaxin'

The last couple of months I've been busily finishing my little quilt for the Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild challenge. The theme this year was "Don't worry, be happy." The quilt had to be 20 inches square, and include "sunny" yellow. Here is my interpretation:

The green ribbon says a bunch of guild members thought it should win :)
I used a new technique I read about in the September issue of American Quilter. The whole design was printed on freezer paper (the kind that is ready cut for the printer, another :) ), then each piece is cut apart, ironed onto fabric and then reassembled. You then stitch between the pieces of freezer paper, remove all the paper, trim the exposed seams and couch cording onto the seams. I didn't realize the technique is not really suited for small pieces, so the quilting took forever, but I really like the end result.

Mystery Complete

The Paper Panache Paper Pieced Piece is complete. It is such a busy quilt, with all those tiny pieces, I decided it didn't need much quilting. So stitched in the ditch and added a bit of sparkle, and here is the result: