Why mia

Our family has experienced the untimely loss of son, brother, and father with the death of my brother Anton. He was 57 years old. He was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma several years ago and managed quite well until the middle of June, when his body just couldn't fight any longer. Things deteriorated rapidly until he lost the battle on July 17.

Anton was a good son to our mom, a good friend to his friends, a good father to his three beautiful daughters and a good brother to me. He will be sorely missed.

One thing my brother loved to do, and is much praised for, was cooking meat on the barbecue - what we in South Africa call a braaivleis. On Father's day, June 20, 2010, Anton cooked Alton Brown's ribs for his family. By all accounts they were delicious. So in his honor, here is the recipe from the foodtv website, and a picture taken of him and his girls that day. (Edit: We made this recipe for a family gathering to honor my brother,  and it is excellent. Highly recommend.)

If you would be interested in supporting research for this (currently incurable) disease, the family requests that donations be made to The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation at http://www.themmrf.org

Who Love Ya Baby-Back?
Alton Brown
(Recipe website)

Ingredients:
2 whole slabs pork baby back ribs

*Dry Rub:
8 tablespoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
3 tablespoons kosher salt (or 2 teaspoons table salt)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon jalapeno seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/2 teaspoon rubbed thyme
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Braising Liquid:
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon honey
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
In a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Place each slag of baby back ribs on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down. Sprinkle each side generously with the dry rub. pat the dry rub into the meat. Refrigerate the rigs for a minimum of 1 hour. In a microwavable container, combine all ingredients for the braising liquid. microwave on high for 1 minute.

Place the rib on a baking sheet. Open one end of the foil on each slab and pour half the braising liquid into each foil packet. Tilt the baking sheet in order to equally distribute the braising liquid. Braise the ribs in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

Transfer the braising liquid into a medium saucepot. Bring to a simmer and reduce by half or until of a thick syrup consistency. Brush the glaze onto the rib. Place under the broiler just until the glaze caramelizes lightly. (Obviously, this is where Anton would use the barbecue). Slice each slab into 2 rib portions. Place remaining hot glaze into a bowl and toss the rib portions in the glaze.

*The recipe makes several batches of dry rub.

Crazy quilting

No, not the kind you are thinking of. I just made 24 square in square blocks - centers are 1/2 inch and finished size 1 1/2 inches. Why do I do this to myself!

The 4 patch posey quilt is shaping up nicely. You will definitely need your sunglasses though. That fabric I cut up is B-R-I-G-H-T.

Pictures to follow.

Home made pizza. Yum.

Purchased pizza dough from our local Publix. Rolled it out and brushed with olive oil. Sprinkled with thinly sliced fresh basil, sliced kalamata olives, sliced garlic, feta cheese and finally mozzarella cheese. Baked on my Pampered Chef pizza stone for 10 mins at 450. Quick, easy and delicious.  Sorry, no pic. It disappeared before I thought about getting the camera out!

Neenish Tarts

A delish cookie from New Zealand. My good friend from N.Z. often makes these little tarts. They have a filling made from condensed milk, one of my favorite things. Here is my first attempt at making them. Not as pretty as hers, but very tasty.

On the left is the tart pan and the cookie shells.

Want a recipe?

Neenish Tarts
Modified from http://www.recipezaar.com/Neenish-Tarts-51665

PASTRY (Same as Christine’s)
    4 ounces butter
    4 ounces sugar
    1 egg
    8 ounces flour
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1/8 teaspoon salt

FILLING
    4 tablespoons butter
    4 tablespoons icing sugar
    4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
    2 tablespoons lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
Turn the oven on to 350 deg F.
Cream the butter and sugar, add egg and beat well.
Mix in sifted dry ingredients.

Knead well.
Roll out and line patty tins, prick and bake about 10-15 minutes.
When cold, fill with the filling.
Filling: Soften the butter, add the sifted icing sugar, condensed milk and lemon juice.
When set, ice half the top with white icing and half with chocolate icing.

To make the icing, get two bowls and put in each:

5 Tablespoons Icing sugar
1 Teaspoon butter
(In one bowl put 2 teaspoons of cocoa)

Add boiling water a teaspoon at a time until the icing is thick, not runny

Ice one side of each tart White, and the other side with the chocolate icing. Let the icing set

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.