Boring Braai Spiced Up!

Danna: Ok Love, It's your turn to cook. What you making.
Warick: a Braai.
Danna: ... Seriously? Sigh.

Alright lets try spice this up then.

Am I taking over? I kind of am, I don't feel like a boring braai..

Out I pull my #loadshedding cook book, page to the braai section ... hmmmm ok this will do love, a few ingredients we not sure of but lets try.

Lamb Chops, Cherry Tomatoes, Harissa paste ...(silence) ... Eh? Whats That!

Up and Down the ailes, hold on we have no ideas what we are looking for, Google!

 "is a fiery paste that is orangey-red in colour. It is a mixture of peppers, dried chillies, garlic, caraway seeds, ground cumin and coriander, tomato purée, salt and olive oil"

Ah Ha!, Excuse me, do you have Harissa Paste...  10 minutes later ... Thank you! I feel like that man saves our evening.

Ouch* That was expensive paste!

Rubbing the lamb in this new and 'Hopefully Magical' paste, as well as some othe spices, the meat is ready to braai with baby tomatoes on skewers.

Salad is made and time to eat!
Mm the warm tomatoes with the cold salad, so good!

Warick: Wow This is the best!

Apparently we need to spice the meat like this every time.
Success!

Toast Baskets worked!

Next Morning, Trusty Cook Book is back in my hands.
Danna be careful, you seem to be getting addicted.

Breakfast, Breakfast, Breakfast... PANCAKES!
Naa, shame that's no proper breakfast for Warick

Ah look! This is a funky way yo make toast :)
Toast baskets fulled with scrambled eggs (light bulb)!

Scramble to the 'How To Make Scrambled Eggs Page'...
I de-crust the bread, delicately shove the slices in a muffing tray and bake. Hmmm Easy!

Egg Done, placed the egg in the little toast baskets! Eeek So cute! come look love! breakfast is ready!

Effectively it was just scrambled egg on toast but it was still a funky way to do it... and ... I got it right!

Did I Make This!

Tea and crumpets what a treat, thanks Auntie! :)

We sat around the table discussing my disastrous fish batter but my uncle gave me a batter recepie that he assures will work 100%. Perfect! I cant mess that one up.

Ah but wait my aunt has an amazing pasta recepie which all her friends love!

Hold up! Am I talking food with my Aunt and Uncle?? Danna? Hello? Where have you gone? 

Anyway after discussing 4 recepie books there I decided to fetch Warick so we cold dash to the shops to buy the ingredients for the pasta dish my aunt swears by.

Italian Tomatoes: Tick.

Double Thick Cream: Tick.

Cheriso Sausage: Tick.

Chillie: I am sure this will be fine. Tick

Vodka: ... we have at home

Rights that's all of it I think, off we go home and start.

With Warick peering over every now and then giving his two sense, I confidently remind him that I know what I am doing...

Did I forget the sausage... I did! Quick fry them up and add them.

I turn to my 'How To Cook Pasta' page in my new recepie book. It is good to be reminded how to make pasta, just in case to do something that will turn to moosh.

Smells good!

Ever Better! It tastes good too! 

Oh Wait ... IT"S DELICIOUS!

Next time I'm added Mascaponi Cheese!

Am I tackling two!

Danna: Oooh Love! You'll like this one: Beer Batter Fish!

Warick: It's Fattening

Danna: Lets try! :)

Oh look one beer left in the fridge, just enough!

How is it that I have found myself in the kitchen again and have a small tiny exciting feeling inside... this is odd.

Oh Look Banana's they're too ripe, I am sure I saw a banana bread recepie in here somewhere... Ah there is it.

Add banana bread ingredients together, WHAT?, I need a blender... 

Danna: LOVE!! DO WE HAVE AN ELECTRIC BEATER OR BLENDER??

Warick; NO,  I DON'T THINK WE DO!

Darn... by hand it is...

Right while Warick is mixing the banana bread mixture at the TV i'll start on the fish.

Am I doing two recepies at once here? Since when did you think you were a professional Danna?

.

Banana bread in the oven and fish is ready to go into the oil... thats lot of oil... But I got this! :)

Shhhhh in the fish goes, oil splattering 'Since when is cooking painful, what have I ever done to it'.

The batter is sticking to the bottom of the pan... why! There is oil in there! Nothing should be sticking... Right??

Grrrrr, I let the fish do its thing while I make the salad. 

Serve the fish on the plates, scrape the batter off the bottom of the pan and place it on top of the fish. That batter is not going to waste!

Atleast we have the lumpy banana bread :) ... that no one has touched.

Lets try!

Right, Hello Everyone,

So I have moved in with my boyfriend, stressful, but I do believe it will be happy times. :)

Now, I am 24... I know what a slice of toast it (Yay me) and I think I know how to boil an egg, Ill let you know how it goes once I try... but it looks easy enough... :)

Anyway I am here starting this blog to basically talk myself through this whole cooking idea, you can do it Danna, "You can do it"


As I am sure you can tell and don't worry my boyfriend DOES know, I don't know how to cook! After this summer holiday I had no intentions of learning how to cook either but I mentioned I would need a cook book for Christmas and I certainly got one.

Titled: "HELP THERE IS A STOVE IN MY KITCHEN"

Well suited, 'Thanks love'.

I opened it and came to realize that these were nice recopies, mainly because they had only 5 ingredients in each and I understood what most of these ingredients were. Good Start!

We were out and about most of the days, seeing friends, family and so on but finally 3 days before having to go back to work I sat down and looked properly at the recipe book.

I think I found a recepie for dinner. Ok... 'Deep Breath' ... Lets try this. Off we went to the shops to buy the one or two missing things we needed, 'Shaven Almonds?' Found them! Thank goodness I wasn't expected to shave them, I would have given up already.

Chillie... This should do.

Darn forgot to take out the frozen chicken fillets! 'Don't worry my angel, I have done that'. Really??, what would I do without him?? :)

As the time went on I started talking to myself, humming and pushing Warick out of the kitchen, Am I enjoying myself here?

Ah time to cook the pasta, So I page through the part where it explains how to cook pasta... seems easy enough.

Done!

Dish up!

Wow, it looks like the picture! I think I did it.

Good going Danna!