Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me

Happy birthday to meme

Happy Birthday to me.

I thought today would be a great day to post the meme which Cooksister tagged me for a couple of weeks ago.

Also, my ‘birthday cake’ was a little unusual, but as I have had it up to my finely plucked eyebrows with birthday cake recently (no prizes for guessing why), I was more than happy with this route. I’m using it as my entry for the loveliest Cream Puffs in Venice and her SHF #35 – The Beautiful Fig.

It’s cheese, but it’s dessert. The truly birthday-licious Organic Baked Brie with Caramelized Rum Figs and Spiced Oat Biscuits. The brie is drizzled with brown sugar and rum which soaks in as the cheese bakes, imbuing the rich melted goo with added dessert-type depth. Served warm with not too sweet biscuits, flavoured with spices that offset the rich flavours in the baked cheese, and pick up the delicious tartness of the figs, it is the perfect dessert without being dessert. I’m still munching on them as we speak and would recommend this as a spectacular closing scene for any great culinary production.

So as this day is all about me, I’ll get on with the countdown then:

5) Name five things you love in your new country

• I love where I live – in the truly beautiful Somerset countryside. It reminds me of home (sans mountains and sea), perhaps that is because I feel so at home here.
• I love the fact that there is such a plethora of amazing, organic local produce. In South Africa it is still pretty difficult to buy organic and it’s something I’m quite passionate about.
• I love the fact that the cultural diversity of Europe is on our doorstep, in the many specialist shops as well as the ease of mail order and cheap (relatively) travel.
• I love the British sense of humour. When it’s good, it’s very, very good…and they sure know how not to take themselves seriously.
• I love London. Now that I no longer live there, I love the fact that it’s just a 2 hour drive away…and I can leave when I’ve had enough

4) Name four things you miss from your native country

• I really miss my family. I come from a very large extended family and I miss all the family get togethers, the kids’ birthday parties etc. and I hate the fact that my daughter misses out on growing up with the rest of her cousins.
• I miss sundown walks on the beach with the children and the dogs. The raucous screeching of the seagulls, like so many squabbling children, the salt fresh smell of the sea and fresh hot fish and chips bought from the end of jetty in the Hout Bay Harbour, eaten greedily with vinegar splashed fingers out of newsprint packages
• I miss the mountains – I grew up with the benevolent presence of the magnificent Cape mountains always at my back. I miss their wild beauty and their beautiful colours at dawn, and dusk, and in the bright Cape midday sun.
• I miss the sea. Cape Town is a Peninsula so there is really hardly anywhere to go that you are not aware of the sea. I miss the waves, the sunsets, the sunrises, the harbours, the swimming, the smell, the whales, the views…..

3) Name three things that annoy you in your new country

• I absolutely loath the ‘100 best’ or ‘100 worst’ or ‘100 most’ TV programmes. Can they not think of something better to spend our liscence fees on than recycling the same quasi-celebrities’ opinions on arbitrary non-issues, that in all fairness, we weren’t interested in in the first place.
• It’s my birthday and I’m halfway down the second bottle of Bolly – so I can’t think of anything else. I reserve the right to edit this at a later stage

2) Name two things that surprise you (or surprised you when you arrived) in your new country

• When I first came to London 15 years ago I had this vague idea that the whole of England was like a Jilly Cooper novel. I was quite surprised that London, like any other metropolis worldwide, was monumentally populated by overworked, pale-faced city dwellers, struggling to make ends meet and to keep their heads above the darkly swirling and polluted waters of urban life, with the occasional sidetrip to the grotty local pub and slim to no idea of where the nearest museum was.
• When I moved to the country 5 years ago I was very surprised when I realised I was actually living a Jilly Cooper novel and that she hadn’t been making it up after all.

1) Name one thing you would miss in your new country if you had to leave

• In the last 5 years I have made very good friends with my neighbours and they are now the support system I lost when I moved away from my family. Were I to leave Somerset now, I would miss them just as much as I miss my South African family. I have grown resigned to the fact that I will always be thus divided. My heart has two homes – and most days I see this as a benefit. I am twice blessed.

Vanielje Kitchen Cook Book

Baked Organic Brie with Caramelised Rum Figs

Spiced Oat Biscuits

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