How about 300 chicken recipes? Just right click here and download!

I just love ginger biscuits, they are so dunkable in tea! Elizabeth du Rand sent me the following very old recipe:

GINGER BISCUITS

10 cups flour (1,3 kg)
50 ml ground ginger
25 ml bicarb
25 ml cream of tartar
4 ½ cups sugar
225g margarine
225g lard
250 ml syrup
6 XL eggs


Sift the dry ingredients, rub in marge and lard, add syrup and then eggs and mix to form a dough. Knead. Roll into balls and press with a fork. Bake at 200 degrees C for 6 to 7 minutes.

Why not make up a few batches for the upcoming holidays?

At long last I managed to get my duplicate driver's licence. I only applied mid May, so to get it by October is not too bad at all!
My other beef is with Alberton Municipality. They, in their wisdom, decided to change billing dates ( I personally think it is a money making scheme). Anyway, the changing of dates screwed up their debit order system. When municipality staff start telling you to cancel your debit order immediately, you must know something BIG is wrong! So, if you fall under Ekhuruleni Municipality and you have a debit order in operation for payment of your monthly municipal account, you know what to do!

Do you have problems with your local municipality, licencing department or Telkom? Try and get the private phone number of the person in charge. Problem solved. I have also got the private phone number of the Ward Councillor that I helped vote in during the last municipal elections. Use him/her, after all, you helped vote him in!

This is going to be another regular feature......

Insomnia affects about one-third of the adult population worldwide, and for most of us, the quality of our sleep will decrease at some point in our lives. While different types of insomnia have different causes, most people can find relief through the following, regardless of the source of their sleeplessness:

Establish a consistent bedtime routine, and try to go to bed at the same time every night.
Get plenty of exercise during the day. The more energy you expend during the day, the sleepier you will feel at bedtime.
Reduce or eliminate your intake of caffeine, stimulants and alcohol. Even when consumed early in the day, these can affect sleep.
Avoid large meals late in the evening.
Learn and practice a relaxation technique regularly: Breathing exercises, meditation and yoga are good examples.
Don't obsess about not sleeping. Instead, remind yourself that while sleeplessness is troublesome, it isn't life-threatening.

From: Bewell

The UK Lottery never pays less than £3 million every Wednesday and Saturday (± R43 million) with frequent rollovers. Click here to play! This past weekend one lucky winner walked away with just under 5 million pounds, that's about R75,000,000. Now that's a whole lot of zero's. You can't win it if you aren't in it!

My Recipe CD has now been updated and now includes 50 Recipe eBooks as well as 8 Bonus eBooks (4 eBooks on making, marketing and selling crafts for profit) Click here to take a look and also download your free Low Fat recipe eBook (that works out to about R2 per recipe book! sheessshhh!)

Hello Peter,
Just to let you know that I received my recipe CD today in the mail and I'm over the moon about it.
I'm going to spread the word to others to order copies too. It's most certainly worth every cent..........
Thanks again,
LC

Glenacres Superspar sends out a really nice newsletter full of super recipes. To subscribe, click here and send the blank email. 

Does this sound yummy, or what???

MICROWAVE CARAMEL MILK TART

CRUST
6 Marie Biscuits
1/2 Cup Soft Brown Sugar
1 Cup Coconut
1/2 Cup Flour
Pinch Salt
1/2 Cup Margarine
FILLING
2 Large Eggs
4 Cups Milk
1/2 Cup Maizena
60g Sugar
15ml Custard Powder
Pinch Salt
12.5ml Margarine
5ml Caramel Essence

1. Crush the marie biscuits and add brown sugar, coconut, flour and salt
2. Microwave the margarine in a deep bowl for 1 minute on HIGH
3. Add the biscuit mixture and mix, keeping out 30ml of biscuit mixture
4. Press the mixture into a pie plate and microwave for 2 minutes on HIGH
5. Separate the eggs, then beat the yolks with 200ml of milk
6. Add the maizena, sugar, custard powder and salt and beat till mixed
7. Add the rest of the milk
8. Microwave on HIGH for 12 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes
9. Add the butter and caramel essence
10. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold gently into the cooked mixture
11. Pour the filling into the base, and sprinkle remaining biscuit mixture over

Go take a look at my Wacky Sarmies page, there are some great sarmie ideas!

Soft fried egg with yolk busted and mixed with Tomato Sauce and a bit of pepper spread over some slap chips and placed between 2 pieces buttered white bread is the perfect way to end a dinner. Once you’ve busted the egg over the chips (French fries) the skill is in determining how much to leave for the sarmie after eating the rest of the meal!!
As for DUNKING there is the age old “Soldiers” – strips of toast dunked into egg yolk.
Enjoy!!!
Sean from Melbourne.

Source: Sunday Times

1953: The Bantu Education Act is passed, Queen Elizabeth II is crowned,  Edmund Hilary summits Everest,  the first james Bond thriller, Casino Royale is published,  Playboy magazine hits the streets with the first centrefold being Marilyn Monroe,

This dates from the late 1800's

Cape Blatchang

1 pound chillies
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 pound almonds, blanched and pounded
1 teaspoon powdered coriander seed
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 large onion, sliced
1 clove garlic

Pound the chillies in an iron mortar, Mix all the ingredients and boil in 3 bottles of vinegar to the required consistency

Nature is wonderful. I envy the jobs of the game rangers and their wealth of bush knowledge. I have often wondered where one can read up on all the interesting facts. I would like to make this a regular feature of this newsletter, if you are able to contribute or would like to comment on the contribution below, please email me.

For the next few issues I will be featuring the Small Five starting with the Elephant shrew, next was the Leopard tortoise then the Ant Lion and the Redbilled buffalo weaver.

he Leopard tortoise is a large and attractively marked tortoise which has a wide distribution in sub-Saharan Africa, including recorded localities in southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Eastern Africa (including Natal), Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Angola and Southwest Africa. In this species males may attain a greater size than females, a characteristic shared with certain other members of the genus Geochelone, including Galapagos tortoises. Large examples may be 60 cm (over 2 feet) long and weigh over 35 kg (about 80 lbs.).

Do you have family and friends all over the world? Does it cost you a fortune to buy and mail gifts to all of them? Why not buy one Recipe eBook and email it to everyone! Just think about the savings on postage! For my selection of eBooks (and CD's) just click here.
 

Afrikaans Newsletter

Subscribe to my Afrikaans newsletter . Visit my Afrikaans website
 

Potjiekos recipe

Another new feature, from now on I will feature a potjie recipe with each newsletter. For those of you who are not familiar with a potjie (cast iron three legged pot) you may use a dutch oven.

Ostrich Potjie

Use a #3 potjie.

30 ml cooking oil
1.5 kg ostrich neck slices
4 leeks, sliced
2 fat cloves garlic, crushed
5 ml dried or 1 sprig fresh rosemary
250 g brown mushrooms, sliced
30 ml boiled green peppercorns, bruised
75 ml brandy
50 ml dry sherry
375 ml dry red wine or 1/2 red wine 1/2 chicken stock
30 ml lemon juice
15 fresh pickling onions, peeled
10 small whole carrots
8 small, peeled potatoes or unpeeled new potatoes scrubbed clean
1 x 300 g packet creamed spinach and mushrooms, thawed. (Can be replaced with 250 g cooked, chopped and flavoured spinach mixed with 125 ml sour cream. Flavour the spinach with some of the folowing: bacon, ham, cheese, nutmeg and lemon juice)
15 ml cake flour
a little milk
pinch nutmeg
salt to taste

Heat the oil in the pot and brown the meat a little at a time. Remove and set aside. Fry the leeks, garlic, rosemary, mushrooms and peppercorns in the same pot. Return the meat to the pot. Heat the brandy slightly, pour over the meat, and ignite. Add the heated sherry, red wine and lemon juice once the flames have died down. Cover with the lid, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 1/2 hours or till the meat is almost tender.
Layer the vegetables, except the spinach, on top of the meat, cover, and simmer for a further 45 to 50 minutes. Mix the spinach mixture with a paste of cake flour and milk and spoon carefully over the food in the pot. Season with nutmeg and salt, cover and simmer for a further 15 minutes.

A woman went to a pet shop & immediately spotted a large, beautiful parrot..
There was a sign on the cage that said R50.00.

"Why so little," she asked the pet store owner.

The owner looked at her and said, "Look, I should tell you first that this bird used to live in a house of Prostitution And sometimes it says some pretty vulgar stuff."
The woman thought about this, but decided She had to have the bird any way.

She took it home and hung the bird's cage up In her living room and waited for it to say something..

The bird looked around the room, then at her, and said,
"New house, new madam."

The woman was a bit shocked at the implication, But then thought "that's really not so bad."

When her 2 teenage daughters returned from school The bird saw and said,
"New house, new madam, new girls."

The girls and the woman were a bit offended But then began to laugh about the situation Considering how and where the parrot had been raised.

Moments later, the woman's husband came home from work.

The bird looked at him and said, "Hi, Keith!"

Olaf vas vorking at de fish plant up nort in Dulut vhen he accidentally cut off all ten of his finkers.

He vent to de emergency room in de klinik and vhen he got dar de Norsky doctor looked at Olaf and said: 'Let's haf de finkers and I'll see vhat I kan do'.

Olaf said, 'I hafen't got de finkers.'

'Vhat do you mean, you hafen't got de finkers?' he said. 'It's 2007, for goodness sake! Ive's got microsurgery and all kinds of incredible tekniks. I could haf put dem back on and made you like new! Vhy
didn't you brink de finkers?'

Olaf replies (irritably) 'How de f*@k vas I supposed to pick dem up?

A man and a woman, who have never met before, but are both married to other people, found themselves assigned to the same sleeping room on a transcontinental train.
Though initially embarrassed and uneasy over sharing a room, they were both very tired and fell asleep quickly... him in the upper bunk and her in the lower.
At 1:00 AM, the man leaned over and gently woke the woman saying,
"Ma'am, I'm sorry to bother you, but would you be willing to reach into the closet to get me a second blanket? I'm awfully cold."
"I have a better idea," she replied. "Just for tonight, let's pretend that we're married."
"Wow! That's a great idea!" he exclaimed.
"Good," she replied. "Get your own f---ing blanket!"
After a moment of silence, he farted

LAVENDER

Probably the most popular herb of all, lavender is used mostly for it's fragrance
The most widely used varieties are English Lavender, Dutch Lavender, and French Lavender
The first two grow to about 30cm tall, but the French Lavender grows about 90cm tall
Lavender likes dry, well drained soil, and a sunny position. Lavender does not like the cold, so it is advisable to cover the plants with a protective tent during the winter months
Butterflies love lavender, but funnily enough, moths do not like it

Domestic Use:
Lavender is essential for all potpourri, and can be used in sachets, as essential oils, or even burnt in the fireplace to give off a lovely scent which pervades the house
Spread your washing over the lavender bush, to give it a fresh sweet smell that lasts

Cosmetic Use:
Lavender can be used to make a tonic water, which is excellent for delicate, sensitive skins

Medicinal Use:
Lavender gives a calming effect and helps with insomnia
Lavender is a very good mouthwash
Make a tea with a sprig of lavender to relieve a headache

Culinary Use:
Lavender can be used in fruit salad
Lavender is a excellent additive for marinades and makes a good tenderiser

LAVENDER SHORTBREAD
takes 30 - 40 minutes
250ml flour
250ml self-raising flour
250ml cornflour
250ml icing sugar
250g butter (not margarine)
30ml lavender leaves finely chopped
icing sugar for dusting

1. Sift all dry ingredients together
2. Rub in butter, and add lavender
3. Press into a greased baking sheet (20cmx20cm)
4. Prick with a fork and bake 25 min. at 180°C till brown
5. Remove from oven and slice whilst warm
6. Dust with icing sugar after cooling

The FunkyMunky Herb eBook is now available. 48 popular herbs, descriptions and uses with photos. Immediately available, will be emailed to you. Only R50 , send me an email for payment details.
I'm very impressed with what I've read so far. What I really like is that your book is a combination of medicinal and culinary advice, unlike many other herb books I've read.
And the format is great - thanks very much. I have an ambitious project to make a herb garden this year - so your section of herb gardens will come in very handy - Shelagh 
 

Zimbabwe update

I used to have a regular feature on my website that I called the Zimbabwe Letters. sadly my contact "went silent" and I didn't have a source any more. I am looking for another source (any volunteers?).

White farmers in court for growing crops


Ten white farmers appeared in court in Zimbabwe yesterday accused of growing crops on their land - in a country where millions of people will need food aid within the next few months. The case in Chegutu district, 70 miles southwest of Harare, exposes the perversity of President Robert Mugabe's policies. Commerical agriculture was the mainstay of the economy in the days when Zimbabwe was a food exporter. Since 2000, when the government began seizing white-owned farms, many of them violently, the agricultural sector has collapsed and the economy has gone into freefall, with inflation now at 6,600 per cent, the highest in the world. The World Food Programme estimates that it will be feeding 4.1 million Zimbabweans, one third of the population, by the end of the year. But none of that has stopped the Zanu PF regime. Now the Chegutu group is charged with violating the Consequential Provisions Act, which gave the few hundred remaining white farmers a final deadline of Sep 30 to leave their land and homes. The colonial-era Chegutu courtroom was packed by the so-called "war veterans" who are Mr Mugabe's staunch supporters, and "beneficiaries" who stand to be given the properties should the 10 be convicted. Among them are Edna Madzongwe, the speaker of parliament, and Nathan Shamuyarira, a former information minister and one of President Robert Mugabe's closest aides. The farmers, aged from 38 to 75, produce a variety of food from chickens to oranges and have already given two-thirds of their farms to the government for resettlement. All but one still work their remaining land intensively and say they intend to try to continue.

They were remanded on bail and their lawyer David Drury sought to have the case referred to the supreme court, which is due to rule on the constitutionality of the land law. They pleaded not guilty and face up to two years in prison if convicted. "We have also said that no farmer has received any payment of any kind whatsoever and that the way compensation is decided means farmers would be paid nothing, given that Zimbabwe's inflation rate is over 6,000 per cent," he added. But a prominent lawyer in Harare said the courts were blocking urgent applications over land cases. "The atmosphere in the courts has changed dramatically in the last week," he said. Didymus Mutasa, the lands minister, has said that the few hundred remaining white farmers will be forced out, one way or another. "The position is that food shortages or no food shortages, we are going ahead to remove the remaining whites," he said recently. "Too many blacks are still clamouring for land and we will resettle them on the remaining farms." In fact many farms were given to members of the government and their cronies, and one minister has admitted that the new farmers have failed in their cultivation efforts. Outside the court, the scruffy shops of Chegutu were empty of basic foods, and street vendors sold small, sour oranges. They came from a once-prolific citrus farm in the district now devastated after it was seized by Bright Matonga, the deputy information minister, earlier this year.

From ZWNews, To subscribe, please email ironhorse@zwnews.net
 

This South Africa - interesting facts and information

The A to Z of South African culture (each newsletter features a letter of the alphabet) see archive

C is for Corné and Twakkie

"So to all you golden kids out there who always believed in the Dream and shared in the Love, we just want to say: Come on! Believe it! Thanks."
Meet Corné and Twakkie, comedians and stars of The Most Amazing Show (T*M*A*S). If you're not South African, you'll probably find them scary. If you are you'll find them scary anyway, but you'll laugh a lot too. As they would say, Corné and Twakkie are totally not kak.
They're like a bad seventies flashback: mullets, insane facial hair, tight shiny shorts last worn on a high school hockey pitch in 1974, and wonderfully mangled SA English.
According to their website, Corné - the Love Captain - is 6ft 4in (23in x 4in), "the fabulous host of The Most Amazing Show and part-time healer at the Dai Maharaj Centre for Healing through Eastern Eroticism."

His co-host Twakkie is 4ft 6in, and has 84 broken bones and eight metal plates. "He made a name for himself as a stuntman in the golden decade of the 1980s and still struggles to cope with the unbearable stress of stardom."
 

Source: SouthAfrica.info
The all-in-one official guide
and web portal to South Africa.  
 

Recipe Requests

Looking for a specific South African recipe? Email me and I will do my best to find it for you!

Add your suggestions to my Elephant Stew and Wacky Sarmies recipes.
 

Featured Website

Every issue I feature an interesting website with South African links. This is a really nice and informative site, check out the downloads!
 

If you intend visiting Mozambique, I can personally recommend African Adventures and Palm Grove Lodge. We spent an unforgettable week there!

The Recipes

Thanx a lot to Joan for sending me these rusk recipes:

Aniseed rusks

Ingredients
1 kg cake flour
7 g salt
250 g butter
30 ml whole anise seeds
20 g instant yeast
300 g sugar
1 egg
850 ml water

Method:
1. Sift flour and salt together. Rub butter into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the anise seeds, yeast and sugar. 2. Stir the egg into the water and mix into the flour mixture. Stir to combine. Knead until elastic. 3. Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place until double in size. Don't knock back. 4. Shape into balls and place in a deep bread tin sprayed with nonstick baking spray. Leave to rise until even with the edge of the tin. 5. Place rusks in the oven, preheated to 200 °C, immediately reduce temperature to 180 °C, and bake for 45 minutes. 6. Remove from tin. Leave rusks to cool completely before breaking them apart (do not cut with a knife). 7. Dry out in the oven at 100 °C.

Buttermilk rusks

Ingredients
1 kg cake flour
8 g bicarbonate of soda
8 g cream of tartar
8 g baking powder
10 g salt
200 g sugar
250 g butter or margarine
450 ml buttermilk
Method:
1. Spray two 30 x 36 x 7 cm baking trays with nonstick baking spray. 2. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Cut in the butter or margarine. Rub in until it resembles breadcrumbs. 3. Mix in buttermilk to form a firm dough. 4. Break off small pieces of dough and shape them into balls. 5. Place close together in sprayed baking trays. 6. Brush the side of each row with melted butter before putting in the next row so that the rusks can be broken apart easily later. 7. Bake in a preheated oven at 240 °C for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 190 °C and bake for a further 35-50 minutes, then brush with diluted milk. 8. Turn out on to a cooling rack and break in three so that rusks will cool more quickly. 9. When cool, break into neat portions and allow to dry out in the oven set at 100 °C.

All bran rusks

Ingredients
500 g margarine
600 g sugar
3 extra-large eggs
1 kg self-raising flour
5 ml salt
15 ml baking powder
300 ml milk
180 g bran flakes

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF). Grease two 23 x 13 x 7 cm loaf tins with margarine. Cream the margarine and sugar together. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Sift all the dry ingredients, except for bran flakes, together and add to the margarine mixture, alternating with the milk. Finally add the bran flakes and mix well. Turn the mixture into the prepared loaf tins. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a testing skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the rusk mixture. Cool, slice into fingers and dry at 100 ºC (200 ºF).

Brown bread rusks

Ingredients
1 loaf brown bread (day old)
300 ml water
160 g soft brown sugar
125 g butter or margarine
15 ml aniseed
2 ml salt

Method:
Cut the bread into 2,5 cm slices. Cut each slice into 5 equal lengths. Bring the water, brown sugar, butter or margarine, aniseed and salt to the boil. Pour a little of this syrup into a deep plate. Roll the bread lengths in the syrup one by one until completely covered. Stir the syrup occasionally. Put the bread lengths carefully on a wire rack. Dry for an hour at 100 ºC and after that overnight at 60 ºC until bone dry. Keep in an airtight container.

Breakfast rusks

Ingredients
230 g margarine
400 g sugar
3 extra-large eggs
50 ml peanut butter
5 ml vanilla essence
10 ml bicarbonate of soda
250 ml milk
240 g cake flour
10 ml baking powder
pinch of salt
160 g coconut
160 g oats
120 g breakfast cereal flakes
50 g peanuts, finely chopped

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF). Grease one 37 x 13 x 10 cm loaf tin with margarine. Cream the margarine and sugar together. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Add the peanut butter and vanilla essence and mix well. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk and add Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the remaining ingredients, mix and add to the margarine mixture. Blend. (Add a little more milk if the dough is too dry.) Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about one hour or until a testing skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the rusk mixture. Cool, slice into fingers and dry at 100 ºC (200 ºF). Makes about 40 rusks.

Health rusks

Ingredients
1 kg wholewheat flour
125 g sunflower seeds
20 g aniseed
5 ml salt
500 g margarine
500 g brown sugar
250 g molasses
20 ml bicarbonate of soda
1 l buttermilk

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF). Spray three 23 x 13 x 7 cm loaf tins with non-stick spray. Mix the wholewheat flour, sunflower seeds, aniseed and salt in a large mixing bowl. Melt the margarine and add the brown sugar. Stir well. Add the molasses and mix well. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the buttermilk and mix well. Add to the margarine mixture and mix. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly to distribute the liquid evenly. Turn into the prepared loaf tins, spreading the mixture evenly. Bake for about 1 hour or till done: a testing skewer will come out clean when the bread is done. Cool slightly and turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely and cut into fingers. Place on baking sheets and dry at 100 ºC (200 ºF). Makes about 70 rusks

Kalahari rusks

Ingredients
1 litre milk
500 ml sugar
500 g margarine or butter
3 extra large eggs
2.50 kg self-raising flour
salt
5 ml cream of tartar

Method:
Preheat oven to 140 °C and grease 3 loaf tins with butter or non-stick spray.
Heat the milk and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved.
Bring to the boil and pour the boiling mixture over the margarine or butter.
Mix well and leave to cool.
Beat in the eggs one by one.
Add the self-raising flour, salt and cream of tartar.
Knead together to form a dough.
Shape into balls and arrange in the prepared tins.
Bake for 1 hour or until done and a testing skewer inserted comes out clean.
Turn out, cut into fingers and bake at 80 °C until completely dry.
Store in an airtight container

Fibre-rich rusks

Ingredients
500 g butter or margarine, melted
500 ml buttermilk
2 eggs, whisked
1 kg ordinary or bran-enriched self-raising flour
15 ml baking powder
375 ml soft brown sugar
375 ml muesli
250 ml oats
250 ml coconut
125 ml sunflower seeds
pinch salt

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 ºC and spray two oven pans with non-stick spray. Cool the melted butter slightly before beating in the buttermilk and eggs. Combine all the dry ingredients and add to the butter mixture. Stir to mix and turn the mixture into the oven pans, spreading evenly (the batter fills 1 1/2 oven pans). Mark into fingers. Bake for about 30-45 minutes or until golden brown and done. Loosen the edges, turn out onto a wire rack and cool. Cut or break the rusks into smaller pieces and dry out at 80 ºC. Store in airtight containers. Makes about 90 pieces.

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