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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. (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. 

APPLE CRUMBLE

6 medium-sized green apples
75g soft brown sugar
a pinch of ground cloves
5ml ground cinnamon
75g sultanas
30ml water
CRUMBLE
150g butter
225g cake or whole-wheat flour
150g soft brown sugar

1. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples into a saucepan, add sugar, spices, sultanas and water
2. Cover, and cook over a very gentle heat for 3 minutes until the apples are soft
3. Turn into a well-buttered baking dish
4. To make the topping, rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips, when crumbly, add the sugar and mix well
5. Sprinkle the topping over the apple filling, covering it completely - do not press the topping down too much
6. Bake @ 180°C for 30-40 minutes until tinged with brown
7. Serve with cream, custard or ice cream

From my friend, Sandy, who swears by it!

Five Flavor Cake

1 cup/250ml or 2 sticks of butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup/125ml Vegetable shortening
3 cups/750 ml sugar
5 eggs, beaten until lemon-colored
3 cups/750ml all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon/2.5 ml Baking powder
1 cup /250ml milk
1 tsp/5ml coconut flavor extract
1 tsp/5ml rum flavor extract
1 tsp/5ml butter flavor extract
1 tsp/5ml lemon flavor extract
1 tsp/5ml vanilla flavor extract
Six-flavor Glaze recipe follows ~ cake instructions

Cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs;
beat until smooth. In small bowl, combine flour and baking powder; mix well and set aside. Combine milk and flavorings. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk mixture beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon mixture into a greased and floured pan bundt pan works wonderfully with this recipe, but you could use a angel food cake pan that has a tube in the middle of it. Bake at 325 degrees in Farhenheit or at 165 degree celcius for one hour and thirty minutes( 1hr 1/2 to 3/4) or until cake is done should be light to medium brown. test it with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean from cake. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cake out of pan onto wire rack, invert again. Place waxed paper under rack to catch the cake glaze drippings. Slowly spoon glaze onto the top of hot cake and let the glaze drizzle down the sides of cake. Let the cake cool completely.

Six Flavor Glaze~for topping
1/2 cup/125ml sugar
1/4 cup/60ml water
1/2 tsp/2.5 of coconut extract flavor
1/2 tsp/2.5 of lemon
1/2 tsp/2.5 of butter
1/2 tsp/2.5 of rum
1/2 tsp/2.5 of vanilla
1/2 tsp/2.5 of almond
Combine all ingredients in heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
It makes 12 servings, but if sliced thin, it goes along way, it's also a great cake very flavorful. I've made it for a variety of things, church school and friends and family. It comes from Watkins Products! Hope you enjoy@share it. This is from Sandra Mae Jones in Kansas City, MO since the holidays are just around the corner, I thought you'd enjoy this recipe to try!

The Museum of Man and Science is overflowing with illuminating exhibits and interactive displays - of a different kind. It's actually a shop, and provides an explosion of strange sights and smells.

The 66-year-old museum (why it was originally called a museum is lost in time) is a traditional muti or medicine shop in Diagonal Street in Johannesburg's CBD, and is described on the board above the door as the "The King of Muti, Herbal and Homeopathic Remedies".

It offers "a face of Africa that has largely disappeared in the push of western civilization and the march of 'progress' across the traditional life and cultures of the continent".

Walking into the darkish interior, you'll probably bump your head on the ceiling displays: hundreds of bits of dried skins, horns still attached to skins, bits of bones, ox hooves and tails, ostrich heads and feet, strings of beads, seed anklets, and straw hats. Very interactive.

Third-generation owner Peter Naidoo says there's a cultural reason for having the displays so low. "When people come in they have to bend. This is a sign of respect in African culture."

Naidoo says his shop "caters for all tribes who live in Gauteng and in Africa".

Your nose will start twitching with a smell that is hard to define. Although not unpleasant, it's pungent and earthy and dry, a mix of dried herbs and mild cow dung. Don't worry, it's nothing to do with the animal products - all have been dipped in formalin, a preservation medium.

Once you've had your fill of the ceiling display, you'll become aware of a pillar piled with horns and several dried carcasses of monkeys, another one with black and white tyre sandals. Then you'll notice the counters. One is filled with painted clay pots (used by traditional healers for storing their mixtures) interspersed with metal candelabras.

The front of the counter is decorated with walking sticks and metal "church sticks" (used by priests of Zion veld churches); drums decorate the front of another.

Walk further in and you'll find spears, knobkerries and shields and, down one side, pigeon-holes jam-packed with dried roots, bits of bark, branches, dried plants and herbs.

The main counter has more walking sticks and knobkerries decorating its front, and rows of intriguing bottles of mixtures behind the counter, on the wall.


Naidoo says there are over 1 900 different herbs in the shop, collected from as far afield as central Africa.

The shop's biggest local selling item is its dried herbs. The walking sticks and drums and other similar items are for sale to tourists, who visit the shop in busloads.

The shop has a constant flow of customers, buying items on the instructions of an inyanga - a traditional healer who uses herbal remedies. They'll visit the inyanga with a complaint, and he or she will advise what herbs are needed. Once the customer has purchased the mix, wrapped in a sheet of newspaper in the shop, he'll go back to the inyanga who will prepare the remedy and give it to the customer to take.

According to Naidoo, traditional African belief says that all things - animal, vegetable or mineral - have power, and small pieces of the animal or vegetable will be used in muti or potions to "ward off evil, for personal protection and luck, or to ensure the faithfulness of a lover or the defeat of an enemy".

"There are in this shop the ingredients to create a muti for almost every malady," says Naidoo.

"The various barks, roots, twigs, and bulbs, as well as the animal parts, are used, either by themselves or mixed together, to create a paste, liquid or powder which will be effective against illnesses, from mild fevers to serious diseases."

Sometimes the patient will only drink the froth on the top of a brew. For other remedies the patient will crouch over a boiling brew, with a blanket over his head, and breath in the steam.

Consulting the sangoma
The sangoma, or diviner, is more concerned with the ancestors and keeping them happy. Some illnesses are believed to be caused by unhappy ancestors, who haven't been respected or acknowledged sufficiently. The sangoma will throw a set of bones, and give advice to the customer on actions to be taken to appease the ancestors.

Some items in the shop are exclusively for use by inyangas and sangomas. Calabashes are used by them to store muti, jackal fur caps are worn by them, as are belts decorated with cowrie shells. The tails of cattle, buffalo and wildebeest are a symbol of power and used as whisks to flick muti onto people, or around a hut or village to ward off disease or evil.

At the back of the shop is a hut, stacked with muti, with bones and mats on the floor. Customers and tourists can make an appointment with a sangoma, who will throw the bones in the hut and offer advice.

Conserving ancient knowledge
Naidoo maintains that 60 percent of all medicines are based on herbs. "It would surprise most people to learn how, of the pharmaceutical products on the shelves of the world today, most have come from information handed down through the traditional healer."

He says that a lot of this knowledge is being lost, as people become more urbanised and move away from their traditional roots.

"It is a function of the Museum of Man and Science to recover such valuable information, and to study the effects of the various influences now being superimposed upon the traditional societies of southern Africa," he says.

Naidoo, a Tamil Hindu, also worships the dead. He has a quiet corner of the shop where an incense candle is burning. He says he offers prayers to his late father, Kasavaloo Naidoo.

The shop was established in 1938 by the owner's grandfather, Moonsamy Naidoo. His son, a medical doctor and homeopath, took over the business. According to Kasavaloo Naidoo's wife, Moonsamy Naidoo used to work with Raymond Dart, who discovered the skull of the Taung child in 1924 near a town called Taung in the far north of the North West Province.

Wander around the shop, marvel at the items on display, enjoy the new smells, but be sure of your purchase, because as you hand over your money you'll notice a sign at the counter which reads: "No Cash Refunds".



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

A Christmas Story

Thanks for this one, Mig!

A Christmas Story for people having a bad day:

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.  

Subscribe to my Afrikaans newsletter . Visit my Afrikaans website
 

Smile a While

Four worms and a lesson to be learned!!!!

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon.
Four worms were placed into four separate jars.
The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.
The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.
The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.
The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.
At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

The first worm in alcohol - Dead
The second worm in cigarette smoke - Dead
Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead
Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation - What did you learn from this demonstration???
Maxine was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said:
'As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!'

That pretty much ended the service.

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

Dear Family and Friends,
A few days ago I had no choice but to travel past the farm my husband and I legally bought in 1990 but which was grabbed from us by a mob of government supporters 10 years later in 2000. In the eight years since then I've never had any official written communication from the government of Zimbabwe about the farm - not even a letter informing me of the state acquisition of the property. I've never been offered or received any compensation for the assets seized. I am not talking about the land itself but about the improvements on it including workers' houses, farm buildings, a dairy, spray race, tobacco barns, trading store, dams, borehole, water pumps and pipes, an electricity transformer and scores of kilometres of fencing. Nor has the government of Zimbabwe given any compensation for our home on the farm or for all the fixtures and fittings that were in place in our fully functional house. Nothing has been given to any of the men and women w ho worked for us on the farm either - not land, money, homes, jobs or pensions.

Believe it or not, this lack of official paperwork concerning the seizure of the farm and then the non payment of any compensation at all, is something that the vast majority of Zimbabweans are not aware of. Mostly we just don't talk about the farms anymore, its become a topic of shame, embarrassment, disgust, contempt.

What I saw this week as I drove past the farm to which I hold the Title Deeds, filled me with deep sadness at the widespread
destruction. All the fencing has gone - many kilometres of it. Thousands of trees planted for poles and timber have been chopped down. All the contours which protected the land from erosion have gone. The roofing on the dairy has gone. The workers houses - made of brick and cement - have all been smashed down into piles of rubble. The tin roof sheets have gone. The metal door and window frames have gone. The borehole pump, motor and pipes have gone. The roofing on the tobacco barns has gone. The farm store which used to sell groceries, fresh produce and milk has been turned into a beer hall. The state of the farm dams and the main farmhouse is unknown, this is a no-go area. The local people call it The Jambanja Place and they speak scornfully of the people on the farm as the Jambanja People. (The word Jambanja has many connotations but mostly it means a violent struggle)

It's been eight years since Zanu PF put us into a perpetual state of jambanja and now Zimbabwe is completely stricken. A lethal cocktail of hunger, disease, super hyper inflation, infrastructural collapse, brain drain and emigration is decimating our population and crippling our country.

This week a ruling was made by SADC in the test case of 78 white Zimbabwean farmers trying to keep their land. Judge Louis Mondlane, President of the SADC Tribunal said that the Zimbabwe government "is in brea ch of the SADC treaty with regards to discrimination." We wait to see if these are just words and if SADC hold any sway when it comes to dealing with one of their own breaking 15 nation treaties. While we wait ever more Zimbabweans have no choice this Christmas but to flood into neighbouring countries in search of food, medicines, and work.

I will be taking a break for a while but wish all Zimbabweans, wherever you are in the world, a blessed, peaceful, healthy Christmas. 2009 will be better! Until next year,
thanks for reading,
love cathy. 
Copyright cathy buckle 11th October 2008. www.cathybuckle.com . To subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter or for information on my books,
please write to: cbuckle@mango.zw

 

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

O is for Owl House
In the remote Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda is a fascinating world of sculpture in concrete and glass, fantastic figures and mythical beasts set around a house decorated with luminous paint and multicoloured panes of glass.
This is the Owl House, created by the reclusive Helen Martins and her labourer Koos Malgas in the 1940s and now regarded as a masterpiece of visionary art.

In her late forties Martins found herself divorced and alone, her parents dead, and back in the tiny town in which she grew up. The Owl House was her attempt to bring light, life and colour into her lonely grey world, and soon became a major obsession.
 

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.
 

The Recipes

ORANGE BISCUITS
750ml cake flour
2ml baking powder
230g butter
125ml white sugar
125ml brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
5ml grated lemon rind
60ml orange juice
5ml vanilla essence
ORANGE FILLING
250ml sifted icing sugar
60ml softened butter
50ml lemon juice
5ml grated lemon rind

1. Sift the dry ingredients together
2. Cream butter and sugars and add beaten egg, lemon rind, orange juice and vanilla
3. Add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly
4. Shape into long rolls 50mm in diameter and refrigerate until firm
5. Cut into slices and place on an ungreased baking tray
6. Bake @ 190°C for 15 minutes
ORANGE FILLING
Combine ingredients for filling and beat until creamy
Sandwich biscuits together with filling once they have cooled

BUTTER WAFERS
A basic biscuit recipe. Vary the flavour by using brown sugar instead of white, adding poppy or sesame seeds etc., or a little instant coffee powder. For chocolate butter wafers, add a little cocoa, but reduce flour in proportion.
125g butter
80ml sugar
1 egg
5ml vanilla
200ml cake flour, sifted
pinch of salt

1. Cream butter and sugar, then beat in egg and vanilla
2. Stir in flour and salt
3. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto greased baking trays, spacing well apart
4. Bake @ 190°C for 10 minutes or until biscuits are golden-brown around the edges

FRUITY GINGER CHEWS
BASE
125g butter or margarine
125ml brown sugar
500ml self-raising flour
1ml salt
TOPPING
2 eggs, beaten
150ml brown sugar
200ml seedless raisins
75ml chopped ginger preserved
100ml chopped nuts
250ml desiccated coconut
200ml cake flour
5ml baking powder
pinch of salt

1. For the base, cream the butter and sugar and mix in the flour and salt
2. When the mixture resembles dry breadcrumbs, reserve 100ml of them for later use
3. Press the remaining crumbs into a 200ml square cake tin and bake @ 180°C for about 8 minutes
4. For the topping, beat eggs and brown sugar until creamy
5. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well
6. Spread over the base, sprinkle with reserved crumbs on top and return to the oven for 35-40 minutes
7. Cut into squares

REFRIGERATOR BISCUITS
This biscuit dough can be stored, wrapped, in the freezer for months. Take a few slices as you need them and have freshly baked biscuits as required. You can decorate the biscuits with cherries or sliced almonds, or brush them with egg white and sprinkle well with castor sugar before baking
175g butter
200g firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
5ml vanilla essence
500ml cake flour
3ml salt
3ml baking powder

1. Cream butter with brown sugar, add egg and vanilla and beat well
2. Sift flour with salt and baking powder and stir into creamed mixture
3. Shape into long rolls about 50mm in diameter
4. Wrap in plastic wrap or foil and freeze until needed
5. Slice thinly, put on a baking tray and bake @ 180°C for 7-10 minutes
6. If wished, store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, wrapped in foil

BISCUIT TORTONI
A rich Neapolitan iced dessert biscuit made from cream and crushed macaroons
200ml crushed macaroons
425ml cream
60ml icing sugar, sifted
tiny pinch salt
5ml vanilla
DECORATION
halved maraschino cherries
grated chocolate
chopped toasted almonds
shreds of angelica

1. Combine the macaroons, 200ml cream, icing sugar and salt
2. Allow to stand for 1 hour
3. Whip the remaining cream until thick enough to stand in soft peaks (not too stiff) and fold into the macaroon mixture with vanilla
4. Spoon into 8-10 small custard cups and arrange in a shallow tray that will fit in the freezer
5. Decorate tops with cherries, grated chocolate, toasted almonds and angelica and leave overnight or until firm

SNICKERDOODLES
I know I have done this recipe before, but it is an all time favourite. My family always order these to be baked for Christmas
750ml cake flour
10ml cream of tartar
5ml bicarbonate of soda
2ml salt
250g butter or margarine
200ml sugar
1 egg
5ml vanilla essence
60ml sugar mixed with 10ml cinnamon and 5ml nutmeg

1. Sift together the dry ingredients
2. Cream the butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla then sifted dry ingredients
3. Mix well and shape dough into balls the size of a walnut
4. Roll each ball into the sugar and spice mixture to coat well
5. Place on an increased baking sheet and flatten slightly with a fork
6. Bake @ 180°C for 8-10 minutes

ALMOND MELTAWAYS
400g butter or margarine
200ml icing sugar
10ml almond essence
750ml cake flour
25 red or green glacéd cherries

1. Cream butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy, add essence
2. Sift flour and add to butter mixture
3. Spoon mixture into a piping bag, fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe shapes onto a greased baking sheet
4. Place half cherries on top
5. Bake @ 160°C for 10-12 minutes

CHOCOLATE CHUNK BISCUITS
200g butter or margarine
125ml white sugar
80ml light brown sugar
2 extra large eggs
5ml vanilla essence
375ml self-raising flour
150g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

1. Cream the butter and both sugars together
2. Add eggs and essence and beat until light and fluffy
3. Sift the flour, and add, mixing well
4. Stir in chocolate chunks
5. Drop teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking tray and bake @ 180°C for 10-12 minutes

FRUIT CRUNCHIES
These crunchies are suitable for freezing
500ml cake flour
5ml bicarbonate of soda
3ml salt
500ml rolled oats
500ml desiccated coconut
375ml sugar
250ml seedless raisins
250g butter or margarine
30ml golden syrup
1 extra large egg, beaten
5ml vanilla essence
2ml almond essence

1. Sift flour, bicarb and salt together, then add other dry ingredients
2. Melt butter and syrup and add to dry ingredients
3. Add beaten egg and both essences
4. Mix well and press mixture into a large baking tray, about 23cm x 32cm
5. Bake @ 180°C for about 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 160°C and bake for a further 15 minutes until golden
6. Leave to cool in the pan, then cut into squares

HONEY MUESLI SQUARES
125g butter or margarine
125ml sugar
15ml honey
2 extra large eggs
125ml desiccated coconut
500ml self-raising flour
310ml milk
TOPPING
60g butter or margarine
15ml honey
375ml icing sugar
15ml hot water
125ml muesli

1. Beat butter, sugar and honey in a mixing bowl, add eggs and beat until light and fluffy
2. Add coconut
3. Sift flour and add alternately with the milk to the egg mixture
4. Mix well and spoon into a greased 23cm x 32cm Swiss roll pan
5. Bake @ 180°C for about 15 minutes
6. Leave to cool
TOPPING
1. Beat butter and honey in a bowl, add icing sugar and water until a smooth mixture is made
2. Top cake with icing and sprinkle muesli over
3. Cut into squares

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