A heavenly scent

The intoxicating scent drifted towards me and then retreated- a little shy of its magnificence I think?

When I found the source, no wonder....it was the gnarly old grapefruit tree.

This tree rarely does much, besides scratch and scare little children, it might have produced a few blossoms once, years ago, and I vaguely remember two small' flattish' round pale- yellow fruits.

A thick skin and sour citrus smell, our eldest duly tasted it and declared it so sour that she might never recover.. and this from a child that grazed on little yellow 'sour suck' flowers!

Whatever the reason for this extraordinary blossoming...

Thank you, gnarly old tree for all these deliciously fragrant blossoms (blogger needs a scratch 'n sniff panel) -
we've taken some cuttings and I see a future filled with the heady scent for grapefruit blossoms.

Piri piri chicken livers

The two chilli plants on the stoep are decoratively hung with little bell shaped yellow/orange chillies- they are distracting me, I can hear them shouting ..'pick me- pick me!' whenever I pass them by.

Saturday night was the ideal time to test our pretty little chillies, the art teachers has a delicious signature dish- piri piri chicken livers.

The recipe comes from one of his favourite books 'piri piri starfish' by Tessa Kiros, he keeps it safely hidden from my grubby cook hands- understandably.......you should see the state of my cookbooks!

I also confess to being a bit of a cowboy cook- I 'gooi' (throw), never measure and frequently take short cuts, whereas the art teacher is methodical and careful, which is why his chicken livers are so delicious.

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Her recipe for Piri Piri sauce- 1 cup olive oil, 3 ripe tomatoes, 50 g butter, 1/2 tsp salt, pinch of sugar, 6 piri piri chillies, (hard to find here, we use what we can get) 4 cloves of garlic.
Heat the oil, add tomatoes and butter- simmer for 25 mins. Add salt, sugar, chillies & garlic, cook for 5 - 10 mins. Remove from heat and puree.

For the chicken livers- take 2 Tbsp butter heat until golden, add 1 tsp oregano, saute for 1 minute,  add chicken livers, fry until crusty and golden- turning gently, add salt and pepper, pour over juice of 1 lemon, add your piri piri sauce, some fresh greens from the garden and a few slices of toasted ciabatta

Perfect on a chilly Saturday night- add a good DVD and a few glasses of  red wine.

.We used the leftover piri piri sauce on Sunday- I rubbed it all over the free range chicken and it roasted happily will some cherry tomatoes and onion wedges until crispy and fall- apart tender.

Guy Tillim- Second Nature

Guy Tillim's exhibition at Stevenson gallery in Woodstock is breathtaking.

Large, vivid, detailed and at the same time atmospheric and textured- you loose yourself in these pictures of French Polynesia.

The photographs aren't all lush picturesque landscapes, most have elements of  'reality'-  they keep you lingering in front of the frame - the art teacher's favourite one above.

My favourite- the picture with only sea, clouds and birds- it was weighted, yet light and full of everything in between, it touched me.

The gallery's rooms were effervescent with Cape Town's art lovers and photographers, its been awhile since Guy Tillim has exhibited on home ground.

Guy Tillim in dark charcoal pullover

Sir Lowry road Woodstock- outside of  the gallery

Pardon the purple everywhere

Little purple splatters everywhere- the outside tables and chairs are now a sort of purple/white camouflage, the same for most of the broad- leafed plants in the garden.

The washing, innocently fluttering on the line outside, is the ideal target for the' purple poopers'.

Best you put on a hat before you go outside....

The morning air is heavy with the chatter of little birds feasting on these purple berries, evidently they are now perfectly ripe and the neighbourhood birds couldn't be happier.

The Robins however, are looking for a more substantial breakfast - the new arrival hidden in a tree surrounded by ivy.

Speaking of purple- this is one of the flowers I picked for our blogger ' Flowers in the house Monday' which I couldn't identify, tried 'googling,' but no luck- anybody?

Flowers in the house in July

My new friend Jane over at small but charming all the way in Arlington, Virginia is hosting her 'Monday flowers in the house' party, where we get a little peek and some inspiration from the beautiful flowers in everyone's homes.

A quick dash into the garden this morning to see what looked cheerful-  its back to winter this side of the world, grey, dark and windy, can't blame the flowers for hiding.

Apologised to the bees and sunbirds as I picked what  flowers I could find and put them on the kitchen window sill......a small confession- thank heavens for Jane or that week- old parsley would still have been there!

When nothing else is flowering thank heavens for the Camellia's

A Jacobsbaai beach house

What makes a fabulous beach house?

A picture perfect little bay with a pristine and sandy white beach,  gentle surf for swimming and body boarding, a cluster of interesting rock pools to forage in, only a handful of houses and a nearly deserted beach.

What makes a fabulous weekend at a beach house ?

A few wild and rough (in the nicest possible way) games of boules - I think its disputed, but the 'pretty boys' won and remained unchallenged for the rest of the weekend.

Delicious food in abundance, mussels picked from the rocks, fresh oysters from Saldanha, which is just around the corner.
Saturday lunch was delicious melt in the mouth lamb, we were a bit late -  sorry no pics and a breakfast salad with boiled eggs and roasted vine tomatoes, fried Ham on the side.

A saxophone in the early afternoon shadows, gently playing the sultry and sexy tones of
' Summertime, and the living is easy....."

The space for long beach walks or to practice a few challenging yo-yo techniques.
A quiet, sunny corner facing the sea, to read a good book or the warm light of a lamp to knit by.

the view from the kitchen windows on the other side of the house

Most of all, it was the gathering of good friends to celebrate the birthday of a lovely lady -
and I do believe,  I hear the distant ring of bells...........

I have to finish on this magnificent tattoo, aptly nautical for the beach house weekend, but look a little longer and you see so much more.

one of Barend's 'sea legs'

Arabian lamb shoulder with lentils

During the time of our 'skaapie night' parties (roughly translated ' lamb night') the cut I most looked forward to cooking was the delicious shoulder.

I know you're wondering about the skaapie nights..... every 2nd month we'd place orders for whole and half lambs with a wonderful couple, Andre and Merna, who have a farm far away close to Uppington in Kennard.
They'd carefully slaughter, cut and pack all the bulk orders, load their bakkie and long trailer and drive through the night to deliver the much anticipated lambs.

That evening we would have an open house,  people would arrive to collect their orders- we'd eat and drink the evening through,  generally celebrating the thought of our full freezers packed with free-range Karoo lamb.

But back to the Arabian lamb with lentils,  from that delightful book "The foods of love' by Max de Roche.
The chapter is entitled 'On the seductive and sensual properties of meat'-  slow cook your lamb like the recipe below and you'll have few who argue.
I've adapted a bit- here's mine.....

Arabian Lamb

Whole shoulder of lamb

a few cloves of garlic

cup of uncooked brown lentils

4 celery stalks-chopped

thyme and rosemary

stock, water/wine

yoghurt and mint to garnish

Take a big cast iron pot and brown your shoulder nicely, add garlic, salt, rosemary, thyme, celery, then add wine, stock or water- I usually do a combination, to almost cover the shoulder and simmer gently for 1 1/2 - 2 hrs turning when you remember.

In another pot place your lentils, water, the rest of the rosemary and thyme, garlic and celery and cook until soft, approx 30/40 minutes.

When the shoulder has been going for more than about an hour and starting to look tender, I add the drained lentils along with the herbs etc to the shoulder pot and cook together until the lamb is falling off the bone.

Eat in shallow bowls with a spoon and fork, drizzled with yoghurt and garnished with chopped mint