A chocolatey day and no bread

There's no bread Mommy 'Daar's niks brood nie, Mamma'.
That was my son as he came charging up the stairs.  Oops, we live far from town and it happens sometimes.  No bread or milk.  We keep some long life milk and some bread in the fridge, but every so often we end up with a depleted stash.

'I'll just bake you something then'.  It probably says something about a household if there is always four kinds of flour, yeast, sprinkles of any description, buttermilk, many varieties of rice and even more of grains in the pantry, but no bread.

There were two very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl, perfect for some muffins.  We like bananas, but not the very ripe variety, not even in a muffin, so I decided to mask the taste slightly with some cacao.  The chocolate bit is not decadent, just a bit of extra taste.  Still healthy enough for lunch.

As soon as they were in the oven, the electrician and his daughter showed up.  And then my father.  Everybody took a few, straight out of the oven, piping hot.  It left only four, which we took to E's swimming coach in the afternoon.

Then we had friends over for supper and I made some chocolate mousse for dessert, with some macarons on the side.  Decadent, dark and even a bit naughty.  We ate it while staring at the lightning that illuminated a huge storm over the mountain.   

Raspberry and chocolate bread and butter pudding

We had a very busy weekend; two kiddies parties and a trip to Kruger but we still made time to get to the monthly farmers' market early on saturday morning. 

The market had a few surprises:  Fresh mushrooms, a wonderful makataan (type of watermelon used to make jam) and compost, which we ordered a full load of for the vegetable garden.  I went with my mom and together we collected a few bags worth of produce.  Actually, a bit more than a few bags full as you should have seen the size of the makataan; we had to get somebody to carry it to the car.  The market has a bit of kitch and a bit of cool.  A lot of ready made food and brilliant coffee.  Strolling through the stalls is probably one of the best ways to spend a saturday morning.

And then on monday I realized that I had a whole fridge full of ingredients for a meze style supper.  Far too much food though for our family and that's how I ended up inviting my parents for supper, on a monday.  This little impromto style dinner was one of my favorite dinners in a long time.  So easy to put together, but so enjoyable.  We sat outside and watched the sun set while eating and completely forgetting that it was the beginning of the week and not weekend yet.

Of course I had to do a bit of desert as well.  I bought some croissants earlier and had fresh raspberries in the fridge and just made some custard.  Easy to assemble and just as easy to eat.

Muesli with chocolate chips

I didn't bother with too many new year's resolutions for 2011.  If 2010 taught me anything, it would have to be that life can sometimes just happen and will take all your best resolutions and intentions with it.  So this year I've decided to go for a slightly less rigid approach and my only resolution was to make more time for the simple things in life.  To live in the moment and to stop from time to time to take it all in. 

Just potter around with the kids.

Stroll through the garden and look at the flowers, not the weeds.

Stare at the clouds or the mountain for a few minutes.

Be more spiritual. 

And make time for breakfast.  Not the bacon and eggs, full-house kind.  Just something simple and easy.  I use to operate on breakfast but lost the habit somewhere along the way.  Not sure why or how, but I have a sneaky suspicion it just sort of happened in the midst of all the morning chaos of getting everybody else ready for the day.

So yesterday, I made a batch of muesli and this morning I spent a few minutes outside with M and our new puppy.  Just eating and pottering and enjoying the cuteness of both M and the Beagle.  

We named the puppy Bonga, which sort of mean thank you in the Zulu as we thought we had so much to be thankful for and because the kids could not stop saying thank you when she arrived.

And she could not resist the muesli either.  But then again at the moment she cannot resist most things.  Shoes, carpets, toys, just about anything get chewed.   And we love her more for it.