Love is in the Air

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, well on the 13^th of October to be precise, was my second eldest sister’s wedding. I state second eldest because as you can see in the pic below I have A LOT of sisters,

again to be precise 4 sisters!, so it is quite imperative that I stated whose wedding it was. It was a lovely wedding and as you can see from the pic, my sister looked absolutely lovely.

 

 

 

 

The wedding was a traditional Catholic Ceremony and after the ceremony a huge celebratory party took place. I danced the night away and by mistake drank too many shooters – I seem to forget

about hangovers when i’m in the mood to party.

 

 

I thought since there’s been a bit of love in the air that I would make some cupcakes that, to me, suggest love. I decided to make use of a couple of lens flares as they seem to give a lovey-dovey feel.

 

 

 

I used a custard topping because I just love custard and the strawberry jam filling is red, and red as we all have been told (by someone) is the colour of love.

 

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9 Comments | In: Pudding | tags: cupcakes, custard, lens flares, love, Strawberry, strawberry cupcakes, wedding. | Link

Kristy & Nina go head-to-head

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago I entered a television show about food bloggers called Dinner Divas. The show is dedicated at revealing the ins-and-outs of food blogging and gives contestants the opportunity to show South Africa how much love, passion, pride and effort goes into creating a food blog.

 

For the first time us food bloggers have been given the chance to showcase and market our blogs on television. Finally, we can show South Africa what it takes to create a blog. As the show progresses you will see that passion and dedication is one of the key factors in creating and maintaining a food blog and of course hard work.

 

Since being on the show, I have only become more ambitious to improve my blog. All the contestants are unique and talented in their own way and have inspired me on so many levels – their pride and love for blogging can be seen on each episode.

 

The show is not out to ridicule the contestants, rather it focuses on food blogging and our journey through the show.

 

I feel so inspired and I hope that Dinner Divas will inspire more people out their to create a food blog!

 

The first episode is today (Saturday the 13^th of October) at 8:30 on SABC2. It stars me (Kristy Snell) and showcases my blog (FoodMonger) and Nina Timm from My Easy Cooking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this episode I compete with Nina to create a meal in 90 minutes. Nina makes a delicious family Mexican Feast while I make a sophisticated meal for friends consisting of: Steak with Baby Onion Jus and No-fuss Bearnaise Sauce. Served with Rosemary Oven Potatoes and a Side Salad of Watercress and Baby Spinach. And to end, my Mom’s Peach and Almond Pudding. Below you can find all the recipes to the meal I made.

 

At the end of the show the judges judge the meals and choose the winning plate. Oh and on this episode the judges are: Caro de Waal from Food24 Editor, Aubrey Ngongama from Dinner with Aubs  and Leila Padayachi Cordon Bleu Chef.

 

Aside from Aubrey commenting that the two sauces don’t go together and create an utter mess on the plate (true Aubrey style), they seemed to love my meal and had many praises.

 

 

And…at the end…low and behold I WIN the first round! My plate is the one that the judges choose as the winning meal. However, since this is a show about food bloggers they also put Nina through as her blog is one to revere. So, the first episode of Dinner Divas commences superbly happily with both Nina and me going through to the next round.

 

Next week Saturday (20^th of October) at 8:30 on SABC 2 catch Sue Green from Sous Chef and Tami Magnin from Rumtumtiggs battle it out and of course to find out who goes through to the semi-finals.
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4 Comments | In: Dinner, Lunch, Pudding, Uncategorized | tags: bearnaise, blogger competition, dinner divas, food show, food24, jus, onion jus, peach pudding, show, steak. | Link

The Still Life of a Burger

 

 

 

I finally have a new keyboard, in other words I have a functioning “a” and “s” key – I so very much missed using words like sausages, ass(es), smack, snake, and snail. Having to copy and paste “s’s” and “a’s” lost its charm rapidly . I can now so easily write scissors, sissy, and Smeagol – what a delight. I no longer have to revert to using bizarre teenage code-like l@ngu@ge; instead I can now (if I so wish to) talk like I have a stutter or a lisp.

 

 

 

Today’s post is similar to my last one. My boyfriend and I are on a no-carb diet which pretty much eliminates a bunch of ingredients I usually cook with. At present I am living on salad and meat – I am so tired of eating meat! All I want is white food: pasta, bread, rice, chips, crackers, potatoes, flour (yip, I’ll even eat a spoon of flour that’s how desperate I am). I shouldn’t complain, I did take Saturday and Sunday off as it was my boyfriend’s birthday. We threw a party on the Saturday, and the Sunday was his actual birthday. Only thing though, I drank too much and forgot to eat all the bread and potatoes in the world (the wine however was a treat). And on the Sunday, Clarke’s was closed (like all restaurants in Cape Town) so I did not get the burger that I was dreaming of.

 

 

Since I am not in the mood to cook a great no-carb recipe (ie. I don’t feel like eating no-carb-food — i’d rather starve), I have decided to post a few pictures I did earlier in the year. It’s not a recipe, rather a bit of fun and something for me to post and I suppose drool over (it’s been 14 days since I have had a burger).
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No Comments | In: Dinner, Uncategorized | tags: 16th century, art, chiaroscuro, food photography, food styling, photography, still life. | Link

Styling Eggs

 

 

 

At present my computer’s “a” and “s” keys do not work. As a result I am forced either to copy and paste them in (using old word docs as reference); or write like a twelve ye@r old on f@cebook or $m$ – I am not sure which is wor$e. Luckily for this post I am using my boyfriend’s laptop – saving me time and ensuring I don’t look like a silly teenage girl whose brain has gone on sabbatical.

 

As a result, today’s post is a little different from my usual posts and quite short (cannot hog the laptop). I also thought it would be nice to post something that was purely fun and (hopefully) interesting.

 

For some of you who don’t know, I am a freelance food stylist. I often practice food styling techniques at home to test them out and to improve my styling skills.

 

Since eggs are relatively cheap I decided that I would practice styling eggs and make a series of photos that tell a story/message about breakfast. This post is about styling eggs – how to cook them so they look as sunny as a Wimpy breakfast ad.

 

 

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4 Comments | In: Breakfast | tags: eggs, food styling, styling. | Link

Vanilla Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting & Youngberries and Gooseberries

The Best Vanilla Cake...Ever

This is the best vanilla cake recipe in the world!... Scratch that.
This is the greatest vanilla cake recipe in the universe!.. Nope,
rather: this is the most delicious vanilla cake you'll ever in your
entire life eat. I don’t know what makes this cake so delicious, but
by golly it's good. The recipe comes from a book called 'The
Encyclopaedia of Useful Information'. It was a book that originally
belonged to my grandmother – so it's ancient, however completely fab.
The recipe is very basic, and pretty much seems your standard
sponge cake recipe, but I have never tasted a vanilla sponge as nice
as this one.

The book that it comes from is massive – about the size of a small
suitcase (like one of those little brown ones you use in grade 1), and
contains anything from the world's best vanilla cake recipe to
instructions on how to build a wall. I love the book, it has a
wonderful charm to it. Paging through the book is so much fun, I mean
there is even a section on how to dance the Venetian Waltz.

On the whole, I like this cake assembled with caramel in the centre,
white icing all over, and then (the pièce de résistance) decorated
with Smarties. However, for the purpose of coming across as an adult I
decided to use a cream cheese frosting and berries – but Smarties and
white icing will always be my preferred combination.

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9 Comments | In: Pudding, Uncategorized | tags: bet sponge cake, cake, sponge, vanilla. | Link