Affogato. No, it’s not a swearword – as in ‘well affogato you too dude’. It’s Italian for ‘drowned’ and refers to one of the simplest, yet most delicious 2-minute desserts out there – vanilla ice cream ‘drowned’ in strong hot espresso. Some folks add a shot of hazelnut liqueur like Frangelico to their affogato too, and why not. Either way, [...]
The psychology of marketing is pretty basic. ‘Discount’ gets my attention. ‘Save’ is good, but ‘half price’ much better. ‘Free’ is awesome (if it has some credibility that is, and is not accompanied by an increase in price – yes retailers, we notice). But my favourite marketing shout-out has to be ‘NEW’. My response is positively Pavlovian. I guess that’s [...]
I had something cheesy planned for this post, but then the lovely folks from SABC 3’s Expresso morning show asked if I’d come bake something sweet for them. The pace of live TV is exhilarating to say the least, even more so when one has just a few minutes to conjure up something fabulous. Hmmm. What can I bake that [...]
I’m pretty sure it must be just me, otherwise brands wouldn’t insist on doing it, but I really, truly, deeply do NOT get the whole baby/toddler/puppy thing to advertise stuff. I quite like babies, don’t get me wrong. I’m scared of holding and dropping them, but I like ’em well enough. And I’m deeply dilly about animals of any kind. [...]
Shop-bought biscuits were not something I knew as a kid. Oh no, one baked. Being a diplomatic sort, gran never said it outright, but her inference was pretty clear: buying was for lazy wives, bad mums and townfolk. The world has moved on a bit since then. I figure gran would probably have been OK with me going the shop [...]
There are many dishes I feel deeply nostalgic about. Sunday leg of lamb, invariably followed by souskluitjies. Tongue in a sweet mustard sauce, mum’s dinner party ol’ faithful. Gran’s chicken pie and Ideal Milk ice cream. This is the food of my childhood and, as much as I like cooking lighter, more modern for everyday, it’s still the food I [...]