The kids are regularly waking up between 4am and 4:15 at the moment. Yawn.
We've never really had sleep issues, unless you count the fact that neither of them slept through the night before 14 months or so. But my philosophy has always been to make sleep a pleasant experience for them, and it worked out really well - going to bed is never a struggle. It's just the early waking!
Since I'm such an optimist though, I'll share with you what I've found at 4am: There is a certain peace to the world at that time of the morning. The kids are generally cuddly and loving (the super-energetic playtime usually only starts about an hour after getting up), and there is something lovely about how quiet everything is. Having a cup of coffee while the world sleeps, with time to just slooooowly appreciate the start of a new day is actually a blessing. Waking up at 5am means I generally have 15 minutes or so to wake up and then the day starts. We leave home around 6:20. So that extra hour with the kids, while the sleep would have been wonderful, is actually not the worst thing that could happen to me.
We're going to try a few methods to let them sleep a little later over the next few weeks. Most importantly we'll try to move Heike's morning sleep later so that she can go down a bit later with hopefully a later waketime. We'll see - and maybe if it works I'll even miss getting up so early.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Home renovations
Hanno and I have been planning a new kitchen since we first moved into our house, 2.5 years ago. We had plans drawn up by an architect – worth every cent, by the way. Hanno told me all along that we should get an architect and I resisted because I didn’t want to spend more than we had to, but she came up with such incredible ideas for the house that I can’t imagine doing this without her. So here it is in writing: Hanno was right! Of course our original plan would have been significantly cheaper, but much less awesome and I suppose the trade-off between awesome and cheap is a pretty easy one to make.
Plans were approved a week ago, so now we’re applying for loans and getting kitchen designs and building quotes and deciding on tiles etc. At times I want to postpone the whole thing for a year just so we can breathe for a while, I really dislike it when my life feels this hectic. But on the other hand, the kitchen is going to be FANTASTIC. Now if only we can fast-forward through the next 4 months...
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Parenting - as viewed by my four year old
In the car on the way home this afternoon, Jana and I had a conversation about her friend John who had given another kid a nosebleed. It went on from there to why we shouldn't hit people, and then turned to adults hitting children and parents hitting children. Jana declared self-confidently that mommies and daddies never hit their kids (while I alternate between grinning and wiping away a few tears of joy that I could raise a child to 4 years old without even knowing that spanking exists). She then went on to say that I will NEVER hit her (correct), so I asked "and what if you do something REALLY REALLY bad? Will I hit you then?"
"No! Never!"
"What will I do if you do something really really bad?"
"You'll love me anyway!"
There are some days when parenting is hard work and difficult and tiring and I feel like the worst mommy in the world. Today is not one of those days.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
German chocolate cake
2 weeks ago, my very good friend Lee had a birthday party and I offered to bake her a cake. She's a chocoholic and requested a chocolate-caramel-type cake, so I decided to try a German chocolate cake from this recipe book. The recipe was fairly easy, the filling was special (although VERY sweet and rich) and the end result looked quite pretty. Here goes:
Ingredients for the cake:
100 g (3.5 oz) sweet milk chocolate
Half a cup of water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
250 g (8.8 oz or two sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla essence / extract
1 cup buttermilk
Ingredients for the filling:
4 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups evaporated milk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence / extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
190 g (6.5 oz or 1 1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups pecan nuts, chopped and roasted
Ingredients for the icing:
250 g (8.8 oz or 2 sticks) butter
1 1/3 cups cocoa powder, sifted
5 cups icing sugar, sifted
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla essence / extract
Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Grease and line 3 round 7 inch cake tins.
I'll walk you through how I did it, not just what the recipe says, which will never be exactly the same thing. So to start off, I didn't have sweet milk chocolate, only dark chocolate (52% couverture) so that's what I used.
Put the chocolate and water into a glass bowl and microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring once. You don't want the water to boil or the chocolate to melt completely, but the mixture should be warm enough that the chocolate will melt when you stir if afterwards.
In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, bicarb of soda and salt together.
At this point the recipe tells you to start beating butter and sugar and egg yolks in your electric mixer, but if you're like me and you dislike washing your mixer bowl, start by beating the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, and tip it out into a bowl. You can rinse the mixer bowl but it's probably not even necessary - and it's far easier to clean out egg whites to prepare batter than to clean out batter so you can whisk egg whites, which needs a super-clean mixing bowl.
Now measure your butter and sugar into the electric mixer.
Then, with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well in between. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
Blend in the melted chocolate and vanilla essence, until has an almost chocolate-mousse like consistency:
Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. Now mix in the whisked egg whites gently.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. I had to bake mine a little longer - maybe 40 minutes in total. You'll know they're done when they spring back a little when you press them in the middle with the flat side of a knife or fork. When they come out of the oven, immediately run a small spatula around the edge of each layer. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack.
At this point I ran into a bit of a disappointment, as the cakes didn't turn out well at all, despite the fact that I greased and lined the pans really well. It stuck to the greasing paper, which was additionally greased with butter so it really shouldn't happen:
That's the underside which should be flat - so I really don't like the actual cake recipe all that much. In retrospect I think if I make this recipe again I'll use a different recipe for the actual cake but I will use the filling and icing again - this is quite an expensive cake with the chocolate and buttermilk and all that, and while it gives a nice dense cake I think there are other ways of achieving that.
While the cake is in the oven, start preparing the filling:
Combine the egg yolks, evaporated milk and vanilla in a saucepan.
Whisk until well blended. Add the sugar and butter and cook on medium heat for 12 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from the heat. At this point you'll need to protect your tongue and waistline because it smells exactly like hot fudge (which it is, mostly) but it is VERY hot so succumbing to the temptation to take a spoonful might give you blisters.
If you bought roasted nuts, you can just chop them up, otherwise dry-roast them in a pan over low heat and then chop them up:
Add the coconuts and pecan nuts to the fudge filling. Mix well and cool until you can easily spread it.
For the icing:
Clean up your mixer bowl, and then mix the butter and cocoa powder until combined. Add half of the icing sugar, followed by the milk and rest of the icing sugar. Add vanilla and beat until fluffy. I didn't take pictures of this bit, sorry!
I used only about half of the icing sugar and half of the milk and it gave a nice dark not-too-sweet icing, which as it turns out was an inspired choice as the filling is REALLY sweet. In fact when we had the cake that night it was actually a bit overpoweringly rich and sweet, which was disappointing. My friend Lee did say it improved vastly by the next day so maybe this cake is best made a day or two in advance.
So, on to assembly:
Spread half of the filling on the bottom cake layer and the other half on the second, and top with the third layer. You'll have quite a high cake:
Choose the layer with the flattest bottom to go right on top, so you can ice the top as flatly as possible. Then spread the icing evenly over the sides and top. I think this goes well with very little decoration, so I just added a candle:
And here's a picture of the sliced cake, from about 5 hours later:
So what I'd do differently:
1. If I use the same cake recipe, I definitely won't use couverture chocolate. I really couldn't taste the difference that actual chocolate makes in this recipe.
2. The filling is perhaps a bit thick, so I might use less coconut so that it can spread thinner. Hanno also doesn't really like coconut, so an alternative is to use just a lot of nuts with the fudge, which would give it more crunch and it could be really lovely.
3. I'd make it a day or two in advance so all the flavours have a while to settle together.
Anyway, so there you have it! Let me know if you've tried something like this.
Ingredients for the cake:
100 g (3.5 oz) sweet milk chocolate
Half a cup of water
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
250 g (8.8 oz or two sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla essence / extract
1 cup buttermilk
Ingredients for the filling:
4 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups evaporated milk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence / extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
190 g (6.5 oz or 1 1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups pecan nuts, chopped and roasted
Ingredients for the icing:
250 g (8.8 oz or 2 sticks) butter
1 1/3 cups cocoa powder, sifted
5 cups icing sugar, sifted
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla essence / extract
Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Grease and line 3 round 7 inch cake tins.
I'll walk you through how I did it, not just what the recipe says, which will never be exactly the same thing. So to start off, I didn't have sweet milk chocolate, only dark chocolate (52% couverture) so that's what I used.
Put the chocolate and water into a glass bowl and microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring once. You don't want the water to boil or the chocolate to melt completely, but the mixture should be warm enough that the chocolate will melt when you stir if afterwards.
In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, bicarb of soda and salt together.
At this point the recipe tells you to start beating butter and sugar and egg yolks in your electric mixer, but if you're like me and you dislike washing your mixer bowl, start by beating the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, and tip it out into a bowl. You can rinse the mixer bowl but it's probably not even necessary - and it's far easier to clean out egg whites to prepare batter than to clean out batter so you can whisk egg whites, which needs a super-clean mixing bowl.
Now measure your butter and sugar into the electric mixer.
Then, with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well in between. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
Blend in the melted chocolate and vanilla essence, until has an almost chocolate-mousse like consistency:
Add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing well after each addition. Now mix in the whisked egg whites gently.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. I had to bake mine a little longer - maybe 40 minutes in total. You'll know they're done when they spring back a little when you press them in the middle with the flat side of a knife or fork. When they come out of the oven, immediately run a small spatula around the edge of each layer. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack.
At this point I ran into a bit of a disappointment, as the cakes didn't turn out well at all, despite the fact that I greased and lined the pans really well. It stuck to the greasing paper, which was additionally greased with butter so it really shouldn't happen:
That's the underside which should be flat - so I really don't like the actual cake recipe all that much. In retrospect I think if I make this recipe again I'll use a different recipe for the actual cake but I will use the filling and icing again - this is quite an expensive cake with the chocolate and buttermilk and all that, and while it gives a nice dense cake I think there are other ways of achieving that.
While the cake is in the oven, start preparing the filling:
Combine the egg yolks, evaporated milk and vanilla in a saucepan.
Whisk until well blended. Add the sugar and butter and cook on medium heat for 12 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from the heat. At this point you'll need to protect your tongue and waistline because it smells exactly like hot fudge (which it is, mostly) but it is VERY hot so succumbing to the temptation to take a spoonful might give you blisters.
If you bought roasted nuts, you can just chop them up, otherwise dry-roast them in a pan over low heat and then chop them up:
Add the coconuts and pecan nuts to the fudge filling. Mix well and cool until you can easily spread it.
For the icing:
Clean up your mixer bowl, and then mix the butter and cocoa powder until combined. Add half of the icing sugar, followed by the milk and rest of the icing sugar. Add vanilla and beat until fluffy. I didn't take pictures of this bit, sorry!
I used only about half of the icing sugar and half of the milk and it gave a nice dark not-too-sweet icing, which as it turns out was an inspired choice as the filling is REALLY sweet. In fact when we had the cake that night it was actually a bit overpoweringly rich and sweet, which was disappointing. My friend Lee did say it improved vastly by the next day so maybe this cake is best made a day or two in advance.
So, on to assembly:
Spread half of the filling on the bottom cake layer and the other half on the second, and top with the third layer. You'll have quite a high cake:
Choose the layer with the flattest bottom to go right on top, so you can ice the top as flatly as possible. Then spread the icing evenly over the sides and top. I think this goes well with very little decoration, so I just added a candle:
And here's a picture of the sliced cake, from about 5 hours later:
So what I'd do differently:
1. If I use the same cake recipe, I definitely won't use couverture chocolate. I really couldn't taste the difference that actual chocolate makes in this recipe.
2. The filling is perhaps a bit thick, so I might use less coconut so that it can spread thinner. Hanno also doesn't really like coconut, so an alternative is to use just a lot of nuts with the fudge, which would give it more crunch and it could be really lovely.
3. I'd make it a day or two in advance so all the flavours have a while to settle together.
Anyway, so there you have it! Let me know if you've tried something like this.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Holiday!
My mysterious absence from cyberspace for the last week-and-a-bit was due to a long-awaited camping holiday in the Kruger park. We haven't been camping since Heike was born, so we were REALLY looking forward to this. Our favourite camp in Kruger is Tzendze rustic campsite - no electricity, no store stocking curios and overpriced clothing, most of the time no drunken tourists. There is a strict noise rule, so noisy groups tend to choose other campsites (well, most of the time, as we found out).
All in all I have to say the holiday was a bit of a disappointment, in two ways: the game-viewing was really not all that great (with the shining exception of the leopard we saw on our way out of the park), and also it was just way too much work keeping the kids safe and entertained. You'd think that parenting a 19 month old and a 4 year old would have clued us in to the fact that they're high maintenance, but somehow Hanno and I both managed to paint this idyllic picture in our heads of sitting on comfy camping chairs in front of the tent, tending to the meat roasting on the fire, while the kids play quietly and contently around us.
Yeah, right.
If my wonderful in-laws weren't there with us I honestly think we would have packed up and come home about 12 hours into the vacation. They're on their way back to PE as I type this, and more tired than anybody should have to be after a holiday! They might just have saved both my sanity and my marriage in the last week - they were awesome with the kids as always, hands-on and involved and the kids just adore them for it. In fact on our last evening Jana announced that she wants me and Hanno to switch places with Ouma and Oupa so that Ouma becomes her mommy and she'll live in her house. I'm feeling the love.
Anyway, the game viewing was OK but not awesome, we saw lots of elephant, buffalo, hippos, giraffe and antelope, but no carnivores or other scarcities until we came upon a leopard on our way out of the park. That was a HUGE treat, I had never seen a leopard in the wild before. He really only gave us a 40 second or so glimpse before disappearing into the bush. But despite seeing less than we hoped for, it's always special to experience Africa at ground level, so to speak.
I am happy to be back home! We heard on the way back that our plans for home renovation have been approved, and in fact our builder just rang the doorbell so I have to go. Exciting times!
All in all I have to say the holiday was a bit of a disappointment, in two ways: the game-viewing was really not all that great (with the shining exception of the leopard we saw on our way out of the park), and also it was just way too much work keeping the kids safe and entertained. You'd think that parenting a 19 month old and a 4 year old would have clued us in to the fact that they're high maintenance, but somehow Hanno and I both managed to paint this idyllic picture in our heads of sitting on comfy camping chairs in front of the tent, tending to the meat roasting on the fire, while the kids play quietly and contently around us.
Yeah, right.
If my wonderful in-laws weren't there with us I honestly think we would have packed up and come home about 12 hours into the vacation. They're on their way back to PE as I type this, and more tired than anybody should have to be after a holiday! They might just have saved both my sanity and my marriage in the last week - they were awesome with the kids as always, hands-on and involved and the kids just adore them for it. In fact on our last evening Jana announced that she wants me and Hanno to switch places with Ouma and Oupa so that Ouma becomes her mommy and she'll live in her house. I'm feeling the love.
Anyway, the game viewing was OK but not awesome, we saw lots of elephant, buffalo, hippos, giraffe and antelope, but no carnivores or other scarcities until we came upon a leopard on our way out of the park. That was a HUGE treat, I had never seen a leopard in the wild before. He really only gave us a 40 second or so glimpse before disappearing into the bush. But despite seeing less than we hoped for, it's always special to experience Africa at ground level, so to speak.
I am happy to be back home! We heard on the way back that our plans for home renovation have been approved, and in fact our builder just rang the doorbell so I have to go. Exciting times!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
A little wine for the stomach
I know, I owe you a description of German chocolate cake. I've been procrastinating very busy lately so I'll get to it soon, promise! I just need to get the pictures off Hanno's phone and onto the computer.
In the meantime, let me share this little tidbit with you:
My brother found out on Friday evening that he got a job with Thoughtworks, a global IT consultancy. I'm so proud of him I can barely put it into words. I'll miss him terribly, he'll be moving from Johannesburg to Chicago in October, but he's dreamed of this for so long that I can't be anything but thrilled. Anyway, so we had a champagne breakfast on Saturday morning to celebrate, complete with a bottle of Moet & Chandon. I had a small glass and finished it, and then Jana played with my glass and managed to get a leftover drop into her hand and taste it. Queue screwed up face and disgusted comments.
Fast forward about 3 hours. We're in Outdoor Warehouse, shopping for camping stuff for our trip to the Kruger park later this week. Jana has been complaining of tummy cramps for a day or so, which we've been managing with diet etc. Then without warning she vomits her breakfast right in the middle of the store. I take her to the bathroom and leave Hanno to deal with the staff. After she's cleaned up and feeling better, she announces that she vomited because of the "wine" she drank!
Now here's the context: we've had 2 broken arms this year, one for each of the girls. These were the only broken limbs in their creche since we've been involved in the creche. Add to that a 4 year old who tells her teacher that she drank wine until she vomited and we're sure to have a call from someone with a badge and a uniform pretty soon...
In the meantime, let me share this little tidbit with you:
My brother found out on Friday evening that he got a job with Thoughtworks, a global IT consultancy. I'm so proud of him I can barely put it into words. I'll miss him terribly, he'll be moving from Johannesburg to Chicago in October, but he's dreamed of this for so long that I can't be anything but thrilled. Anyway, so we had a champagne breakfast on Saturday morning to celebrate, complete with a bottle of Moet & Chandon. I had a small glass and finished it, and then Jana played with my glass and managed to get a leftover drop into her hand and taste it. Queue screwed up face and disgusted comments.
Fast forward about 3 hours. We're in Outdoor Warehouse, shopping for camping stuff for our trip to the Kruger park later this week. Jana has been complaining of tummy cramps for a day or so, which we've been managing with diet etc. Then without warning she vomits her breakfast right in the middle of the store. I take her to the bathroom and leave Hanno to deal with the staff. After she's cleaned up and feeling better, she announces that she vomited because of the "wine" she drank!
Now here's the context: we've had 2 broken arms this year, one for each of the girls. These were the only broken limbs in their creche since we've been involved in the creche. Add to that a 4 year old who tells her teacher that she drank wine until she vomited and we're sure to have a call from someone with a badge and a uniform pretty soon...
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