Africanaussie

Last weekend I was busy baking and tidying up the garden.  Hubby has erected the new gazebo that we bought.  Almost the same as the last one we had which lasted a good five years, so hopefully this one does the same. I felt a bit guilty inside with the aircon on, while he was outside in the tropical heat.  We both achieved what we had hoped though, and this week I will be able to give out some of my home made Christmas treats.  Next weeekend I will bake some of the more delicate items to be served at Christmas. These bliss balls are what I have in mind for dessert .....  recipe A new recipe I tried was the Gingerbread Mocha biscotti:  recipe  here at kitchen simplicity.   They are lovely, and perfect with my little teabag idea that I already posted about. Rooibos chai cookies which I dont really have the recipe for as I swayed so much from the original recipe. Here is the original recipe.  I made the chai mix and added it to some rooibos tea, and that was when I decided to add the r

I received an unexpected package in the mail this week.  A pyramid nativity!  It turns!  It comes with love from my daughter who is living in Germany at the moment!  She knows I love nativities, and this is unlike anything I have ever seen before. The theory is that in a small, cold  draught free room the heat will rise and send the windmill spinning, which in turn will rotate both of the platforms.  At first it wouldn't work - firstly it is hot here, secondly we have the fans going, and at times the aircon, and it is in the middle of an open plan kitchen living area. My dear sweet patient, persistent hubby has made a plan.  I hope you can see this little video. It is now a tropical Nativity pyramid!  With the fan on it goes around like crazy - probably too fast, but once the fan was adjusted it settled down to a nice easy rhythm.   Down the bottom are Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the Three Kings.  On the Top level is a shepherd with some sheep.  The craftsmanship is just am

Here it is again, time to link up with Lizzie for the garden-share-collective-december-2014    It doesn't seem as though a  whole month has passed.  Not much has been going on because even though we are in the beginning of the wet season it has been so dry we actually have stage 2 water restrictions..... the wet season plants are all coming up out of dormancy though - ginger, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, and oh my gosh the cardamom has flowered and it looks as though seed pods have formed - how great is that!  I have been told repeatedly that you cannot grow seeds here, that the type of cardamom we have is called false cardamom... These definitely look like seeds to me....  I presume these will now shrivel into the cardamom seeds that we know and love. Last year I did not grow enough rosella, so I started some seedlings, and they needed some shade so they each got their own little cassava umbrella, along with lemongrass mulch alongside.. Can you see it hiding under ther