So, today I was asked ‘what inspires me?’ Of course, the usual textbook answers sprang to mind – markets, magazines, my mum…

Then someone passed on a book to me, a book, which they said I might like - and this book or the author, rather conjures great inspiration indeed.



The book was none other than ‘Harvest Diaries’ the second organic cookbook slash memoir from Christine Stevens, English born Christine moved over to sunny SA and is running her own farm, makes her own wine and is basically self-sufficient and living the life.





I think being able to go out in to your back garden and choose whatever you want from your very own vegetable garden is definitely inspiring.



It definitely tastes better if you’ve grown it yourself because lets be honest, who has the time and infact dedication to do anything more than talk about, never mind grow your own herb or veggie garden.

Well, Christine Stevens does and I’m glad.

Rocking The Daisies...

As we made our way to Darling in convoy, birds-a tweeting, I wondered if we might have been ever so slightly hasty in our cunning quest to be first in the line for Rocking The Daisies. We had officially excelled ourselves and possibly even the event organisers, as we pulled up onto a vast empty field at 6 am, oh good, only four more hours until the gates were due to open. “Rather safe than sorry’” was squealed enthusiastically from the other car, filled with keeno’s- for lack of a better description, armed with their trilby hat’s and gladiator sandals, not to mention air pumps and energy bars.



After chatting for a little while about who we were most / least looking forward to seeing we find ourselves cheering for the ‘wheelbarrow boys’ as they pull up onto our vacant car-park. These nice (topless) young men pack all your gear into their wheelbarrows and manoeuvre these dodgy old contraptions around the tents to your chosen spot for the next few days, for a couple of bucks, we figured it was well worth it to conserve our energy for other, more appropriate endeavours!

Eventually, after twenty minutes or so of our best Bear Grylls/Ray Mears impersonations our tents were pitched and we gathered rather smugly around our architectural masterpieces and had a celebratory drink or two whilst we watched ‘men’ resembling lost sheep um and ah over their tent manuals – possibly shouting a friendly jibe here and there.



Faced with so many options, main stage, electro tent, comedy tent and even a ‘daisy den’ complete with manicurists and hair straightener’s there was much debauchery to be had. Although in theory, manicured nails and a sleekly styled hairdo are usually pretty high up there on a ladies list of priorities, this weekend had other things in store for us.

When in Rome…you do as the Romans do. When in Darling for rocking the daisies however, you get messy and dirty, learn to perfect the art of weeing in the bush and wake up the next morning with lumo stickers and flowers all over you that you have never seen in your life, laugh and then get ready to do it all over again!




Waking up on Saturday morning in what was once a tent and now our personal sauna, we dragged our sunburned bods and weary minds to the watering hole – a large dam swarming with beautiful people.

Soon, day turned into night and we found ourselves jamming at our trusty spot around the main stage, singing and dancing the night away – ‘making the circle beega’ before clambering through what felt like a sea of booby traps or an episode of Takeshi’s Castle aka tent pegs and ropes until we found our long lost campsite and boy were we glad to be home!

Sunday morning called for ‘hair of the dog’ as we marched on like soldiers through the wind and rain to the comedy tent where we stayed put apart from the odd trip to the food court and laughed our hangovers away.



Dismantling the tents was an absolute shambles to say the least and our ‘faithful’ wheelbarrow boys had scarpered. Let’s just say I almost took flight on the back of my tent. Nevertheless, we managed to pack our sorry selves, pegs and all back into the cars for a somewhat solemn journey home to Cape Town.

Rocking the Daisies will NOT be missed next year that is for sure!

Gaaarlic Bread!

What could be better than the smell of freshly baked bread?
Nothing!

So that is when I decided to take it upon myself to learn to knead. I really needed to knead. They say talk is cheap, well, bread – my friend is even cheaper, which is one of the many reasons we all buy it ready made and sliced for us, how convenient. Possibly a little too convenient for me and so I was determined to gather a couple of simple, staple but really good bread recipes which I can conjure up in little time with little effort.

On my quest for finding this handful of staple recipes I was also going to teach myself to knead. As you can imagine, my enthusiasm laced with sheer ignorance to the world of yeast and its fickle, unforgiving ways led to one (or two) complete disasters.
One particular disaster i recall was for a brown 'health' bread, which ended up being more of a health hazard and could cleverly double up as a weapon, should you so need one. I somehow managed to refrain from using my new weapon to sabotage any innocent passers by - curious as to my culinary efforts and gave it to these two greedy little piglets ...

One of my guinea pig/friends comforted me suggesting ‘we can still eat it…just as toast!’ this innovative idea was accepted as making the best of a bad situation, but not exactly one for your repertoire and so my quest continued.
I did not want a bread which was only edible in the form of toast, oh no, I wanted soft, fresh, hot bread straight from the oven that needs nothing but a lick of butter, - if that.

You know what they say, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try again! (And hide all the evidence).

Cutting to the chase, this recipe for garlic rolls is foolproof and the garlic can be omitted leaving you with nice white baps…

You will need:
4 cups plain (cake) flour (560g)
10 ml each of Salt and Sugar
1 sachet (10g) instant yeast
About 375 ml lukewarm water
30 ml oil
30 ml melted butter
4 cloves freshly chopped garlic



Sift your flour and salt into a large bowl, add sugar and mix. Chop your garlic as finely as you can, add to your bowl along with your sachet of yeast and mix again.
Mix your oil with your lukewarm water and gradually add to your bowl of flour until you start to see it coming together as a soft dough.
Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead, yes – knead. For those of you who think this is a little intimidating – as I did and were NOT taught how to knead by your mother (thanks mum!) or in home economics, its really simple.
You basically gently bring the far edges of the dough forward -towards you and fold it over. With the heel of your hand (or your clenched fist) push the dough away from you. Give the t a quarter turn and repeat.
Repeat these movements until your dough changes and starts to feel smooth and elastic.
You can tell if your dough has been kneaded sufficiently when the impression of a finger springs back.
Once your dough is smooth and elastic, pop it into a greased bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 20 minutes).












Once doubled in size, take out the bowl and back onto your work surface and knead it again until it is roughly back to its original size. Divide into 10 rolls and arrange on your baking tray and brush with melted butter. Leave to rise again in a warm place for a further 15 minutes.




Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees or Gas Mark 4 for 20 minutes.

So there you have it, yummy homemade garlic rolls.