RIGHT NOW...

Right now I'm

• Looking at tooooo many travel agent websites and wishing I was on holiday (not very productive for getting work done)
• Im wishing my cup of coffee wouldn't end... Sometimes it just tastes so good
• I want to bake but I have LOTS of work to do - darn, *sigh*
• I'm still loving pinterest far to much! and Instagram too!
• hoping the weekend will be filled with relaxing cups of coffee on the couch and maybe a movie or 2 and possibly a walk on the beach
• Trying to edit photos (but as I said I keep getting distracted!)
• Wandering how it can be the last day of August and the first day of Spring tomorrow?

What are you doing right now?
Do you have plans for the weekend?

WIN: TICKETS TO PINOTAGE ON TAP

WIN 1 double ticket to the #PinotageOnTap festival

WHEN: 13TH October 2012

WHERE: Diemersfontein Wine & Country Estate 

BAND PERFORMING: Goodluck, Albert Frost & Gerald Clark

TICKETS INCLUDE
Entry, goodie bag on arrival, lunch, choc fountain dessert, endless wine on tap , live music bands and games -Value R320 per ticket

To enter simply tweet this phrase "WIN a set of double tickets to #PinotageOnTap and drink endless wine for a day via @bettybakeblog and @Computicket"


THE GIVEAWAY:
2 x TICKETS (valued at R320 per ticket) to one person to Pinotage on Tap Festival in the Western Cape

Tweet this phrase - WIN a set of double tickets to #PinotageOnTap and drink endless wine for a day via @bettybakeblog and @Computicket

This is SOUTH AFRICA give away ONLY - and tickets are valid for Cape Town only

Competition closes 6pm 28th August 2012

THE BEST BAKED APPLES

The Best Baked Apples recipe on www.bettybake.co.za

I know saying the BEST of anything is a tall claim. You see I'm not a baked fruit kind of person. I am more of a cold desserts kind of girl - you know anything containing chocolate, cold and custardy, or mousse, or creme brulee or anything creamy.
The husband is the reason I make anything baked for pudding - like this baked plums or baked cookie dough apple pie.
But this time its all me!  
I keep making these and actually loving them... usually baked fruit is eaten by me slowly and its ok! but not anymore - this dish keeps being made over and over and I just can't stop!
I think I may take some left over baked apples and try to make a baked apple ice cream!!! (but thats if there is any over!)

INGREDIENTS
4-6 organic apples (or as many as you need - 1 per person)
1 large orange (organic so you can use the skin)
ground cinnamon
2 - 4 Tablespoons Jaggery or brown sugar
a handful of Raisins

METHOD
Wash you apples and make sure they can all fit in a baking dish that has a fitting lid.
Core the apples (take out the centers while leaving the rest of the apple whole)
Make a small slit/ incision all the way around the middle of the skin - just piercing the skin (imagine the apple is hoola hooping)
Place all the apples in the dish you are using and stuff raisins down the necks/ center of the apples until 3 quarters fill.
Wash your orange and grate orange rind on the small side of your grater over the apples - let a little go down neck/ center of each apple.
Sprinkle the Jaggery or brown sugar down the necks/center of each apple.
Cut your orange in half and squeeze the juice over all the apples.
Sprinkle cinnamon over each apple
Place the lid on the dish and bake in a moderate oven 180 degrees celcius until soft and juicy
Roughly +/- 30 - 40 min
Enjoy with a drizzle of cream or served with vanilla ice cream

Small Changes make for Healthy Eating

Sometimes healthy eating is just a change in how you look at food...

In the past when I ate takeaways and tubs of ice cream and I needed to be more healthy and "diet" I would think "öh great now I have to cut out all this yummy stuff I love!" 
I would begrudge myself and the food I ate. Instead of looking for delicious alternatives I would pout and sulk and be miserable. Years later and many mind shifts later - I see food in a totally different way. I still love a good pizza! but how I want to treat myself and my body has changed in my thinking.

SLIGHT CHANGES:
Its a slight change over weeks and months and even years:
After slowly changing bit by bit - by doing the little things like cutting down on sugar and swopping fizzy cool drinks like Coke! (which is now a swear word in our house) to fruit juice and water.

TRY IT:
Simply buy sparkling spring water and 100% real fruit juice with no additives and mix them together.
So when I felt like a coke I would reach for my "new" sparkling friend - juice and sparkling water and feel like i wasn't depriving myself.

You see its the little things!
I no longer see food as a happiness pile of stuff to eat what I want. I see food as a source of health and yumminess! I want to treat my body right. Once you cut out bad items like coke and soft drinks filled with sugar  and stop eating sweets and candy bars and you feel great - after the initial  detox (headaches and flu symptoms)
I was so ALIVE and happy and well that when I went back to eating a piece of candy it made me feel yuk! It wasn't that that sugar wasn't nice in my mouth but the after effects just weren't worth it.

EXAMPLE:
After cutting out MSG and other additives and preservatives out of our diet for some time (months and months) we went to a braai and the food was taking long. The husband and I were getting hungry and there were bowls of flavoured crisps around so we started snacking. After eating several handfuls the food was finally ready and we ate. Now I didn't have any alcohol of any kind but the next morning I woke up with hangover type symptoms - sore head and felt terrible. Just yukky and wanted to sleep! I realised after a while of waking up and trying to figure out what I ate and drank why I would feel this way and the only thing different were the MSG laden crisps (which we don't eat! only plain salted allowed in our house)!! and that when it hit me - my disgusting hang over symptoms were from them - now I will never go back to eating crisps because I could feel what they were doing to my body!

GOOD HABITS :
I find that changing things bit by bit over long periods of time that I am able to change my habits. If I try change everything at once I feel like I am punishing myself and then I would go back to my bad ways but if I picked one or two things then it was a small change and I would keep doing it. Then after a long time of doing that one little thing it would have become part of my lifestyle (like no more soft drinks) I don't even go to that aisle in the supermarket any more. Actually I rarely shop at a supermarket - but thats another story for another day. I don't even consider it in my head. If someone asks me to bring drinks to a braai (BBQ) I simply buy sparkling water and organic fruit juice. Simple as pie. Really its not even a battle for me any more.

IDEAS:
So focus on something small like:

• Stopping sugar in your tea and coffee

• Swopping soda for fruit juice and water

• Buying hormone free meat and eggs

• Not eating candy - buy nuts and dark chocolate (70% cocoa and higher)

"Eat cake if you bake it yourself and can limit the sugar and additives"

WILL YOU TRY IT?:
See if you can change that one little thing for 2 months and then consider swopping another thing and another thing. Eventually in a year or twos time you will be a healthy, whole food, happy person who doesn't even crave the bad stuff and is happier for it!
Just try it
 
We still eat really dark chocolate and nuts and i bake cake-but I use gluten -free flour and only a tiny bit of sugar. See what I did swopped out  unhealthy for healthy) 


What changes have you made in your lifestyle to be healthier?

Things that make me Smile

 
Life is a happy place when I reflect on the good and happy places in my life. It makes the craziness more bare-able:   

• watching funny you tube videos will make time fly and then you'll realise you were meant to be working!!! ;)  
• Coffee and chocolate make me happy each morning - its the little things
• being creative seems to fuel me ... drawing, editing, creating stuff... :) 
• Just sitting in the sun with my cat 
• Happy songs played REALLY loud (its the loud part that important)
• Beautiful sunrises and still evenings with dramatic winter sunsets
• A well baked chocolate chip cookie
• Getting a note  from my kid saying "you are the best cooker" (cook)
• Reading a good tweet and laughing
• Getting through a bunch of things on my to-do list done!

 What is making you happy and smiling at the moment?

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE ICE CREAM RECIPE

Chocolate Ice cream recipe found on www.bettybake.co.za


We have cut down considerably on dairy but this week I had an incredible dessert craving...
something smooth and chocolatey. I wanted chocolate mousse or pudding or cold chocolate-something!

I have been using coconut milk and frozen bananas as a substitute in baking for milk and dairy but this time I just couldn't do it! I had to have cream and chocolate! So I started by making a chocolate pudding of sorts and then decided to freeze some of it in individual little cups for dessert. It was so yummy that the remainder that was in the fridge had to be turned into ice cream.

BUT I worried that if I put the mix in the ice cream maker that I wouldn't be able to share the ice cream that came out as  the amount was a little and SO YUMMY! (I wanted to gobble it ALL up) So I added a cup of milk and mixed it all together before putting it into the ice cream maker:) It was now a little less chocolatey but still so delicious. So its your choice whether you want a stronger chocolate taste or a bigger batch of ice cream. You could also not add the extra milk and leave it in the fridge - it sets to a gorgeous velvety pudding! soooo good!

INGREDIENTS
250ml cream (1 tub)
300 milk + 200ml later (optional)
1 vanilla pod
3 eggs
100g GREAT TASTING dark chocolate (the best you can afford)
2 tablespoons jaggery / brown sugar
2 tablespoons agave syrup / honey / brown suagr
2 tablespoons xylitol / brown sugar



METHOD
Place the cream and 300ml of milk in a small pot on the stove with a vanilla pod -score and scrape out the seeds into the milk and then place the whole empty pod into the milk as well.
Heat on medium until just before boiling point then take off the stove and stir through. Allow to cool quite a bit till warm (this will allow the vanilla to infuse into the milk)
In a small bowl or a jug beat/mix the eggs with the a whisk (i use a fork) till the yellows are broken and combined with the whites. Add the sweeteners (brown sugar, jaggery, xylitol) and mix.
Slowly add some of the milk to the egg/sweetener mix and stir.
Add all of the egg mix back into to the pot stirring continuously so that the egg doesn't scramble.
Place the pot on a low heat and continue to stir until slightly thickened. It won't be to thicker - just slightly and won't taste like raw egg any more. Turn off and continue to stir.
Remove the vanilla pod.
Break up and place all the chocolate into the milk mix and stir until it is melted and one uniform chocolatey colour.
CHOICE 1) place into individual small bowls and place in the fridge for chocolate puddings or the freezer for tiny ice cream mousse puddings

CHOICE 2) add the additional 200ml milk and place in an ice cream machine and make into ice cream. If you don't have an ice cream machine then place in a metal dish and place in the freezer and take out and beat to break up ice crystals every hour for 3 or 4 times.

Serve and enjoy
YUM

The Ooh Box

On Mondays my kid has show and tell at school (you know when a kid takes something to school and shows the class and talks about it)... Well here is an adult version.


I received this box via courier last week and was curious to see the contents inside...

Inside neatly packaged and nicely separated were 4 bottles of wine, olive oil, olives, energy drinks and some snacks (salticrax, biscuits, toffees).

HOW IT WORKS
The Ooh Box (your personal tasting journey) is a nifty way of getting 4 different wines to taste and some other goodies each month delivered to your door via courier - 4 surprise wines each month,  kinda of like a luxury lucky packet.

COST
I am told box subscription costs R395 per month and the contents of this months (July) box is worth R660.

NICE TOUCH
I liked that each wine had a label attached profiling the wines taste and price = you knew the value of the bottle - also you didn't feel like it was maybe a cheap bottle of wine thrown in. This also helped so you knew what to expect to pay if you wanted to buy it at the store.

IDEAS
Would make a nice gift for anybody who loves wines - a nice surprise for them each month.

FINAL THOUGHTS
My husband was way to happy about this box :)  He is already into the second bottle of wine... I am starting to realize this box would be more for him than me as I am more of a wine sipper than a wine drinker.
I still enjoyed unpacking it - it really is like a lucky packet for adults.



DETAILS
http://www.theoohbox.com


 

DISCLAIMER: I received this via the ooh box as a gift - all thoughts are my own.

And the WINNER is!

Congrats to Taryn Peters who is the winner of a R500 Wellness Warehouse Gift voucher :)
Please email me

Happy Monday :)

CURING OLIVES (RECIPE)

How to cure olives on www.bettybake.co.za

I am no Olive connoisseur, in fact I don't really like them (shock, horror) But my kid loves them! So when I came across fresh olives still in there raw state at the Earth Fair market (farmers market) the lovely stall holder insisted I should buy some fresh olives and make some olives at home. I was perplexed and said I didn't know how and don't really eat them but the lovely lady assured me that it was very simple and easy to do. She talked me through the process and handed me a recipe with my purchase of a bag of kalamata olives.

I was skeptical that it could be that easy but also trusted the lady opinion so with some hope I headed home to soak my olives and wait and see after 6 weeks if she was right. This is how I did them... apparently the results are good.

INGREDIENTS
1 kg olives (what ever variety you like)
water (filtered if possible)
100grams salt
60grams salt (this is for 6 weeks later)
a little olive oil

METHOD 
Wash the olives rubbing them lightly in a large bowl or container and leave to soak for 24 hours (don't rub to hard you don't want to bruise them) This is just to get all the dust off them and any stubborn dirt.
After 24hours rinse them off and place the olives in a container where you are able to place a lid on top with something to push the olives under the water. (I used a very large glass jar with an unusual shaped vase that kept all the olives submerged under the water/brine.)
Mix up your water and salt to make a 10% brine solution. For every litre of water you use 100grams of salt. Mix the solution then pour onto your olives. Make sure that your olives stay under this water at all times while they are curing.
Please note a moldy gunk will grow on top of the water - this is perfectly normal and your olives are not off!!! Promise! 
After 6 weeks - take out an olive rinse off and taste if ready rinse them all off but if not leave for longer checking every few days/ once a week.
When ready rinse the olives off and leave to dry on a clean surface for 3 - 12 hours. They will get dark - almost the colour they were when you bought them.
Mix up a 6% solution - 60 grams salt per litre of filtered water.
Place olives in clean jars and fill with the new brine.
Pour a little olive oil on top and seal with a lid tightly
Place in the fridge ( I am told if kept in the fridge they can keep for upto a year)
Eat as desired

We have had ours about 3 months and my kid says they taste great

Wellness Warehouse Giveaway

Start your weekend off with a bang by entering this great giveaway by Wellness Warehouse.

Oh the things I could buy if I could have this gift card for myself. The Wellness online store has things like juicers, dehydrators, candles, baby stuff, homeware, wine and chocolate ...yes CHOCOLATE
I would probably buy R500 worth of chocolate ;)



THE GIVEAWAY:
1 x R500 online shopping voucher from http://www.wellnesswarehouse.com/shop/
(Shipping/ delivery of your shopping is not included - but if you purchase for R250 or more delivery is free to a major city center in South Africa)

THERE ARE 4 WAYS FOR YOU TO WIN - you will get an entry for each thing that you do

BE A FOLLOWER OF BETTY BAKE BLOG
Please enter your email address in the subscription on the side bar to be a Follower of Betty Bake Blog

1) Be a follower and then leave a comment telling me you what things you would love to buy from the wellness online store
2) "Like" Betty Bakes facebook page (just come back and say so here) - 1 entry
3) "Like" the Wellness Warehouse Facebook page (just come back and say so here) - 1 entry
4) Tweet this phrase - WIN R500 wellness warehouse gift voucher over at http://www.bettybake.co.za @bettybakeblog @wellness - (just come back and say so here) - 1 entry

*please leave a SEPARATE comment for each thing you do (facebook like, tweet, etc) in comment section below

This is SOUTH AFRICA give away ONLY

Competition closes midday Friday 20th July 2012

DAIRY FREE POTATO-VEGGIE BAKE

Dairy-free Potato/ veggie bake on www.bettybake.co.za

One of my all-time favorite dishes to eat is a homemade potato bake creamy and rich and filled with flavour. No packet sauce, just home peeled and thinly sliced potatoes cooked with butter and cream and some friendly onion and mushroom in-between. I make it often and especially when I want comfort food. But when we decided to cut out as much dairy as possible I sadly knew I would have to say goodbye to my potato bake that I loved so much ... I mean it has butter and cream in it! Anyway after much fretting I decided to try my hand at making a dairy-free potato bake *Drum roll please* And it worked! YAY! We now eat this yummy dish with no remorse or regret. I love it so much I don't even miss my other creamy dish I used to make (deadly serious and no lies promise)

This is one of those recipes where the recipe is just a guide line and you can alter it to suit your tastes and whats in your fridge

INGREDIENTS
2 - 4 spring onions
garlic (optional)
200ml coconut milk (a small tin or half a big tin of coconut milk)
salt
fresh herbs (i use fresh thyme and oregano)
+/- 6 medium Potatoes
1 onion very thinly sliced (as thin as possible)
125g Mushrooms (optional)
half a smallish Butternut (optional)




METHOD
Take the spring onions, wash and thinly slice and place in a pestle and mortar, mash into a mooshy paste (it doesn't have to be perfect). Add garlic and salt and mash some more. Add chopped fresh herbs and once they are mashed in add half of your coconut milk
Peel your potatoes and slice thinly.
Oil the bottom of a medium to large oven dish (like one you would use for lasagne)
Arrange a layer of potatoes on the bottom top with scattered slices of onion and pour a little bit of the "sauce" made with coconut milk - blobs every here and there.
Arrange layers like this with a layer of mushrooms or butternut inbetween the potato layers (or leave them out)
When all the potato and vegetables are used up pour the "sauce" on top and top up the bake with a little more coconut milk if you feel like it needs it.
Sprinkle a thin layer of onion on top and salt
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees celcius for 45 min or until brown on top and a knife inserted in the dish is soft

 Serve

ELLE MAGAZINE SA JULY ISSUE :) Happy to be in it! YAY

Im happy to share with you that I (AKA Betty Bake) was asked to submit a recipe to Elle Magazine South Africa along with other fabulous food bloggers for a 3 course supper food feature they were putting together and now my little blog is in the July issue - yay!

page 128

Here is my dish - Orange and Honey Creme Brulee

I am so very excited and just had to share it with you all.
Thank you for reading this blog - I so appreciate you, ALL of you, every single one! :)

I love reading your comments
hugs

SUNFLOWER SEED BUTTER

Sunflower seed butter Recipe www.bettybake.co.za

This is one of those things that gets made in my house and gets divided out EQUALLY! As to not cause world war 3. Yes i know- crazy but true! We each get a jar labeled with our name so that we can't blame each other for finishing the jar and then act like children blaming each other!

I think one of the reasons we value this yummy spread so much is because my husband is allergic to peanuts and some other nuts so we can't just go to the shop and buy whatever nut butter we want and use it.
It is very yummy and we have the added benefit of knowing exactly what is in the spread that we are eating plus we can buy the best quality ingredients to make it- eg, organic and pesticide free.

Himalayan Crystal Salt also known as "pink salt"

This is one of those recipes where you can make as little or as much as you like. I simply buy a few bags of organic sunflower seeds and place them in the oven to roast and then blend them in my electric blender.

INGREDIENTS
750grams (+/-) its up to you
Sunflower oil
Salt - 1-2 teaspoons (or to taste)
Honey - 1- 4 teaspoons (or to taste)


METHOD
Turn the oven on to bake/roast at 160- 180 degrees celcius. Place your sunflower seeds in an oven roasting dish and place in the center of the oven.
Watch CAREFULLY and stir often as the seeds burn easily - especially near the end!
Roast them till nice and golden brown in colour then remove from the oven and allow to cool. (at this stage you can place all of it in an air tight jar for a few days if you don't have the time to finish the recipe)
Place the seeds in the blender about a cup at a time and follow the directions below.
Turn the blender on and blend until a course ground flour like state.
Add sunflower oil a table spoon at a time and some salt and honey. blend and then taste.
Keep adding things according to taste and also the thickness you desire.
I sometimes add more oil depending on how spreadable i want it to be

Enjoy on toast or add to your biscuit recipes or have with cheese or fruit :)

Im enjoying Instagram on my phone and photographing my lunch is just part of the fun.



 

Disclaimer: I have been making this recipe for months. I make it often and this is just the way I make it. I have seen various recipes all over the internet to make all sorts of seed and nut butters so by no means is this an original idea but this recipe is my own as this is how I make it. 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Enjoy it, have fun, relax and just be you :)

Judging, Tasting, Braaing, Advertising

On an unrelated note: Can you believe this was taken with my cellphone?

Sometimes I am at my happiest when I am at my busiest! This is not to be confused with my happiness while on holiday (relaxing and reading in a sunny spot in a foreign place)- that is THE ULTIMATE.
But when we have to do normal life with work during non-holiday times then I love being busy. It makes time fly. It also makes for easy writing and inspiration. BUT it also doesn't allow for much baking or photographing which = no recipe posts!!! Darn and sorry.

This month I am working on and looking forward to:

Judging: Being a food judge, this is a first for me but I am enjoying it thoroughly. Being asked to eat food at the V & A Waterfront in the Masters of the Trade Route Culinary Challenge  in which their restaurants are partaking to be the winner of the signature dish and title.  The fact that I get to eat at some of the restaurants and say what I think is even more fun than I thought it would be.

Advertising: I am so SUPER excited to have my first blog advertiser! I have been hoping for this day for so very long and now that it is here I am even more chuffed than I thought I would be. Please welcome yuppiechef to my side bar. Click the ad  - they have yummy kitchen equipment and I love their website so it was a natural choice to say yes to them. 


Tasting a Legend: I finally got to eat some of the legendary Chef Luke Dale Roberts food at The Potluck Club on Wednesday night all thanks to The Big Green Egg - a ceramic braai of sorts. All the food was cooked on their ceramic braai's and everything tastes so very yummy!  Which was very cool! I hope to own one - one day! To take a look at some of the food that I ate click here. (I chose the vegetarian option)


Farmers Market: My favorite market that I shop at weekly in Tokai every Saturday - The Earth Fair market opens in Noordhoek on a Thursday night (from 4pm onwards). Yay, I am looking forward to seeing how it will be - I am sure it will be the best of all their markets yet!

Instagram: I am loving Instagram and post photos on there most days. I never thought that a cellphone app would be as fun as this! search for me on Instagram @bettybake :) or you can look on your computer using an online website called webstagram or Statigram


I still check on my blog everyday and love reading the comments. So how are you? What are you looking forward to?