My food journey

It's no secret that I love food.

It all started with my granny who was good at anything she put her hands to - cooking, baking, sewing, flower arranging, etc, etc.

Sadly those sewing skills didn't make their way to me although I do have some fond memories of me using her sewing machine to make bags and pencil cases when I was in primary school (up to age 12). I can do straight lines and no thought whatsoever.

Anyway, back to the food.

She loved feeding people and even though she lived alone, was always cooking up something yummy.

Even when I'd moved away from Port Elizabeth, I'd phone and we'd ALWAYS discuss what she was cooking. At any event, I'd hear that it was so-and-so's birthday and she made supper which was x, y, z and a bit of this and that. I'd literally drool while here in Johannesburg.

I was always like this even when I was still at school - 101 things on the go all the time - so I was "too busy" to learn how to cook or bake.

Something I sorely regretted once I had my own place.

Because the love for food never went away; I just had no skills.

I remember in the beginning with D we'd eat freezer boxed food ALL the time - crumbed chicken pieces, fish, burgers, etc.

Terrible!

And then I got tired of that and started learning to cook, one dish at a time.

I'll be honest - I didn't love cooking but I did love the eating :)

But then my gran died in 2004 and something happened to me.

It's almost like when I was cooking I felt closer to her. Does that make any sense?

So I was willing to experiment more and more and even invite people over (!) to eat MY food.

And now I can honestly say I've spent many a Sunday happily pottering away in the kitchen, whipping up some meals. (The weekly things are just too quick as there's not much time).

My favourite dishes are stirfries - love them. Easy and you can alter the whole feel of the dish so quickly with different sauces, veggies, etc. Yummy!

I also love making muffins. I don't like baking anything else except biscuits (cookies) now and again, but I can happily bake muffins weekly. I'm the person who has to do the muffins whenever we have little functions at work. Another colleague does absolutely fantastic scones.


I once heard Nigella say that baking is like chemistry - your measurements have to be exact and in the right order.

Maybe that's the problem because, well, let's just say I'm more of a creative cook. I really do try to follow a recipe but somewhere along the way I start throwing in my own ingredients :)

Muffins are easy - mix everything together, just barely (suits my laziness), pop into muffin cases and into oven. I can make up a batch (not from a pre-mix) while cooking supper and mixing the babies' bottles.

I can't be bothered with "do this in one bowl", then "do that in another bowl" and then only "this is how you do the topping". Any recipe using more than one bowl gets tossed!

See? Lazy!

Do you prefer cooking or baking? What's your favourite dish to cook or bake?

P.S. My babies are 8 months today. I can't believe I'm still sane :)