This is going to become one of my firm favorites as I love potatoes and minced / ground meat. Oma Sophie is the creator of this dish and is not only a fantastic cook but also a fantastic human being. Her 3 year old grandson was listening as his mother explained to his older sister exactly what grandparents are. He then piped up and said: “When I grow up I want to be Oma Sophie.” What a compliment and a well-deserved one too.

This is generally a recipe that we eat in the winter time, but the weather has been so awful and so unusually cold that we have (thankfully) been forced to enjoy this in the summertime. I am less strict about summer and winter food than my hubby and am quite capable of eating a vindaloo curry at the absolute height of summer (that we would be so lucky). We do try to eat seasonal fruit and veg, but sauerkraut in a tin doesn’t seem to follow any season…

Today's recipe: MINCE / GROUND BEEF FOR CURRY BUNNY OR CURRY AND RICE

The next part of our South African adventure took place in Cape Town with Lars and another divine member of my extended family whom you have as yet not met, namely my wonderful sister-in-law, Catherine. She may no longer be married to my husband’s brother, and she may try running and hiding from me, but she will always be a part of the family along with our two beautiful nieces, Anna and Maya. That’s them in the photo with Table Mountain and its tablecloth in the background.

Today’s recipe: Marinade for meat or chicken.

A braai is similar to a barbeque in that bit involves cooking meat over flames outside. But that is where the similarity ends. A PROPER South African braai involves real wood, no charcoal or (heaven forbid) (gasp) gas. We want flames and carcinogenic black bits on our meat. The word can be difficult for foreigners to pronounce and it has been referred to as a Brie, which is just plain wrong!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braai

Today’s recipe: Elephant stew

In light of all the miserable weather in the northern hemisphere, I am almost ashamed to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the summer sunshine in the southern hemisphere. If it makes you feel any better, I have had a spot of bother with sunburn, food poisoning and hate mail from freezing Europeans…

Of all my wonderful memories of England, steak and kidney pie is way up there as a fixed favorite. Friends and family would try to have me eat other foods, but I just HAD to try the steak and kidney pie wherever we went. With LOTS of gravy and NO peas.

Just before leaving France, we partook in the age old French tradition of bottling confit of duck and foie gras / fat liver. Foie gras is a much discussed product and I am not going to make a judgment about if one should eat it or not – I’ll let everyone decide for themselves. We enjoyed joining our French (and Scottish) neighbors / friends in preparing this traditional French delicacy so I thought I’d tell you about our fun evening and give you the recipes.

As I have mentioned in several posts, I spent a couple of weeks in the States at the beginning of the year and my great friend Peg and I made a Standing Rib Roast for New Years Eve dinner which was superb. As there are no photos of this great meal, you are getting recipes for a Beef Filet dinner I made in May which was also superb and for which I do have photographs! We had Beef Filet, blue cheese Endives and Mash Potato with carrots and pumpkin and here are all the recipes. But first the stories…

Today's recipes are: Meatball Curry; and Lentil Curry

How about a Curry Extravaganza for your next dinner party? My menu included: Potato Curry Soup – a total winner that even non-curry people love as it is velvety smooth and delicately spiced – as a Starter, then for the main course a Prawn Curry, Meatball Curry, Lentil Curry, Compressed ginger rice, and Green beans with sesame oil. You can prepare them the day before if you like, as curries definitely improve if you let them sit a bit. But first some stories…

Today’s recipe: Joerg’s Cypriot grilled meat / Pork Kebab

When people are hard at work, they need to be well fed so we have been pulling out all the stops this past week to keep our work force in good spirits. And we all love braaing (barbecuing) so yesterday we got out the grill we brought back from Cyprus last year and made a special Pork Kebab and drank German wheat beer (Hefeweizen).