the tea, the teeth, and the tasting

    Good'morrow my dearest readers!  Allow me to begin with my most sincere apologies for this appalling delay in posts.  If you want to hear the excuses, a list will be available at the end of this installment.

    I suppose we ought to continue on in a semi-chronological fashion-- by which, I of course mean, chronologically following the title :]  So, to the tea!  (Not, "to the pain;" not everyone is familiar with that phrase...)  One of the kindest coincidences in my time here so far concerns the tea.  Many of you may be aware of my intense, ever-blooming relationship with tea, specifically black tea.  Luckily, not only does Carina treat her tea much the same way I do, the whole country has a deep and abiding respect for "doing tea time right," which is perfectly fine by me.  I'll typically brew a cup in the morning and add the appropriate (or inappropriate) amount of sugar and whole milk (you can't buy half-n-half here; we would have to make it ourselves... work?  No thanks, haha).  During my orientation at UKZN, we had our first break in the day for tea time.  It was a semi-glorious event, with different creaming options, at least three different types of sugar, and tiny triangle sandwiches to boot!

for more information on the proper fixing of tea,

these guys have something to say about it: h2g2

    But anyways, to continue telling you more about my cultural education, I will tell you about an intriguing colloquialism hereabouts: while I might, in the States, ask the obliging barrista for "black tea," here, especially post-apartheid, the word is so racially charged, people must say "normal tea" to be within PC social codes.  Jax was telling me about this when she came over the other day with Zak for a playdate with our girls and I asked her which kind of tea she wanted-- good thing she warned me!  It could've turned into a dastardly faux pas for me later.  

    Another event I have sorely overlooked is the "Bring & Braai" our family hosted a while back.  A "braai" is basically a grill and a "bring & braai" is, essentially, the opposite of a barbeque: at a barbeque, you provide the meat and the alcohol and the guests bring side dishes like potato salad, fruit salad, etc.  At the B&B, we provide the side dishes and the attendees bring alcohol and the selection of meat they plan on eating.

    Our guest list was quite the hodgepodge, with the singular commonality being that everyone worked at Ben's office (except for Jax & Walter, who are good family friends).  One of the night's highlights for me was meeting Tracey (a part-time chef) and having her compliment the fruit salad I made for the night!

    As the evening progressed, I found myself in most amiable conversation with an Englishman named Ed-- probably short for 'Sir Edward' or something.  We came to discussing one another's family, his being mostly in the London and the surrounding areas, and mine being mostly scattered like so much corn seed across the States.  I told him all about my two younger sisters who, regrettably, we're still in California.  

    Well, I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but at some point, I mentioned that my middle sister used to have braces and that I had thought about getting some myself after graduation; I've always had some gaps in my upper teeth and have thought about correcting it for awhile.  At this, he proceeded to guffaw loudly in epic proportions.  This, of course, caught the attention of Jax and Carina, who, when informed of the conversation's abrupt turn, replied, "Oh yes, Americans are obsessed with their teeth."  This semi-seemingly-patronizing answer took me by surprise at first...

    But then I started thinking about it, and it's totally true!  As much as we like to deny our materialism, some of the gossip girl culture seems to seep in and what is the result?  Teeth obsessions!!  A mere facet of perfection obsessions really-- that's a whole genre I think it's best to avoid, if at all possible. 

    Although... I confess I do have some good news in the aesthetics department /guilty cringe/.  Adjusting to the new climate has meant the usual dermatological freak-out, the forgetfulness-born dehydration, and unattractive/unmanageable hair.  And, at last, all three have petered out; personally, I'm most grateful for the hair normalizing again, haha.  I'm actually planning on growing it out!  Though of course, when I ask family and friends on skype if it looks longer, they aren't exactly overwhelming in their assent.

    There is cause for hope though:  Immediately after arriving, my nails started growing twice as fast as they normally do; and, you know, since hair and nails are all made up of dead cells, we can hope the former will take a hint from the latter and grow, grow, grow!  

    And speaking of growing, what marvelous, magical things we're a'growing at this Saturday's Shongweni.  I returned, as promised, and took even more pictures and tried more foods.  The cute guy who runs the bakery gave us a free loaf of white bread after we bought some more ciabatta--obviously, the result of Natalie's incorrigible flirtations.

    Other notable sightings include "the Egg Lady," the snotty coffee shop Colombo, and the animal menagerie with a goat (it's a stand run for little kids by two ladies who rescue animals).  Pictures can be seen in the album "a rainy shongweni" on the left-hand side of the home page.  

    

    And on the eastern home front, there has been quite the hullabaloo lately about baking and cooking.  It all started with some legitimately necessary stress-baking that resulted in chocolate chip cookies

These little buggers required a lot of love... I had to make my own chocolate chips and convert everything from fahrenheit to celsius, cups to grams, et cetera.  But the results were definitely worth it

    Plus, I had a lot of help in the kitchen

    Recent tasty treats also include oatmeal maple scones-- the perfect sidekick to the morning cup of tea and bland enough not to outshine a piece of fresh fruit on the side!  I got the recipe from a friend and, after amending it heavily, sent it out to more people, haha.  It truly was a simple recipe (if you're interested in it, feel free to drop me a line).  

    I also decided to use up some of the butternut squash we had that was cutely begging to be eaten and, in general, I'm not big on orange food items (I don't really care for oranges OR carrots; I know, I'm crazy) so this was a big deal and called for an extra-special recipe. So, I went straight to one of my go-to blog girls and got a fantastic Butternut Squash & Apple Soup recipe that was a raving success with Natalie and myself.  We topped ours with some feta we had in the fridge, but I think any goat cheese would work beautifully. I also recommend this recipe in that, you really can do it all without a food processor, mixer, or blender of any kind; it was definitely all elbow-grease in these parts.  Mostly, I don't mind not having any of those gadgets, but boy, do I miss my blender-- smoothies are just so irreplaceable.

    Carina and I were also able to put those ciabatta loves to good use via some hit-the-spot bruschetta: fresh diced tomatoes, pesto with pine nuts, lemon, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, loads of garlic, and fresh grated parmesan cheese.  Definitely a comforting afternoon snack while the kiddos take their afternoon naps

    For those of you interested in checking out some real foodie blogs with legit, easy to manage how-to's, be sure to check out these two blogs:  The Single Girl's Kitchen and Pizzelles.  Both are totally unique and totally essential, in my book anyway.

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    And now, for what will probably be the saddest part of this blog, ever.  I know I mentioned at the end of my last post (ages ago it seems) that we were getting a puppy.  We did have a puppy, an adorable little ball of fluff named Jock.  He was an eight week old Yorkshire Terrier, full of puppy love and softness.  He got along great with our mama dog, Abi

    But, for whatever cruel reasoning fate decided to employ at the time, it wasn't meant to last.  All our care and kindness couldn't save him and he passed away mid-morning this past Saturday, of unknown causes.  The breeder told us that we shouldn't feel bad and that the dogs are so fragile, that pretty much anything could've happened.  I mean, he didn't even weight two pounds yet.  She even said she had a client once who's pup got hit with a beach ball and died!  We know we can't blame ourselves, but it is strange to think of a dog as being "fragile."  Maggie has been handling it with incredible grace and the rest of us and still adjusting to the sudden change.  I am sorry to be the bearer of ill tidings but, as promised, I have posted some pictures of the puppy in an album entitled Jock of the Bushveld, since that was his namesake.  I can assure you that he had as blissful a puppydom as any dog.  My father said his life was like a shooting star, beautiful and brief.  I think it fits quite nicely

excuses: we had a puppy, which meant we had two people potty-training and two people teeth; Ben and Josh made me promise not to write another post until I finished my scholarship applications for school next year, which also meant I had to endure an exit loans counseling session--talk about boring!; I got into a cooking/baking rant and had to get out my stress-baking; we haven't had enough wine