BRAAI DAY!

It's the 24th of September, it's National Heritage Day (also know as National Braai Day), and there I am, little old unorganised me, with no plans...

But have no fear, I have a man with a plan, or a man with a family with a plan, and luckily for us a member of that family works for SAB. So our no plan turned into the best plan - Castle Lager Our Beer Our Braai!

We were greeted by a very happy, loud crowd of all shapes, sizes and ages! 

Happy people, celebrating their different heritages together

And an Ice Cold Castle to start the festivities!

 When we arrived there were loads of people already hard at work on their braai's, feeding family and friends alike, but it was only after a walk around that we realized that we had unknowingly stumbled into a Guinness World Record attempt.

For us idiots who didn't know where we were and why...

Of course we had to take part in this, I mean how could I just happen to arrive at such an amazing event and not be a part of what it was all about?! 

Unfortunately that wasn't until 16.30, and it was only 14.30, and I in the wise words of the 7 year old Mr. Oliver Niss "WAS STARVING!" 

Luckily the rest of the family felt that same, so off Leon and Peter went to buy us some Boerewors to braai in the meantime... Tick Tock Tick Tock... Apparently, being braai day, we weren't the only people who wanted to buy wors, so this proved to be a little difficult. Eventually though they returned successful, so off to the braai area they went with only about 15 minutes left to cook our boerie.

Lunch on the go!

 

Our champions, I don't know how they got our wors cooked so quickly

And while that was going on some hungry little monkeys shared some ice-creams :) How gorgeous are these 2 beautiful girls sharing their Ice-Cream? "Mines fruity Sewa, do you think Chloe likes fruity??" Well Monkey Face, judging by the big chunk she chomped out of your ice-cream, I'd say she does:)

This family is full of the most beautiful kids! Love them :)

Soon after that lunch was ready, and it couldn't have come sooner for all the hungry members of the Niss/Savage family!

YUM

YUM

AND MORE YUM!

  Then came the call for all participators to collect in the braai area. I have to say, all of this was superbly organised! I am so impressed at how it all went down. 

We were shown into section H and each given a beer(note how I list these in order of importance), a piece of boerie, a roll, some relish, and a pair of tongs. We were all ready to go, but the Johannesburg braaiers let us down, they were struggling to get the numbers, so we had to wait an extra half an hour. TSK TSK JHB, TSK TSK! Not that that was really a problem, it just gave us some time to get to know the members of our team who we didn't already know.

Team H! In high spirits and ready to BRAAI!

It also gave me a little time to witness a spirit, that was not unlike the beautiful human spirit I was so privileged to see during the 2010 world cup (scary that that was already 3 years ago...). People of all colour, races and ages came together to celebrate something which I often forget is so beautiful. Gees !

An old African man teaching the Whities to dance :)

All kinds in great spirits!

 Eventually Jo-Burg was also ready. And...

3...

Beer and Relish in Hand

2...

Boerie ready!

 1..

BRAAI!

 Basically the only rule was that we had to keep our wors on the braai for a full 30 minutes. So during that time there was a lot of time to make new friends, take photos, drink beer, and of course fall in love with our mascot.

Taking Photos, and making memories

Who do you think is the real braai master?? 

Drinking Castle and Making Friends

A little bit of braaiing and photo bombing

And of course getting our rolls ready. No Knife, No Problem!

After the half an hour, there was a countdown for us to take our boeries off the braai, after which the crowd erupted into the most beautiful version of the National Anthem. I can't even describe in words how proud I felt at that exact moment to be a South African and to be a part of such an event. 

ALL MINE :)

Then of course, we all got to enjoy our Boeries!

YUMMY!

While we waited to hear if we broke the record or not, CRAZY WHITE BOY kept the crowds going!

It really did all come together with a castle!

And the verdict? Yes, the Boerie was yum, the crowd was amazing and the kids were as always too cute for words, but did we break the guiness world record??

YES WE DID!! 2353 people all over South Afica all braaiing together at once! Now that's what I call human spirit, and on heritage day at that!

Well done and thank you to everyone who took part!

Thank you castle for and amazing event, and some fantastic memories and new friends, but most of all thanks Gareth for the tickets and inviting us to share such a beautiful day!

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22..

Hi, my name is Sara- professional messy cook, want to be food blogger, obsessive tweeter, and absolute spoilt brat with some pretty amazing friends and family.

Last week was my birthday, and what an amazing day it was.

I was woken up to some cheery people and a birthday cake which for some reason had 22 candles on it. They obviously made a mistake because clearly I am only 16, but it's the thought that counts so it was really appreciated :) Thanks mommy, Thanks Lil-Dog!

Count them, there are 8 too many :)

 So after a pre-breakfast (yes in my mind that is a real, totally acceptable thing) of chocolate ganache cake with caramel sauce, I was picked up by my very good friend for a truely wonderful day!

First up... Breakfast at the beautiful Four & Twenty Cafe. If you haven't been you need to do yourselves the favour and pop around for a breakfast or lunch, or even coffee and cake for that matter. Four and Twenty is both a Cafe and a Pantry, owned by two very clever and hard working girls who I was lucky enough to study with (and under), Marijke Duminy and Tracy-Leigh Genricks. They serve both classic breakfasts, delicious lunches and beautiful pasties and hand crafted confectioneries. The cafe is complimented by a pantry full of local produce and home made deli items. When eating there you truly get the feeling that a lot of love and effort has been put into making each and every item that they have to offer. Also while I was there Marijke ran off to secure their liquor license so hopefully next time we can have a champagne breakfast (on my budget that will be a "sparkling wine breakfast") or some yummy wine with lunch (I have a sneaky suspicion they are working on an amazing wine list as we speak!)

The beautiful pastry display and decor

My 'DELISH' Eggs Beliscious, and Ineke's Beautiful French Toast

No, that didn't taste as good as it looks, it tasted even better!!

Next up- Boere Sjiek in Durbanville... Where has this place been all my life??? Tucked away in Okavango Park (an industrial area in Dunrbanville), you would never dream of finding such a beautiful spot there. 

Basically it is a large warehouse full of tasteful items to decorate your home with or find an unusual gift for someone special. AND CAKE! This basically is a place where mine and Ineke's passions collide. Her's the creative side, with the beautiful decor, and mine the foodie side, with a huge selection of delicious and beautifully decorated cakes and cupcakes. 

Beautiful table settings, and decor stuff. Everything is for sale!

Who wants one birthday cake when you can have this many??

Although it was one of the toughest decisions my "16" year old self would have to make all year, Ineke (much to my disapproval but 100 % to my own benefit) convinced me I had to choose and couldn't possibly eat them all. She did how ever let me choose her piece too so we could try 2 :) 

In the end we got iced coffees which were supeb, a slice of beautifully moist and deliciopus carrot cake, and a slice of cheese cake with red velvet cake on top, wrapped in cream cheese icing... Yes I did just say that, and yes it was amazing and you really should go try it. Another yes, before you ask- I will be trying to make one of these when I have a day or 2 to unscramble my brain, and if it works I shall share :)

Our choices, carrot cake and red velvet cheese cake

Their cakes do this really cool trick were they just vanish off the plate...

 Us eat all that cake?? NEVER!

After stuffing our faces, as one does on birthdays, and a really loud drive full of laughter, we went for a lovely walk down Camps Bay beach front to get rid of some of that energy and find some cocktails...

First we found a very big, very strong, very cheap and very gross Pina Colada...

Or as I like to call them a "penis enlarger"

So we moved on to something more trusty at Primi.

A good ol' raspberry tea pot!

Before we knew it, it was 5 o'clock and time to head home to meet the boys before goin off to the Earth Fair Market for some dinner. Sadly by that stage my phone was dead so I didn't get any photo's, but if you haven't been there by now, then that's just too bad and really very sad ;) Needless to say the food was delicious, the beer was cold and ever flowing and I came home with 2 pretty feathers in my hair! Aren't I just so trendy. 

All in all I had pretty much the best birthday ever this year, and I can't thank you enough for spoiling me like that Ineke <3

 

That wasn't even the end, my actual celebration was on friday night at the Food Barn, but that will be another post in itself...

Wishing you all a happy week and a happy braai day!

Love Entertaining

Being a foodie I obviously love entertaining, as to me there is no feeling better than sharing something you love with friends and family.

 Entertaining/hosting can be very stressful if you are not clever about it. You definitely don’t want to spend the entire night in the kitchen and you also don’t want to keep people waiting for their food for too long.

The trick to finding the right balance is planning ahead and being prepared. Planning a menu that can be mostly made in advance will really help. There are so many things that can be done before hand, and kept in the fridge until you are ready to serve. This includes blanching veg, making salads and side dishes, and even making desserts.

Slow cooked food and roasts are great for when people are coming over as they are low maintenance foods and therefore you don’t really have to worry about them. 

Another thing to make your life easier, (and this one took me forever to do as I am such a perfectionist and want everything done properly) is using pre-prepared goods. It used to be so that shop bought things tasted terrible and could even ruin your food, but now a days you have amazing things like Woolworths all butter puff pastry and delicious homemade ice creams which are just as nice as if you make them yourself, only much less time consuming. More of these include Woolworths onion marmalade, cooked beetroot (the fresh ones in the fridge, not pickled in jars), deveined prawns, cooked rice, cut butternut and many more. This is so not cheating! These things are there to make life easier.

Most importantly make sure you have enough snacks. Keeping guests eating snacks will make sure they don’t get too hungry, that way no one will notice if the food is running a little late. Obviously snack come in many forms. Nuts, biltong, chips and dip work really well, but I like to put in a little extra effort. One thing I really love making, because they are so simple are little tartlets.  You can make them in all different sizes and flavours, and even make them a little more complicated/fancy depending on how much you want to impress your guests. 

Here are 2 of my favourites. They are so quick and easy to make, especially if you use Woolworths all butter pastry, and guests are always impressed and satisfied.

Brie and Onion Marmelade Tartlets

 Recipe Here

Tomato, Goats Cheese and Basil Tartlets

 Recipe Here

There is also a little thing called wine, keep your guests well topped up, and even the worst food will taste amazing ;) 

Happy entertaining!

Millionaires Deliciousness

Once upon a time there lived a genius who created the deliciousness that is Millionaires Shortbread, and what a genius he was... The short, crunchy biscuit base and the soft sweet caramel, and to top it off, the cool, hard chocolate. Yum, yum and yum!

Last week Josh started his first job, and if I'm not already nice enough, I wanted to do something special for him. Josh is the epitome of the saying "the way to a mans heart is through his stomach", so  obviously the something special was going to involve some food, the question was only what kind?

It didn't take me long to realize that I had all the ingredients for Millionaires Shortbread in my pantry, so it only took me a few minutes to get started. I already have the most beautiful shortbread recipe at home, so the only trick was getting that caramel just right.

Needless to say my ADD took hold very quickly and within the first few minutes I had already burnt the caramel, but if you are quick about it, that is nothing a new pot and a quick strain through a sieve can't fix. Moral of the story?? Pay attention and don't stop stirring-like ever!

Millionares Shortbready yummy-deliciouness in a square with chocolate on top

All in all though I must say that this turned out pretty dam well, and needless to say Josh was one happy worker bee.

Try my recipe and be mind blown here:) MILLIONAIRES SHORTBREAD

In other news, it's my birthday next week and I have invited all my friends and family to join me for dinner at one of my favourites- The Foodbarn. So keep watching this space to hear all about it :)

I have also finally upgraded my phone, so I'm now on instagram and twitter throughout the day, sharing all my daily food experiences. Follow me on instagram- @saras_messy_kitchen or on twitter- @Messy_Sara

That's all for now foodie friends. Happy Baking, and enjoy the rest of your week :)

Good Food, Good Friends and Good Wine

I can't think of a single thing that I would rather do than share food and wine with friends. In summer this is often oven a braai, but just because it's freezing cold and wet doesn't mean we can't eat, drink and be merry does it?

I don't know about anyone else, but I find myself becoming a little bit of a hermit in this cold, especially because of the wind, but when you get invited to a friends house to make pizza's, drink wine and play board games, no amount of wind or rain could keep me away.

Though we were very unorganized we managed to pull it off really well and had a most fantastic evening. We bought uncooked pizza bases from a Pizza Fair in Constantia, but most pizza places sell them- you just have to ask. I know this is cheating a little so I will share my Homemade Pizza Base too, but it is so worth the time it saves and the pizza's still taste amazing and homemade.

We started the night off with a failed attempt at making popcorn... well actually we made pretty amazing popcorn and then "KILLED it DEAD" with salt.

Too Salty!

A good Pizza starts with a selection of delicious, fresh toppings. Here is what we decided to put on our pizzas. including some fresh tomatoes, ham, salami and bacon.

Pineapple, Red Onion, Mushrooms, Peppers and Avo with Caremelized Onions in the Background

 The next step is to have a good tasty tomatoes base, as this is where most of the flavour come from.

Fresh Tomato Sauce for the Bases

 Batch number one ready to go into the oven. Now comes the wait- fingers are crossed!

Before...

And while we wait... The most important part is obviously...

The WINE!!

And second most important...

The cooks

 and ofcourse we can't forget Zack, our sculler. Very hard working and 100 % dedicated to his job.

Little Zack- who dedicated his night to keeping our floor spotless!

 20 Minutes and a few glasses of wine later...

TA-DAAAA!

Smiles all round- YUM, YUM, YUM and YUM!

Happy Chappies

Check out my recipe for these Delicious Homemade Pizza's here, and be sure to give it a try next time its cold out and you are having guests over. It's a really fun and interactive way to entertain, and who doesn't love a pizza (or a glass of wine and a board game or 2)???

Happy cooking, and have a great week.