Kitchen Diary

I am just me, a South African living in the beautiful little seaside town of Fish Hoek which is situated on the False Bay coast (Indian Ocean) about 45km from the city centre of Cape Town. I blog about my home life and the goings on in my kitchen down by the bay. I am 50 something (on the right side of 50 and the right side of 60, but only just), a Christian, fun-loving, fairly easy going, very loving & compassionate, a nurturer by nature, a nursing sister & midwife in a long ago career life, married to the man in my life for 33 years now. We share 3 adult children, I am grandmama to gorgeous Tyler & Jayden, love animals and currently have Tasha the hound sharing my living space and life. I am passionate about food, enjoying baking, preserving & cooking, trying out new recipes, I mostly never stick to a recipe but am always testing (I call it pimping) and tasting! At the grand old age that I am at now I am discovering new foods that I love like prawns (sue me, I was never adventurous before ), sushi, squid just to name a few!  I am a food blog addict, started reading and lurking on food blogs about 7 years ago and started this, my first blog, in July 2008, never thinking of the far reaching effect it would have on my life. At the beginning of 2010 I took the plunge and founded and began coordinating food blogging conferences in South Africa. The name Food Blogger Indaba came into being in 2011 as it is so much more than a conference, with presentations, demonstrations, food pairings, photography, food styling and writing workshops. It is such an honor & privilege to be involved with a community of like minded, passionate and fabulous people. Blogging has opened up a whole new world to me and I am embracing it with wide open arms and eyes.In the middle of this year I was approached by ClemenGold to do some product development for them, something that I discovered I love doing. You are NEVER to old to learn new things and this year has been a steep learning curve for me yet again! My relationship with ClemenGold began a year ago when I fell in love with the fruit and then went on to win a competition using the fruit as an ingredient in a dish. In my spare time I enjoy reading, I am an avid cookery book collector with a collection that is growing almost daily, I enjoy taking walks with my family and dog as well as dabbling (a lot) in amateur photography (food, nature & of course my grandsons). I am also a social networking queen these days and spend time connecting on facebook and twitter!

I also blog at browniegirl blog, Food Blogger Indaba and part time on the ClemenGold blog! Life is not dull! I recently had five of my recipes published in the beautiful online magazine Crush! 

A sense of humor is essential to living a happy life. Welcome to my world…….enjoying brownies is optional, tasting life is imperative!

All photographs on this site (since December 2009) taken with my trusty Canon Powershot SX20IS which I hope to trade in on a big boy model one of these days!