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Beach walk with wild seas to soothe battered souls. The graveside committal for Dad, simple and sensitive. He rests, overlooking the golf course and across Montagu.

The Kalkveld Lounge at Zandvliet. Stylish, comfortable, fabulous wines and a tasty cheese and charcuterie platter (the olives were frighteningly salty), with a view to the arched gables of the Cape Dutch Homestead. There is not much to criticize. Particularly, with the excellent service from Leslie, the Lounge Manager.

The gallery space, carved from long buried concrete wine tanks creates a heightened sense of anticipation. The discovery of the amazing. Confined, intimate contact with the artworks.

Marsanne, France. ‘French Door’, a small, acrylic and charcoal on 300gram paper SOLD, amongst a bunch of paintings and scarves on a busy week in the studio. The ‘Pushing out the oars’, scarf sold out.

Our introduction to the trendy ‘Poke’ (pronounced POH-keh), one of the main dishes in Hawaiian cuisine. Poke means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian and refers to chunks of raw, marinated fish — usually tuna — which is then tossed over rice and topped with vegetables and umami-packed sauces.

Clare did tuna and salmon, with black rice (carb clever noodles for me), carrots, peas, mushrooms, peppers, onion flakes, spring onion, avocado, pineapple and toasted sesame seeds. A light cerviche of lime and soya for the tuna and salmon bits. Tasty and colourful on a fabulous summer evening. (Photo credit: Craig Smith)

Summer. Haviananas. Cracked heels. A diabetic nightmare. Particularly for one who hates shoes anyway.

French Door

Acrylic and charcoal on paper

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Terry’s dad, and my friend, passed away in the Montagu hospital he once was so passionate about and worked so hard to restore.

He was in such pain and the relief for him was prayed for.

He died, at a similar hour, in the same hospital, and on the same day, as Mum Sterley’s Birthday. I’m sure she called him home.

The number of lives he has impacted, almost impossible to imagine.

I remember when my Dad died and I was stuck amidst the evacuation of Jalalabad. Touched by the number of my Afghan staff who came into my office to pray for the soul of departed. Whom they had never, known, but still respected.

‘King’ acrylic on canvas 2mx0,7m A soft approach for the painting of a King Protea and Cape Sunbird

Summer visitors in the studio. Roger and Marie here from Switzerland. Kirsten here from the States and Aly heading back to France

One of my favourite paintings, ‘Dancing Zebra’s’ from Botswana sold and heading to its new home in Switzerland.

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New Year

Beach play before a day of bubbles and laughter. The ‘pizza’ base getting better. A humongous number of empty bottles, probably adding to the, somewhat, bizarre decision to hold an e-bike Challenge up Phantom Pass. With the proceeds to Animal Welfare, a more than expected bunch trundled up the pass. The Challenge, somewhat lost in the enjoyment of a fabulous day to be out riding in paradise.

Rain bringing holiday makers into the studio. Humbling, and thrilling to have paintings heading to new homes in Oslo, Rome and London. The silk scarves, a popular option.

Backup hard-drive crash. The gazillions of photos from our travels, which I use as reference sources for my paintings, the major loss. Perhaps a data-recovery company can retrieve them? Or perhaps. It’s one of those. Clean-slate. New-year. Start-afresh. Moments.

Friday market. A Cheloist that touch of amazing with the last of the daylight and the storm moving in.

Diabetic Sensitive ‘Pizza’ Recipe

Ingredients

170 grams grated mozzarella cheese

1 tbsp butter

½ cup fine almond flour

¼ cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 large egg

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Lightly grease the liner.

• In a large saucepan, melt the cheese and butter together over low heat until they are melted and can be stirred together. Remove from heat and add almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt.

• Add the egg and stir everything together until a cohesive dough forms. Use a rubber spatula to really knead it up against the sides of the pan. It may still contain some streaks of cheese.

• Transfer to the prepared pan and knead a few more times until uniform. If your dough is very sticky, work in another tablespoon or two of almond flour. Cover the dough with another piece of parchment and roll out to a 12-inch (30 cm) circle.

• Spread olive oil, salt and herbs over the dough before putting in the oven to co

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Memories

Acrylic on canvas 102cmx76cm

Fantasmegorical lunch on Christmas day. Nine courses of culinary delight. Blood sugars controlled, thanks to the careful menu preparation by the Chef’s. Glad I didn’t have to drive!

Menu

Spring onion wrapped in bacon with cumin and paprika. Cooked with lemon.

Prawns with chilly.

Maron freshwater crayfish Vietnamese salad

Kingklip Crevice with kiwi fruit, red onion

Cape whiting (fish) with an olive, anchovies, chili, tomato and wine broth on a bed of zucchini spiral

Litchi and burnt pineapple sorbet

Fillet, zucchini with a vodka blue cheese dressing

Side of salmon

Bûche de Noël.

Raspberry bushes are flowering along the Highway West road. Pink dog roses and blue plumbago. Agapanthus in full bloom. Fields startlingly green. Summer after the rains in the Garden Route.

Inspiration for my painting ‘Memories’, a commission of a family home. A gentle touch for the painting that was as much about the ‘theater’ of painting with my fingers for the sudden surge in people through the studio. A day of pouring rain doing its bit to keep people away from the beaches.

Crusted beef fillet with foie gras the Family Day menu. The fillet slow cooked for an hour on the Kamado Jan before leaving to cool. A crust made from mozzarella and al one flour rather than the traditional pastry version. I didn’t get the heat up enough to crisp the crust, which meant the meat sat on the fire for toooooo long. Fortunately, it didn’t end up dried leather. A starter of spring onion wrapped in bacon , stolen from the Christmas Day menu, as a starter. Quite scrumptious.

Crusted beef fillet with foie gras and truffles

Pour For 8 personsCuisson : 40mnPréparation : 40 mn

• 1 kg of beef fillet (dressed, not barded)

• 600g of puff pastry

• 125g of foie gras

• 2/3 little truffles

• Périgueux sauce

• 1 egg yolk

• 2 dessert spoons of oil and 30g of butter

Preparation:

Cooking of the fillet (the day before): brown the piece of meat on every side in the mix oil/butter. When it is brown, season it with salt and pepper. Let it stand until the next day, the roast beef must be wrap in the puff pastry only when it is cold.  

Roll the pastry out to wrap the roast beef (make sure that the pastry is thick enough). Smear the inside with the egg yolk. Slice the truffles thin and place the slices in a line in the middle of the pastry. On the truffles, spread the sliced Godard foie gras. Put the beef fillet upside down on the mix. First, close one side and smear it with egg yolk. Then, close the other side which must wrap the first side. Cut at the extremities the rest of pastry to obtain a flap on each side. Fold up the flaps on the fillet. Smear with egg yolk before refolding to knit well the pastry. Smear all with egg yolk to brown. Decorate according to imagination.  

Place the fillet in a cool place, covered with a tea towel and let it stand for one hour.  

Cooking:

Cook in a preheated oven at 200°C for 15minutes to 25 minutes depending on thickness.

Let it stand for 20 minutes in the oven at 50°C.  

Serve in a long plate previously warmed with a Périgueux Godard Sauce.  

Sauce Périgueux

This rich, classic sauce is flavored with Madeira and pungent, earthy black truffles, which are a specialty of Périgueux, a city in the Perigord region of southwestern France. Julia Child recommended Sauce Périgueux for “filet of beef, fresh foie gras, veal, egg dishes, and timbales,” all delicous ways to enjoy the luxury of truffles

Ingredients

Makes

About 1 cup

• 1 1/2 ounces Demi-Glace Gold® (or Demi-Glace de Veau Gold®) dissolved in 3/4 cup hot water

• 2 canned truffles, minced

• 1 tablespoon truffle brining liquid

• 1 tablespoon Madeira

• 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

• Salt and ground black pepper

Methods/steps

1. Bring the reconstituted Demi-Glace Gold® to a simmer over low heat in a small saucepan.  Add the truffles, brining liquid, and Madeira and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

2. Whisk in the butter and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Additional Tips

Black truffles preserved in brine and packaged in cans or jars can be found at many gourmet and specialty food markets.

https://www.foie-gras-godard.eu/A-7446-crusted-beef-fillet-with-foie-gras-and-truffles.aspx

https://www.morethangourmet.com/recipe-sauce-p%C3%A9rigueux

spring onion and pancetta wraps

by Janet Davies @pigeoncottage

Rick Stein made a lovely TV programme this year called ‘Long Weekends’. In one episode he visited Palermo and their famous street food market where he came across these little beauties: spring onions rolled in thin slices of pancetta or very thin slices of streaky bacon and roasted on a hot BBQ until the pancetta is crisp and the onion soft underneath. We now make about three each of these as a BBQ starter and they go down a real treat. Enjoy!

To make…

• Buy as many bunches of spring onions as will give you 3 per diner and a couple of packs of good quality pancetta (I use Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the difference’ or Waitrose own brand), you’ll need one slice per onion. If you use streaky bacon it must be very thinly sliced or it won’t adhere to the onion and it will unravel during the cooking process.

• Prep the onions by trimming both ends and ensure they are clean and dry.

• Brush the whole onion lightly with a little olive oil and then wind a piece of pancetta or bacon around each one.

• Using tongs, add the onions onto a very hot BBQ and cook them on each side until they look crisp and golden – it will only take a few minutes. Longer than it will take to eat them anyway!

https://pigeoncottage.com/2017/07/21/bbq-spring-onion-and-pancet

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‘Come-Along’

Oil on canvas 76cmx104cm

The latest painting in my ‘Humanising the Homeless’ series of portraits. Peter and his constant companion, ‘come-along’. He is rough sleeping street dog, so I used the crumpled finger ends of the gloves to produce a rough texture for his fur. His eyes, full of his ‘Yoda’ like wisdom. The magical Monaco Madder colour adding depth and richness to the painting.

Amazing that strangers are stopping Peter in the street to ask him if he is the man in the portrait bring painted by the ‘finger-painter’!

Terry’s Terrine de campagne and an impromptu dinner with friends. Scrupdellicious. A memorable evening. Fortunately, that one extra glass of red wine, rye bread with the terrine, followed by bûche de Noël didn’t blow my blood sugar out of the water.

Beach play with Prince and Rico. The pure joy of summer madness.

Slow jog to test my bothersome Achilles. Nothing seemingly problematical, other than legs that were still a tad wobbly after their ride through the forest to the Italian church.

A simplification of Heston’s roast chicken in brine. Slow cooked (4 hours @ 90 degrees), after it had sat overnight in brine. A melted butter topping during the cooking. I struggled to keep the temperature of the Kamado Jan that low and took the chicken off after 3 hours, basting it every 40 minutes or so. Succulent, tasty and definitely morish. The only downside, being that you eat far more than you would normally eat!

https://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/masterchef/recipes/heston-s-roast-chicken

Town buzzing with holiday makers. The seasonal traffic chaos eased by traffic officers at the major intersections, with their white gloves doing Michael Jackson type impersonations.

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Seven Passes road to Wilderness makes for a fabulous 75km morning ride. Twisting down through the gorges, the light filtered through the indigenous Forest. Didn’t see any elephants, although that could have been due to the sweat staining my glasses. Legs finished. Bum, complaining.

Flava restaurant the meeting point for the support crew that assembled the bits of cyclists, gear and bicycles for the trip home. Despite being confronted by a hord of hungry, dirty cyclists, our food was amazing, and the cappuccino perfect.

Quick trip to see Lesa and Mark in Kommetjie.

Harbour House at the Waterfront. The menu, for a diabetic, a list of impossible, delicious sounding food. Settled on the starters as they had the most manageable, but still exotic, options. The Seafood Stack with salmon tartare, crushed avo, tomato bits, prawn tempura and caviar with pea shoots tasted as amazing as it looked. Spicy grilled calamari with olives, lemon and capers a tad less exciting.

Walk out to the wreck of the Kakopo, which ran aground on Long Beach in May 1900 en route from New Zealand to Cape Town. It mistook Chapman’s Peak for Cape Point in poor visibility. Lots of warning signs about muggings. The beach, stunning.

The pizza quest that is tasty, diabetic friendly and can be done in the Kamado Jan. A tad more challenging than the holy-grail. A galette recipe the inspiration for a trial dinner. Tasty. The fire too hot. Cooked too long. Still, much better than any commercial alternative we have experienced. Definitely, to be repeated!

Just in time for Christmas, the new silk scarves arrived. Orders couriered to their new homes and the studio display, luxuriantly decadent.

Low-carb spinach mushroom galette

Have you ever made pizza dough out of mozzarella cheese? Made famous by the people behind the Fathead movie, it really is quite revolutionary. Try your hand at my magic mozzarella dough and make this spinach mushroom galette. You won’t regret it!

Ingredients

Crust

• 170 grams grated mozzarella cheese

• 1 tbsp butter

• ½ cup fine almond flour

• ¼ cup coconut flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 large egg

Filling

• 3 oz. cream cheese, softened

• 1 garlic clove, finely minced

• salt and pepper

• 8 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained

• 2 oz. mushrooms, sliced

• 2 oz. grated mozzarella cheese

• 1 oz. grated parmesan cheese

• 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

Nutrition

by Carolyn Ketchum (Recipe, Photo)

.RecipesAppetizersLow-carb spinach mushroom galette

Instructions

Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Lightly grease the liner.

3. In a large saucepan, melt the cheese and butter together over low heat until they are melted and can be stirred together. Remove from heat and add almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, garlic powder and salt.

4. Add the egg and stir everything together until a cohesive dough forms. Use a rubber spatula to really knead it up against the sides of the pan. It may still contain some streaks of cheese.

5. Transfer to the prepared pan and knead a few more times until uniform. If your dough is very sticky, work in another tablespoon or two of almond flour. Cover the dough with another piece of parchment and roll out to a 12-inch (30 cm) circle.

Filling

1. Spread the dough with the softened cream cheese, leaving a 2-inch (5 cm) border around the outside. Sprinkle with the garlic and salt and pepper.

2. Squeeze as much moisture as possible from the spinach and layer over the cream cheese, then add a layer of mushrooms. Sprinkle with the grated cheeses.

3. Fold the edges of the crust over the filling and brush with the beaten egg yolk. Bake the galette for 25 to 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

4. Remove and let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Carolyn’s tips and tricks

Because the cheese creates a flexible dough that stretches like pizza dough, it’s useful for so many other things. Consider it for stromboli, calzones, and even sweet pastries. It can be rolled out thinly and used for crackers or even pie crusts.

I modified the basic Fathead dough, which is just simply grated cheese, cream cheese, almond flour, and an egg, to be a little sturdier. A combination of almond flour and coconut flour means it holds up better and doesn’t spread as much during baking. A little baking powder gives it a bit more of a rise, and some garlic powder gives it a great savory flavor.

A galette is tart or a pie that isn’t baked in a pan, but formed by hand with the crust folded partway over the fillings. Fathead dough makes a perfect galette crust because of its flexibility. This savory galette is filled with mushrooms, spinach, and cheese and makes a nice alternative to meat based keto recipes. It can be the whole meal or served as a side dish or appetizer. It

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Crown for a King

Oil on canvas 20cmx20cm

Prince’s second birthday. All his friends, including Licorice and Popcorn visiting. Benji and Hobo for a beach play. A boereworse braai with new squeaky toys. Chaos.

‘Craig’s and Coreta’s Charity Challenge’, a team run, and MTB jaunt out to Brenton. For the runners, across the iconic Train Bridge, while the cyclists went around over the historic Red Bridge. The climb up the Brenton nights, negotiated by all. My bothersome Achilles reducing me to an ambling shuffle.

A fisherman has been wondering about outside the studio, followed by his corgi type companion, called ‘Come Along’. They have been homeless around Knysna for awhile, having come from Cape Town. The little dog, a ‘Yoda’ personality, and it’s just possible that Obi-Wan lurked behind the facade of the fisherman. After all, the mists on the water could hide any number of worlds.

Christmas. Food shelves and magazines packed with delicacies I can’t touch. Particularly with my current blood sugars that are too high for comfort.

Decided to try and make a diabetic sensitive bûche de Noël. Whipping the egg whites proved to be quite a chore, while separating the egg whites still proved challenging, even with the special separator gadget. I didn’t want to use the cranberry jam that was in the recipe as it has too many sugars. Rather I opted for slow cooked blueberries with a few bits of fresh thyme.

It tasted surprisingly good, needed more cream filling and Im not sure that the 20min cooking time wasn’t a tad long, as it felt too firm which meant i struggled to roll the warm cake. I also used a tea towel as the wax paper was too complicated.

bûche de Noël (CHOCOLATE YULE LOG)

AUTHOR: ANGELA COLEBY

Makes 8 slices

Nutritional Info per slice:

272 Calories,

24g Fat,

8g Protein,

9.6g Total Carbs,

4.3g Fibre,

5.3g Net Carbs

INGREDIENTS

SPONGE

• 6 eggs separated

• 1/3 cup 38g coconut flour

• ½ cup 107g erythritol (or sugar substitute)

• 1/3 cup 28g cocoa powder, unsweetened

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

• ½ teaspoon salt

FILLING

• ½ cup 60g heavy/whipped cream, (whipped into stiff peaks)

• 2 tablespoons cranberry chia jamoptional

TOPPING

• 4 oz 112g butter unsalted, softened

• ¼ cup erythritol or sugar substitute

• 6 oz 168g cream cheese, softened

• ¼ cup 22g cocoa powder, unsweetened

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F degrees.

2. Grease and line a long rectangle baking tin with parchment paper. My tin is about 8 inches by 12 inches.

3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

4. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks and erythritol together.

5. Add the remaining cake ingredients to the egg yolk mixture and combine well.

6. Fold in the egg whites to the cake mixture.

7. Spoon into the baking tin and smooth evenly.

8. Bake for 20 minutes until firm.

9. Remove from the oven and place a piece of parchment paper over the cake whilst still warm (be careful not to burn yourself!).

10. Remove the cake from the tin, keeping the parchment paper on the bottom of the tin so that the cake has parchment paper either side of it.

11. Gently roll the cake from the smaller edge into a swiss roll shape. This will make it easier to unroll and fill later.

12. Set aside to cool.

13. Once the cake is cool, gently unroll the cake from the parchment paper and spread with the cranberry chia jam. Add an even layer of the whipped cream.

14. Gently roll the cake back into the swiss roll shape.

15. Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to help keep its shape.

16. Make the topping by blending the butter and cream cheese together until smooth.

17. Add the erythritol and cocoa powder and beat until smooth and blended.

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The panorama outside the window shifts daily with visiting yacht arrivals and departures. Fleur de Passion of the The Ocean Mapping Expedition, our new neighbour on the estuary.(http://www.omexpedition.ch/index.php/en/)

King Protea on the easel. Small canvases as I sort different approaches from the crazy, to the abstract.

Doing my best to look after my Achilles that thankfully has eased after a painful few days. My running shoes growing mould and my bicycle rusty as a coffee walk the extent of my activities. This does mean, with all the fabulous food and wine I have enjoyed with visiting friends that my new, super slick, high vis cycling top has a distinct ‘silk-worm’ snugness!

Silk scarf craziness as the borders seem to have changed with the file transfer of the updated images to the manufacturer. The option of including a tag that indicates that the scarves are 100% silk, and a card the tells the story of the painting, to be considered. Even for the glamorous French woman who was so thrilled with her scarf that she wore it out from the studio to dinner.

Lunch menu on the Kamado Jan. Herb crusted rack of lamb, with roasted cauliflower in browned butter. Grilled aubergine and Caprese salad. Radfordale Chardonnay. Piekenierskloof Grenache with the Colmant MCC Rose, the star. A starter of Courgette Bellini with cream cheese and salmon.

A second night of storms. The rain welcome. If not by the tourists who are having their expected sun filled holiday turned to mush.

For Prince, it’s a frightening time of noise in an energy charged atmosphere. Compounded by the storm driven high seas of the full moon. Hence, disturbed nights that have me a tad grumpy.

Roasted Cauliflower with Brown Butter

• 1 cauliflower

• 1 tablespoon canola oil

• 3 ounces/80 grams butter, at room temperature or softened

• kosher salt

1. Preheat your oven to 220˚C.

2. Cut the stem off the cauliflower as close to the base as possible and remove any leaves. Rub oil all over the cauliflower.

3. Put the cauliflower in an oven-proof skillet. Slide the pan into the oven and roast the cauliflower for 45 minutes. Remove it from the oven and smear the soft butter over the surface. Sprinkle with a four-finger pinch of salt. Roast the cauliflower for another 30 to 45 minutes, basting it several times with the butter, which will have browned. The cauliflower in the picture has about 15 more minutes of roasting. It’s done when you can insert a paring knife into it and feel no resistence. It should be completely tender.

4. delicious thing to do with the browned butter: whisk in lemon juice, minced anchovies, and whatever chopped herb you prefer

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‘Surfers’, my painting of dolphin taken from a photo out along Brenton beach. Movement to capture their joyful play the essence of the painting on a large canvas (2mx0,7m) that allowed me to indulge in the different colours of the sea.

I used the high translucency of phthalo blue and green as the primary colours in the water, adding lemon yellow to get a turquoise tint that was still transparent. Smudges of permanent magenta and cobalt blue gave a grayish tinge for to assist in the contrast of the sea spray.

The Forager in Scarborough our lunch stop after struggling to find shade parking for Prince and wanting to be out of the weekend afternoon traffic chaos that Cape Town ties itself up in. Pleasantly surprised that it was dog friendly. A Rosé from Steenberg, with a fillet wrap of some description. A tad dissapointing that the coconut wrap described on the menu is no longer available, which meant most of the meal had to be discarded.

Surrounded by a group of cyclists on the last stage of their Cape tour. All done on ebikes! We noticed that a couple of them were wearing nifty mirrors on their glasses to keep track of what was happening behind them. When I queried as to where they are available, the guy unclipped it and handed it to me. Amazing.

Beach walk in the sunshine. Prince still terribly afraid of the crashing surf. Border Collie mayhem once he was coaxed onto the beach, into a world of dog craziness. Watching the flow of the sea and surfers for my painting of the dolphins.

Live Bait at Muizenberg, simply fabulous. Distracted by the changing light on the sea. Gentle flavours from the ‘92 Boschendal Lanoy from somewhere in Alan’s stash, with the yellowtail, which was grilled to perfection. A quick trip through the village that continues its transformation from the rundown, shambolic, to quirky, interesting.

Blue tape making a reappearance on my leg as I seem to have strained my Achilles at some point. Nothing crazy in my daily running or cycling. Still, a nuisance.

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Air reverberating with the sounds of helicopters heading to the fire front, the news that one of my collectors homes had burnt down. 3 generations of memories lost, and my paintings.

Blood sugars suddenly trampolining all over the place (7.8 mmol/L -3.8 mmol/L) after a month of being stable. Averaging 6.0 mmol/L with a standard deviation of 0,7. Diabetic carbs at 23grams, well within the 50 gram range. Particularly noticeable an hour after exercise, with cycling creating the biggest swings. Dehydration with the onset of warmer weather?

‘A Pair of Kings’. A small painting of the King Protea on the studio table that reminded me of Van Gogh’s ‘Still Life with Two Sunflowers’ painted in Paris, 1887.

After the contortions to create the small works my shoulders and hands are straining with the demands of covering the large surface for my painting of dolphins. The rough canvas blistering fingers already a tad sensitive from not concentrating when changing hot braai grids on the Kamado Jan for the slow cooked fillet.

The Forest. Full of magic. Roses of every hue, perfuming the world. Ghost tendrils. Air plants in the setting sun. Timeless laughter with excellent wine and an exquisite dinner under a star filled sky. Woodcutters Cottages, another gem in our part of paradise.