Wow, where do I begin.

It has been ages since I have sat down to type and write and let the words just flow. Lately all my times seems to be devoted to work, work and more work.

During the pandemic, life was slow go, where deadlines seemed to be a thing of the distance past then it was down graded to level 1 and boom out of the blue, everyone went into overdrive and e-mails with new procedures, new this and new that was needed to be implemented ASAP.

Being a women in a mans world, means that the pressure is on, I have also discovered that people are now very rude and arrogant and somehow everyone wants their way or they want to be right.

Audits, visits, training, and meetings are coming from all sides. I have become addicted to coca cola that has now resulted in me getting a boep belly and the early stages of a double chin. I tired, I really did try giving it up, but a day of constantly being on your feet and on the go can not be fuelled by pure caffeine alone.

Then when the world was starting to right itself, my father pulled a leg muscle. Which in the beginning we thought was a Baker’s cyst, numerous tablets, numerous doctor visits and a ultrasound later the verdict was a pulled muscle in the leg and would require the leg to be rested at regular interval. What does all this mean, this all means that it would be having an adult in the house that would not want to sit still and rest and would sulk like a big baby when told NO.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to work in the garden and have to constantly pry the rake out of my dad’s hands and send him inside to relax or try and clean the car without him wanting to help. My mother of course doesn’t shout him, she shouts me for allowing him to help me and putting more strain on his muscle. Ja right, he listens to my mother, but when it comes to me my dad turns a deaf ear and carries on doing what he isn’t supposed to be doing. I leave him, let him fall and cry out in pain while we are in the garden, I am going to leave him there… keeping watching this space.

Cooking and baking are things that I dream of doing, now I just cook simple meals and buy ready made puddings, also with the constant drought, there just isn’t enough water to wash dishes every minute of the day.

This morning, life seemed to be bearable, my mother had strapped my father and gave him a good scolding and me, well I managed to get more than 4 hours of sleep last night and I felt like baking something homemade, to smell that aroma floating around in the air… oh how I miss baking. I just hope Eskom doesn’t read my blog posts, I don’t have space on my to list to incorporate load shedding, I am just throwing it out there.

For teatime today, I dug into the archives all the way to a Your Family recipe dated 1977.

I had a can of apple slices that I had bought during the pandemic, and it seemed to be standing on the shelf all sad and lonely and well today was the day it was being called to duty.

The original recipe contained eggs, but I used my eggless dough recipe instead.

The verdict, I loved it, my mother loved it and well my dad, he apparently couldn’t taste anything because the Caltrate tablet had made his taste buds too strong to taste my experiments. Lord help me.

Ingredients:

• 125g x butter.
• 50ml x buttermilk.
• 2 x tbsp vegetable oil.
• 1 x tsp vanilla essence.
• 4 x tsp baking powder.
• 2 x tbsp castor sugar.
• 2 x cups cake flour, sifted.
• 1 x tin unsweetened apple pie slices.
• 3 x tbsp sultanas.
• 1/3 x cup apricot jam.
• Icing sugar for dusting.

Method:

• In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and castor sugar till light and fluffy.
• Add in the vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla essence.
• Mix till well combined.
• Sift in the dry ingredients and mix till the mixture comes together and starts to form a soft dough.
• Shape the dough into a ball and divide into 2 pieces, ¾ and ¼ pieces.
• Using your fingers, place the ¾ dough piece into a greased baking tin and evenly spread and flatten along the bottom of the tin.
• Place the apple pie slices in an even layer onto of the dough.
• Sprinkle over the sultanas.
• Dot with jam.
• Grate the remaining dough disc over the top.
• Pop into a preheated oven and bake at 180 degrees for 45 – 60 minutes or until the top is lightly golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
• Once cool, generously dust icing sugar of the top and cut into squares.