All Cohen wanted for his birthday was: “A ride on the blue train … and calamari.” So, we rode the blue train in Moulliepoint and ate calamari.

Opening a new Lightning McQueen outfit from Nana and Papa

Opening a new Fire Engine Lego set from Ouma and Oupa

Can't really tell if Sloane enjoyed the ride on the Blue Train

Mila didn’t necessarily have a list of demands for her birthday, so we just had supper at home with Ouma and Oupa. Pink cupcakes and a new tea set were all this girl needed.

Apparently, although the cupcakes were good...corn on the cob is where it's at!

In between these two celebrations was also an act of heroism gone awry. We’re not entirely sure what transpired, as the story developed and was embellished with each re-telling, but suffice it to say, we rather enjoyed the attention that we received from this shiner.

Honey Oat Granola Bars

If you grew up in South Africa and you’re able to think back to childhood birthday parties, then you know that every South African birthday party contained a few staples. There was, undoubtedly a game of ‘Pass the Parcel’, ‘Musical Chairs’ or perhaps ‘Musical Statues’ and a game, or two, of ‘Simon Says’. But since I’ve always been a lot more concerned with the food table, most of my memories are of the treats. So, when I think of childhood birthday parties, I think of Chomps, Bar Ones, Sugus and the famous South African crunchie.

A crunchie is a baked treat that even the worst of bakers manages to plate up for her child’s party and it’s one of those staples that pays great tribute to the love that many South Africans have for Golden Syrup. Even my mom, who truthfully has no future as a baker, (although she, of course, maintains that this is due, entirely, to the fact that she has a convection oven, in which you can bake absolutely nothing…), managed to serve many a crunchie during her years as party hostess.

Fast forward 20 years or so and I am now the mom throwing the birthday parties. But, more importantly, the mom, (much like many others) who cringes at the 10am chorus in my house of: “Mooooooooooom, I’m huuuuuuuungry.” Now that we are entering the winter season, too, I fear that my children may actually start throwing the apples, bananas and oranges at me, rather than obligingly eating them, as so many of us grow tired of the staple three fruit choices available until Spring arrives.

I realized, this week, afresh, that I am going to have to take the snack situation in my home to a new level. So, you can imagine my delight when, out of the blue, my mom sends each of us, her daughters, an email last week with a crunchie recipe attached. I had been flipping through her ‘Complete South African Cookbook’ a few weeks before and she had probably thought a staple like crunchies should be in my repertoire.

For a week, now I have been tweaking the original recipe and have made a few adjustments that make it a much healthier snack – more like the American granola bar, only without the high fructose corn syrup. The variations and options for add-ins are endless, really, and since the base of these bars is so easy, you can practically throw in whatever you have in the cupboard.

So, here we go:

Original South African Crunchie Recipe:

1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of coconut
2 cups of oats

125gms of margarine or butter
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
2 heaped Tablespoons of golden syrup

Apparently, some people are still eating margarine … yikes!

‘Tweaked’ Crunchie Recipe or ‘Honey Oat Granola Bars’

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup coconut
3 cups large flake oats
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ tsp salt

½ cup sunflower seeds
3 Tbs ground flax seed (linseed)
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, cashews, pecans)
1 cup chopped dried fruit (apricot, cranberries, raisins, sultanas)
¾ cup coconut oil (melted)
¾ cup honey

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 140 C/250 F and line a baking sheet with parchment/baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients and mix together well.
3. In a smaller bowl, combine your seeds, nuts and dried fruits

Apricots, Sultanas (yellow raisins), Slivered Almonds and Walnuts

4. In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil. Once melted, remove from heat and add honey. Stir until well combined.
5. Throw nuts and seeds into the large bowl and then pour honey and coconut oil mixture on top.
6. Mix around with your fingers until it looks like all ingredients are well combined.
7. Dump entire mixture onto baking sheet and begin to pat all ingredients down until baking sheet is evenly covered.
8. Place in oven and bake for 12 minutes.
9. Turn oven off and allow bars to ‘dry’ in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cut bars into desired sizes, immediately.
11. Remove bars from baking sheet by lifting the parchment paper and placing entire sheet on a cooling rack , or your counter top, to cool completely.
12. ‘Break’ apart once cooled and, assuming your family isn’t like mine and devours everything within five minutes, store in an air-tight container.

Oh, and let’s be real, usually, when I make these, my chocolate chip collection seems to make its way into the mix…don’t know how it happens, but I pull the bars out of the oven and there they are, in all their glossy, gooey goodness, peaking through the oats and sunflower seeds.

No complaints here…

Could she be any cuter?

Mila is proving to be a very easy baby, she continues to just mosey around the house, blowing bubbles with her lips and allowing Cohen and Sloane kisses and tickles whenever they please. Cohen is still obsessed with her, calls her ‘…my darling…’ and if I let him, I think he’d put her in his pocket and carry her wherever he went. Mila has also proven to have acquired the Senkbile appetite; she eats like a champ and thoroughly enjoys every morsel as it approaches. She has also finds random pieces of paper and napkins around the house to be a rather tasty snack…although these often lead to the odd bout of choking and distress, of which mom is not too fond.

Cheeky Monkey

Sloane is our quiet, sweet, in-another-world-most-of-the-time daughter. She loves to move small toys from one container to another and stop for a spot of pretend tea every now and then. She has always loved to draw and has a new fascination with stickers and glitter. She would also much rather play with her hair pieces than actually let me use them in her hair, but we’re working on that. The girl in her does come out, though, at any mention of a dress,( a ‘pretty’) or better yet, a ballet tutu. Lord help me…

Two Peas in a Pod

Cohen is every bit Samurai warrior that he has been for the last 3 1/2 years and shows no signs of stopping. He is enjoying his two mornings a week at play school and when at home, there absolutely needs to be a daily dose of ‘big boy lego’, wrestling, reading and showing off his newly acquired ‘big boy bike’ skills. Cohen has a massive appetite for learning new things, whether it’s crafts, reading, bicycle riding, cooking in the kitchen or…..dad’s ipad. No kidding.

Kids these days…

So, while we don’t actually have creatures living in any of our laundry baskets, (that I know of), we do have a lot of disorder around here, and I am slowly wading myself through laundry, errands, bills and emails to friends…and blog posts. Why? We’ve just been having too much fun. Having two friends from the United States stay with us for a combined six weeks was all the excuse this girl needed to forget about normal routine.

But, since family all over the world typically doesn’t care too much about how much fun you’re having and since said family is rather more concerned with regular updates on how your children look, here is a quick catch up in pictures.

First up: Our middle child and first daughter, Sloane, turned two on February 28th. That night, we had a small family party with pizza and cupcakes. And how glad we are that we did as the morning of her princess cupcake party, we had three children wake up with raging fevers…and had to cancel. Boo!

Birthday Beauty

Next (Just for Kicks): Mila: our third baby and second daughter. Lots of personality and smiles, this one! Apparently, everything they say about the third child is true…this girl eats on-the-go, sleeps on-the-go and smiles from ear-to-ear in between. She was our ‘surprise’ addition and she has proven to be an absolute gift in ever sense of the word. She is almost six months old and is on the cusp of learning to crawl. She loves her solid foods and her biggest fan is still undoubtedly her big brother.

Happiness

Next: What is one to do with two friends from America who both want to experience all that Cape Town has to offer? Start them out at Mzoli’s in Guglethu, of course. If you have not done yourself the favor of lunch at this meat market, correct this problem as soon as you are able.

The basic premise is this: you enter the main entrance and choose your cuts of meat from the refrigerator. This meat is then ‘braaied’ (BBQ-ed) to perfection in a secret sauce and then handed to you in a massive dish, which you then take back to your table to enjoy with your party. You can also order ‘pap’, a local South African grain cooked much like American grits and you can order a tomato and chilli relish/salsa. Anything else you may want to eat has to brought with you, including bread and drinks, chips or anything else. No other utensils accompany your meal, except for maybe a few serviettes/napkins.

The day we decided to go was especially hot and so ice creams were also a necessary side addition to the meal…

Not for Vegans

Right after lunch at Mzoli’s, we headed to Camps Bay, to show them a completely different side of Cape Town. Fun was had by all and no one seemed to notice the frigid temperatures of the Atlantic on this insatiably hot day … which, apparently called for round two of ice creams.

Summer Bliss

The rest of our adventures, (which are too many to each have their own post or photo collage, for that matter), included Cape Point, The Waterfront, Hout Bay, Arabella Spa and Resort outside Hermanus, Stellenbosch wineries and a few I am sure I am forgetting. Here are a few highlights:

All this ‘catching up’ on summer fun has me somewhat bummed about our impending winter, which I almost never look forward to and this year is no exception.

More later…

Golf Cart Fun

Me: (with large amounts of frustration) Cohen, for the love, please go and play outside…

Cohen: Ugh. (While obediently bouncing out to the backyard)

Two minutes later, Cohen returns (again!) to the living room, with a large branch in his hand and a make-shift helmet on his head.

Cohen: Okay, people, who wants to play with God?

Sloane: Nope

Cohen: Sloane, that’s really naughty. The Bible says you have to play with God. You should obey the Bible.

Leaves me wondering what their Bible story was about last night…

This is the newest addition to our family…isn’t she just the sweetest thing you have ever laid your eyes on? She is 3 months old on Thursday and I love her more than life itself.

But, since she has nothing to do with marinara sauce, let’s move on…

Anyone else with a garden have tomatoes and basil coming out of their ears? While my northern hemisphere friends are freezing off their extremities just retrieving the mail in the mornings, those of us in the southern hemisphere are in the throws of summer and this means that, if you have a vegetable garden, you are begging your friends to take your tomatoes off your hands.

Don’t beg anymore. Instead, think ahead to winter when all the tomatoes in the grocery store are pink and mushy and lifeless and not worth the small down payment on a house that Pick ‘n Pay and Woolworths would like to charge you. Instead, think to warm, cozy winter nights by the fire, with fire roasted tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Instead, think about homemade pizza with fresh tomato sauce, (that you made), bubbling on the crust underneath your cheese.

Now, harvest your tomatoes, bring them inside and let’s start making our own delicious marinara sauce, which you can then use all winter long.

Note: Unless I am baking, which almost always requires measuring ingredients and precise temperatures, I don’t usually cook with recipes. Recipes for me are more of a springboard for ideas and then, since I almost never have the required ingredients at home, I mess with them until they work for me and what I have in the pantry.

So, for this sauce, don’t worry so much about having all of the ingredients in the exact right quantities, just mess with the guideline and make it the way you like it.

You’ll need:
Tomatoes: maybe 20 or 30, depending on how big they are
Red peppers: maybe 4 or 5
Onions: 2 medium sized
Garlic: 2 or 3 cloves, or 2 or 3 tablespoons, minced
Salt and Pepper
Red Wine: a quarter of a cup
Basil: as much as you like
Olive oil

1. Set your oven to 220C/450F
2. Cut up your tomatoes, onions and red peppers in big, rustic, pieces. No perfection or order needed.
3. Place all of these in a roasting dish and season with salt and pepper. Coat with olive oil and toss until each little bit is glistening.
4. Place in oven to roast, probably about 25 – 35 minutes.

Another note: many recipes I have read for homemade marinara sauce have you take out the seeds and flesh of the tomatoes and have you blend and boil this mixture until it’s fully cooked. The problem with this is you loose a lot of the nutrients in the tomatoes and peppers, as many of them are water soluble. Roasting these veggies allows you to reduce the amount of nutrients lost to cooking and as you’ll see later, you leave the seeds and skins of the tomatoes, which means you don’t waste anything and you increase your fibre intake. Just sayin’.

5. In a separate pan, lightly sautee your garlic. Allow the sweet aroma to just start escaping and then take off the heat. You don’t want burnt garlic. Not a fun taste.
6. When your veggies have finished roasting, there will be lots of bubbling, a probably a few browned edges. This is a good thing.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.
8. While you’re waiting, pile your basil leaves on top of each other and then start to cut really thin, ribbon-like slices. Set aside.
9. In your blender, throw in tomatoes, garlic and wine and give it a good blend. The colour should be almost a deep orange-red. Delish…
10. Add basil at this point, as it preserves that fresh flavour, rather than getting cooked to death in the roasting pan.

Voila! You now have a basic marinara sauce that can be used on pizza bases, for pasta dishes, as a base for soups and chillis…the possibilities are endless. Well, not really, as not everything taste good with tomato, but you know what I mean.

You can decant this sauce into glass jars and freeze, or ZipLock bags, or Tupperware containers. Whatever makes you happy. I haven’t learned the art of preserving in cans, yet, but hope to get there. In the meantime, we buy Consol’s canning jars at our local Checkers and just freeze the sauce in those, while making sure to leave about 3 centimetres at the top of the jar to allow for liquid expansion in the freezer.

So, because I have two girls who have apparently inherited my beautifully malfunctioning digestive system and because I can no longer bring myself to give Woolworths R15 for a loaf of bread that they claim is wholewheat, I have been on a search for a good brown bread recipe. Nothing fancy, just something that I can pop in the oven while wiping peanut butter off of almost every surface in my home, do the required 17 loads of laundry that somehow pile up before lunch and resist the temptation to haul out the take-out menu collection in our kitchen and think ahead to actually cooking supper.

So, imagine my delight at finding a recipe on the Passionate Homemaking website (Sidenote/Warning: blogs like this make me feel acutely deficient as a wife, mother and homemaker, which I know is not the intent, but seriously, do some of these girls have 29 hours in their day? Okay, topic for another post.)

I have adapted her recipe a little, and am happy with how it turns out. If you have read the label on a loaf of brown bread lately and realized that actually, the main ingredient is still bleached white flour, with, perhaps, a teaspoon of wholewheat flour, or if like my two toddlers, your children eat loaves of bread by the dozen, then you may find this recipe useful and easy. An additional bonus: I haven’t made a 7am we-are-out-of-bread-again-and-cannot-make-toast-for-breakfast run to the local grocery store in quite some time.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
1/4 cup warm water

Combine these ingredients in a bowl and allow to soak for 2-3 hours, depending on how much time you have. If you really want to break down the oats to ensure the easiest digestion for your body, then soak for 24 hours.

1 packet instant yeast
1tsp honey
1/8 cup warm water

Combine water and honey in a bowl and sprinkle yeast on top and allow to sit for 15 minutes until bubbling. If it does not bubble, your yeast is probably dead, or your water was a little hot and may have killed the yeast. Either way, dump out and start again.

1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 flaxseed or millet
3 cups unprocessed, unrefined, wholewheat flour (the original recipe on the Passionate Homemaking website has you soak the flour, too, which you can do.)

1. In a large bowl, combine the soaked oats, bubbling yeast, and flour/salt/sunflower seed combination and 2 TBS coconut oil. (Coconut oil is not necessary, but makes for a really good flavour and really moist bread.) Mix all ingredients together.
2. Once combined, dump onto a counter top, which has been lightly dusted with flour, and knead for 5 minutes. You may need to add a little a little flour as you go, but try to keep the dough as ‘sticky’ as possible, as this will result in a moist bread.
3. Once kneaded, roll into a ball and place in a greased bowl for one hour, covered with a damp cloth, and allow to rise.
4. After first rising, dump dough, (which should be about twice its original size) onto counter. Punch down and knead for about 5 minutes again.
5. Using a rolling pin, roll out your dough and starting at the ‘back’ roll your dough into a log, making the log as tight as possible.
6. Once rolled, place in a greased (I use coconut oil) bread pan, (slightly different in dimensions to a loaf pan, but a loaf pan works fine) and punch down until all the sides of your dough touch the sides of the pan.
7. Now, preheat your oven to 160C/350F and allow your bread to rise for another 20-30 minutes.
8. Place pan into oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and a stick/knife inserted comes out lean.
9. Allow to cool on a wire rack, in the pan for about 5 minutes and then remove from pan and allow to cool on wire rack completely.

Tip: Because this bread is moist and delicious, I use an electric carving knife to cut it. I am sure this sounds lazy and I am sure I don’t care. You see, my husband claims that the best part about eating homemade bread is that you get to eat slices that are 4 inches thick. While I may agree with him on principle, I am not eager to be making bread every morning, so using the electric knife allows me to cut thinner slices, allowing the loaf to last longer.

You do whatever works for you. Enjoy!

So, on November 3rd, this happened:

…and we have been enjoying little Miss Mila a lot. Cohen is very concerned that people ‘..be gentle..’ with his little sister and Sloane is most irritated anytime Mila actually has to use her bouncy seat or car seat, since it means she has to get her little toosh out of there. Both older siblings are still fascinated by this little person who now lives with us and find any reason to go into her room to ‘…check and make sure she’s okay…’

Our Cohen is now three-and-a-half. Hard to believe. He is equal parts boy, tender-hearted super hero, bossy big brother, reader (sort of), story teller, pasta lover and Bob The Builder and Diego wannabe :) He is a delight to have as a son as he is always up for anything, and this year will begin playschool two mornings a week. At present, we are working on the balance between feeling/articulating emotions to those around him, but not acting on those emotions to the point of inflicting pain on others. (Sloane sports some pretty impressive battle wounds at times.)

Sloane is two years old in about six weeks. Also hard to believe. She is equal parts princess, dirt digger, diva, day dreamer, mischief instigator, food enthusiast, stuffed animal lover and mommy’s helper. Sloane.Never.Stops.Talking. Ask anyone who knows her and you will find I am no liar. Usually she’s taking census of everyone in the car or the room, or telling her dolls: ‘…I told you to stop doing that …’ The unfortunate thing, though, is that she does this at decibels that only dogs can hear. She is a good combination of sweet and sneaky, and we are currently working on immediate obedience, which is, apparently, a most unfair request of a princess. What she is slowly coming to realize, though, is that we are not giving up, so she may as well surrender.

Then there is our sweet Mila. No knowledge, yet, on what her personality is like, but we are loving the kisses and cuddles and smirking and cooing coming from the bouncy seat. So far, we have struggled a little with colic and Mila’s preferred time to hang each day is between 10pm and 2am, which means JD and I are about to die of sleep deprivation, but other than that, things are settling down into a good rhythm.

Due to a rather interesting dirt and watering can situation with my older two, we’ll have to wait for future posts about what’s been going on here and what we hope to accomplish over the next year

Happy New Year to you all!

I’m not even going to delve into any excuses as to why, but I will let you in on what has happened since our last post, which truly seems like a lifetime ago.

1. December of last year, we had JD’s parents, two siblings and our very pregnant sister-in-law in town for three weeks. It was the first time that any of them had met Sloane and a year since they had hung out with Cohen. The vacation was a blast and saying goodbye was not easy.

2. In February, we celebrated the first birthday of our precious daughter, Sloane, who has been an absolute delight to have around this house. She is always smiling, talks a mile-a-minute and absolutely adores her ‘Daddy.’

3. Then, in April, we launched our little church plant, VOX City Church. In the first 6 months that we have been meeting as a community, we have seen people understand the gospel in new ways and experience the freedom that this brings to their lives, which has been really exciting and encouraging … and is why we do what we do.

4. Four weeks before we launched VOX, we also found out that we were expecting baby number three. A most unexpected surprise, to be sure, but one that we are eagerly anticipating. As I write this, I am five weeks away from our due date, and we are slowly getting ready to house three kids three and under!

5. June of this year, we packed our family into two suitcases and boarded a plane for America. My middle sister Janene married a man whom she met at our wedding almost eight years ago and we got to be a part of their beautiful, intimate and very special day. She looked gorgeous and we had fun celebrating with our Aunt ‘Big-J.’ It was the first time the five of us Odendaals had been in the same room for 2 and a half years. Good memories! We then traveled on to Colorado and Nebraska, attending the Acts 29 Lead Planters’ Annual retreat and visiting with old Coram Deo friends in Omaha. At the end of this three-week whirlwind journey, we were able to spend 6 days with Nana and Papa Senkbile on the Senkbile Farm and enjoy time with JD’s siblings, Jamie and Chris. As well as our sister-in-law and brand new niece Evie, whom we had not yet met.

5. Since returning, we have been busy with life, church planting, getting fat (really, that’s just happening to Michele, at a fairly alarming rate), and a much needed 10-day family getaway to Langebaan. We’ve also celebrated Coco’s third birthday, with nothing other than a new Spiderman suit, which means that most evening bath times end with a fist thrust in the air, head thrown back and a rather loud reminder that he is, in fact, a super hero…lest we forget.

6. Coming up, JD is attending the Third Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization. This year, the conference is being held in Cape Town and he has been invited to attend as a delegate. The pre-reading load is heavy and the schedule is intense, but he is excited to be involved in something this big.

7. After that, we get ready to welcome Senkbile baby number three. No big deal, right?

So, as I commit to myself that I am going to make another attempt at being faithful with this blogging stuff, if I should only reappear next September know that it’s simply because we just have a couple things going on around here.

Not sure what’s going on in the pictures in this post, but, well, my photography is not something I brag about.