Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Open Topic

This photo was taken between Vredenburg and Port Owen in the Western Cape, South Africa. True colour of the light that day,  no black and white setting.

iPhone photo:Elmarie flippenblog.com

All in a day

Sometimes it is better not to plan. Just go on a whim by the seat of your pants. This weekend was one of those.

Room with a view-Simon’s Town

We went for a one night stay in the sleepy Naval village of Simon’s Town about 40 km from Cape Town. Browsing, shopping a bit, eating a lot and sleeping well.

Simon’s Town

The next morning the full intention was to go straight home but a detour here and there and playing tourists in our own area, we ended up at Cape Point. To most it feels like the most southern tip of Africa but is is not, it is however open water from there right to Antarctica. Ahoy sailer!

Cape Point and then Antarctica!

A very nice weekend always has to end with a special lunch of sorts……

White and dark chocolate desert. Hotel Hohenhort Constantia

Random Photo: #ilovecapetown

This is how far we are

Cape Dutch Manor House 2 – Weltevreden Estate

I absolutely adore the Cape Dutch style houses which are so unique to the Western Cape. We are very fortunate to live in an area where there are literally thousands of wine producing farms and it is normally on these farms where the manor houses are so rich in the history and heritage of who whe are.

Weltevreden Estate

I previously blogged about such a house De Kleijne Bos in this post http://flippenblog.com/2013/06/23/guavas-in-the-glorious-cape-winelands/ and whenever we get the chance, we stay over for a night or two in a Cape Dutch house where the owners run them as B&B’s, which gives us mere mortals the chance to experience life the way it used to be. This weekend it was the manor house at the farm Weltevreden, just outside of Stellenbosch where the owner is not shy to share his heritage house with the public. Weltevreden is not a wine producing farm but is smack in the middle of wine country.

The service was downright excellent and the Congolese houseman was proud to show us around and share his pride in the owner’s house and grounds.

Weltevreden Manor House, Stellenbosch

The Weltevreden house (weltevreden is Dutch for being very satisfied, I should bloody well hope so with a house like this…) was built in 1812 and the origin of these houses was during the the late 1600’s after Jan van Riebeeck arrived in the Cape in 1652. They were(and still are) all white washed and all have the typical thatched roofs which was the norm due to the then shortage of building materials in the Cape. The earlier ones had a higher beam above the front door to “lift” the thatched roof ceiling to allow for a window and more light in the attic room above the front door and were called “wolfsneus” houses (wolve’s nose).

As the settlers became more affluent( and surely more wives joined the men….) the houses and the gables became more elaborate and the “wolfsneus” became a typical Dutch “bol/bol” design, meaning round shaped like a ball.

Even later the bol/bol became “hol/bol” designs which means hollow/ball shaped, having symetrical indents and rounded shapes in the gable, followed after that with a bit of flair by adding statues, family insignia’s and so forth. Clever old Dutchmen to leave us these beauties.

I can make do with this ” “cottage”…..

Of course the standard straight rectangular shapes became T- shapes, U-shapes and eventually H- shaped manors as buildings were extended and the wealth increased( more children happened when more wives joined, see!).

Eventually too many fires and more availability of other building materials caused the building styles to change away from thatch and the beautiful and elaborate gables to more flat roofs which then developed into more stories and higher buildings. Damn shame.

Nevertheless, the grand old style is celebrated in the Western Cape and it never hurts to feel a bit like the lady of the manor house once in a while…..if only…..

Manor Treasures

The estate is also home to an impressive collection of Porches of the owner and there is a great restaurant where the chef understands the importance of preserving the typical Boland dishes in their original form, served with cheffy flair.

We were paying guests at the Manor House and restaurant and I gush about this place out of free will! They can be contacted at www.weltevredenestate.com

Baked fig&camembert and a Porche please

All in all “the lady of the Manor” had a tremendous weekend.

Random Photo taken at Tokara Wine Estate around the corner from Weltevreden. The nest is where children hatch.

Art at Tokara

Crispy Butternut Slices

Butternut is such a robust and proud thing. It sits there and it says loud and clear” I am a vegetable!”  We all do a million and ten things with it, but my favourite way with this pumpkin is to just slice it in thin slices ( something between n slither and a chunk) with skin and all.

Crispy butternut

Into a baking tray with the lot and sprinkle with pumkin spice ( and if you can’t find pumkin spice, any spice will do, even a spicy chilli mix).

I am a vegetable

Drizzle with olive oil and bake at 180 C until crispy at the edges (45 min or more).

Crispy Butternut Slices

Side dish or main dish or snack, any old which way and it always looks and tastes good. And what’s more, it is ORANGE, and I love it!

Random photo taken by my husband earlier this year:

Rainy day Hout Bay, Western Cape

Coconut-lime Cream Dessert

Coconut-lime Cream

I’ve been making this dessert fot a while after I first landed in cream heaven at my friends dinner table when she served a similar one. Ina gave me the recipe and we both started tweaking and adjusting and I suppose we shall forever keep on doing so as we dream up new varieties of the same theme. It is just so versatile. Her original recipe uses full cream yogurt and evaporated milk and I adjusted it to use coconut cream for that subtle coconut flavour together with whatever fruit flavour I choose to use. This time it was lime and drumrrrrroll…pomegranate-chilli preserve, which I was lucky enough to find at a local market.

Steps coconut- lime cream

Scoop your choice of fruit compote/ preserve in the bottom of a glass.

On high speed beat together:

1x tin (400 ml) coconut cream-beat until thick and then add

250ml cream and 2 packets of jelly(flavour of your choice)- beat all together until thick and creamy

Pour into individual glasses, garnish and refrigerate (who am I kidding, we never even reach the refrigeration stage!)

Coconut-lime cream & Chili-pomegranate

I have made it in various flavours but must say, the best one yet is the lime and I dread the day that my jar of pomegranate-chilli preserve is finished. Check out the producer and all of their great product at http://www.passionatepomegranate.co.za.

Coconut-lime cream. Thank you Ina!

*I paid for all of the products used in this post.

Random photo for today: Penguins! Ahhhh, just love the way they shuffle.

Feb 2013 at Boulder’s Beach, Simon’s Town, Western Cape

Kitch! Those were the days….

We spent a weekend in the whale coast town of Hermanus, Western Cape and we sort of happened upon the delightful Kitch Cafe in one of the many side streets and nooks and crannies this town seems to have. Oh what I would give to have this vinyl kitchen cupboard! Elvis of course had to feature somewhere. The Cafe is proudly kitch and beautiful with a good selection of Vladimir Tretchikoff prints hanging all over and so reminded me of a lot of South African homes of my youth. Read more about Tretchi at http://www.vladimirtretchikoff.com My mother used to have a copy of the swan painting, beatifully  and ornately framed and I really wish I knew what happened to it. The crying boy featured in a lot of homes in the 70’s! For me the spanish  “dance doll” has to take the cake! I have not seen this for many years and remember an aunt that had them in the brightest of orange and bright red, proudly displaying them between other kitch items in her “formal” lounge, imagine….. We only had coffee but the food we saw looked great and the service was excellent. Old Afrikaans LP covers used as place mats, nice touch!  I will for sure go back for a lunch and to reminisce more about the past. Ahhh, those were the days! Visit Kitch Cafe in person where kitch is really cool or on their facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kitch Cafe Hermanus-“Whale Capital of South Africa”