How many Grams in a stick of Butter?

One of  the biggest challenges many of us expats face when moving to South Africa is adjusting our baking and cooking. I have always loved baking and have grown to love cooking as well though I fail at dinner more than I do dessert. So, when I moved to Africa I thought I would have all this time to try out new recipes and get creative. Well... the getting creative part ended up being a necessity.
First, lets discuss the grocery shopping. Grocery shopping at first was very frustrating even though within 10 miles of my house there are at least 5 different grocery stores. The problem is that they often offer different things and have very little variety so you may have to go to several of those stores just to complete your grocery list. You may find Swiss cheese at one store but the next will only have one type of "everyday cheese" (not joking there is really cheese called this... and I have yet to try it). Or if you find something you need one day its best to stock up  because next week the store may no longer carry that item. You also find out that like home some stores have great meat selections, but poor produce. We have also found that one store may have better quality of items, but the prices may be higher. So for the most part we shop for quality and then stock up on cheaper non perishables at various other places. I have stopped choosing recipes that call for name brand seasonings like ranch packets or taco seasoning packets as these are hard to come by. Or if I do really want to make something I just change the recipe. I made a dip one day that called for Italian seasoning, but couldn't find it at the store I chose to go to so instead of running to another store I just made it with Greek seasoning, and it turned out great! For the most part we tend to stick to the basics: meat, potatoes, veggies. Typically, we mix it up with a casserole or Mexican one night. Though, the Mexican seasoning isn't the same as it is at home. Usually, they will have Old El Paso products, but they still taste different here. You can't find Rotel anywhere and re fried beans are hard to come by too. Pasta sauce is tricky as well, they tend to taste like they have more sugar and rarely come in large jars. Typically I buy a jar and then mix in tomatoes and seasonings to spruce it up a bit.  Fruits and vegetables don't keep as well as they do back home either so instead of one large weekly grocery trip we now make two. Usually one family trip to the store on Sundays and then I do a smaller trip mid week by myself. I have started to find some favorite SA products and have started shopping at pretty much one store consistently. There are a few grocery stores here that will stock popular American products. You can find Heinz Ketchup and Hellman's Mayo now, but typically they are more pricey. There is a grocery store down town that carries a large variety, but it is pretty expensive. I've heard people go there to get their Starbucks Coffee Beans for $20.00 a bag!  Living here has also inspired us to start making more things from complete scratch. I wish I had packed my Joy Of Cooking cookbook because it's so good for the basics, but the internet has been a lifesaver for that too. Over the weekends we make pancakes and no longer use a box (honestly, I don't know why I ever used the box mix before), and I am inspired now to make my own pasta sauce and taco seasoning too.  We will see how that turns out.

Now lets talk baking. So this is your typical block of butter:

yeah when I first got this home I thought okay... how do I work with this, and how many grams are in one stick or even one tablespoon?  Again thanks to the internet and a good knife I can get my grams close enough to the tablespoons.  It's taken some adjusting some days my pancakes are a little more buttery, though over all it works.  Typically, it is also hard to find brown sugar here. The typical brown sugar sold here is what we back home would consider "Raw Sugar" you may know the brand "Sugar in the Raw" great for my coffee, but I don't care for it much in my cookies, makes them a little grainy tasting. So, on a tip from a friend I packed two bags of baking brown sugar, and have been told you can hunt it down occasionally at various places. I think the last place I was told to go was the Chinese market... hmmm.

My oven also looks like this:

As you can see it's pretty small, fits about one dish at a time, and of course it's in Celsius. So, once I figure what 350 Fahrenheit was about 180 Celsius I could go from there, but I soon learned my oven is on the low side so I crank it up a bit to get things to cook better over all.

Oh, and my stove top looks like this:

As you can see the dials have no numbers on them ( I am sure they just wore off), but it took me a good week to figure out high heat and low heat.

So baking and cooking have been different here, and again like everything took some getting used to, but over all we have been pretty happy with the food and have had fun trying out some new things! Oh, but if you visit us be prepared for me to give you a shopping list of food items we want from home! We are missing a few things for sure! :)

So... This is 30?

So  I am straying from our African Adventures this week to talk about turning the BIG 3-0.

This weekend we celebrated my 30th Birthday! Another decade in the books and I have to tell you it feels pretty good! My birthday in general was pretty much like any other Friday. The boys stay home with me on Fridays so we were up as usual at 5:15; the boys ready to play, and like normal, I was ready to lay on the couch for an hour sipping tea and wishing I was still asleep. My fabulous friend Misty stayed up to the crazy hour of 10pm on her Thursday night so that she could FaceTime me on the morning of my Birthday!! She toasted me with wine as I said cheers with a cup of tea. It was a great conversation and filled my heart early on my day! True friends stay up late so they can drink wine with you across the world!! We went about the day as normal, the boys had swim lessons, and we needed to run some errands. We stopped at McDonald's for lunch and I started questioning who's birthday we were celebrating, the boys were extra excited for the lunch treat. We came home and the boys gave me the best present of the day... they actually took naps with no complaining or fighting! It was a Birthday miracle and it gave me some time to sit, relax, and think about being 30. That evening we headed to dinner at the local kid-friendly restaurant Papachinos. I almost took the kids to a new place, but realized my dinner would be filled with me keeping them entertained at the table and would result in less relaxation for me in the end. So, we went with Papachinos where the boys could run wild and I could enjoy a glass of wine and conversation with the hubs. Saturday night Chase organized a dinner with friends to celebrate my birthday and my friend Terra's birthday which was earlier this month. We had a fabulous evening stuffing ourselves with sushi and champagne! It's been a blessing to have found some fabulous people to enjoy Africa with. Having found such good friends here has made Birthdays and everyday much easier.

Just a taste of America on My Day! 

My Friend Terra and I - The Birthday Girls! 

The Gals! 

Over all this has been a great Birthday, I wasn't really sure how I would feel about turning thirty. I kept getting texts and messages this week asking me things like "Are you ready?" "Oh, the big 3-0!" "Aren't you excited for your 30th?""Don't you feel old?" Then I just started thinking... reaching the number thirty is not really a big deal, is it? Maybe if I were living in the 1700s and getting to thirty meant I hadn't contracted any deathly illness then yeah I'd say lets CELEBRATE and pat ourselves on the back for making it this far. In reality thirty is just another number. Over all, thirty hasn't made me feel old at all, instead it has made me feel is proud of how far I've come as a person these last ten years. Maybe with every decade instead of dwelling on the number you should reflect on the positives, think about your achievements so far, and how you can continue to progress yourself in the future.  I look back at the last ten years and feel happy, and at peace with the choices I've made. I have marriage, a career I love (even though it's on pause at the moment), and two fabulous rambunctious boys that keep me young each day. If you had asked me two years ago if I would ever live in Africa I probably would have said "Hell No!" But look at me now!! I am excited for the next decade and can't wait to see what is in store for our family and myself as a person. I see more fabulous adventures here in Africa, future in my career and who knows possibly growth of our family (don't hold me to that... I could be talking about getting a cat). Whatever it is I am ready to welcome it with open arms. So bring on the next 10 - Hell, Bring on 40! HA!

What else do you do when you are 30... walk like an Egyptian Horse! 

Australian Holiday

When we planned this relocation to South Africa one of the trips we wanted to add into our two years was a vacation in Australia. I haven't seen my sister Malinda in over 3 years, which in my book is way too long. We talked about when we should go and how we could make it work with the kids and vacation time, etc... and finally decided on Christmas. We figured if we have to be stuck in the Southern Hemisphere where Christmas is hot, sunny, and anything but white we might as well be with family.

So we set out again on another long overseas flight with the boys. The flight over was about 11 hours and then we had another 2 hour flight from Sydney to Brisbane and then a 1.5 hour car ride up the coast to Noosa. Thankfully, the boys were real troopers. We flew through the night and they both slept pretty well, ate their food, and enjoyed the non stop movies.

Our time in Australia was pretty fabulous, we didn't do any big tourist adventures but that was totally alright by us. This trip was really about enjoying time with family. We laid around the house, hit the beach, went on some fun hikes, went fishing, and just relaxed,  it was pretty perfect.
The town of Noosa is a small coastal town, it draws in crowds around the holidays because of it's beautiful beaches and parks. As my brother in law put it "Every weekend is like a vacation here". I can't really describe it any other way except to say to me it is paradise. Being able to hike in the morning and swim in the ocean in the afternoon is fabulous in my book. We spent time on the main beach, and a lot of time on the river where we could play on smaller beaches and fish. We hiked around the Noosa National Park, and through the Tewantin National Park just behind my sisters house! We drove up North one day and fed the Dolphins, and another day we went to the Aquarium where I got to feed the Sea Lion! We took the kids to a couple of movies (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and Frozen) We ate fresh sea food and got our load of Fish and Chips for sure! Chase had a list of all the things he needed to eat while we were there. In case you ever travel to Australia his top list of foods include: Lift Soda, Kebabs, Morten Bay Bugs (like lobster but better), and Chicken n Chips from the best little place in Coolum. We also threw Subway into the mix this time because you can't get it in Africa.

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To celebrate Christmas in the southern hemisphere is just weird. We did all the normal Christmas things like baked cookies, looked at lights, visited Santa at the Mall, and listened to music. But, there is just something odd about listening to "White Christmas" when you are swimming in a pool. I think Bing Crosby's "Mele Kalikimaka" was probably a little more fitting, but still off. Christmas morning the kids were up early, they blew through opening gifts and then were in the pool before 9am! Malinda and I did cook a traditional feast; Cinnamon rolls in the morning and Turkey for dinner. It tasted like home and made us all feel more in the spirit.  Even if we did eat out side and sweat our buns off through dinner! :)

 

Having the opportunity to see my sister for almost 3 full weeks and giving my children more amazing  memories has made this move across the world worth it for me. Who knows when we would of been able to do this had we not decided to move.  Taking 3 weeks off work is not an easy thing to do when you have young kids.  When I get down about being so far away from family I keep trying to remember the experience and opportunities we are able to have here.  For these things I feel truly thankful.  Getting away from Africa for a short bit and being with my sister helped me to think about keeping perspective on life and focus on positives of why we are actually doing this.  Since we moved I feel like everything has been non stop and adjustment followed by readjustment. We have set goals and resolutions for 2014 and I am ready for the fresh start of this year.  Happy New Year Everyone! We hope this year brings Joy for you all!

P.S - One of the goals is to keep this blog better updated - I am really going to try!!

Working for the Money

Since being here I have started to see the world in general in a new light. I have to admit I have lived a pretty sheltered life before. I am not one to keep up with the news and for the most part was oblivious to how the rest of the world worked. But, being here and seeing how another country runs is eye opening. We as humans should care about how the world works and what is happening in other countries.  We should be able to give a helping hand when you can, because after all we are all on this planet together.  South Africa is progressing and in many ways they are still young.  Equality for people here is still a new concept, and they are still adjusting. Mandela brought many people hope and made many amazing changes for this country.  His memory will continue to inspire not only South Africans but the world.

I've been asked to talk more about what they people are like here and how the country runs. So, this post is really just about how people work in this country. These are just my observations and finding in the short time I have been here. I am sure there are things I am leaving out. But here it goes...

People of South Africa work and they work hard for very little. On Thursday afternoons I have started taking a group golf lesson with some of the other American wives here. We sat yesterday with our instructor and had a few minutes to compare American and South African culture. I learned that South African minimum wage can range 85 cents to $1.50 yet goods and food at the grocery store are the same price as in America. A man working in a parking lot helping cars park can make as much in tips through out the day as a man working as a Golf Pro at the Golf Club. Two careers you would think would be drastically different in pay range.  Just so you have some perspective on what things cost,  loaf of bread is about $1.00 and a half gallon of milk is about $1.50.

When you arrive here you sort of feel like you have stepped back in time to the early 1960s America or to put it simply a scene from "The Help".
Every morning at the gates to my neighborhood there are rows of mini buses dropping off domestic workers. Many of the workers are house keepers that are heading to clean for the day, and may even be wearing traditional maid uniforms.  Some of the workers are gardeners or pool cleaners.   Others may be taking care of odd jobs around some one's home, or heading to the golf club to work for the day.  Several families here have domestic workers that work full time and live in separate quarters attached to the home and will help take care of the children in the house as well. Then on the weekends or a couple of times through out the year they will go home to see their own families. When you drive through the streets you will see people out cutting grass, trimming trees, and in general maintaining homes, and rarely is it the home owner who is doing the job.

When you go out around town there are people everywhere and all are working for their money and "tips". We have been surprised how this many things you tip for here. When you pull into a shopping center or grocery store there is a parking attendant there to help you park and pull out of your spot, and its normal to tip them a little change as you leave. When you go out to eat there are play attendants there to watch your children and again as you leave you give them a tip. On the side of the streets you may not see many people out begging for money instead they are trying to sell you some good. It may be sunglasses, bags, or a car decal but they want you to buy it and will beg at your car window for you to try it! Even the gas stations here are full service. You pull in and sit in your car while they fill it up, check the oil/ tire pressure, and clean your wind shield. At the golf course you can get your shoes or clubs cleaned easily after you play a round, and if you don't feel like carrying your clubs a caddy is very cheap. What I learned yesterday is that most of these people working for "tips" are living off of their "tips". This is true for waiters too they make what you tip and when you eat out at dinner meals here are cheaper than the United States and it's customary to tip only 10%! I started tipping %20 based on good service and will continue now that I know that this is all they get paid.

We have seen locals treat the working class pretty poorly. I've been at the golf club and seen an older man yell at a waitress for spilling his beer. I've seen snotty women talking down to their nanny at the grocery store. It's very difficult to be around, and though these issues still exist in America it just seems to be more open and a normal occurrence here.  It's been a strange adjustment for us, and while we have hired a domestic to come and clean our house twice a week I am still not completely used to having someone here cleaning while I am drinking tea or heading out to play golf. However,  now that I have gotten to know Joyce (our domestic) a little I am happy that we have hired her. She has explained that a good job can be hard to find here, and a good boss can be even harder. So, we feel better knowing that we are giving someone stable work for a few years. Some of the Black & Veatch families have been able to help their domestic workers repair their homes and have provided them with things they may not have been able to have or do before. We can't give things to everyone we come across in this country, so I have tried to help those around us when we can. I try to do good gestures by making sure the pool man has a cold drink when he comes by and for Christmas our family and another family supplied Joyce's family with some new clothes.


I know being here that one person cannot change the routine of society, so I strive to be a good roll model for my children and to treat everyone I meet with the respect they deserve.

A day with Lions

This past Sunday we took an hour drive to The Lion Park. It's wonderful how many animal attractions are available for quick day trips it makes seeing things really easy. On our way we ran into a bike race that had several roads closed and of course here they don't provide you with detours, so we had to do some map reading and navigating to find a new route.  However, once we got there it was well worth it! The Lion Park is a large park that has an area in which you can pet lion cubs, feed giraffes, and see a few other African animals, and then it also has a game drive in which you can either drive in your own  vehicle around the park or ride in a large truck to see the big lions and other African animals they have. You do have to pay to do all of these things at the park, but for our family of four it was only about $75 for everything.

We had heard that Sundays are busy days so we headed straight to the lion cubs and giraffes. As we were walking up a handler was moving the female giraffe from one enclosure to another. So directly in front of us we saw him leading this giraffe, baiting her with nothing more than white bread! I had never really put much thought into how big giraffes are until we were right next to them. They are amazing! The female had a baby about 3 weeks ago, so we got to meet the baby too! She was adorable and at 3 weeks old already very tall.  We learned that when giraffes are born the mother gives birth standing up so the babies actually fall right on their heads at birth. Also, their hearts stop beating during birth then start again when they reach the ground. Its a hard fall, but obviously they can handle it.  The baby was still pretty skittish so she wouldn't let me pet her. When we went to feed, you buy a bag of food and then walk up a tall deck so that you can be at head level with the giraffe. The male giraffe was standing at the platform so we got to meet him and give him some treats. He also didn't appear to care for much affection. I attempted to stroke his head but he kept pulling away from me, he was focused on the food.  Mitchell was really brave and came up to pet him and feed him, but the minute he felt that giraffe's saliva he was done as he says "That was really GROSS!"  

 

View of the grounds

Baby Ostrich

Baby Giraffe

That was GROSS!

After we fed the giraffe we moved on to the lion cubs. They have three lion cub enclosures, but only open one up at at time so that the cubs can get some rest. When we went in all the cubs were sleeping. The handler told us that they sleep 20 hours a day and of course are most active at night. We were instructed not to touch their heads or tails and when you pet them to give firm strokes. Both the boys wanted to feel the lions, so we pet a few. One was a little frisky and tried to bite me but a handler was right there to distract him. They were pretty soft and seemed to enjoy the affection.  

Mitchell giving the lion a High Five

After a quick run through the gift shop we went on to the game drive. The boys LOVE the big safari trucks so we opted to ride instead of drive ourselves. Chase and I enjoy hearing the comments and animal facts from the guides also so it was perfect. The first part of the drive you see a lot of antelope like animals, giraffes, and zebras.

The second part is where you get to go into the lion camps. When you enter the lion camp it is pretty cool to see these lions just walking around the cars and trucks. Being up high it was great to see things, but I thought it would have been really cool to see one walking next to our Corolla. Typically they feed the lions at night time and do special evening drives, but on Sundays they do a special mid day feeding. Once the truck came carrying the food it was neat to see the lions start to chase it. There is a special contraption on the truck for a person can drop the food out of. They don't want arms to be confused with wildebeest legs! It was great to see the lions feed and to see who shared their food and who took theirs off by themselves.  They have four different lion camps at the park so we drove through each of them. They keep them separated so that there isn't fighting amongst the animals, they only have one mature male per enclosure.  They have white lions and brown lions at the park. One of the male white lions was the star of the movie White Lion, I had never heard of it. They have strict rules that you do not roll down your windows on the game drive, obviously this is for your own safety. As we were driving one lady had her window completely rolled down and her arm hanging out of the window taking pictures with her phone. Not the smartest thing to do during feeding time surrounded by lions.  Our guide gave her a talking to... 

I was guessing this was a momma and her older cubs... they all ended up sharing their food! 

Big Male in Camp #1

just thought it was cool to see him carrying the leg

Dont mess with my food! 

Fun Facts : If a male lions mane turns black it means that he has Kalahari lion in his blood stream. Mitchell kept saying like Scar (from the Lion King). Also, if you mate a white lion with a brown lion they call them split Lions not mixed, because the cubs will either be brown or white not anything in between. 

Male white Lion from the movie

After the game drive we had a quick lunch then headed home. It was a great day and very entertaining. We can't wait to have visitors to take so we can go back! 

It wouldn't be an African Attraction without a playground and bounce house!