Ode to Graphic Designers... Well, Not Really.

Top of the morning to ya!

Morgan's reversed-engineered granola recipe... She fell in love with a specific kind 

during her time in Israel.

    I have a new respect for graphic designers. And I love Wix. And I am singing the praises of my friend's husband who introduced us to this ingenious website.

   Morgan and I worked ALL DAY on our webpage for Douceur. There are so many details we have to critique, grammatical errors to be corrected, descriptions to be edited... the list goes on! I stared at it so long yesterday that my eyes crossed and what I initially thought looked beautiful began to look ugly.

   I see why most people have to walk away from their work for a while. I also don't understand how people can love web design and do it for a living. I have a lot of respect for you graphic and web designers out there. Seriously.

   A praise is that we received really good feedback from our friends and my prayer is that God will bless the path ahead for Douceur and that we would solely tread in the centre of His will for us! I've learned that I cannot manipulate His will and there is much joy and blessing in embracing His plan for my life!

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." -Julia Child

    We shall see where this venture will take us! No matter what happens, I am grateful for the opportunity to step out in faith in the entrepreneurial realm.





"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

   

Apple of My Eye

Top of the morning to ya! 

     We have had the opportunity to meet a lovely family in our neighborhood. The ladies of the house have been very intentional about extending hospitality for afternoon tea and, boy, did they go all the way! We were showered with luxurious pastries and samoosas that were all home made. Our family has been blessed by their generosity.

      I decided to show our gratitude by making my all-American absolute favourite dessert: Apple Pie. 

     I grew up on my grandfather and mother's apple pies. Theirs are so good that I have to dare myself to try any other. None can match theirs. I have also had the privilege to observe how they make theirs and take some tips. No two chefs cook or bake the same way and a true one always incorporates a secret ingredient and a unique trait that makes theirs forever different from ANYone else's. :-) 

     I'll be honest and say I like mine too. But I have to give credit where credit is due and I like it because of the great examples I've had in the two relatives aforementioned. (I just wanted to use that word.) 

   I'd have to seriously practice to match theirs in a competition. However, in a pinch, it'll do. Besides, who else will be willing to feed my insatiable appetite for this stupendous dessert?? I am not a chocolate fan like my mother. I LOVE anything with fruit and could eat it all day everyday for the rest of my life! 

   Ladies and gentelmen... Behold: 

Due to my compassion for the masses, I'll share one tip that my mother taught me. If you want a good apple pie DO NOT use Granny Smith apples!!! ... We love the mild sweetness of the Golden Delicious  I will never deviate unless it is that rare occasion when I feel adventurous enough to mix in either a few Fuji or Pink Lady apples. (Blurry photo courtesy of Caelyn's iPhone.)

I only got one uninteresting blurry photo of Morgan's pie crust process. She is the QUEEN of pie crust. I'm so thankful to her for making them every time I go into this project.

All the goodies being mixed in: white sugar, brown sugar, secret ingredient, secret ingredient, water, salt, butter, flour, etc.

Morgan does not understand this about me... but I can't resist pie crust dough and I get beyond tickled when there's some left over. I can't believe I am admitting this but I must.... *heavy sigh*... I roll my ball of dough in sugar and eat it. Yup! It's out. That's what I do! I am guilty. It was me.

  This time, there was a considerable amount of dough left. So after Gabbi and I ate some delectable sugar-rolled dough balls, Gab came up with the superb idea of sauteeing it in coconut oil with sugar and cinnamon. Then I decided to put the leftover apple filling in my portion of dough, seal it like a dumpling, and sauté THAT in coconut oil, sugar, and cinnamon. Since it had coconut oil it was good for us, right?!? - Mom and Dad loved it. Even my disciplined sister, Morgan, couldn't resist trying it! Score.

My pies never look identical so I marked the pretty one for our friends. I really hope they enjoy it as much as I do. The pastry chef daughter has NEVER had one... I can't let her see another day without sharing in my favourite dessert. 

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

Past Week's Highlights

  Top of the morning to ya!

   I'm not setting a very good record. It has been shamefully long since I have posted and I've already broken my resolution to be consistent. 

   It's been quite a busy week or so and we are currently honoured with the presence of friends who are expecting their first baby and daughter today or tomorrow. (I will make a post soon about them.) They say watch pots never boil... Try waiting for a baby!  Granted, it's only 16:15hrs and today is her due date; but I am impatient to see this gorgeous baby. (And I am positive that Sarah is even more ready to have her baby than I am.)  ... On top of that, I have added baby-holding competition because Grandma flew in from the states. I have a feeling I've been drastically bumped down in pecking order. ;-)

    In the meantime, I have preoccupied myself with different baking brainstorms. Besides their passion for meats and braais, South Africans (or at least Afrikaners) love their puddings and custards. They also eat a lot of cake. So, I decided to take it upon myself to come up with a vanilla cake with custard filling. So, I made a custard using a simple online recipe I found. (Tasted like glorified sweetened condensed milk.) Then I googled a good vanilla cake recipe. And finally, I just made some basic buttercream frosting with the usual butter, confectioner's sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt for good measure. 

   This is how it went:

     

And we have the cake batter...

One of the two layers. I could already tell from the first one (I had to bake them separately because I only had one pan) that these were going to be pretty dense. A lot of factors contributed to it's texture and weight. Trial and error. Trial and error. I just have to remind myself of Thomas Edison.  ;-) 

Morgan - my darling perfectionist sister - did the honours of leveling the cake.

Voila! The final product. Strawberry formation is a courtesy of my brother, Craig. (He wants full credit for that one and rightly so.)

Oven oat pancakes with Bulgarian plain yoghurt (!!!!), strawberry jam, and honey or syrup. This was one of our breakfasts. I had to do the recipe from memory because I couldn't find it online. It comes from the *amazing* cookbook Hearth and Home. Excellent quick, healthful breakfast. A winner for our family and guests.

 And my personal favorite breakfast: cinnamon pancakes with sauteed cinnamon-sugar apples. 

"Well... that's all I have to say about that."

Practice What You Pinterest

Trial run recipe for some chocolate chip cookies that got me salivating on Pinterest. They turned out ok considering that I didn't have everything I needed. However, I definitely have notes for next time.

Top of the morning to ya!

   Brand new blog and I am already slacking. This post was left in drafts, yesterday; but I'm kind of glad because I ended up changing it a bit. I want to be consistent but not boring... And when I returned to my original post, I realised it was a good thing I walked away for a few hours so I could look at it with fresh eyes. 

   The inspiration for this blog is really to help me keep track of the baking I do. So, I decided to share different trial-run recipes that I've worked on as we wait for all of our cooking supplies to arrive in our shipment.  

    Back in Houston, I was blessed with the opportunity to learn under a woman who opened her dream bakery. She named the shop after her mother who was also a great baker and her signature items were mostly her mom's recipes. If you ever land in Houston, I recommend that you visit MargieBeth's Bake Shop. 

   Thanks to that experience, I have a renewed passion for baking and am eager to adapt and perfect different recipes. I come from a semi-long line of bakers and my maternal grandfather actually went to culinary art school in Pittsburgh. (He was generous enough to give me all of his books from that experience.) My pap is an INCREDIBLE chef. He can make anything and it always tastes better than the original recipe. In fact, he is quite the renaissance man. My grandmother is one blessed woman! ;-)

   Recipes can be broad, endless, and sometimes overwhelming. I've decided to make my Pin-oholic self productive by practicing what I pin...

   

 I used chocolate "chips" and hazelnut milk chocolate bars for this recipe. The browned butter really made them look darker. 

     I began very simply with this recipe I pinned on my board 'Sobremesas'. Being a slight rebel at heart  (as far as wanting to add my own twist to anything creative), I have adopted what I heard a chef say: 

A true chef has at least one twist or secret ingredient that  they incorporate into their baking/cooking. 

   The lady I worked for in Houston once mentioned in conversation that her daughter had found some cookie recipe where you brown the butter before creaming it with the sugar. This definitely seemed like a novel idea and would perhaps make the dough even more rich. Graeme and I agreed after tasting the dough that it resembled a very mild rum flavour. Yum!

   To my dismay, I absent-mindedly did not take photos of the finished product. They looked pretty because I refrigerated the balls of dough for a day. However, I was not pleased with the texture. 

   

    Next time, eh? :-)

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

  

 

Top of the Morning!

View on the way to a friend's farm.

    Oi!! My name is Caelyn. I've recently relocated with my family to South Africa for business. If you have never been to South Africa, I HIGHLY recommend it. I am American; but southern Africa, in general, is my heart's home. The saying holds true and I am living proof that Africa gets in your blood.  

   

 Incredible view from Kaapsehoot where we went to see the wild descendants of abandoned horses.

  However, most importantly I am the daughter of the Most High King, Yeshua the Messiah. The fact that He cleansed me of my unrighteousness and made me holy (set apart for His Glory, alone) is something that I take very personally.  - With His grace and mercy in mind, I am able to enjoy His creation and the gifts and resources He has allowed us to create with. 

Not to make you jealous or anything, but I just want to give you every angle. :-)

    

    I love any creative outlet (e.g. fashion, baking, decorating, etc.). As a Whitlock (which my mom is convinced means something like, "consumer of much food"), I am also very passionate about gourmet cooking and baking. 

When you wake up to views like this, you can't help but wake up and glorify God for His splendid work!

   

   Breakfast is my absolute favourite meal of the day. Hence my choosing the title "Top of the Morning!!". I was elated when an Israeli friend confirmed that breakfast is to be eaten like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. (Although I think mine is more like: breakfast like a king, lunch like a king, and dinner like...a king.) 

"Breakfast," as Sesame Street muppets sang it, "Is the most important meal of the day."

   

   

   Before you make a decision to follow me, I must say this: you gotta love food... And if you don't share a passion for food... well... this is the place for you too. :-) 

   My father was a Ranger in the United States Army and one of their prerogatives is, "Never leave a man behind." - I don't intend to. Anytime I run into someone who merely eats to live, I feel an overwhelming compassion for them. Then my innate marketing side comes out as I take on the task of showing this obviously (in my opinion) sheltered person that there is "a whole new world" out there. You just have to open your eyes!

   So... With all that said: welcome! Enjoy the ride and participate through comments and support, if you feel so led. It'll be a bumpy ride; but I can guarantee an adventurous one, as well.

'Whelp... That's all I have to say about that.'