Today’s recipe: Elephant stew

In light of all the miserable weather in the northern hemisphere, I am almost ashamed to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the summer sunshine in the southern hemisphere. If it makes you feel any better, I have had a spot of bother with sunburn, food poisoning and hate mail from freezing Europeans…

Thank you to all who have written to moan about my long absence and SORREE about it! Life has been totally crazy here in Africa with lots of things going on all the time, like: family and wild animals, food and food poisoning, luxury breakfast and warthog sausages and I'm only talking about the first day...

But never fear when Crystal's near - in 3 days I will be in Germany and all will be revealed. Sorry for not writing and please stay loyal to me - soooon I will be bothering you with more anecdotes about life and its food and we will never again have a month without one another.

6 days and 4 hours without internet! How did we cope for all those years when it didn't exist is my question. After a power failure we were computerless for what seemed like an eternity. Pacing the room and begging doesn't work - waiting for the holidays to end and the repairman to return, does. So I'm back (thanks Arnie) and will continue with tales of Africa very soon.

I am sitting in Port Elizabeth, my hometown in sunny South Africa, sipping a cup of coffee and looking out of the window at clear blue skies and I can feel a gentle breeze on my pale European winter skin that must be 25C...sorry folks, but I am in heaven! We arrived in Africa on the 31st and have been travelling a bit since then, so I am a little behind, but SOOOON I will post again and tell you all about it. For now, I just wanted to wish all the best for 2010 and to remind you to enjoy each day to its fullest - it"s worth it. Lol

Thank you for reading my blog! I hope you get as much pleasure out of reading it as I get out of writing it. I intend to continue bothering you with my ranting and raving, and have some cool new ideas for next year...

Today’s recipe: Christstollen (The recipe is at the very end of the post. Da ist auch ein Link zu einem Deutschen Rezept ganz unten.)

I had hoped to get to another Christmas market of an evening to practice my night (naught) photographic skills, but (lucky for you) I have been unable to get to any of late (and late) so day views of how it gets set up (with German efficiency) and clearer photos are on today’s order. Phew, that was a long self-interrupting sentence.

Of all my wonderful memories of England, steak and kidney pie is way up there as a fixed favorite. Friends and family would try to have me eat other foods, but I just HAD to try the steak and kidney pie wherever we went. With LOTS of gravy and NO peas.

The Three Wise Men have once again proved their worth. After growling my way through the last month trying to stick to my Weight Watchers points, The Family (of three) took a vote that I should be taken to a restaurant before I actually ate any of them. You don’t need to give me Gold (okay, maybe), Incense (stinks anyway) and Myrrh (am going to have to look up what it is before I continue…) to make me happy – JUST FEED ME!!

Today's recipe: Butternut Squash Lasagna

Today is the official launch of my new unofficial blog section, “A cook on the grumpy side”. This new category will cover all my bloopers and maybe even my bad moods, which of course are few and far between…unless you believe my husband. And needless to say, he is still in the naughty corner where he will remain until he learns to behave better, or my mood changes.

One of the many things I like about Germany is the traditional Christmas market. They have such great atmosphere and are so beautifully decorated that I just love walking around and looking at the stands. Most villages these days have little cabins so that the traders don’t have to freeze their butts off in the snow and rain. It’s still damn cold in the huts, but they have little heaters and Gluhwein to keep them warm.