Stay-at-home weekend

This was a stay-at-home weekend for a change, Allan and Gill came up to visit and we did things around Saldanha which was very nice. Friday started with a lovely beef shin potjie, (foreigners remember the pronunciation - poy-kie)First I chopped up two onions and a green pepper and fried them up in a little cooking oil with some garlic, in the meantime I chopped up the beef shin and placed it all in a plastic bowl which I then covered with a good sprinkle of aromat and then a packet of beef and onion soup powder. This was then shaken well so the the meat was all well covered.

When the onions and peppers were ready I added all of the meat and turned up the heat, I was cheating a bit and doing the pot over a gas flame, to brown the meat. Keep stirring the meat around until it is all well browned, at this point I poured in a bottle of Castle lager. It should be a Castle because you need real beer!

Now the meat needs to simmer for about an hour, at the half hour point add some chopped potatoes and while the pot simmers you can relax and enjoy another beer. At this stage you must also add the hard vegetables, I was using green beans, also check the taste and add salt and pepper as required - I also poured in a glass of dry red wine.

At the hour point check if the meat is tender, and add things like the mushrooms and a few chunks of cabbage and let them simmer for a short while. I found that the total time for the pot to be ready was about an hour and a half.Here's the plated meal with marrow bones intact - delicious!

Saturday we took a drive out to Langebaan to visit the festival but we decided it was a tourist rip off so we drove through to Jacob's Bay for a light lunch, we are lucky to have places like this close by, we spent a very pleasant hour or so in the very picturesque setting.Sunday Joe and Annie came up and we all went to Beira Mar for lunch, us three guys had a fantastic "Cape Salmon" and chips lunch, the ladies didn't eat seafood but they also had a great lunch.We had a really enjoyable weekend with some of our really good friends and we are lucky to live in a beautiful area, it's like being on a permanent holiday.

The "windfinder" web site promises that the coming weekend is going to be good so Frank and I will be going to the "Slangkop" rally, and Janet and I have decided to take a ride through to Mosselbay for the Easter weekend, so lots more to write about, watch this space.