People often write me, asking for a specific recipe or more of a particular kind of recipe. I always adore hearing from readers, but sadly I simply cannot get to everything I am asked for. Nothing is discarded though, as all requests dutifully go into my ‘one day’ file. This recipe for lemon meringue ice cream pie has its roots [...]
So the Argus has come and gone. It may not have been much of an event this year, what with the South Easter howling at up to 100km an hour and the cycle race being cancelled about an hour in. Cancelled or not, for me the Argus is my line in the sand. My signal that the soul-destroyingly, pulse-slittingly endless [...]
The mercury has hit the high thirties (Celsius of course, not Fahrenheit) in the Cape quite a few times these last two weeks. Now I know ‘glowing’ is the dainty way of referring to what happens to a woman who’s hot – and I mean hot in the overheating sense, not the boy-I-could-date-her sense. But trust me, ‘glowing’ is entirely [...]
You get four kinds of people when it comes to custard. 1) Those with deep pockets and patience who make the real deal from cream and a small fortune in eggs. 2) Those who put in some sort of effort and whip up the powdered version. 3) Those who take the easy way out and buy the ready-made, long-life one. [...]
Affogato. No, it’s not a swearword – as in ‘well affogato you too dude’. It’s Italian for ‘drowned’ and refers to one of the simplest, yet most delicious 2-minute desserts out there – vanilla ice cream ‘drowned’ in strong hot espresso. Some folks add a shot of hazelnut liqueur like Frangelico to their affogato too, and why not. Either way, [...]
The psychology of marketing is pretty basic. ‘Discount’ gets my attention. ‘Save’ is good, but ‘half price’ much better. ‘Free’ is awesome (if it has some credibility that is, and is not accompanied by an increase in price – yes retailers, we notice). But my favourite marketing shout-out has to be ‘NEW’. My response is positively Pavlovian. I guess that’s [...]