Tartine bread

The packing has begun, and for two people who think they don't have much stuff...we have so much stuff!! It's been great to purge, consolidate, and pare down, but you better believe I have two boxes of cookbooks and they aren't going anywhere. A gal's gotta have priorities. I said "goodbye for now" to my much-loved Tartine cookbook, and then came across this video. I'm in love all over again with those incredible Tartine folks. I wonder if we can fly through San Fran on our way to South America???

Tartine Bread from 4SP Films on Vimeo.

first days in Cape Town

We have been living a very charmed life during our first few days in Cape Town, and this charmed life has not been conducive to blog posts. We've enjoyed settling in, eating all our favorite South African treats, seeing friends, and waking up to views of Table Mountain and Lion's Head each morning.

But let's start at the beginning...

My parents met us at JFK to see us off. We arrived at the airport hotel after a bit of a fistfight with our car battery. It decided to be difficult and stop working the day we were leaving. The nice AAA man who replaced it got a big hug and a tip from me.

Away we went. This photo was taken approximately two hours before the nasty man in the seat behind me decided to shove my seat as hard as he could (causing my forehead to nearly collide with the seat in front of me). When I spun around to ask him what the heck his problem was, he informed me that I could not put my seat back because he did not have enough room. I gave him an earful, with some backup from the South African Airways flight attendant. I also tried to plead my way into an upgrade. Sadly, those efforts bore no fruit. 18 hours, 2 inflight movies, and a complimentary mini-bottle of sparking wine later we were in Cape Town. 

Two hours after our arrival we returned to the airport to fetch Parker. He was delayed, so we went and got a red latte to share. They are lattes made with a rooibus tea "espresso" and are just fabulous. We thought it was a bit of a good omen that the barista used the foam and honey to draw a cat face on ours. 

These are our views from our bedroom windows each morning. It isn't possible to wake up and see Table Mountain and Lion's Head and not feel happy to be alive and in Cape Town. 

Our darling cat had perhaps the most harrowing of all our trips. Thankfully he is settling in wonderfully, even if he is a little bewildered by the new view. I took him out onto Candice's balcony to scope out his new hood. 

Here is evidence of Parker's happy state. Candice's work seat is his new favorite spot to sun himself. It is a race to see who gets their bum into the chair to claim it first for the day. 

This past Sunday we went to Kalk Bay, a lovely bohemian little town on the sea. We went with a singular vision: breakfast at Olympia Cafe. My word, this place is like Cape Town's version of the lovely Tartine in San Francisco. We shared a mushroom and mozzarella croissant with some scrambled eggs, and then another croissant with jam for dessert. 

Swoon. It was too good for words. My face hurt when we left because I was smiling so much. 

After breakfast, we walked down the main road and window shopped. We ended with a walk along the pier, looking at the boats and chatting to a fisherman here and there. 

And this little house? This place, dear friends, is the the result of good fortune smiling upon us once more, because this is the house we are moving into next week. A colleague of Brendan's at the University has to leave suddenly for England to care for an ailing family member and has offered to rent her darling Victorian house to us. It has a wonderful sunny courtyard, a spare bedroom (book your tickets, folks), and a new kitchen. And there is a bathtub!! We haven't had one of those for 3 years. We are feeling so happy and fortunate and thrilled. Update addresses and such will follow, along with a virtual tour next week.

So life is great. We are embracing life in the Mother City in a big way, and there is no sight of decreased excitement in the near future. The weeks ahead will bring driving lessons for me (should be good for a comical blog post), settling into work life, a new sweet little baby niece, a visit from Brendan's parents, and lots and lots more guava yogurt for yours truly. Man, I just can't get enough of the stuff. 

last post from this side

Well, this is it! We are sitting in the Sheraton at JFK getting ready for our final night's sleep in the USA for a while. Was a bit of an eventful day (finding out your car has a dead battery the day you are leaving is not stress reducing), but it ended well (help from great friends and a new battery) and here we are. Parker has no idea what is in store for him, but is enjoying looking out the window from our 5th floor room.

We'll keep you all posted from the other side, once we are settled into our new CT of Cape Town. Thanks for all the love, support, encouragement, and good wishes everyone has shared!!

Over and out!

cleared for takeoff

Parker is now fully and officially free to fly, but it has not been neither easy nor inexpensive to get to this point. Thank heavens it has all worked out because I don't know what we would do without our

editor,

workout buddy,

sewing companion,

watchman,

lion hunter,

sandpapery kisser,

taste tester,

 and blog assistant.

One microchip (how very Jason Bourne), rabies shot, deworming treatment, physical exam, signature and stamp from the USDA Federal Veterinarian in Hartford, new airline approved crate, South African Airways plane reservation, fully completed South African import permit, and several hundred dollars later he is ready to leave. I hope they serve him some nice refreshments on the plane and the traveller next to him doesn't hog the armrest!

packing day

With one week until we are on the plane and happily into our second or third in-flight movie, we sent our worldly possessions on their merry way today. We've struggled a bit with knowing how much of our stuff would go because neither of us could really visualize what 100 cubic feet of space looked like. I'm happy to report that today was rather like Christmas because everything we hoped to send (and then some) is gone. Well, really it is only like Christmas in that we got what we wanted, but I suppose rather unlike Christmas in that we were sending off things rather than receiving them.

Shortly after 9am, this mammoth truck arrived. Seemed a bit of overkill to me. I might not know how big 100 cubic feet is, but I certainly know it isn't that big. 

We were actually surprised to find two crates inside. In the later pictures you'll be able to get a better sense of the size of these babies. Each is, logically enough, 50 cubic feet. 

After Hector and Scott worked their packing magic it was time to load the crates. We had enough spare room to pack a couple more boxes of items we had either given up on or thought my parents would have to bring over in December. Yippee!

Final crate is sealed! Also, Hector informed us that approximately 12 of me would fit in each crate. Nice bit of trivia. 

With our great packers. Looking forward to seeing our stuff on the other side in a month's time!

our last supper

Tonight we had our last supper in our home. Well, our last real one using non-disposal plates, cutlery, etc at least. Our packers come tomorrow to take away the majority of our worldly possessions, and so for the rest of our time in New Haven we are inviting ourselves to friends' houses as much as possible!

Tonight, however, because we have plates, have forks, have wooden spoons with which to stir, we feasted. Well, ok that isn't exactly true either. We are still working on finishing the sparse and very hodge-podge contents of our cupboards and refrigerator too, so the meal had a definite eclectic feel. 

The main event was saffron shrimp. All our spices are being packed tomorrow, and I'm already feeling withdrawal symptoms so some decadent saffron seemed just the right send off. 

Saffron Shrimp

serves 2

about 10 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, and blotted dry

1 shallot, chopped fine-ish

1 Tbs olive oil

1/3 cup cream

a pinch of saffron

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in saute pan over medium-high heat.

Add shallot and shrimp.

When the shrimp is halfway cooked, add the cream and saffron. Season with salt and pepper.

We ate ours with steamed zucchini and yellow squash, and black bean rice. You might serve it with a starch that suits better (like a nice simple risotto or a summery orzo salad). No matter what you eat it with, it is delish and was a great last performance by our humble little kitchen 

lately

Here's a smattering of what we've been up to lately. I must admit that I've forgotten my camera (gasp!) or forgotten to take pictures (double gasp!) of many things. The moral of this story: our life is even more fun than these pictures convey.

Last week I developed a new obsession- Miya's sushi restaurant in New Haven. I had lunch there with two of my nearly-former Peer Health Educators and it has changed my life (mostly because now I want to eat there every day).

I look weird in this picture because I'm trying to hug two people who are a little too far away from me. But they look great. 

Miya's will get its own post later this week. I am also considering going back for some additional research. 

Last week also brought an abundance of pie, which is never a bad thing. My lovely co-workers held a little going away gathering for me feature 6 varieties of my favorite food group.

Naturally, I needed to eat a slice of each.

I have been lucky enough to work with some of the most intelligent, inspiring, fun, fabulous people for the last nearly-four years at Yale. This Thursday (my last day) is going to be a toughie. 

And then, because six pieces of pie on a Friday isn't enough of a treat, we went to Miya's for dinner. Swoon.

We spent Saturday with our friends Krissy and Tim and their ridiculously cute girls. 

Krissy made me the *MOST* lovely apron as a going away gift. It's made of this soft flannel, has corset-style lacing in the back, a tea cup applique on the pocket, and the daintiest ruffles around the edges. I adore it so much, and now am even further convinced that she needs to hurry up and start a business so I can buy every last thing she puts her needle to.

Krissy also makes really cute children, but she won't be selling them in her shop. 

Ella and I played outside for a bit while the food was grilling. 

We had some great salads with our meal. I made a mango slaw and Tim made an orzo salad with sultanas and pine nuts. I'm going to strong arm him into giving me the recipe. 

After sups there was birthday cake for the Krissy. Happy summery times.

In more recent news:

As part of the never-ending stream of work to be done so I can be employed in South Africa, I found out this morning that I needed a full criminal record check and to be fingerprinted. Thankfully I had a friend in the Yale Police Department who could help me out. Now if only I had a friend who really like completing paperwork...

weekend in review

It's been a great, albeit tiring, few days around here. I am starting to think that's how we are going to feel about most days from here on out.

World Cup excitement continues. Friday was the USA vs Slovenia game. My fantastic boss let me leave work for a couple hours that morning to enjoy the game (she's the best!). We shouted and cheered as the USA came back from their deficit, were shocked by the bonkers ref who disallowed their winning goal, and generally had a fun time of it all. Brendan has really shown awesome spirit for his adopted country :)

Saturday brought our enormous moving to Africa yard sale. Pricing and set up was a very long and tiring process (especially since we live on a third floor apartment and had to shlep everything down), but it was a tremendous success. We managed to off-load 80% of our remaining stuff, and a friend/neighbor is holding a benefit yard sale next weekend (proceeds going to support an orphanage in Haiti) so he will be getting our remnants later this week. 

The neighboring kids on both sides were out as well. Two of them decided to maximize on the hot day and steady stream of customers by setting up a lemonade stand. Gotta love those budding entrepreneurs!

Our other neighbor, Ayo, harnessed his creative juices.

Northern Hemisphere Farewell Tour: second stop

We are fresh off the plane from our favorite/second favorite city (depending on which one of us you ask), chock full of northern Californian goodness. The trip was simply wonderful. There were too many great experiences to recount them all, but here's the highlights.

We arrived on a crisp, blue, beautiful day to enjoy lunch at Frjtz with Dan and Santi. Then a walk around the Haight and a stop for sangria and plantains at Cha Cha Cha.

Thursday brought the much anticipated trip to Tartine (my absolutely most favorite bakery). I departed for SF with two goals in mind: see Dan, Santi, Mariel & Brett; and to get my full of Tartine goodies. Sadly, what I did not realize is that one can never eat enough of their baked delights. However, one ham & cheese croissant, one gougere, and one morning bun later, I felt as though I gave it a hearty try.

That afternoon we strolled Golden Gate Park with Dan, enjoying the DeJong Museum and the Japanese Tea Garden before we joined Santi and got our minds blown by the planetarium show at the Academy of Sciences' after hours event.

 

Friday largely involved food shopping for and eating at a dinner party in celebration of Brett's completion of a big med school exam. Saturday we picnicked in Dolores Park (are you noticing the food trend?) and got an incredible moving present from Dan: the coolest monogrammed suitcase! It's a fresh-off-the-press sample from his forthcoming baggage company and we LOVE it. Place your orders now!

Sunday morning we were up and off for a road trip to Big Sur. We spent the first half of the day hiking a rather intense trail. It was far more treacherous than we bargained for and that's because it was, in fact, closed due to heavy damage. We only realized this AFTER we exited (opposite our starting point) and saw the barricades. Oops! But all's well that ends well, and after another great picnic (this time nestled among the redwoods) and stunning ocean views there wasn't a complaint to be had.

We love San Fran, but more than that we love Santi, Brett, and Mariel and were sad to say "see you later" to them (we've decided that is much better than "good bye"). Luckily, we get another visit with Dan later on in the tour.

next stop: London & York!