The Rain Came Down ................

And .... washed our roads away !

After severe drought like conditions and months of very little rain .... it's been pouring down for the past 10 days or so ........

Our farm roads are in a bit of a mess at the moment - as you can see by these photo's taken last week on our way back from town ......

But we finally made it to the house .... to be met by Justin (seen below helping to offload the car), full of smiles and happy to have a chance to wear his gumboots (which are a bit of a status symbol on the farm - click here to read more).

My daughter is concerned that the Easter bunny may not make it up our muddy farm roads - but I've assured her that she has nothing to worry about .....!

Hope that you're having a good 'Good Friday' and looking forward to the long Easter weekend ahead as much as I am ....

Caramel Apple Sponge Pudding

Mmmmm .... each sweet, moist mouthful of this Caramel Apple Sponge is a delight !

A close-up of this tasty pudding - would you like a bite ?!

This is one of my Mum’s recipes which has been passed around the family. It’s a moist, sweet sponge pudding and is just perfect for a cold Winter’s day – or night ! I mostly make this pudding with apples, but have also made it with (tinned) pears before and it is just as tasty.

Sponge puddings like this (especially when they’re served with custard) remind me of the puddings we used to eat at boarding school … which I really didn’t enjoy much at all (boarding school that is, not the puddings !) … so I can’t say I have fond memories flooding back to me when I eat this (as I do with most food I eat – ha !) – but it is a great pudding and just the thing for those of us on this side of the world who will soon be entering our cold Winter months …..

(To convert the recipe measurements to ones which suit you, you can scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the ‘Conversion Calculator’.)

Caramel Apple Sponge Pudding

Sponge:
50 gm Butter (or Margarine)
150 gm Castor Sugar (very fine sugar – as fine as salt)
2 Eggs, beaten
100 ml Milk
150 gm Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
420 gm tin Pie Apples, drained

Caramel Sauce:
125 ml Cream
100 gm Brown Sugar
50 gm Butter (or Margarine)
5 ml Caramel Essence

Cream the butter (or margarine) and sugar together until creamy. Add the beaten eggs and milk to this, and then sift in the self raising flour and salt. Beat well. Pour into a lightly greased round ovenproof dish (approx 20 cm/8 inches in diameter). Now take the pie apples and press into the batter (I use the back of a spoon for this) – most of the pieces will be covered by the batter and some may only be partially covered, but this is fine. Bake (uncovered) at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 45 mins to an hour.

Place the cream, brown sugar and butter into a saucepan and melt over a low heat, stirring to blend. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat, stir in the caramel essence and then pour the mixture over the pudding as it comes out of the oven.

Serve with hot custard or whipped cream.

Bao Board Lady

This large and quite unusual Bao board is carved in the shape of a lady

I took this photo on our recent trip to the Tanzanian coast. It is of a Bao board which has been carved to look like a lady, and is quite unusual.

If you are wondering what a Bao board is, you can read the post I wrote about it over here. Basically, 'Bao' is the Tanzanian name for a 'board' and this is a local type of 'board game', (although it is played in many different parts of Africa).

I'm not sure what type of wood this particular Bao board is carved from - all I can tell you is that it is HUGE and about the size of a (at least 10 year old !) child lying down. It was out on the wooden veranda deck of the beach house we stayed in, surrounded by comfy scatter cushions.

Instead of pebbles in each of the holes (which are commonly used), there were seeds instead- once again, I'm not sure what kind of seeds they were but they had smooth, shiny and very hard outer shells.

Next time I meet the owners of the house (who also happen to be friends of ours) I'm going to ask them where they got the 'Bao Lady' from, and what her history is - and I'll be sure to post an update for you :)