7/27/2009: Thirteen Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is April and my thirteenth wedding anniversary! Wow, I can't believe it's been thirteen years already (actually 16.5 in all). Crazy. For this occasion, we went to Montecasino to eat at Coco Bongo Latin restaurant. We went to the casino because they have a "Bambino" area that will watch kids for three hours for around R340 - cheaper than a babysitter believe it or not!

Here is my beautiful wife! Doesn't she look nice?



Here is Graham Beck's Railroad Red 2007. It was very woody but good (it was a blend).



And here is April's dish - fillet of beef on a skewer! Isn't that cool?



Afterwards April and I went and played some blackjack. We walked away dead even thanks to April's excellent keeping-track-ability. Was fun, free entertainment, as the dealer was coaching us and was very personable, as were the four South Africans sitting at the table. All in all a very nice night!

7/25/2009: Potjiekos!

Today we got up early so that we could rush through the Irene Market to pick up a few last things - only one more market until we leave, wow!

The kids, as always, rode a camel.



We got home in enough time to welcome Craig, his wife Monica, and their two children Cameron and Kaitlyn to the house. They are probably some of the most pleasant people one will ever meet, really. They brought with them the traditional South African "potjie" pot as well as the food goods to be cooked in said pot.

This is a very traditional South African thing, called a "Potjiekos". Basically a group of guys stands around a cauldron-style pot drinking beer and cooking a meat stew. The biggest no-no is to stir the stew once it gets going, as everything has a different cooking time and temperature.

First, Craig got some oil hot and cooked some onions. Then he put in the meat ingredient - oxtail. This is actually the first time I had tasted oxtail (it's good).



The kids got in on the action of putting the oxtail in as well as stirring it while it precooked.



As the oxtail was cooking the kids started saying they were hungry, so we busted out the skewers and the cheese grillers. The started cooking them over the coals, but that didn't work out so well, so we eventually got out the grate (although they left the grillers on the skewers still).



The kids had a blast cooking their own food!



Here we have a couple of visitors - Gareth and Cara (she didn't stay for the food, she just stopped by to say 'hi'). Gareth, however, stayed the whole night!



Here we have Craig adding in the little corn cob things (they get mushy if they cook too long). He has already added in the potatoes, baby marrows (zucchini), butternut squash, and little yellow squash things that look like small bells.



Craig's daughter guarding the potjie.



Last ingredient - mushrooms!



While and after eating it was beginning to get chilly, so we started a bonfire. Plus, the kids wanted to roast marshmallows.



Potjie finished, bonfire going strong!



It was very delicious and we sure appreciate all our new South African friends for coming over and sharing some tradition with us! I gotta get me one of them pots so's I can cook chili!

7/24/2009: Store Names

I had to go up to Vodacom today to work on some new, exciting, cutting-edge project, so there isn't much to update. However, whilst sitting in traffic (for two hours, from Midrand to Menlo Park, about 20km), I snapped this pic of Shoosh store. I have no idea what they sell, but it reminded me of playing with Texas 114 and everyone saying, "shoooooossss" all the time.

7/23/2009: Beef Olives??

We were shopping at Pick 'n Pay at the Doringkloof mall today and came across some interesting items - beef olives. Seems most colonial countries have them, but we'd never heard of such things. It is basically a thin steak pounded down even thinner with a stuffing of rice, bread, more meat, and spices. It tasted remarkable similar to my mom's stuffed cabbage, but wrapped with meat rather than cabbage leaves! We might have to try this when we get back.

Oh, and they have nothing to do with olives other than olives are stuffed as well. Crazy. April whipped up a brown gravy sauce and we baked them in the oven after braising them in the broiler. Add a side of olive oil and herb pasta and voila!



We picked up some snacks for desserts as well - this is a bag of Juicy Twists - orange flavoured Twizzler looking things. I took one bite and decided they were nasty, so I flipped it over and read the back. First ingredient - corn syrup. A little farther down? Made in USA. Corn syrup in everything makes me very annoyed.

That is one thing that I will definitely miss about being outside the US - things are actually made with sugar and will make you sick if you eat too much, unlike US candy. Ugh.

7/22/2009: Phillemon Drives

Africa gives one many opportunities to do works of mercy, and it occurred to us back around Lent that we had two people that actually live and work under our roof that could use our help, so we have tried to find opportunities to help them since they won't actually ask for it unless it's an emergency.

Phillemon is a perfect example - over the last few months he has been telling us at dinner that he is learning to drive and is going to go take his driver's exam to get his Learner's Permit. It seems we were rather thick in our interpretation of what he was actually speaking of - he wants to take his test but doesn't have the means - it is more of a goal and dream for him. He doesn't want to be a gardener forever, and having a Code 10 license would allow him to drive lorries (large trucks) and earn more money.

Once we figured this out, my big mouth opened and I told him we would teach him to drive and schedule his driver's exam (since he also had no idea how to do this either). As always, April gets to reap the fruit of my big mouth - Phillemon got really nervous driving with me (seems I'm intimidating), so I asked April if she wouldn't mind driving with him, and she obliged (she's a keeper).

In any case, he's doing quite well - he even drove her to Lyttleton today, which involves crossing under a highway as well as some busier streets. He will be taking his Learner's Exam on Friday the 31st!



I'm sure everyone has been quite surprised that there haven't been more pictures of beer on this blog - actually I'm quite surprised as well! To tell the truth, I haven't drank much beer here because it is just terrible. SAB Miller was a match made in heaven (because almost everything they make is bad), but Miller Lite is actually the best of all SAB Miller brands and they don't sell it here! When I've wanted a beer with dinner rather than wine I've had to resort to the very, very limited imported selection such as Guiness, Kilkenny, Beck's, Paulaner, etc.

Here you can tell that Kilkenny is made by Harp in Ireland, the same company that makes Guiness!



Lastly, Sarah's new game is to hide in between the fridge and the cupboard until someone says, "where's Sarah?", at which point she jumps out and yells and expects everyone to act surprised. Hilarious.

7/21/2009: Four Weeks Left!

We are really on the downhill slope now! Mike comes into town on August 5th, so being four weeks away is actually not accurate. When folks are visiting us time seems to fly even more.

So, that said, we have limited time to sample more South African wine! We've actually had this one before, but it was on sale and I remembered liking it, so I got it - Raka Spliced Red.



Here are random pics of meal time at the Behnke house. Not much out of the ordinary, although Phillemon (there are two "l"s in his name it turns out) got moved to a different chair because of arguing children.




Sarah is quite the ham. Is she a Behnke?!? Really?!?

7/20/2009: One of the Last Mexican Nights!

The kids like to come show April or I whenever Sarah does something real cute. She wants her picture taken, so here she is with her ultra-hip pink sunglasses!



We only have about four weeks left here in South Africa, and next Monday is our 13th anniversary, so April won't be cooking Mexican food. Therefore, there are only a couple more Mondays left without visitors and with us still here, so this night was significant. April used the corn tortillas my mom had sent over to make enchiladas! It seems that corn tortillas don't freeze well, though, so some were hard, some broke, but the ones that remained were delish!

Since it was Mexican night, April was still going to make flour tortillas to freeze and give to Lydia and Philemon, and the kids "helped" by making their own tortillas!



They actually didn't do a bad job.



I broke out a bottle of Tall Horse Cabernet 2007. Pretty woody, but definitely a good value! Notice we are trying to branch out of the Pinotage since none is available in Texas?



Here are the resultant enchiladas, beans, and Mexican rice. Oh, I didn't mention that April made her own enchilada sauce as well! It was excellent - just enough spice to make it interesting!

7/19/2009: Plumb Wore Out!

Kids can sleep in the most interesting positions! When I laid John in bed he immediately shifted his head over to lay on Mary's buttocks. HA!

7/18/2009: Craig's Birthday Party

One of my colleagues from Vodacom invited us over for a birthday party today, so we spent pretty much all day out there. They were nice enough to provide beverages for us - including, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper!!! They found it at a Spar grocery store in the area - seems it was imported from Great Britian. We were agasp!

To see all the pics, head over to Facebook!

7/17/2009: Fruits of the Garden

It's been a busy week, so we decided to hang out and relax today. The kids and I watched a movie on the laptop...



...then they went out and picked a bushel of carrots! Oy!

7/16/2009: Mary's Birthday

We started Mary's birthday out with her requested breakfast - pancakes with vanilla custard, toffee custard, marshmellows, syrup, and chocolate syrup. Yes they are nasty. She opened her gifts there at the table before we drove to Menlyn Park Mall Galaxy Arcade.

All the pictures are over at Facebook! Go there now!



At dinner we helped ourselves to a bottle of Tall Horse Shiraz 2008. April actually liked it because it was very smooth and not too tart! Yay, something other than Pinotage - everyone take note - April likes mild Shiraz wines!!!

7/15/2009: Power Returns!

April and I were awakened early, early this morning with the outside lights coming on. Power has returned! We got up and drove to the Bird Gardens at Montecasino - there are way too many pics, so head over to my Facebook page where I've uploaded them all.

After we returned home, I opened a bottle of Diemersfontein Pinotage 2008. It was quite tasty, but a little heady for April. She thought it was OK nonetheless.



Here is Sarah "helping" with the cork:



April was preparing for Mary's birthday party, so she busied herself in making the cake:

7/14/2009: Waking Daddy Up

This is how the kids wake daddy up after he's been up talking until 1 a.m. This doesn't even have John in the picture yet - he likes to come tickle feet and put his extremely cold feet (remember - no heat, we still had no power) all over me.

7/13/2009: Black Out, Mexican Night, and New Friend

Our power went out today around 3:30 p.m., so I had to reserve the power on my phone and only took one photo. We managed to get no pics with the other camera either, as all the batteries were dead and we had no way to charge them.

It seems a substation went down and when the power came back on 30 minutes later, a line was fried here in Irene. It took them almost two days to restore power to our little area of Irene - most of the other houses had power immediately. Bummer.

Anyway, since it was early enough to prepare, I went and bought candles at Freedom Market and a canister of propane (LP) at a garage (gas station) so that we could cook. Our cooktop is electric but there is also a gas cooktop and oven.

So, we closed all the doors in the kitchen to keep the heat in, turned on the gas stove, and cooked up our Mexican food. A colleagure of a guy with whom I went to high school came over and was just pleasant as could be. Adventuresome too, as I informed her that we had no power!

Since we have no heat and it was around freezing that night, we made a bonfire out front. This is the only photo I took the entire night - notice my Boy Scout style fire making? Pyramid/tipi baby! It was a great night all in all, even with no power!

7/12/2009: Mass and Menlyn

Following schedule, we hit up Menlyn Park Mall after mass today to see into what kind of trouble we could get. Wandering around, we came across Dee Dee (?) from Ben 10. Seems Cartoon Network was on site giving out pens and doing appearances. Nifty - the kids really liked it.



We then went to the playground, where they have installed new equipment and have therefore doubled the entrance price to R20 per kid. That's expensive when you have as many children as April and I, when you're just talking about kids running around on a playground!

I snapped this pic for the benefit of all of you who have heard that Mary considers herself quite the princess. Notice how she's not doing the work?



This poor girl carted Mary all over the playground for about 10 minutes or so.



The kids were pretending that they were "flying to Texas". I figured everyone would be happy to hear that! Notice how Vin brought along his blue scooter?

7/11/2009: Regularly Scheduled Camel Rides

It's Saturday, so we once again hit the Irene Market. Hey, have to keep the kids on a schedule, right? They got to ride the camels again.

Sarah loves to help set the table, but she's confused as to what exactly we need. In this case, she decided to bring a huge cookie tub to the table.