Happy Birthday!
February 18, 2006
The morning after the night before…
What a night! We invited about twenty people to our house for a Bar – B – Que (Braai) to celebrate Carrie’s birthday. We ordered a bunch of food from the club. Ellen (the club’s chef) made beef skewers in a balsamic marinade, chicken satay, Braai Brekkies (cheese and tomato sandwiches, a SA braai staple), and spring rolls. I made devilled eggs, potato salad, and baked fish with a sour cream dill sauce. Ellen also provided tables, chairs, plates, glasses, lanterns, and all the other details necessary for a successful gathering.
We had all the wheels in motion by last week. It came as quite a shock then when Mohammed announced at dinner on Thursday that he had purchased an entire sheep for the event. Suddenly we had way more food then we could eat in a month of parties. Fortunately, Ellen agreed to freeze the corpse and chop it into cutlets for later enjoyment.
We also had a problem with the fish. Sour cream is a precious commodity here. It is not found in the store very often and when it does appear, it goes fast. Needless to say, there was none when I went to look for it. I mentioned my dilemma to Ellen and she hooked me up; heavy cream beaten till just stiff mixed with lemon juice and salt make sour cream! Who’d a thought?
Our grill is an oil barrel cut in half length wise. It’s really deep and therefore hard to maintain the heat. I placed a brick in the bottom and rested a screen on top so as to bring the coals closer to the grill. I piled in a mess of coals to make sure there would be plenty of fire all night. Early in the evening Terry showed up. He’s a Brit. He told me that he just leaves the cooking to the South Africans because they always take over anyway. Sure enough, before the coals were even ready I had two guys telling me I had it all wrong. They pushed me aside so they could “teach” me how to grill food properly. I relinquished the position and played host instead.
It was an extremely fun event. As teachers we are in a unique position here. We have no relationship to the inner workings of the mine or the politics that live there. Our guests ranged from the General Manager to the guy that turns the wrench to maintain the equipment; an eclectic mix to say the least. There were two distinct cliques and a few floaters in between. We invited those folks that we hit it off with. I’m not even sure what most of these guys do at the plant. Several folks commented on the fact that they had never been to an event quite like this one as most parties are cut by political lines. We decided we’ll have to do it more often.
We have no choice now. We have a fridge full of leftovers and an entire sheep still to eat. I guess we’ll be having a few more braais over the coming weeks.
MJR
The morning after the night before…
What a night! We invited about twenty people to our house for a Bar – B – Que (Braai) to celebrate Carrie’s birthday. We ordered a bunch of food from the club. Ellen (the club’s chef) made beef skewers in a balsamic marinade, chicken satay, Braai Brekkies (cheese and tomato sandwiches, a SA braai staple), and spring rolls. I made devilled eggs, potato salad, and baked fish with a sour cream dill sauce. Ellen also provided tables, chairs, plates, glasses, lanterns, and all the other details necessary for a successful gathering.
We had all the wheels in motion by last week. It came as quite a shock then when Mohammed announced at dinner on Thursday that he had purchased an entire sheep for the event. Suddenly we had way more food then we could eat in a month of parties. Fortunately, Ellen agreed to freeze the corpse and chop it into cutlets for later enjoyment.We also had a problem with the fish. Sour cream is a precious commodity here. It is not found in the store very often and when it does appear, it goes fast. Needless to say, there was none when I went to look for it. I mentioned my dilemma to Ellen and she hooked me up; heavy cream beaten till just stiff mixed with lemon juice and salt make sour cream! Who’d a thought?
Our grill is an oil barrel cut in half length wise. It’s really deep and therefore hard to maintain the heat. I placed a brick in the bottom and rested a screen on top so as to bring the coals closer to the grill. I piled in a mess of coals to make sure there would be plenty of fire all night. Early in the evening Terry showed up. He’s a Brit. He told me that he just leaves the cooking to the South Africans because they always take over anyway. Sure enough, before the coals were even ready I had two guys telling me I had it all wrong. They pushed me aside so they could “teach” me how to grill food properly. I relinquished the position and played host instead.
It was an extremely fun event. As teachers we are in a unique position here. We have no relationship to the inner workings of the mine or the politics that live there. Our guests ranged from the General Manager to the guy that turns the wrench to maintain the equipment; an eclectic mix to say the least. There were two distinct cliques and a few floaters in between. We invited those folks that we hit it off with. I’m not even sure what most of these guys do at the plant. Several folks commented on the fact that they had never been to an event quite like this one as most parties are cut by political lines. We decided we’ll have to do it more often.We have no choice now. We have a fridge full of leftovers and an entire sheep still to eat. I guess we’ll be having a few more braais over the coming weeks.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 9:54 AM
1 Comments:
Happy Birthday Carrie! I got your email and emailed back. I wish I could drop by for some girl time and catch up. I am enjoying being back in touch with you after all this time. We have known each other almost all our lives and as I am turing 40 at the end of this year that means a very long time!!! Take care and I hope to see more of your posts on this blog of amazing adventure.
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