Currently, I am sitting on the couch in our lounge, frustrated that the chocolate mousse that I just whipped up, has split, but I’m chilling it anyways because maybe, just maybe it turns out okay, but the Google search I did to enquire about a remedy literally tells me there is no help, this is it, your best hope is to set the mousse and perhaps beat it smooth, but there is no guarantee. Thus, another dark moment in my culinary quest to be adventurous in the kitchen, and to whip up amazing anything, but I also know that the Lord allows these sorts of incidents to happen in my life to teach me valuable lessons.
Not all cream is equal
Yep, you may think that cream is cream, well it’s not, and I can tell you that we have discovered just this year, that this is not the case. Fresh cream will always trump the long-life stuff, and a local dairy usually produces a better quality than some other well-known brands, trust me, I’m realizing this again, right now!!
The Odendaal’s bought a house, wow, and how amazing it has been!! Moving, they will tell you, is stressful, and it truly was. On the very last day in our previous place, tensions ran crazy high, and Cara and I both agree that this was the craziest moment we’ve ever experienced as a married couple, we were both stressed to the max trying to get the last things out of our rental place, whilst the agent was just chilling and refusing to inspect the place until very last piece of our existence was removed. I mean, we understood that, but the weeks leading up to this moment we had moved ‘everything’ out of the house, every day for about 6 weeks we had moved absolutely everything out, and it was in that moment that we realized again, shucks, we have a lot of stuff. But, all things considered, the move went well, and we are loving our 84/85-year-old grand Walmer lady. She has good bones, and we are very excited to be welcoming our first tenant in our downstairs flat, an absolute testimony.
Fresh, room temperature eggs
I am crazy fussy when it comes to eggs, free-range eggs almost certainly always have a nicer, golden egg yolk, its lovely to behold, and I think the ‘fresh’ part is just a given, if your eggs have been around for too long, then just know, please, it’s not like a banana that can become a loaf of sorts, it will fail your baking, and baking in 2023…2024 is expensive enough, so don’t skimp on fresh, quality ingredients.
During 2023 the Odendaal’s also realized that they are snobbish when it comes to accommodation and sleeping arrangements. I think that the word ‘snob’, is most likely too harsh of a word, perhaps its more that we realized what we don’t enjoy as much, we realized this on an impromptu one night away in Joubertina, yes yes, I know…and now recently on a missions trip to Lesotho. Serving the community was amazing, but the ultra-thin mattress on a hard floor, erm…was perhaps less amazing, but looking back now on both of these adventures, well it was just that, an adventure.
Separate the eggs
There are many ways of doing this, but please just always ensure that your hands are clean, you never know when you’ll need to be catching something.
Gosh, we had a lot of other amazing trips away. The most amazing thing about being married is always having a road trip buddy, and someone to be silly with. Hang around us long enough, and maybe you’ll hear a terrible attempt at a ‘posh’ British-English accent. We did a trip towards Knysna, where I ran my one and only half marathon for 2023, and slept two nights in Jongensfontein, which is a beautiful seaside resort, accessed by driving through Stilbaai, another amazing seaside town. We also worked a 3-day creative arts conference into this mid-year break, which was amazing to attend with my wife. In October this year we celebrated a year of marriage, and the road took us to Prince Albert. What a lovely little dorpie, but, I also got very bored very quickly, eish, in 2024 I will need to learn the art of being okay with just being still and not always wanting to be busy with something.
Soft peaks vs. Stiff peaks, know your application
Softer for smoother, stiffer for meringue like.
Being busy with stuff consumes me a lot. The fun thing about owning a really old house comes with amazing renovation opportunities, and we have done a lot of that this year already and will continue renovating for the foreseeable future. The crazy thing about this is that I know that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I still always want to beet myself up for not doing more, doing better, doing greater etc. Knowing when to switch off is as important, if not more important, then getting the job done!! Don’t believe me, ask my wife. The more time that passes between starting a project and ending such project, the more creative and exciting the project becomes, and the more one also has to look the other way when you realize that the budget is crazy blown, BUT, that the final product is just so much cooler.
The chocolate
All the above may fail, like in my current situation, so please make sure that the chocolate is good. If you won’t eat it on its own, then it does not belong in your baking, period. ‘Cooking chocolate’ is vile, don’t even go there.
Form over function you see!! This is a big lesson I have learnt this year. Functionality is amazing, but form allows you to stop and smell the roses and to create something with purpose and value. I love being handy around the house, around the office in my workspace, and I like to think within our marriage as well. I am obsessed with making worthwhile experiences, but I am realizing again that such an experience could also just be consciously stopping the noise, choosing to step out of the clutter, and then to just shake up any one tiny thing, and to actively watch the crafting of a new result, and that my friends, is how we ARE going to reinvent the proverbial wheel in 2024.
Why a new wheel you may ask, well, in a simple response (and tribute to) my lovely wife loves to give, ‘interesting’, so let’s keep things Interesting in 2024.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2
With all our love, signing out of 2023,
Ryan and Cara
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