Things that are Awesome - Festival Time

Woo hoo! 

The Easter long weekend is in T minus 2 days which means... Splashy Fen is here baby!

Splashy Fen is a stalwart on the South African Music Festival scene and although some folks have expressed dismay at the absence of big hitters on this year's lineup, I couldn't be more excited! 

Here's my pick of the Festival:

Thursday:

Wrestlerish

Isochronous

Friday:

THOTS

The La Els

City Bowl Mizers

Saturday:

Newtown

The Rudimentals

Sunday:
The Wilderness Act
Thomas Krane

Make sure you remember your gumboots and thermal undies... there's snow on the mountains.... EEEK!

Ice Tea

My friend Lisa taught me how to make my own ice tea. It is a cheat method which means it is super duper easy.

I actually did a bit of research before deciding to use Lisa's method but the 'sun tea' and 'cold-brewed' seemed like waaay too much admin for my liking. On a hot day, when I am craving ice tea I don't want to have to wait hours for it to be ready - by that time the sun has probably gone down and tomorrow might be rainy.

The cheat's recipe is for instant gratification. Ready in approximately 15 minutes!

Ingredients:

Water

Ice

Tea - I use green tea or rooibos (red bush) depending on my mood

Fruit juice concentrate - I used Halls Apple Concentrate in the above photograph.

Method

Now this is a tough one to describe because people like ice tea in various strengths and sweetnesses. But the following is generally how I roll:

Boil about 3 cups of water.

Let between 4 and 6 teabags steep in the boiled water for a good 5 minutes or until you are satisfied with the strength of the tea.

Chuck in a big handful or two of ice and then place in the fridge

Mix up the juice concentrate as per the instructions on the bottle. I usually use about three cups.

Add juice to tea and chuck in a bit more ice (or, if you're patient, place back in the fridge until cool).

Adjust to your taste (more juice or cold water may be necessary).

Drink and enjoy your super quick, super easy ice tea!

Chocolate Chunk Biscuits

I found this recipe here and just added chocolate chunks. It's a really plain biscuit so it's a good starting point for biscuit experiments. Just add whatever you like, nuts, dried fruit, smarties, colourings.

I wasn't actually sure if I liked this recipe after the first biscuit I ate but then I tried another one (just to make sure) and after that there was no stopping me. I took more than half the batch to the office the next day to avoid over-dosing and it's pretty safe to say that these biscuits are a win.

I later realised that they taste very similar to the biscuits my gran used to make when I was a child, minus the chocolate though. It made me feel very nostalgic. That's probably why I ate so many of them. Not because I'm a pig. Definitely not.

 Ingredients

125g Butter

2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Caster Sugar

1 tblsp Milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 Egg

Half a slab of whatever chocolate you like

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius

Cream butter and caster sugar together

Add egg and vanilla and mix well

Add sifted flour, baking powder and milk and mix carefully until just incorporated.

Break up chocolate (I used swiss milk chocolate with hazelnuts) and mix in.

Roll the mixture into balls about the size of a large marble and place the balls on a greased/lined baking tray, flatten the balls with your thumb or with the back of a fork.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown.