Here are my answers to this week’s fun challenge from pensitivity101

1. How do you like your coffee/tea?

Although I prefer to drink coffee rather than tea, I will choose tea when a choice is offered by someone I don’t know very well. I am pretty sure that almost everybody I visit in this country will have my tea of choice – Rooibos (Red Bush). I take it black with or without a slice of lemon.

Now coffee is a different matter. The only instant coffee that I will stoop to would be Jacobs or Nescafe, hot, strong and black. At home, I drink ‘real’ coffee – all the time. It must either be made from freshly ground beans which I will then brew in an Italian Coffee Pot or use a plunger. I was never keen on Nespresso and swore I’d never buy a Nespresso Machine – but then my children gave me one for my seventieth birthday. It came with a variety of pods none of which I took to. However, I discovered ‘generic’ pods that match my beans of choice. So now I adore Nespresso – quick, easy and no mess! And yes – hot, black, strong – no sugar.

The very best coffee in the world can be found in Italy. When my husband was in an Italian hospital for three weeks I stayed in a small hostel on the hospital premises and was allowed to visit for most of the day. Every morning I would start my day with a coffee and croissant at the canteen. “Americano e croissant al cioccolato per favore” I would ask the grumpy server and she would glare at me and hand me the order in a huff. I really tried hard to make her smile but to no avail, until the second to last day when I said, “Il caffè italiano è buono- Italian coffee is good!” Her reply – “No, questo non è caffè italiano, questo è caffè americano. Non va bene!” No this is not Italian coffee – this is American coffee It is not good! And her scowl was one of total disgust.

Heck – I’d been ordering all wrong! The next day I went in. “Espresso per favore?” She beamed from ear to ear! At last, she’d converted this stupid Inglese!

I really do enjoy an espresso but in the morning I like a slightly longer drink, thank you.

2.  Are you a dunker (of biscuits/cookies)?

Biscuits in South African English, I think, are what cookies are in America. I would never dunk a cookie (cup-cake) nor would I dunk a biscuit (cookie). But I would dunk a rusk. A rusk is a Dutch confectionery that is popular in South Africa as we were once a Dutch colony. It is made from wheat flour and baked in the shape of a small loaf allowed to cool and then baked again so they are very dry but quite delicious especially when dunked in coffee. Rusks that I grew up with were called Ouma Rusks

3.  What is your favourite biscuit/cookie?

I seldom eat biscuits these days but when I was younger Baker’s Eet Sum Mor shortbread biscuits were my absolute favourite.

4.  Have you ever baked your own biscuits/cookies?

I have baked Kourabiethes – Greek Shortbread. And they’re 1000 times nicer than Eet Sum Mor. When my siblings and I grew up and left home my mother would not know what to give us for Christmas so she made us each a tin of these wonderful biscuits and we loved them! She taught me how just before she died.

Gratitude:
A warm smile takes the chill off a cold day.

This is quite appropriate for this week as we have been experiencing very cold weather this past week. Hubby and I were visiting our kids in Plettenberg Bay and smiling through the chill was not easy but we managed! And we certainly counted our blessings while we were enjoying the company of Lauren, Allan and Simon. (Shan was away visiting her young man and enjoying a weekend at Addo Elephant Park! – We trained her well!)

We had such a lovely time in Plett in spite of the cold weather. “Cold” to us might not seem so bad to folk in other parts of the world who experience snow and ice. We are still privileged to get sunny days in winter and the picture below shows the beauty we experienced travelling home. The mercury averaged at 13 degrees C.