A nice meal in the winter!

Hello everyone !

The travel fair was a great success and it is so nice seeing so much interest for South Africa and souther africa. Many people who have recently been there came to tell about their wonderful experiences and I got many new clients to plan tours for, so it looks like a busy year ahead, I like:)

Besides working during the days, I try to take time to catch up on many other things I havent had time for lately, like going to gym, sorting out the clothes in the house, cleaning a bit every day and meeting my friends and spending time with my family. I have got back my interest in making food again, as after the girls came to this world I lost the interest for a while because I was cooking potatoes and carrots and other veggies for over a year so I got kind of tired of it, but now it is time to explore the good food world again, so I start by sharing a good traditional Bobotie recipe I found, and it is perfect for the cold winter days we have here in Finland, easy to make and enjoy with a glas of south african redwine.

BOBOTIE

• 500g mince – use beef, mix lamb/ beef or even ostrich if you wish
• 30ml sunflower oil
• 1 large carrot – peeled and grated
• 2 onions – chopped
• 10 ml chopped garlic
• 5 ml each of ground coriander, ground ginger, curry powder, cinnamon, turmeric, sugar / apricot jam, salt
• 15ml white vinegar
• thick slice of white bread soaked in milk
• 125ml almond slithers or flaked almonds
• 3 – 4 bay leaves
• 250ml milk
• 2 eggs
• seasoning to taste

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil and add the mince. Cook this until the mince is nice and crumbly – not big lumps (use a wooden spoon or a fork to separate bits). Add all the spices and the carrot. Add the lemon juice and mix in.

Add the soaked white bread, making sure to mix it in properly (you shouldn’t be able to see big chunks of bread). Add the almonds and mix through.

Lightly whisk together the milk or buttermilk and eggs. Spoon the mix into a medium sized oven dish and level it with the back of a spoon. Pour the milk and egg mixture over this and poke the bay leaves in the mince for decoration.

Bake at 180 – 190 for about 40 minutes. The egg custard should be firm and set and a golden brown colour.

Serve the bobotie with yellow rice and raisins, sliced banana, chutney and coconut.

ENJOY!

Love Jannika 

A new year and new beginnings!

Hi everyone,

Im back from once again a great tour in South Africa. I had such a wonderful group, ages between 14- 80 years and all enjoyed it and made my work so enjoyable as I could see everyone took in what they saw in Africa. 

The tour started on the 25.12, Nico drove me to Helsinki in the morning as there is no trains, planes or buses going from vasa the day after christmas , so 5am we started driving. I met the group at the airport and we left for South Africa, flight trough Istanbul, where we had 8 hours of waiting....yes, that is quite a long time, so we had a pre arranged dinner , bus came to pick us up and we spent the evening eating Turkish food, very tasty meat, and after that we only had about 3 hours to wait. At the departure terminal I found a hotel and there they had spa facilities/ massage so I booked a massage at 9pm in evening and 1 hour went by and I felt relaxed and ready for next flight. 

We arrived following day at 14.00 in Cape Town, to a beatiful sunny day with temperatures +34. That evening we visited Table Mountain and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset as you can see below.

The following day we drove to Cape Point and to see the African Penguines at Boulders Beach

 And one day we did a township tour and learned about the township life,we visited Langa township and Kayelitsha. Close to 1,5miljon people live in the township areas close to Cape Town.

 After a few days in Cape Town we flew to Johannesburg and started our northern tour. We drove about 400km and stayed at Hannah Lodge, set in a beautiful surrounding, on a 8000hectare reserve, this picture below is a view from my room.

 These pictures are from the Blyde River Canyon, luckily it was not misty the day we visited.

 On new years eve we enjoyed a dance and singing show by the local Shangaan people, try to lift that leg as high as these girls here....I wont even try:)

Everyone went early to bed on new years eve as we had a to be up before 5am the next morning, for a safari day in Kruger Park. We had a great day, even if it was thunder and lightning during the night, it was only drizzling in the morning, and it stopped before we had breakfast in the park. We saw lions, elephants, a leopard quite in a distance, a cheetah under a tree eating its kill, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, antilopes.....

 And at Honeyguide , where we stayed the last two nights, we did game drives in the morning and afternoon, saw plenty of animals, ate delicious food, relaxed and our last day was a hot day in the bush with +35 !

So in all I had a great tour with great people! On our way back home to Finland we had again a 8 hour stop in Istanbul, most of the guest went on a guided city tour, I was tired so I checked into the hotel where I had that massage on departure , but this time I just wanted to sleep and I slept for 4 hours, so anyone who is travelling trough Istanbul and is having a long stop over at the aiport, I can warmly recommend the hotel at the departure terminal, it is so convinient, no need to go trough any passcontrols or security controls anymore after you check out.
When we arrived in Helsinki, Nico and the girls waited for me and on sunday we started our journey home to Vasa.
Now Im home again until middle of March,but next week already we are going to Helsinki to participate in the MATKA 2013 travel convention, open for the public on friday 19.01 until sunday 21.01. We will be at the South African Embassy Stand, number: 7f39. Hope to see you there!

Love to you all!

Jannika