It’s day 5 million and something of lockdown. I have completely forgotten what seeing friends and family is like and the days blur into an endless stream of meals shopped for, thought about, cooked and fairly often rejected. I am making my way through the last wine order all by myself as COD decided to do dry January (why, oh why would anyone pick the coldest, darkest, longest, most miserable month in the most miserable of years to do dry Jan? Why?) and eating way too much in the way of sweets and chocolate. It’s all going rapidly downhill. In fact, this week things hit a real low as I bought the kids (and us) McDonalds for dinner. 11 Years of ‘no golden arches’ broken. Worst part, they blood loved it. Let’s share an anecdote……

To set the scene, when we have burgers at home (you know, ones made by the local butcher and cooked by me), ACOD always asks for a cheese burger with the burger on the side. Essentially a cheese roll. She opted for a kids cheeseburger and juice from McD’s……….

ACOD (has eaten half a kids cheese burger): Mummy, this is the best burger ever
Me: Glad you are enjoying it
ACOD (looks inside the bun): Mummy, there’s ketchup in here and I don’t like ketchup
Me: I think that’s probably why you think it’s the best burger ever
ACOD (while taking more bites): I really don’t like ketchup
Me: OK

She finished the ‘best burger ever’.

• 

It’s not completely gone to pot and I do still try and cook some things that contain real ingredients! Like this evenings meal. Sticking with the childhood-food-stuff theme, my latest foray into dinners of my youth is beef olives. These are odd things which have absolutely nothing to do with olives. I think the last time we had these was when we lived in Johannesburg and we left Joburg at the end of 1991. I recall loving them as a kid and so decided to turn back time and see if they are still as appealing. In case you don’t know, beef olives are thin steaks wrapped around a stuffing of some kind. I chose sausage meat but you can find all sorts of variations on this recipe. Mine are really just pig in a cow blanket in gravy. They were absolutely delicious and got a five star rating from all other members of the household!

Beef Olives

• 

What you will need: oven turned on to 180 degrees, a large casserole dish with a lid, toothpicks. This recipe serves 4. I did some with whole sausages and some half ones

Ingredients

6 good quality pork sausages
6 thin minute steaks – each large enough to wrap around a sausage
1 onion, finely chopped
1Lt beef stock
2T flour
Mixed herbs, seasoning
2T tomato puree
Olive oil
25g knob of butter

Method

Make sure your steaks are really thin, if not, bash them a bit flatter between some greaseproof paper sheets. Lay out a steak, remove a sausage from its skin and lay the sausage along one edge of the steak. Roll the steak around the sausage and secure it with a toothpick. I sort of sew the toothpick in and out. Repeat with all the sausages and steaks.

Get your casserole dish on the stove and heat up the olive oil and butter. Once hot, add the beef olives and brown them so they have a nice bit of colour. Remove them from the dish to a plate on the side. Add the chopped onions to the casserole dish and soften for 2 minutes. Now add in the flour and mixed herbs and using a whisk, slowly add the stock while whisking to avoid lumps. Add the tomato puree, combine and then add the beef olives back to the dish. Pop on the lid, transfer to your hot oven and cook for 90minutes.

I served mine with rice, beans and broccoli – but that’s only because my children are so limited in their vegetable eating! Ideally, I would serve mash with green beans and peas I think.

• 

• 

In other news:

• LOD turned 11 this month. That’s 11 years of keeping a small human alive. Not bad really.
• I hit my target of running of 100km in January, despite a fall and holes in my knees
• We have finally agreed on a start date for the basement to be redone. This is a massive job but once done, will be warm, dry, and we will have a guest suite! Cannot wait to have a sewing room that is a bit warmer than the arctic.
• I wish there was more news but alas, we go nowhere and do nothing…….