This Global Kitchen | Day 26: South Africa
My name is Nicole and I am originally from San Fransisco, California. For the past nine years, Johannesburg, South Africa has been my home. I manage the El Roi Baby Home at LIV Lanseria. We are a home for abandoned babies as well as babies consented to be placed with Forever Families through the process of adoption. I have the privilege of being an “auntie” right now to 16 babies from ages birth to 4 years old. In the photo above, I am with our newest addition, Baby Boy M. He is our 65th baby that came to us this month through our “Baby Safe” program, an anonymous abandonment program where parents can surrender their babies in a safe manner.
For my first seven years at El Roi, I lived with the children. About two months ago, I moved into my own little “hobbit hole” on the property. I am only a few minutes from the babies, but I am able to enjoy quieter evenings and only have to wake up in the middle of night when I have a new baby in my bed! All our babies spend their first few weeks with me working on creating a primary attachment before being introduced into the whole El Roi family. My new place is a one bedroom-one bathroom little spot with a studio kind of vibe. The main area includes my lounge, dining room, and kitchen. As you can see, I have two spots to fill. When I am able to raise the funds, I will purchase a washing machine and tumble dryer.
It is smaller kitchen and I have hopes of opening up the space. I decided to go with an open shelf plan because it is a fun and creative way to store and display my kitchen items. I have two smaller cabinets on either side of the oven and a spot for cleaning supplies and such under the sink.
I am an avid coffee drinker (here’s looking at all you, new babies). Also, South Africans are wild about their rooibos tea. This “nook” is well used. It is customary to have coffee, tea, and some sweet treat available for anyone who may happen to pop by.
It took this Californian a bit of time to be ready for drop-in guests, but now having people popping by at all hours is one of my favorite part of living in the LIV Lanseria community. As an organization, we host international volunteers from all over the world and have staff members and foster families living on site. This means, including our babies, we have an average of 50 people living on site at any given time. Living in this type of "up close and personal" community is one of the best (and most challenging) part of living in South Africa.
One of the downsides of an open plan kitchen is no broom closet to stick all your cleaning goodies and trash can. Combine these goodies with an obtrusive electrical box with wires connecting to it on the OUTSIDE wall, I am thankful this corner is hidden from sight behind my alcove wall.
My Must Haves For My Expat Kitchen:
For me, I love how my blue Butter Bell adds a pop of color to my kitchen and I love not having to wrestle with cold butter for toast and muffins.
I also always stock up on semi-sweet chocolate chips and brown sugar. We can often get similar types of chocolate chips and you can make your own brown sugar but there is something uniquely nostalgic about chocolate chips cookies make with Ghirardelli Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips and C & H Pure Cane Dark Brown Sugar that cannot be replicated.
My Favorite Expat friendly Recipe:
Patriotic Fruit Pizza
by Nicole | TakingRoute.net
One of my favorite sweet treats to make on the 4th of July (which I still celebrate this side) is a fruit pizza decorated with patriotic flair. It is an easy recipe and I think you would be able to find most ingredients most place in the world!
Crust:
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose/cake flour
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 14 Tbsp. butter, softened
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Toppings:
- 12oz (2 packages) cream cheese*, softened
- 7 Tbsp. butter, softened
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups powdered/icing sugar
- Assorted fruits (blueberries and raspberries if you are going patriotic)
Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy (with a mixer if you are fancy). Add vanilla and eggs, until combined well. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together (sift if you are gourmet). Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ones until combined. Chill dough for 30 minutes until it firms up. Preheat oven to 350/180 degrees. Grease/line with parchment paper a large baking tray. Evenly press chilled dough onto cookie sheet all the way to the edges. Bake for 17 – 20 minutes until lightly browned and cooked through. Cool and keep chilled until time to serve.
Meanwhile, once ready to serve...
Mix topping ingredients together (minus the fruit) until smooth. Spread topping over pizza and then decorate pizza as you see fit. Cut into generous slices and enjoy!
Expat Notes: *If you can’t get your hands on cream cheese you can always just whip up some cream, omit the butter and you should be good to go!
