Wonderful weekend and African Hospitality

Jared and I just had the most lovely weekend away. A hiking group we joined went to the Kogelberg Nature Reserve in the southern cape, which is a world heritage site. We stayed in these cabins, simple but quite comfortable surrounded by immense beauty. Mountains, a river, a valley, small patches of forest tucked into kloofs (steep ravines)....it was gorgeous.

The hiking group is geared toward people interested in spirituality and intuition so the people who come are interested in things like yoga, healing modalities, etc.

I had such a lovely time I didn't want to come back.

In our cabin of 6 we were staying with a group of 4 friends who have known each other for years. One was an American who has been in South Africa for 30 years but somehow still maintained her American accent, then there was an Afrikaans woman and a couple who are both hairdressers who I think were both English-speaking as their first language. They were pretty funny.

I have met Afrikaans people who were very hospitable to me, but who were also very racist. This woman was so great, she was one of those progressive Afrikaaners who I haven't met very many of. She teaches yoga and is very passionate about it and is also quite good at it. She gave Jared and I a ride home and we stopped at this lovely hidden beach to watch the sun set with some others from the trip. Since it was getting late, she took us home with her to this lovely house built by an architect who loved Tuscan style houses.

We took her yoga class in the morning and played with her 1 year old grandson. Its a bit of a story of this little boy. His mother was 21 and had broken up with her boyfriend but they were still seeing each other and she became pregnant. The ex was riding his motorcycle to see her and got in an accident and became paralyzed and was in a coma for several months. She didn't know she was pregnant for months and being traumatized tried to comfort herself with alcohol. The father was 22 and hasn't coped well with being paralyzed and has become quite nasty. The little boy doesn't like to be with his father very much, but they are trying to work it out. Both the mother and her little son stay with the woman who gave us a ride and she is looking after them. The boy's mother is still in school training to be a teacher.

After the little kid got used to us, he liked us. Despite what he has experienced emotionally, he is a sweet, intelligent kid.

It was such a great weekend in a wonderfully beautiful place and with wonderful people.

Vegan Gluten-Free Cornmeal Banana Muffins!

I made vegan gluten-free cornmeal banana muffins last night. Yum yum! I used a recipe from Karina's Kitchen http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/07/blueberry-corn-muffins.html and substituted the bananas for blueberries.

They turned out fantastic! Easy to make too. I even controlled myself and waited at least 5 minutes before shoving one into my mouth. I'm usually so eager to eat baked goods I don't wait for them to cool down at all before eating one. But this time, I actually followed the instructions and waited 5 minutes for them to cool in the pain before taking them out of the pan. Then I ate one. Mmmmm...warm baked goodness. I even ate it slowly to make sure I savored the taste.

I really love baking and cooking. Before the muffins I made a soup with sweet potatoes. Its from an East African cookbook I have, and I added some beans I had cooked earlier in the day. It was a great combination of flavor... sweetness from the potatoes and tomatoes with the spice of cardamon, cumin and coriander. And a slight coloring from the turmeric. Mmmm..... yum yum!!