In case you have not heard yet, I am taking a little food sabbatical from Adre’s Kitchen till mid July. There are many reasons for the sabbatical but it literally boils down to ‘ I miss cooking for my family’. I miss pottering in the kitchen with the smells of home cooking calling all to the table or the multitasking of standing over the stove while daughter no 2 talks about her day and the gossip and me pretending to hear every word. I miss being at home. Don’t get me wrong, I loved every bit of what I have build with my team at Adre’s Kitchen and feel incredibly proud of what we have achieved every time I have to order another 1000 soup sleeves! But as winter is drawing close it’s time for me to potter in my own kitchen.

And with this in mind I am making lists of things I want ‘to do and cook’ now that I will have a little more time. First on my list is to bring back THE SUNDAY LUNCH. There is just something, isn’t there? I love it and have fond memories of my mom cooking for the family, including my gran & uncle EVERY Sunday of my school life, what a special memory. Right, so on Saturday (not one to forward plan these things) I text a few friends and all but one joined us for a memorable lunch, memorable not so much about the food, although a proper Karoo Lamb Bredie and a Proper English Crumble always hits the spot, but its more about the feeling of ‘samesyn’ around the table that I just love. ‘Samesyn’ is the  Afrikaans word meaning “togetherness” and that is exactly what having people over a table resembles to me the feeling of togetherness, even if it’s just for a brief moment in our busy lives, the feeling of connection between humans as we pass food, wine and conversation is what we all need in our crazy lives.

With this sense of ‘Samesyn’ in mind that I am hoping to achieve no 2 on my list of things-to-do-when-I-have-more-time – WEEKLY FAMILY MEALS around the table, I admit its a tall order between yoga, exams, tv time etc but it’s worth a shot. Secretly I want it to become ‘normal’ so I am playing it down a bit to the hesitant teenagers. No, no it’s not a formal sit down as such, just a quick one. As Mondays go, not the perfect start as I arrived at home after 5 which was not entirely practical if one intends to bake bread but at least I had my dough going at work. Nonetheless I manage to get everyone at the table around 7:30pm and the teenagers actually forgot about their episodes of Friends & Highlander (? yes there was a 1980 TV Show loved by my 14year old?) as we chatted about which teacher in Harry Potter most likely resembles a current high school teacher, R50 if you could spot Dumbledore… Aah Samesyn

Monday 20 May 2019