Things that I miss and didn't think I would (The B's)

When you visit a new country it's nice to try new things.  I was looking forward to experiencing a new culture for a few years instead of a few weeks.  From what I had seen on our initial visit I was going to love the food, the climate and the natural environment.  But having been here for 6 weeks there are a few things that I miss.  There are too many to cover from A-Z in one post so I'll start from the beginning.  There were no A's, so here are my B's 

Basements - They don't have basements in South Africa.  The ground never freezes so foundations don't need to be poured below the frost line.  I knew I wasn't going to have a basement when we picked this house.  I packed accordingly and stored accordingly and I think I got the amount of stuff I brought just right.  It's not the storage space I miss.  I miss the fact that the basement used to be the kids play space.   Not long before we left DD turned 5.  She was mostly independent and DH and I had started getting Saturday mornings to sleep in a bit.  The kids would go down stairs to the kitchen.  The boys would help their sister get cereal for breakfast and then they'd go to the basement to play.  2 floors and sound insulation made for nice quiet mornings to get some extra shut eye.  On all the other days of the week if the kids got crazy with friends and toys and I just didn't feel like cleaning up one day (okay, who am I kidding one month), I closed the door and it magically disappeared for a while.  Out of sight out of mind, right? 

Well, we have 2 lounges (South African vernacular not mine).  One on the main level and one just at the top of the stairs.   The lower lounge is really just one half of a giant open concept kitchen/dining/living space.  Not the kind of place you want all the kids toys to be.  So by default the Wii, piano, books and toys all went upstairs.  Fantastic, out of sight of the guests.  Unfortunately, right outside mommy and daddy's master bedroom door.  Sigh.  So much for our lazy Saturday mornings and no such thing as out of sight out of mind either. 

On the up side we're up early enough on Saturday mornings that we can get on the road to all the fun and exciting things we want to do.

Bisquick - I have this stew recipe that I love.  It's from the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry cookbook by the Podleski sisters from Canada.  We love it so much that when we were here in February I actually checked to see if they had Herbs de Provence in PE.  I couldn't find it so I shipped 2  bottles of my own in the suitcase so I could make the recipe authentic.  What I didn't check for was the Bisquick that makes the dumplings on top.  We've had the recipe twice now and I have used dumpling mix as a substitute, but it's not the same.  It was easy to use the Bisquick to make up pancakes if the kids wanted them or cheesy biscuits for a snack with lunch.  I know, I could have made them from scratch, but really it was so versatile and it was always a good fall back plan on those days I didn't know what to cook for supper.  Hey kids how about pancakes?  Yeh!  So I will need to start making my biscuits from scratch.  Not a big deal, but it's something I never thought I would miss.

Breakfast sausages - You know the ones.  The little tiny links that are maple syrup and brown sugar flavoured.  The ones that are all juicy (yes I know it's really just fat) and sort of explode when you poke your fork into them.  They don't have them here.  Not that I've found yet at any rate.  All the sausages here are savoury not sweet.  They have pork, lamb, beef, chicken, and kudu sausages, but all of them are savory and all of them are hot dog sized. The closest I have come to finding sweet has been honey with mustard, not your typical breakfast fair.  So, I will keep looking, but it may just be one of those things that I ask mom or dad to buy when we come home for Christmas.

Next Post - Birds of Eden - Part One (Back to the touristy stuff)