I grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, in really sweet house amongst the Tea Fields of Tigons, my younger brother and i were blessed with the best woman in the world to look after  us when our parents where away at the safari camp during our school terms, so we couldn’t be there too. Gracie is this small soft and extremely kind Lou Kenyan woman, she started working for my parents as soon as they landed in Kenya with a 2 week old baby Ella, my mum says that the moment she looked into graces eyes she knew she would love her forever, grace couldn’t speak any English and my mum couldn’t speak any Swahili, so at the start communication was mainly through hand gestures and miming. One day my mum was having a really bad day, i was probably being awful (i was a hard baby) and work was stressful, my mum says grace found her crying on the front porch, she came over to her, took me out of her arms and walked away, about an hour later she brought her a bowl of stew and a monitor with the sound of a sleeping baby, my mum says that in that moment regardless of the language barrier gracie knew exactly what my mum needed without having to say a word, now 23 years on we can all speak fluent Swahili and gracie says she cant speak english (i know she is taking us for a ride 🙂 ) but either way after all this time when any of us are sad or having a bad day, gracie still says nothing but makes this stew, and it always works.

Ingredients. (makes for 6)

• olive oil
• 2 brown onions
• 2 cloves of gralic
• 4-5 sticks of celery
• 5-6 Large Carrots
• 500 grams of potatoes
• 500 grams of diced beef
• beef stock
• 2 canned tomatos
• 2 teaspoons of marmite
• 1-2 teaspoons or oregano
• slat and pepper to tatse

Method.

1. boil a kettle and pour 500ml of water hot water to a bowl or a measuring cup, add the beef stock cube and the 2 teaspoons of marmite and stir until very well mixed, cut up the potatoes and but them on to boil (only half boil them) in the stock mix.
2.  while the potatoes boil, dice up the brown onions and cloves of garlic and add to the warm oil in a big pot.
3. once the onions have browned add in the diced beef, and start to coat.
4. Add the carrots, celery and half boiled potatoes along with the stock they were boiled in into the beef and onions, and mix in.
5. Add canned tomatoes (if it needs to be thicker add in corn flour or plain flour) and oregano.
6. leave to cook on a low heat for about 25-30mins with the top on.
7. once cooked add salt and pepper to taste.

I Started this Blog on a Sunday Afternoon, after a Heavy weekend with my friends drinking 2for1 cocktails, but before the weekend antics i travelled to the south west of England to Devon and Cornwall, with my wonderful friend Els, we had planned on walking along the coast and spending lost of time outside in the sun, but the weather had other plans, so we did too, we spent the days in warm and cosy cornwall pubs tasting everything from cornish cheese to devon hams, we also spent most of the time talking about what we loved about all the food and drink, it struck us then that we could probably spend most of the hours in the day eating and talking about food, and so this was born, i would like to share my love for literally anything edible through recipes, videos and pictures.

I hope hungry humans from all over the world, will join and contribute because i want to know everything there is to know about feeding the soul the best way i know how too, through food.

This blog is mainly to VENTi my on going interactions with sleepy fuzzy heads in the morning, just like the coffee’s i make them to keep them sane, this blog is my double espresso.

I will start with my personal favourite, brief case wanker in the CBD, i am all for the fast pace that these men in black work at, i too am not one to hang around but like fine wine coffee should be enjoyed, for ever hot sip that it provides its a experience, a very good experience, not one that should be held over a time-lapse of 20 seconds while staring at a phone screen.

last week a man, lets call him Monday, walked into the cafe, well more like ran into the cafe and without even adjusting his tilted neck screamed “double shot full fat large latte”…obviously i had more than one problem with this, OBVIOUSLY!!!god forbid he took the time too look up from his phone i mean to be fair to him its probably best not to stare into the eyes of a 23 year who’s is on a 3 day hangover and just spent all their hard earned coffee making money on more coffee and alcohol, no one wants a side of regrets with their latte, either way at least a vague look in my direction would have given me the satisfaction i wanted. once the coffee was made, it smelt great but looked below average in terms of art…(its Monday morning let me ease into it) i handed it to “Monday” and said “your coffee is ready, sir”  hoping this would put him in a good mood and without even noticing he picked up the jug of milk beside it and proceeded to spill it all over the floor and his trousers, now that was definitely a time when there was no point in crying over spilt milk at least for me, in-fact i had a serious giggle, because i guess thats what “Monday” deserved for not even taking a second to look up and see what he was grabbing just assuming it would be perfectly in the place that his hand reached out too, assumptions are of course the mother of all cock ups, hopefully the day got better for “Monday”, i mean at least it would be “Tuesday” coming in soon so he could take a break.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton