*This blog has grown into a company with its own website: Tassels & Tigers Themed Writing and Interiors. Please visit my website (www.tasselsandtigers.com) to view my home decor work, get a quote and read my decor articles.*

After my "I've Started a Book Club" evening one of the ladies asked me for the recipe of the pasta I made that night - now known as Book Club Pasta. 

I realised that most of what I do and blog about has a foodie aspect to it, so I decided to add them to my blog for those who are interested in the full TigerTale experience.

Enjoy and let me know if you've made any of them!

Blue Elderflower Sparkle

This is a real quickie – great for a sundowner. I got something similar as a gift once, but have followed my own pleasure and I have to say, the results are luscious!

Serve while they’re still dancing up and down, enveloped in bubbles.

Peri-Peri Fish

                                                                                                                                    14 January 2015

Serves 4                                                                                                                                    

I wasn't planning on posting this recipe, but when I posted our weekly menu to Facebook and Instagram my cousin asked to share the recipe. After making it my mom and hubby both felt it was delicious enough to share, so here you go.

Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales: Part 14

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

Two drumsticks. That's enough!

Date: 5 January 2015

Original Gift: Twelve Drummers Drumming

South African Gift: Two drumsticks of course, for my drummer boy

Price: R180

Food: Chicken drumsticks

Saint: St. John Neumann

Scripture: Matthew 2 again (you can get a free copy of the English Standard Version Bible on Kindle)

Activity: Back to work

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve drummers drumming.

This must be my favourite of the 12 Days of Christmas (apart perhaps from Christmas Day) because of all the intrigue, traditions and literature related to it. I’ll start with the most uninteresting and work my way up though.

Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales: Part 6

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Date: 28 December 2014

Original Gift: Four Calling Birds

South African Gift: iTunes Voucher

Price: R150.

Food: Chocolate Brownies

Saint: Feast of the Holy Innocents

Scripture: Matthew 2 (you can get a free copy of the English Standard Version Bible on Kindle)

Activity: Give someone a kind or encouraging word.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four calling birds.

There are different versions to the song at this point. Some mention calling birds while other true loves gave colly or collie birds. It’s all a case of broken telephone and even left some unfortunate true loves with four, or rather 36 macabre coiled birds.

Strange looking coiled bird. Picture from www.rubylane.com

Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales: Part 5

The Third Day of Christmas

Date: 27 December 2014

Original Gift: Three French Hens

South African Gift: A bottle of French campaign. That was the original idea, but I decided a nice Wildekrans from Hermanus was a good South African spin on the French drink.

Price: Not too sure, as I found it in the fridge. But I reckon somewhere in the region of R100.

Food: Turducken a l’Orange (that’s three birds in a French sauce)

Saint: John

Scripture: Corinthians 13 (you can get a free copy of the English Standard Version Bible on Kindle)

Activity: Take a road trip and have the campaign upon arrival in celebration of the people you’re with and for safe travels.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three French hens.

By this time most people have mourned the passing of Christmas and are starting to look ahead to hopefully more holiday before New Year’s celebrations. It’s also the time when most people who have spent Christmas and the holidays with loved ones start to get a little annoyed, as the best of families do. Thoughtless little comments or actions are taken way too personally, small children are getting bored and boisterous and you feel that the next wayward opinion might finally make you say something you’ll regret.

Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales: Part 4

 The Second Day of Christmas

Date: 26 December 2014

Original Gift: Two Turtle Doves

South African Gift: A turtle magnet from Mauritius. Turtle because it’s a turtle. And the doves - the two lovebirds that went to Mauritius for their honeymoon.
Price: An odd R17000 – a trip to Mauritius.

Food: Chicken Pie. Dove… chicken… close enough.

Saint: Stephen

Scripture: Acts 7:51-60 (you can get a free copy of the English Standard Version Bible on Kindle)

Activity: Hand out leftovers

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a Two Turtle Doves.

Boxing Day. The day after the 25^th of December wasn't lucky enough to share in the charm and magic of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when it came to naming. I used to greatly dislike the name (it must have made me think of a boxing match and I suspect it got mixed up with Guy Fawkes Day somewhere in the wonderland which is a child’s mind), but I recently realised why it is called that and I must say, the day has greatly redeemed itself in my eyes. I’d like to share some of that Christmas Spirit…

Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales: Part 3

The First Day of Christmas

Date: 25 December 2014

Original Gift: A Partridge in a Pear Tree.

South African Gift: My true love and I both really like Pride of India, so that’s what I got

Price: R40. Pride of India happened to be on special, but an actual young pear tree: R300

Food: Snappy Pear Salad

Saint: Jesus Christ

Scripture: Matthew 1 (you can get a free copy of the English Standard Version Bible on Kindle)

Activity: Church Service

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Festivities everywhere, time with family, specially selected gifts and delicious food. Unfortunately the excitement leading up to Christmas, mostly created by the retail industry, is often met by disappointed when it abruptly ends on empty pockets and overfull stomachs. For those who feel that something is amiss, it’s good to remember that this holiday which does not discriminate between sex, race, age, status, or even religion, has a little more to it, and lasts a little longer. 

Cold Christmas Eggnog

Serves 6-8

This is not winning any health awards (uncooked egg which freaks some people out, not to mention cream), but I make it every year and every year no one complains and everyone finds it delightfully intoxicating. Some have even referred to it as liquid milk tart. So there.

What’s even better is you can whip it up with what you have in the pantry a few minutes before you start opening your gifts on Christmas Eve.

Ginger-Nut No Cake Trifle

(Originally Nataniël’s Red Grape Trifle)

Serves 10

Allow enough time for two sets of jelly to set

Another one of my Christmas recipes that I borrowed and changed to suit my pantry. Find Nataniël’s original, jelly-free Red Grape Trifle on expressoshow.com. This banting safe summer desert is a fresh cool-down after a heavy meal.

Christmas Gammon Relish

Serves 10

For much of my pre-Christmas Christmas lunch with our friends I decided to use some Woolies recipes.  I made this one for myself really, as I thought the flavours would be too strong for most people, but Woolies proved once again to know what they’re doing. This was a hit with both the gammon and turducken!

Pumpkin Casserole

Serves 10 - 12

It pains me deeply to admit that this incredible and incredibly simple recipe was not passed on from my family (in fact, I passed it on to my family). I went a-browsing one day for a pumpkin “pie” that you serve with the main course and took all the work out of it for you! The original was submitted to allrecipes.com by Lori DeLosh.

It’s madly popular with everyone who tastes it and has been had for seconds, thirds, desert, afternoon seconds and breakfast.  So seeing as though there’s always some milk and pumpkin left, I normally make mine one and half times.

Deliciously creamy golden goodness just into the oven.

Hot Buttered Rum

Serves 3

I first became intrigued with “Hot Buttered Rum” during an episode of Frasier where Martie makes a batch for the lot at a ski lodge. There’s no hard science to this recipe though. I’ve made a couple of variants and it all depends on how creamy or unhealthy you want it. Also, I’m a massive believer in units of measure such as “glug”, “scoop”, “pinch” and “shake”. Have fun with it till it suits your palate.

Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales: Part 2

Advent

Date: 31 November 2014 – 24 December 2014

Gift: Advent Calendar

Price: R70 – R170, depending on whether or not Lindt made the chocolate in your advent calendar

Food: HotButtered Rum and the chocolate from your advent calendar

Saint: Andrew the Apostle

Scripture: John 1 (you can get a free copy of the English Standard Version Bible on Kindle)

Activity: Preparation

A large part of the excitement of Christmas is the preparation time leading up to it.  Putting up and decorating of the tree, baking cookies and fruit cakes, singing carols and shopping for gifts in the festively decorated stores.  Retailers are particularly fond of promoting certain gifts as appropriate for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  All of this leads up to the wonderful day filled with strewn wrapping paper and stuffed stomachs… and then it’s all over.

Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales: Part 1

Advent and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Grinch Alert: This post and the ones to follow is all about Christmas. Proceed with caution!

Most humans love to fill their lives with traditions and stories - whether they’re passed on from ancestors, great grandparents, or new creations. Stories about how things came to be the way they are or about significant events and how we remember them. Consider any dinner party and you’ll find it stays alive through an exchange of stories – picking up an element from one and adding your own story containing said element. The conversation often lands up in a complete different place to where it started without someone having drastically altered the direction.

One particular story filled to the brim with traditions, and growing variants every time it comes around, is the story of how Christmas came to be. From the pagan solstice festivals, Yule logs and gifts, to the birth of Jesus, Midnight Mass and turkeys; Christmas has become a jolly old mix of religions and cultures, as well as the cause for much controversy, cheer and charity.

It’s the cheer and charity of it I'll be focusing on in Twelve Plus One Tiger Christmas Tales from now until the 5^th of January, also known as the Twelfth Day of Christmas.

*This blog has grown into a company with its own website: Tassels & Tigers Themed Writing and Interiors. Please visit my website (www.tasselsandtigers.com) to view my home decor work, get a quote and read my decor articles.*

You may be wondering what "Book Notes" are as opposed to "Book Reviews". Allow me to explain.

Because I know how much of yourself goes into writing a book; because I am yet to publish a book myself and because I haven't read nearly enough, I felt that I was not qualified to review and pull apart other authors' works.

So instead, I am writing short notes on what I found interesting in the books I read.

French Women Don’t Get Fat – Mireille Guiliano

Book: French Women Don't Get Fat

Author: Mireille Guiliano

Year: 2007

Kindle Price: $12,79

Pages: 304

Two matters left me just a tad embarrassed every time I told someone I was reading “French Women Don’t Get Fat”.

Harry Danced Divinely – Marian D. Schwartz

Book: Harry Danced Divinely
Author: Marian D. Schwartz
Year: 2014
Kindle Price: $3.99
Pages: 247

Book Club Pene

Serves 4

This recipe is really simple and the best part is that you can use your hands and healthy judgement as measuring tools. It’s a mix of what I had in my house and garden, and something I had in a restaurant.

I’ve Started a Book Club: Part Two

Harry Danced Divinely… and he ate and he drank wine

Not quite, but almost a month ago, I hosted a book club at my house in the hope that it would inspire a group of interesting ladies to read and also give them a real excuse to get to together for a fattening meal.

“I’ve started a book club”

Say that at any worthy social gathering and you’re sure to get at least one envious response, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to be part of a book club.”

The trouble usually is there aren’t enough interesting people who are interested.

The Thieving Crows

Cold bodies inside

Looking back, a few things should have alerted me to the fact that a single and frightening story was hatching in two different worlds simultaneously. Linked by a dweller in both. 

The very end of the month petrol stop

I zeroed the odometer. Apparently any good car has 40 k’s left in the reserve when the light goes on…. A proudly South African story of how Ubuntu beat payday to it.

Why was everyone complaining about the price of petrol?

Cloistered Reality

“Pliz press the bell inside de gate opposite 2 de shop,” Sister Winnie SMSs me.

Where Does Kudos Go?

I heard an interesting story the other day about where kudos comes from.  

“How would you spell ‘kudos’?” someone asked.  I was both on the spot and the defence.  It wasn’t a question – it was a challenge.  If I didn’t get this right she would forever doubt my credibility as a writer.