I'm coming up only to hold you under

They were mock-fighting. Pushing each other's buttons, because after a lifetime together one knows the other and what will drive them close to an edge of sorts. Both got cramps in their right legs. It was fun to observe a father-daughter relationship when mine ended about 12 years ago. I mean, we live, but they are lives apart that connect through the occasional forced phone call where nothing is said because I don't know (or want to know) his life, and he has no real interest in even remembering the names of people we have been friends with since school. Condescension towards what we do and where we live does not help. 

My cousin has a mulberry tree in the back corner of the garden. There used to be one at the far corner of our school as well, and in the afternoons, before sport started, we would go and stain our white polo shirts with handfuls of berries. My cousin wanted to get some before returning to Cape Town, and I wanted to get some to make jam because the  last time I tried it wasn't that successful. It was dark already and we had only one flashlight and a very dim (almost non-existently dim) head-light. Is that what one calls it? I don't mean a car headlight, I mean those tiny torches you strap to your forehead and that make you look ridiculous. And others get irritated when you then proceed to shine directly in their eyes continuously. I assume my uncle thought we shouldn't be hunting for mulberries at that time of the night (haha, it was close to 19.00), but he came to help us. Sans torch I sort of felt my way around for the ripe ones, but my uncle kept dumping handfuls into our zip-lock bags, so we had quite the stash.

In primary school we used to get silkworms and feed them the mulberry tree's leaves. The end result of a worm was a little round silken bookmark. Don't really know where the bookmarks have disappeared to, but watching the worms' whole transition into moth was cool. These days I'm not that fascinated as easily any more. Well, no, that Consol Solar Light is supercool, in the whole "suck it silk worms, this is technology" manner.

Haha, and later, when the mulberries are done marinating in sugar and cooked, they'll probably be put in Consol jars for preservation. Ag I don't even know what I'm rambling about. It's one of those days of procrastination where I'm waiting for my conscience to kick in and tell me to start.

Moerbeie

Die Boerboel blaf hier onder my. Genade maar die muurtjie is tog effens hoer as wat ek gedink het. Ek het op die muur agter in die hoek van ons erf geklim om die bure se moerbeie te steel. Hulle versteek hulle boom agter ander bosse en niemand maak gebruik van die glinsterende swart bessies wat swaar an die takke hang soos druiwetrosse. Ons erf grens an drie ander: daar is die een met die boom, die een met die Boerboel en 'n maar takkie, en die een van Tommy en Liesel.

Gelukkig sien mens my nie omdat die bos so dik is, maar almal se honde het agtergekom ek staan daar en blaf vir my. Nie juis die beste situasie om in te wees nie as mens besig is met diefstal. Ek pluk vinnig al die bessies wat ek kan en maak amper my hele bakkie vol. Maar daar hang nog só baie net an die ander kant, net buite my bereik. Die Boerboel se tuin het 'n elektriese heining wat ek verkieslik nie aan sal raak nie. En natuurlik sou ek verkieslik ook nie die hond se middagete wil word nie.

So ek hang maar tussen die takke soos 'n enorme apie en probeer elke bessie gryp wat ek kan kry. Eintlik wil ek die bure vra of ek kan kom en van hulle kant af die vruggies kan pluk. Maar hulle het ook 'n reuse Bougainvillea wat my ma en die tuinier 'n jaar of wat terug vergiftig het omdat die ding die heeltyd ons erf vol pienk blomme mors, so ek is nie seker hoe vriendelik hulle is nie. Toe ek jonk was het ek ook een keer my bal oor die muur gegooi en hulle wou hom nie eers soek nie. So ek skat hulle wil nie juis met hul bure verkeer nie.

Maar uiteindelik was my plunder nie te klein nie. Ek kon immers 'n botteltjie of drie konfyt kook.

Moerbeie uit hul tuin, appeliefies uit ons s'n.

Laat lê die bessies in lae met suiker vir 4 ure en kook dit dan oor 'n lae hitte om kopnfyt te maak. 

Drie botteltjies plesier. 

Ek het die konfyt en nog meer gesteelde moerbeie toe vir hierdie heeeeeeeerlike shortbread ook gebruik:

Austrian Raspberry Shortbread ( as always by smitten kitchen):

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened (about 400g)
4 egg yolks
2 cups granulated sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 cup raspberry jam, at room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

-Cream the butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until soft and fluffy. 

-Add the egg yolks and mix well.

-Mix the granulated sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to the butter and egg yolk mixture and mix just until incorporated and the dough starts to come together. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and form into two balls. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and freeze at least 2 hours or overnight (or as long as a month, if you like).

-Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

-Remove one ball of dough from the freezer and coarsely grate it by hand or with the grating disk in a food processor into the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking pan or a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Make sure the surface is covered evenly with shreds of dough.

-With a piping bag with a wide tip or a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off, squeeze the jam over the surface as evenly as possible, to within 1/2 inch of the edge all the way around. Remove the remaining dough from the freezer and coarsely grate it over the entire surface.

-Bake until lightly golden brown and the center no longer wiggles, 50 to 60 minutes. As soon as the shortbread comes out of the oven, dust with confectioners’ sugar.

-Cool on a wire rack, then cut in the pan with a serrated knife. I find that for this an all bar cookies, chilling the pan in the fridge makes it a lot easier to get clean cuts. ( Ok I found it easier to cut them when they are warm...)