Whatever happened to December?

The days flashed by just like our Lily's Cottage guests who arrived and departed at the speed of lightning with many families coming to the beaches for the summer holidays!

SO... I'm getting into the #fff ring super early before this Friday runs away with me - it's changeover day for both our BnB units meaning I'll be doing a marathon run today!

Running a BnB is immensely rewarding if you love interacting with people but when all your trained staff go home to be with their families for Christmas, things can become really stressful, especially when you get lost in those mountains of linen, not having a reliable laundry service nearby!



Talk about organised chaos when it's a guest changeover day - a real marathon run with all hands on deck!

To make matters worse, suffering from OCD sees me running up and down to the cottage numerous times to check...and re-check...and check again, even though I have a check list in place, all the boxes are ticked and everything is looking spic and span again!



Then we experienced heavy rains at the beginning of December plus that cursed LOADSHEDDING, and to top it all, the power dips damaged two of our Satelite Television Decoders to boot!

I tell you, we were not charmed at all as it was off to the provider who set up the new decoders and assured us we just had to plug the units in and everything would be sorted, but Murphy's Law came into play, that was not to be!

It took a lengthy telephone call to get everything working again once we got back home!

Following the heavy rains came the intense heat and horrid humidity which went up to 85%!

We were literally melting, but great for the guests who were enjoying the beaches and the pool!



I shared Berry Pavlovas with all of you crazy foodfightfriday people two weeks ago, but today I will share with you a great starter - a step by step pictorial recipe for Prawn Fish Cakes and a glimpse below of the delectable cool Salmon Mousse my sister in law made for our Christmas lunch - promise I'll make that for you one of these days; it's a super easy but really delicious party dish.



INGREDIENTS

Approx 1kg Hake or any white fish - steamed, deboned and flaked

Approx 600 grams Peeled Prawns - sauteed in garlic butter, diced

2 medium Potatoes - cooked & mashed

Spring Onions or baby Leeks - finely diced

Parsley & Fennel - finely diced

1/2 cup Self Raising Flour

1 Egg plus 2 extra Eggs for coating

Seed & Rolled Oats mixture for coating



Mix all ingredients and season to taste, form fishcakes, dip in beaten egg & then in seeds

Leave to rest a little before frying in shallow oil

Drain on paper towels and serve with a sweet chilli sauce

These made perfect starters together with the Pink Salmon Mousse on a very hot but fabulous Christmas day spent with close family.

I do hope 2020 has been treating all our Foo Fong Food Fight Friday Fighters and our Crazy Ring Masters @idig, @jlsplatts and @dandays as well as our kind benefactor @appreciator really well so far!

Hoping that here in South Africa we'll start seeing more light and less loadshedding as the year goes on otherwise I'll be banned from this contest very soon with all my moanings and groanings about electricity!