Simple and Delicious Recipes from the Heart by Alida Ryder

For my publication, The Waiting Room, I included an extract out of Alida Ryder's cookbook, Simple and Delicious Recipes from the Heart, which had found it's way into our media offices.

I have to say that there is so much about the book that I like. From the size, the soft cover, the matt pages and the beautiful images that are good enough to ... (well you can't eat them) so I'll just have to say that they are good enough to feast your eyes on.

Alida's recipes are true to the title. They are simple and delicious. 

In the book you will find wonderful pasta recipes such as spaghetti and clams as well as other absolutely mouth watering savouries such as burgers with brie and peri-peri prawns which were so good that I had to share them and featured them in the recipe sections of the mag.
There are also some decadent sweet treats for tea times and coffee times and after meal times.

I like that at the beginning of the recipes she adds a little bit of a personal note that makes one feel that you are kind of being welcomed into the home of a friend who is sharing not only a meal with you, but also her passion for good food, people and life.

 Alida also writes a blog on which you can see her latest culinary endeavours which you can find at http://simply-delicious.co.za

Summer Fruity Fun

Yesterday I was perusing the shops when I was overcome by the scent of ripe mangoes lingering in the air mixed with the sweet essence of litchis that was escaping from where a naughty child was peeling some and popping them in her mouth, while her mother had her back turned away. Nectarines gleamed round and red as cricket balls and cling-peaches were solidly yellow. Pawpaws lent their own subtle tang to the air. Each fruit promised, that if you bit into it, it would  not only quench your thirst and tantalise your tastebuds with sweetness but also deliver, in its juicy wholeness, the elixir of longevity.
Ah, I love summer!
On the other side of the stall stood fresh lemons and limes, also gleaming their dazzling yellows and greens, while adding to the spectacular performance of fragrances that filled the air.

The abundance and heady perfumes were too much for me to resist, and soon I was plucking fruit from the stalls and filling my shopping basket. At the same time, ideas of exotic flavours swirled together in my mind and thoughts of suddenly being on an Asian island in the mist of pristine aquatic-blue Pacific Ocean filled me with excitement. Oh, what I would do to savour those tastes and be transported there. So I came up with a few ideas on how to make the best of these flavours. Tomorrow I promise to put up a recipe for a mango and litchi salad with corriander and a chili and lime dressing. But why stop there? I'll explore several other recipes as I take full advantage of the texture and colours that make up summer!