I am Zirkie. I live in Cape Town, South Africa with my husband, son and dog. I have two daughters who are studying at the University of Stellenbosch and they come home when their studies, obligations and social life allows.

I started blogging because my family and friends always asked me for my recipes and in posting my recipes on a blog it was very easy to share them!

I love cooking and baking and started playing in the kitchen at an early age. I use to work out menus for breakfasts and suppers when I was still at school for the holidays. My mother would get all the ingredients that I required and then I would do all the cooking!

Although I did a couple of cooking courses at the Pretoria Technical College, cooking remained a hobby, until I had my own coffee shop. I had the shop for 7 years and there I really learned to cook and bake. I baked all the cakes and tarts as well as all the muffins for the shop from scratch – no tubes of muffins or cake mixtures!! The other food in my coffee shop like quiches, soups and more were also cooked by me.

I still do catering for children’s parties, which I enjoy a lot, because I can be creative. Most of my cooking and baking, however, is done for my family who love eating and tasting my latest creations!

I cannot afford to waste any food, so all my photos are from food that my family and I will eat! No funny stuff will ever be applied to my food to make it look more attractive.

I also do a number of crafts, such as mosaics, decoupage and fabric painting and I also love sewing and gardening.

I read a lot of recipe books and foodie magazines and post a food quiz on most Fridays and the answers on a Monday. I have posted more than 70 of these quizzes to date!

This blog will mainly be about cooking and baking, but will also feature my crafts and other life experiences!

I hope my blog will inspire you to have fun in the kitchen!

16 Responses

  1. DarlingDee

    Hello PinkSpot:)
    Just popped in to check out you other ‘home’
    I look forward to seeing another side of you.

  3. Dee

    Thanks for the visit. Any good ideas for cooking Jerusalem Artichokes? Got a few off google but haven’t tried them yet. Nice blog by the way. I’ll be back and will definitely pass you along.

    • pinkpolkadotblog

      No, unfortunately not – cooked it once, but I was not impressed! I only use the tinned versions! Sorry!

  8. Ciaran

    5ounces gourmet food and wine site opens with a bang!
    We would like to know if you would like to write a review of our site? We are an online startup retailer for gourmet foods and 4 and 5 start platter wines.
    5ounces is slightly less than one-fifth of a bottle of wine – the standard serving of just under 150ml. But that’s just about all that is standard about this company. Inspired by e-commerce companies like gilttaste.com and lot18.com, 5ounces.co.za is giving consumers the opportunity to get great gourmet produce and premium wines at amazing prices. The team behind 5ounces are wine and food lovers. They want what you want: the best experience for the least money, fine foods and premium wines delivered directly to your door for half the price. We do have some wines to sponsor for the review if you are interested. Or for a possible competition that could be run. We could also credit your account to contribute towards making a purchase on the website. Alternatively we could set up a meeting to discuss the rates. Please have a look at our website and let me know what you think? http://www.5ounces.co.za; follow @5ouncessa

  9. Monean Winterbach

    Hi there, hope you are well! The book club, Leisure Books, launched a competition last year to choose the Top Ten Home Cooks. The overall winner was announced at the end of September and the cook book with the same title was released early October. I would love to send you a copy if you can please send me your postal address?
    Thanks so much.
    Warm regards
    Monean

  10. adeeyoyo

    Thank you for visiting my blog, Zirkie. I have seen the (attempted, haha) answers to your quizzes on Col’s posts. I am so glad I found you (or you found me)!

  11. gipsika

    Pinkie, so good to find you! (Actually you found me…) :)
    We had lamb kleftiko for Easter, what my mom calls “resurrection lamb”. The tiramisu was also a “resurrection pudding” in that it, too, had to spend at least 2 nights in the fridge to develop its full flavour.

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