About Annelize
About this website
This is a personal website and all the recipes are approved by my family. The recipes are super easy and the ingredients are off-the-self easy to find.
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Thank you for visiting my food blog. Please make suggestions, comment on the recipes you've tried. Share it with your friends and family. If you have any questions or recipe suggestions for us to try, please let me know.
Please remember that this is my opinion only. I am not a doctor or dietician. None of the recipes on this site are meant to be used for any diet purposes. Please talk to your doctor or dietician for any dietary advice. We aim to have healthy recipes, but not all will fall under that category.
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My Family
I was born in Goodwood, Cape Town and raised in Johannesburg, in the beautiful country of South Africa. I've always loved baking and sharing with family. The best is to watch their faces when they take a bite. It is priceless! The absolute 'heavenly-divine'-look on their faces. It gives me such joy.
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My granny, mom, and dad love cooking and baking and I am sure it's in my blood. My fondest memories are when our church at home had the yearly bazaar and my granny and parents were part of the cake and pastry tables. Weeks before the bazaar, they would start with the preparations. And the week of the bazaar all the baking started. Veil pies, Steak and kidney pies, Chicken pies, Milktarts, Chocolate cakes, any sweet treats you can think of, and that was made. My dad had to use his trailer to help all to get to the bazaar.
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My granny used to say that you can never start your weekend without a sweet treat or a cake in your house. it is the time that family and friends visit each other and there is nothing better than serving a piece or slice of 'heavenly-divine' with a cup of tea or fresh home-brewed coffee.
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I studied Food and Clothing Technology in 1993 at the Vaal Triangle Technicon, Vanderbijlpark and loved every moment. It taught me so much about cooking and there was a lot that I could share with my granny and mom.
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I met Riaan in 1996 and we got married in March of 1997. Riaan doesn't love to cook, but he loves testing my creations. And even if it wasn't the best, he is always kind enough to say it was good. We have two amazing children. And now we have an addition to our family, an awesome Canadian son-in-law and two beautifully cute grandkids. Our family was always part of a church. We were singing in our church choir, we had two amazing choir directors, Sollie Oosthuizen and Christo Erasmus, working in our church office, the kids were part of the Sunday School and together we all were playing in the church band. Being a Disciple of the Living God is how we shine His Light in the world.
At home, in Johannesburg, I was part of the Women's Agricultural Union, a group of ladies coming together once a month on a Thursday afternoon and sharing baking tips, sewing tips, and embroidery tips. Every month there was a baking, cooking, sewing, knitting or embroidery competition and you could choose where you wanted to partake in. I just loved being part of these awesome ladies. And I learned so much from them. We had special speakers visiting and teaching us the tricks of pasta-making, candlewicking, beer, and winemaking, baking the perfect cake or cooking the perfect roast.
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My granny passed away in 2009 and so did her baking, I thought. But now I decided to work through her recipe books and bringing it back to life again.
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Moving to Canada
In November of 2012, my dad, very unexpectedly, passed away. In 2013 our lives changed when my husband was headhunted for a job opportunity in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It was with a step in faith, that we flew over and made Vancouver our home. To me, it was the most difficult decision of my life. My dad passed away the year before and I had to leave behind my mom and brother with his family. But with all the promises in the Bible, I made it. Day by day, months passing and then we celebrated our first year in Horseshoe Bay. Now looking back, six-odd years later, I can see how God stood by me and helped me to get by.
