Yesterday morning, I made another batch of keto lemon poppyseed muffins, which we’ve been savoring with dinner over the past weeks as we continue our successful weight loss goals. The recipe is time-consuming with many ingredients and requires squeezing lemons and grating the skin for lemon zest.
Tom makes the lemons while I work on the long list of ingredients. Many would not care to make these since combining all the ingredients takes a while. The recipe requires softened cream cheese and butter and some fussing with the “melt” settings on the microwave, let alone careful blending to avoid overmixing. Then, the gooey mess is placed into parchment-lined muffin papers in the muffin tins.
The result is the best-tasting muffins we’ve tried, and we shared some with our local friends, who also love them. However, baking in the electric oven was challenging because of a power outage yesterday morning. I was working on the recipe when I received a message from Louise stating the power grid for this side of Marloth Park had a “fault,” and Escom, the electric company, was working on the repair.
The inverter can not operate the oven, but the gas stovetop is fine. There I was with a triple batch of gooey muffin dough and no way to bake them. I considered using the gas grill since baking can be done on a grill, but often, baked goods come out uneven due to the fluctuating heat.
I placed all the dough into a large pot with a lid and put it in the refrigerator, where it would have to stay until the power was back on and I could bake the muffins. I knew the dough would thicken from the almond and coconut flours, but there was no alternative.
This morning, the thickened dough was much easier to form into the parchment papers in the muffin tins, cutting the time in half for that step. Next time, I will purposefully chill the dough overnight.
Louise informed us that the power could be out for over 24 hours. Since it’s been hot, we wanted to preserve as much of the stored power in the inverter as possible. Having air conditioning in the bedroom was more important than using power during the day.
With the inverter system in the house, we still had lights, refrigeration, and the air con in the bedroom, which were the most critical aspects during outages. But the WiFi was fading fast. When there’s a power outage, the batteries in the towers run out, and the WiFi signal to the houses is lost until the power is restored.
Thus, while posting yesterday, I noticed the WiFi signal fading in and out and knew that in no time, we’d be out of a signal. As a result, I uploaded the post as quickly as possible, and we decided to take a drive in Marloth Park to the river to see if we could spot any notable sightings and find some photo ops when we were running low on photos.
We decided not to go to Kruger National Park because it was a busy weekend, and holidaymakers flooded the area with safari plans.
Kruger National Park is on the opposite side of the river, and we decided to drive through Marloth Park in search of exciting photo ops. Still, on a hot day, animal sightings are minimal since they tend to hunker down in their preferred shady spots. We didn’t see much.
As we grappled with photo ops, we ended up with only a few, some of which we shared today and over the next few days. As exciting as Marloth Park is, some days are quiet and uneventful, especially on weekends and when the park is rife with tourists due to multiple national and school holidays. April will be a busy month, Easter, when many South Africans head this way.
However, the animals will still visit us. When Lisa arrives on Wednesday, we’ll keep her busy and enthralled with plenty of sightseeing adventures.
Last night, at Jabula, we had a fantastic dinner with Kathy, Don, and Connie. We sat at our usual table on the veranda and reminisced about many wonderful experiences in the years we’ve all been coming to Marloth Park. They leave to return to Hawaii in a little over a month, and we’ll spend plenty of time together before they go, adding dear friend Lisa to the mix.
The power was restored last night, and the muffins were great this morning. It’s hot again today, and we’re staying put. With Norman and his family here this morning and many bushbucks and kudus, we are content sitting on the veranda, watching nature surrounding us, and looking forward to a lovely homemade dinner and evening in the bush.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, March 30, 2015:
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