Cooking and Recipes: Part 2

Baking observations:

Baking "from scratch" is something I have yet to really master. Since moving here, I have come accross several obstacles...

Sopapillas (source)

I’m having to figure out new baking recipes because the traditional American ingredients do not exist here (or I don’t know where to find them!)


There is no shortening, only butter and oil.

There is no brown sugar as the USA sells it (white sugar with molasses), just treacle sugar and caramel sugar. Brown sugar is just “unrefined sugar” here. I’m not sure if they taste the same. I’ve looked for molasses and found it in one store- but it was a YEAR past it’s due date!

There are no graham crackers- and I have really wanted to make graham cracker crusts lately. Do you have any suggestions for alternatives. Oreos come in really small packages, so I'd have to buy a lot of them...

The butter isn’t sold in “sticks” as it often is in the USA, but in bigger blocks, so when a recipe calls for one stick of butter, I have to figure out how much that really is in milliliters.

Finally, I have only now realized that my oven is not working right, so I might not get to make these recipes any time soon. 

Emergency Chocolate Cake (source)

Creamy Caramel Sauce (source)

Desserts:

• Creamy Caramel Sauce (My grandmother makes something similar.)
• Emergency Chocolate Cake
• Russian Crème with Fruit Topping
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Bar (Throwback to childhood!)
• Homemade Ice Cream in a Baggie (This sounds so fun!)
• Cream Cheese Brownies  (Um…Yum?)
• Ice box Butter Cookies
• No-Bake Chocolate and Oatmeal Bars
• Custard Pie (Minus the nutmeg.)
• Chocolate Coconut Bars
• Sopapillas (I like them without cinnamon and sugar, and with honey drizzled on top instead.)
• Corn Flakes Pineapple Cheese Tort (I want to see if Corn Flakes can take the place of graham crackers for a crust- any thoughts?)

Cream Cheese Brownies (source)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bar (source)

 Song of the Post: Apple, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie by Jay and the Techniques.

 Please ignore the cheesy audience! And the track suit...

Cooking and Recipies: Part 1

I have started developing an interest in cooking more interesting things lately. However I am always looking for quick, and low ingredient recipes.If its healthy, that's a plus!

Sour Cream Enchiladas (source)

Since moving to a country that uses the Metric system and measures temperature in Celsius, I have had to convert many recipes to make them work here. I had to buy a measuring cup that had milliliters and cups on it, and then convert the temperature to its equivalent in degrees Celsius. 

I’m the type of person that bookmarks yummy recipes when I come across them, so I have a lot waiting to be tested. There are many recipes that I just cannot make because I don’t have the ingredients here. I’m slowly finding recipes made in South Africa and other countries that have ingredients that I can find in SA.

So here are some of the meals that I am planning on making sometime in the future (they aren’t that healthy though):

Butternut Squash Fries (source)

• Sour Cream Pancakes
• “Army” Roasted Chicken
• Camembert Mashed Potatoes (I have actually made this- but it was so yummy, we have to eat it again!)
• Cheeseburger Soup
• Butternut Squash Fries
• Curried Chicken
• Couscous with Feta and Sun Dried Tomatoes
• Buttermilk Baked Chicken (did you know you could make your own buttermilk easily?)
• Three Ingredient Fettuccine Alfredo
• Sour Cream Enchiladas (If you haven’t checked out Pioneer Woman’s web site or book, you should!)
• Crust-less Spinach, Onion, and Feta Quiche (Crust-less, easy-peasy, right?) 

Buttermilk Baked Chicken (source)

"Army" Chicken (source)

Buffalo Chicken Dip (source)

Dips:

• Creamy Jalapeno Dip
• Blue Cheese Dip
• Hot Spinach Dip
• Hot Pizza Dip (I had this at one of my going away parties and I nearly ate half of it- so good!)
• Buffalo Chicken Dip  

I’ll make an entirely separate post with all the dessert recipes!

What are some recipes that you want to make soon? I’d love to see what you’ve got planned for the table!

P.S.- I misspelled recipe every time I wrote it- apparently I like to spell it recipie. Thanks spell chnck!

Song of the Post: Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffet.

Mzoli’s.

Last Saturday, one of our friends took us to Mzoli’s butchery and restaurant. It is in the Guguletu neighborhood and it was like nothing we have ever experienced. Please read more about it here. What we were told is that it started as a butcher shop in 2003, then they started braaing their lunches and they put some tables out to eat at. More and more people came and by 2006 it was incredibly popular for the locals and tourists. This place has a “bare bones” menu (there isn’t actually a menu…), so you need to come prepared. Beware: not vegetarian friendly.

The Butcher Shop.

The seating area.

What to bring on a trip to Mzoli’s:

-Napkins/paper towels! I cannot stress this enough.

Street vendors and car guards.

-Baby wipes if you hate the “sticky” feeling on your fingers.  

-Your own drinks: water, soda, beer, alcohol, mixers. Your choice!

-Own cups (especially if you brought stuff for mixed drinks). If you forget some, you can buy some cups made out of beer bottles from street vendors across the street.

-Plates.

-Silverware (mostly if you bring sides; every one eats the meat with their hands) and a knife (to cut the bigger pieces of meat). 

-Side dishes, if you so please. You can buy sliced bread there if you want. 

Drinking glasses made out of beer bottles.

The braai. See how smokey it is?!

Meat!

Gotta represent!

 

How it goes: Bring cash. They have ATMs there, but they maybe in disrepair or out of order. Go to the butcher (to the left of the dining area) and choose your meat. They have various cuts of chicken, beef, pork, lamb and they have boerewors sausage. You can order a marinade if you want- I suggest you do, it’s the best part! You carry your tub of meat down the hallway out back and leave it in queue. Then, spend many minutes searching for a free table…

After...it really was yummy!

Before, in our tub.

The hookah, and the bread!

 

The Saturday we went, at about 1:30 was cray-zy! It felt like spring break in Tijuana! It’s a possibility that it was the weekend before Varsity starts up here again, but I sure wasn’t expecting it. People were dancing at their tables, drinking, smoking on hookahs, and there was a DJ spinning tunes. It is hot in there, so they have water misters that turn on sporadically. Be prepared to wait at least 45 minutes for your food, so eat some of your snacks while waiting- but not too much because the meat is the main attraction!

The crowd.

We would definitely go back, but during the week to see if it is a more mellow atmosphere. Its funny- we almost felt too old for it, but not quite! And there were people definitely older than us there…

Partay!

P.S.- Wear clothing that’s nice but you don’t mind getting dirty if need be!

 

P.P.S.- I tried a South African Twix bar and it tastes nothing like the USA’s. I think the cookie crisp is different.

Song of the day: After Party by Ozomatli. 

The sound and picture aren't perfect, but it's the best video of this song on the internet.

Semi- Homemade Split Pea and Ham Soup

All the ingredients.

We are really into the cold here- June 21^st was the first day of winter for us. It sure is cold and having nice warm, comfort food is a must!

I have never really made soups before, but I have made split-pea twice since we have been here. I adapted our recipe from this web site, and I also used some of the tips in the comments section. I also have been inspired for a long time by Sandra Lee’s Semi-homemade recipes (this is the type of cook I am).

Ingredients (really, just add however much you want):

500 g Split peas

Knorr chicken bullion cube

Onion (I put in about half)

Ham (I put in two thick slabs)

Bay leaves (I put in 2.5)

Garlic (I put in 4 cloves)

Bag of vegetables (mostly root vegetables)

Salt and Pepper

Water (at least 1400ml, if not more).

I first sautéed some onion- as much as you want (really, I seared them black on accident, but you won’t see it with all the green!), and added cubes of ham (I can’t find a “ham bone” where I shop).

I cut off the fatty parts of the ham.

I added 400 ml hot water and a cube of Knorr chicken bullion.

Washed peas.

I washed the peas (which I did NOT do last time- hey, I’m still here!) and added them. The bag was 500g.




I added 2.5 bay leaves (2 big and one tiny) and 4 cloves of garlic.
Season with salt and crushed pepper to taste (you may add some later too).

Great beginnings.

I added 800 ml more of water.  It simmered for an hour and then I added a package of fresh “soup mix” made up of such good things as turnips, pumpkin, broccoli, potato, carrot, leek, cauliflower, and celery. I did this to add more vegetables and make it last.

Look at all those vegetables!

Cover and cook for about another hour. I added more water, but not enough because I burnt the bottom a tad. I wasn’t in the kitchen watching it like a hawk. I also did this last time, and I learned that as long as you don’t scrape up the bottom of the pot, you’re fine!

Final result.

 This recipe made at least eight bowls of soup.  It is very good as leftovers- you may want to add some water when re-heating to make it "soupier."

Enjoy!


Here are the hops and linkys that I will be participating in this week! Please check them out and explore some great blogs. Like this one.


P.S.- Here is my hubby's blog.



Song of the post: Glamorous by Fergie of the Black Eyed PEAS (yes, I went there!).

Mexican dinner!

Tortilla making ingredients, all brands you would not find in the USA. Yay for measuring spoons!

We finally got our stuff together enough to try making our first Mexican dinner here. We first started by “fast soaking” the Pinto Beans (Here they are called Sugar Beans or Red Speckled Beans), which means boiling them for 10 minutes, then soaking for the rest of the hour. This saved us about three hours, good thing since we started at 4:30 and still had to cook them for another 1.5-2 hours!

Proof I made some of them!(And never too far from the iPhone:)

Then we set to making tortillas. This was actually the second time we tried to make tortillas since we have been here. We have been trying different flours (there is nothing called all-purpose/general flour here), for these, we used a combination of self-rising flour and white bread flour.  We have not been able to find manteca (lard) or Crisco (shortening- what do they bake with here?) here, so we had to use Canola Oil. They tasted much better the second time around and had improved texture. 

Our tortillas

Once the tortillas were made, we set out to make our bandera salsa (red, white, and green, the colors of the Mexican flag.

Salsa ingredients. We only use the reddish chile.

Salsa Bandera!

Lastly, we made chile colorado. We were concerned that we would not be able to find the right type of powdered chile, but we did. The most common chile here is peri-peri, which P has mixed feelings about. He still has not found a suitable hot sauce for his food. P made the red sauce by making it with water and the powdered chile. After he complained that it was not reducing right, I suggested that he add some flour. Then he proceeded to smack his forehead, remembering that his mama does do that. Although we added it pretty late, it incorporated well. My only problem was that it was too hot and I only ate about three pieces of meat! In the USA, you buy different levels of heat for the powdered chile, but we had not such options. 

The finished product.

Paired with a South African beer, Hansa, because the only Mexican beer that we’ve seen is Corona, which we detest. 

We were in heaven!

Hope you had something yummy for dinner!

P.S.: Hubby’s blog can be found here.
P.P.S.: I added this to Sew Much Ado's Wednesday linky. 

Song of the day: Oye by Mara. It’s not necessarily a Mexican song, its more reggeaton, but it’s so fun to Zumba to! The video has somewhat of a strobe-light effect, so beware if this tends to bother you.

Monthaversary Two: Getting our feet wet.

     In the last month, I have gone to the gym 20 times, gone hiking once, and probably averaged two small bags of Cheese Naks a week (see previous post here). We went to Hout Bay, Kalk Bay, Muizenburg beach, we went to the tip of Cape of Good Hope, drove on Chapman's Peak Drive, and we hiked Lions Head mountain. We went to two different wine estates, Lourensford and Spier, learned how to ride Segways, and enjoyed tasting eleven wines with fine cheeses. We are finally comfortable driving on the left side of the road and navigate the tiny lanes and pedestrians with ease. I drove by myself to a place I had never been in town and did not get lost.
     We have watched the first seasons of Rome, Six Feet Under, and seasons one and two of The Wire. We have watched three movies in the theater and rented 10 movies. Still have not watched any television except while at the gym (they offer CNN, Sky News, VH1, cartoons, sports, sports, and more sports). I have written eight blog posts and received ten comments. I finally got to 555 blog views today! I attempted to use Photoshop and after much frustration, realized how hard it is! I met up with someone from an NGO and will start free counseling at an underprivileged primary school in the next two weeks. We looked at three homes, and drove past others, and decided to pass on them all as either too far, too dangerous, or too small.
     We did not have many social engagements this month, I guess our newness has rubbed off! However, we are becoming more adventurous on our own and are getting our feet wet!


Here are some pictures I took when we were at Muizenburg Beach:

Muizenburg Beach is known for its colorful dressing huts.

P.S.- Don't forget to check out my hubby's blog at http://pedroinafrica.blogspot.com!

Song of the Month: When the Fire is Low   by Freshlyground. It is a song by a South African and it’s on the radio a lot and I dance to it in Zumba.

Problem: expert cooking advice needed.

So this morning we made blueberry pancakes… And this is how they turned out.

At least the blueberries were good...

They were too dense and chewy and they did not cook evenly. What did we do wrong?

P.S. bear in mind that we do not have measuring spoons and are apparently no good at guestimating :)

Song of the Post: Sunrise by Norah Jones.

Health and Fitness.

Health: We are starting to come out of our (partial) survival mode when it comes to food. For breakfast we either have cereal or fried eggs and bacon or sausage (don’t judge!). We have tried to make pancakes out of crumpet mix, but they are not the same. My parents used to make pancake mixes from scratch- do any of you have a home-made recipe we can use? Sandwiches are quick and easy for lunch, and often better than what P finds on campus. We are starting to make a few more creative dinner dishes at home and are experimenting with some different cuts of meat on the braai (barbeque). We have tried making our own white sauce for pasta; the first time we added a cheese that did not melt or integrate well, so we made sure that we had the right kind of cheese for our second time, was much better.

(Source)

Unfortunately, we have also been choosing what is easy. Because our schedule keeps adjusting to new pressures, we don’t always have what we need to cook or the evening is fast approaching and time is of the essence. We have ordered pizza here more than we normally would in Tucson, and we have also baked some frozen ones as well. The pizzas here are smaller, thin crust, and have less cheese on them, so they are not as bad as they could be! Little saving graces, right?  

One interesting thing is that my cheese addiction has morphed into a Cheas Naks addiction, which is probably worse. Those of you who know of my cheese addiction would be surprised that I have only had it on the pizza and in sandwiches. For the uniformed, Cheas Naks are the closest approximation to Cheetos that I can find. Posers such as Nik Naks need to disappear because the texture and taste is all wrong.

And chocolate... We share a chocolate bar almost every day. Why? Because we need to know which are the best ones here in SA. The only brands that are familiar are Snickers, M and M’s, and Kit Kats. We really enjoy the Cadbury brand's chocolate bars: Fruit and Nut and Cashew and Coconut are the best. I have never been much of a chocolate eater, but I’m having fun finding an excuse to partake several times a week. If we don’t have chocolate for dessert, we will have some vanilla ice cream with fresh mango or frozen raspberries. Yummy!

(source)

Fitness: Because our Discovery Health insurance began at the start of the month, we were able to join the Virgin Active gym at a deeply discounted rate through their Vitality program. We paid the start-up fee and from now on, only have to pay 20% of the monthly fee that most members have to pay. This gym is amazing. It is not too far away and has an incredible view of Devil’s Peak (the background picture on P’s blog shows it nicely). The gym has an olympic-sized indoor pool and cool machines like the Power Plate and Kinesis, neither which I have tried. One of the things that I have enjoyed most over the last three weeks has been the fitness classes- they have the most of any gym I have ever seen! I have not always attended gym classes regularly in the past, but I’m liking the ones I have gone to. I have tried several times the yoga, Pilates, intermediate step, Zumba, and belly dancing classes and have had fairly good experiences at them. I now realize how important the instructor quality is to the success of a class. The step class I went to last Saturday sucked so much because the teacher (whom I will not name) would not do the routine with us and we would get lost without his visual cues; he then yelled at us and stopped the music half-way through to berate us! It was so unprofessional and I will never take a class from him again. However, my Zumba teacher, Elroy, is AMAZING. I was speaking with someone after class and they told me that he has a “following” and I’m guessing it’s not only because he is a good instructor…he is hot! His moves are effortless and smooth, he indicates when he is transitioning to a new move, and he smiles like he is having fun. I think that I am now part of his following...sigh. My belly dancing teacher, Natasha, is also very striking and I enjoyed the 90 minute class this week so much that I decided to go to hers every week! And I’m also contemplating a 55 minutes that she has tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Me getting up to exercise before 9:00 a.m; is that not a testament to how fun it is?!

Conclusion: Overall, we have actually lost weight since being here, contrary to your conclusions after reading the Health section of this post. We are eating less food than we used to and are going to the gym more regularly than we have been for the last few months. I have sometimes gone twice a day! That’s what a housewife in my position does, you know.

Also, Virgin Active is piloting a new “big brother” type program, at our location only, that helps you track your fitness indicators. They have machines that weigh you, do your blood pressure, and calculate your body fat percentage. They also give you suggested nutrition plans and workout schedules for your goals (of losing weight, getting healthy, or building strength). It’s pretty cool to use, when the machine is working.

Finally, I have also started keeping track again on The Daily Plate through the Live Strong website. You can set a goal weight and it will use your current weight, height, and activity level to calculate how many calories you should ingest a day to reach that goal. It has a huge database of store-brand foods and restaurant foods and it will break down what you ate and show what percentage of it was calories, fat, and protein. You can also log your fitness activities and adjust how many calories you have left that day to eat to stay within your goal. It is time intensive, but really opens your eyes to some of the things you eat. I've started paying attention to portion sizes and asking myself, is it worth it? You should check it out.

Peace out!

Song of the Post: Ice Cream by Sarah McLachlan.