Fun with Baking

Sayote cake, similar to zucchini, served with tea from Senegal with my Tunisian tea set

I have been amusing myself lately by baking goodies for everyone, much to the pleasure of my students and the staff. When I first arrived, little Hannah (the five-year old daughter of two of the staff members) won a toaster oven during our church’s celebration raffle. Making cookies and scones has been fun in the little oven, but I use the wood-burning variety for my cakes and breads, which bake up very well in the rudimentary oven.
Three-layered chocolate birthday cake: chocolate overload and delicious

Carrot bread
One of the things I miss most about being in the United States is baking in a real oven with my preferred ingredients. I cannot wait to bake cookies and cakes and custards when I return home for the holidays! Although I have very limited baking resources, I have become very adept at making do in order to confection delicious desserts. The adage “where there is a will there is a way” befits my ability to transform simple ingredients into something tantalizing and memorable. I’m happy to have any oven to bake something. In Senegal, all I had was a charcoal or gas stove, which is supremely limiting in the culinary arena. Everything I make is exotic for my students, so they are always thrilled to be taste-testers. It has been a lot of fun cooking for an enthusiastic audience.
“You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey your words. How sweet are your words to my taste; sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119: 57, 103)
My own recipe: toasted coconut scones filled with fresh coconut filling
Creamy rice pudding made with reconstituted whole milk from powder

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Going Bald So I finally went through the shaving of my head, which I have wanted to do for a long time. It was a really interesting experience: I did it while I was in Bicol because I wanted the staff to see me without any hair, as I had been discussing it with them for the past month. They are so great! No one said that I would look bad without hair or that I would be a disgrace or something, but they had some practical questions I needed to consider. One said: “You shouldn’t shave your head because the mosquitos will get you even worse!” And another said, “Are you sure you want to shave your head? You are going to need a lot of extra sunscreen!” Both of these comments are certainly true. Without hair, one loses her natural protection against the elements, but I was too set on shaving that I simply laughed and had a good time with their comments. I cut my hair short in stages, which you can see from the pictures. (The first was taken in May 2009 at my college’s research symposium. The
Read more

College Friends in China and Los Angeles

Image
Starting the walk up and down the Great Wall at Mutianyu Dinner potluck party at Esther's home My friends from high school and college are all around the country and the globe, so I was blessed to see three college friends this past February before starting a new vocation on Raspberry Hill Farm in Sullivan, WI. I started the month with a two-week trip to southern China to pay a visit to my friend, Esther, who works for the State Department at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, a city of 18 million people. She will be there for two years, starting back in November, so I was glad to have the opportunity to see her in her new realm of work and society. While she worked most days, I took my time to read and do CrossFit work outs, knowing that once I returned to WI, I would have a lot of items on my plate, transitioning into a new career. I enjoyed seeing her home, meeting her friends and eating and cooking together. She even hosted one of my friends from high school, who happen
Read more

Mother-Daughter Trip to Ecuador

Image
Happy New Year! I have celebrated at length with my family and friends during the glorious Christmas and New Year’s season, and I am starting to settle in. Before embarking on my next endeavor, I would like to complete my final entry for my journey in Ecuador. At the end of my internship, my mom came to visit me in the magnificent country of Ecuador. This marked the fifth time she accompanied me on one of my travel sojourns. With only six days, I planned an itinerary that kept us in one geographical region of Ecuador, minimizing the time we spent on travel. We started in Otavalo and the farm where I worked, returned to Quito for two days and finished our trip together in the Cloud Forest of Mindo. Overlooking Mojando Lake Otavalo is a small mountain town in the Sierras of Ecuador, home to many artisans specializing in alpaca wool production and crafts. Every Saturday artisans and merchants set up shop around the square and welcome tourists and locals alike to haggle and buy
Read more