Life Changing Stuff - Salted Caramel Sauce

Well, more of a 'life changing sauce' really.

I've made this salted caramel sauce three times since Christmas (sounds very excessive, but I don't eat it all myself!).

It is perfect, you don't need to change anything.

Great on ice-cream, popcorn, my favourite salted brownies and now as a wee gift to keep people sweet.

 

(Recipe on Smitten Kitchen)

What I've been reading lately

I am in between 4 books at the moment. I read for the average of 3 minutes in bed and then fall asleep. One book, titled, 'Running is Easy', is by my bed, inspiring, yes, makes getting out of bed at 4.35am that bit easier, but I have gotten into the (bad) habit of reading Joy the Baker in bed. (You can read this book, it is not just a flicking recipe book).

Anyhow, I found my new hands-down favourite banana loaf recipe: Chocolate Bourbon Banana Bread (even minus the Bourbon it was great!).

Seriously need to stop reading this book and read more about running.

Book description from Amazon -

In her first cookbook, popular caterer and blogger Joy the Baker brings together a celebration of sugar and butter as she approaches baking with inspiration and heart. Joy the Baker's website is extremely popular as is her Los Angeles based catering company. Now in JOY THE BAKER COOKBOOK, she shares her incredibly delicious recipes for all kinds of sweet dishes: pancakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies and much more. All this is achieved with her usual warm, humorous and irreverent style.

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My thoughts -

Love it-my new favourite recipe book.
Totally indulgent recipes that always turn out well. I read Joy's blog, but I still can't wait for her to publish another book! I love this one that much. My favourite recipes are the banana and bourbon loaf and the browned butter cookies. Joy writes little stories among some of her recipes which I love  - I also think the photos are great...I always love photos in recipe books. Another thing - all recipes measurements are in American cups. I LOVE this...so much easier than faffing around with scales...and from now on am going to purchase American versions of recipe books. (Lazy...maybe. I haven't even owned a set of scales for 3 years!). Get it. I like this book. My neighbours are also happy with it!

The Little Things

There were times in Africa, like after a long day at school, when I longed for a coffee in a paper cup. A coffee to go, so I could take it back to my classroom, ready to work again after a caffeine fix. Coffee ‘to go’ started appearing in my last few months in Uganda, in a Styrofoam cup…and there was never any rush for the customer. Kind of defeating the purpose.

Times like that I would go on Google and find where my nearest Starbucks was.  Egypt. Quite far for a coffee fix.

Now I can nip across the street (well, two) come back with an iced latte and get back to work. Or grab a double skinny capachino while I go round the supermarket.

Seriously.  How great is that!?

I tell you-it is easy to forget, but these little things make me happy.

Another thing that makes me happy, is finding all the ingredients to try a new recipe. After seeing these this recipe for Nutella Stuffed Cookies on a couple of websites, I just had to try them.

 

(It is the sea salt that make them great by the way!)

 

 

Looking forward to starting Kuwait Cook Club again!

A Scottish Summer's Day

I spoke too soon. It has rained for two days straight. Non-stop.

So, I've done a bit of baking. Oreo cookies, rhubarb and strawberry crumble, banana and chocolate chip loaf and the Best Blueberry Muffins You'll Ever Have. (We have had visitors...an excuse I am sticking to!)

These really are the best blueberry muffins. Maybe a little bit fussier than other muffins, but they turned out perfectly. I followed this blueberry crumb muffin recipe exactly.

I am quite happy curling up on the sofa, still reading the supplements from the weekend papers...but I would really like it to stop raining tomorrow, as I am being a tour guide for a couple of days and would quite like to see more than 3 metres in front of my face.

Surprise!

I got a surprise the other day. I got a place on a team for the Lewa Half Marathon (which is just outside Meru, Kenya) at the end of June.

There are only 1000 spots for half marathon runners and my team didn't get a place. But a member of a team had to drop out, so a text arrived out of the blue last week offering me the place.

Yeah! A moment of excitement. Then a moment of sheer panic. Although I have been running regularly(ish)-I am no way ready for a half. And because of my bad toe (which is now better) I didn't run at all last week and the week before I was just being lazy (kicking myself now!!). But I can't turn down the opportunity to run in the wild, so although I am sure I will end up walking a lot parts of it  - I'm doing it!

Yeah!

I heard that Kate (you kow, my friend Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge!) is running too. It could just be gossip. Probably. Or maybe it is Pippa? She is a runner. I'll let you know!

A nice surprise, right.

I like surprises. Receiving unexpected mail in the post, an unexpected ending to a novel and flowers at the door (not that the later has happened for a while!).

I saw this recipe recently on Joy the Baker and started to make it, then realised I left my cake tin at a friend's house.

So I make cupcakes with the batter. The roasted strawberries were unsurprisingly good (how could it fail?). The texture definitely suits a cake more, but still worked well as cupcakes.

Cherrio

I took a sharp intake of breath when I walked in the fruit shop to see a load of (imported) soft fruit. Cherries, peaches, blueberries and nectarines. Yeah! I love passion fruit and mangoes, but it is nice to get a change from time to time.

I took another intake of breath when I saw the price, but decided I would just get a little of each as a treat.

Black cherries are my favourite fruit, yep, love them. gobbling all 6 cherries (!) I was inspired to make a cherry cheesecake. As I said, the cherries were mucho expensivo, so I bought some jam for the topping! (Nice jam!)

This Nigella recipe was my go-to-recipe in Kuwait...and have made it a dozen of times, but this was the first time I made it here in Kenya. It is honestly the easiest and tastiest cheesecake.

The photos are a bit crap. I took it over to a friends and could hardly just cut a slice for the photo, could I?

I can't believe the first week of June has disappeared. Where is the time going? Not long now...

Grating on me

Sometimes emails are too easy, to accessible and you can pour your thoughts onto the keyboard, with no regard to a response from the other person or for their feelings.

I have resorted to name calling (in my head); The Witches of Eastwick. Hey, I know what they think of me, they have told me, so don't feel sorry for them. I wouldn't normally vent on my blog, but they are grating on me, every day.

My mum has a no-fail courgette cake recipe, that when I am home I always use at least once, in that holiday. It has been a favourite for years.

I found this one on a blog the other day (can't remember who, and I have tried to find it since, but can't...is it yours??If so-thank you!).

Courgette (Zucchini) Muffins

1 large courgette (grated and then squeezed through kitchen towel)

1 cup of light brown sugar

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar (I used unrefined whole sugar)

2/3 cup of vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

a large handful (about 75g) of roughly chopped walnuts

Whisk sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs.

In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt.

Add to mixture with courgette and nuts. Fold.

Divide into cases and bake for about 20 minutes.

(Since my oven has on and off-no joke...I couldn't tell you the temperature. I am guessing, 'hot'. )

Icing

1 cup of cream

1/2 cup of sour cream

3 tablespoons of icing sugar

whole walnuts to decorate

For my last 25 days at the 'w' place (not that I am counting), my friend has suggested that I just not open my email account. I'm going to follow that trinket of advice! It is harder for people to be nasty to you to your face and if it what they have to say is in fact important (doubtful!) then that person surely can walk 5 steps to my classroom.

I made these for my running buddy, who has some great (hohoho!) advice!

Everything with Butter

This past weekend has been fantastic; running, yoga, coffee and croissants, sangria, reading in the sunshine, drawings from a gorgeous 5 year old for my fridge (thank you Gabe!), shisha, Coronas, Italian gellato...and butter!

There has been a drought-induced dairy shortage recently here and farmers in Kenya have only been able to produce 30% of the country's needs. Along with the rains butter is once again on the shelves of the supermarkets...although at a higher price. So with the return of butter, I thought I would bake. It has been a while...(which is a good thing..!) so I thought I would try something new.

I have never mastered brownies. Never. Even when I used to make them from a box in Kuwait, they were never very good; there is a fine line between cake dough, gooey uncooked mess and brownie.

Inspired by Anna I added bullet red chillies to this classic brownie recipe. (I didn't add any nuts-I thought the brownies would have enough flavour with the chillies).

I loved the bite of the chillies (I only used two large ones and that was enough-but would maybe choose milder chillies and have more of them next time, for colour)...but I have still not mastered baking brownies.

I will just have to try again...!

Savouring the Moment

I'm Going Bananas!

Food senses if you are rushing it. It won't be rushed, folding needs time, you stir slowly and generally food tastes better if you cook it whilst you are holding a glass of wine and listening to Madeleine Peyroux or Norah Jones, which slows down this process even more. Rushed food is dirty fuel. It will burn to spite you, to remind you to slow down.

These cakes though, can take lots of beating and you can chop the hell out of the chocolate for the chunks. You can basically dump it all together and they still turn out well. Just slow down to eat them, savour each chunky chocolate bite you find.

They are now a firm favourite with my friends that I gift them to, so that I don't eat them all for breakfast! And yes, I have posted this recipe before... that is how good they are!

Homemade Oreos

I had Oreos for the first time when I lived in Kampala. They were the only biscuits that you could get from Shoprite that were not stale. And they tasted pretty good.

I found this recipe a while ago, so thought I would use the excuse of friends coming round to try them out.

They are so simple and much better than the ones in a box! For added goodness add a sprinkle of seasalt on the filling, before sandwiching the biscuits together (thank you Olivia for that tip!) The recipe made about a dozen sandwiched cookies. But next time I will make the biscuits thinner, so I would only use a 1/2 teaspoon of cookie dough for each ball.

PS-keep in the fridge-in a sealed box-then it is more difficult for you to eat them all in one day!

back to school

I made this "Back-to-school-banana-choc-chunk cake" the other day.

 Then spent the rest of the day dreaming of the chairs I would like in my bookshop/cafe/gallery. Productive!


And then I spent the whole yoga session wondering how my thighs got so big!
 

PS- I got the recipe from here. Blame her!

This is the year to...

I have been thinking of some things I want to achieve this year. Not really resolutions,but a kind of 'to'do list for the year; things to look forward to. Some a short term goals...as in this week/month and some longer.

• Finish unpacking my boxes from Uganda! (This is obviously a short term goal!) By the end of the week month, I want to have emptied my last three boxes. If I didn't miss it I will throw it out or donate it.(I have already done one this week...two more to go!)
• Find hooks an hang up paintings and photos (seriously, along with 'get a scart lead' this has been on my 'to-do list' since I arrived...it is not as easy at it sounds!)
• Start pottery classes - I have a feeling I will enjoy the process, even though the end product will probably be quite crap! I have got so far as to find out when/where I can take them-next step would be to attend one!
• Take some Swahili lessons - On occasions I open my mouth and Arabic or Lugandan or gibberish comes out. At the moment I keep wanting to say "amasegunallo" (Thank you, in Amharic")-a bit more Swahili would be nice, if only to convince KWT that I only need to pay residents rates!
• Hash- Even if I only go twice this year, I want to Hash again and meet some other slow runners!
• Try new recipes more - I'm not going to make life more challenging by putting a time frame on this, like one a week/month- but  I want to be a bit more experimental in my kitchen (if you can call it that!). So, earlier this week I thought I would try a gluten-free chocolate chocolate cheesecake that I saw on this blog, then my friend at 3Limes tried it and said it was yummy. So, no excuses. But, I couldn't find all the ingredients it called for (...like sugar or graham crackers...no sugar, but found sour cream...(!) so I used icing sugar and found  diet-free digestive biscuits, so I thought I would use those! Note to self-just because they are expensive and has the word 'Gullon' on the box, does not mean they are gluten-free! Sorry dinner guest!
 

Hmmm-tasted SO much better than it looked!

 

There is one BIG goal that I have been thinking about for a while. But if I tell people I am doing it, then I don't do it, I've failed. Where as, if I don't tell anyone, I just didn't do it...right?

OK-here goes. A marathon would be great-NYC for my 30th would be even better. But, as it is so expensive, that is not on my lists-as it might not be achievable. So, I have been thinking about trying to do 12 in 12. 12 half marathons in 12 months. As I am so incredibly unfit, and can only run 8km at the moment a bit behind schedule,  I will have to try and do more than one half in some months later in the year. Haaaaaaa-who am I kidding!!! I'm not even drunk writing this! I think this is achievable!

I am really looking forward to what lies ahead this year. My Kenyan tour company (!) will be starting properly this year...I'm just waiting for the first customers to book-up! 

Trying to be Martha

To myself...

Oh, that looks cute...

Don't count them yet, you still have lots to do...

Another broken one, shame. One for me, one for you, one for me...

Stop eating the cookies, you are going to run out...

Do I really need to give one to everyone!!?? Yes...

But, the office staff can just have a jar. It is easier for me for them to share!..

God, I need a glass of wine. How many more do I need to do!??

Oh-don't bother writing your name on the tag- it's quicker more fun guessing who gave the cookie!..

Done!

Spiced Christmas Cookies

I have been baking these Christmas Spiced cookies  a LOT this week.

I used this Martha Stewart recipe and for the first time ever bought 'Molasses' (that is treacle to you        
and I)...which cost a small fortune by the by!

They really only take about 7 minutes to bake, I have learnt to just stay by the oven!

They are really easy to bake...I don't have a fan assisted oven, and it only has an on/off knob...and they turned out well. You will have no probs!

Maple Nut Granola

Friends of mine at the 'w' place were laughing at me the other day, as I spent my whole evening (and admitted it!) at home looking (with my tongue hanging out) at the Martha Stewart website!

I wish I could be that creative! I'm not...as I have mentioned before..!

Anyhow, I decided to make a few homemade gifts this Christmas. When I was younger it was snowballs and truffles, then the past few years I have made chutneys. This year I thought I would make granola. A funny kind of gift, but granola is expensive here, so I thought I would have a go-as you can actually buy flax seed, wheat germ and lots of other gems here. Anyhow, by the time I bought all the ingredients I would have been better off buying a box of Dorset's and decanting it into a jar with a home made tag on it!

Hey ho-it's the thought...

I used a recipe from this lovely blog, but I used dried blueberries instead of cranberries and I left out the coconut.

seriously good cupcakes

Seriously...best yet!

I used this Martha Stewart recipe for the nectarine cupcakes. I think they were extra special because I used the best vanilla ever from Ndali in Uganda. Ndali is one of my favourite places; I've gone time and time again and I hope to go back sooner rather than later!

Grey days and cupcakes

A grey afternoon in Scotland - perfect for trying out a new strawberry and coconut cake recipe from my new Jo Pratt book.Mmmm.

(PS -remember to vote (for me!) for the best in travel category here. Thanks!)

Holiday snaps

I've had to make a big girl decision and pull out of the New York City marathon this year due to the cost (boooooo) - but I am going to keep running so that I can keep eating what I bake! Today I made these Martha Stewart carrot cupcakes! The Nairobi marathon is at the end of October...that is quite a few cakes.

(PS-to vote for my blog in the Best in Travel category for FTLOB, please click here then 'like' me. Thanks!)

Wedding Celebrations in Kampala

How can I not write about the Royal Wedding!?

Yesterday was quite surreal though. My friend, Jane, and I were up early and baked about 6 dozen scones - we were going to head to a champagne brunch to watch the wedding.

Then the text messages started coming through about the riots in pockets of Kampala. Not long after, we started to hear nearby explosions and the smell of tear gas started to waft through the garden.

Change of plans.

We found the BBC coverage on a Kenyan TV channel and decided to stay put. Jane and I 'ohhhed' and 'ahhhhed' at the outfits and hats (more of a 'noooooo' for Beatrice and Eugenie!!), munching on scones (there were many!) and drinking pots of Earl Grey tea, forgetting about life outside the safety of the house for a few hours.

Not the worst place to be stuck
watching the wedding!

I thought it was just such a beautiful wedding and I can't stop looking at the photographs of beautiful Kate and the dresses on the Internet.

Kampala is quiet again this morning. But it is clear that the quiet won't last. Museveni's heavy handedness when dealing with opposition is now making world news and eyebrows have been raised.

So, in short, I'm not sick of reading about the Royals in the news.

wedding photos

PS- Can anyone pick me up a copy of  'Hello' on Thursday and save it for me??