Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Lamu Love

Sunday, October 9, 2011

My New Favourite Meal.


Oh Em Gee.
So yesterday I was watching Master Chef Australia, and Chris had to make Gnochi for the celebrity chef challenge. It looked delicious. Then, by Lord's willing, I was at Ya Ya centre later in the day looking around the supermarket- and I'm never at Ya Ya (an expensive mall too expensive for my paycheque) so I don't know that it carries things like Gnochi. But, I found it. And, I splurged and I bought it. And this is what I did with it. If you have never tried Gnochi, you really should. It's basically a potato pasta dumpling, is the best way to describe it. Takes no time to cook at all so it's a really easy dinner.

This meal has three easy parts: the gnochi, the vegetables, and the sauce.
Step 1
-package of Gnochi
-chopped vegetables for steaming (I had broccoli, green beans and carrots)
through the gnochi in a big pot of boiling salted water. Put a collander on top, and through your vegetables in it to steam. Put a lid on the veg to speed up the process (gnochi only take about 5 min to cook so chop your veg small)
step 2 (sauce)
-olive oil and butter (butter is important. be generous)
-onion
-garlic
sautee together.
-white wine
add a splash to deglaze pan, let it boil away the alcohol for a few minutes
-cream or milk (obviously cream will give you a creamy-er sauce..but use what you want)
-parmesan cheese- grated
simmer this all together until the cheese melts and the sauce comes together. I'm not awesome at this yet so mine kind of separated but I'm sure there is a technique you can use that makes this not happen, I was just hungry and impatient.

Drain the Gnochi. Toss them in the sauce. Place your veg in a bowl. Dump the gnochi and sauce over the veggies, and toss again altogether. (I love sauce, so it just kind of oozed and covered the veggies on its own).

EAT IT ALL TO YOURSELF.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Guest Post! from my brother Mike!

My brother Mike spent a long time backpacking east Africa a few years ago (the one year I was actually not here, of course!) and this recipe we agree is a classic broke traveller east african meal. I unfortunately didn't have a frisbee and my coffee is made in a french press not an italian stovetop, but the feeling is the same.. One day when I get a better camera I'll show you better photos of food. For now, here is a screen shot of my darling brothers and me talking on Skype when they were in Sweden. Followed by one of those avocados and me eating the chapati concoction.
Love you Mike.



Budget veggie backpacker meal: east africa edition:

1 chapati
1 diced ripe tomato
1 small, finely chopped red onion
1 sliced, giant, delicious creamy africa avocado
1 chopped chilli
1 squeezed lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Buy a couple chapatis for a nickel. The rest should cost less than a 1.50$ (2008 prices). Chop up all ingredients with a dirty swiss army knife on the back of a frisbee

Place chopped tomato, onion, avo and chili in center of chapati. squeeze lime juice over top. Add salt from packet swiped from a restaurant. add ground pepper from the mini plastic pepper grinder bought in rome that traveled around aftrica with me. Just a few turns - fresh ground pepper is like gold in africa

Roll.

Enjoy.

Finish with coffee from little Italian stove top expresso maker perking on open gas burner flame, also purchased in rome

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Where We Go: Make a Better World (Kenya) in Mukuru Slum

So this is part of the Life section of our blog.

Dan is starting and Victoria will fill in more info. about Mukuru Slum where she works.
Below are maps, video and background information about the slum area.

MaBWoK is a tiny organization which is truly grassroots.
It was started by a few friends who lived in the Mukuru area in 1999 starting with youth education.

Now they do
Early Childhood Development
Internet & Computer Training
Adult Literacy
Cyber Cafe
Entrepreneurship Training
Business (Plan) Development
Sales of Water
Feeding Program
Saving and Loans Groups
HIV/AIDS Awareness
Child Protection Programs
Maternal Health Programs
Vocational Skills Training (ie. Brick making, metal fabrication, etc).
Small Scale Manufacturing Skills (ie. Dress Making, Soap Making, Etc).


Perhaps they are trying to do too much with too little... but they have been a part of the community for over a decade and have helped make Mukuru a better place a little at a time.




Rooftops Panorama


This is a photo from the second story Balcony of MaBWoK


This is one of the cleaner areas.





This Is the place




Click Here for In-depth Information on the Slum

This is a terrible thing that recently occurred there

Hot Hot Mediterranean Salsa Chicken with Quinoa Cakes





Mediterranean Salsa Chicken with Quinoa Cakes

MSC!

Oven at 375

Salsa is
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 green Chili
1 red Bird Chili
handfull of fresh Cilantro
Handfull of fresh Parsley
1/4 red onion
Zest of one lemon
Pinch of sea salt
(I would also recommend a small tomato chopped... we did have one on hand)

Rub breasts with olive oil salt pepper, Put on broil pan
dolup the salsa mix on top of the chicken, squeeze of lemon over top and throw into the oven.


Quinoa Cakes

Put a pan on the stove with a enough veg oil to just cover the bottom
Put left over quinoa and veg (from last night) into a bowl
Add two eggs and 1/4 cup corn starch (or white flour if you can eat gluten)
Mix it up and form two inch circular patties
Place in the hot pan cooking each side till golden

Plate with a pinch of salt and pepper


Shaved Cucumber Salad

Shave a cucumber lengthwise (use a speed peeler)

In a jam jar
1/2 clove of garlic smashed to a paste Jamie's How to Videos
3 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch salt and pepper

Shake well and dress salad


Guacamole

One giant avocado in a bowl
add 1 1/2 cloves garlic (pasted)
add 2-3 heaping table spoons of plain yogurt
pinch of salt and pepper Squeeze of lemon Juice



yum!