Experiments in Cooking

Overall here in Swaziland we are pretty lucky with our ability to get almost anything at our supermarket, Spar. However, when you find something you have to buy a years supply because most likely it will not be there the next time you look. There are a few things though that just are not available no matter how many times you look. Because of this we have gotten pretty good at the substitution game otherwise known as "it won't taste too bad if i use this instead, will it?" game. There have been a surprising number of successes with only a few bumps along the road. For Stephanie and I it has been chocolate chip cookies. For some reason, we cannot get a batch of chocolate chip cookies to turn out like cookies rather than pancakes. We have tried everything under the sun. We have consulted everybody around. We have changed the amount of butter we used. We have tried about three different recipes. We have borrowed cookie sheets. Stephanie has lugged chocolate chips and packable brown sugar back from the states with still no success. For our friend Tini, it was the second attempt at an apple cake that she had made us previously. The first time was delicious. The second time was attempted without the original recipe and is now known as "apple surprise". I cannot explain how it all happened, but it resulted in many different layers to the cake. Sometimes you would get a bite of delicious apple cake then you might get a bite of scrambled egg then you might get a bite of pure flour. It might not have been the best dessert, but it has provided us with endless entertainment.

Tini did redeem herself this weekend though when she made us naan and well-flavored beef patties with a yoghurt sauce. This was the first attempt at naan making and I think it can be called a success. One of the most delicious homemade meals I have had in a while. In the background I would like you to note our first successful fire of the year.

Another successful experiment was sushi at dan and meredith's house. Despite, improvising on a few sauces and having all the fish frozen it turned out amazingly well. This is not too surprising, however, given that Dan might be the only person who has not suffered a failure at the hands of the Swazi cooking gods. Even his chocolate chip cookies have turned out (and don't doubt that steph and I are a little bitter about this). To further illustrate the point, below is Dan's creation for Luca's first birthday party.

This wasn't just a eye pleasing dessert either it was quite delicious as Luca will attest to.

Finally, it has nothing to do with food, but going through Luca's birthday pictures I could not pass up adding the beautiful dancing princesses to the post. The little girl twirling her skirt is Sofia, Dan and Meredith's oldest. The one admiring her moves is Molly the oldest of Dave and Amy, two doctors at the clinic. And the little one who looks like cross between snow white and one of her dwarfs with the santa hat laying in front of her is Lane, Dave and Amy's second child.