Cooking & Baking Accomplishments
Introduction
Anyone who knows me knows that prior to coming to Namibia, I was addicted to the microwave and barely touched a stove. I found a way to microwave just about anything to avoid using a stove or oven -- I used to say, "I don't cook... I heat!" Well, since microwaves aren't too cheap (well, considering our Peace Corps living allowance) and they would cause my house to use up the electricity faster (which is pre-paid and reimbursed, but I want to refill the electricity meter as least often as possible), I'm forcing myself to use our little two-burner electric stove and mini oven. The Peace Corps gave each of us an awesome PC Namibia cookbook that is a compliation of recipies from previous PCVs.
Recipe star guide:
* = from the PC Namibia cookbook
** = from the Immacuate Conception cookbook (that Pete's mom gave me)
*** = from Jen H.'s wedding cookbook
**** = from the cookbook that Melissa W. made for me as a Christmas 2005 present
All other recipes are posted/linked, provided the recipes aren't top secret! The recipes I typed up have blank backgrounds to make it easier to print them out -- feel free to use these recipes and let me know how they come out!
My junk food rule is that I can't buy any for the house -- if I want junk food, I need to make it myself so I learn more about cooking. (Meaning, if you need to roll me from place to place at the end of my PC service, I'd better be able to make something pretty darn tasty if you were to roll me into a kitchen!) Soooo, here's the journey on my path to becoming the next Betty Crocker!
What I've cooked, baked, or produced in order to feed myself and/or others without trying to make me and/or them sick
(Only first attempts are noted, unless it wasn't a successful product the first time)
12/28/04: Tasty Tuna-Egg Salad (always a yummy staple for sandwiches)
1/1/05: Apple Crisp* (came out very well, despite that I didn't realize til the next day that the oven's temperature is in Celsius!)
1/5/05: Vanilla Ice Cream* {recipie #2} (not so creamy, but very vanilla-y!)
1/7/05: Trinidad Bakes* (I'm not sure if they came out like they were supposed to (too doughy?), but they still tasted quite good to a few of us!)
1/8/05: No-Bake Cookies* (quite yummy!)
1/9/05: Fudge (didn't come out like fudge -- more like a lumpy molasses, but it's still very sweet and good!)
1/14/05: Pasta with Sauteed [frozen] Vegetables and Peanut Sauce* (I guess I snacked too much while the pasta was cooking b/c I wasn't too hungry by the time I was done w\ everything, but I had the leftovers for breakfast the next day!)
1/15/05: Banana Bread* {recipie #2} (moist, didn't get burned, and really yummy!)
1/18-19/05: Pineapple Chicken* (this was my first time ever preparing meat (if you don't count the occasional hamburger)! I let the chicken sit in the marinade for 24 hours, then cooked it -- it was very delicious, if I must say so myself!)
1/22/05: Onion Rings*, with the help of Taylor (the "breading" or whatever you call the outside flour-y coating came off the second we put the onions into the hot oil, but what we did end up with came out tasting good)
1/23/05: Beer Bread* (it came out a little browner/blacker than it should be on the bottom, but I think it's b/c the recipie didn't give a specific time for how long it should bake -- it was also kinda dry, but I've heard that's how beer bread is -- nevertheless, it's not bad)
1/30/05: Cornbread* {recipie #2} (moist, didn't get burned, and really yummy! I'm debating whether or not to put creamed corn in the next time I make it -- it makes it more interesting, but I'm not used to corn pieces in my cornbread!)
2/6/05: Zucchini Bread* (part of the bottom didn't come out of the loaf pan initially, but it wasn't burnt or anything and I got it out easily w\ a spatula -- as a whole, the bread came out moist, sweet, and really yummy!)
2/13/05: Guava Bread* (I didn't have guava sauce like the recipe called for, so I mashed up some canned guava halves and it worked just fine -- the bread was yummy, came out in one piece, and wasn't burnt!)
2/14/05: Cake Doughnuts* (I made 19 small donuts -- some were round, others were cruller-like. They looked kinda burnt on the outside and were kinda gooey on the inside, but overall, they tasted quite good -- I just wish I had bought powdered sugar to make icing for them! I should also note that while making the donuts, I accidently started to melt the plastic masher that I was using to put the donuts in and out of the hot oil, but I was able to re-form it so now it looks almost normal!)
2/15/05: Rice and Veggie Combo (I made rice w\ some frozen veggies in it, and when it was done, I poured/mixed some mushroom-bacon sauce (it was powder that I added to boiling water) over/in it, and it made a good dinner for that day, as well as the next two days!)
2/20/05: Lemon Bread* (like the zucchini bread, part of the bottom didn't come out of the loaf pan, but nevertheless, it was moist, yummy, and VERY lemon-y!)
2/21-22/05: Toll House Cookies* {recipie #2} (Since chocolate chips aren't sold here, I chopped up a chocolate bar and it worked just was well. I did three batches of 12 cookies -- one batch on the 21st and two on the 22nd -- and all three batches came out "hella good," to quote one of my housemates! They were soft, very yummy, and not burnt or crisp in any way!)
2/26/05: Grandma Rose's Pizza Frittas (fried dough) (The dough didn't rise like it should, even after waiting several hours, but I fried it anyway since I didn't want it to go to waste. What resulted were pieces of dough with the consistency of leather and the strong smell/taste of yeast. I added some powdered sugar on top and ate them, since again, I didn't want them to go to waste -- no one else cared to try them, though... lol Stay tuned for attempt #2, which will hopefully be more successful!)
2/27/05: Mango Bread* (the "topping" is a little funky b/c the directions said for me to spread it, which had a solid consistency, on top of the batter, which was gooey...? Nevertheless, the bread came out of the loaf pan in once piece and was moist and yummy!)
3/1/05: Grandma Jean's Meatloaf (this was my first time ever preparing red meat! After I saw that the mince (ground) beef that I bought 4 days earlier had started to mold and become discolored in my fridge (I then learned that mince should be used or frozen immediately after buying -- that's a N$9.46 lesson), I went and bought some fresh mince. I followed the directions and when it was done, I had a non-burnt and very yummy meatloaf -- I had to hold myself back from eating the whole thing! I ate 1/3 of it, and I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers!)
3/3/05: Peanut Butter Cookies* (The edges on some of the cookies were kinda crispy, although nowhere near burnt, so being the perfectionist that I am, I don't think that they came out as well as the Toll House cookies, but my housemate said that they came out perfect. Either way, they were mighty yummy and 95% soft!)
3/6/05: Aunt Sue's Irish Soda Bread (it didn't come out burnt at all, is more moist than I thought it'd be, and actually tastes like Irish soda bread!)
3/6/05: Sweet Potato Casserole* (it's not so much like a casserole -- it's more like the side dish that's served on Thanksgiving, although the sweet potato part was more pureed than chunky, but that's how it's supposed to be according to the recipe. Althought the topping looked a little weird, I think it came out like it should, but next time, I'm gonna use the alternate topping... marshmallows! Oh yeah, it tasted yummy too!)
3/9/05: Pete Yurich's Choice Brownies* (as my housemate advised, I doubled all the ingredients -- they came out yummy and weren't burnt at all!)
3/13/05: Apple Pie Bread* (it came out of the pan in one piece, it wasn't burnt at all, and it's moist and yummy!)
3/15/05: Raspberry Bars* (I let them "set for 24 hours to improve the flavor" like the recipes prescribed, and they came out really yummy! One had to be sacrificed to the baker because it didn't come out of the pan in one piece, but even that one was yummy too!)
3/27/05: Caramel Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge (even though I really didn't have the proper ingredients to make it as low-fat as it should be, it still was really yummy and came out soooooo much more fudge-like than the first attempt at fudge)
3/27/05: Hawaiian Bread III (I somehow didn't copy down the recipe with the ingredients cut in half, so I wound up with enough for two loaves, which was quite convenient b/c I had company over! I should've let the bread cool for longer, but since I didn't, part of the bottom of each loaf stuck to the pan. Nevertheless, it was quite yummy and moist!)
3/30/05: Snapdoodle (Even though this was listed as a bread, it looked more like a simple cake. It came out moist, yummy, and not burnt at all -- the topping gave it the perfect amount of sweetness!)
4/1/05: Mom's Stuffed Meatballs (I haven't found stuffing in Namibia yet, so I made some with bread, eggs, milk, and various spices. I sorta doubled parts of the recipes and made 6 good-sized meatballs. They were well-cooked, weren't burnt, tasted really yummy, and were enjoyed by my friends!)
4/3/05: Peach Bread (This time, I remembered to cut the recipe in half! The loaf came out moist, yummy, not burnt at all, and except for a small 1-inch section, it came out in one piece!)
4/5/05: Oatmeal Cookies* (I was psyched b/c I just got molasses [from Windhoek via a friend of a friend] this weekend, and that was the only ingredient that I was missing. However, there must've been something wrong w\ the molasses b/c it smelled awful (I never used molasses before, so I wasn't sure how it was supposed to smell, so that's why I used it anyway, in hoping that the bad smell would go away when the cookies were baked) and both myself and my housemate said that the batter and cookies tasted awful, although the cookies tasted better than the batter, but only by a little bit. Consequently, I threw out the second half of the batter, and Satchel (my housemate's dog) has 10.5 (12 cookies minus one that I ate and a half that my housemate ate) new doggy biscuits! I will attempt this recipe again after I go to Windhoek in May and get some better molasses, so stay tuned...)
4/9/05: Sara Smith's Eggless Chocolate Cake* (it came out moist, yummy, and was well-recieved by my fellow PCVs who were over!)
4/10/05: Oatmeal Whole Wheat Quick Bread (Long story short, the first loaf came out too small, so I made some changes and baked it again a few hours later. So, I followed the recipe with the following exceptions: couldn't/didn't grind the oats/oatmeal, doubled the ingredients, put the batter into a greased loaf pan rather than on a greased cooking sheet, and baked it at 350 F for 1 hour. Both loaves were dense and hearty (like the recipe said that they'd be), weren't burnt at all, and were quite yummy!)
4/10/05: Basic White Sauce* {tomato sauce version} (I followed the recipe and added some tomato paste and a few more dashes of basil and oregano than the recipe called for. I did end up with tomato sauce, but I think it'd be better to use on pizza than with pasta, since it wasn't as flavorful as most pasta sauces, like my mom's and grandma's!)
4/11/05: Washington Cookie Recipe* (I made a batch of 12, which came out on the crispy side. I put the rest of the batter in a 8-inch pan and made a cookie bar/cake. I don't think I baked it for long enough, but the sides were on the crunchy side and the inside was nice and chewy, sorta like a brownie/blondie! I definitely liked how the cookie bar/cake came out more than the actual cookies themselves!)
4/16/05: Blonde Brownies (Even though I ran out of the dark brown sugar and had to use a little bit of the light brown sugar (think of Starbucks' Sugar in the Raw), the yummy brownies came out chewy and were gobbled up by my friends that night, as well as for breakfast the next morning!)
4/17/05: Breakfast Tea Bread (Since I only had 2/3 of the zucchini that I needed, in addition to how I saw that the recipe called for a pan that was bigger than a normal loaf pan, I used 2/3 of all the ingredients, which made it my most mathematical cooking experience to date! The bread was moist and I could definitely taste the zucchini (moreso than I could when I made Zucchini Bread), but it's yummy nevertheless!)
4/20/05: 10-Minute Corn Chowder* (The chowder didn't thicken like the recipe said it would (like 1/4 cup of flour would really thicken a combination of 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of water), but I added some Smash (instant mashed potato mix) and it turned out like I think it was intended to turn out, or at least it seemed to have a more chowdery consistency. It was yummy (not too flavorful for most people's tastes, but I didn't mind at all) both hot on the day I made it, as well as cold the day after!)
4/24/05: Miele and Cheese Bread (I should've used only about 2/3 of what the recipe requested, since I ended up with a normal loaf and a 3/4-sized loaf. However, the 3/4-sized loaf was quickly gobbled up by my friends! That loaf tasted good, even though we skipped step 7 before digging into it. The other loaf tasted okay, although not as good as the smaller loaf -- it was a little too brown on the bottom, and when I ate it for breakfast, it wasn't warm like the other one.)
4/27/05: Baked Pineapple (I wasn't sure if this was a side dish or a dessert or whatever, but I made it and it came out well (and yummy) -- not burnt or anything, and it's sweet as most pineapple recipes are. Oh, and I think it is a side dish after all!)
4/30/05: Cream Scones* (I doubled the recipe (and went with the Dikmilk [yogurt] option), and they came out well, but my friends and I had to eat them gradually because they didn't all finish baking at the same time -- I think we had about four or so different "ready" times. Nevertheless, they were quite yummy and weren't burnt at all!)
5/18/05: Quick Pumpkin Soup* (I tripled the ingredients (since I had more pumpkin than it called for), and it came out yummy, even though it wasn't a thick soup -- it was more like a pumpkin milk. I guess I could've added some Smash to thicken it up -- mental note for next time!)
5/18/05: Powdered Sugar Frosting* (I halved the recipe and put it on top of the Sara Smith's eggless chocolate cake that I made for a computer workshop, then topped it with chocolate sprinkles!)
5/20/05: Jungle Camp's Favourite Chocolate Cake* (It came out yummy, but really no different than the Sara Smith's eggless chocolate cakes that I've made. I made some powdered sugar frosting to put on top, along w\ chocolate sprinkles for some extra added sweetness!)
5/20/05: Orecchiette with Tomato Cream* (Since I already had mini shell pasta, I used that instead of orecchiette/bowtie pasta. Despite the fact that I don't like peas or crushed red pepper, I added both of those ingredients as the recipe prescribed, although I added about 1/3 can of peas rather than one package of frozen peas. It came out quite yummy and was gobbled up by me and my friends!)
5/21/05: Oshifima (traditional Owambo porridge that you eat with your hands and dip in sauces) (I heard that some fo my fellow PCVs were able to make it without the assistance of their host families, so when I saw the recipe on the side of the bag of mahangu (millet), I knew I had to give it a shot. It came out pretty much like it did when my host family made it for me, and I have plenty left for the rest of the week, although I have yet to eat cold oshifima...)
5/21/05: Spoon Bread (Since I was going to my friend's house for breakfast, I decided to make two loaves -- one for my breakfast this week as usual, and one to bring over. Consequently, I doubled the ingredients. I let them bake for two hours, rather than the 25-30 mins that the recipe instructs (more baking time is natural, but *that* much more time...?), and I *still* don't think that they were baked all the way through. The tops of both loaves also caved in, so they looked kinda funny. They tasted okay and had sort of a cheesecake consistency, and my friends didn't think the bread was too bad, although it's definitely not one of my finer bread results. However, one word that would accurately describe the loaves is "moist!")
5/22/05: Chicken Dubonnet*, with the help of Siggi (Since Siggi couldn't find chicken breasts at the supermarket, we used non-frozen boned chicken. It was really delicious and we ate it with/over rice. There was some remaining sauce, which I found to be quite tasty when used to dip some of my plethora of leftover oshifima!)
5/23/05: Thai Peanut Sauce* (I followed the recipe, with the exception of putting in 1/3 tbsp of chili powder rather than 1 tbsp because that's all I had, aside from the fact that I didn't want it to be too spicy, and came out really well -- it tasted like the peanut sauce that I've had in Thai restaurants! It made a great sauce for dipping oshifima in and was tasty on some leftover rice for lunch the day after!)
5/24/05: Alfredo Sauce* (I accidently added more cream than the recipe called for, but then I evened it out by adding more grated cheese. It came out well and tasted good, although I think it would've been better if I added even more cheese than I did just to make the sauce thicker. And I used the sauce for pasta with my friends, not for the leftover oshifima!)
5/26/05: Rice Pudding* (I followed the directions, but it still seemed to come out kinda soupy, even after I put it in the fridge overnight -- however, my friends all said that it tasted good and was rich, despite its soupy consistency!)
5/29/05: Apple Loaf (The bread came out of the pan in one piece and was nicely browned all over -- not burnt whatsoever, yet well-baked all the way through! It tasted yummy and wholesome -- not as flavorful as the Apple Pie Bread, but still quite yummy nevertheless!)
5/30/05: Tuna Curry in a Hurry (I never was much of a curry person, but I wanted to use up some sour cream that I had. I didn't use peppers because I didn't have any (probably because I hate peppers! lol), but I included everything else. Near the end of cooking the curry, I decided that I wanted to serve it over rice, so while I made the rice, some of the "soupyness" of the curry evaporated, but that's good b/c it was too soupy in the first place, which is probably why people recommended that only 1/2 of the sour cream should be used. Nevertheless, it was yummy and didn't come out spicy, which is good b/c I'm not keen on spicy foods anyway. I ate a good-sized portion and still have enough for another good-sized dinner -- yay for leftovers!)
6/2/05: Chicken in Sour Cream, with the help of Siggi (We made the recipe with only four pieces of [boned] chicken, so there was plenty of sauce. The only other change we made to the recipe was adding a whole 55g package of dry brown onion soup, which was about double the amount that the recipe called for. We served it over rice and it tasted really yummy!)
6/3/05: Easy Beef Strogonoff, with the help of Betsy and Tamara (Since the recipe said that it yielded 2-3 servings and I wanted it to satisfactorily feed four people, I doubled the ingredients. We definitely had enough for all of us, and then some! The stroganoff sauce seemed a bit on the liquidy side rather than on the creamy side, but nevertheless, it still tasted great, we were all stuffed by the end of the meal, and now we can look forward to leftovers!)
6/3-4/05: Hot Fudge Pudding Cake* (This was another late-night baking experience, and the cake turned out like it should ("hot fudge" on the bottom, soft cake on top) and was really yummy! We enjoyed it that night, and polished it off for breakfast the next morning!)
6/5/05: Mamaw's Sweet Potato Bread (I cut the ingredients in half and didn't follow all the specifics about the flour, milk, and eggs (I just used the basic kinds), and it was an interesting baking adventure, although I'm not sure how much of it was affected by the ingredients. First, I forgot to put the oven on (we keep the power switch for the stove/oven off when we don't use it so we don't blow a fuse), and somehow I was distracted when I put the batter into the oven b/c I didn't notice that it wasn't pre-heated (even though I turned the dials and all), so that delayed things a bit, since I realized about 20 mins into "baking" that the power switch wasn't on. Then the batter rose a little too much and started dripping/falling in clumps off the side and started frying/charring on the bottom of the oven -- I kept having to trim the batter off the edge of the pan and off the bottom of the oven every 2-3 minutes! Mind you, I had just scrubbed the oven rack for the first time the night before and my friend scrubbed the bottom of the oven, since what he was cooking [in foil] dripped all over the bottom of the oven. Then the bread itself took a full three hours to cook, since the insides apparently were still uncooked although the sides were fully browned. After struggling for about 20 mins to get it out of the pan, it finally came out in one piece, although the bottom was kinda black -- not burnt to a crisp, but blacker than it should've been. As a whole, it's very chewy and tastes okay, although you can't taste the sweet potatoes nor the 1 1/8 cups of honey that was ever-so-present when I licked the bowl!)
6/7/05: Cake Doughnuts, Sara Smith's Eggless Chocolate Cake, Powdered Sugar Frosting* (Even though I've made all of these PC recipes before, I just want to note that in a matter of 6 hours, I cranked out 136 plain donuts and 1 cake w\ [kinda runny] icing and sprinkles on top! I was originally going to make 110 iced donuts (one per learner) and 2 iced cakes (to divide among all the teachers). However... a) some of the donut dough balls were too big, so I did some readjusting before frying; b) the first 10 or so donuts came out kinda black (that happened last time w\ the first few), so it's good that I made more than I needed; c) I realized that I only had enough cocoa to make one cake and enough powdered sugar to ice one cake; and d) I managed to split the one 8x8 cake into 30 pieces, so that worked out fine. Hindsight about the cake's frosting: I should've used less milk or more powdered sugar!)
6/12/05: Applesauce Raisin Bread (It came out of the loaf pan *very* easily (maybe I should grease and flour my bread pans on a regular basis when making bread) and was nicely browned all over, but moist inside. It didn't tase too much like apples, but nevertheless, it wasn't overly sweet but was quite yummy!)
6/12/05: Tuna on Toast (I'm not sure if the can of condensed cream of mushroom soup is bigger here than in the US, but nevertheless, I followed the directions and found that the result was too soupy. Consequently, I thickened it up with an additional can of tuna and some Smash (instant mashed potatoes). It tasted good (I guess sort of like how a tuna chowder would taste?) and enough was made to eat with 5 pieces of toast, with plenty left over!)
6/16-17/05: Chicken with Apple Curry Sauce (I made the sauce the night before so I could just reheat it the next day and pour it over the chicken (instead of pork chops like the recipe calls for) when my friends came over. That worked out well -- I don't think I used as much applesauce as the recipe called for (I just used what I had), and I also didn't put as much curry powder in either, and it came out really well -- *very* curry-ish (and very different from most of my non-spicy dishes that I usually make, although I thought it tasted good and went through alot of water while eating it!) and tasted great with the chicken, as well as the rice on the side!)
6/18/05: Pineapple Cheese Salad (Since I don't have American processed cheese, I used the Namibian equivalent: Nam gouda (which my PCV cheese connoisseurs say is much different from normal gouda). I made it and put it in the fridge to chill, but since we had so many other cheese dishes/dips/whatever at the wine and cheese party, I took it out the morning after and my friends enjoyed it for breakfast!)
6/18/05: Chocolate Cake with Sauce* (The only crazy thing that happened was that the "sauce" (evaporated milk and sugar) boiled over and got all over the stove, but nevertheless, there was still enough to pour over the cake. It tasted great with Caramel Treat spread on top (like the recipe instructs), but I forgot to buy a mint chocolate bar to grate on top. Nevertheless, the cake (it was actually a birthday cake for one of my friends) came out *very* moist and was gobbled up by all at the party!)
6/18/05: Ground Beef Curly Noodle (This was an easy dish to make, and I doubled the ingredients so it could feed all of my hungry friends. It came out well, and in the future, I'd make sure that I'd have some extra grated cheese to sprinkle on top!)
6/18/05: Baked Onion Dip II (This went over really well at the party, although it took alot longer to bake than the recipe instructs. I'm not sure if I used all the mayo that I should've used, but nevertheless, my friends loved it!)
6/18/05: Welsh Rabbit (My friends thought that this was a rabbit-related dish, but then I found out that the correct pronunciation of this is Welsh Rare-bit. This cheesy dipping sauce came out well (once it thickened) -- there was enough for my friends to dip crackers in, as well as a good amount leftover that can be used in making a dinner!)
6/19/05: Chocolate Tea Bread (Since I only wanted one loaf, I cut the ingredients in half. However, it came out to be about half the height of a normal loaf of baked bread. Consequently, I baked it again, following the original amounts of ingredients, and the loaf came out normal-sized. Both loaves came out of the pan really easily -- I'm not sure if it was because I used Namibia's equivalent of PAM, but nevertheless, it made me happy! As for how they tasted, they're both yummy and not overly chocolatey -- if they were, then I'd feel like I was eating cake for breakfast, although it wouldn't be the first time that I've done that... lol)
6/20/05: Skippy Smoothie (I made enough for a good-sized cup for myself, with some left over for my friends to have some. They thought it was good, and I thought it was okay -- I froze what I didn't finish and ate it as a popsicle (and I thought that it tasted better frozen than not). It's one of those "it tasted okay, but at least you feel better knowing that healthy stuff is in it" sort of snacks!)
6/21/05: Mini Meatloaves (I had some cheese left over from the wine and cheese party, so I used that to make these. They came out really well, were quite tasty (my housemate had one and wanted the recipe right away!), and provided me w\ enough mini meatloaves for dinner for a few nights!)
6/23/05: Christmas Toffee (Even though I followed the instructions, I don't think it turned out to be toffee-like at all, but instead, it was more of a butter-covered chocolate thing w\ a few nuts that never fully solidified. I tried to solidify it by leaving it out, refridgerating it, and putting it in the freezer, but it's still not totally solid. Nevertheless, it was still quite yummy and addictive to eat!)
6/24-25/05: Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (Even though this was designed for those who have a ice cream maker, I decided to give it a shot anyway. I followed the instructions, but quadrupled the amount of peppermint and the amount of food coloring. I basically made the ice cream, put it in the freezer overnight to give it more of a solid consistency, then mixed in the chocolate chips the next morning. It came out well (my housemate said that it tastes like "real" ice cream) and tastes minty, although not overly-minty!)
6/26/05: Chocolate Banana Bread (I cut the recipe in half, since I only wanted one loaf. There were a few times during the actual baking that I thought that I was going to have a bread incident similar to the one on June 5th, but I stuck a skewer into the bread a few times to let some of the air out so it wouldn't overflow, which seemed to work. I used the Namibian version of PAM again and the loaf came out easily, so I'm totally opting for that greasing route with my future loaves! Taste-wise, the bread was moist and yummy, with a definite blend of banana and chocolate-ness!)
6/27/05: Australian Hearty Mince (I doubled all the ingredients except the sour cream, since I only had half a cup of it. Nothing too crazy happened during the cooking process, and my friends and I still aren't sure what's so Australian about the food, but nevertheless, it was quite yummy and we all enjoyed it!)
7/1/05: Johnny Marzetti IV (I followed the recipe with the exception of using regular pasta rather than egg noodles. It came out well and my friends gobbled it up (and they hit up the small amount of leftovers after partying the next night!), even my friend who's really not into tomato-y things! We're not sure who this Johnny Marzetti is, but nevertheless, it was a yummy meal!)
7/3/05: Peanut Bread (I chose this recipe for my Bread of the Week because it was a fairly simple recipe and I didn't want an extensive bread-making process upon arriving back after a 7-hour bus ride from Windhoek to get Pete! There were a few times where I thought it'd "rise" to overflow from the loaf pan, but it ended up being nicely curved on top. The result was a loaf that was a little hard on top, but moist on the inside, and yummy all-around!)
7/10/05: Chocolate Apple Bread (I followed the recipe without any modifications and the loaf came out beautifully! It has a nutty taste, probably because there are walnuts in and on top of the loaf. There's not much of a chocolatey taste unless you happen to have a bite of where a chocolate chip is. It's definitely a yummy bread!)
7/17/05: Kay's Mom's Teabread (I have no idea who Kay is, let alone her mom, but this was a really simple loaf to make! It has a fruity taste (due to the dried fruit mix that I used), but I couldn't really taste the tea-ness of it. Nevertheless, it's yummy!)
7/23/05: Marble Fudge Bars** (My one major stupid move in making these was that I forgot to spray/grease/flour/whatever the pan, so it made for an interesting time in getting them out (the calories consumed in eating them were burned off in getting it out)! Nevertheless, they tasted quite yummy and my friends loved them!)
7/24/05: Pumpkin Bread** {recipe #1} (I followed the recipe exactly, but it gave too much batter for one loaf. Consequently, I made one loaf that came out looking oh-so-nice, then made a smaller loaf (the size of a very large muffin) for Pete. The bread is yummy and tastes like a wholesome "autumn" bread -- not too sweet, but sweet enough!)
7/31/05: Zucchini Nut Bread** {recipe #1} (There was a slight scare of the batter overflowing while baking, but halfway through, I trimmed off the sides and it turned out fine. I could taste a slight zucchini flavor, but it's not overwhelming. As a whole, it's a yummy bread!)
8/1/05: Zucchini Bake** (This was an easy recipe to make and it came out well. Not overwhelmingly flavorful, but you can definitely taste the zucchini. It's one of those easy, wholesome meals!)
8/4/05: Mediterranean Style Pork Chops (I cut the recipe in half, and being that Pete and I both hate peppers, I left those out. Other than forgetting to use the salt and pepper, as well as accidently using beef stock instead of chicken stock, I followed the recipe and it turned out to be quite tasty!)
8/4/05: Spinach Salad with Mustard Dressing** (I followed the recipe and it produced way too much dressing, which probably cancelled out the nutritional value of the spinach, but nevertheless, it was quite tasty!)
8/5/05: Raspberry Bars (I had big expectations for these, since they're one of Pete's favorite recipes that his mom makes. We couldn't find raspberry preserves, so we used something that I think was called Mixed Berry of the Valley jam. My friends all enjoyed them, esp. after they set for a day or so. Pete said that they came out like his mom's, except that I used a little more preserves than his mom usually uses.)
8/6/05: Pancakes: Version 1* (This was my first time making pancakes, but I managed to make them according to my and Pete's liking (done enough and a little more than done enough, respectively), although I slightly burned Pete's. However, I did make one for Pete in the shape of a heart, so that made up for it!)
8/6/05: Bubbly Apple Topping* (I followed the recipe, and although it wasn't too bubbly, it tasted quite sweet, yet good, on top of the pancakes!)
8/7/05: Breakfast Banana Bread** (This also was a fairly easy bread to make. When it was done, it was flat (not curved) on top and nicely browned. It's on the chewy side, but it still tastes delicious!)
8/7/05: Grandma's Buttermilk Biscuits* (Since I didn't have enough white flour, I used brown bread flour, hoping that the taste wouldn't be affected too much. They came out well; however, the taste of the brown bread flour did come through, and depending on the brown bread taste preference of those who had biscuits, some liked them and some didn't.)
8/??/05: Best Ever Hamburgers (Pete was kinda skeptical about the whole putting-oatmeal-in-hamburgers recipe, but in the end, he thought that they were really good! If I were to make them again, I'd probably put an egg in the mix just to hold everything together, since a few of them sorta fell apart while I was cooking them (on the stove, not with our BBQ pit-ish thing).)
8/13/05: Gluehwein (mulled wine) (We hosted a Christmas in August party, so what better thing to serve than some mulled wine to keep us warm (okay, so it wasn't *that* cold outside, even though we're technically still in winter here, but it's a winter-y kind of drink)? It smelled just like how it did back when the Germans made it when we all lived together in Chicago and my friends here loved it -- all that remained were a few cloves!)
8/14/05: Raisin and Walnut Loaf (This loaf was good, yet not moist at all, with the exception of the raisins themselves -- it sorta had the consistency of a soda bread. Also, I forgot to brush the top with the extra buttermilk -- oh well! Nevertheless, it was yummy!)
8/18/05: Kerry Cake (I made this for the end-of-the-term faculty party and it came out well! However, I didn't know at the time that "pared," as in the "apples, cored and pared," meant that I should de-skin them, so the skins were included as well. Nevertheless, it was successfully divided into 30 pieces, was quite yummy, and was enjoyed by all!)
9/4/05: Bridie's Irish Soda Bread** (I modified some of the ingredients (esp. the amount and types of the flour), and the loaf didn't fill up the whole bread pan, but I don't think it was because of my modifications. Nevertheless, it came out like a loaf of Irish soda bread should and was quite yummy!)
9/5/05: Grandma's Buttermilk Biscuits* (This second attempt came out *much* better than the first! I used [normal] cake flour and added a little more buttermilk than the recipe called for, and they came out nice and fluffy! I skipped the last "oil" step, which is probably why they weren't as hard as the first batch. These were really yummy!)
9/9/05: Creamy Ice Cream* (This didn't come out nearly as ice-creamy as my other attempts to make ice cream -- it was more like a congealed stiff gooey-ness. However, it didn't taste bad at all, so it became a nice cool treat!)
9/11/05: Cranberry Fruit Nut Bread** (Simply making this loaf got me excited -- the batter looked so good (and what I eventually scraped out of the bowl was quite tasty!)! The only modification I made to the ingredients was that I used a dried cranberry-raisin mix instead of fresh/frozen cranberries. It came out nicely browned on top, although it was a tad bit on the hard side. Nevertheless, the inside was moist-ish and it had a nice blend of cranberry and orange flavors -- very yummy indeed!)
9/13/05: Pollo en Jugo de Naranja y Pina* (I soaked the raisins in OJ for about 3 to 4 times longer than the recipe called for, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt. The cooking process went well with the exception that a drop of hot oil shot out of the pan and right at my forearm -- ouch! (It eventually produced a tiny blister which I accidently popped when I was talking with my arms/hands too much -- ouch again!) I served the chicken and "sauce" over rice (or at least a fraction of the rice that I made -- I overdid it on how much rice I thought we needed) and it was quite yummy and flavorful, and we even had some left over!)
9/18/05: Cinnamon Bread I (This recipe, or at least how it tastes, reminds me of my mom's hot-crossed buns, but without the icing! It came out pretty moist and on the slightly chewy side, but was neverthelesss very tasty!)
9/19/05: Pancakes: Version 1*... with crushed pineapple and sour cream (This was totally a "what on earth am I gonna do with these misc. leftover ingredients?" creation. I ended up making one normal pancake, one pan-sized pancake, and one almost-pan-sized pancake w\ a hole in the middle (sorta ring-shaped) in my attempts at being creative. They came out well -- not overly sweet, but enough of a pineapple taste that you could tell that I included some!)
9/24/05: Ku Ku Paka from Kenya* (Since the original recipe says that it yields 8 servings, I cut certain ingredients in half. It came out quite well and had all sorts of good flavors in it! I served it over rice, and it made for quite the tasty combo!)
9/25/05: Coffee Date Bread (The batter was really yummy, and so was the bread itself! The bread is on the chewy side (partially due to the dates and partially not), but nevertheless, it's quite tasty and you can taste the coffee!)
9/27/05: Sloppy Joe's* (I followed the recipe with the exception of leaving out the peppers and the beans. Somehow, I burnt the bottom while letting it simmer, but nevertheless, the non-burnt parts (which was about 95% of it) tasted good -- a little on the ketchupy side, but great nevertheless!)
10/2/05: Banana Raisin Peanut Bread (I think I cooked the bread for a little too long b/c the top was a little harder than I think it should've been. I'm also surprised that it didn't overflow from the loaf pan -- it did rise quite a bit higher than my loaves usually rise, and consequently, it didn't fit too well in my normal bread container, so I shaved a bit off, and it *still* didn't fit properly, but oh well. It's not all that sweet-tasting, but it's still good and tasted alot like my Skippy Smoothie.)
10/2/05: Frozen Peppermint Cheesecake (For the crust, I mashed up a bunch of chocolate sandwich cookies with mint filling (rather than using plain chocolate cookies). Instead of using red food coloring, I used green, since I like my minty things to look green, not red! I'm not sure if all the non-crust parts came out in the correct consistency due to a lack of an electric mixer, but whatever. I had a little more "cheesecake batter" than I could fit into the pan, so I poured that into another plastic container and froze that as well. I topped it with Chocolate Sauce a la Victoria or Brian (see below) and it came out soooo good -- kinda like an ice cream cake! We'll just forget the fact that instead of normal peppermint extract, I used peppermint extract that supposed to be used as a dietary supplement to help one's digestive system... but at least it didn't taste weird!)
10/7/05: Chocolate Sauce a la Victoria or Brian* (Rather than buying the hard-shell chocolate mint stuff here, I decided to make this for the top of the frozen peppermint cheesecake. It didn't come out too thick or too thin, and it was perfect for the cheesecake -- we even had some left over!)
10/7/05: Sour Cream Noodle Bake (I needed to use up the sour cream and cheese that I had, and I wanted to make something that was somewhat beefy, so this was perfect! (I just picked up some cottage cheese at the store.) It tasted baked ziti-ish, and although it certainly didn't cool us down from the hot weather, it definitely filled us up!)
10/9/05: Carrot Bread (As usual, when I poured the batter into the loaf pan, I left some room for it to rise. However, it didn't rise, so my loaf was about 3/4 of the size that my loaves usually are. I had a good amount of batter left over, so I made a smaller loaf, which was used during dinner that night. Both loaves were very moist, but the coconut and pineapple gave it a nice amount of sweetness -- overall, it was really yummy!)
10/9/05: Breakfast Casserole*** (I'm not sure if my baking dish was too small or whatever, but I didn't need to use the full amount of all the ingredients (like I only used 3 or 4 pieces of bread instead of 12, and I scrambled up the extra egg batter with some extra broken-up pieces of bread). However, it came out really yummy and was very filling -- it was a perfect dish for the "Breakfast for Dinner" that my friends and I had at my house!)
10/16/05: Joseph's Chocolate Zucchini Bread (The only major modification that I made was cutting the recipe in half, since I only wanted one loaf of bread. Even though I could taste the choclate, it's not as sweet as the zucchini bread that I made months ago. The bread itself was very soft -- it didn't harden at all -- and quite yummy!)
10/21/05: Amish Yumazuti (I don't know what's Amish about this recipe, but it was very similar to the Johnny Marzetti IV that I made a few months ago. The cream of chicken soup that I had included some mushrooms, but unfortunately I couldn't taste them at all. Nevertheless, it was very yummy and my friends and I gobbled it down!)
10/23/05: Fennel Soda Bread (I cut the recipe in half because I was afraid that the original recipe would cause the batter to bubble out of the bread pan. The bread came out on the small side -- maybe I should've used 75% of the ingredients rather than 50%. It's not as dry/dense as the Irish soda breads that I've made, and the fennel gave it an interesting (good-interesting, not bad-interesting) taste.)
10/24/05: Oatmeal Cookies* (This was my attempt to reconcile myself w\ the Oatmeal Cookie World after making a disgusting batch of these cookies back in April. I used the molasses that I picked up in Windhoek a few months ago (it wasn't the "Crude Molasses" that I used the first time) and the cookies came out chewy and very yummy -- a definite improvement over my first try!)
10/26/05: Tomato sauce, spaghetti, 8 liters of tropical punch Kool-Aid, and a Sara Smith's Eggless Chocolate Cake with vanilla icing and chocolate sprinkles that spelled out "10B" (This was all for the first of my two "yay you're done with your exam" parties for my grade 10 classes. To make the sauce, I browned some mince and then dumped in a few cans of tomato puree, tomato & onion mix, mushrooms, and a TON of spices -- it came out really well. I think this was my first real attempt at making spaghetti, and I didn't add some oil to the water or stir the spaghetti too much in the beginning, and consequently, a good amount of it stuck to the bottom of the pot and the rest of it just stuck together, so when I served it, I had to scoop out a chunk of spaghetti-looking carbohydrate goodness! In addition to what I named above, I also gave each learner an oatmeal cookie (while they were filling out some end-of-the-year feedback), so by the end of the party, they were definitely well-fed!)
10/27/05: Gado-Gado* (I've been meaning to try this recipe for awhile, and even though I followed the recipe exactly, it didn't come out as spicy as I feared that it would. It was definitely peanut-y, though! I originally served it over rice, apples, hard boiled egg bits, pecans, peanuts, walnuts, raisins, and probably a few other things thrown in there, with a drizzle of olive oil on top -- it was yummy and provided me w\ a great source of protein! I saved the rest of the sauce and cooked some chicken breasts in it the next day, and those came out well, esp. with some rice on the side!)
10/29/05: Simple Sponge Cake (Regina and Ilefa (my host sister and her son) stopped by my house with not too much advance notice, and they always love sweets, so I thought that it'd be a great opportunity to try out this recipe! It turned out well and I made the chocolate version of the Powdered sugar frosting and put rainbow sprinkles on top -- ooh, how fancy! The cake came out moist enough, although it was slightly crisp around the edges b/c I forgot about the cake while playing a quasi-game of bad-mitton w\ Ilefa. But nevertheless, it was definitely a simple cake to make!)
10/29/05: Stroganoff* (I cut most of the ingredients in half when I made this, and it came out quite well. They suggested that it be served over rice, but I decided to serve it over spaghetti (that came out well b/c I added oil and stirred it often) b/c isn't strogonoff supposed to be served over pasta? The best part is that I had enough for another meal -- yay for having leftovers!)
10/30/05: Pear Bread II (I cut this recipe in half b/c I only wanted to make one loaf, not two. I used fresh pears (not canned ones like I orginally thought I'd use) and it came out nicely golden with a slight crisp around the edges (I'm not one for crispy baked goods, but the crisp on this bread is quite nice) but moist on the inside. I can't taste the pears all that much, but it's yummy nevertheless!)
10/31/05: Tomato sauce, spaghetti, 8 liters of grape Kool-Aid, No-Bake Cookies, and a Sara Smith's Eggless Chocolate Cake with vanilla icing and chocolate sprinkles that spelled out "10A" with little touches of colored sprinkles in the corners (This was all for the second of my two parties for my grade 10 classes. The sauce was the same except for the lack of meat (b/c I forgot to take it out of the freezer to defrost) and an extra can of tomato & onion mix. However, the spaghetti came out ALOT better, since I added oil and stirred it alot -- I was able to move apart the individual strands of pasta! Yay for overcoming my cooking-spaghetti-in-mass-amount obstacles!)
11/3/05: Dee's Brownies** (I doubled the recipe b/c I figured that if I didn't, the brownies would be on the thin side -- I was right! There was an interesting crust-like thing to the brownies -- not burnt at all, but like a chocolatey crust. The brownies were quite chewy and oh-so-yummy!)
11/5/05: Peachy Pork Chops (I never cooked pork chops before, and there were a pair of them in my freezer that were just begging to be cooked! I cut the ingredients in half -- this was a fairly easy recipe to make, and the combo of the peaches and brown sugar made the pork chops nicely sweet! I also had a bunch of misc. bread pieces that I combined with two eggs, some milk, and a bunch of spices, then cooked it to make stuffing! Okay, so I forgot about it and the bottom ended up getting burned, but most of it was fine and it still was enough for two decent-sized servings!)
11/6/05: Apricot Orange Bread (I was really excited about making this bread -- or am I just excited about any bread that has chocolate in it? Either way, the bread came out nicely browned and very chewy. Could I taste the apricots? Check! Chocolate chips? Check! Walnuts? A little bit! Orange (via the orange juice)? Nope! Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed every bite!)
11/6/05: Mango Chutney Chicken*** (I also cut this recipe in half, since I only had two chicken breasts. I thought it was interesting that the mango chutney wasn't added til the chicken was halfway through cooking. Nevertheless, it was good, but the 1 tbsp of curry made this quite the spicy dish and made me go "Whoo!" Thank goodness I had some of Dee's Brownies and a glass of milk handy to calm down my taste buds afterwards!)
11/9/05: Raspberry Coconut Slices** (I didn't have raspberry preserves, so I used strawberry jam, and that seemed to work fine. The dough didn't quite get kneaded to a non-crumbly state, but I just pressed it in the pan and it was fine. However, I think I kept it in the oven for a little too long -- things in the oven here seem to take longer than any recipe indicates that it should take, but keeping it in there for slightly less than 2x what it should've been in there probably was a bit too long. Nevertheless, they weren't burnt -- maybe the "crust" was a little too crunchy, though -- and they were chewy and yummy!)
11/13/05: Whole Wheat Banana Strawberry Loaf (This wasn't difficult to make, although I almost forgot to include the eggs! The batter seemed a little on the high side and I wasn't sure if it was going to overflow or not, and it did a little. However, it did come out of the oven nicely browned, and upon eating it, I saw that it was moist as well. The banana flavor was very much there, but it wasn't overpowering, probably b/c of the whole wheat flour. I could taste the sweetness of the strawberries, but not too much. It's definitely yummy w\ that natural sort of sweetness!)
11/15/05: Mushroom Pork Chops (I cut parts of this recipe in half b/c I was only making two pork chops, but I made some rice to go along with the chops, and that tasted really great w\ the mushroom-y sauce mixed in! The chops themselves were good, and I got two meals worth out of it!)
11/20/05: Coconut Loaf (I chose this recipe ahead of time b/c it looked really simple and I didn't know when I'd get back from travelling that day. Indeed, it was very simple to make, and it baked faster than expected (for the first time ever!). It's kinda on the dry side, and the coconut flavor isn't too overpowering, but you can still taste it -- it's a good bread to make when you're short on ingredients and time!)
11/24/05: Vanilla Pumpkin Pie and Sara's Pumpkin Pie, with the help of Tamara (Tamara had a recipe for a pie crust and some previously-cooked-and-frozen pumpkin (that she got from her host grandmother), so it was up to me to find a pumpkin pie recipe that didn't call for canned pumpkin, nor a pre-baked pie crust, and I found these recipes. We planned on making two pies from the start, so just for variety's sake, and b/c we couldn't decide which one to make, we decided to make one of each! The most difficult part of the process was making the crust, since the hot weather here (air temperature? humitidy or lack thereof at times? we're not sure) screws up the chemical processes or whatever that goes into the consistency of making the crust. On top of that factor, neither of us had a pie pan (I had a springform one (w\ the removeable bottom) and two square 8-inch pans), so it was tough rolling out the dough so that it'd fit the pans (we had to add a little more water to make the crust not be so crumbly, and for the square pan, we had be surgeons and do some patching up of the crust in the pan). We ended up doing the Vanilla Pumpkin Pie in the springform pan and Sara's Pumpkin Pie in one of the square pans. Both pies took longer than expected to bake, but when they were done, they looked like pumpkin pies should look. Upon tasting each pie (at the PC Thanksgiving gathering), the Vanilla Pumpkin Pie did taste a little vanilla-y but didn't have any flavors that were too overpowering. On the other hand, I could definitely taste the mixture of spices that were present in Sara's Pumpkin Pie. Both pies were good, but I think most people who tried both said that they liked the Vanilla Pumpkin Pie better. We also had some batter for the Vanilla Pumpkin Pie left over, so I baked it a couple of days later in a small ceramic bowl for Rebecca, who said that she would like pumpkin pie so much more if there was no crust, so there ya go!)
11/24/05: Cream of Tomato Soup* (I cut this recipe in half due to the amounts that I had for certain ingredients, and instead of stewed tomatoes, I used a can of diced tomatoes. The soup itself wasn't too creamy, but it was definitely creamier than the average tomato soup. It also wasn't too pureed either -- it was pretty chunky/hearty. I particularly enjoyed dipping pieces of the spinach & feta loaf (bought at the supermarket, not baked by me) into the soup -- it was quite tasty!)
11/27/05: Poppy Seed Bread (This was a fairly easy bread to make, and I could definitely taste the almond extract when scraping the batter from the bowl. The bread itself is on the dense side and also tastes very almondy. I need to make sure that no poppy seeds are stuck in my teeth after I eat the bread, but nevertheless, it's yummy!)
11/27/05: Ginger, Honey and Carrot Soup (I followed this recipe exactly (in terms of amounts of the ingredients) and used heavy cream at the end. However, I didn't really do step #3 (I don't have a blender and I didn't mash up the vegetables by hand), but I think it still came out fine. The ginger made it smell and taste awesome, and it was great hot, as well as cold when I had the leftovers!)
11/27/05: Rocky Road (This is definitely something aimed at one's sweet tooth -- I don't want to guess the amount of sugar in it, between the chocolate and the marshmallows! The hardest part of making this was cutting up the marshmallows, since they don't sell mini marshmallows here (or at least their "mini marshmallows" are still bigger than ones in the US) -- it was quite the sticky situation! Nevertheless, this is a yummy treat, and it's taking me awhile to go through it -- I should've made it when I was expecting friends b/c it's too sweet to eat too much at once!)
12/1/05: Pineapple Pork Chops (Even though I only made two pork chops, I didn't cut the other ingredients in half because I figured that it'd make a good "sauce" for the rice that I was making to accompany the pork chops. Even though I couldn't really taste anything too particulary pineapple-y about the pork chops (maybe I should use crushed pineapple rather than just 1/2 cup of pineapple juice next time?), it still tasted good, both right after I made it, and then the next day when I had the leftovers for dinner!)
12/4/05: Choyce's Buttermilk Cinnamon Bread (I cut this recipe in half (but almost forgot the egg -- oops!), and I opted to use some chopped walnuts in with the cinnamon-and-sugar mixture. The bread came out looking alot like your typical coffee cake (the sugar/cinnamon/walnut mixture on top looked really nice!), and although I couldn't really taste anything buttermilk-y w\ the bread, the cinnamon and sugar bring a nice sweetness to the bread. Yay for my last bread of 2005!)
12/4/05: Parmesan Crusted Garlic Chicken*** (I just received a big 1-pound container of grated parmesan cheese from home, so I could finally make this recipe! I only used two chicken breasts instead of four, but I only used half of certain ingredients (like garlic, because I didn't want the garlic to be too overpowering, but the one clove that I did use was a mighty big clove), based on my own judgement. The chicken came out really well, although I couldn't taste the garlic all that much. Nevertheless, it went well with the rice that I made to accompany it, and the leftovers as another dinner were great too!)
12/7/05: Cheeseburger Pasta (This is one of the first things that I remember my brother making when he first started to cook, so I had Pete bring over a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup and a can of Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup. This was really easy to make and quite tasty too, and I made enough for Rebecca and I to have a dinner out of it, plus enough leftovers for another dinner (for one person).)
12/10/05: Beef and Walnut Stew (I needed to get rid of some of the meat in my freezer, so I decided to make this recipe. I didn't use the full amounts of all the ingredients, but nevertheless, it came out good -- not too broth-y, but very meaty, and the walnuts gave it an interesting quasi-crunch. What I made was no where near the 8 servings that they said it would make (it was barely 4 servings), but I got a few meals out of it!)
12/10/05: Date Pecan Blondies** (I wanted to find something creative that would use up the last of my eggs, so I gave this a shot. Even though I didn't have the full amount of the pecans that the recipe called for, it wasn't a problem b/c they were just sprinkled on top. My friends and I could definitely taste the molasses-ness of the brown sugar in the blondies, and the dates gave it some sweetness too. It's a very yummy treat!)
1/8/06: Dizzy Pineapple Bread (This recipe is one of the easiest ones that I've discovered yet -- throw the 4 ingredients together, mix them, pour it into a pan, and bake! The only modification is that I used crushed pineapple rather than pineapple chunks (at the recommendation of someone else who made it). It came out nicely golden and you can smell the beer's yeasty-ness from a mile away. It has somewhat of a rubbery consistency, but as a whole, it's not bad!)
1/8/06: Sweet & Sour Chicken**** (Of course, I didn't put the peppers into it, being the anti-pepper person that I am, and it came out quite tasty and it made enough for 3 decent-sized meals. It very much resembled the PC's Pineapple Chicken recipe, but it did have its noticeable differences (pineapple chunks and chicken pieces vs. crushed pineapple and chicken on the bone). I served it over rice as instructed, and it was oh-so-tasty!)
1/14-15/06: Bull Goli* (Due to the amount of meat that I had, I cut the ingredients in half, and I used beef cubes rather than thin strips of beef. I marinated for about 24 hours in the fridge, then cooked it and served it over rice. The meat was so incredibly flavorful, due to the marination. This is quite the tasty dish, it's something that even the pickiest of eaters would like, and I made enough for two servings -- yay for leftovers!)
1/15/06: Cranberry-Walnut Pumpkin Bread (The only changes that I made in following the recipe was that I used the PC's recommended substitution for pumpkin pie spice and I put both raisins and cranberries in, since what I got in Windhoek was a mix and I didn't feel like picking just the cranberries out -- the canned pumpkin courtesy of my Christmas care package. I could tell that if I put all of the batter into the pan, it'd overflow, so I put some in a smaller ceramic baking dish, and I'm glad I did that because I now have a nice-sized loaf and another mini-loaf, the size of a large muffin. Both loaves came out really moist and tasted like pumpkin pie -- the cranberries gave it a nice sweetness and the walnuts helped mix things up a bit. Definitely a tasty bread!)
1/20/06: Sunburst Lemon Bars** (It calls for a 13x9 pan, and I only have a 8x8 -- do I cut the recipe in half or make super-thick bars? Make super-thick bars, of course! The crust came out nicely and not too crispy, and the filling sorta resembled the filling of a lemon donut, but not as sweet. Definitely tasty and was enjoyed by all who sampled it!)
1/21/06: Apple Pork Chops (I only made 2 pork chops instead of 4, but I left the amounts of the other ingredients the same (although the two apples were on the small side). The pork chops came out well and the "sauce" was nicely sweet. I served it over rice, and it was pretty yummy! And even better, there's enough for another meal!)
1/22/06: Lakeshore Apricot Banana Bread (Making this loaf was pretty straight-forward -- not as easy as the Dizzy Pineapple Bread, but not too hard. The banana flavor is evident but not over-powering, the dried apricots give it a tangy kick, and the walnuts are good for a crunch-effect. Cheers to another yummy bread!)
1/23/06: Peanut Soup Creole* (I had all the ingredients and never made this before, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Actually, I take that back -- I didn't have all the ingredients b/c I didn't have enough tomato juice (I only had about 2/3 of what was needed), so I used the tomato paste + water substitute, which seemed to work fine. I could taste both the peanut and tomato flavors, which was interesting in a yummy kind of way. I ate this with some leftover rice, which was quite tasty, and I have enough soup left over for a few more meals!)
1/23/06: Fast Easy Snack**** (This is a fairly simple no-bake cookie-ish recipe -- heck, it was the first thing that Melissa made at the age of 8 -- and I finally bought Corn Flakes (Kellogg's brand!), so I was able to make them (w\ the Karo corn syrup that Pete brought over in July). They needed some help in staying together, but other than that, they were pretty yummy and quite addictive!)
1/24/06: Granola (This recipe is from Mrs. Braunstein -- she submitted it to the HNS cookbook back in the day and copied it down and sent it to me here! I cut all the ingredients in half, and other than using regular dry milk instead of non-fat, I followed the recipe exactly. I mixed it in w\ some yogurt and it tasted like store-bought granola (that's a good thing). My housemate enjoyed it too -- yay for healthy goodness!)
1/25/06: Zucchini Quiche** (This really resembled the Zucchini Bake that I made in the beginning of August, but I think this came out better. Then again, it did have melted mozzarella on top, and that can do wonders to anything. I really didn't stray from the recipe other than using 5 eggs -- it called for 4-5 extra large eggs, but since I didn't think that my extra-large eggs were particularly extra-large, I went with 5. And of course, yay for leftovers!)
1/26/06: Sour Cream Chicken Paprika (Even though I don't like peppers and there's a picture of peppers on the side of the little container of paprika, I thought I'd give this a try anyway. I used two really thick chicken breasts (which I tried to slice in half as best I could, although it looked kinda funny), but didn't change the amounts of the other ingredients. It came out well, and even though I didn't make rice w\ it at the time (for a few reasons), I'm going to make some when I have the leftovers because the paprika-flavored "sauce" will be oh-so-nice on the rice!)
1/29/06: Magic Mango Bread (I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted to make one loaf. It's different from the Mango Bread I made last year in that it has raisins and coconut in it, and the cinnamon is mixed in (rather than being in the mixture on top). It's one of few loaves that I baked that didn't produce a round-ish top, and texture-wise, it's very moist, almost borderline soggy-ish, though. Nevertheless, it tasted yummy, and that's what counts most of all!)
2/3/06: Chicken and Pasta in a Mango Cream Sauce (I figured that I'd take advantage of it being mango season and make this dish. Of course, I left out the peppers, used regular pasta instead of rigatoni, and I decided not to garnish it w\ parsley, but other than that, I followed the recipe. It's not overwhelmingly mango-ish, but there's enough in there that you can taste it. I also liked how I could taste the other flavors, like the ginger (only a little bit, though). I wasn't sure how I'd like the fact that the onions were kinda big (I'm not good at slicing thin rings), but it actually turned out quite nicely and made for a very yummy dish w\ yummy leftovers!)
2/3/06: Caramel Pineapple Bar Cookies (I decided to use crushed pineapple for this, and instead of using caramel topping (which I had, and I don't know why I didn't use), I melted a caramel baking bar and spread that on top. I didn't have a 13x9 baking pan, so I used an 8x8 one and had more of a pineapple-cake-ish kind of result rather than "cookie bars". The "cookie bars" were on the moist side, but between the pineapple and caramel, they're nicely sweetened and yummy!)
2/3/06: Chocolate Ice Cream (Since the recipe was really simple, I thought I'd give it a try. I doubled the ingredients b/c I figured that they sell cream by the 250ml-full, I might as well use all of it. It was really easy to make, but the result resembled more of a fudgesicle-ish kind of frozen treat rather than ice cream, and whereas it's not so creamy, it's VERY chocolatey! It's the perfect treat when I need a cold chocolatey fix!)
2/5/06: Chocolate Date Loaf II (Another kind of bread with chocolate in it -- yay! -- although I think this is the first time that I've had to melt the chocolate before mixing it in w\ the rest of the ingredients. Consequently, there is an chocolatey taste throughout the bread, sorta like I'm eating chocolate cake! I can't really taste the dates, though. But yay for a chocolatey breakfast!)
2/5/06: Potato Latkes*** (I bought 5 potatoes before my cooking spree a couple of weeks ago, but didn't use them and realized that I really needed to use them before they went completely bad. I went w\ this recipe and it was pretty easy -- I doubled the ingredients b/c I had about double the amount of potatoes. The first few came out a little on the buttery side, but they tasted quite yummy. I wasn't sure exactly what shape a "latke" is, so I figured that they were sorta big squished balls, so I made 12 of them!)
2/7/06: Fruit Sherbert (I 3/4-ized this recipe, since I didn't have the full amount of lemon and orange juices. Stay tuned for taste results...)
2/12/06: Quick Fruit and But Bread (I chose this recipe because I needed a non-complex one, since I was baking it after an all-day combi ride back from Windhoek. Of course, I didn't use "organic" or certain name-brand ingredients, and since I only had slightly more than half of the required amount of maple syrup, I used golden syrup to make the 1/2 cup required (hey, it's all sugar anyway, right?). It's not really moist and you can't taste any one flavor in particular (except maybe the raisins, although I wish I could taste the cranberries more), but it's a good bread!)
2/17/06: Dr. Bailie's Chocolate Pixies (Although I never got to eat one of these during my time at Iona, they sounded yummy -- really, what recipe that includes "Cookies should look moist" can be bad? Despite the fact that I forgot to put the vanilla in the mix, the cookies came out really good -- very soft and oh-so-yummy -- my friends loved them, and I saved some to give as rewards to the fastest-typing learners!)
2/19/06: Journey's End Bread (The most difficult part about making this bread was finding the marashino cherries in the supermarket in Windhoek. Other than that, it was pretty straight-forward in making this bread. It's relatively moist, and I love when I get a bite with some chocolate chips (either milk or white) in it! You can't really taste the cherries unless you get a bite that has not much else other than cherries, though, and I can't taste the coconut at all. The bananas aren't overwhelming, but you can definitely taste their presence. Mmmmm... yummy!)
2/19/06: Souperiour Meat Loaf (I got a small box of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix in my Christmas package, and this recipe was on the back, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Since stuff usually takes longer to cook than how the recipes prescribes, I made the loaf into more of an inch-high squished oval to reduce the cooking time. The plan worked -- it cooked faster than I thought! I came out nicely moist, but didn't fall apart, and the onion soup mix gave it a nice flavor!)
2/24/06: Oatmeal Carmelitas (I followed this recipe, and for the caramel topping, I used Nestle Treat, which is pretty thick in the first place and probably didn't need the 3 tbsp of flour (which is probably to thicken it up), but I put it in there anyway, but then had to add water b/c it was too thick. It came out well, and I let Rebecca cut the first piece (since she let me cut the first piece for her last baking creation), which like most first pieces, it came out pretty crumbly. Then I cut my piece, and it was perfectly rectangular, and I proudly showed Rebecca... and then watched in horror as my piece slid off my plate and smushed itself on the floor! We laughed so hard that we certainly burnt off the calories from the yummy goodness! (And yes, I scooped the piece off the floor and ate it -- you can't let yummy stuff like that go to waste!))
2/26/06: Mango Macadamia Nut Bread (Since the only macadamia nuts that my housemate could find in Windhoek were salted, I decided to rinse the nuts to un-salt them. I realized that I could've left the salt on and just eliminated the salt from the recipe, but oh well. There's no flavor in the bread that sticks out from the rest, and even though it's a nice blend of ingredients, I have to concentrate really hard to pick out any one flavor in particular. Nevertheless, it's tasty!)
3/3/06: Cookies 'n Creme Brownies with Fluffy White Frosting** (I got the box of Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix in my Christmas care package, and I thought that I might as well go all-out and use this recipe on the back. Granted, I didn't have the Betty Crocker frosting that was prescribed by the recipe, but that's where the Fluffy White Frosting came in (the making of which was great exercise for my arms)! It should also be noted that the Oreos that I used were the Mini Oreos sent in the RPA care package -- I hadn't opened them yet, so they were still good! I used an 8x8 pan, so the brownies were nice and thick and ohhh-so-good -- Rebecca and Rute and I (along with a few others) couldn't resist them!)
3/3/06: Stuffed Chicken Rolls (The box of Stove Top was also in my Christmas care package, and this recipe on the back sounded the yummiest of them all -- the pic was quite tempting, which was quite different than the one on the afore-linked website. The stuffing was waaaay more than enough (whatever wasn't used in the rolls was cooked and served as a side dish) and I made some rice to go along with the meal. We certainly helped ourselves with this Stove Top recipe!)
3/5/06: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread (So the original recipe said that it makes 3 loaf pans, so naturally, I was gonna use 1/3 of each ingredient. However, that seemed like it'd yield too little batter, so I decided to use 2/3 of each ingredient. I ended up w\ one slightly overflowing loaf and one round large-muffin-sized loaf. I still had 1/3 can of pumpkin (also in the Christmas care package) that I wasn't about to let go to waste, so I used it to make 1/3 of the recipe, which is what I planned on doing in the first place. Doing so yielded one med-small loaf, which I gave to Melissa as a belated Christmas present. In the end, I realized that I should've used slightly less than 1/2 of each ingredient. Nevertheless, the bread was moist, not overwhelmingly pumkiny (but pumpkiny enough), and was perfectly accented by the chocolate chips!)
3/10/06: Baked Chicken in Orange Juice** (I made this using a 5-pack of drumsticks, since that's the only chicken w\ skin that I had. I probably used more orange juice than the recipe called for, but I figured that it'd be good on the rice that I prepared to go along w\ the chicken. It tasted good, although it resembled one of my previous chicken recipes (I forget which one, though). It's a yummy way to get a good dose of vitamin C!)
3/10/06: Magic Cookie Bars (aka Orgasm Bars)**** (This is one of Melissa's signature baked goods, so I decided to finally give it a shot. (By the way, a very similar recipe can be found in the Immaculate Conception cookbook under the name "Magic Cookie.") I made them in a 8x8 pan, rather than a 13x9 one, in the hopes that they'd come out slightly thicker, and I think they did. I followed the recipe exactly, right down to using the graham cracker crumbs, kudos to the ones that came in my Christmas care package! They're definitely yummy, and Melissa enjoyed them too!)
3/12/06: Spicy Apricot Loaf (This wasn't a difficult loaf to make, and I fit as many chopped dried apricots as I could into that 1/3 cup. It's a wholesome loaf (then again, anything w\ whole wheat flour in it seems wholesome to me) and I love the sweetness provided by the apricots!)
3/16/06: Guava Squares* (I realized that I had never made these before, so I thought I'd give them a shot. I used canned guava halves instead of fresh guavas, since that's what I had, and I should've added green food coloring in honor of St. Patty's Day (when I was planning on sharing them with my friends), but I forgot. They came out nicely moist, and my friends gobbled them all up!)
3/21/06: Wild Blueberry Tea Bread (I cut this recipe in half, since I only wanted to make one loaf. This was the first recipe where I used one of the cans of blueberries that I got in my Christmas care package, and I decided to use the whole thing (which was about 1 cup, as opposed to the 3/4 cup that the halved version of the recipe called for). When it was done, it wasn't brown at all -- actually, it had traces of purple because of the blueberries. It's moist, and it's great to taste the sweetness of the blueberries!)
3/21/06: Riggi's Rigatoni a la Vodka*** (I have some vodka that I wanted to use up (yeah, I'm the kind of person who'd much rather cook with vodka than drink it), so I decided to try this recipe. It was easy to make, and since I didn't have rigatoni, I used elbow macaroni. It came out nicely tangy, and as Rebecca put it, "it's like cream of tomato soup for the days that you want to forget!")
3/26/06: Rosemary Hazelnut Cranberry Bread (Courtesy of Amanda, I was able to make this bread with AUTHENTIC Ocean Spray Craisins Original! The bread had a nice blend of spices and flavors from the the Craisins and the hazelnuts. It tasted "like Thanksgiving" and "like Christmas," according to Rebecca and Melissa, respectively. It was indeed quite yummy!)
3/26/06: Sherry Sour Cream Chicken (I only used 3 chicken breasts instead of four, but I didn't reduce the amounts fo the other ingredients. However, I didn't have fresh rosemary or thyme, so I used the dried versions, but I think I slightly overdid it. Nevertheless, the chicken was quite flavorful and the sherry gave it a yummy kick!)
3/31/06: Easy Poultry Tetrazini** (I opted to make this with chicken, since I don't think they sell turkey around here. I couldn't find pimentos either, so I left those out. Other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe and my friends and I found it to be pretty yummy!)
4/1/06: Coconut Chews (Since they came out kinda thin when Rebecca made them, I decided to double all the ingredients. However, I forgot to cut them as soon as they came out of the oven, so when I did cut them, it was a little bit tricky. Nevertheless, they were definitely chewy and my friends gobbled them right up!)
4/2/06: Vicky's Ham & Cheese Bread (I originally cut this recipe in half, but when I saw that it didn't yield much batter, I decided to mix in the other half of the ingredients. It's a good thing I did b/c the loaf turned out to be just the right size. (By the way, the biscuit mix, Bisquik, was courtesy of my mom.) I just really need to remember that I'm not a big fan of breads with cheese in it b/c I wasn't particularly fond of how the bread tasted. Nevertheless, it tasted better than the Miele and Cheese Bread that I made almost a year before.)
4/2/06: Martha & Melissa's Chicken/Tuna Salad**** (As Melissa noted, this is her twist on a Martha stewart recipe. I chose to go with the tuna option, and I pretty much followed the recipe exactly (while using the lesser recommended amounts of each ingredient). It was tasty, and the cider vinegar gives it a nice kick!)
4/2/06: Carrots Lyonnaise** (Wow, this was a tasty dish, and really not all that difficult to make (after the carrots and onions were peeled and chopped). I made this to go along w\ the Stuffed Meatballs that I made and the REAL mashed potatoes (not instant Smash) that Siggi and Tamara made, and it was perfect! I usually hate eating carrots, but I couldn't get enough of these -- if I had them more often, maybe I wouldn't have needed glasses!)
4/5/06: Macaroni Salad* (I sligtly altered the amounts of each ingredient (not proportionally, though) and it came out okay -- nothing spectacular, but not bad either.)
4/5/06: Drizzle-Top Brownies (I made these back when Pete was here, but they didn't come out properly b/c my mom forgot to indicate how much cocoa to put in, and when I guessed, I didn't guess high enough. Something also happened with the icing that time and it didn't come out right. Nevertheless, when I made them this time, they came out pretty much like how they came out when my mom made them -- yay!)
4/9/06: Cranberry Mango Bread (A couple of weeks ago, I bought a mango, pureed it, and froze it, since I didn't have all the other ingredients that week. This was the week that I got all the other ingredients. It came out nicely browned, but didn't quite taste how I expected it to taste, mainly because I can't taste the mango whatsoever. Nevertheless, it does taste pretty tasty and wholesome, probably due to the whole wheat/brown bread flour!)
4/9/06: Flank Steak (also chicken) Fajitas Marinade (Rebecca marinated some steak in this and it tasted FANTASTIC, so I thought I'd give it a try. However, she slightly altered the recipe when she made it, and I altered it in a different way. I used 3/4 cup of soy sauce (that's all I had), sherry instead of white wine, and garlic powder rather than actual garlic. The meat came out really flavorful; somewhat different than how it came out when Rebecca made it, but tasty nevertheless! I served it along w\ some rice -- great combo!)
4/14/06: Tasty Tuna Casserole (I wanted to use one of my sent-from-home boxes of Mac & cheese wisely, but w\o using meat (b/c of Good Friday), so I found this recipe. I used cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of celery soup, and I also used corn flakes instead of potato chips. Of course, I left out the peppers. It was quite tasty and there's plenty leftover!)
4/15/06: Almond Squares I (I really should've looked at the reviews left by people who previously made this b/c they would've really been helpful. It came out looking great, but the unsweetened chocolate gave it a weird taste (since I didn't have the squares, I had to use the powder + butter subsitiute, but taste-wise, it wasn't any better). Next time, I think I'll add sugar to the chocolate mix, which will hopefully reduce the bitterness of the unsweetened chocolate! Nevertheless, the crust part was quite tasty!)
4/16/06: Banana Coconut Loaf (This was a pretty straightforward recipe in terms of making it and it came out nicely browned. As for taste results, it has an interesting blend of flavors -- I could definitely taste the banana, but I could barely taste the coconut or almond flavors. The cherries are a nice & sweet, though. Overall, it was a pretty good bread!)
4/19/06: Pork Chops in Beer (I chose this recipe because it didn't require too many ingredients, which was good because I was trying to eat my way out of my fridge before leaving for vacation. Even though I only prepared 2 pork chops, I used 1/3 (instead of 1/4) of all the other ingredients. It was easy to make, and I made some rice to go along with it. I wouldn't say that this recipe would wow people over, but it was a good basic dish.)
5/9/06: Peanut Butter Bars I (Courtesy of my Christmas care pacakge, I was able to use real graham cracker crumbs! I made it in an 8x8 pan (since I don't have a 9x13 one), so the crust is alot higher along the sides -- I suppose I could've just made it thicker on the bottom, but oh well. The bars tasted just like peanut butter cups, and even though there was significantly more crust than chocolate/PB, it didn't matter b/c it was really yummy too!)
5/10/06: German Egg Pancakes** (Since I had a good amount of free time in the morning, as well as a well-stocked fridge, I thought I'd give these a shot. They came out interestingly (sorta crepe-ish) and tasted quite good! I spread some preserves on top (as recommended), which made them even yummier!)
5/11/06: Beef-Cheese Casserole (This is another recipe from Mrs. Braunstein that she sent me awhile back. I followed the recipe with the only exceptions being that I used slightly more meat than called for (due to the size of the meat packages that I had), used shell noodles (since I didn't have egg noodles), used Bulgarian yogurt instead of sour cream (it tastes the same), and I left out the peppers (b/c I'm the cook and I don't like peppers -- hahaha). I had more meat than I could fit in the casserole dish (I'm not suer if it was because the dish was too small and/or because I prepared too much meat), but the casserole that I was able to produce was quite tasty! The cheese mixture reminded my friends and I of ricotta (which we haven't had since we left the US), so maybe I'll have to use that part of the recipe to make some lasagna someday!)
5/13/06: Cream of Zucchini Soup (This is another recipe from Mrs. Braunstein. The only substitute that I used was Bulgarian yogurt instead of the heavy/sour cream, and since I don't have a blender, I had to mash the zucchini w\ a potato masher, which didn't puree it, but it was better than nothing. The soup wasn't too creamy (maybe due to the lack of a blender), but nevertheless, it came out tasty and with a nice kick, due to the curry!)
5/13/05: Uncooked Fondant Sweets (I was feeling a little stir-crazy and thought I'd make this to take up some time. It was fairly easy to make, and since I didn't have any sort of cutter, I used the top of a sprinkle container, which was about the size of a quarter. The product was *really* sweet, probably b/c 95% of it is sugar, but they're not bad and the teachers enjoyed them!)
5/14/06: Pistachio Mango Bread (Since I only wanted one loaf, I cut the ingredients in half, and even though I was a bit skeptical of how large the loaf would be, it turned out to be a decent size. The only substitution I used was raisins for currants. As for the taste, the mango pieces gave it a sweet taste (and also contributed to the loaf's moist-ness), but I couldn't really taste the pistachios all that much. Nevertheless, it's yummy!)
5/15/06: Pita Bread Salad with Cucumber, Mint, and Feta**** (Since I found pita bread in the freezer section and had some leftover feta, I picked up the rest of the ingredients to make this (I used dried mint instead of fresh mint). I think the best word to describe this salad is "refreshing" -- it probably has to do w\ the mint being in it. Not only did it taste great, but I felt healthy in merely making it and was able to make two decent-sized salads out of it!)
5/21/06: Pineapple Macadamia Nut Bread (This was a fairly easy recipe to follow, and the only problem I had was that I was afraid that it'd overflow while baking. I poked it a few times to prevent that, and luckily, it didn't go over -- it was the largest that it could be without going over, though. It came out nicely browned, and although it doesn't have an overpowering taste of either pineapple or macadamia nuts, you can definitely taste them. Yummy!)
5/21/06: Smothered Bacon Chicken (Not only did this sound yummy, but it was fairly easy to make! I used three chicken breasts instead of two, and since my strips of bacon were a bit on the short side, I needed three strips for each breast. I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream, and even though I used proportionally more of that, I still used only one can of cream of mushroom soup. It came out quite tasty -- neither the chicken or the bacon had an overpowering taste, and the sauce was great when mixed in with some rice!)
5/25/06: Chocolate Revel Bars (I didn't have a 9x13 pan, so I used an 8x8 one -- I don't mind at all if it comes out thicker than it's supposed to be! I accidentally added 1 tsp of baking powder, but I don't think it made that much difference, although the bars did rise to the top of the pan. They came out oh-so-tasty and my friends gobbled them right up!)
5/27/06: Rita's Spinach Casserole (This was pretty easy to make, and I used slightly less than the instructed amounts for some of the ingredients (so it'd all fit into my casserole dish) and used a fusilli (spiral) pasta instead of farfalle (bow-tie), since I couldn't find it here. It came out well, my friends enjoyed it, and my housemate was proud of me for making a dish with a vegetable in it!)
5/28/06: Brown Sugar Tea Loaf (This was a really easy bread to make, since the prep work (the night before) was simple, as were the steps that I had to do on the following morning. I was happy that it didn't take as long to bake as it said it would -- usually things take longer to bake in my oven, so it was a nice change. The bread came out a tad bit on the chewy side and I could definitely taste the raisins, but I'd say that it's a good bread!)
5/28/06: Brazilian Chicken with Coconut Milk (I only had 3 chicken breasts, but I still used the prescribed amounts for all the other ingredients. Since I didn't have any jalapeno pepers, I used 1 tsp of crushed chiles, and I used a can of whole tomatoes (and took out the seeds) since I didn't have any actual tomatoes. It came out pretty well -- not too spicy, but it had a good kick. I made some rice to go with it, and the coconut milk-based sauce tasted yummy great on that.)
5/28/06: Apple Crisp*** (I used 3 red-ish apples that Rebecca wanted to use up, as well as 2 green apples, but the mixture of apple types didn't seems to matter taste-wise. I sliced the apples really thin, so they were baked all the way through. Too bad we didn't have any whipped cream or ice cream to serve with it, but it was yummy nevertheless!)
6/2-3/06: No-Bake Cookies* (Even though I've made these several times before, I'm just noting it again because I made 9 batches this time! However, instead of making official cookies, I put the "batter" into 8x8 pans, chilled it, and then cut each pan up into 16 squares -- it saved alot of time, as well as space in the fridge.)
6/4/06: Cranberry Orange Almond Bread (This recipe was sorta similar to the Cranberry Fruit Nut Bread in terms of ingredients, but there were a bunch of differences. Since I only had dried cranberries, I had to follow the directions about how to, in essence, "undry" them. It came out nicely golden and I could taste the cranberry-ness, orange-ness, and a slight almond-ness -- pretty darn tasty!)
6/11/06: Pumpkin Blueberry Bread (I made this courtesy of a can of pumpkin and a can of blueberries that I got in my Christmas package. I decided to just make the recipe as it was written, thinking that it would produce one decent-sized loaf, with the exception that I used about 1 cup of blueberries instead of 3/4 cup. I don't think that made too much of a difference, but I yielded more batter than one loaf's worth, so I put some into a smaller ceramic dish (the size of a extra-large muffin). I tried to put in as much batter as I could to each without having either of them overflow, but I wasn't too successful because they both overflowed -- not quite the situation that one likes to have after being on a bus for 11 1/2 hours, but oh well. The bread was one of the more moist breads that I've made, but the blend of pumpkin (the dominating taste), blueberries, and spices made it very yummy!)
6/13/06: Peanut Poppers (This was a really simple recipe that yielded a yummy snack! I rolled the poppers in coconut, so they basically tasted like coconut-covered cookie dough. Mmmm!)
6/17/06: Chunky Pecan Pie Bars (I bought a whole bunch of pecans a couple of weeks ago, and I still had enough corn syrup (that Pete brough over last summer), so I thought I'd give these a shot. The bars taste pretty much like pecan pie (they're very sweet), although more chocolatey, since there's chocolate chips in it. Yummy!)
6/18/06: Three C Bread (First of all, the three c's are carrots, coconut, and cherries. I cut this recipe in half, since I figured that it would produce one loaf's worth of batter. The loaf came out a bit on the small side, but I'm glad I cut it in half otherwise it would've overflowed. If there's an overwhelming flavor out of all the ingredients, it'd be the cherries, followed by the coconut. I couldn't really taste the carrots, though. But yeah, it's yummy!)
6/18/06: Dad's Spaghetti Western (This isn't my dad's recipe, but I did make it on Fathers' Day out of pure coincidence! Obviously, I didn't make this in a microwave -- it was all cooked on a stove. It's pretty much chili with some shortened spaghetti thrown in. The sour cream/cheese mixture on top was a great touch! It's not one of my favorite recipes, but it made a decent dish that provided enough dinners for a week!)
6/21/06: Oat Crunchies (Since I had alot of oatmeal left over from the No-Bake Cookies extravaganza, I decided to give these a shot. I had to use a tad bit more butter and syrup than the recipe called for, just to make the stuff stick together better. The result was about 50 or so bars that taste like granola bars -- quite yummy!)
6/24/06: Pizza Pasta (Since I was having a bunch of people over, I wanted to make something unique but that would appeal to a variety of people. I pretty much followed the directions, although I didn't mix the stuff together -- I had it in layers, like a pizza (with the pasta being the "crust" layer). Instead of pepperoni, I used a peppery salami, which seemed to taste the same. It was quite yummy and my friends gobbled it right up!)
6/25/06: Date Nut Orange Bread (I had originally planned on cutting the recipe in half, since I thought that it'd yield one loaf, but then I decided to do the full recipe and just make a second loaf, since I wanted to use up the dates and orange juice pack. It turned out that it was enough batter for one loaf without going over, although it almost did overflow. There's no dominating taste, but the non-date parts of it remind me of those Thomas Toaster Cakes that I used to have when I was a kid. I didn't make the Orange Marmalade Butter to go with it, though. It wasn't an overly thrilling bread, but it's good nevertheless!)
6/25/06: Noodles Marmaduke (Since my friends left me with about half a bottle of red wine that they didn't finish, I thought I'd make use of it with some recipes that called for red wine! I didn't have egg noodles, so I used tagliatelle broken in half. While the noodles were cooking, they sorta clumped together, so I added more wine (it was either that or water, and wine's definitely more flavorful) -- it came out decently, smelled oh-so-good, and provided quite a few meals for the week!)
6/30/06: Irish Whiskey Cake (I've been wanting to use some of the Jack Daniel's (left over from Pete's visit here last year) in a recipe, so I thought this looked cool. I think the cake came out a tad bit on the dry side, but it's good nevertheless (unless you don't like raisins, since they make up about 50% of the cake). I could really taste the whiskey, and I think that comes from me putting a tad bit too much whiskey in the glaze. Nevertheless, it's sweet and yummy!)
6/30/06-7/1/06: Cincinnati Chili I (A chili with chocolate in it? I knew I had to try it out! I liked the fact that it didn't have beans in it, since I'll eat beans, but I'm not a huge fan of them. My friends and I couldn't taste the chocolate, but the chili was good nevertheless, and serving it on spaghetti (as instructed), with some cheddar cheese and sour cream, made for quite the tasty dish!)
7/2/06: Banana Ginger Bread (This was a fiarly easy recipe, although the instructions didn't say when to add the buttermilk -- I just added it to the mixture of wet ingredients. The batter overflowed a bit, but luckily I caught the big chunk (that broke off) before it burnt on the bottom of the oven, and it was yummy in that partially-cooked sort of way! I could taste the ginger, but only slightly -- I'm not surprised because bananas usually overpower most other ingredients. Nevertheless, it's yummy!)
7/3/06: Lazy Jane Casserole** (This is one of Mrs. Watson's recipes that she submitted to the IC Cookbook. It really isn't much of a casserole, but it's a yummy way to prepare beef chunks. The wine and beef broth formed a thick brown gravy that reminded me of another dish that I've eaten in the past. I made some pasta to go with it and voila, a yummy and filling meal!)
7/6/06: Cappuccino Brownies (I used 1/4 of each ingredient, since I only wanted to make one pan, but I think I should've used only half of each ingredient so the brownies would be thicker. They came out okay -- a tad bit on the hard and chewy side for my minimally-cooked liking, but they were good nevertheless. I could taste the coffee in them, but it wasn't overpowering by any means -- even people who don't like coffee-flavored stuff would still like these.)
7/9/06: Pineapple Zucchini Bread (Since I only wanted to make one loaf, I cut the recipe in half. Nothing exciting about the baking process -- I was happy that it was a decent size and didn't come close to overflowing! It came out a bit moist and sorta crumbly, and I can't taste the pineapple or zucchini very much (unless I happen to bite into a larger chunk of crushed pineapple), but it's yummy!)
7/9/06: Lemon Chicken & Zucchini* (Since I had leftover zucchini from the Bread of the Week, I decided to give this a shot. It really wasn't hard to make, although I was surprised by the post-cooking consistency of the stuff I had to add to the chicken -- I'm not sure if I imagined that it would get so thick so quickly. I added more lemon juice than the recipe called for, but it wasn't overpowering at all -- it just gave a slight citrusy taste. I made some rice to go along with it, and it made for a tasty dish... with leftovers too!)
7/16/06: Maple Corn Bread (Coming back from a school trip, I didn't want to make a complex bread, so this was perfect. I used white maizemeal (I don't think they sell yellow cornmeal here) and maple-flavored syrup (do they even sell real maple syrup here?!), but everything else pretty much went according to the recipe. The bread came out perfectly yellowed and curved, and when I cut it, it didn't crumble at all -- it was probably the best-looking loaf that I've made so far. There was enough batter to make a large muffin-sized bread, in addition to the loaf. I could taste a slight maple flavor, but nothing too dominating. Yummy!)
7/23/06: Cottage Cheese Dill Bread (I didn't want to make anything too complex, since I was coming back from Windhoek, but I did have some cottage cheese that I had bought for another recipe, hadn't used yet, but needed to use ASAP. This wasn't a difficult bread to make, and it didn't take too long to bake (unlike most recipes, where the baking time is far less than my clow-cooking oven, this was pretty accurate). I could definitely taste the whole wheat-ness, as well as a bit of the dill. It's a dense bread, but fairly soft (not in the mushy or moist sense, though), and it tasted good!)
7/23/06: Pasta Florentine (I had 2 boxes of mac 'n cheese left from my Christmas care package, so I decided to use them to make this recipe. The funny part is that one of them is a Spongebob-themed box, so technically I made Spongebob Pasta Florentine! It was fairly simple to make this, it provided me with enough dinners to last for several nights, and it was a very tasty way for me to get some servings of veggies!)
7/25/06: Oshikandela Coffee Cake* (Kudos to the Oshikandela (sorta like sour cream or plain yogurt) that Tamara accidentally left at my house, I decided to finally make this recipe, with the guinea pigs being my fast-typing learners (as a reward for reaching a certain speed with a certain mark). I may have been a tad bit short on the cinnamon and walnuts, but other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe. It came out kinda fluffy, so my learners were surprised how thick their treats were! There was a couple pieces left over, so of course I tried it -- it's not really too much different than your average sour cream coffee cake, but it's yummy nevertheless!)
7/28/06: Butter Finger Bars (This was a pertty much straightforward recipe -- nothing really complicated, except for the spreading of the peanut butter on top of the baked product. It wasn't an easy task, since it's like spreading peanut butter on granola. The bars were a bit on the crumbly side before they had cooled fully, but they were pretty tasty -- not quite like the candy bar in consistency by any means, but they somewhat tasted like it!)
7/30/06: Bishop's Bread II (I chose this bread because it involved a good amount of prepwork, and this was pretty much the only Sunday that I've had in awhile (and will have for awhile) to make a bread that involved alot of prepwork. I cut the recipe in half, hoping to just get one loaf, and instead, I got one full loaf and one 3/4-sized loaf! It's sweet, and the flavor depends on what happens to be in your current bite of bread -- chocolate chips, cherries, etc. I couldn't really taste the dates or coconut, and it's probably a good "dessert" bread, which makes me feel a little guilty in having it for breakfast!)
7/30/06: Brown Sugar Meatloaf (I was up for a beef-related recipe and thought I'd give this one a try. It was easy to make, and although I wouldn't say that it's the best meatloaf that I've ever had, I thought it was good nevertheless!)
8/5/06: Shrimp Lemon Pepper Linguini (I wanted to make a nice meal to welcome Pete to Ongwediva, and we joked about a seafood dinner, so I thought I'd actually make one! I used frozen baby shrimp, and pertty much followed the rest of the recipe as is. It was really delicious -- it certainly filled both of us up!)
8/5/06: Cinnamon Raisin Oat Bars (To go along with that meal that I made for Pete, I made these. They basically are a very raisiny cereal bars with icing on top, but they're pretty tasty!)
8/6/06: Apple Puffed Pancake**** (And in continuing to spoil Pete with my cooking, I made this. I could definitely see/taste the presence of the 6 eggs in this -- it was sorta like an apple-y pancake-y omlette. It was really yummy, and no syrup on top was needed!)
8/6/06: Cherry Spice Loaf (Even though I did a cherry-ish bread the week before, I decided to do another one because I had all the ingredients, including the candied (glace) cherries. I could taste the dates more in this one than I could in the other cherry-and-date breads, as well as the almond extract. It was a moist bread, and tasty too!)
8/6/06: Melissa's World Famous Meatloaf**** (I've been wanting to make this for awhile, but had to wait due to some teriyaki-in-the-trash-fire issues. The meatloaf came out well, but unlike some of the other meatloaves I made, this one didn't cook in a sauce, so condiments were needed while eating the meatloaf. I'm not sure if it turned any "meatloaf haters into meatloaf lovers", since Rebecca, Pete, and I all liked meatloaf to begin with, but we all found it to be good!)
8/13/06: Honey Cornbread (I had a cup of heavy cream that I needed to use up, so this recipe was perfect. I could definitely taste the honey flavor in the batter and in the first few days of eating the bread, but after awhile, I don't think I noticed it as much -- maybe it was because I got used to the taste. It wasn't too moist, but it was yummy!)
8/17/06: Chicken Tenderloins with Cranberry Mustard Sauce (As a sort-of reward to finishing marking my exams, I got to unleash my cooking desires by making this dish. I used authentic Craisins, courtesy of Amy's care package, and authentic Grey Poupon dijon mustard, which I think I got either in a care package or Pete brought it over last year (it was still good, though). I didn't have green onions, so I used regular onions, but I don't think it made much of a difference. I made some rice to go along with it, and it turned out to be a really tasty dish!)
9/8/06: Honeyed Pork Chops (Since I just came back from being away for three weeks and didn't have too many ingredients, I gave this a shot. I only made it with two prok chops, but I kept all the other ingredient amounts the same. I made some rice to go along with it, and it turned out to be good -- nothing spectacular, but tasty!)
9/9/06: Caramel Custard Ice Cream (I saw this recipe on the back of the custard box while I was travelling, and knew I had to make it when I got home. I didn't whip the fresh cream as instructed, but oh well. I'm not sure if my freezer is overly-cold, but it became REALLY firm and takes awhile to dig out a scoopful. Nevertheless, I can definitely taste both the caramel and the custard!)
9/10/06: Lemon Blueberry Bread (Yes, I still have some cans of blueberries that are remaining from my Christmas care package. I used one of them in this recipe, so now I have one can left. This was a fairly easy bread to make, with the only confusion being that I didn't know whether I should use 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup of sugar for the glaze because the directions differed from the ingredient list -- in case you're wondering, I used 1/4 cup. The result was a dense but moist bread that was neither too lemon-y or too blueberry-ish -- yummy!)
9/10/06: Chicken Zwerdu* (Contrary to popular belief, I haven't made all the recipes in the PC Namibia cookbook! For this recipe, I used chicken breasts instead of chicken on the bone, as well as a can of chopped tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes, but I pretty much followed the rest of the directions. The chicken didn't come out to be too breaded, as is the case with almost all of my pre-cooking dredging efforts, but whatever. It came out flavorful, and the sauce was great when mixed with the rice!)
9/17/06: Cinnamon Carrot Bread (I meant to make another kind of bread, but then I realized that I was following the other recipe (this one) which was on the same computer printout! Luckily, the Daily Market across the street happened to have carrots, so I didn't waste the first few ingredients. The bread came out a tad bit dry/crispy on top, and I can't really taste the carrots, but I can taste the cinnamon. Good stuff!)
9/17/06: Caribbean Chicken with Banana* (Yet another PC cookbook recipe! This was an interesting way of dredging the chicken, since I had to cover the pieces it with chicken stock powder before dusting it with flour. The pineapples and bananas give it a flavorful touch (even though the chicken is pretty flavorful to start with) -- it reminds me of a few Hawaiian-ish recipes. I'm not sure if the bananas turned out like they were supposed to, so I popped them back in the oven (turned off, but still warm) for a little while longer... like for a few hours... since I forgot that they were in there until right before I went to bed! Anyway, I made some rice to go with the dish, and it was a yummy tropical-ish meal!)
9/24/06: Whole Wheat Maple Quick Bread (Lucky for me, I had some plain yogurt that I wanted to use up, and I finally got some more "rich maple flavored syrup", so this was a good choice. The bread was a deep brown color (not because it was overly done or anything) and it was quite springy, probably due to a lack of eggs. I couldn't really taste the maple-ness of it, but it was still good!)
9/24/06: Cheeseburger Noodle Casserole (This was pretty simple to make, although I accidentally used elbow macaroni instead of spaghetti -- oops! However, it turned out to be easier to dish out leftovers than if I had used spaghetti. It came out well -- nothing too extremely exciting, but it was one of those good meals that just fills you up!)
9/24/06: Cappuccino Cookie Bar (I've been wanting to make these for awhile, but the only ingredient I was missing was the ground coffee beans. I finally got some beans freshly ground, the Continental Blend kind to be exact. Rather than using mini chocolate bars, I just cut up a chocolate bar, which was for the best because the chocolate melted faster that way. The bars were yummy, but it was just a little weird to be eating coffee grains -- it's not the kind of food that you'd want to eat on a first date because they all get stuck in your teeth!)
9/29/06: Shrimp and Mushroom Linguini with Creamy Cheese Herb Sauce (When I chose the shrimp-related recipe to make for Pete's first meal here, this was my other option. It sounded so tasty that I knew that I had to wait for a time when I had a bunch of friends over. Since I wanted to make sure I had enough, I doubled most of the ingredients. I used the same baby shrimp that I used for the other shrimp recipe, and I used tagliatelle instead of linguini. The result was a very aromatic and tasty, and my friends had seconds/thirds, but since I made so much, there was still some left over -- yay!)
9/30/06: Pancake in a Pie Plate**** (I bought a can of fruit cocktail awhile back, so I thought this would be a different thing to make for breakfast for my friends. It wasn't hard to make, but I couldn't quite invert it after it was done because it was sorta stuck on the bottom. So I just skipped that part, sprinkled some powdered sugar on it as directed, and my friends gobbled it right up!)
10/1/06: Cranberry Banana Oat Bread (This was probably the first time that I made a banana-ish bread without using bananas that I had frozen/defrosted -- however, the bananas were pretty brown on the outside, so it wasn't hard to mash them with a fork. And obviously, I just used the margarine that I had, not the "non-hydrogenated, non-dairy margarine" that it called for. Taste-wise, I can totally taste the bananas, but surprisingly, it's not too overwhelming. I can taste the cranberries, or at least that's the case when I take a bite with cranberries in it. It's pretty darn tasty!)
10/1/06: Mushroom Patties (I decided to double all ingredients to make this, since I wanted to use up my whole container of cottage cheese. However, I was a little short on the bread crumbs and milk. Nevertheless, I made 7 good-sized patties out of the mixture. I'm not sure if I fried the patties for as long as I should've (I only did so until they were slightly browned), and I'm not too sure if I had them in the oven for as long as I should've -- they were in there for awhile, but I took them out when the mushroom/milk mixture sorta bubbled over. They sorta taste like the croquettes that my mom used to make -- that's pretty much the only thing I can compare them to -- but they taste pretty good!)
10/6/06: Mounds Bars (My housemate printed out this recipe and I gave it a shot in realizing that I had all the ingredients. Partway through making it, I realized that they were pretty much like Melissa's Magic Cookie Bars, only with sugar, without the nuts, and with the chocolate melted (instead of in chip form) on top. They taste sorta like actual Mounds Bars, but I think it would've been better if I used dark chocolate. They're pretty addicting, though!)
10/8/06: Chocolate Chip Orange Zucchini Bread (Since I only wanted one loaf, I cut all the ingredients in half. Other than that, it really wasn't hard to make. Taste-wise, I can sorta taste the orange-ness, can sorta taste the zucchini-ness (really, zucchini doesn't have all that strong of a flavor), and can definitely taste the chocolate chips, which in the end is what really matters!)
10/8/06: Impossible Cheeseburger Pie (As my whole family can attest, this was probably the dish that I hated the most out of everything that my mom would make on a somewhat regular basis. However, in looking at the recipe, it looked like something that I would attempt to make if I found it randomly, so I thought I'd give it a shot in the hopes that I'd make it and it'd magically come out to the delight of my taste buds (and also in trying to use up the rest of my Bisquick supply that Pete brought over last year). I don't think there are too many Impossible Cheeseburger Pie recipes out there, but I did notice one major difference from how my mom makes it: tomatoes. Putting tomatoes on top doesn't seem like such a big deal, but really, it makes a world of difference. The rest of the dish didn't taste too bad (not even when I had it as cold leftovers), despite the fact that it somewhat tasted like how it did when my mom made it. I'm thinking that I need to re-test my mom's version when I get home!)
10/13/06: Easy Apricot Pastries (This is another one of Mrs. Braunstein's recipes, but this actually wasn't the first time that I've made this -- I made it once in college and once in Chicago. Therefore, it is the only thing that I've ever baked prior to coming to Namibia. Anyway, I made these for a tea party, since I figured that they're very tea party-ish. Most of them had apricot jam in them, but my housemate gave me some of her strawberry/raspberry/whatever-ish jam to use up. In learning from past experiences, I avoided putting jelly near the outer edges, just so it won't leak out. Prior to baking, I cut each one in half, and they came out quite nicely and my friends enjoyed them!)
10/15/06: Chicken Salad with Dried Blueberries (Rebecca's mom sent over some small tubs of dried blueberries, but since Rebecca doesn't like them, she gave them to me in exchange for a few rolls of film. Since I had the blueberries and two cans of canned chicken left over from Pete's visit, I thought making this recipe would be killing two birds with one stone. The canned chicken only yielded 3 cups of meat, so I used 3/4 of the amount for each ingredient, and instead of sour cream, I used plain yogurt. It came out quite tangy, but best of all, it was a beautiful shade of purple!)
10/15/06: Orange Nut Bread (Since I didn't have too much time to bake the BOTW, I chose this recipe because it was pretty simple. It came out quite nicely, and taste-wise, I couldn't really taste the orange-ness, but it's still good nevertheless!)
10/20/06: Bisquick Tuna Bake (In bringing on yet some more Bisquick goodness, as well as using up some of my canned goods, I made this when my friends came over. I doubled all the ingredients (except for the cream of chicken soup -- I only had one can, which probably doesn't yield 2 cups, but it's more than 1 cup). It was a little tricky in getting the "dough" to cover the whole 8x8 pan, but I did the best I could. It totally hit the spot and my friends went back for seconds... and thirds... if you count them picking at the pan til the whole meal was gone!)
10/20/06: Bisquick Peach Cobbler (I'm loving the plethora of Bisquick recipes that are out there. I had some canned peaches that I also need to use up, so I gave this a shot. It was really easy to make, and although it wasn't the prettiest dessert in the world, it was very tasty. I especially liked the parts where I think the sugar congealed -- sounds disgusting, but it was totally awesome!)
10/21/06: Cottage Cheese Loaf I (I thought this would be a good dish to make, since one of my vegetarian PCV friends was coming over for dinner. I'm not sure if the two 200g containers of cottage cheese quite equalled 16oz, but I think it was pretty close. Do you know how great of a tension reliever it is to crush cornflakes with your hands? Anyway, this recipe was pretty easy to make, and even though it wasn't the most held-together loaf that I've made, it still tasted pretty good. It got the vegetarian seal of approval, so yay!)
10/21/06: Impossible Brownie Pie (Yup, another Bisquick recipe. There really wasn't anything impossible about this, and it pretty much resembled typical chocolate cakes that I've made. Instead of putting chopped nuts on top, I used a chocolate-peanut topping mixture that I had -- it no way was 3/4 cup, but I needed to sue it up and didn't want to mix peanuts with walnuts or pecans. It tasted good and used up some ingredients, so mission accomplished!)
10/22/06: Favorite Nut Bread (Some cream cheese that I had bought awhile ago and had frozen came in quite handy in making this. It was an interesting process to make this, and it's certainly one of the most interesting-looking breads that I've made thus far, with its layer of cream cheese-y goodness in the middle. That cream cheese layer is totally the highlight taste-wise, but the nuts throughout the rest of the bread is good too!)
11/3/06: Granola Bars (Yup, I'm still trying to finish off my supply of Bisquick. That mission hasn't been accomplished yet, but I'm getting closer! Not only did I use up more Bisquick, but I polished off a caramel bar (chopped up into chip-size), pecans, and slivered almonds! It turned out to be an interesting granola bar, and it pretty much resembled the various cookie bars that I've made. Nevertheless, it's good and helps satisfy my (and my housemate's) sweet tooth!)
11/4/06: Mozzarella Meat Whirl (This recipe was perfect in helping to use up some food -- I knocked off my mince (ground beef), mozzarella, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup! I don't think I had quite the amount of Worcestershire sauce and ketchup that the recipe called for, but I was pretty close. I baked it in a loaf pan, which was good because if I didn't, I think it might've fallen apart. It didn't cut too nicely, but it tasted good -- sorta like meatloaf with some mozzarella mixed in. The sauce was a nice touch -- no as sweet as the Mini Meatloaves' sauce, but good nevertheless!)
11/5/06: Cranberry Gingerbread Loaf (This was a great recipe in that it finished my dried cranberries and my molasses -- yay! It was pretty easy to make, and it's a nice brown color (due to the molasses). I don't think I've had gingerbread before, so I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like, but I can definitely taste the molasses, and the cranberries give it a nice & sweet touch!)
11/10/06: Pecan Turtle Bars (This was a pretty simple recipe, or at least I like how I could just throw the pecans in without chopping them up! The butter and brown sugar didn't mix too well, so when I poured it over the pecans, there were mini pools of almost pure sugar. Nevertheless, they tasted great and satisfied my sweet tooth!)
11/12/06: Dried Blueberry-Orange Quick Bread (I got to use up some of my dried blueberries, a can of orange juice, and the rest of my pecans, so yay for effective cooking! The prep work was a little bit more than usual, but the end product was good -- it's a moist-ish and dense bread, and whereas I can't really taste the orange-ness, I can taste the blueberries. However, the cinnamon-sugar combo on top gave it a nice amount of sweetness, and I like the crunchiness of that topping!)
11/14/06: Easy Cheesy Skillet Chicken (This was absolutely perfect in using up recipes, since it required 4 ingredients, and not only did I have all 4, but I was looking for a way to use them up! Actually, instead of the sliced cheese, I just had small wedge of cheese that I just chopped up. And instead of keeping the chicken breasts whole, I chopped them up to reduce the cooking time. It was pretty easy to make this dish, it certainly is cheesy, and it tasted great when served with rice!)
11/26/06: Favorite Banana Blueberry Quick Bread (For my last Bread of the Week, I made this so I could use the can of blueberries from the Gontcharuck's, most of the oatmeal that I still had around, and the two bananas that I had in my freezer (plus one more that I picked up at the training of the new PC group). I also finished up my pecans to make this, and I'm not sure if I had enough, but oh well. The bread came out a little browner on top than I expected, but it was pretty chewy nevertheless. The bananas aren't overwhelmingly strong, and I can still taste the blueberries. It's a great way to finish off two years of different breads!)