The views expressed on this website are entirely my own and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Shanghai Girls

I have discovered using the Peace Corps Uganda Cookbook recipes can be an adventure. Now, I have been cooking since I got to site, not too much, but simple things. I've discovered Top Up sauce is good as a base for pasta sauce. I've been eating rice with some Indian spice mixes. These dinner menus have all gone down without a hitch.

However, when I decided it was time for me to open the cookbook, which by now has gathered dust, I was not prepared for the adventure I was about to embark on.

I went shopping on Sunday to gather essentials for my cooking adventure. I planned on making the granola and the no-bake peanut butter cookies since they looked like the easiest things to make. Today I decided to take a stab at the granola. Little did I know, using a gas stove to heat granola would turn out to be very, very interesting.

First, I don't have any measuring spoons, so I had to guess what a tablespoon was. I used a regular spoon, but I think my "regular" spoons are too small, so I need to use the bigger spoons I have (which, in retrospect, may be more "regular"). I didn't realize I should have mixed the ingredients prior to putting it in the pot on the heat. Yeah, that was not in the instructions. Fail number one. My oats started to burn while I was frantically trying to mix the ingredients together with the heat on. After turning off the heat, I tried to mix the ingredients together again and realized I forgot to add cinnamon and raisins. I added these two ingredients and tried to mix them in and then tried to heat it again. Of course, this didn't really work out completely, the oats burned a little more. The end result was delicious nonetheless. The little parts that burned add to the taste, most definitely.

Tomorrow (or later today, since I have nothing to do at site at the moment) I am going to take a stab at these no-bake cookies. I looked over the instructions more carefully and think I am more prepared.

*Note to self: read instructions carefully, especially when cooking in Uganda.*


Photobucket
 

No comments:

Post a Comment