R&R in Cape Town, South Africa

Famous changing houses at Muizenberg beach

Hi, I'm back!  We just returned to Addis Ababa after spending three and a half weeks in Cape Town, South Africa.  It was my favorite family vacation yet.  I had very few expectations about what Cape Town would be like.  In fact, I had very low expectations that needed to be met for me to have a great holiday.  I was at the point in our tour in Ethiopia where all I needed to see was a decent grocery store, clean streets, and a playground to make my day.  Needless to say, Cape Town completely met and exceeded my expectations.  It was extremely family friendly and there was so much to do.  Here are some of the highlights broken down in categories.

Fishing boats at Kalk Bay

View of Cape Town from Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens

Weather:  Everyone kept reminding us that we were arriving in Cape Town during their winter/rainy season.  We packed our rain gear and planned on spending rainy days in the science center or at the movies with the kids.  In the end we had gorgeous weather with very little rain.   Most days were sunny with blue skies and around 65-75 degrees.  The evenings and nights were cold and a few days we had rain that required our rain coats but overall the weather was glorious.

Bolder Beach in Simon's Town

Hiking at Cape Point National Park

Landscape:  Cape Town is situated at the bottom tip of South Africa.  It's surrounded by the ocean with gorgeous bays and inlets and Table Mountain sits inland.  the city is built along the coast but the city creeps up to the base of the mountain.  Every view is gorgeous and worthy of a photograph.

The penguins at Bolder Beach

Cape Point National Park

Activities: There is an endless amount of fun in Cape Town.  We spent almost every day from mid-morning until dinner exploring and stopping to play, eat, and explore.  The V&A waterfront area has an aquarium, craft and food market, Ferris wheel, playground, shopping mall, waterfront restaurants, brew pubs, wine shops, live music, face painting, ponds, and docks to walk along.  We took the girls to two movies, spent an afternoon at the Scratch Patch at the precious stone polishing facility, found every ice cream parlor in the greater Cape Town area and more. We hiked at Cape Point National Park, visited the ostrich farm, and saw the penguins at Bolder Beach.  The day trips around Cape Town are wonderful as well.  We spent a day in Nordhoek fishing village on the Western Cape.

Wine country:  We were constantly surprised by the proximity of everything in the area.  We stayed in Muizenberg and it only took us a 45 minute drive from the coast to wine country in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek   We spent two nights in Franschhoek at the Lekkerwijn historic country house.  The house is stately and gorgeous but still very family friendly.  The wineries are close and plentiful and the wine is delicious.  Wine tasting at Solms Delta might go down as one of my favorite moments with my husband ever! More on wine country in later posts.

Paternoster Beach

Day trip to Paternoster, a small Western Coast fishing village

The coast:  We are beach people. Any type of beach, hot with white sands, rocky with crashing waves, it doesn't matter.  Being close to the ocean, seagulls and salt air makes me happy.  Cape Town has so many types of beaches to explore.  None of them were hot while we were there, but the sun was out enough that the kids could get their feet wet. There are lots of coastal scenic drives to inspire you as well.  The winding drives on the rocky coast to Cape Point National Park was spectacular.

Muizenberg beach in the "winter" weather

Two Oceans Aquarium on the waterfront

Kid friendly:  Not only is it family friendly, many activities are actually kid encouraging.  We were thrilled with some of the foodie markets we frequented because there was a designated kids play area.  Lots of small restaurants welcomed our brood with smiles and didn't flinch at the mashed french fries under the table.  Other patrons didn't seem bothered by our kid heavy family sitting next to them for a meal.  We actually ran into an older gentlemen that told us that everyone should remember they once were children themselves and just accept that kids will be kids.  My kind of people!  Granted, our kids are pretty well behaved and are frequent restaurant diners. That, combined with the fact that we take meals on the early bird schedule-we did just fine eating out with our kids, even at some of the nicer spots.

Groot Constantia wine estate

Ice cream by The Creamery 

Local cheese

Micro brew is slowly growing a following in Cape Town, my husband would lead the pack

The food:  Cape Town and it's surrounding areas were a food haven for Justin and I. Every new neighborhood we explored housed a new gem cafe or food barn.  Some with bakeries, gourmet spice shelves and local wine for sale.  Everywhere we went South African wine was being paired with seafood, cheese, ostrich, and organic vegetables, pizza, burgers, wraps, quiche, eggs...the list of good food goes on.  It wasn't all European or Western influenced either.  We had sushi, Thai, Cape Malay, Cuban, Chinese, and almost any other type of ethnic food you could think of.  It was all available and quite delicious.  There were a number of weekend markets that brought together small food cart style vendors that sold everything from potato latki eggs benedict to giant flat bread pizzas piled high with rocket.  The craft beer flowed from the tap and hipsters carried glasses of wine through the crowds in one hand and an ostrich burger in the other.   Cape Town is a food destination for sure.  I also have to comment on the grocery stores.  I was amazed at the huge well stocked grocery stores.  The local yogurt and dairy products were top notch, aisles of gourmet vinegar, salt, and oil, jarred sauces, boxed broths, and pastas were reminiscent of Trader Joe's in the US.  Woolworths brings to mind Whole Foods and Marks and Spencer.  For a food lover, cook/baker like me, grocery shopping in Cape Town and carefully curating a selection of items to bring home with me to Addis, was even more than browsing the local Zara (and Zara is my jam).

Blue Bird Garage Friday market for families.  Beer, wine and food cart style food.

Hot chocolate with a scoop of ice cream at the Neighborgoods Market on Saturdays at the Old Biscuit Factory

Cape Town is a wonderful destination because the entire area is gorgeous and unpretentious.  The award winning vineyards with worn picnic tables and handmade tree swings.  The ancient playgrounds and new kid friendly markets.  Every single bit of this place was welcoming to us as a family and easy to navigate as tourists.  \

Street entertainers at the V&A Waterfront

Cape to Cuba restaurant in Kalk Bay.  The kids were entertained by the frequent trains that went by.

Good food everywhere!

what's cooking in my kitchen this week

"our" fisherman who came to the villa at Diani Beach every day to sell us his catch of the day

I've found I have a lot less time to blog about what I'm cooking for dinner or baking for my family these days.  In fact, I have less time to blog in general.  The more "real" life that is going on, the less time I have to sit down and write.  It's funny how it works.  When I'm busy and I can't blog; words swirl around in my head.  I'm constantly thinking of blog titles as life happens all day long.  I simply have so little time to actually blog.

With the burial of my camera I don't even have pretty pictures to show you.

Anyhow, life is so good right now and everything I am doing, I am enjoying, so having more "real" life occupying me is not a bad thing at all.

Having our week long holiday in Kenya was a lovely cooking break for me.  I baked a lovely pecan pie for our Thanksgiving meal that week but other than that I buttered some toast for the girls in the morning and that's about it. We had a personal chef at the Villa and he made the most amazing seafood feasts for lunch and dinner every day.  I had an entire weeks break from cooking and I was so grateful for it.  I came home with a renewed energy to create meals for my family.

I'm back to cooking this week.

I've been making all sorts of crepes lately.  They are super easy and you can fill them with almost anything.  I was thrilled to come back from Kenya and find that my new cookbook Crepes: 50 Savory and Sweet Recipes had arrived.  The basic versatile crepe recipe in this book is wonderful.  It calls for browned butter. Browned butter makes everything taste amazing!  All those nutty notes.  Another revolutionary tip in this book is to make the crepe batter in the blender.  Awesome!  So easy and no more lumps.  Anyway, the first recipe I tried was the ricotta blintzes with blueberry-lime sauce.  It's a dessert crepe; essentially a sweetened ricotta filling with lime zest enveloped by a crepe that has been browned in a skillet and then baked in the oven to perfection and dusted with powder sugar.  The kicker is the blueberry lime sauce which I will be making double batches of just to have in the refrigerator for pancakes and all sorts of things.  The blueberry lime sauce is what made these blintzes delicious.  I learned a few things from making this dessert.  My daughters don't think cheese is a worthy reward for eating their vegetables and Justin can only tolerate ricotta in lasagna.  OK fine, I admit it.  I ate the rest of these for breakfast the past few mornings.  If you like crepes; get this cookbook.  If you like sweetened ricotta in a not-too-sweet dessert; try the blintzes.  I loved them.  My family is nuts.

Blueberry Lime sauce-adapted slightly from Crepes (I have to share this because I absolutely love blueberries and I bought a bag of frozen blueberries off a friend of mine who is packing up to leave Ethiopia this month.  I don't know where she found them but I am so glad I snagged them from her.  The entire rest of the bag is going in a pot to simmer and turn all syrupy for this weekend's pancakes)
2 cups frozen blueberries (or if you are totally lucky-fresh blueberries)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp grated lime zest (just the green outer skin)
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice

Simmer the blueberries and the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat .  Add 2 Tbsp of water, cover and let them bubble and cook for 5 minutes.  Uncover and cook another few minutes until the berries have collapsed and all the juices start to turn syrupy.  Turn off the heat and let the sauce cool a tad.  Add the lime zest and juice and taste.  Add a pinch of salt and more lime juice if needed.  Store for a week in the refrigerator OR smother homemade pancakes with this delicious elixir.  Oh, how I have missed blueberries!

For dinner the other night I stared at a pound of ground beef for much too long trying to decide what to do with it.  When I stare too long I almost always go to Smitten Kitchen (thank you Dani!) and punch my ingredient in her search tool and see what comes up.  Sure enough, typing in ground beef gave me the bright idea to make sloppy joes.  Smitten Kitchen doesn't call hers sloppy joes but that what this recipe is folks.  Just as sloppy, but much more tasty than the McCormick's sloppy joes seasoning packet we used to eat as kids.  I don't ever completely follow the recipes I find.  My version of this beefy chili had the same spices but in different concentration.  A quarter cup of chili powder is just crazy.  I added 1 tsp of my chili powder and then cursed myself because I knew it would be too spicy for the kids.* I use the recipe as a guideline.  Adding cider vinegar added great flavor by the way.  I'm sure Deb's recipe would be delicious if you followed it down to the letter but I also believe that a perfectly delicious version of sloppy joes lies somewhere in the heart of all of us.

I'm not sure Sloppy Joes could ever be photo worthy but here you go anyway.  

*You CAN save dinner for your kids if you accidentally add a bit too much spice.  Instead of pulling out a box of mac n' cheese you can do what I did that night.  Spoon out the portion of your meal that your kids will eat.  Place it in another pot and add either water, or broth until the spice is appropriate for them.  In the sloppy joe case I added tomato sauce until the spice level cooled off. My husband and I enjoyed the spicy portion without complaints from the kids!

The key to these sloppy joes was the idea of slathering it on a biscuit.  I made sour cream chive biscuits and they were a huge hit.  Make these biscuits for your own version of sloppy joes (the girls couldn't stop giggling about what dinner was called) or just make these biscuits for the heck of it.  They are delicious.  Super easy and fool proof!

Sour cream and chive biscuits (adapted from a cream based biscuit recipe. I can't remember where I got the original)
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp frozen unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sour cream (or a combo of sour cream, heavy cream, or whole milk)
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture using a cheese grater.  Using a fork mix the butter flakes in with the flour mixture.  No need for uniformity.  Form a well in the middle of the butter/flour mixture and pour in the sour cream.  Using the fork pull the dry in to the wet until the ingredients are barely combined.  Add the chives.  Using your hands knead the dough a tad so that it is combined.  Move the lump of dough onto a floured surface and press with your hands to make a 1 inch thick layer of dough. Use a biscuit cutter (or round-ish cookie cutter) to cut out rounds of the dough.  Place the biscuits on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet or a Silpat.  Sprinkle with a little salt. Bake for 12-15 minutes.  They were delicious cut in half while still barely warm and topped with the sloppy joe beefy chili stuff.  Perfect comfort food!  Addie even had a sloppy joe for lunch the next day at school. Score!

What have you been cooking?  How about baking?  I have so many custom orders this week for Ladytroupe Sweets that I don't plan to be at Market Day on Friday. I think I am going to use my extra time on Friday to make gingerbread for our first-ever, from-scratch, mommy-daughters, gingerbread house!  I can't wait.  

Ethiopian food

I've am slow to the starting line when it comes to learning about and partaking in the enjoyment of good Ethiopian food.  Some of it by choice and a bit by circumstance.  We had six months in the US between the Philippines and moving to Ethiopia while Justin learned Amharic.  DC is home to the largest population of Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia so there are plenty of restaurants in the area that serve good Ethiopian food.  I'd never tried even a bite of Ethiopian food and I put my foot down and decided that I wanted my first Ethiopian meal to be IN Ethiopia (where it's better anyway right?or at least more authentic).  Plus, I was monstrously pregnant with our third baby girl and I wanted to enjoy all the wonderful food that I knew we wouldn't get for two and a half years while living in Addis Ababa.  We ate tons of Lost Dog Cafe pizza, Sweet Water Tavern burgers, Chipotle burritos and everything in between, except Ethiopian food.

Upon our arrival to Addis with the children and hiring a housekeeper but not a cook or a nanny, I dug into life here with a fervor.  But I didn't have my first plate of Ethiopian food until almost two months after our arrival.  Taking the kids with us to the cultural restaurants that don't open until 7PM just is not an option and we didn't have a babysitter.  Anyway, I loved the food but I was shocked at the flavors when I finally tasted it. It was nothing like I had pictured.  In my head, injera was like an Indian flat bread not a sour floppy pancake.  I really had no frame of reference for what Ethiopian food would taste like so it took me a bit to realize it's completely different than anything I had ever tasted...and I loved it!

I beg Justin to take me to get Ethiopian food on the weekends or in the evenings for date night.  I cook every meal at the house and none of that includes anything remotely Ethiopian.  Then a miracle happened.  Eneye gave me some of her lunch the other day and it was delicious.  She can cook!  She may not be able to make a grilled cheese sandwich or turn on the microwave in our kitchen but she can make damn fine Ethiopian food.  I guess I knew this all along but never pulled the trigger on asking her to cook for us.

The next day I sent Zalalem out to get all the ingredients she needed and she made us an Ethiopian meal on Friday afternoon.  It was amazing.  She now has the additional job of cooking Ethiopian food for us on Fridays.  Lucky me!

Injera covered with misir wat with beef and shiro

So here is what I know about Ethiopian food so far.  Or at least the Ethiopian food I've tasted.

Injera is used by tearing off pieces and grabbing the food.  It's like an edible utensil.  

Injera: Made out of a protein rich Teff (a grain indigenous to Ethiopia) flour. The injera batter is mixed and allowed to ferment for a few days before it's poured on large round griddle and allowed to bubble and cook like a pancake.  It's peeled off and rolled up.  Ethiopians make large batches of injera all at once.  Enough often to feed their family for a week.  It is the staple "bread" and used to scoop or grab other foods like a utensil.  Typically a large piece of injera is laid out on the plate or in a basket and then other foods are piled on top.  Rolled injera is served on the side for eating the meal.  It's quite spongy and sour and I was turned off the first time I tried it plain.  It really requires to be eaten with other things where the sour taste compliments well with the savory spices.

Shiro: This is a soft soupy like lentil dish that can be made spicy or just "spiced".  Shiro starts out as a ground  lentil powder and is added to boiling water with onions garlic and spices. It is served in a hot pot dish and scooped on the injera.  This is my favorite of all I've tasted.

Tibs: beef or lamb pieces that are grilled or sauteed.

Misir lentils

Misir Wat (lentil stew): The Misir is a spicy sauce made with whole lentils that you can add meat to. Wat is stew that starts with lots of onions.

Berbere

Berbere:  This is the powdered red spice used in all Ethiopian food.  It's a combination of dried and finely ground peppers, chilies, korarima (Ethiopian cardamom), fenugreek,salt and other spices.

from left to right: berbere, powdered shiro, and misir

Eneye used a huge handful of large garlic cloves, half of a kilo of beef, oil, and four large onions.  Broths are made with water, not broth.  We purchased the injera at a local market.  The meal was spicy but not too spicy. It was more "spiced" than spicy.  And wonderful!  I am excited to learn to make some basic Ethiopian food.  We spent about $7 on the three bags of dried food that will last many meals.  The meal Eneye made was enough for Justin and I to eat on for at least 5 days.  This Friday she's making beef tibs. 

Aba Guben Bakery

I am always elated to be introduced to a new restaurant in Addis Ababa. I guess I thought we'd find three good restaurants and have to rotate between them for two and a half years.  It's not the case! Justin often finds little gems and then take us on the weekend.  That's exactly what we did today.  Justin has been raving about Aba Guben Bakery for a week.  We all went today for lunch.

The atmosphere is really nice.  Upstairs is an airy dining room with large windows.  The downstairs area has cafe style seating with a dessert display case and the brick oven for the pizzas.

Pizza is where the girls got hooked.  There is pizza all over Addis Ababa.  Some of it is decent.  Some of it is a sad representation of pizza.  Aba Guben's pizza is good.  The cheese is good and the girls liked the olives.  The dough is a tad underdone and floppy for me but I noticed the outer edges were burnt a bit.  Maybe they need to adjust the oven a bit.  I'm being picky here but I like my thin crust nice and crisp.

The little Italian bakery/restaurant has their own unique hot tea blend called Aba Guben tea (chai).  It's a spicy ginger tea infused with oregano and sweetened with honey.  It's an explosion of flavor.  I've never tasted anything like it.  It's definitely the best thing on their menu.  Justin loves it so much I promised him I will try to replicate the amazing ginger oregano honey combination at home.  Oregano?! It sounds strange but it's so wonderful.

Justin had a spicy red sauced pasta and I had the spinach and ricotta ravioli in a mushroom cream sauce.  It was delicious.  The pasta is made fresh and the sauce was flavorful.

Abu Guben really won me over with the little appetizer plates full of seasoned tomatoes and croutons provided complimentary with your meal.  I'm a sucker for starters.

I'm also a sucker for gorgeous rustic pottery.  So I pretty much loved this place.

The girls dug the dessert case.  Sadly, the cream puffs we brought home we lacking.  First off, they were labeled beignets in the case but most definitely were cream puffs.  Both girls weren't fans of the cream in the middle.  I told them we can do better at home.

For a map and directions

how to host a brunch

The most common way families in Ethiopia spend their weekends is at one another's homes for dinner parties, lunch play dates, birthday parties or brunches.  There really isn't a lot to do in this city with small children. So we entertain one another as way of entertainment.   Hosting parties in which food is the focal point is a great way to keep busy during the planning and spend time with friends during the hosting.

Brunch has become our "thing". We've hosted a lot of brunches, maybe 6 in the last 8 months. It's the perfect time of day to have other families with small children over. The kids eat breakfast at home as usual and when they come to our house it's still too early for lunch so they happily play awhile.  The grown ups get to drink coffee and converse over quiche and scones and then feed the kids waffles with whipped cream or roasted potatoes when they get hungry closer to lunch time. Everyone eats enough that a large dinner isn't necessary later.  People can still have their kids home for an afternoon nap after the party.  It's the perfect hosting situation for us since we have small children ourselves.  Plus I love brunch food.

Since we've been doing it a lot lately I'm kind of getting the hang of it.  I don't break a sweat pulling it all together anymore.  It's become really fun hosting friends at our house.  We hosted brunch this morning for two families with children (besides our own) and not once did I pull my hair out.  I've got the kinks out of brunch.

Here are a few of my tips for hosting a successful brunch:

Things to do the night before:

• Make the appropriate dishes, refrigerated them overnight and and warm it in the oven a few minutes before serving.  (quiche, other egg casseroles, breads, dips, spreads, dressings, desserts).
• Prepare scones and freeze them uncooked.  Defrost in the morning and bake them so they are still warm when guests arrive.  Scones are the perfect brunch food, easy to make but a special treat.
• Set the table; complete with napkins and silverware-it's one less thing to do in the morning.
• Take out all the serving dishes you will likely use in the morning.  
• Refrigerate pitchers of water-add ice and cucumber slices in the morning for refreshing flavored water.
• Tidy up the areas of the house your guests will see.  
• Have fun with writing a menu (on a chalkboard or printed for the table) for your guests to see when they arrive.  Sometimes the extra touches are what make brunch feel special.

Other tips:

• Ten o'clock is a good time for guests to start arriving.  10:30 food is served.  
• Invite the right amount of people.  If your table seats 8 people don't host more than 8 adults (include the adults in your family in this number).  Having a more intimate meal with everyone gathered at one table makes for the best conversations.  All the kids can be accommodated by my next tip.
• A small kids table is perfect for little diners (keep it on a easy clean-up surface).  Get your own kids involved by having them help set the table and make a centerpiece or name tags for their friends.
• Have a high chair or booster seat ready for very little diners.
• Serve a selection of savory and sweet items. Scones, grilled tomatoes, salad, fruit, potato cakes, crepes, flat bread, souffle, coffee cake, bacon, baked apples, bagels with smoked salmon, doughnuts...the list is endless.  Just pick a few in each category.

• Having interesting toppings for ordinary breakfast food makes it brunch instead of plain old breakfast.  For example, a bowl of toasted coconut and cinnamon whipped cream for waffles or lemon juice and powdered sugar for pancakes or homemade butterscotch syrup for both.  Get creative. 
• A soothing but hip playlist for background music keeps the brunch from feeling too stiff and formal. Think Mumford & Sons, David Bowie, Of Monsters and Men, Adele, Elvis Costello, Coldplay, and The Shins.  
• Gather condiments like cream, sugar, syrup, dressings or other toppings on a tray for your sideboard.

• Always have coffee ready but offer tea or something non-caffeinated for guests.
• Make enough food that you can enjoy leftovers from the brunch for a light dinner later in the day.  After all the preparations you won't want to cook again that evening.  
• If you are serving salad consider making your own dressing and tossing it with the greens right before the meal.  Homemade salad dressing always adds an extra thoughtful touch to an otherwise ordinary dish. (I serve salad greens with thinly sliced onions.  Homemade dressing is simply 1/4 red wine vinegar, 1 TBsp lemon juice, 1 TBsp honey, 1 TBsp dijon mustard, salt, pepper, 1/4 cup olive oil all whisked together).
• Plan your menu ahead of time. When guests ask what they can bring, give them something specific that you need for your menu.  Like sliced strawberries for your waffles or fresh bread for your dips (which is exactly what I asked our guests to bring today when they asked).  You can cross  it off your list and your guests fulfill their hostess gift/bring something requirement.
• The table setting might be formal but the atmosphere should be relaxed as kids come and go from the playroom and moms get up to nurse.  Make people comfortable in your home.  
• Using your nice dishes and table linens is fun.  You have them, right? Why not use them?  Even for a kid friendly brunch.  Once in awhile it's nice to have a saucer for your coffee cup. It's a nice change from your usual dining routine (and the other parent's usual dining routines). Plus a pretty table makes the food look even tastier.
• Stock your guest bathroom. Tape up those stinky third world drains, light a candle, leave an extra roll of toilet paper, hang up a clean hand towel and provide a small step stool for little ones.
• Most importantly: take a shower right away when you wake up the morning of the brunch.  I've had a couple of close calls where I put off showering and start to prepare brunch first thing.  I end up racing to get ready as guests are coming in the door.  Best to get dressed and get brushing your teeth out of the way before you start cooking.
• Don't forget to sit and really savor the brunch yourself.  You did all the work right?

Brunch can be a great way for families with children to host a get-together, meet new families, spend time with friends and stave off that boredom that can happen in locations where there isn't much entertainment outside of your own home.  Like rainy season in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!

fruit overseas

From my limited overseas experience, I have come to the conclusion that fruit is better here.  By here, I mean in Ethiopia and the Philippines.  Even Bangkok for our short trip had better tasting fruit that in the US. New Zealand had the best apple I'd tasted the entire time we were on that side of the world!  I will say that in America, Washington Apples and Oregon Strawberries are better than anything I've had overseas but everything else is better over here.  (OK and for the record I love blueberries and I couldn't get them in Manila and I can't get them in Ethiopia-Boo!)

The selection in Addis Ababa might be smaller but what we have just tastes better! Bananas may be smaller but they have a more concentrated sweet banana flavor.  Mangoes, pineapple and anything tropical is of course not going to taste as good in the States. Mangoes simply don't get any better than the ones from the Philippines. Don't try to argue this point with me.  You won't win!  Even the fresh limes here have a brighter stronger lime flavor than the pithy ones I would get at home. Watermelon hands down is a MILLION times sweeter and more flavorful overseas.  This has been the case in SE Asia and now in Ethiopia.

The watermelon in Addis Ababa is amazing.  Juicy and super sweet.  The melons are heavy and the brightest bright red you've ever seen.  The watermelon in America is pink with hints of white and grainy. Sometimes you will luck out and get a sweet one but in Ethiopia, they are always amazing.

I'd love to hear other people's experience with fruit overseas.  

A few food recipes and ideas

Ice cream
So I won an ice cream competition last weekend while we were away.  I made my original recipe Cinnamon Crunch ice cream and submitted it in the contest at the embassy and what do know, I won both "best ice cream" and "most creative" categories.  Not too shabby.  It's my favorite ice cream recipe I've created and I'm going to share it with you!

It might help to familiarize yourself with my ice cream making tips and the sweet cream base recipe I use.  Once you've read that you can come back here for the Cinnamon Crunch details.

Cinnamon Crunch Ice Cream: creamy cinnamon vanilla ice cream with a sugary butter oatmeal crunch
1 batch Sweet Cream Base (in the liquid form-not churned in the ice cream maker)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups oats
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 butter melted
pinch of salt

Add the cinnamon and vanilla to the sweet cream base and blend.  Refrigerate for at least a few hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  If you are using quick oats you can use a bowl.  If using whole oats use your food processor to chop the oats a bit first then just add the rest of the ingredients to the processor bowl.  Add the sugar, salt and melted butter and blend until combined and crumbly.  You don't want the mixture to be too wet; just barely coated with butter.  Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 8 minutes.  Check and shake the mixture often so you don't burn it.  You want the crunch to be dry and slightly browned.  Remove and let cool then place in a freezer bag in the freezer. This recipe makes enough for two batches of ice cream.  Don't worry once you make one batch, you'll be ready to make another a few days later!  It's that good.

When ready to make the ice cream churn the cinnamon vanilla ice cream until thick and creamy.  Pour in 1 cup of the crunch and let the machine churn it together.  Continue churning for a few minutes.  Transfer to your storage bowl and sprinkle a handful of the crunch on top.  Freeze overnight before serving. Enjoy!

Snacks
With the new school year upon us and Addie adjusting to the long days, I am trying to have healthy snacks ready for her to bring to school and enjoy when she returns home.  One of her favorite lunch/snacks is homemade bagels.  We all love them and I've been trying to find creative ways to top them as cream cheese is hard to come by here.

My new favorite bagel topping is almond butter with toasted coconut sprinkled on top.  Any nut butter would be good but I recommend an all natural nut butter without sugar added.  The toasted coconut adds a bit of sweetness on it's own. Just toast sweetened flake coconut in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes until lightly browned. Try this!  It's so good.  It's beats peanut butter with honey any day

Chocolate cravings
About every 28 days I could post some sort of chocolate concoction on this blog that I've created to satiate the fierce cravings I get.  This time I was desperate for something chocolate the night we returned from Gonder.  I was just too darn exhausted to make anything from scratch so I frantically searched the kitchen and was pleasantly surprised with my solution.  I pulled a bit of frozen chocolate frosting from the freezer and dipped pretzels in it.  Sometimes the best food finds happen in moments of desperation.

The key to this being delicious is the quality of the frosting.  It was a bit of extra from a batch of cupcakes we made.  This chocolate frosting recipe is the very best.  It's my go-to and I don't think I'll ever need another one.  Spread it on graham crackers or dip apples or pretzels in it.  Serious yum.

(Slightly adapted by me)
Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chocolate Frosting from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids by Jill O'Connor.  (My favorite cookbook for sweets)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sour cream (My adaptation is to use whipping cream when I can't find sour cream and it's also very good)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Large pinch of salt
1 lb powdered sugar

Melt chocolate with butter in the microwave.  Beat chocolate mixture with cream (sour or whipping), vanilla and salt with a mixer adding powdered sugar gradually until smooth.  Freeze what you don't use on your cake or cupcakes.

That should take care of your chocolate craving and your salt one too since pretzels give you that nice salt sweet taste.

The Four Sisters Restaurant

As you can imagine, Gonder worked it's way into my heart immediately.  Justin said the moment he arrived in Gonder a few weeks ago he took one look around and said "my wife would love it here, I'm bringing my family back". He was right and he did!  The history, the culture, the smells and sights and sounds.  It honestly felt like I might have walked through time back to the 18th century (only I brought the hot water heater with me for showering).

One of the gems of our trip for me was eating amazing Ethiopian food.  Justin travels a ton and eats more local cuisine that me. I don't have an Ethiopian cook to make me tibs and injera every week so I am always craving Ethiopian food (usually when Justin's craving a burger).  Our cravings don't always match up so I was thrilled to be "stuck" eating Ethiopian food in Gonder this weekend.





We lucked out because The Four Sisters Restaurant in Gonder is superb.  The atmosphere is wonderful and the dinning area is up to Western standards; simply top notch.  Everything was authentic and delicious and oh boy the bozena shiro was amazing.  I could have eaten it for three meals a day both days we were in town.  The four sisters were there and actually own and run the restaurant.

Tej pouring

Their mother brews the Tej which is honey mead or wine.  It's the best Tej I've ever tasted.  The flavors are complex and it's not too strong.

coffee beans roasted for coffee ceremony

They perform a traditional coffee ceremony for all the guests.  Coffee beans are roasted right in front of you and let you smell them after they are roasted.  Then they brew the coffee and you get a cup after dinner.

hand washing

traditional music

incense burning

In Gonder I don't think there is any other place you need to visit to eat.  The tibs and injera were delicious, the vegetable rice, spinach and cabbage were flavored well.  But the bozena shiro won my heart.

ceilings painted with traditional Ethiopian paintings