A Thing of Beauty

I love handmade things. I've always loved crafts of all kinds. Anything made by the hand, that takes time to render, is special and holds deep attraction for me.

When I travel, my eye is always drawn to different textiles, pottery, jewellery and other hand crafted items.  Kenya is a wonderful place for seeing and buying hand crafts. I wrote about some of it here.

Kenyan beadwork is connected to the cultures of the various tribes doing the beadwork and is a somewhat new addition to their culture.  Much like it was to the Native American Indians who traded in beads with the foreign settlers, Kenyan beadwork dates back to the late 19th century when beads from what is known today as the Czech Republic, became available to them. 

Beadwork has a special attraction for me because when I was a teenager, I made things out of seed beads.  Mostly I made earrings and necklaces for the women in my community.  They loved to adorn themselves with one of a kind pieces. I haven't done any of that kind of work since then.

In Kenya, bead work is often used, along with hairstyle and other types of adornment, as a way of identifying someone's status and identity.  I'm not sure if this is still the case today, but certainly it probably is where the tribal traditions are thriving.  Westerners tend to know more about Maasai beadwork.  For example, a mother may place a string of beads around a baby's wrist, ankle and waist and thereby be able to track the baby's growth. In addition, a girl or boy's eligibility for marriage can be observed by the shape, pattern and colour of their beadwork.

A beaded bowl caught my eye the last time I was in Nakuru.  The beautiful colours caught my eye and also the fact that I'd never seen a beaded bowl before.  I brought one home.  It now sits in my bathroom holding small items like my hair clips. I would love to have several more of them in different colours; at least one gold, and one in different shades of blue.  I'm sorry I didn't buy more but I have learned not to overdo it with the tourist purchases. Whenever I get back to Kenya, I can buy a few more bowls.

I added the last photo jut because I like the wavy lines of colour that occurred when I moved my camera too quickly.

In writing my post I was fortunate to come across a book devoted to the culture and customs of Kenya, called Culture and Customs of Kenya by N. W. Sobania.  It looks like a wonderful book for your library if you're at all interested in the culture of Kenya; a fascinating country with many different cultural traditions.

Enjoy your weekend!

Dragons Fly Overhead

It's the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. I wrote about it here if you would like to read more.

Imagine my surprise, when earlier this week, I looked up at the sky and saw a cloud in the form of a dragon!   

 

I quickly snapped these photos before the dragon flew away!

I'd love to hear what kind of interesting cloud formations you've seen lately.

Enjoy more sky watching by clicking on the badge below.

Beans, Beans, Beans

Today on my walk I managed to find a brand of lentils and beans that I haven't tried before. The price also seems a little cheaper than the usual offering at the other stores I frequent.  So I picked up a few bags of several types of beans and green lentils.

Right now I'm soaking garbanzo beans and pinto beans and thinking of what to make with them.

These new to me garbanzo recipes look like something I would like to try.   

Garbanzo Bean Medley

1 tsp. olive oil
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, chopped (optional)
1 can garbanzo beans (I'll use "from scratch" beans as they have no preservatives)
1/8 tsp. fresh pepper
Salt to taste

Heat oil in a skillet  and saute green pepper for 2 minutes, add onions and garlic; saute until soft. Add beans, pepper and salt; saute until well blended and heated through. Serves 4.

Notes:  I will use red peppers instead of green ones because I prefer the taste and colour.

Garbanzo Bean Soup

 

1 lb. garbanzo beans (the recipe calls for dried but I'm using "made from scratch" beans)
8 c. water
1/2 c. olive oil
1 lg. onion, diced
1/2 clove garlic, diced
4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 (6 oz.) can tomato sauce
1/2 (6 oz.) can stewed tomatoes
4 med. size potatoes, peeled

Saute onions in olive oil and when tender add all other ingredients with the exception of stewed tomatoes and pepper. Saute for 2 more minutes. Bring garbanzo to a boil and add all ingredients. Lower heat to low and boil until tender. More water or salt may be added to taste. Cook until potatoes are done. If you would like a thicker consistency.mash some of the beans and potatoes.

I'll probably use the pinto beans for some make ahead chili, as in this recipe but I'll use pinto beans instead of kidney beans. 

The health benefits of beans are many:  they lower cholesterol and promote digestive health, promote  heart health, stabilizes blood sugar levels. The beans also have antioxidants in them and can help manage your weight by giving a feeling of fullness (satiety).  Garbanzo beans contain molybdenum, manganese, folate, fiber, tryptophan, protein, calcium, phosphorous and iron. 

I was surprised to learn that garbanzo beans may be one of the world's oldest, cultivated bean.  I was also surprised to read that India supplies the vast majority of the world's garbanzo beans; something like 80-90%! Other producers of garbanzo beans are Pakistan, Turkey, Ethiopia and Mexico.

This chart is a bit old but I don't think that the bean production levels haven't changed too dramatically.

Recently I learned two tips for cutting down on the gas in cooked beans. The first tip is not to cook the beans in the same water in which you soak them. The second tip, is to change the water part way through the bean cooking process. I tried the latter tip last time I made beans and it really worked.

What about you dear reader?

Do you have tips you use to cut down on gas from cooked beans?

Moon Beaming Bright

(These photos are better viewed by clicking on them.) 

Thank you for visiting.

Mama's Bread Pudding

Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around mama's baking.  Among other things, she made delicious bread pudding. It was so creamy and soft. Actually she was an excellent cook overall. Self-taught and a largely intuitive cook. I was not a natural cook and I took little interest in the kitchen except to make baked goods.

My lack of interest in cooking continued after I was grown.  My jobs always required me to put in long hours and arriving home late at night left little energy or time to shop for a wide range of ingredients or slave over a stove.  While mom was still able to get around, she would often visit and I so appreciated her visits.  I loved to come home from work and have well made and good smelling food hit my nostrils as I walked in the door.  I also just appreciated being able to spend time lots of time with her and though I worked long hours my weekends were free so we would spend time together going around the city and being tourists.

In later years, I had to cook for my mother and my cooking skills improved though most times my cooking was not to her liking. Who can blame her after having been such a great cook all of her life? Others of her generation looked to her to teach them.  So it was hard for her to be able to enjoy much of what I'd cook.  Later, when I retired, I began to experiment more in the kitchen. A few of my recipes and experiments are on this blog.  However, I admit to still having little patience in the kitchen.  I need simple recipes that don't require too much fussing over, especially since I'm prone to multi-tasking.  I am a simple girl at heart and I love simple food.

Recently I've been thinking of recipes that mom made when my siblings and I were growing up.  Things like rice pudding, bread pudding, dream bars, hamburger soup, home made bread, and bannock bread. Of course she made much more than these dishes, but these are the comfort foods that stick out in my mind, and which I crave from time to time. I've posted my experiments with each of the above dishes on my blog.  Even though I had no intention of posting anything about cooking on my blog, it actually became something I did rather frequently and cooking has become something I enjoy from time to time.

If you are interested in any of my cooking experiments you can search for them on my blog by typing "recipes" or the type of recipe you are looking for like "baked beans".  The repertoire on the blog is not extensive, but it is growing.  I would say that my dream bars still need work to be truly "dreamy", lol.  But other than that my other cooking experiments have turned out well enough. I call them experiments because I didn't inherit any recipes as such from mother (except for the dream bars) and I experiment by changing up recipes a fair bit to suit what I have on hand or to capture the essence of how mama made something.


Today's cooking experiment is bread pudding. I remember that mom's bread pudding was not like most people's bread pudding.  Hers was very soft, melt in your mouth, and delicious like real custard pudding.

I took the following recipe and made it my own with a measure of success. I can see those areas where I can improve things.

I used left over 2 left over French baguettes, one was white and one was whole wheat,.  Rather than homogenized milk I used 1 1/2 cans of evaporated milk with equal amounts of water and I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar (a slightly reduced amount).  I made sure to use lots of liquid to try and achieve the creamy consistency and also because the French baguette was very hard.  I can also use stale white bread if I want bread pudding more like mama used to make.

Some recipes call for the milk and eff mixture to be heated first which is what I did. If you do this with evaporated milk you need not boil the milk otherwise it will curdle with the added water.  I used mine when it was just before the boiling point.

I added the raisins to the bread before pouring in the milk mixture.

Ingredients

• 3 cups milk
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 loaf day old bread, cut into cubes and toasted
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk together milk, eggs, brown sugar, spices and vanilla. Toss in bread and raisins. Pour into a 9” by 9” ovenproof casserole dish, sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake for 30-45 minutes, until eggs are set, and the top is golden brown.

Ready for the oven.

In my house we never ate bread pudding with a sauce. We ate it with cream so I have not put a recipe here for bread pudding sauce.

Finished product.

 After the pudding was cooked I noticed that some of the bread pieces were still a bit hard. I left the pot in the oven after turning the heat off and kept it in there for another 15 minutes or so. When I took it out again, it looked like the pudding in the photo above (Finished product).  It softened up much of the bread that was chewier.

If I make this pudding again with hard French baguette, I will first soak the bread crumbs to soften the crusts a bit. In the end though, the pudding tasted a lot like that of my childhood.

What about you my dear reader? What childhood recipes do you recall and perhaps make?

Enjoy!