recipe experiments

Don’t you hate when you try a new recipe and it DOESN’T turn out?  You begin with such high hopes, and assemble your ingredients(can you tell that I am a cooking show junkie, lol) carefully,

You(I say you but, of course, I mean myself. Hopefully my dear readers,  you will have had a similar experience) have learned, over the years, that it is MUCH better to so do than to be suddenly faced with a task such as peeling and chopping apples, while your pan with a batter containing (among other things, baking soda) languishes coldly upon the counter, its rising abilities reducing by the second….(did you not read the recipe? Another wise thing to do.  :(

But I digress.

Its not nice to labour over a difficult recipe(or even , it could be an easy one, but you don’t know this, because it is NEW to YOU)  only to have it fail. Yikes.

If you have a sweet significant other, as I do, they are now faced with the onerous task of gamely sampling the disaster, trying to hide the horror as they eat, all the while , bravely telling you that, “no honey, it is DELICIOUS!!! “

But happily, the recipe that I tried this afternoon, did NOT fail.

It was (and is, as it still exists, but won’t for long) a carrot cake but one made with healthy ingrdienets, and NO SUGAR and minimal oil AND spelt flour.

A recipe by Ania Catalano

This moist, luscious cake is a tropical twist on an old favorite–made even better with Agave nectar and wholegrain flours.

Serves 8 – 10

Pineapple Coconut Carrot Cake:
3 cups carrots, finely grated in food processor
½ cup unsweetened, canned pineapple, drained well and chopped
½ cup unsweetened, shredded coconut (plus extra to garnish outside of cake, optional)
2 cups sprouted spelt flour or 1 ½ cups barley flour and ½ cup oat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoons cinnamon
¾ cup light Agave nectar
3 eggs
½ cup canola oil
1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
1 tablespoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Lightly grease two 9” cake pans with canola oil ( can use an 13×9 pan)
Mix together carrots, pineapple and coconut in a large bowl
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon
In a food processor, blend Agave nectar, eggs, oil, yogurt, and vanilla
Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir to blend
Add carrot mixture and stir until combined
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean
Let cool in pan, then invert onto platter
Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 8 oz. Package cream cheese at room temperature
½ cup light Agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream together butter and cream cheese
Add agave nectar and vanilla and beat well until creamy
Refrigerate frosting for about ½ hour to thicken (if needed) before frosting cake
Spread frosting in center of the two layers and over entire cake
Sprinkle with coconut, if desired

DELICIOUS!!!!! RECOMMENDED for anyone,…..

the moon and why some days are just NOT as good as others…

So I will let you all in on a little secret; if I am planning

to make a purchase that is major I will always check to see if it is a fortuitous day for such activities, or not.  I check with Georgia Nichols

Here’s her”moon alert” for today..

“We have the “all clear” today to shop (whether you spend $10 or $10 million) and make important decisions (except for one hour, from 1:15 PM until 2:15 PM EDT today). The Moon moves from Leo into Virgo at 2:13 PM EDT today; and the New Moon is at 11:04 p.m. EDT.”

Now I am sure this seems totally crackers, but think back;

Have you ever been out , making a purchase, even just shopping for groceries, and somehow your mind couldn’t concentrate? It was more than just having daily worries or distractions, it was more like you could not DECIDE about the simplest choice;

chicken or fish,

which type of coffee, what cereal, and on and on…

OR you were perhaps doing something major, like  renting a suite and having prospective tenants come to view the place. You had perhaps three or four people come to view one afternoon, and somehow could NOT decide which one seemed ideal.

THAT is all because of the moon’s phase that day. It was simply NOT an ideal day.

Sometimes, obviously  you have to struggle through, as it’s not practical to abandon ones’ grocery cart and slink back home to hide under the bed until a better day.

But for the BIG stuff, it might be better to reschedule…

International students

Image via Wikipedia

The university where I work has international students stay in the summer time .

They are supposedly come here to learn English, and to learn about our culture but for many of them,  it is a welcome break from their arduous and career orientated lives.  They are suddenly catapulted into a thrilling new environment with many students from their own country or from a country which is vastly different, both in language and culture.

They have their lessons in the morning but in the afternoon, the time is largely spent on touring the city and getting acclimatised.  They are taken everywhere, from whale watching to shopping to simply hanging out at one of the local beaches. They all seem to have a good time but are so different from our own  wintertime students; they are quieter and politer and definitely more mature. They are aware of their privilege  as well.

After their month is finished, they are usually placed with, “home  stay families”.  Here they are placed with a family who usually have children or teenagers ; from this environment  they learn more about the culture and get a chance to practice their language skills (all the while, still taking classes at the university)

I was talking with  one such student today and she looked so SAD; “I don’t want to go”(from the university dorm to her new family); I asked if she was nervous and she sadly said,”yes”.

It’s a big step and SOMETIMES the new family is less than ideal, in spite of the intense screening processes that go on before. Last year one girl told me that her home stay, “Mom and Dad” were an older couple who went to bed at 7 pm!!! She was left to her own devises, and was so lonely and upset, as they lived quite far out and of course, she did not have a car or the wherewithal to take a bus or go out on her own. They also made no effort to get her food that she was used to and altogether it was a bad situation.  I know that such people were just using the situation to get an easy extra $700 a month; shame on them!!!

I tried to urge her to tell one of the coordinators but as she was raised to not make a fuss and to put up with what ever happened, I am afraid that she had a bad three months.

Ideally the home stay family treat the exchange student like one of their own kids, and take him or her out to experience life in western society. They SHOULD try to get food that the student likes and SHOULD make sure that  there are no problems.

Students!

When I was a student, I had the unfortunate luck to have a professor who shockingly confessed to his class one day,”I hate all students and young people”.

!

Now he either was hung over(in those days, this was quite likely as most professors seemed to have a tippling problem) or else was simply a nasty man who felt that he had to reveal his true feelings.

I remember being quite hurt and indignant, and glancing around the room, could see that my reaction was common. It was apparent that the more common reaction was anger, as his statement was certainly unprovoked; we were a docile bunch and obediently handed our assignments(I THINK it was some Lit class) in  on time.

So maybe he was annoyed about a previous class…

It was apparent from the way he marked papers and exams that he acted from malice towards some of the kids.

Those days, we didn’t react but simply accepted that he was a pompous , mean spirited old git and to watch out for him; ie don’t provoke with arguments in class discussions and keep ones head done, generally.

Now that I am older, I sometimes can see where he might have been coming from, but no matter, it was a hurtful thing to say and THESE days would have the students in an uproar.

PLUS if students have a prof who acts with such bias and malice, that behavior would be enough to have a hearing and probably a suspension.

So gentle reader, how about you? What tales do you have of mean profs or instructors?

I have a webcam!

I am pretty excited, about this(old hat for everyone on the earth, I am sure) but I have a web cam! It is included with my Son Vaio computer and I had the hardest time trying to find out how to work it, until I was on YouTube and saw several people had posted experimental videos of THEM discovering THEIR Sony vaio cameras…lol!

It is shocking how UN photogenic I am; I look less beautiful than I fondly believe. (I am joking, but not about not being photogenic; I simply do NOT have the angular thinish faces that the cameras love.

No matter!

One day I will post a video and everyone can see who I am after all these years(blogging since 2007! Can it be???)

So keep posted, it may happen one day SOON!