a sweet day

today was one of those sundays i love. lots of angkoi laing-ing (sit play-ing ---hanging out----), and delicious things to eat.

i woke up early to make brownies with my fantastic program manager, who is in town for the two week training of the new group of volunteers.

we split the batch and both of us could barely contain our excitement to have a brownie, even though it was only nine in the morning.

i then took advantage of the cooler morning and biked to visit a friend- a twelfth grader who attended my camp glow last june, and her mother.  they run the teacher guest house in town, and last weekend when i stopped by, they gifted me a couple of new nail polishes. i returned the favor with three of my own, sent from america.

in the afternoon, after two hilarious guys from the new group of volunteers swung by, chris and i biked to the "i love you mart" to enjoy a cool beverage and free fans.  while there, we were graced with the presence of three additional new volunteers, who basically had me laughing until my stomach hurt for a good hour.

finally, we rounded out the day with a surprise and welcome visit from our friend and former khmer tutor.  she brought us pineapple from northern province battambang- "much sweeter than the sour pineapple" found in our province, says she- and saw that chris had bought a pumpkin.  while he had planned on making a dessert concoction of some sort, she proceeded to help us use the left over rinds to make a khmer dessert- bongaim sngaam la po- literally, "dessert boil(ed) pumpkin."

shredding the coconut meat.

squeezing the coconut meat to make a thick coconut milk. pumpkin rinds in the pan to the right.

boiling the coconut water and pumpkin until the pumpkin is soft...

tasting after a hefty number of tablespoons of sugar have been added. "pa-aim?" "pa-aim kroo-up kroan!" (sweet? sweet enough!")

the last step: adding the best and thickest coconut milk from the first squeezing.

delicious boiled pumpkin in a coconut milk and sugar bath.

and that, in a very wordy nutshell, was my sunday.

is this real life?

today, topher and i traipsed on down to our local "modern gas" store (complete with 20 varieties of rice cookers and gas stove tops) and forked over thirty seven bucks for an amazing little item that has just increased my happiness scale to near tipping point.

a toaster oven.

i didn't believe topher when he a said a little toaster oven could be used to bake.  how is this possible, i said?  and now, i have to admit to the whole world:

i was wrong.

you CAN bake with a toaster oven.

and bake i did.

for my birthday, topher bought me some goodies from a local western grocery store in phnom penh.  in that sack of goodies, he included an amazing package of fudge brownie mix and chocolate frosting.

oh i put that to good use.

even using duck egg instead of chicken egg, it still turned out well.

did you know you could MISS batter? because i sure did!

i first made brownie cookies.  they were delicious.

then i went for broke and tried to make a pan of brownies.  because the pan provided was convex, the batter didn't distribute evenly and they got a little toasty in the middle.

BUT.

they were still delicious.

i frosted them...

and covered them in m&ms from my dear mom...

and cut a few for our host family.

and now i'm digging in with topher, jill and dexter morgan.

happy friday, all!

Preparing for the Last...Baked Good

As our departure date for Cambodia grows ever closer, I find myself pondering completely inane things.

Such as, what should my final baked good be?  What should I prepare in my lovely butter yellow stand KitchenAid mixer before I don't have access to this lovely equipment for two years?

I could go for an old standby: peanut butter candy.  These aren't really candy- it's crunchy and peanut butter and chocolate bars, but where I grew up, our school district made these little bars and I lurved them!  This is the recipe I use.

Or a new favorite chocolate cake that I've made a few times, and posted about here:

Or something I've yet to make, like this amazingness Amanda posted at kevinandamanda a few weeks back, called Chocolate Chip Cookie and Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar.  Um, YES?!

Or how about homemade twix bars from Hoosier Homemade?

Or I could go for broke and attempt to NOT fail at cheesecake, as I did a few weeks ago:

If you had a last meal or last dessert to make for two years, what would you pick? Suggestions?

Gooey Goodness...Wednesday?! Apple Cake with Caramel Glaze

This past weekend, we celebrated Topher's birthday (and of course Memorial Day! Thank you veterans and active military!) and his only request:

Apple Cake.

I actually really dislike this cake, as I don't really like fruit cakes or pies, but I know how much the hubsy does, so I was happy to oblige.  I got this recipe from a dear friend, Claire, and I (and Topher's tummy) can't thank her enough!

On a side note, actually good birthday cake TO ME is buttery yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

But really, all I really want is the ice cream and frosting.  Who needs CAKE?

Husbands, I guess.

Anyway, apple cake.

Your needed ingredients:

Start with combining the dry ingredients:

then add the orange juice:

next up are the eggs:

then it's time to combine all:

It's a nice, thick dough/batter:

You add nuts of any variety- I had pecans on hand, so in they went:

Mmm...cake batter...

The most labor intensive part of this cake starts with these:

Requires a husband who loves peeling:

And has you tsk-tsk-tsking until you get apples like this:

 While your husband peels, you can make the cinnamon sugar mix:

 Take a few minutes and slice the apples, then pour into the cinnamon sugar mixture:

And combine until you get this yumminess.

Finally, it's time to layer in preparation for baking. Start with a layer of batter...

then add apples...

Repeat three times, alternating batter-apples-batter-apples-batter-apples:

Sprinkle some brown sugar on top...

And bake for a really long time, until apples are very browned:

After it's cooled, flip it over:

And prepare the caramel glaze that you didn't photograph.  It's easy: half a cup of brown sugar, half a cup of butter and two tablespoons milk.  Boil. Cool.

Then...

POUR.

DRIZZLE.

LICK.

Then serve to in laws and husband...

Oh, and then lament how your cheesecake went from this:

to this when you tried to cook just a bit more because the middle jiggled a little bit.

Shit.

Cheesecake will not defeat me. Check back in a few weeks for a SUCCESS. I hope.

APPLE CAKE

3 cups flour

2.5 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/3 cup orange juice

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts

_________

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbs. cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

6 apples, sliced and peeled

DIRECTIONS:  Mix the dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients until well blended.  Mix the apples/sugar/cinnamon mixture in separate bowl.  Grease and flour 9 inch tube pan.  Alternate layers of batter and apples (3 layers each). Begin with batter and end with apples.  Sprinkle top of apples with brown sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours.

What's your birthday cake of choice?

Gooey Goodness: Mini Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Hello world!

I made these little morsels of happy for a staff retreat this week.  I was a bit weary, as I decided in the interest of time to doctor a boxed cake mix and hope it would turn out just as yummy.

I used this happy little ingredients to make my boxed cake even better:

Dash of vanilla, buttermilk instead of water, cup of sour cream, and package of pudding. Instant extra-fluffy and moist!

How did it turn out?

Well, all 60 cupcakes disappeared in one evening.

Need I say more?

YUM!

Happy week, loves!