The American Patient

As I mentioned the other day, Jim has been feeling quite poorly with a horrible head cold since his return from Ethiopia. Now we all know how horrid it is to feel stuffed up with a sore throat and a cough and I don’t mind looking after him but I do wish he would stop going on about it and take heed of advice when it is given!

Maybe it is the nurse in me who just expects a patient to behave like a patient!

He has refused to spend the day in bed. Instead, spluttering all over everyone at work (whilst telling them how awful he feels). He has been asking all week ‘what can I take to get rid of this’

Now as most of us know there is nothing better than hot tea, Panadol and sleep for a day. At the beginning of the week I did do the right thing and ask for a list of symptoms in order to make a decision about medication -

‘Do you feel congested?’
‘No’

‘Do you have a runny nose?’

‘No’

‘Do you have a cough?’

‘No’

‘Do you have a headache?’

‘No’

‘Do you have a sore throat?’

‘Yes’  
Hurrah finally something tangible I can grasp hold of! So off I go to the chemist to see what they have in store. Of course it is exactly as I have predicted – rest and home remedies, but I do pick up some super strength LemSip powders ‘tea by any other name will taste as sweet’ (sorry Will Shakespeare).

To give him his due he has got worse over the week working it all out of his system. Yesterday evening I arrived home to find him fast asleep on the lounge after taking a dose of cough suppressant with a sedative in it. At last it has made him stop and rest, if nothing else.
SO now I can do my real nursey thing – cover him with a blanket, light the fire and prepare supper – the chicken pie which I started to prepare last night, and finished off with mash potato and 20 mins inthe oven. The dogs both come in, investigate the inert body on the lounge and settle down to guard their master.
When I come in with supper and wake him he is shocked to realise that it is dark outside – it is nearly 8pm and he has been asleep for 2 hours.

In need of a bit of unsedated adult conversation, I make him a mug of my father’s lemon, honey and brandy (we used to love having this when we were children, I think I used more brandy than my father did) rather than the LemSip and I settle down with a couple of fingers of something 12 years old. We just manage one episode of ‘Hamish McBeth’, the 1996 BBC series we are working our way through, before the eyes start to droop.
An hefty dose of cough mixture and he sleeps like a baby for the first time all week.
Thank God for drugs. I am definitely stocking up to be ready for next year! 

     

Yummy Food for a Chilly Day.

It is a miserable morning here in Nairobi and I started off in style by locking my keys in the car when I went to get my take away coffee on the way to work. Thank goodness for men who carry spare keys and rush to your aid!
Last night I surprised myself by getting through most of my list for using up this weeks vegetable supply and as it is such a miserable day there is nothing better than to share my cooking with you. especially for those of you in the southern hemisphere who are still experiencing winter chills.

This is a guide for simultaniously preparing a CHICKEN PIE (which we will eat tonight), CHICKEN STOCK and POTATO AND LEEK SOUP.

First up peel and chop about 10 large potatoes, place in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil until soft.
At the same time chop about 8 leeks (from the garden if you have them) and fry in a mixture of butter and olive oil (the oil stops the butter from burning) add some dried sage. I used dried as it has a stronger flavour so you dont have to put as much in. Cook the leeks until they are soft and slightly coloured.

Whilst you are waiting for the potatoes, pull the meat of a cooked chicken carcas (I used the left overs from our roast dinner the day before) and place it in the bottom of an oven proof dish. Put the carcases in a deep non-reactive cassarole (I use my lovely purple Le Creuset). Do not add skin or excess fat.

Put aside some of the potato and leeks for the pie.

 FOR THE SOUP - put your cooked potatoes and leeks into the electric blender in small batches with just enough vegetable stock to make a smooth liquid. Put back into the pot and add salt, pepper and seasoning to your taste.
If you are eating straight away add more stock until you are happy with the consistency (I sometimes add a glass of white wine as well but this is up to you.)
If I am freezing the soup, I leave it nice and thick and then add more stock when defrosted. If nothing else it saves space in the freezer!

FOR THE PIE  - on top of the chicken add a layer of fried leeks. Add salt and pepper and a carton of cream and mix all together. Take the potatoes that you have reserved and mash them with milk, butter and salt and pepper. Pile the potato on top of the chicken and leek mixture. You can freeze it at this stage.
If eating straight away, dot the top of the potato with some butter and put into a hot oven to heat through and brown the top.

FOR THE STOCK - to the pot with the chicken carcases add - a couple of carrots chopped, one chopped leek, about 250gms of chopped mushrooms, a fresh bouquet garni (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme is my usual, you can add bay leaves if you have them), salt and pepper. Add cold water to cover the chicken. Put on a slow heat and allow to simmer for several hours. You may have to skim off the fat as it rises to the top. Strain the stock through a fine sieve or muslin and allow to cool. freeze in 500ml batches.

Give the chicken carcases, stock vegetables and any other extra scraps to the dogs who are frantically scratching at the kitchen door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My constant companions in the kitchen - my Darwin crocodile pot mitts, I love them. OK yes sometimes I talk to them :-)

chicken and leeks waiting for the potato top

stock ingredients waiting to go on the heat

 

Bon Appetit! Please ask if you need more explanation. Or if you have any additions to the recipes please let all of us know! 

 

Updates on the garden produce

I have just been reading through a few of the old posts and realise that I have to bring you up to date on some of our projects. Jim was away in Addis last week and returned on Friday with a sniffle that has developed into a full on head cold so I am getting to practice my bed side manner for a few days. NOT that he is one to stay at home, it has been a battle to get him to slow down on the work in the evening but today I really have had to insist he goes home early from work rather than coughing all over the place. His voice sounds like he has been smoking for his whole life!

The weather has been very tempramental. We planted out our cucumbers about a week ago when it was warm but have lost the lot to a cold snap. Surprisingly, the tiny tomatoes which I were sure would not even fruit are slowly ripening. Bosco and Bernard planted them in a moveable box with handles so they can be 'put to bed' in the relative warmth of the shed overnight and then moved out during the day.
The lettuce plants that I left to go to seed are starting to flower so I am going to have to read up on how you actually harvest the seeds. Some plants the seeds need to be dried, some you can use straight away.
Our avocado's on the window sill are growing weeds (they do take along time to sprout), the plums and lemons are not even producing weeds.
When I made the visit to my cousin about a month ago I picked up my animal pots that she had been baby sitting for me. They have steeled into the herb borders and are just starting to sprout with the seeds that Lil put in them.

It is just after 4pm in the afternoon now and I am about to head home. The leeks and potatos are waiting to go into the pot as are the tomatoes so I have a full but relaxing evening ahead (after sorting out the patient!). I bought alot of coriander on the weekend. When you ask for 2 bunches in the supermarket they are hardly enough for one meal, when you ask for 2 bunches at a farmers market you get enough to start a Thai restaurant so I am going home to make Maggie Beers' delicious coriander pesto using the bottle of Ver Juice that Helen brought me from Australia.

The raspberries have finally been planted out - 4 plants in all. I am guarding them carefully, there are about 4 fruits coming - so exciting!

These are our little figs. The baboons love them and I have not minded too much up to now as I have not had enough to preserve. But now I have found several recipes that use them so I am waiting eagerly for the next crop and then we will be dining on 'Quail in a fig bath'.

 

Swahili Summer Kenya on JFMKT

A quick word about the ETSY.com icon at the right hand side of your screen. If you click on this it will take you directly to the Swahili Summer Kenya Shop on ETSY.com A direct line to a wonderful work of exotic jewelry from all over Africa!

Not ot mention all the other beautiful shops on the site. You will spend many happy hours looking around.

 

my beautiful business card designed by the very talented Harriet Stanes

Pasta Mama!!

Pasta is one of my favourite things to eat. it can be very easy - just cheese or bottles sauce, or as fancy as you can make it with lots of cream and seafood or made into intricate ravioli shapes.

I have owned a pasta machine for years and.....this weeks' confession is -

I have never actually used it for making pasta until very recently. (they are very useful for rolling out fondant icing)

My friend Anna and I had been trying to make a pasta making date for months. We had several other friends who wanted to join us but there was never a date to suit all. In the end we finally made a date and just hoped others could come.
So come the day we are 4  and 4 children on a Sunday morning, gathered in Anna's kitchen. Two pasta machines to hand with bags of flour and a basket of eggs, a couple of beetroot and some spinach for colour.

100gms of flour to one egg yolk is all you need. Very simple in theory.
The flour is in mounds on the bench in front of each of us and we carefully seperate our eggs and plop the yolks in the middle of the flour. This is where the fun began. Trying to keep everyone 'light of fingers' as they bring the flour into the eggs is not easy and I have visions of my old home economics teacher getting very frustrated when I was making scones at the age of about 14. Eventually we have balls of dough which are starting to look and feel as silky as the photographs. We then try and put the colour into it. This takes alot of work and some of it does look a bit streaky (especially the green) but who cares, we all agree it is ours and we can make it how we like!

Then the machines come into use. This is the really fun bit - rolling, rolling and folding and rolling again - except my machine does not seem to want to play the game, one of the rollers is not moving. In the end we use one machine for the rolling and the other just for cutting into strips.
Soon we have lovely little 'nests' lined up on the bench and we are acting like new mothers looking at their first child, we are so proud of our achievment.
The children have all had a turn at helping with the rolling and cutting and are keen to start eating.
Anna has started to make the sauces. Nothing too fancy, we want our creations to be the star attraction.
There is an enormous pot of boiling water and the pasta nests are dropped in one by one for a few minutes. 'Oh dear' they are coming out rather paler than they went in especially the beetroot pink, vegetable colours are not water fast!

As we all start eating there is silence until the first 'yum' escapes from a full mouth.
There is plenty for everyone to take home. We all agree that it has been a well spent Sunday morning.

Yesterday Helen and I were discussing what we should try next. I have recently purchased a macaron kit.. I always buy then at the airport when coming out of Paris and figure they should not be so difficult. Helen is keen but suggests we should have another pasta class to refine our skills a bit. Maybe we will do ravioli. everyone is just returning from the long holidays for the start of the new school year so it will be a great excuse to catch up on the past few months.

My pasta machine has been relegated to the scrap metal box in the shed. Jim tried to fix it so it ended up in bits. He did find the problem but could not mend it properly. Oh well, maybe next time I should spend a bit more than $10 at Aldi's bargain table.

 

Pasta Queens - me, Anna, Helen and Joanne

 

our creations

 

'yum'

the serious business of rolling, cutting and forming nests

the real judges of quality and yumminess - Ella, Florian, Mea and Lianne

best buys and Christmas cooking!

My Saturday mornings are becoming a bit of a ritual. My wine class was cancelled today, which means we cannot go away next weekend but I am enjoying not having to rush off in the traffic.
After a slow start I have just finished at the organic market in the grounds of Talisman Restaurant. All you Niarobians who are out and about get your selves down there for some great buys.

My first find was beautiful rubarb that is going to go in the bottom of creme brulee (I get to use my kitchen blowtorch!); soup is heavy on the menu this week with carrots (and ginger with a touch of orange juice), potato and leek (trying to use up our abundant leek crop before they go woody, and tomato and basil which can be taken warm or cold. I use my own home made stock, vegetable or, if the dogs don't get to the carcas first, chicken (it means having roast chicken at least once a week but that is not so much of a hardship for us, it is one of our favourite meals)

I also found some artichokes which I love and have been trying to grow from seed for months now. The lady who had them is going to do the hard work for me and will bring the plants when they are ready. So exciting to think I will be able to have my own plants in the garden.

The pineapple is destine for the Christmas baking fest! I am going to try and do my own glace fruit so I can make my mother's beautifu stain glass window cake.

Not just thinking about my stomach, I also found a marigold plant that will be going into the veggie garden to distract the bugs from the fruit and vegetables.

I am now sitting in Dorman's drinking coffee having just stocked up on a weeks worth of amazing bread from The Bake Maker stand which is here in the Karen shop. The fragrance of fresh bread coming from the bags is overpowering and I am so tempted to start eating it now!

Getting back to Christmas, I have been thinking for a few weeks now I really must get started on my fruit mince, pudding and cake. They are so much better if they have time to mature for months (and benifit from a regular nip of brandy or sherry sprinkled over). Having lived in the tropics for so long and moving around with work, I have never been able to plan to far ahead with my Christmas cooking but now that I am settled in a climate that is condusive to keeping cakes etc long term without them going mouldy I am determined to get ahead and not be burning the midnight oil the week before Christmas. We have a lovely cool dry cellar which will be perfect for hanging the puddings.

Well, having had my saturday morning treat it is time to hit the traffic.  I am so looking forward to seeing Helen this afternoon. She and the family have been traveling with her brother's family for the school holidays and just arrived home yesterday. Although it does mean no more blog readers in Cambodia or Thailand, hopefully there will be a regular reader in Dhubai now, Adele.

Domestic Goddess

The highlight of our Home Economics class year, when I was in hgh school, was making and decorating a cake to enter in our local annual show. I can't remember ever being interested in the baking displays when we visited the show. When we visited the big Royal Agricultural Society show held in Sydney at Easter every year my parents would head straight to the massive pavilion that held the regional produce displays. My Godmother worked for the Rice Board so that was usually the next stop. As a teenager and then living in Sydney our interests lay more in the cattle sheds checking out the good looking boys who brought their cattle and sheep down for the show.

The year that it was our classes turn to enter in the cake decorating, I must admit, I was rather nervous. the baking bit was fine, the decorating was not. In the end my pale green cake with pink briar roses looked fine, except that when I went to view it some of the flowers were broken. However, I remain exceeding jealous of my best friend Alison who received a certificate for hers!

My skills in cake decorating have developed over the years with the help of books and a few essential pieces of equipment.
A couple of years ago I offered to make Mea her 8th birthday cake as her present and it has sort of exploded from there. The lady dinasor (made from a bunt tin) with cardboard wings tail and neck/head was really very pretty. Her wings moved as if she was flying and when cut she disgorged all sorts of Haribo treats from her belly.
Now, each year I have to think of more impressive creations and as she and Ella get older rather more sophisticated, I imagine.

Serena's 1st birthday beehive and then her 2nd birthday train brought on a rush of requests for 50th cakes.
The biggest order yet is a sandcastle fantasy for Kaya and Mark's wedding in December. I am a little nervous about all that icing in the tropics in December but it is going to be so much fun.

I did for a short time consider going full time but I think I would rather just do it for friends, the stress would be just too much (and it drives Jim nuts when I am up beyond midnight trying to get things finished).

Serena and her train

The beehive

Ella's butterfly

Mea's cat modelled on Ginger

The original dinasor

Jamie's delicous maple syrup cake (Nigella recipe - yum)

Mea, Ella and Lianne's cake this year. A flashback to the pale green and flowers with addition of gold leaf!