Bread Pudding

One of my new favorite desserts is bread pudding.  Mostly because it's extremely easy to make.

The main ingredient is stale bread.  I sometimes use regular bread from a loaf/baguette, but this time I used breads that were a bit sweeter to begin with (banana bread and mango bread).

Melt the butter in the milk.  

Mix all of the ingredients together and stick it in the oven.  

This bread pudding was particularly sweet and addicting because the bread I used already had a strong flavor.

Chicken and Beads

Back in February, a friend had his birthday party at the bead shop.  

He hired a guy to grill chicken for his guests. Inside the shop.  

There was pizza.  And jewelry of course.

It was probably the best chicken we've had in Kampala.  

Fresh Corn

There's an Indian grocery store here that always seems to have a surprise waiting for me in their produce section.  I've found okra, beets, and even delicious orange oranges.  One day some time back I also found the most perfect looking corn.  

I cooked a mix of corn, tomatoes, green beans, and mango.  

And chicken of course.  The man needs his meat.

Unfortunately I haven't seen corn in the store since.  

Qaddafi's Mosque

There aren't many tourist sights in Kampala.  But there is a cluster of religious buildings (a mosque, baha'i temple, and cathedral) that get some attention from sight seekers.  

In certain parts of town, the Mosque dominates the view.  It's huge.  But it hadn't even occurred to me to visit it until some friends decided to go.

For the tour they wrapped us up in scarves (heads and legs).  A man wrapped me and he didn't seem to confident in what he was doing.  At one point he seemed to be getting frustrated and asked "Don't women do this where you're from?"  I told him yes, but I don't.  So I ended up stumbling about, trying to hold my scarf up while taking pictures.  

The inside of the mosque was really peaceful and impressive.  

The mosque was started by Idi Amin and completed with funds donated by Qaddafi.

We climbed up to get a view of Kampala.  

While at the top, we managed to get attention from the male tourists and guides.  Once we made our way down they were very eager to have photos with us, and take English lessons, and hold our hands...

Another day in Uganda.  

Back to Business: Pumpkin Smoothie

I've been away a while, but I'll try not to abandon the blog anymore.  Promise.

One of the nifty new things I got when we moved into our new apartment was a blender.  We have mango and banana smoothies every few days.  

But when I saw a pumpkin sitting on our counter (it magically appeared, because at the time I had no idea where it came from) I decided that pumpkin smoothies were in order.  So I boiled the pumpkin and mixed it with coconut milk and some other goodies like bananas, honey, and lime.

Thick smoothies are the way smoothies are meant to be.  And because of the pumpkin these were so thick they were better eaten with a spoon.  

Om nom nom smoothie :)

Brass and Blue

I had some leftover lapis lazuli beads from the necklace I made.

I seem to always make necklaces and time seems short these days, so I made a bracelet.

Either I'm excited to have something new, or I am obsessed with these beads because I wear this bracelet all the time now.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

A few days ago I finished a book called A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  I definitely wouldn't describe it as an exciting read, but I am so glad that I read it.  It's one of those books that seems to take on the crazy, ambiguous subject of "life" and somehow manages to nail it.  The characters also strike me as real people more than fictional ones from another era.  

It can be a slow read, but A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of those simply written, but incredibly thought provoking books that you won't forget once you've finished.  

Mozzarella

I found cheese.  It turns out there is a "farmer's market" here, which is basically code for a market where vendors sell food white people like.  

All the markets here on the roadside selling piles of onions, pineapples, and carrots are technically farmer's markets, but we simply refer to them as The Market.  A farmer's market seems to take on the meaning of what we see in the U.S.  There is mozzarella, ricotta, fresh baguettes, and basil.  They even import fruits like orange oranges (Ugandan oranges are green), apples, and pears.  These are fruits that are simply not grown in Uganda.  

Ugandans know their audience though.  The money is where the foreigners are, so you should sell what foreigners like.  Even if that means importing fruits from South Africa to sell at the "local" farmer's market.  

Look, I love mozzarella.  No, it's not as good as what I can get in the U.S., but I wasn't going to turn it down.  I bought mozzarella made from a Ugandan cow's milk, and it was pretty good.  

Something I could turn down was the tortilla chips and salsa.  First of all, the label said "torttilo chips", and the salsa looked watery and just made me unhappy to look at.  Just as I hesitated to trust the east coast to make delicious Mexican food, I also mistrust Ugandans.  

This meal reminded me of summer in California.  I was pretty pleased with myself that I was able to eat this food in February, which would generally never happen in the U.S. at this time.  

Performers

I've seen a couple different types of performances in the past few days.  

These guys showed up at a farmer's market that's held at someone's home.  They did some pretty amazing and awkward looking poses with their bodies.

This guy was super tall, but he jumped through a hula hoop!

I also saw some Ugandan musicians playing acoustic.  One performer (not these guys) got up and did an awful rendition of Ben Harper's "The Drugs Don't Work".  He then proceeded to do awful renditions of other songs as well.  

There were also some really fantastic artists with beautiful voices.  The guy pictured here was extremely talented.  

Asian in Uganda

Uganda has a surprisingly yummy array of Asian restaurants.  

Arirang, the Korean restaurant, is one of my favorites.  I love that I can count on these places to get some flavorful and spicy veggie dishes.  

Whenever we go to this restaurant it's full of people, mostly Koreans, singing their hearts out to karaoke.  Best background music ever.  

Even though I've seen these restaurants jam packed with Asians, I have no idea where they go during the day.  

Last night was the first night I've had sushi since I left the U.S.  It definitely satisfied my craving.  

Paneer

Cheese in Kampala sucks.  Not only is the cheese overpriced, but it lacks all of the richness that makes cheese so tasty.  

There is one cheese.  One cheese to rule them all, one cheese to find them, one cheese to bring them all and in happiness bind them.

That cheese is paneer.  An Indian cheese with the consistency of tofu, paneer is salty, smooth, and mixes well with veggies in a stir-fry of Indian spices.  It's also the cheapest cheese in Kampala because it's sold in the Indian markets.

Of course I miss my mozzarella and ricotta, but paneer has a lot to offer.

Something German

A bbq we went to had this game that called for beer and quick feet.  I didn't play, but I enjoyed watching.  Especially since they were playing right in front of an awesome view of Kampala.  

As the game was explained by a German guy, there seemed to be a confused consensus that the game originates from Germany. 

I really like the movement in this shot.  The purpose was for one team to pick up the bottle you see sitting in the grass after it had been hit by a ball.  They have to be speedy.  

What to take to the bbq

We went to a bbq a few days ago and because it was potluck, I had the opportunity to cook for more than my usual one person.  

When I found out I should bring something, my mind was going a mile a minute trying to decide what to take.

I settled on some basic stuff, green beans (which to me are always good) and a Moroccan salad.

Then came the fun/fried part.  For desserts I battered some bananas in a cinnamon, sugar, flour mixture and fried them. 

The bananas came out warm and gooey inside and slightly crunchy on the outside.  Do try at home.

I was going to make regular samosas that day, but since I had some pineapple jam I had made, I decided to make sweet ones.  I stuffed them with sugary, goopy pineapple and fried them as well.  When you don't have an oven, I think the next best thing for desserts is frying.  

The pineapple jam was sweet and tasty in the samosas, but I think I like straight pineapple best.  

The Gendarme

Anyone looking for a good book to read?  I wholeheartedly recommend The Gendarme by Mark Mustian.  I finished this book in tears, but then again, I finish most books in tears.  I don't want to say too much about it because I think half of the fun is the mystery of what is actually happening.  But in the most brief ways this story follows a man during early 1900 Turkey.  It's a page turner and addresses a period of history you don't often see in fiction.  

The other day the wind caught my book where we keep it above the door.  The pages were rapidly turning and flapping about as if an invisible hand were thumbing through at maximum speed.  I managed to take a picture before the wind died down.  

Australia Day

We went to a party to celebrate Australia Day.  I still don't have a very clear conception of what Australia Day is, but it has something to do with James Cook "discovering" Australia.  

That's the end of what I'm going to say about Australia.  This is the view from the apartment building, aka, the view that will soon by mine! Mua hahaha. ...We are thinking of moving to a new apartment.

Yes, people did swim in this.  

Peter lets me take pictures of him.  He's a good model.  

This guy on the other hand...Just kidding, Derrick is just very sensitive to the camera.  If you could see his expression right now it would be mostly uncomfortable.  It's too bad I have to focus on the back of his head whenever I want a photo of him now.

End of post dreamy picture.