I know I've mentioned since the beginning of this blog that I've been trying out new recipes and searching out new cookbooks specifically so I can learn to make things from scratch.
Why? Because I knew that once we made it to an MAF programme, those things that we can get from the store and take for granted just won't be there to purchase. Some MAF staff live in big cities (in East Africa) but we knew that wasn't for us ... which means that there is even less available.
While a lot of my kitchen equipment and recipes have yet to arrive ... it has only reduced the extent of but not stopped the 'from scratch' cooking that is going on in our house!
I fully appreciate that many people living in the UK or America like to make things in the same way even though ready made options are available and we did a lot of that too. But when you're having a busy week, you know you can always go and pick up a loaf of bread from the shop, buy some coleslaw to add to a meal or have a couple of frozen pizza's on hand as a back up. Here that is just not an option ... unless it has been made from scratch in your own kitchen beforehand.
It is not even that any of these things are particularly difficult to make. Given the time we could all do it. Here you HAVE to make the time or you can't eat them. Simple as that. There are no 'convenience stores'!
So, in the last few weeks we have enjoyed bread, biscuits, coleslaw, yoghurt, potato salad, caramelised onions, pasta sauce, chapati's and many other things ... but only because we've made them ourselves.
A lot of people have asked me, exactly what I will be doing, while Mark is busy fixing planes. In time I've no doubt that I'll find something to get involved in but in the meantime, the amount of preparation that goes into just running a house and getting food ready for a family of four is plenty to keep me out of mischief!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment