Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake

 

 

In honor of my Brother's birthday, I thought I'd post our favorite Chocolate

Cake recipe.This is a really moist chocolate cake.

 

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour (High Altitude - add 2 more Tablespoons)

2 Cups Sugar (High Altitude - only use 1 2/3 Cups of Sugar)

2 teaspoons baking powder (High Altitude - 1 1/2 teaspoons)

2 teaspoons baking soda (High Altitude - 1 1/2 teaspoons)

1/2 teaspoon salt

9 Tablespoons Cocoa

7 Tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons coffee (already made) (High Altitude -3 Teaspoons)

2 Cups of boiling water (High Altitude - add 3 more Tablespoons)

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients.  The batter will be thin.  Bake for 30-40 minutes. 

 

Chocolate Icing

1 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup butter

1/4 Cup milk

1/4 Cup cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

 

Combine sugar, butter, milk and cocoa in a saucepan.  Cook over medium heat; boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add the vanilla and salt.  Pour the icing evenly over the cake.

 

This cake is a great cake to use with buttercream icing as well.  It is great for making birthday cakes.    I'll post my buttercream icing in another post.  It's not really an Ethiopia friendly recipe because it takes lots of imported ingredients. Here are some cakes I've made with this cake recipe:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egg Salad

Egg Salad

 

 

This recipe is adapted from Ellie Krieger's egg salad recipe.  It makes 4 servings.

 

8 hard boiled eggs

4 teaspoons mayonaise

1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

2 Tablespoons chopped onions

Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional:  2 pickles (chopped small) & 1 teaspoon dill

 

Dice 4 whole eggs & 4 egg whites.  Mix them together with a fork in a medium sized bowl. Add the mayonaise, dijon mustard and stir with a forkm mashing somewhat for desired consistency.  Stir in the onion, pickles and dill.  Season with salt and pepper.  Put the egg salad on bread or in a tortilla, add lettuce, onion and red bell pepper.  It is delicious!

 

School Lunch

School Lunch

 

Here's what we packed for lunch this week.  What did you make?  I'm always looking for new ideas!

 

We had some Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato left over from BLT night, so I made a BLT wrap with mayonnaise, a hard boiled egg, sliced cucumber with honey mustard drizzled over the top & a smoothie to drink. The strawberries were for snack time.

 

 

I packed a smoothie pop for snack, although my daughter informed me this week that she doesn't want smoothie pops for snack anymore. Apparently they take too long to eat and they take up too much of her recess time. :-) For lunch she had quesadilla, sliced tomato's, a hard boiled egg and chocolate milk. The brownie was for dessert.

 

 

 Smoothie pop for snack. Egg Salad sandwich, banana and mango, cheese slices and chocolate milk.

 

 

 

 

Double Chocolate Cookies

Double Chocolate Cookies

 

 

Ingredients:

1 Cup butter

3/4 Cups brown sugar

3/4 Cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 Cups flour

3 Tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda (high altitude - 1/2 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Cups of Chocolate Chips (or broken up chocolate pieces)

 

Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Add the vanilla.  Stir the dry ingredients together and then add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Add the chocolate chips.  Roll into balls and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Makes 80 cookies.

 

Chips

CHIPS

 

 

Do you need an easy side dish for a sandwich?  Try this, but don't try it if you've just come back from the States.  Give yourself a few weeks to get acclimated to food in Ethiopia again & then give it a try.  These are not like Lay's potato chips . . . they have a bit of a crunch to them, but we enjoy them.

 

Buy a package of chips at the store (the kinds at Shoa are much better than

 the ones you get at a local souk)

 

 

Add a little salt and pepper and enjoy!

 

 

BLT

BLT

 

 

Do you need an easy dinner?  Try making a Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich.  Toast the bread and butter it.  Put mayonnaise on the bread and then layer cooked bacon, lettuce and tomato.  It's delicious & easy for those nights you need a quick dinner.  Serve it with chips for an easy side.

 

Lasagna / Zucchini Lasagna

Lasagna

 

 

We love lasagna around our house!  We eat it at least twice a month.  The thing I love about lasagna is that it makes two meals for our family.  I can make two pans of lasagna on Friday and we will eat one on Friday night and have plenty for leftovers on Sunday night. 

 

Ingredients:

2 Cups Ricotta

3 eggs, beaten

2 balls of Mozzarella (about 2 cups)

6 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese

1/4 teaspoon oregano

3 dashes of garlic powder

1 package of lasagna noodles (I like the no-cook noodles

 they have at Shoa, it doesn't take the entire box of noodles)

1 batch of Marinara Sauce

 

Combine ricotta, eggs, mozzarella, parmesan, oregano and garlic powder.  In 2 bread pans, layer pasta, cheese mixture and sauce.  I make 4 layers.  Sometimes I sprinkle a little bit of provolone on top of the lasagna.  Cover and cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

 

You can also make this recipe with Zucchini instead of noodles.  Use the same ingredients.  Slice the zucchini real thin and then grill the zucchini.  Layer the zucchini, cheese mixture and sauce.  I have found that zucchini lasagna does not tend to absorb all the sauce, so it can have a lot of liquid.  It still tastes good like that, but if you add a layer of noodles in the middle, it will soak up a bit of the liquid.

 

Zucchini Lasagna