Sweet Potatoes into Brownies

Hey ya'll!

Thought I would get a short post in since it has been a couple of weeks. Between my last post and now, work has continued to progress on the project. The foundation is complete and we are wrapping up the prep work to pour the slab. Is it weird/nerdy that I am giddy to get the concrete poured? Maybe. But it is a significant milestone for the project and means that we are just days away from laying blocks and forming walls. Finally getting this thing above grade will help tremendously in visualizing the final product. This will be especially helpful to visitors to the site, that until this point have seemed rather unimpressed with holes in the dirt and the concrete that filled those holes.

The last picture shows quarry stones that are used to infill around the pit latrines. It is also broken up by hand and used as aggregate in concrete. It looks like really nice counter tops could be made out of it.

I have continued my cooking and baking experiments. Between the last two weekends I made a banana cake and brownies. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of them because, umm, I start eating right away. That's part of the problem with making "healthy" desserts. There is a lot less guilt in eating them and therefore they tend to disappear much more quickly. I thought the banana cake wasn't going to firm up because the mix was very moist, but it turned out pretty well. I could have used a bit less liquid, or more flour, but for only using 3 of the 5 eggs it called for and adding in coconut milk, it was a success. The brownies were made from sweet potatoes. Did people know this was a thing? Baking with sweet potatoes, not just a baked sweet potato. Maybe if you're all paleo diet you some knew this was possible. I certainly did not. I ended up finding too many recipes, including one for chocolate cake, versus brownies, and tried to blend them together. In the end they didn't rise like I was hoping they might, so they were more dense then expected. The great part was they stayed incredibly moist and worked great with a slab of peanut butter as a filling snack.

My other culinary adventure this week included fish. Whole fish. Lake Malawi is known for chombo, which we would call tilapia, and our housemate John had three in the freezer. After letting them defrost, I scaled and cleaned them. I stopped there and decided to cook them whole. I stuffed them with some veggies that were mixed with some seasonings and lemon juice. Into the oven they went. While there were a few run-ins with bones, the meat typically separated easily and was pretty tasty. Overall, a success for such a last minute endeavor.

The weather has been increasingly dry and hot recently. As a result, whether controlled or not, there have been a lot of fires recently making the sky incredibly hazy at times. I don't know about you, but fire is absolutely captivating to me. It is simultaneously dangerous and peaceful. It can destroy, while also allowing for new life. And it is beautiful.

Until next time, Cheers!