Recipe Scrapbook

Tessa posing with her beautiful Recipe Scrapbook

Today's post is featuring my friend Tessa and her fun creation: a Recipe Scrapbook! (You can find Tessa's own blog here: http://momentsinmada.blogspot.com/)

One of my favorite pages from Tessa's Recipe Scrapbook

Tessa's Recipe Scrapbook combines 2 of my favorite things: cooking recipes and scrap-booking! This is an easy and fun craft project for anyone and it also uses a lot of items you may already have.

To make your very own Recipe Scrapbook, all you need are some simple supplies:

• blank notebook or journal
• magazine clippings/pictures
• glue or tape
• your favorite cooking recipes

A Mexican-themed recipe page in Tessa's Recipe Scrapbook

Then, to make your very own Recipe Scrapbook, start by gluing or taping clippings or pictures from magazines into your blank journal.  You can be as creative as you want with this, and it's also fun to make this an on-going project where you add more pictures as you find them.  

Happy crafting! You can get as creative as you want with this fun and useful project, the Recipe Scrapbook!  Thanks for letting me highlight you, your Recipe Scrapbook, and your cooking today, Tessa!

The completed Lemon Cloud Pie recipe page with the finished pie!

Tessa with her delicious Lemon Cloud Pie!

Homemade Sweet Granola

Today I made a delightfully easy, fast, and delicious snack: homemade sweet granola! Thanks to my mother-in-law, Laura, and a missionary from West Africa, I had some good homemade granola recipes on hand from which to draw inspiration.  All of the ingredients I used can be modified and/or exchanged for different things, such as dried fruit, nuts, etc. for a different or more savory taste.

Here are the ingredients I used:

4 c. old-fashioned oats

4 tblsp. Brown sugar

½ tsp. salt

6 tblsp. vanilla extract (I used this in place of 1/2 c. maple syrup because I don't have any maple syrup here in Madagascar! Okay, and I just really love vanilla. I didn't notice any taste issues with this substitution, either.)

6 tblsp. oil

2 tblsp. water

6 tsp. cinnamon (You can use as little as 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon, I just really love cinnamon and added more for flavor).

1/4 c. carmel chips

1/4 c. chocolate chips

Easy Instructions:

1.     Adjust oven rack to middle position; preheat oven to 275^oF.

 Coat a 9 X 13 metal pan with cooking oil.

2.     Mix oats, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

3.     Bring vanilla extract, oil, water, and cinnamon to  a simmer in a small saucepan over low heat.

4.     Drizzle syrup mixture over oat mixture and stir to combine.

5.     Pour mixture onto prepared pan; spread evenly.

6.     Bake for 30 min., stirring after 15.

7.     After 30 minutes, add carmel and chocolate chips and stir.  Bake for an additional 15 min.

8.     Cool and store in air-tight container.  Can be eaten dry or with milk.

 Enjoy!!!

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Today I tried out a new recipe: chocolate fudge brownies! (I have been craving chocolate lately, so this sounded perfect!) This was only possible for me here in Madagascar thanks to my awesome mother-in-law, Laura, for sending me a care package that included COCOA POWDER!!!! I literally was dancing around the house when I opened up this care package! :)

 Oh, and also, I wanted to introduce y'all to my best friend in the kitchen....

He doesn't say much, but he is awesome at keeping me cool in my hot kitchen in the hot weather here in SW Madagascar! I'm so thankful for my fan!

Now, on to the mouth-watering, delicious, chocolate fudge brownie recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups margarine
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup cocoa (I'm so excited that I have this now!)

Easy Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (as you know, this is a relative term for me...I just put it on the medium-hottest setting this time and kept a close eye on it while baking)

2. Melt butter and add cocoa; mix. 

3. Stir in sugar and blend in the eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in flour; mix well. 

4.  Let hubbie taste the chocolate fudge brownie batter (this step is optional but highly recommended for a happy marriage).

5. Bake in greased 9 x 13-inch pan for 30 minutes in preheated oven. (I used a muffin/cupcake tin because I don't have a 9 x 13 inch pan...and I like how they turned out like little chocolate fudge brownie cupcakes!)

6.  Let cool on rack, 20 to 30 minutes. 

7.  Devour!!!  

And, you know me, I also need these chocolate fudge brownies to pass The Hubbie Test:

The verdict this time?

His literal response was: "These are perfect!" (I never hear that about my cooking!!!)

YAY! Success is so sweet :)

Rice: 7th Time is the Charm?

Rice.  This is an easy food to cook, right?

Wrong.  Rice has been the source of my cooking frustration for the last month, as it has been impossible (for me) to cook this seemingly simple food.  The only reasons I haven't given up trying to cook this food is because it is one of the most abundant foods available in Madagascar, and it is one of the cheapest (about $2 for a kilo)...(okay, okay, I also haven't given up because it is so easy for Drew to make rice!)  So, after 6 failed attempts to make rice, I have finally cooked delicious rice for us! So, do not lose heart if you have tried to cook rice and it has burned, been too watery, or something else (I have also washed rice with filtered water and then stored it in an airtight container for a week before using it...which led to fermented rice that smelled terrible and wasn't suitable for eating! Sheesh).  
Here are some simple, fail-proof steps to making good (edible) rice:

1.  Memorize the 1:2:3 Rice Ratio: 1 cup of uncooked rice (plus): 2 cups of water (yields): 3 cups of cooked rice.
2. Measure (exactly!) 2 cups of water and put in a pot on the stove.  Cover the pot with a lid and turn on the heat, bringing the water to a strong boil.
3. Measure (exactly! again) 1 cup of rice and pour this into the pot of boiling water on the stove.  
4. Quickly stir the boiling water and rice in the pot a few times (but not very many times) and then put the lid back on the pot.
5. Lower the heat on the stove and let the rice cook in the pot of boiling water for about 10-15 minutes.
6. The rice is cooked when all the water has evaporated from the pot and the rice has "grown" in the pot.
7. Serve the rice and enjoy! You've conquered the rice at last!