Fiction, Food, Faith and everything in-between

Yay for this lovely cookbook. This is the October cookbook for the Jamie Oliver cookbook club and I love it. It us a great book full of stories and colourful pictures. The recipes are easy to follow and the ingredients are accessible. A few pictures below. I made Somali Spiced Tea (Shaah Cadays) It is like a very spicy chai, very spicy! Definitely a good one for winter. Chicken with garlic and ginger(Akoho Misy Sakamalao) from Madagascar.  Fish in a coconut sauce. Coril de Peix Coro) from Mozambique. and Kachumbari which is Tomatoe and Onion Salad but Kachumbari sounds nicer. The book doesn't say where the salad is from (unless I missed that part) but according to Google Kachumbari is popular in East Africa.  They are all tasty and easy to make.

I love cooking and this October we have a new book in the Jamie Oliver Cookbook Club. It is 'Bibi's Kitchen.' It is another great book and I have been cooking a few things here and there. I made Date Bread this morning and it was surprisingly easy to make. Over the past couple of weeks I made Zanzibar Pilau Rice. It is seasoned with Cardamoms and cinnamon stick and tastes really fragrant. You have to try and hunt for the Cardamom and Cinnamon and retrieve them before serving. I made Doro Wat to go.with the rice. This is a spicy stewed chicken which is supposed to be eaten with hard boiled eggs. I skipped the eggs because I am not really a fan. I also made stewed Spinach otherwise known as Zebhi Hamli. It is great to find a way to eat Spinach. I think mine had a bit too much Tomatoe but it still tasted great and went nicely with the Doro Wat and rice. I also beans which are called Kunde in the book and I made ...

October is here! Wow! The year has gone so fast for me. I have had such a busy September with our Regional Director's conference, preaching at church and my own conference that I organised for my staff. I have also had various meetings about my new role and lots of advice.  Despite this, I still found time to bake Lavender Biscuits, Cholla Bread and Chorizo and Onion Empanadas. This morning I made Paul Hollywood's Plum Pizza. It is really a plum tart with a pizza base. Making it is timely because it was 'Bread Week' on the GBBO and the bakers made all sorts of pizzas. One of the things I have realised about cooking is that you need to take advice. Apart from following the recipie which is obvious, there is also quite a bit of advice in recipes which sometimes is optional and other times gives freedom for individual style. When making something for the first time I always try and follow the advice and the recipe as closely as possible. I also like the way there is so muc...