So, we are always thinking about our upcoming trip to Africa. Mom had made it sound like food can be pretty boring and same old, same old every single day. Beans, rice or cornmeal cooked thick with a few veggies is the daily fare three times a day. We are trying to come up with easy, light ways of adding some variety to that. Some of us can manage on simplicity, some of us will go crazy and think we are terribly deprived. We are all used to having bread. We are all used to an abundance of fruit. Where we live that's to be expected. There isn't much available where we are going. One thing we are taking is granola, but when you think about it 7 lbs of granola per person is nearly 200lbs of granola when you times it by 27 people. Is 7 lbs of granola enough per person when that's what you get every morning for two months? We will take powdered soy milk and dry tvp, dried fruit, seasoning packets and power bars. I'd really like to learn how to make flour tortillas as well as corn tortillas. I am going to have to go out and search for a good Mexican gal who would be willing to teach me to make them without her fancy tortilla press. I'll let you know how that works out. I have been working on a cashew "cheese" sauce recipe and some things like that. It's the dips and sauces and spreads that make adding variety easier. Anyway, I bought this little blender...
with a hand crank!
It clips to the counter. But it doesn't fit on my counter very well. We ended up going to the office desk to blend. It has a low gear and a high gear. You have to stick the handle on the top gear for low and the bottom gear for high, or just turn fast or slow... LOL. Takes a little effort mind you, and I cheated a little. I had made up this packet of dry cheese where the cashews were blended dry before hand. That's part of my little experiment to take sauces to Africa. However, I have blended cashews from the start. It was hard at first and I was really tired so I set the blender in the fridge and waited till morning when I had more energy. Part of the problem was I had not figured out what to clamp the blender to and that is a must! So then, the cashews having set in water all night half blended were easy the next day.
Brianna was the engine on the end of the crank. It's rather noisy ! The cheese is good and smooth.
Cool!
Posted by Ann @ His Grace To Me on Monday, August 11, 2008 at 03:12 - Link
I really like your new blender! How cool is that?!! That is great for so many different situations; camping, etc. Our family could have used that for smoothies last week when the power went out for several hours in 105 degree weather!
Making flour tortillas is pretty easy, I make them all of the time. I don't have a tortilla press, but I sure would like one! I can show you the basics, I'll do my best to make it a blog post this week. The hardest part about making tortillas is making enough!
We will take powdered soy milk and dry tvp, dried fruit, seasoning packets and power bars. I'd really like to learn how to make flour tortillas as well as corn tortillas. I am going to have to go out and search for a good Mexican gal who would be willing to teach me to make them without her fancy tortilla press. I'll let you know how that works out. I have been working on a cashew "cheese" sauce recipe and some things like that. It's the dips and sauces and spreads that make adding variety easier. Anyway, I bought this little blender... 
