Cooking from Scratch

I like to blog about the food here. I'm not sure why. Maybe because cooking has always been a challenge from me. I never cooked from scratch in the US. My staple foods were frozen, processed foods. I was lazy and never liked spending a lot of time cooking. I didn't see the point when it would be consumed in 10 minutes. As a result, I developed a love for junk food, fast food and processed foods that were bad for me.

Here, frozen and processed foods are not available and every meal is cooked from scratch. Cooking dinner can take anywhere from 1-3 hours. I have gotten used to it and have learned to enjoy new foods. George and I came up with a food schedule so I generally cook the same foods on Mondays, Tuesdays, etc. Sunday is talapia and ugali, Monday is beef and ugali, Tuesday is beans and chapatti, Wednesday is beef and chapatti, Thursday is omena (small fish), Friday is chicken (soup usually), and Saturday is eggs and ugali. I cook as much as possible, but George cooks too. Especially when he can tell I am tired or if it's something I am not great at yet (like Omena).

Occasionally we have dinner at my sister in law's house. Suzy is a great cook and has a nice big kitchen with an oven. That gives us an opportunity to cook different things. Last week we had an awesome Mexican food night. I loved the chicken tacos so much, I decide to attempt to replicate them last night.

It takes a lot of work to make them. First is making tortillas from scratch. They don't have them here so if I want them, I have to make them for myself. George mixed the dough for me (just flour, water and oil) and then I rolled them out and cooked them. They didn't look so pretty. I couldn't get them to be a circle, but they tasted great.



Then I had to boil a whole chicken (there is no such thing as buying boneless, skinless, chicken breasts). I cut up the chicken (breaking and cutting through the joints still grosses me out a bit!), boiled it and then took off all the meat, shredding it.

Then I had to cut up all the vegetables. I made katchumbari (which is like salsa), grilled green peppers and cut up an avocado. Then I cooked the chicken with onions, cilantro, tomatoes and green peppers. And I shredded cheese. (I bought cheese for the first time in six months! It was delicious!)

While I was working, George was playing with Nala outside, keeping her out of my way. Finally, after three hours, dinner was ready.



It was a lot of work, but worth it in the end. I think I'll try to do this once a month for a special treat. With the leftovers, I was able to make a quesadilla today. Yum.

I have learned to be resourceful. If I want something, I can't just go to Albertos and get it (bummer!), but it's nice to know we can usually try to figure out a way to make it from scratch. So even in the middle of Africa, I can have Mexican food.