Photo Catch-Up

So I was going through my photos and I realized I had some major catching up to do. Since there are so many photos I will just give brief descriptions. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory.

Below are some shots of the city. 

 Flooding!

 A young women's activity. We were learning how to make really pretty flowers out of wire, nylon(isn) fabric and string! They are so pretty! I (with some help) made one!

 Young women/young men activity at the water park. This girl is in the branch I go to. Her name is Sreypich. She's really sweet and always invites me to things.

 A nasty burn I got while cooking a few weeks ago (I still have it). This is it at its best. Can you believe it's just from steam?! Nasty. 

Mom and I went to a traditional Khmer Cooking Class. The lady was really nice, and it was a lot of fun being able to cook real Khmer food.  

 To make the pastes and everything we just ground a bunch of fresh herbs and spices. It was so so fresh. All real food with no packaged anything!

 We also made little bowls out of banana leaves. Way cool!

 The first dish we made is called Fish Amok. It's a very traditional soup here. It was amazing! You can just taste the freshness and purity of it. It definitely clears your sinuses!

 The second dish we made is called Banana Blossom Salad. Oh boy. This took food to a whole new dimension. I don't think I have ever tasted anything so fresh and clean. It was exhilarating! It had banana blossom, mint and other herb leaves, onion, etc., with a sweet and sour sauce (made from grounding fresh herbs). Ohhhh man. I could eat that everyday! 

Saturday: Marathon Day!

Hello everybody!!! I thought I would start putting my emails up here for those who don't already get it. For those who do, sorry this will be a repeat. I also thought I should share more of my Cambodian experiences on my blog instead of just food. :)

So, yes as the title explains Saturday was Marathon Day! Yup, I ran a marathon. I never ever ever in a million years thought I would say that! On Friday night we drove up to Siem Reap and I ran the Angkor Marathon. I haven't told any of you because I wanted it to be a surprise! I'll just say this I never want to go running in Cambodian weather ever again!! I was exhausted after!

JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :). There was no marathon. Actually there was, but not running. It was the marathon of life. The opportunity to make a joke out of it was too good. Hopefully it added a smile to your day. :)  So, now on to reality. Saturday was crazy. I woke up at 5:45am to go to institute until 8am. Then I pedaled as fast as I could on my bike to the school for a service project at a local Khmer school until 11am. Then I pedaled as fast as I could home,  grabbed some lunch, sat down for a minute or two, and then went to dance rehearsal from 1-4pm. I literally came home and just plopped down onto my bed for a half an hour. I was too tired to even take a shower. Eventually I cleaned myself up and then I was a bad girl and didn't do my homework. I watched The Little Princess instead. Pretty good trade out I must add! It almost made me cry. Then I joined mom, dad, and the Wilson's (Area Authority) for dinner. Needless to say, I fell asleep pretty quickly, and it was a very deep sleep. Anyway, that's what my Saturday's are going to look like until Christmas. I'm kind of regretting having put so much on my plate, but I guess it's all for a good cause. 

Like I mentioned above, I'm helping with a group of kids in a service project. We go to a local Khmer school in Takhmao and teach them different subjects. I'm in a group with my Khmer friend and one other boy and we were teaching English (introduction phrases). Well, apparently we over-estimated these first and second grader's English speaking abilities. They didn't know anything, so the whole thing kind of was a disaster. It went fine for the girl who could speak Khmer, but for the other boy and me, it was anything but productive. The kids just kind of sat there looking at us with blank faces. And then came recess. (dramatic music). I have never had so many kids hanging on my shirt all at once. They literally jumped on us, clawing and grabbing at our shirts and pulling as hard as they could. It was kind of funny (at least now it is) because most of our shirts were about 5 inches longer after. We definitely have more planning to do, so hopefully next time will be better. 

Just some other news of the week: I didn't have school on Wednesday and only a half day on Thursday because of Parent Teacher Conferences. They take those very seriously at my school. I have to say that time goes by very strangely without holidays. It's like there's no benchmarks. It seems like Halloween, or news of it, just popped up out of nowhere! That's about it though as far as I can think. Have a great week! I love you all so much!

Love, Kenzie

homemade salmon cashew pizza!

So, I was looking at the date on my last blog, and I couldn't believe it had been that long! Bye bye October!

 Anyway, I've had this post half-done in draft form for a while and I figure I gotta force myself to finish it. This happened weeks ago mind you!

 There's nothing like spending a Friday evening together with the family (mom, dad, and I :)) making homemade pizzas and watching a movie! It's little things like this that create the fondest memories! 

Mom made a regular pizza crust for her and dad. I made a gluten free crust that seriously is the easiest crust I have ever made! It  took 10 min. tops. However, it wasn't like a traditional fluffy or crispy crust. It was slightly more rubbery, which sounds gross, but it actually fit really well with the sauce, etc. 

I went a little crazy and made a really abnormal pizza. I made a yummy sauce and then topped with: broccoli, cauliflower, stir-fried salmon, cabbage, and cashews. 

And yes, I ate that entire half of the pizza by myself...easy. :)

Salmon Cashew Pizza (gf/df/sf)

Ingredients:

Pizza Crust

1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup rice flour
2/3 cup soy milk
4 egg whites
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Italian spices
1 dash garlic powder

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix all ingredients together gently, don't over-beat.
Pour into a greased pizza pan (or any pan).
Bake 10 min.

Toppings:

Pizza Sauce (if I find the recipe I used I will post it :)
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage (cut in strips)
Cooked Salmon (in small fry pan, stir-fry bite sized chunks of salmon in a little bit of olive oil)
Cashews

Add toppings onto crust and bake until the toppings start to brown slightly.

Chunky Monkey Banana Muffins

Okay, really good news! I found the original recipe!!!! Hooray!

I'm super excited about this recipe!! I would dare to say it's one of the best things I've ever created! I was really craving a good snack type muffin the other week, so I headed to the kitchen and came out hot, sweaty, and deliciously satisfied! However, when the week finished and my muffins were all gone, I realized I had either lost the recipe or had forgotten to write it down. I was so made at myself!! Luckily I tried making them again today, and I think they turned out pretty much the same. Thank goodness, or I never would have forgiven myself!

These muffins are incredibly simple, yet they taste like a mini loaf of banana bread. The best banana bread in the world that is!! And to top it off, they are gluten (watch the oats), dairy, and completely sugar free! Not bad, right?!

Just slice one in half, spread peanut butter on it, put it back together, and you've got an amazing snack, or dessert. These seriously tasted like cookies! Mmm...mm...good.

CHUNKY MONKEY BANANA MUFFINS
Yields 6 muffins

Ingredients:

2 bananas
1/4 cup oil (I used vegetable oil)
2 egg white
1Tbsp. honey
1 cup oats
Half of a 1/3 cup rice flour (or any type of flour)
1 Tbsp. flax meal (optional)
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium sized bowl mash the bananas with a fork. Add the oil and egg white and mix together. Add the oats, flour, flax, cinnamon, salt, and powder and stir until combined. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour batter into muffin pan (taking a few generous licks of the spoon in the process!!). Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. Enjoy!  Note: they are best when kept in the fridge. They last well for weeks.

Homemade Chocolate Chips

I've tried a couple different recipes when it comes to homemade chocolate chips, but this one is definitely the winner! 

I don't know why but I just love the thought (and taste) of homemade choc. chips. I think it has something to do with successfully making something I would have never thought possible. 

Unfortunately I went a little nuts while making these and ate WAY to much chocolate. My stomach was very angry with me for the next few days. It seriously took like 3 days to get out of my system. By the time I was finished making these I couldn't stand the thought of chocolate, bananas, peanut butter, or anything else even remotely sweet. Despite these feelings, I was up and eating choc. chips after breakfast the next morning. Silly, silly! 

Oh, and I finished off these 2 pans in about 4 days. Oh yeah!

I adapted this recipe from mygutsy.com by the way.

Homemade Chocolate Chips

INGREDIENTS:

3 oz Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp sea salt 

1/2 – 3/4 cup raw honey (depends on how sweet you like it –just taste test it!)

1/2 cup Raw Coconut Oil ( vegetable oil works too. DO NOT use olive oil though)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt your chocolate in a double boiler (or make your own and put a bowl over boiling water)

2. Let your chocolate cool a little 

3. stir in your coconut oil, honey, vanilla, salt

4. Your mixture will be very liquidy. You want the constancy just right. It needs to resemble peanut butter/Nutella. Either put it in the fridge for 1-3 hours (keep checking it because you don’t want it to turn solid!) Or you could leave it in a dark cool cabinet for many hours until it solidifies a little. (This is what I do because I like to forget about it and do something while I am waiting)

5. To Prepare your cookie sheet, line it with parchment paper or tin foil. Freeze your cookie sheet to keep it cold (this helps hold the shape of the chocolate point)

Enjoy!!!

Rice Crepillas

I don't know why, but lately I've been dying for a soft, gluten free tortilla that I can make wraps with and it won't break. 

Experiment time!

I headed to the kitchen and was just throwing things together. I kind of based it off of mom's crepe recipe in her jumbo recipe book. 

Walaah! Magic!

I cooked them like a crepe and just about wanted to shout for joy when they came out so beautifully! Mom and dad were gone, so I couldn't share my joy (which in this situation was very difficult). 

Now, I call these wraps because they're a mix between a crepe and a tortilla. I made sandwich wraps with these as well as sweet crepes in the morning. Thus, I call them wraps. You can decide what you want to call them. 

Oh, and the good news... they probably take 10 min. max to make. Can't complain about that!

RICE WRAPS
Yields: 5 roll-ups

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour (we can only find white rice flour over here, but brown rice probably has more nutrition.)

½ cup water

½ soy milk (or any milk)

½ tsp. salt

4 egg whites

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and whip until smooth. Batter will be thin. Spray a fry pan with cooking spray. Pour ½ cup of the batter onto the fry pan over medium heat. Move the pan around until the batter has formed a circle. When the sides start curling up and brown spots appear underneath, flip the crepes. Cook until brown spots appear underneath and flip onto plate. Do 2 crepes and then let the pan cool. Then do 2 more. If the pan does not cool, the crepes will burn.

Tye Dye Cake for a Cake Auction

Hey all! 

I don't know if you remember my post about a tye dye cake earlier, but this tye dye cake is for real. I made it for our school's annual cake auction. The auction itself was pretty fun. I was the tech. person and worked the slideshow of cakes up front as they came down with the real cakes. I can't remember how much we raised but it was a lot! I was shocked! Who knew?! 

I decided to make a tye dye cake. I've seen pictures of it, and thought I would give it a try. It was actually really simple. I also did tye dye cake pops, and those added quite a bit of time. Unfortunately by the time my cake was auctioned off, the frosting had completely melted and the balls had all slid off. I completely forgot about the heat factor here in Cambodia! It still sold for $50, which sounds like a lot, but really it was on the lower end. One cake went for $400, several around $300-350, and quite a few around $80-150. 

These are the lovely cake balls. 

 The finished product!!! (Unfortunately I never got to see the amazing inside!)

TYE DYE CAKE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 box white cake mix

6 different food colors

Directions:

        Prepare the cake as shown on the box. Split the batter evenly into 6 small bowls. Add food coloring to the batter. Keep adding color until it is as bright as you want it. Place 2 sprayed 8" circle cake pans on a level surface. Take the first color and pour about 3/4 of the batter into the pan. Repeat with the 5 other colors, just using less and less of the batter, so layers are created. Next, take the second circle pan and do the same thing, but reverse the colors. Bake the cakes according to the directions on the box. 

TYE DYE CAKE POPS

For this recipe go to www.buildingmemoriestogether.blogspot.com/2012/05/rainbow-cake-pops-directions-all-in-one.html

For the frosting, I just used homemade frosting, but you could do whatever.

Enjoy!