Creamy Chicken Afredo Sauce

Ingredients:

1 onion, minced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 liter of milk
2 boxes (or 300 grams) “Laughing Cow” Cheese or 8 oz cream cheese
2 cups chicken chunks (cooked or raw)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1—2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp parsley
1 T basil
pasta

Sauté onion and garalic in butter, add flour until bubbly. Add milk and cheese, heat and stir with wire whisk until cheese is completely melted. Add chicken with broth, salt, basil and parsley and continue cooking on low heat another 2-3 minutes until sauce boils (or 5 minutes to thoroughly cook raw chicken chunks). Serve on cooked pasta of choice.

Variation: Add broccolli, and velveeta cheese, and serve on rice.

Curried Chicken Riz Gras

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 cup oil
1 cup fine vermicelli
1-2 cloves garlic
4 small tomatoes, diced
1/2—1 cup raisins
2 cups cooked chicken
2 Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp salt
3 cups uncooked rice

Sauté onion and garlic in oil until tender, add vermicelli dry, and fry in oil until brown. Add 6 cups chicken broth or water mixed with broth to total six cups liquid, add diced tomatoes, raisins, curry powder, chicken, salt and uncooked rice. Bring to boil, then simmer until all of rice is cooked and liquid is absorbed. Stir occasionally while cooking.

Recipes!

Over the years I have really developed a love for cooking (which stems from my love for good food!). Living in Africa I have developed lots of yummy dishes from scratch adapted to the simple things we can get here, which I serve to large crowds of visitors who come pretty often from the US or just other folks passing through. So many people have asked me for my recipes, that I have created a recipe book of my favorites and their favorites, that I often give to guests. Since the list of recipes keeps growing, I have decided to begin posting them here, so people can access them more easily. So, if you love cooking like I do, or are just looking for something new that you can serve, especially to a large crowd, stay tuned!

The Art of Cooking

I think too many times today's generation has been short changed. They are so often growing up on fast food and pre-packaged food items, and running from one activity to another, that they never learn the skill of cooking, especially young girls. I was blessed somehow in my childhood to learn some of the basics from my mom in cooking, like making a white sauce, and making many of our family's favorites, but over the years much of what I learned was from trying out many recipes. After moving to rural Africa, where I could not get a lot of ingredients for recipes that called for "canned this" or "1 package of that", I found some wonderful cookbooks that taught how to make many things from scratch. 20 years later I rarely use anything packaged and most of these recipes are ingrained in my mind, I rarely use a recipe. These are the things I want to pass on to my children. I believe passing on life skills is one of the most important roles of a parent.

My oldest daughter, Katie, will soon be 13 and has shown an increasing desire and aptitude for all things cooking. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her in the kitchen showing her the ropes, and letting her put a recipe together herself, or plan a whole meal. Among her recent culinary adventures have been making cheese sauces, chili, deviled eggs, fruit tarts and various baked goods. She has also demonstrated an artistic flare in things like organizing vegetable trays.

bread in a pressure cooker

When I first came to Africa 18 years ago I knew that life here would entail baking my own bread at times. I have tried many recipes, but one disadvantage is that it requires using the oven, which in turn uses enormous amounts of gas, which here in Africa is expensive. So I tend to avoid baking bread instead of taking advantage of the opportunity. Many have suggested, "Why don't you get a bread maker?" The answer is simple. It requires electricity. 110 electricity to be exact, something that is not very easy to obtain here in a former French colony where everthing electric is 220, and even though our house is wired for solar and with 110 inverted power, my husband reminds me that appliances with heating elements are not welcome in our home. So I am limited to baking.

Recently on a trip to a remote village to visit another American family who are friends of ours, the wife introduced me to baking bread in a pressure cooker, since she had no oven. Funny, why hadn't I thought of that? I use my pressure cooker to can a lot, especially meat. But I had never thought about bread. So I tried it - it was really quite simple, and saved on gas. I simply put my dough to rise in a metal bowl that fit inside the pressure cooker, rested the bowl in water on several jar lids, and set it to pressure for about an hour. Out came some delicious, non-crumbly, soft bread. Not a bad idea for living non-electric. This could really come in handy for anyone who is camping even on the open fire. Imagine, baking bread on the open fire in the wilderness! It has lots of potential!