Moist Chocolate Cake & Milk Frosting

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27 July 2010

Ingredients:

2 c. flour
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
3/4 c. baking cocoa (Matinal)
2 c. sugar (or less)

1 c. oil
1 c. brewed coffee
1 c. milk
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl (I actually did this because I have to sift the worms out of my flour). Add oil, coffee and milk and mix together. Add eggs and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes. The batter is thin. Pour into two greased and floured 9" cake pans. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes (or over a medium-high flame in a marmite, one at a time). Let cakes cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan (or not, if you only have one pan and a marmite oven).

Ingredients:

1 c. milk
5 T flour
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening (or all butter)
1 c. sugar
1 t vanilla extract


Combine milk and flour and mix out lumps. Heat in a saucepan until thick. Cover and refrigerate. Beat butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Add chilled milk/flour paste and beat for 10 minutes. Frost cooled cake.

My sister made this cake for me when I was younger. She got the recipe from Taste of Home, which is where I've copied the recipe from. It is still amazingly delicious and the frosting doesn't require powdered sugar, which is hard to find here.

Veggie Burgers au Cameroun

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Ingredients:

2 c. cooked beans
2 eggs
1 c. oats (dry)

1 T oil
1 onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped (or more)
1 maggi cube
1 shrimp cube
1 packet elena (70 gm tomato paste)
cumin, hot pepper

Saute onions in oil for a few minutes. Add garlic, cubes, hot pepper and cumin, cook for another minute or two. Add tomato paste and mix together. Add spice mix to beans. Mash beans with a fork (or what have you) and mix in oats and eggs. Let sit in fridge for 30 minutes or so (this will help the burgers stick together better). Form into 8 patties (about 1/2 inch thick, you can press them thinner in the pan if they're falling apart). Fry on both sides for a few minutes.

Yum!

Pasta with Chard and Pine Nuts

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23 July 2010

Ingredients:

8 oz (250 gm) penne, rotelle or rigatoni
(I used farfalle)
1/4 c. pasta cooking water
1 T olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 lb chard leaves, washed & chopped
1/2 c. wine or stock
(or pasta water with a splash of balsamic)
1 t red pepper flakes
1/4 c. toasted pine nuts
Salt & pepper

Cook pasta while prepping other ingredients. Toast pine nuts in a dry pan.

In a large pan, heat oil and add onion. Cook for 2 minutes and add garlic. Add the chopped Swiss chard and toss to coat (or not, if you're using a very tiny pan). Pour in the wine or stock (or pasta water with a splash of balsamic, if you're me) and stir to coat (or not, if you're using a very tiny pan). When the chard begins to wilt, stir in the red pepper flakes and pine nuts. Bring to a simmer and stir in the reserved pasta cooking water. Immediately add the cooked pasta (or add *to* the cooked pasta, if that pan is bigger) and toss to coat. Or kind of mix it together carefully, if your chard likes to stick together.

Enjoy!

The original recipe can be found here. You'll notice I didn't use tomatoes (I didn't have any) and I quadrupled the pine nuts (and tripled the garlic). It still turned out great. And my stock substitution was perfect. I bet the original recipe turns out pretty tasty, too.

Also, this was really delicious cold the next day. Boom.

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