Blondie Cupcakes

I love chocolate!  As much as I hate to admit, chocolate makes me happy and alleviates emotional pain.  Chocolate is a staple in my pantry, a necessity in my bedroom – for those nights I wake up sad, and a faithful companion in my purse – for summer weddings.  It has to be dark chocolate though! 70% or>. Everything else is adulterated in my opinion.

After a lovely chore filled day, I made these Blondie cupcakes to reward myself, using dark chocolate instead of toffee. No I did not consume them all by myself!

Nigerian Weddings on CNN

I enjoyed this article: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/12/world/africa/nigeria-wedding-boom/index.html
How was your weekend?

Hunger Induced Sandwiches

Sometime last week I got home famished.  I had neither stew nor rice in the fridge.  I had to make do with what I could find. Thankfully there was bread, avocados, eggs, and onions!  Voila I constructed a very filling and flavorful sandwich with 3 egg whites, fried onions, and avocados.  I really enjoyed it!  

Hope you had a good weekend?

YNC Tagged Me

So the rules are:

1.    Post the rules

2.    You must post 11 things about yourself.

3.    Answer the questions that your tagger posted for you.

4.    Create 11 questions, then choose 11 people and tag them to answer your questions.

5.    Remember to let them know you tagged them.

6.    No tag backs...

7.    Let the tagger know when you answered their questions.

11 Things about Me:

1.    I am proof that there is a God, and that he is full of grace and mercy.

2.    I love my family.

3.    I love food.

4.    I think that experiencing true friendship in life is a rare gift.

5.    I appreciate good stories (pictures, movies or books).

6.    I adore my boobs, I consider them an asset and I am very grateful to God for them.

7.    I think my toes and fingers are some of the finest God has created. I imagine them in a museum of “God’s finest collections”.

8.    I believe that everything i am, and will ever be is by the grace of God.

9.    I have random cravings. Right now, I am craving sushi.

10.  I had a crush on Chidi Mokeme for the longest time! I am happy I got married before him! Else I would have been crushed (no pun intended).

11.  I appreciate good pictures.

YNC’s Questions are:

1.    The last place you visited:  The bathroom

2.    What you ate for lunch: I have not eaten yet, but I will be having rice, stew and chicken

3.    Do you have any beauty regime that you always use? Yes. I never leave the house without sunscreen, and never go to bed without moisturizer

4.    What is your favorite beauty product? Red lipstick, Nars nude lip gloss (do not remember the name now) and OPI “Tasmanian devil” nail polish.

5.    Do you have one weakness and how you overcame it? I was not assertive, and had problems saying “No”. Overcoming it just came with age, experience, a realization that most people will capitalize on my weakness and try to take advantage, and just embracing and accepting myself.

6.    What is your biggest accomplishment in life so far?  Being able to save enough for a down payment, and purchasing a property.

7.    What reality show do you watch all the time? None

8.    Have you done something for anyone this year? Yes, but not enough

9.    Tell me about your day: My day started off sorely as my lunch spilled in my bag, but so far it was been uneventful. I had Coffee as usual for bf, a colleague gave me a chocolate cake donut which I devoured happily, I worked, just had lunch, spoke to my mother, and now I am responding to YNC’s tag.

10.  What type of man do you love? One who knows and admits he is nothing without God’s Grace, serves God, and is committed to a relationship with me.

11.  What is your favorite song? “Who am I” by Casting Crowns

Now my 11 questions are:

1.    Do you think you have discovered your life’s purpose?

2.    If yes, when did you make this discovery?

3.    If no, do you think it is necessary to live on purpose?

4.    How did you discover your purpose?

5.    Please tell me what marriage means to you in ONE WORD?

6.    Do you have any fears?

7.    If you feel comfortable please can you share your fears?

8.    What do you think happens when people die? Do you think they know they are dead?

9.    Are you a born again Christian?

10.  Why or Why not?

11.  What is your favorite food?

I am tagging

Unveiling Gold

Dobby’s Signature

The Lilith Diaries

Nwavic

Mikki

Vera

Jadore

Salmon in Wrapper

Couple days ago, I had an intense meatpie /savory pastry craving.  What did I do? I acted on it! Got home whipped up these pretty things with canned salmon and other things in the pantry. The pictures don’t look as good as they tasted!!!! I was in foodie heaven, as I enjoyed these beauties with “Home Alone” (yes the old Christmas movie) showing on TV. 

For the longest time I had issues achieving the right pie crust (I mean Nigerian meat-pie). I LOVED the flaky style – (something in between the American puff pastry and commercial Jamaican beef patty pastry), not the soft (almost soggy) one, or the hard teeth threatening one (you find at some Nigerian parties), or the confused sort (a cross between agege bread and buns).  Thankfully my bakery owner/baking instructor mum saw me out of this conundrum. You see she had always told me that:

1.       “Excessive handling destroys the texture of crust”

2.       “Too much water made crust hard”

3.       “Heat kills the essence of crust”

4.       “Too little butter will get you nowhere”

Unfortunately that meant NOTHING to me until recently. Because I love to share, I’ll let you in on this secret.

1.       You must use 1part butter to 2 parts flour.

2.       DO NOT over mix

3.       You MUST have lumps (pebble sized) of butter before adding water - this helps achieve the “flakiness”

4.       Add just enough ICE WATER to bind the pastry

5.       You MUST chill the pastry before rolling. Infact overnight chilling yields amazing results.

So how did I make these little beauties?

Ingredients:

For crust

1.       2 cups flour – aerated by using a spoon to scoop into the cup

2.       2 sticks cold butter (I cup) – chopped in small pieces

3.       Pimento (for flavor and color)

4.       Salt

5.       Small ice water to bind

6.       Eggs  - for egg wash

For Filling

1.       Canned salmon – well drained (watery filling will make a mess of this snack)

2.       Chopped red onions

3.       Ms. Dash

4.       Salt

5.       Fire roasted red and yellow peppers

6.       Black pepper

7.       Some oil

Method:

1.       Heat up oil and fry onions

2.       Add all other filling ingredients

3.       Cook for about 5 minutes

4.       Leave to cool

5.       Mix butter, pimento, salt, and flour lightly

6.       Make a well in the center

7.       Add water in small portions until pastry binds

8.       Wrap pastry in plastic and leave in the fridge for 30 mins or freezer for 10 mins

9.       Roll out pastry – using flour to minimize stickiness

10.   Cut pastry to desired shape

11.   Fill with filling

12.   Seal

13.   Brush egg wash over the pastry for color

14.   Bake in a preheated oven until crust is golden (in my case almost coral because of the pimento)

15.   Leave to cool

16.   Enjoy!!

What is in your hand?

Happy New Year! A lot has happened that could have been shared. Each time I wrote a draft, it was deleted, because I did not want to post anything from a place of anger and bitterness. You see, the past months have been what I hope was the worst phase of my marriage.  Many fights, worst Christmas I ever had, let’s not even talk about valentine!

I am thankful that God saw me through all this and that there is still a marriage after all.  So that being said, I am back, happy, and looking forward to a great future.

Lately, I have been pondering on a couple two things…  What my purpose is in this world, and how to make more REAL money. 

Each person has something that could be used to get them closer to their purpose, or to even help them fulfill that purpose.

For Moses, It was bad enough that God tasked him with such a huge responsibility. In Exodus 3 v 19, God compounded the whole thing by saying “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him.”  Moses was rightfully concerned about how to accomplish the task, and then asked God how he will convince the King.  God replied “What is that in your hand”?  In Exodus 4, we see how God helped Moses fulfill his purpose with what Moses already had in his possession.

So the question today is: What is in my hand? What is in your hand?

Moses had the staff

Nwando has talent, and a pen

Steve has something for cats

Bim has talent too, in something I am equally passionate about.

Sugarbelly is creative and has a sense of humor

Some of us have many things in our hands and struggle to find “the one”. Have you found “the one” how did you find it?

Happy Easter !

Wordless Tuesday