I haven't been updating because I don't really have any good news to share...
I've fallen sick and feel a little grumpy because of it. It's also been unusually cold (for Tanzania) this week and most days this week the temperature stays around 50 degrees F. It's also really rainy...not the best weather but at least I have an excuse to stay in and drink ginger tea.
I've been very frustrated with some of the hospital groups. Some partners are working so well together and others are really struggling. I'm particularly worried about the younger group pairings that don't have very much electronics experience. True, I was young last year but I learned so much by looking things up on my own when I got stuck. This year, too many students "do" before they "think".
In my opinion, a lot of the younger groups lack basic/practical/common sense knowledge when working on the equipment. I had a group that put in a 13A fuse instead of a 0.5A fuse... I mean seriously??? I won't go into what happened as a result but it was not good to say the least...
During the first month, the students had engineering lecture to teach them about the medical devices they will likely see in their hospital and the common problems they might encounter. They learn troubleshooting beyond what is covered in school that is very specific to machines in the hospital. Had these students been paying attention, and not on facebook through-out lecture, they would remembered that you should NEVER replace a fuse with one with a higher current rating!!
So to unwind from my hectic week I decided to make a cake for my home-stay. I made a coffee cake with coconut cream icing.
RECIPE:
All good things come from butter, eggs, and sugar.
Start with 6 oz of butter, then mix in 6 oz of sugar (I had to use icing sugar but normal castor sugar works too).
Now it's time to add the eggs. This recipe calls for 3 eggs, but unlike me, you should add them individually and blend each egg into the batter before adding the next one. I got a little ahead of myself and added all three at once. Note how pale the yolks are here. All eggs are like that here, I wonder why.
Whip it till it's smooth!
The batter should look coffee-colored and smell/taste good :)
Bake at 180 C (350 F) for about 30 minutes. If you stick a fork in the cake and it comes out clean, then you're done. I ended up doubling the recipe to make this a double layered cake because I only had a 10 in cake pan (not 8 in) and I decided it would be a pretty shallow cake with only one layer.
Now for the coconut glaze. These coconut cream packets are readily available in Tanzania but in the US you need to work harder to find them. At home, I get coconut cream from my local H-mart, the korean supermarket. You might find it at Whole Foods or Harris Teeter but don't even bother looking for it at Kroger.
I used 3 Tsp of flour with 4 oz of coconut cream and 4 oz of whole milk. Whisk over medium heat constantly until the sauce thickens to a pudding-like consistency. In retrospect think it would have been better to use a heavy cream instead of whole milk but I did the best with what I had. Once the sauce is thickened, put it in a separate container and refrigerate it. You want the sauce to cool completely before putting it on the cake.
Mix 4 oz of butter and 4 oz of sugar (similar to step one). Once your coconut sauce cooled, mix it with the butter mixture. This is the foundation for a standard buttercream frosting but I made the mistake of not letting the coconut sauce thicken longer. Mine turned more into an icing instead of frosting. I am an impatient cook sometimes :)
Use the icing as filling and topping. Be generous with it!
Now you're done! Just grab some tea and enjoy.
Вкусно!
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I don't have a picture of tea, but here's a picture of a
macchiato latte. Tanzania has some really good coffee!
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I've been very frustrated with some of the hospital groups. Some partners are working so well together and others are really struggling. I'm particularly worried about the younger group pairings that don't have very much electronics experience. True, I was young last year but I learned so much by looking things up on my own when I got stuck. This year, too many students "do" before they "think".
In my opinion, a lot of the younger groups lack basic/practical/common sense knowledge when working on the equipment. I had a group that put in a 13A fuse instead of a 0.5A fuse... I mean seriously??? I won't go into what happened as a result but it was not good to say the least...
During the first month, the students had engineering lecture to teach them about the medical devices they will likely see in their hospital and the common problems they might encounter. They learn troubleshooting beyond what is covered in school that is very specific to machines in the hospital. Had these students been paying attention, and not on facebook through-out lecture, they would remembered that you should NEVER replace a fuse with one with a higher current rating!!
So to unwind from my hectic week I decided to make a cake for my home-stay. I made a coffee cake with coconut cream icing.
RECIPE:
All good things come from butter, eggs, and sugar.
Start with 6 oz of butter, then mix in 6 oz of sugar (I had to use icing sugar but normal castor sugar works too).
Blend the butter and sugar together until it looks light and fluffy.
Now it's time to add the eggs. This recipe calls for 3 eggs, but unlike me, you should add them individually and blend each egg into the batter before adding the next one. I got a little ahead of myself and added all three at once. Note how pale the yolks are here. All eggs are like that here, I wonder why.
Once blended, mix in 6 oz all-purpose flour and 1 tsp baking poder.
Whip it till it's smooth!
Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tsp of instant coffee melted in 1 Tsp of hot water.
The batter should look coffee-colored and smell/taste good :)
Bake at 180 C (350 F) for about 30 minutes. If you stick a fork in the cake and it comes out clean, then you're done. I ended up doubling the recipe to make this a double layered cake because I only had a 10 in cake pan (not 8 in) and I decided it would be a pretty shallow cake with only one layer.
Now for the coconut glaze. These coconut cream packets are readily available in Tanzania but in the US you need to work harder to find them. At home, I get coconut cream from my local H-mart, the korean supermarket. You might find it at Whole Foods or Harris Teeter but don't even bother looking for it at Kroger.
I used 3 Tsp of flour with 4 oz of coconut cream and 4 oz of whole milk. Whisk over medium heat constantly until the sauce thickens to a pudding-like consistency. In retrospect think it would have been better to use a heavy cream instead of whole milk but I did the best with what I had. Once the sauce is thickened, put it in a separate container and refrigerate it. You want the sauce to cool completely before putting it on the cake.
Mix 4 oz of butter and 4 oz of sugar (similar to step one). Once your coconut sauce cooled, mix it with the butter mixture. This is the foundation for a standard buttercream frosting but I made the mistake of not letting the coconut sauce thicken longer. Mine turned more into an icing instead of frosting. I am an impatient cook sometimes :)
Use the icing as filling and topping. Be generous with it!
Now you're done! Just grab some tea and enjoy.
Вкусно!
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