2016 - May - pizza party - brownies

2016 May 31

A while back we were invited on a Friday night for pizza and drinks at a friend’s house.  Bring our own.  My first question was:  raw or cooked pizza?  Then I realized ... duh, obviously cooked.  It was quite a novel idea and 10 of us arrived in Parkhurst with 10 large pizzas.  Needless to say, we had a pizza-ball!  What a fabulous idea!  

At a long table, the pizzas were lined up in the center.  You could either just eat from your own favorite pizza (I ordered Margarita pizza with extra anchovies ... and I only had ... it’s just my favorite!) or you could try any of the other pizzas.

If you are lazy (like I sometimes are) and buy Snowflake Easymix Bran Muffin mix ... here’s how to jazz it up.  I add about ½ cup of cranberries and 1 cup of raisins.  Then I add 2 tsp All Spice, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp ground ginger.  (It depends on your taste).  The spices with the raisins/cranberries are too delicious!  This brand is also the mix with the least amount of sugar and fat per 100 grams.

Brownies ... how we love them.  I’ve started making them with brown beans instead of flour, but then I discovered the recipe with coconut flour.  So now the brownies are flourless and without starch.  

Black bean brownies (gluten free)

1 can (425 g) black beans/kidney beans, drained and rinsed very very very very well!!!

1 tbsp instant coffee granules (optional)

3 x-large eggs

½ cup (100 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips

¾ cup (180 ml) brown sugar (or use Fructose / Xylitol)

½ tsp baking powder

½ cup cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla essence (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

3 tbsp natural unflavored yoghurt

Preheat oven to 180 oC.  Spray square baking pan. 

In food processor, mix the black beans with metal blade till very smooth. (Note:  you may need to stop and scrape down the sides a couple times during this step.)

Add the eggs, yoghurt, baking powder, cocoa powder, coffee granules, vanilla & sugar.  Process till nicely blended.  Add ¼ cup of the chocolate chips and pulse 5 times.  Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan.  Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.  Bake for 30 – 35 minutes (mine was only 30 minutes), till a test skewer comes out clean. 

Keep in tray for 10 minutes, cut and carefully remove.  Place on wire rack and let cool completely before serving. 

(My own recipe adapted from others.) 

You can easily freeze this.

Remember a few months back my mission looking for a jeans?  My current mission is finding a jersey.  But of course that’s easier said than done.  I’m looking for a specific color, shape, etc.  After looking around, I decided ... I’ll knit my own jersey.  

So I searched for a very basic knitting pattern ... found one and bought lovely red wool.  But in true Alma fashion ... I changed everything around.  I used different size wool and knitting needles ... so I started with 121 stitches for the front part ... after a few rows, Hein told me it’s way too big.  So I started again on the pattern’s smallest size .. 109 stitches.  Luckily I was with a friend and Val told me ... too big.  She measured it against me and said .. 70 stitches.

But I also didn’t want to follow the pattern ... I merely needed the pattern for the stitch amounts.  I wanted to knit 2 squarish panels and sleeves to just sew onto it.  No decreasing, no increasing, nothing.  So I merrily knitted away.  Finished my back panel.  Then my front panel.  Knitted my sleeves with a nice pattern.  All in one week.  Started to sew everything together this weekend ... hahahahahahaha.  Yeah, like they would say in Afrikaans “slim vang sy baas”.  I was obviously way wrong.  The sleeves looked weird.  So I’m still without a jersey.

Last year I’ve done a 3 hour basis jewelry course, but didn’t really do much.  The past few weeks (with inspiration from my funky friend Cathy) I’ve created quite a few new earrings and necklaces.  It really is so rewarding making your own jewelry ... except when I don’t properly close the ‘rings’ and my creations falls apart. 

Below left is a key-ring holder ... I've just removed the top part and modified it into an earring.

At the fabric shop, I saw these big safety pins ... and turned them into earrings.

Our pincushion Protea in our garden is flourishing!  It’s nearly as tall as me and have loads of flower buds on them.

Winter is upon us, so with gloves and scarves and earmuffs ... I say goodbye, keep warm and keep sending your emails.