Thursday, June 4, 2009

Fiddle de de, fibber thee

Well, it has been too hot and too humid here. Even fans don't help much.
And the mosquitoes are having a feast with me!

I promised pictures but I haven't got round to editing them yet to post them.
Much of what I have done in the last days is read. I'm on the first book of the LOTR trilogy now, on chapter 10. Good reading and a nice way to pass the time in the heat, as it's too hot to do much else.

We had a lovely meal at lunch yesterday. Mom made pasta with a white sauce and mozzarella cheese. It was very yummy! There was also leftover veggie soup for me in addition to fried potatoes AND chicken. Holy smokes they eat a lot here. Mom is totally trying to fatten me up.

Hubby is schedule to be back later on Tuesday, but that is subject to change, as everything seems to be here.

I'm working on something to post here, but I'll let it be a surprise for now. It will take a few more days to gather what I need I suppose, but it should be nice insha'Allah.

Does anyone know if single acting baking powder can be used in place of double acting? Like maybe I can just use double the amount? It seems single acting is the norm here in Egypt, and double acting is the norm in the States, so things won't bake exactly the same way.

I will endeavor to post some pictures tomorrow. Lets see what happens.

4 comments:

Shari said...

Based on the following, you can use either single or double acting baking powder:

"Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it includes the acidifying agent already (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). Baking powder is available as single-acting baking powder and as double-acting baking powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to dough, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven."

Londi said...

When I was in Germany with my ex husband in 1974, I thought the same thing....all they do is eat, eat, eat. As soon as they finished breakfast, they started planning lunch, then dinner, and on and on. They kept shoving food at me saying "Eisin", which meant eat. They told Frank I was too skinny to be any good for anything! They should see me now.

Hoot Owl Hollow Nursery said...

If you can find some cream of tartar, I think you can just add that to the single acting baking powder to make it like double acting.
I love reading when it gets hot here. In late July and through August, it is often too hot to work outside after about 10 in the morning, so I get up early and get done what I can and then retreat to the front porch with a book. Most of my yearly novel reading gets done then. I've already got my stack ready for this year. Best one from last summer if you run out of books before your weather gets nice again - Poisonwood Bible. It's about a famly, quite a disfunctional one, living in Africa where the father is a missionary. It's written as a series of diary entries from the parents and kids. Good thing I'm not writing a review since it was much better than that sounded.
Jane

Melissa said...

Londi, it is the same way here. lol
Well, I could have stood to gain a few pounds so I'm not so worried at the moment, but I can't keep eating this way forever and expect to keep any semblance of a figure.

I am not so sure about using the single baking powder as double. I don't think it would work the same.
I do have some cream of tartar that I brought with me since I wasn't sure when I would be able to find any here, if at all, but it is at the other apartment with my measuring stuff.
I will figure something out and report on how it goes, it probably just won't be for at least a week or two.