Kitchen Organization- Cheap!

So before this looonnnggg break from school, I made myself a to-do list in an effort to keep myself busy and get some things done around the house that I've been putting off. With only two more days of vacation I do have to give myself a little pat on the back. Only three items unaccomplished out of more than 20!

Organizing a few messy areas in the kitchen was one of the items. A few shelves in the pantry and my cupboards under the sink have been irritating me since we moved in. Of course there are plenty of organizational options, even here in Morocco, most of them involving plastic. Plastic bins, plastic baskets, plastic shelves, plastic drawers are all moojood (readily available).

Because this is not a long-term situation, I'm starting to feel less inclined to spend money on things that aren't really necessary. It's because of this that I turned to boxes. They aren't pretty, but neither are plastic things, so I wasn't too bothered. Maybe one day I'll even cover them in paint or pretty paper or something.

For now, I'm happy to have a little bit of extra space and the ability for everything to have a place. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to take before pictures. Dang it! But here are some after shots of the classy remodel.

Under the sink. This was just a huge mass of plastic bags, bottles, tools and random cleaning products. I moved the tools and other random things to more appropriate location. The bags got sorted into large ones with handles and small ones with no handles. The small ones can now be pulled from that candy box and the large ones are tucked into a single bag. I have a habit of cleaning and keeping cans, bottles and other containers and now they all have a home in a large box. The tops are stored separately for easy access. 

The top shelf of the pantry was insane. All of my baking supplies, spices, dressings and a ton of user's manuals scattered all over. After cleaning everything out, I found three separate bags of flour that I didn't know existed. I got rid of the manuals and now there's a place to store my dry goods. The new shelf creates more space and allows me to see everything clearly.

I also used a shelf in the bottom of the pantry where all of my random plastic bowls and things are stored. I cut the end off another box to make a place to store all of the lids.

It's not cute, but it does make me happy! Now to see how long I can maintain it. Does anyone out there have any go-to tricks for making the most of your space? If so, leave a comment and let me know!

Chai Cake with Ginger-Honey Cream + Teresa's Chai Recipe

A few days ago I had a cake craving. Unfortunately this is not an infrequent occurance (I LOVE cake), but I couldn't stop scanning Pinterest and baking blogs in hopes of finding something new and delicious to make.

At first, the strawberry goodies caught my eye and there were tons of options involving strawberry. Just as i was about to settle on some strawberry cupcakes, I found the Chai Cake. My obsession with chai started long ago, but it was only on Christmas Eve that I learned how to make it from scratch and I've been drinking it every day since. I LOVE chai! So of course, I had to make the chai cake.

This version of the recipe calls for chai from scratch, although chai tea bags can be substituted. I ended up changing the chai recipe a bit as their were a few (in my mind) key ingredients missing (cloves, black pepper pods). I spiced up her recipe a bit and made it in milk as directed.

After straining the chai, you mix 1/3 of it with the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla. This mixture then gets set aside and you move on to the dry ingredients. Once the dry ingredients are combined, you slowly add butter and the remaining chai milk. This is *supposed* to be beaten until light and fluffy. Unfortunately for me, this is the point where my hand mixer died. I originally discussed this hand mixer during the holiday cooking challenge.

Without the mixer my ability to beat was diminished, but my resolve to eat delicious chai cake was not! Luckily, most of the heavy work was done so I just finished a little mixing by hand and then slowly added the egg mixture to the batter. In the end, you have a lovely, thick, fragrant batter that you want to eat with a spoon.

The Whisk Kid made hers a five layer cake, but I do not have the resources for such an endeavor. I have exactly 3 cake pans to choose from and none of them ideal. So, I decided to make a double layer cake using my pie tin.

The pie tin adds some texture around the outside of the cake, but it's not so bad. Since I only have one tin, I made the first layer, washed the tin, then baked the second layer. By this time I was towards the end of the recipe and stumbled upon the part where you have to cool the cakes in the fridge for at least four hours. 

WHAT!!??? Four hours? It was already seven o'clock! I was devastated that I wasn't going to be able to eat my cake that day, but I'd already put so much time an effort in that I didn't want to risk ruining it. Oh well, I guess I'll eat it tomorrow. Lesson learned- read the ENTIRE recipe before beginning.

Before disappointedly starting dinner, I made the AMAZING frosting. This ginger-honey cream is so good and really easy. Just cream cheese, butter, honey and ground ginger. I will definitely be using this cream recipe in the future and not just for the chai cake. With that I wrapped the cakes, put them in the fridge and tried to forget about it.

The next morning was so exciting! I practically sprinted to the kitchen and pulled out the beautiful cake layers. As I wasn't making a five layer cake, I halved the cream recipe. With that amount I had just enough cream to put a nice thick layer in the middle and then frost the top. Sadly, there wasn't enough for the sides, but I wasn't bothered. Kind of looks like a big sandwich cookie this way, right?

I cut myself and big slice and dug in. Was it worth the time, effort and hours of waiting? 

HOLY COW, yes! This is one amazing cake. The cream is out of this world good and the cake itself is the perfect combination of dense, moist and bursting with flavor. The chai gives it a really yummy warmth that is difficult to describe. I highly recommend this cake and you can find the recipe from the Whisk Kid here: Chai Cake with Ginger-Honey Cream. If you'd like to use my recipe for the chai- I did it as follows:

Teresa's Chai for the Cake

1 1/3 cup milk

12 black tea bags

15 cardamon pods, crushed

1 tsp fennel

6 whole cloves

4 black peppercorns

1/2 inch of ginger, peeled and grated

This makes a pretty potent chai which is great for this cake. When I make my chai tea for lattes I do it a bit differently:

Teresa's Chai Latte

A small saucepan of water

1 or 2 black tea bags

6 cardamon pods, crushed

a pinch of fennel

3 whole cloves

2 black peppercorns

1/2 teaspoon of chopped ginger

I put all of this over medium heat and let it simmer for a few minutes. Then remove from heat and strain. You can add sugar to taste and drink the chai just like this, or make it into a latte by filling a mug 1/3 with chai and the rest with hot milk. I put the extra chai in jars and keep them in the fridge. You can drink it all week!

What's your favorite cake? Post your answer in the comments- bonus points if you link a recipe for me to try!

Thoughts on the New Year

Happy 2012!

Starting 2012 off right with a weekend getaway

Mohamed and I started our year off with a semi-bang. I had some frequent flyer miles from American Airlines that had to be used or they would expire, so I was able to book two nights in a Marrakech hotel!  The hotel, Le Caspian, was decent, but not thrilling.

View of Gueliz (Kech's new, trendier area) from our room

The room was tiny, but had a great balcony overlooking the city. The bathroom was functional, but extremely overcrowded. You couldn't open the door all the way because it smashed into a bidet. Now, I understand bidet's have their purpose, but is it really necessary to have a shower/bathtub, toilet, sink and bidet in approximately one square meter? I think not.

Also, I was excited because the hotel had a pool and was idiotic enough to think that maybe they heated it in the winter. Nope, it was completely drained. Oh well.

 Awesome, fresh-squeezed orange juice for 50 cents

Over the weekend we visited some of the major sites- Jemaa el-Fnaa, The Marjorelle Gardens, Ben Youssef Medersa and the Museum of Marrakech, but we mostly walked around exploring the city, taking photos and eating yummy foods.

Mohamed in the Marjorelle Gardens. There was also an AMAZING exhibit in the museum about Morocco's Amazigh (Berber) heritage

Street scene from the souk

While the weekend was overall wonderful, our actual New Year's Eve would be considered by some to be a bit lacking.  I guess it's time to just admit it- I'm an old, married lady. Don't worry, I don't think this is a bad thing.

In our excitement we didn't really plan well enough. On the 31st we woke up at 6:30 in order to get our things together and hop on the 7:45 train. After the four hour train ride, we walked to our hotel and then walked another 3ish kilometers to Jemaa el-Fnaa in search of lunch. After lunch we were tired, so we walked the 3 kilometers back to our hotel and relaxed there for a bit.

One of the bizillion beautiful shops in the market

In the early evening we again walked the 3 kilometers to Jemaa el-Fnaa this time to wonder around the souks (markets) and get more food. You may be seeing where I'm going here- after an early wakeup, exhausting train ride and multiple long walks- we were exhausted!

In addition, Mohamed doesn't drink, so paying lots of money to get into a bar wasn't exactly enticing. The "party" being hosted by our hotel was around $60 per person. Yikes! Needless to say, we made the 3 kilometer hike one last time and were in the hotel room by 9 pm.

Jemaa el-Fnaa at night aka 8pm

I still had planned to make it until midnight though. We just relaxed, read, watched some TV. By 11 pm, Mohamed was watching TV as I laid half asleep next to him. Despite the very upbeat celebration happening on TV, by 11:45 we were both unable to hold out any longer. Argh. With 15 minutes until the new year, we kissed and went to sleep.

Does part of me wish I would have been out having a wild time? Sure. Still another part of me would have settled for a mini-party of our own in the room. But in the end, I had a long, exhausting and fun day with my husband and have no regrets that we conked out a bit early. Plenty of years to make up for it, right?

I think 2012 is gonna be a good one!

So now here we are in 2012. I still have one week until work starts up again and I'm thinking about all of the things that are in store for us. For starters, we'll be having our wedding party in March and I have three international guests with tickets purchased! In the summer I'm hoping to return to Switzerland for fun and to save up some cash for our future move to the States. Lots of excitement indeed.

As for resolutions- I have none. Why make a resolution and then break it? As a general life goal though, I do hope that I can continue on a path that I've clumsily started over this long vacation-
1) Update the blog more frequently
2) Exercise more often, even if it's just a long walk
3) Cut back on sugar- this is by far the most difficult for me.

Speaking of sugar, I'm currently making a Chai Cake with Honey-Ginger Cream from Whisk Kid. I'll be posting tomorrow with the details.

photo by Whisk Kid