Around the World in the Hetzel Kitchen

Excuses.  I could find a ton of them for why I have not written.  I bet I could even make a list.  I will not give into that desire, however.  I will limit myself to two.  One isn't really a good one, but it is true nonetheless.  I think the second one is legit.  I guess you can judge for yourself. Months ago, I very quickly found a recipe that I wanted to do for Colombia.  It had all of the makings that I look for.  New ingredients, delicious-sounding.  AND it was published in the Washington Post from the cook at the Colombian Embassy.  How perfect! Here it is.   Sorry it is annoyingly on multiple pages. I went out and bought all of the ingredients except for two: papa criolla (Colombian potatoes) and dried guascas.  Couldn't find them in the Latin American section.  No worries.  Visit to the Latin American grocery store: no luck.  I even asked and the guy there couldn't help me.  A trip to the g...

You didn't really think I could do Belgium without waffles, did you?  The website  I linked to last time had a recipe, and we have a waffle maker.  Perfect combination! For once, I had all of the ingredients the recipe called for.  At least when I halved it, which, can you believe it, is what I did.  I had even recently acquired a flour sifter via Kohl's cash.  Perfectly situated. Originally the plan was to do this all in one day, but later decided that the waffles would be better as brunch the next day.  Mostly, you mix a lot of things.  I got smart and actually used an electric mixer for this one.  See?  I learn from my mistakes.  Sometimes. My egg separating skills have improved dramatically. Look at those peaks! Shiney new sifter.  Now someone has to tell me how to clean these things after the fact. I tried to get a picture of sifting in action, but it was too blurry. After that it is really just "make...

(Originally posted here. ) Angola  Rebuilding after a 27 year civil war that ended in 2002. Gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Size : Over 1.2 sq km, 23rd largest in the world, slightly less than twice the size of Texas Water : 0 sq km Location : South Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean Population : Over 13 million Second-highest death-rate in the world Religious followings : 47% indigenous Literacy rate : 52% for women Angola started out very promising.  I was able to find a large number of recipes.  After going through a lot of websites and a lot of different stuff, I settled on this one for  Chicken Muamba. It seemed fairly simple while using stuff that I wouldn't normally used.  Besides, I also found it on other sites as well.  Seems like a recipe for success, right? I went ahead and made a list and went to the store.  Chicken?  Check.  Tomatoes?  Check.  Okra?  Wait a minute.  No...

(Original post here. ) Andorra History: From 1278 to 1993 Andorra was co-ruled by leaders from Spain and France.  In 1993 it switched to parliamentary rule but retains the Spanish and French rulers. Economy : 80% tourism Size : 468 sq miles, 2.5 times the size of DC Population : 84,500 Literacy rate : 100% They do not have a military, and defense is the responsibility of France and Spain. Andorra was...difficult.  They are so small that their recipes don't proliferate very much.  I looked for quite a while.  In fact, in my looking, I found other people complaining about the same thing.  Apparently this is not untreaded territory.  I was a little sad not to be unique.  But oh well.  This is about experiencing it, right? Eventually, I found my way to the Andorran website.  The one ran by at least 1/84,500th of their population.  And there were recipes.  Perfect, right? Not really.  A lot of them were veal.  W...