Easter eggs

In preparation for Easter Sunday, Jenny (a friend from Australia) and I decided to try to dye Easter eggs.  Having always used the dying kits that are available in the USA, it was a bit of an experiment.  I found green, red and orange food coloring in the cupboard, but to make the blue, I used my cheese draining kanga.  With some squeezing and some warm water, I was able to create a blue dye.  After testing several eggs, we invited 2 of the kids on campus to come over and dye their first Easter eggs.  Goodhope and Oprah lowered their eggs carefully in their chosen dye, checking to see when they reached the perfect color.  They were thrilled to see the final collection of brightly colored Easter eggs. 

Helping Oprah to lower her egg into the dye.

Goodhope, with her little sister on her back, puts her egg in the dye.

Finished and ready for Easter.

Look at those beautiful colors!

Cheese-making

For 2 months now, there has been no cheese in Bukoba.  The woman at the dairy has come to recognize me and as I enter the door, she shakes her head and says "wiki ijayo" or "next week".  This ritual is repeated almost every week, and there has yet to be any cheese.  With a craving for cheese, I decided in the past 2 weeks to try to make my own soft cheese.  Attempt number 1 yielded a frightfully smelly mess, a soupy mixture with a bitter flavor that no amount of herbs could hide.  However, before giving up for good, I decided to give it one last try. 

I placed the milk in a plastic pitcher for 2 days to separate and get lumpy.  This mixture was drained through a piece of blue and white floral kanga in a sieve.  I watched as the clear yellow whey drained slowly through the cloth into the container below.  Just for good measure, I left the curds to drain in the fridge overnight, and the following morning I had a cloth full of goat cheese like curds in my cloth.  Flipping them out into a bowl, I realized that this was a very unique cheese, for, I had unknowingly imprinted blue flowers on the bottom of my curds.  It is slightly ironic that I picked the white and blue kanga because I thought a blue dye less likely to run that a red or pink fabric.  Despite the fact that my cheese was blue, and after adding some margarine, garlic, chives, and dill, I had a fairly tasty cheese spread that is perfect for toast.  Hopefully it will tide me over until Bukoba's only cheese - gouda - returns again.

The cheese curds after draining - notice the tasteful and
artistically placed flowers...