It's been one of those weeks...

where I bake a lot.

It started with a chocolate craving, followed by ingestion of a horrible freezer cake (you know those boxed ones at the grocery store) which inevitably led to me experimenting with cocoa powder, baking soda, loads of flour and lots of muscle. You see, I don't have a hand mixer or a standing mixer, so all my baking is done by hand.... literally. More on baking later, but before I forget, news for the week!

Long lost picture... my first fast food in 8 months, taken in August on the way to Oregon (I think)

School is moving right along, I only have 3 days of class this week, which is more like 2.5 because I am done at noon tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited to actually take a break and get some sun this weekend. Yay volleyball! If I can manage it, I'll take some pictures of the beaches this weekend to show you all how much the weather did affect the beaches.

Matt and I had our anniversary yesterday... seven years! We had a very tame little celebration, but it was nice. We went to the Marriott for sushi which was okay, not amazing but not bad for St. Kitts sushi, then met up with friends who were playing bingo in the casino. They were the only table of people laughing and drinking... it was pretty obvious where they were amidst the sea of people. It was enjoyable, especially after taking the midterm that day. OH! Yes, my morning yesterday started with a Pharmacology 2 midterm. It was brutal. So... many... antibiotics.... and WHY must they name them so similarly??? I envy human doctors who only need to know how a drug works in one species. A drug that works great orally in a dog may not, and probably does not work so well in horses, or it could kill a horse but be safe in a dog! Or use it in dairy cows but not beef cows and the list goes on. Good thing there is this giant book we like to call a reference guide which is a necessity for keeping the drugs you don't use often straight.

After sushi at the Marriott. I'm becoming a pro at taking photos with an outstretched arm!

Back to baking....

I don't have any pictures of the chocolate cake I made from scratch, but if you're interested here is the recipe: Smitten Kitchen Everyday Chocolate Cake

I forgot about it in the oven, so mine got a bit crunchy on the outside, but having a kitchen timer would solve that. Also, the brown sugar we get here is exactly like the Hawaii "Sugar in the Raw" because well, it is. It is locally produced cane sugar granules... needless to say it doesn't create as smooth of a texture as regular brown sugar that you find in the states. The awesome part of it though, is how cheap it is! I paid 75 cents (US) for a 2 pound bag.

And the other baking project this week were these: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

With better pictures and an alternate, more health conscious recipe here: Erin's Food Files

The finished product, fresh out of the oven.

My changes were to use fresh pumpkin puree, because you can't find canned pumpkin here, but every store has giant chunks of pumpkin with a very thin green skin for about 50 cents (US)/ pound of pumpkin. Needless to say, pumpkin is CHEAP! I like to buy a couple of chunks, boil it down, smash it, then freeze it in batches for easy recipe use. If anyone is interested, I also have a couple of other good pumpkin recipes. It is, after all, October! Oh, and I only used about 1 tablespoon of butter in the streusel topping which kept it crumbly... 3 tablespoons I would've had mush! Here is the process:

This is the pumpkin based batter

Followed by a big spoonful of a cream cheese mixture right in the center

And topped off with a streusel pecan crumble (I forgot to take a picture until it was in the oven)

Nom nom nom!

And finally, for the second ever installment of "St. Kitts-ism of the week!" (a special double feature)
1. The electric department is going to shut off any accounts that have not been paid in over 60 days, but they haven't given out bills in MONTHS (some people haven't even received a bill for July yet). Even better, they state that having not received a bill is no excuse for not paying. Yup.

2. As of November 1st, a 17% VAT will apply to EVERYTHING imported to St. Kitts. Goodbye semi-affordable food, hello starvation. Even some apartments are subject to VAT on the rent! (Luckily not mine)

I nearly forgot... major disappointment after bringing animal cookies home from the grocery store...

Yes, it is all just one big glob of cookie and frosting.

Sigh...

Enjoy, and Happy Halloween! Keep chocolate away from you puppies and kitties please, nobody likes emergency vet visits.