Teacups and Toasters

Boma is a restaurant at The Animal Kingdom Lodge in Orlando, Florida.  It offers a buffet based on African cuisine, which means that it’s a great place for those that enjoy unique spices. We got the chance to eat there back in September ’08 when we ventured down to Disney for Free Dining! (Sometimes in the fall they offer this great deal and if you want more information on it, let me know!)  Boma is known for having great soups and now I know them for having my favorite soup in the world. Well, at least soups that I’ve gotten to taste. Previous, the chicken noodle at the William Wallace Monument in Stirling, Scotland held first place in my mind, though perhaps it still does in my heart.

My favorite soup from Boma is a coconut curried seafood soup. It was beautiful. Truly. I wrote about it when we got back from our trip. You can read a little more about it here.

I’ve dreamt about that soup so often in my food frenzied daydreams (makes me seem shark like?) So, I was pleased to come across a recipe on the DISboards that claimed to be the recipe from Boma for Coconut Curried Chicken Stew. It didn’t really seem to be exactly the same, but was close enough. I copied it down and then made my own variation from there. I stuck with chicken though because I’m the only one in the home that eats seafood.  Mine didn’t turn out much like my longed for soup from the September adventure, but it turned out well none the less.  Though, it’s a might bit spicy!

Budget Friendly Recipe for Coconut Curried Chicken Soup

You Will Need:

5 boneless, skinless, chicken tenderloins cut into small pieces

Salt and ground pepper to taste

2 1/2 tsp curry powder

3tbs canola oil

6tbs butter or butter substitute (as always, I used Smart Balance Light)

3/4 cup flour

4 cups chicken stock

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 cup canned Rotel diced tomatoes (I used the ones w/ lime juice)

1 cup canned sliced potaoes

1/4 green pepper sliced and chopped

1 cup coconut milk ( you can buy this in a can, or in a refrigerated carton. If you use fresh, you’ll need approx. 4 coconuts. I had bought one and ended up running out to the store and grabbing a carton, but I think the can is probably cheaper. I was just hoping it would be tasty enough to drink…it wasn’t, but works great for cooking!)

1/2 cup honey

Step 1. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and curry powder. Sear chicken in oil in 4 quart pot. Cook until almost done. Remove chicken and drain excess oil.

Step 2. Add butter to the same pot. Stir in flour, stock, cayenne pepper, tomatoes. Add honey, potatoes, green pepper, and coconut milk.

Step 3. Return chicken to the pot and bring to a boil to finish cooking and thicken the liquid.

Step 4. Serve it hot!

Lately, I’ve been reading a bit more than the norm. In a weeks time I read Twilight & The Shack, both of which I would recommend- even though neither are new favorites. The Shack caused me to analyze myself a little, which is in part the purpose it’s author intended and he did quite a nice job of succeeding in that goal. There’s actually a similar goal in a film called The Kingdom of Heaven. Basically, that particular goal is to smack Christians in the face and wake them up. I don’t agree with everything in the film, or even everything in the book, but I do agree on certain points.

The points that I agree on are as follows:

A.  We cannot delude ourselves with our versions of what God should be like.

B. We cannot ignore His presence.

C. We cannot ignore His Word.

D. If we do not do what His Word commands, we’re ignoring His Word.

E. ” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” John 1:1-3

Ignoring God’s Word equates to ignoring Christ. One who considers themselves a follower of Christ can’t just read the Word. They have to actually live it, if they are indeed actually following Him.

I’ve also been reading through 1 and 2 Samuel and am now in 1 Kings and it was completely mind boggling at first to wonder at how these kings could actually ignore God after the awesome things that they were witness to and the awesome things that God imparted to them.  Yet, that’s exactly what most followers do. We get so wrapped up in the things of this world and the influences that are just constantly bombarding us that we place the the awesome things that we have been witness to, into the back of our minds. We shut them off.

An awesome thing to witness doesn’t have to be a visual instance (think parting of the Red Sea type instance). It can be simple. Isn’t accepting Christ into your life simple and yet – awesome? Why then do we shut these witnessed moments off?

My theory is this:  We shut off the amazing because sometimes amazing involves frightening. We don’t like things that we can’t explain.  It may be the same with some of you, but I know that I’ve encountered things in my life that I could not explain and continued about my day and then when I would think back on those things I would wonder how it was possible for me to carry on normally. If I hadn’t carried on normally, I probably wouldn’t have known what to do with myself.

What am I getting at?  We should be careful about how we carry on normally. Our normal should involve living in and of His Word. We shouldn’t fear what we can’t explain and we shouldn’t try to explain it away. There is indeed a spiritual battle going on around us all the time. Sometimes we refer to it behind the veil and often we like to think of it as being behind something so that it doesn’t actually concern us, even though it does very much. It actually kind of comforts me though. When I witness something that I cannot explain I know that it’s just part of what is always occurring, yet is unseen. I’m glad to know that God is in control and His Word will guide me in how to deal with what would otherwise be frightening.

Live the Word. Love the Word. Be of the Word.

I love me some cupcakes! I mean who doesn’t love them some cute sized cakes?  These are made half scratch. Half scratch in this case means that I started with  a mix, but then elaborated.  I started with a muffin mix, Martha White’s Cranberry Orange Muffin Mix, to be exact. I like to buy these muffin pouches in a variety when Kroger’s offers them  10/$10, or less.   We had the blueberry pouch yesterday and while I still was in the mood for muffins, I found myself more in the mood for extra sweetness. So here’s what happened:

Preheated oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

1 pouch of Cranberry Orange Muffin Mix from Martha White   (=1/4 cup mix)

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup butter (Smart Balance Light for a non-dairy alternative that works)

::Combined the above with a mixer (I prefer a stand alone)::   Added:

2tbs soymilk

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

::Mixed::

pinch of salt

1 tsp baking soda (or was it 2…seriously…I was playing in the kitchen..use your wiser than I kitchen knowledge)

1/2 cup flour  (this is at the end of the recipe, because I realized I needed more flour for the desired consistancy – you may want to add it with the first set of ingredients)

::Mixed::

1/2 tsp orange extract

::Mixed::

Lined a 12 count cupcake pan with muffin liners (super cool imitiation transformer ones)

Filled each muffin cup 3/4 full

Baked for 17min (Mine came out a little too brown, so I’d suggest cutting it back to 12-15min)

Neeext, let them cool…this is tricky.

Once cooled, I topped them with a chocolate frosting/glaze (not sure which is correct to call it by.. because it’s neither really) For our purposes, we’ll call it a frosted glaze.  If you want to make it and I recommend that you do, here’s how:

(Triple this, as I did not have enough to cover all 12 cupcakes) Melt 8 dove dark chocolate squares with 2tsp of butter (again Smart Balance light for the non dairy version)

Add a trickle of orange extract to the melted chocolate and butter

Frost your cupcakes and let the chocoalte frosted glaze sit for a little bit. This will allow the texture to form.

Now, EAT!

After Thoughts:    This recipe isn’t mind blowing and it doesn’t yield the normal cupcakey texture, although the texture is much softer and lighter than a muffin. You could easily use any flavor of the pouches in place of the cranberry orange and just as easily adjustable is the flavoring added to the frosted glaze. A handful of fresh cranberries could really do wonders if added to the mix, maybe even some pineapple would be nice.