Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Rum Balls

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... yummy !!!!!

1 cup icing sugar
1 cup ground almonds
9 Tbsp cocoa
3 Tbsp melted margarine
1/3 cup rum (I used Captain Morgan's Spiced)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate sprinkles

mixing icing sugar through vanilla extract.
chill about 15 minutes or firm enough to roll
roll by the heaping tsp into balls and roll in spinkles.
chill and enjoy!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Kiva

My feel good loans
 
 
Léa is part of the group Twizerimana and lives in Gitega. She is a widow of 50 years old with three children aged 11 to 17 years. She has been a merchant selling beans, bananas, and corn for the past three years. She is currently on her tenth loan with Turame. Léa plans to use this loan from Kiva to increase her capital. She will do this by purchasing a large quantity of rice, beans, and bananas and reselling them, thus earning more income.
 
Lorenzo is married with four children. Lorenzo is 37 years old and lives in Namnama, Titay, Zambonaga Sibugay. Lorenzo is a rubber broker to earn a living. He has been doing this for five years. He has requested a loan of 50,000 Philippines pesos to purchase rubber for his business.
Lorenzo is a new member of PMPC. In the future, Lorenzo hopes to expand his business.
 
Mor is a young, 28 year old shopkeeper who sells notions (sewing supplies). He is single and has no children. Mor has a shop in the market in his neighborhood. He has been running this shop for 5 years. This is his second loan, and he's asking for 250000F CFA to buy accessories. Mor is single, but takes care of his mother and brothers. He would like to grow his shop and diversify his business.

Nelly works raising animals, such as chickens and guinea pigs. She fattens them and later sells them in different markets. She also still has a minibus with which she provides [transportation] services to the public. Through these two businesses, she helps her son get ahead. Her dream is to grow her animal-raising business. Nelly is requesting this loan to purchase chickens and guinea pigs and also to buy feed for the animals. She is happy about the loan and committed to making her loan payments.
 
Mzia is 50 years old. She lives in a small village of Dmanisi District with her husband Tariel. Mzia and Tariel run an agricultural business. They have 2 milking cows and sell milk in nearby villages. Also, they have 6 sheep and sell lambs. In addition to livestock, they have bee-hives, with bee colonies which produce honey. They also own a plot of land, where they grow wheat, maize and haricot beans. Mzia and Tariel are especially busy with the plot during spring and summer seasons in order to ensure a good harvest in late summer, which they sell on the local open market. In addition to their agricultural activities Mzia works in the village school as a primary teacher. Total average monthly income of the family is 1000 Lari. Mzia requested credit for expansion of the dairy farm. She will purchase an additional milk cow, and will be able to produce dairy food, mainly cheese and curds. Mzia will sell additional produce on the local open market, where her products are quite popular among consumers. The income of the family will increase. With increased income they will be able to reinvest in the family agricultural business. Due to the above mentioned, living conditions of the family will improve.

Saidikhon has been growing and drying apricots since 2007. She is married and has three sons. Her children and husband help Saidikhon in her business. Every year she buys several hectares of apricot orchard and during the fruit season her and her family drive to the orchard and pick, de-pit and dry the apricots for Saidikhon to sell at the market. The family also receives monthly money transfers from their two other sons who left to Russia for work. Saidikhon's husband raises and fattens cattle for meat sales. Saidikhon would like to take out this loan to purchase an apricot orchard so that she can pick and process fruit from it for resale.

Ajibu is 38 years old and lives in the town of Soroti in the Mbale region of Uganda. She is married and has 4 children with 3 of them currently in school. For the past ten years, Ajibu has been working hard to manage her bar, which sells local beers for drinking. To help expand her business, Ajibu has requested a loan of 3,000,000 Ugandan Shillings from BRAC Uganda. The loan will be used to buy more items for making the local beers like Sorghum for resale, and will help Ajibu to generate greater profits and increase stock. Ajibu hopes that in the future she will be able to get more money from BRAC to improve more on her business.

 

 
 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Christmas Cookie Countdown

So I though it would be fun to keep a log of the cookies I make this year for Christmas just to see what I made. What was loved and not. A little reference for future years.

So here it goes......

Pfeffernuesse - 20 dozen
Rum balls - 3 dozen