Wednesday, May 28, 2008

It's the Altitude!

Last weekend I did a little research on high altitude baking since I was trying muffins and banana bread. Tracy had been having some problems with her bread maker. I was able to do a couple of adjustments and turned out some great muffins and quick bread. Hopefully I left Trace with some good tips for her bread.

There are other interesting things about cooking at high altitude like water boils at a lower temperature. That has implications for killing water-born germs, and general cooking. I have learned it’s harder to get beans to cook through without a pressure cooker. (Thankfully I brought mine out.)

What I find interesting (and convenient) is that I have started to blame just about anything that doesn’t actually work right or well on the altitude. What? The toilet isn’t flushing properly, it must be the altitude. Feeling a little klutzy? It’s the thin air. Bad hair day, you guessed it; living at 7200 feet above sea level will do that to you.

Heck it must be true, my ears really do pop every time we drive down to Nairobi. I am still out of breath walking across campus here. (Though Craig assures me I will acclimate.) If you don’t really have jet-lag, altitude is the next best alternative.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny! I guess I don't think about altitude very much. :-) But now I'll think of you when I'm making box brownies and I see those high altitude directions. I always used to think, "Who needs THOSE?" :-)

Grace-n-Glory said...

hmmm. Its nice to have "the altitude" to take the brunt of all the issues that crop up! =) For me, "I'm pregnant" works pretty well. haha!