One of those days

Have any of you ever had a day where everything you tried to do in the kitchen ended badly? Well, I've had one of those days today.

It started with coconut macaroons. As I've shared before, according to the culture here, it's shameful to return a plate empty. I have a couple that need to be returned, but I haven't made the time to make something for returning the plates. Today was the day! I had searched my cookbooks for the perfect treat and found one that I knew I would enjoy eating the extras of . . . coconut macaroons. Yummy! The recipe seemed simple enough - 2 egg whites, some sugar, a little vanilla, and coconut. One thing intimidated me though . . . beating egg whites. I've never done it before. Since moving overseas, however, I've become pretty adventurous and I wasn't going to let a couple of egg whites stand between me and such a tasty dessert. Twenty minutes and 2 "still not stiff" egg whites later, I was beginning to get the message that today was not the day for macaroons. I called a friend for help, but she wasn't at home. After a few more minutes of beating and still no "peaks" I decided to just mix in the other ingredients, put the runny batter into my mini-muffin tin and see what happened. Of course, after putting the tin into the hot oven I realized that I hadn't greased the tin - I knew how that would end, even if the cookies turned out to be edible!

So how did they turn out? Hollow, crumbly, and stuck to the pan. Disastrous! We scooped out the little bit of gooey coconut in the middle to taste and it all just kind of stuck to our back teeth.

I didn't have the energy or desire to attempt another dessert at that point, and I can't try that recipe again because I used almost all of my good (from the US) coconut for the batch that didn't turn out. So I sat and worked on some language stuff for a while.

Later in the afternoon we got word from Mark's language tutor that he and his wife wanted to come over for a visit. The acceptable thing to do for guests (always!) is to serve hot, fresh tea with something to eat on the side. We had nothing really to serve with our tea, so I scrambled to find the most simple recipe for which I had all the ingredients. I found a muffin recipe that seemed pretty easy. It's a basic muffin recipe with a jelly filling. After my macaroons turned out so badly I was afraid to try anything else new today. BUT I needed something! Again, feeling adventurous, I went for it.

Wanna know what happened? Instead of the jelly making a filling inside the muffin, it ran out of the sides, stuck to the muffin pan, and made kind of a "split in half" muffin with sticky jelly in the middle and around the sides. Did I still serve them to our guests? You bet I did! Did they eat them? Yep! Did they like them? I have NO idea! The main thing is that we put something on a plate and served it to them.

So here's the deal . . . I and another friend are serving tea for a couple of ladies we've never met before (on Thurs.). I'm supposed to make something sweet. Can you guess the thoughts running through my head?!

Tea Cookies

Lately it seems I've been missing some of my favorite recipes - unfortunately, I left a lot of them in my mom and dad's storage building, thinking that it would be hard to find the right ingredients for a lot of them. What a nice surprise it's been that I've been able to recreate quite a few of them here! (Thanks Mama for always being kind enough to dig out recipes for all those old family favorites when I fancy a taste from home!)

Earlier this week I started thinking about my Grandma's tea cakes. It seems (according to my memory) that she always had them ready to serve and we were always ready to gobble them up when my brother and I were children. My taste buds, which, of course, are working over time right now, started craving this childhood favorite. I, as usual, emailed my mom and asked her to send the recipe to me. And tonight I made my first batch of them. YUMMY!!!

I had been thinking of making them all day but wasn't sure I had quite enough energy to do so after dinner tonight. However, I knew Mark's tutor was coming over, and that gave me a little extra motivation because it's always the polite thing to offer some kind of food when serving tea to guests. Lucky him, he got some of the first pan full straight out of the oven! When I took the plate into the room where he and Mark were sitting, I explained that they are a favorite from my childhood and that the recipe comes from my grandmother. With that I left the two of them to chat and snack. When I went back to refill their tea cups, he asked for the name of the recipe. We call them tea "cakes," but if I had called something that looked so much like a cookie a "cake" he would have thought I was crazy! So . . . thinking fast on my feet, I gave them a new name . . . tea "cookies." He immediately explained how appropriate that name is because of how good they taste when eaten while drinking tea. He liked them so much that he wants me to give the recipe to his wife!

I don't know the history of this recipe, but it seems that whoever named it must have also been an avid tea drinker. At least, according to our friend, they couldn't have been called anything better!

Office Hours

The previous post described our visit to the doctor today, but I forgot to add one minor thing that maybe you'll find interesting.

Our doctor has an office at the hospital and a private office in another part of town. We've started making appointments at the hospital mostly because it's easier to get to from our house, the lab is there if blood work needs to be done, and the cost is about $15 cheaper. I called on Monday to get an appointment for today (Tuesday) and was told that there were no appointments available. No problem - we made one for Thurs. morning.

Last night, while attempting to get ready for bed (10:40), our local telephone rang. That's a very unusual thing and usually a wrong number if it's that time of night. Mark answered it, and a lady asked to speak with me. When I answered it I was very surprised to hear the secretary on the other end of the phone telling me she's from the hospital and wants to inform me that my appointment for Thurs. has been canceled and needs to be rescheduled. I'd like to say I was really surprised, but considering people here are still eating dinner at that hour, I wasn't all that surprised!

I truly hope that the next time your doctor's office decides to change an appointment they'll call you at a more decent hour!

Check-up

Today was time for another check up, and we are so thankful to report that everything is great! We had lots more blood tests done today (all routine with normal results) and the doctor says to drink lots of milk, keep taking my vitamin, and come back in a month. After that we'll start with every 2 week check-ups. We even got to see the labor and delivery rooms at the hospital today, too. Well, I (Melissa) got to see them. Mark won't be allowed in that part of the floor until the BIG day arrives. ;-)

Both baby and mommy continue to steadily gain weight. Baby R is now at an estimated 1.67 kilograms (3.64 lbs.). And he's got quite a kick/punch! Maybe a future soccer player???

I was thinking I would post the ultrasound picture from today's visit, but even I have a hard time making out what's what on this one! Mark tells me it's his face . . . I don't know!

Well, I'm off to start working on dinner. We've both worked up quite an appetite today. And not being able to eat until around 11am this morning has me feeling like I need to catch up on some calories!

"not so cheap" imitations

Many of you have maybe never wondered what you would do if you couldn't get good pork sausage so you could make a batch of holiday sausage and cheese balls. Well, over here, we think about what to do when you can't get a lot of stuff, but especially pork products! Fortunately, there are some really smart women living abroad that have thought of substitutions for practically everything it seems. And someone actually developed an imitation sausage recipe. Can you believe it?! (Too bad we can't find a substitute for a good pork chop, huh?)

So here's how you make imitation sausage . . .

Add to a pound of ground beef: 2 tsp. sage, 1 tsp. yellow mustard, 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and 1 1/2 tsp. salt. Mix it all well with a fork, and shape, cook, use as you please!

That solves the problem of having no sausage. How about Bisquick? Well, another really intelligent woman has developed a substitute for that as well. For the recipe I have, I had to use powdered milk. We looked everywhere for it a few months ago with no success. Then all of a sudden someone in our country discovered it in a warehouse kind of store. The catch? It costs about $20 for a kilo of the stuff!!! Is it worth it? Absolutely!!! (And it only took about 1/3 cup of powdered milk, so there's plenty more for another batch or two.)

I made my first batch of imitation sausage and cheese balls last night, and they were "melt in your mouth" delicious! There was no pork involved, but we sure made "pigs" out of ourselves when we started eating them.

So there you have it . . . our "not so cheap" imitation sausage and cheese ball post-holiday treat! If you ever get tired of the real thing, give this beef sausage a try . . . and let us know what you think!!!

Tell us more!

Some of you are probably interested in hearing a little more about our visit from Melissa's parents, so here's a brief summary . . .

After giving big hugs to our bleary-eyed travelers, we had to tell them that our shortcut transportation back to our city had been cancelled due to weather and that we would have to make a 6 hour bus ride. They were really troopers about it considering their flight schedule had been screwy enough to make even a seasoned traveller lose his mind! And off we went . . . got some fast food at the airport and set off for the bus station.

We made it home, no troubles, only to find that the top lock on our door was broken and we couldn't get into our apartment. Not to worry . . . our sweet neighbors ushered us into their home and gave us a little refreshment while we waited for our landlord and a locksmith to show up. We had had our locks changed a few months ago and when the lock was installed, a very important screw was left unscrewed. The locksmith had it fixed in a jiffy, and we were all in bed by 9:30!

The next few days found us preparing for and eating holiday meals. On Christmas Eve, we got together with some other ex-pat friends for dinner. And on Christmas Day, we had a small family dinner (complete with a really yummy turkey!). Between both meals we enjoyed both of our families' favorite stuffing/dressing recipes. Hmmm Hmmm good!!!

a "before" picture of our Christmas turkey

The day after Christmas we headed downtown so they could see our city and taste some soup from our favorite little soup place. They loved it as much as we do! Then we went to visit one of Mark's friends who operates a dessert shop. He set several bowls of traditional desserts in front of us so we could taste them all, and by the time we finished we were stuffed! After eating all that we wandered around a park until we felt we might freeze. That night we had beans and rice (thanks to a neighbor that wanted to cook a traditional meal for Melissa's parents while they were here). At the end of that day, we were beginning to think WE were the stuffed turkeys!

Over the weekend, we traveled to a city a few hours away and stayed with some friends so we could do a little sightseeing. We got to visit some historical ruins and do a little shopping at an old bazaar. And, of course, we ate lots more delicious food!

inside a traditional style restaurant where we ate lunch one day

We made it back home in time to celebrate New Year's. Well, we didn't do much in the way of celebrating other than eat again! We made a big pot of black-eyed peas and a pan of cornbread - traditional Southern cuisine. Then to finish off the week, we got to visit some of Melissa's friends downtown and eat dinner at another friends house. Melissa's parents said the meal eaten in our friend's home was the best they had while they were here. We'll have to agree that it was delicious! Our friends really enjoyed meeting some of our family, and they all pulled out their very best English to practice on them, too!

We had a day trip the day after New Year's and got to see a little snow while we were walking around town. Here's a couple of pictures of a mosque we were able to go inside to see.


At the end of their visit, we all headed to the city they would fly out of to do a little more sightseeing and a little more shopping. We had some more really great food, but thankfully did so much walking around that I think we burned most of the calories off right away!

a large mosque

inside the mosque

a garden area at a museum

a view from the garden

We had a great time visiting, cooking, eating, traveling, and shopping! Two weeks went by WAY too fast!!! Thankfully, everyone made it back home without any major glitches, and now we're all trying to get back into the swing of things.

Oh yeah . . . I almost forgot to show you a picture of all the wonderful things our families sent over for the baby. We had a little baby shower one night and had a really great time opening all the gifts and cards from parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends! What a blessing!!!