Thanksgiving 2014

This one definitely goes down in the books for being unforgettable...

With the help of a neighbor, Dan and Jimmy helped catch and pluck our birds:

TWENTY of our FAVORITE people came from the North to join us for the weekend...

 After hours of being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen...no shame, only joy:

...we pulled off a legit Thanksgiving meal in the middle of nowhere North Africa: 

My friend Anna is so pretty you can't tell she was in the kitchen for hours too :)

... And this meal would not have been possible without our fearless kitchen leader, CHERYL, her sidekick, Kali, and our friends from America who brought us things like cranberry, crunchy onions, sweet potatoes, decorations etc., etc.,...Thank you!!! Yum, Yum! We love you!

We may have even started a new tradition: Passing the turkey leg around the table so everyone can have a bite?...

Dan and friends led us in giving thanks to God for all of his good and perfect gifts: 

...And to top it off a desert excursion opportunity was included...

...as well as a surprise diaper shower...really so surprised...thank you, friends!...

 ...and the birthday celebration of one sweet little girl: 

 As always the Baileys left Thanksgiving stuffed to the brim...full of yummy food and the love of good friends and family and grateful to God for it all.

Eid Kabeer

We had a lovely time going to our first Eid Kabeer. The people here are so hospitable that they invited our visiting American group…so if you're feeling up for a good old fashioned sheep slaughtering and BBQ, keep your calendars clear for October next year, and come see us!
Felicity and I opted out of the slaughtering day in favor of the BBQ day so this post only has pictures from day two of the celebration…

The kids had their own little grills…so cute:

Felicity loving her some grilled sheep:

 It was really good. I forgot to mention it was 9 a.m. Protein for breakfast is always a good thing!

If they can, every family within a family buys their very own sheep. It is a lot of work for the women to clean and prepare all of the meat. Our friends had four sheep, one for each nuclear family. Here our neighbor is using the sheep heads to show us the difference between a 300 dinar sheep and a 500 dinar sheep. 1 dinar is about $0.60. Families will be eating from these sheep for months to come…from the freezer of course.

I was so relieved when she told me they do not eat anything from the heads or the horns! They just keep them for fun ;)...

We were so grateful for the opportunity to share in this celebration and hope we can return the hospitality and generosity ten fold in days to come…Although I'm not sure we can compete with lamb for breakfast!

Happy Cous Cous to you!

Lately I have learned a lot about our country's cuisine. We just completed a cooking/market/foods language unit that culminated in a cooking class and feast at our language school, and recently a sweet lady I know offered to show me how to make cous cous at home.

I've been wanting to share some of these amazing recipes, but I'm having some issues. Every time I cook anything, I look at a recipe. I am lost without it even though I have made some things at least a hundred times (i.e. chocolate chip cookies :) ). I never realized how ridiculous this seems until I got weird looks for wanting to take time to write down recipes while learning how to cook here.

They don't use recipes here. Everything is just in their heads. So, I'm going to share a recipe, but fair warning a good deal of it is from my head. It could be dangerous...or a great culinary adventure...Either way, Happy Cous Cous to YOU!

-Rinse 2.5 cups cous cous...add a touch of water and let it soak while you do some vegetable and meat work...(if you do not have all of the vegetables I mention, it's ok. Also, if you want to add different vegetables, it's ok too!)

-Put .5 kilos leg of lamb in the bottom of the pan (you can use chicken, beef, or camel instead...or go vegetarian..all of these options would be keeping it North African)

-Chop one onion into quarters and put it on top of the lamb

-Chop 4 carrots into quarters and place on top

-Add .5 cup of hummus beans and .5 cup green mystery beans

Add the following:
1/3 cup tomato paste
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. sweet paprika, 2 tbsp. harissa arabi
3 tbsp. olive oil

-Stir occasionally on medium-low heat 30 min. give or take ;)

- Add 2 whole peeled zucchinis, 3 medium sized pieces of pumpkin and one pealed potato cut in half

-Drain cous cous and place in a special pot contraption that looks like this:

I think it's pretty much like a steamer that you put on top of a pot...I've never seen one like this in America, but maybe a steamer could work?

-Cover it and place it on top of the vegetable pot. Cook for 30 min. Then cook it an additional 15 min. uncovered.

- place hand on top of cous cous...if it doesn't stick, it's done :)

- Add 2.5 tsp. black pepper and 1 tbsp. salt, also 1/2 cup water to the meat/vegetable mix.

-Mix it all together and Enjoy!

p.s. If anyone really wants to try this, we would love to send you some harissa that we sent back to the states with my mom. Trader Joe's might also have some because strangely enough I found Trader Joe's brand here!
p.s.s. It would make our hearts so happy to have a picture of you enjoying your cous cous if you are brave enough to take on the challenge...you might even get yourself a shout out on the blog!
Bon Appétit!

Yummo

How is it that no matter where we are in the world we always end up friends with Asians who have visiting mothers and mother-in-laws who know how to make the best food in the world?...Here are a few photos from our first team dinner. So grateful for the yummy food and our family here... 

Don't worry mom and mom-in-love...you don't have to cook if you visit! And just in case you were wondering, we aren't always match-matchy...just making a promo video for our English classes that started this week.

Ree and Katie

Our friends Nita and Adrian gave us a fabulous gift for our FiFtH anniversary: The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond...My new obsession :) Thanks guys...

It's a BriLLiaNt gift really because I love any excuse to wear my favorite apron, try new ingredients like leeks and kosher salt, hang out with people I love, and eat DeLiciOuS food.

It's good for Dan too because he thinks I'm cute in my apron...Plus he likes trying new things and hanging out with some of our FaVoRiTeS while devouring yummy food...

It even made coming home from vacation a bit less PaInfuL knowing great times were to be had in my kitchen with PW, Nita and Adrian and my beloved.

My first aTteMpT: Potato-Leek Pizza and Hot Artichoke Dip...

RaVeNoUs...

Ahh MuCh better now...Round Two: chicken spaghetti...

And for my third PW meal: SpIcY pulled pork with mom...and HoT artichoke dip AgAiN(because it's just that wonderful)...

So far sooooo GoOd... I only wish I could have each of YoU over to enjoy some cooking by me and Ree...but mostly Ree. I just do what she tells me, and it all seems to work out :)

Drive By

Today we had the pleasure of seeing Uncle Patrick, Aunt Natalie and my four AmAzInG cousins. We had a delightful lunch at one of Chicago's favorites, Portillo's :)

Italian beefs, cheese fries, chocolate cake and laughs were had...

My FaBuLouS cousins...

So FuNnY....

Aunt Natalie, it was so good to see you in person. Until we meet again blogging will have to do!

Thanks so much for dropping by for a drive by lunch...Dan and I truly enjoyed our time with your family. Our time was SwEeT though it was short and lacking in sweet tea ;) Love you guys!

The End

P.S. I think this blog post with pictures may have taken me less time than one of Uncle Patrick's Tweets :)

Oh Happy Day!

The Girl Scout Cookies have arrived!... and ThIs is what happens when you have absolutely no self control... even though I'd like to blame it on being a teacher:


We'll see how long these tasty morsels last...Thank you Girl Scouts for making our lives so much more delicious!

Chinese New Year

This weekend we went out with some dear friends to bring in the ChiNeSe NeW YeAr...

Our friends NiTa and AdRiaN never fail to EnRiCh our lives by giving us new experiences so we knew that when they invited us to join their friends for a Chinese New Year celebration it was not going to be your Americanized KuNg PaO ChIckEn and CraB RaNgOoN...Oh no, we knew that this was going to be the ReAl DeaL.Ten courses of pure ChiNeSe DeLiGhT...

The aPpeTiZeR:


...and SoUp....

...the MaIn CoUrSeS and SiDe DiSheS begin...

...DeSsErt...

...and last but certainly not least...

...and even though I don't take such things seriously, it just so happens that mine was true:

It is with an extremely full stomach and great joy and gratitude in my heart for my dear husband, friends, family, and Savior that I wish you a very Happy New Year... ChInEsE style.