This evening I'll be hosting a group of ladies who want to improve their English and I'm not sure what to call it. We'll be having tea and scones but to call it an English Tea implies we'll be having tea in the traditional English manner, and that's not the case. To call it an English Club sounds rather juvenile (to me, at least). Any ideas?
I'm rather nervous, having never done anything like this before. My sweet SIL sent a link to englishclub.com which has some good advice and ideas. We'll see how it goes. Being the up front person of anything takes me out of my comfort zone. And I'll tell you a secret. Even though my major was in communication, my verbal skills are less than stellar when I'm nervous. I become a verbal dyslexic, suddenly develop nervous tics and stutter, and generally become about as clear as mud when trying to convey even the most simple sentence. You have never seen anyone butcher the English language like I can when nervous. Pray, por favor!
I'm going to make two kinds of scones: my favorite chocolate chocolate chip and a recently discovered recipe for apple cinnamon.
We'll only be meeting for an hour, hour and a half, and tonight is more a get-acquainted time and an opportunity for me to see how advanced the ladies are with English. I know one of the ladies well (my friend Graciela) but the others I've only met in passing. I have two activities planned but would like to have a total of five, in case they go really fast. I'd rather be over-prepared and run out of time than run out of things to do. I am not good at improvising, especially in situations like that.
So I'm off to search englishclub.com and see what ideas I can pilfer. If you have any potential names for our group, pass them along!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Monday Meanderings
There are workers next door, starting to clear debris and prepare the lot for the houses that will soon go up. For the next who-knows-how-many months we will be greeted each morning to the noise sounds of construction. Actually we're quite excited to see the process. Ivan had a builder's license in Michigan and we built two spec homes in addition to the repairs and remodeling work he did. On the side. Because he also had a full-time "real" job with benefits and the "part-time" gig as associate pastor. The building/remodeling went by the wayside when we started deputation in 2004 though. There really are only so many hours in the day. Three jobs, yeah, he's been there, done that. But four? No thank you.
Anyway, we're interested to observe how things are done here since it's block construction rather than stick-built like we were used to in Michigan. Although the folks building next door are brothers and one of them owns the only dry construction building company in the city, and they do plan to incorporate some of the techniques in the two homes they're building on the lot.
Our living room, with all its lovely windows is on the side next to the empty lot that will now be full of workers for a good long time. So I decided to switch the living room and dining room out, so we can sit in the living room without feeling like we're living in a fish bowl. Plus it's cooler in what was the dining room and will now be the living room, a positive feature since warm weather has set in.
It was hot yesterday AND last night. We turned the ceiling fan in our bedroom on medium and it wasn't until the wee hours of the morning that I even pulled the sheet over me. And it's only early Spring. Could be an interesting Spring and Summer with the onset of hot flashes :-)
We'd been invited to a birthday party that took place yesterday; something I missed in the conversation with our friends because, HELLO, I only get 50% of anything on a GOOD day. Ivan didn't realize I didn't get it, didn't say anything about it AND forgot until half-way through said party when our friends called to ask where we were. I had just pulled the cornbread from the oven and was preparing to serve lunch.
After a minor melt-down (it is VERY frustrating to NOT UNDERSTAND MOST OF WHAT IS GOING ON) I cleaned up, loaded the cornbread onto a disposable plate and we headed out late. I've mentioned before the uncertainty we face with the way food is served (or not served) here so I ended up eating a tiny piece of cornbread (I'd cut the pone into 24 pieces and set it on the table in front of me) and shared an empanada with Ivan. Boy howdy, was I ever hungry by the time we got home at 5 p.m.!
Learned a new game. You can play with two people or two teams. A small wooden disk is thrown, then you try to throw a larger wooden disk as close to the small one as possible. There are twelve large wooden disks shared between players. I am truly AWFUL at sports. The kid always picked last because I couldn't run very fast, jump very high, or hit anything I aimed at with balls big or small. But I didn't do too badly yesterday. Okay I did do pretty badly, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been or as bad as I expected. I actually came close to the small disk TWICE. Granted that's with like a hundred attempts. But still. TWICE I CAME CLOSE TO THE LITTLE DISK. This is quite momentous in the sports history of me.
[How amusing to see how quickly the other players realized they needed to GET OUT OF MY WAY when I was throwing a disk. You could seriously hurt someone with those, and my aim was normally nowhere near the small disk -- and often quite near other players. LOL]
After all the cooking last week I am a wee bit tired of the kitchen. Hot weather and hot flashes don't help. I planned a menu of sorts last night and it is rather uninspired. And I believe I need to rethink it, to do more with the crockpot this week and less with the stove. Mainly I just don't want to spend much time in the kitchen, period.
That's because I'm in the groove with my current quilt project. Which is actually two because I'm making one for a gift and keeping one for myself. Since I don't have a lot of spare time, shaving minutes from kitchen duty translates into more at the sewing machine.
I could write a lot more about my mundane life at the moment. Like how my camera battery died while I was taking photos yesterday (I'm sure it has some kind of indicator for a low battery but I don't know what it is) or that Ivan spent a lot of time on the tiny front yard last week and it looks really nice now. But somehow I don't think you want to hear about that. And I'm fresh out of fun-new-things-that-missionaries-do-or-experience.
So hasta luego!
Anyway, we're interested to observe how things are done here since it's block construction rather than stick-built like we were used to in Michigan. Although the folks building next door are brothers and one of them owns the only dry construction building company in the city, and they do plan to incorporate some of the techniques in the two homes they're building on the lot.
Our living room, with all its lovely windows is on the side next to the empty lot that will now be full of workers for a good long time. So I decided to switch the living room and dining room out, so we can sit in the living room without feeling like we're living in a fish bowl. Plus it's cooler in what was the dining room and will now be the living room, a positive feature since warm weather has set in.
It was hot yesterday AND last night. We turned the ceiling fan in our bedroom on medium and it wasn't until the wee hours of the morning that I even pulled the sheet over me. And it's only early Spring. Could be an interesting Spring and Summer with the onset of hot flashes :-)
We'd been invited to a birthday party that took place yesterday; something I missed in the conversation with our friends because, HELLO, I only get 50% of anything on a GOOD day. Ivan didn't realize I didn't get it, didn't say anything about it AND forgot until half-way through said party when our friends called to ask where we were. I had just pulled the cornbread from the oven and was preparing to serve lunch.
After a minor melt-down (it is VERY frustrating to NOT UNDERSTAND MOST OF WHAT IS GOING ON) I cleaned up, loaded the cornbread onto a disposable plate and we headed out late. I've mentioned before the uncertainty we face with the way food is served (or not served) here so I ended up eating a tiny piece of cornbread (I'd cut the pone into 24 pieces and set it on the table in front of me) and shared an empanada with Ivan. Boy howdy, was I ever hungry by the time we got home at 5 p.m.!
Learned a new game. You can play with two people or two teams. A small wooden disk is thrown, then you try to throw a larger wooden disk as close to the small one as possible. There are twelve large wooden disks shared between players. I am truly AWFUL at sports. The kid always picked last because I couldn't run very fast, jump very high, or hit anything I aimed at with balls big or small. But I didn't do too badly yesterday. Okay I did do pretty badly, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been or as bad as I expected. I actually came close to the small disk TWICE. Granted that's with like a hundred attempts. But still. TWICE I CAME CLOSE TO THE LITTLE DISK. This is quite momentous in the sports history of me.
[How amusing to see how quickly the other players realized they needed to GET OUT OF MY WAY when I was throwing a disk. You could seriously hurt someone with those, and my aim was normally nowhere near the small disk -- and often quite near other players. LOL]
After all the cooking last week I am a wee bit tired of the kitchen. Hot weather and hot flashes don't help. I planned a menu of sorts last night and it is rather uninspired. And I believe I need to rethink it, to do more with the crockpot this week and less with the stove. Mainly I just don't want to spend much time in the kitchen, period.
That's because I'm in the groove with my current quilt project. Which is actually two because I'm making one for a gift and keeping one for myself. Since I don't have a lot of spare time, shaving minutes from kitchen duty translates into more at the sewing machine.
I could write a lot more about my mundane life at the moment. Like how my camera battery died while I was taking photos yesterday (I'm sure it has some kind of indicator for a low battery but I don't know what it is) or that Ivan spent a lot of time on the tiny front yard last week and it looks really nice now. But somehow I don't think you want to hear about that. And I'm fresh out of fun-new-things-that-missionaries-do-or-experience.
So hasta luego!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Week 40, Project 365
I love round numbers. Forty is a round number. We are on week 40 of Project 365. Yeah for us!
I was not very good about taking photos this week. Started out strong and then totally wimped out. Fortunately Ivan took some good shots that I can share with you. I missed a lot of photos opportunities because I didn't have the camera. I have now swiped it from The Man Who Always Hogs The Camera and hope to do better in the coming weeks at getting some interesting pictures. I made a list tonight of places and things I want to shoot.
Note: Ivan doesn't hog it on purpose; he's just gotten into the habit of putting the camera case on his belt every morning. He gladly let me have it when I asked :-)
The other day we were looking for a house a friend is building. Ivan had been there once but someone else was driving. We had street names and a map but the map wasn't lining up with the reality of the streets. At one point we found ourselves up pretty high with quite a view so we stopped to take some photos.
I was not very good about taking photos this week. Started out strong and then totally wimped out. Fortunately Ivan took some good shots that I can share with you. I missed a lot of photos opportunities because I didn't have the camera. I have now swiped it from The Man Who Always Hogs The Camera and hope to do better in the coming weeks at getting some interesting pictures. I made a list tonight of places and things I want to shoot.
Note: Ivan doesn't hog it on purpose; he's just gotten into the habit of putting the camera case on his belt every morning. He gladly let me have it when I asked :-)
The other day we were looking for a house a friend is building. Ivan had been there once but someone else was driving. We had street names and a map but the map wasn't lining up with the reality of the streets. At one point we found ourselves up pretty high with quite a view so we stopped to take some photos.
Andrea, our friend from Michigan, is as much of a camera freak as I am. We can usually be found simultaneously pulling out our cameras whenever a photo op presents itself. This time I decided to take a picture of her taking a picture :-)
One evening this week we headed downtown for a little window shopping. Ivan, having no desire to join the girls in their window viewage, wandered around and snapped this photo of the Catholic church in the center of town.
Another day he took photos of a cute bird. Anyone know what kind of bird -- other than the obvious yellow-breasted part?
As we set off on a walk one morning, I took this picture of the front of our neighbor's place. This house sits directly opposite us. I just LOVE the arbor of climbing roses! So lush, just full of tiny blossoms. There are actually several bushes, mostly white but some yellow roses -- the yellow ones are down toward the end.
Yesterday I mentioned a restaurant on the lake where we hope to one day enjoy breakfast on the deck. Just thought you'd like to see what I was talking about.
The week started out cold after a storm blew in last weekend and it dropped from the 70s into the 40s overnight. But it gradually got warmer and this Saturday was downright hot. Had a nice turnout for soccer and the boys put away all the store-bought cookies we provided for merienda. Attempt #5 with the No Bakes was such a disaster that they were inedible and even hungry teenage boys would not have eaten them. COLOSSAL FAIL! It's becoming such a joke. Why can't I make decent No Bakes?!
Oh well. There are worse things in life.
Have a great week!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens Over Bow-Tie Pasta
We've been fans of The Splendid Table on public radio for years. Every weekend we'd listen to Lynn Rosetto Kasper talk about food, interview chefs, cookbook authors and others, takes calls from listeners with questions about food and occasionally play an entertaining and challenging game called Stump The Cook. Since moving overseas we download the free podcasts of her show and listen when we're in the car.
For several years the good folks at Splendid Table have been sending out a weekly recipe; a service they call The Weeknight Kitchen. If you're not already receiving these, YOU TOTALLY SHOULD SIGN UP. It's free, no hassle, you don't get put on some bizarre mailing list and start receiving tons of spam. You simply get one great recipe delivered right to your e-mail each week.
This week the recipe was for Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens Over Bow-Tie Pasta. I made it the same day for lunch. It.Was.So.Good. Very easy to make -- if you can chop vegetables and boil water you can make this dish. Oh, and you have to be able to turn on the oven too. I can't copy the recipe here because it's a copyrighted recipe from their cookbook The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Radio Show. But you can simply click on the recipe name above and it will take you right to the page with all the instructions. This is a great dish for autumn which those of you in the northern hemisphere are experiencing.
Some changes I made to the recipe: I added red pepper to the list of vegetables. Because I could. And I wanted to. For bitter greens I threw in some fresh chicory from our garden. AMAZING. They turned sort of sweet but were still slightly tangy.
One of these times I want to roast the vegetables on the grill in my fancy schmancy vegetable grill pan. Because we love us some vegetables roasted over an open fire and I think that would only kick this recipe up a notch, maybe taking it from fantastic to out of this world?
Anyway, HAD to share this recipe with you. It's that good!
Keeping with the theme of food, I wanted to tell you about a little place we occasionally go for breakfast. It's just a few blocks away, right on the lake and now that the weather is warming up I think we'll take our food out on the deck. But so far we've enjoyed the vista through the large plate glass windows of the restaurant. For just over $3 per person we get some really great coffee and a buffet of traditional breakfast foods -- for here, not American style.
This morning we went for the first time in a couple of months. There were medialunas (croissants), facturas (pastries), biscochos (or criollos as they're called locally), and regular bread for toasting. A platter of sliced ham and cheese artfully arranged near the medialunas. Individually wrapped pats of butter filled one dish but rather than the tiny containers of jelly we are accustomed to in the U.S., they had a bowl of homemade jam and tiny bowls so we could take as much or as little as we wanted. Nearby sat pitchers of orange drink (sadly, not the real thing) and yogurt, with a bowl of cereal next to it.
By the way, these are all served in normal sized dishes -- this is not the buffet-on-steroids we're used to seeing in the U.S.
Each time we've gone there has been a special item and today it was tarta de membrillo (membrillo is a very thick quince jam). It is my new favorite. Ivan says it's also called Pasta Frola. Whatever they call it, I really, really like it. I should have taken a photo because it was very pretty but I was too busy scarfing it down. Maybe next time.
I really do more than eat or think about food.
This week we've had an extra daughter; our co-workers have been out of town so we've claimed one of theirs as ours :-) Some fierce Hand & Foot battles (card game similar to Canasta) -- still on-going even as I type. Andrea and I are currently behind but we've got two more hands to go. There were also Spanish classes, dentist appointments, a little downtown window shopping, art and guitar lessons, high school every morning for our extra daughter and, yes, lots of food.
One evening Andrea made the homemade salsa that Nestor had demonstrated a few weeks ago. It was very yummy! I enjoyed sitting back and relaxing while she cooked too. Other nights we enjoyed meatloaf and scalloped potatoes, garlic and rosemary roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, rice with a variety of sauteed vegetables along with chicken baked in a sauce from Indonesia. Our cousin introduced us to "catsup mani" a while back and we were delightfully surprised to find a bottle in Walmart. It's a thick, rather sweet soy-based sauce. There was also the build-your-own-chef-salad for lunch yesterday that Ivan and Andrea prepared. Ivan boiled eggs, cooked beets which he then sliced, picked lettuce from our garden and Andrea spent a lot of time chopping meat, cheese and other vegetables. I really do love to cook but I also enjoy the occasional breaks from kitchen duty!
Today I plan on attempting No Bakes again. Will it be SWEET SUCCESS? Or Fail #5? Stay tuned for exciting, on-the-edge-of-your-seats reporting on this momentous occasion...
For several years the good folks at Splendid Table have been sending out a weekly recipe; a service they call The Weeknight Kitchen. If you're not already receiving these, YOU TOTALLY SHOULD SIGN UP. It's free, no hassle, you don't get put on some bizarre mailing list and start receiving tons of spam. You simply get one great recipe delivered right to your e-mail each week.
This week the recipe was for Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens Over Bow-Tie Pasta. I made it the same day for lunch. It.Was.So.Good. Very easy to make -- if you can chop vegetables and boil water you can make this dish. Oh, and you have to be able to turn on the oven too. I can't copy the recipe here because it's a copyrighted recipe from their cookbook The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Radio Show. But you can simply click on the recipe name above and it will take you right to the page with all the instructions. This is a great dish for autumn which those of you in the northern hemisphere are experiencing.
Some changes I made to the recipe: I added red pepper to the list of vegetables. Because I could. And I wanted to. For bitter greens I threw in some fresh chicory from our garden. AMAZING. They turned sort of sweet but were still slightly tangy.
One of these times I want to roast the vegetables on the grill in my fancy schmancy vegetable grill pan. Because we love us some vegetables roasted over an open fire and I think that would only kick this recipe up a notch, maybe taking it from fantastic to out of this world?
Anyway, HAD to share this recipe with you. It's that good!
Keeping with the theme of food, I wanted to tell you about a little place we occasionally go for breakfast. It's just a few blocks away, right on the lake and now that the weather is warming up I think we'll take our food out on the deck. But so far we've enjoyed the vista through the large plate glass windows of the restaurant. For just over $3 per person we get some really great coffee and a buffet of traditional breakfast foods -- for here, not American style.
This morning we went for the first time in a couple of months. There were medialunas (croissants), facturas (pastries), biscochos (or criollos as they're called locally), and regular bread for toasting. A platter of sliced ham and cheese artfully arranged near the medialunas. Individually wrapped pats of butter filled one dish but rather than the tiny containers of jelly we are accustomed to in the U.S., they had a bowl of homemade jam and tiny bowls so we could take as much or as little as we wanted. Nearby sat pitchers of orange drink (sadly, not the real thing) and yogurt, with a bowl of cereal next to it.
By the way, these are all served in normal sized dishes -- this is not the buffet-on-steroids we're used to seeing in the U.S.
Each time we've gone there has been a special item and today it was tarta de membrillo (membrillo is a very thick quince jam). It is my new favorite. Ivan says it's also called Pasta Frola. Whatever they call it, I really, really like it. I should have taken a photo because it was very pretty but I was too busy scarfing it down. Maybe next time.
I really do more than eat or think about food.
This week we've had an extra daughter; our co-workers have been out of town so we've claimed one of theirs as ours :-) Some fierce Hand & Foot battles (card game similar to Canasta) -- still on-going even as I type. Andrea and I are currently behind but we've got two more hands to go. There were also Spanish classes, dentist appointments, a little downtown window shopping, art and guitar lessons, high school every morning for our extra daughter and, yes, lots of food.
One evening Andrea made the homemade salsa that Nestor had demonstrated a few weeks ago. It was very yummy! I enjoyed sitting back and relaxing while she cooked too. Other nights we enjoyed meatloaf and scalloped potatoes, garlic and rosemary roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, rice with a variety of sauteed vegetables along with chicken baked in a sauce from Indonesia. Our cousin introduced us to "catsup mani" a while back and we were delightfully surprised to find a bottle in Walmart. It's a thick, rather sweet soy-based sauce. There was also the build-your-own-chef-salad for lunch yesterday that Ivan and Andrea prepared. Ivan boiled eggs, cooked beets which he then sliced, picked lettuce from our garden and Andrea spent a lot of time chopping meat, cheese and other vegetables. I really do love to cook but I also enjoy the occasional breaks from kitchen duty!
Today I plan on attempting No Bakes again. Will it be SWEET SUCCESS? Or Fail #5? Stay tuned for exciting, on-the-edge-of-your-seats reporting on this momentous occasion...
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