I love food

I know I complain a lot about all the work putting together a meal involves... I spend LOTS of time in the kitchen. But the other day I was reading a newsletter from a new missionary and she commented on all the hours she had spent figuring out how to use local ingredients (in Africa!) and how she had finally adjusted to cooking everything from scratch and the time that took.... and how she ENJOYED it and how SATISFYING it was to put a nice meal on the table for family every night.

Got me thinking about my attitude and how maybe I shouldn't complain so much.... and made me realize how satisfying it is to pull off a really good meal and how much we all enjoy good food.

Like last night. We had sandwiches... will give you a glimpse into our life when I put the food on the table and Caleb said "Ooooooh, we get to have CHEESE" :) (Cheese is more expensive than gold here... literally). Sandwiches for dinner are a big treat.... and we all really enjoy sandwich night.

So here's what it took to make dinner....

Bread - I made homemade focaccia bread by MYSELF for the first time Monday night. Who knew I could do something so wonderful? :) I was SO proud of myself and it turned out way, way yummy. The recipe was decently easy and turned out way more than I was expecting (and needed) for Monday's dinner; so saved the bread for Tuesday night's impromptu sandwich night. I think I will be making this a lot more often... until my shorts get too tight. :)

Meat - We had ham luncheon meat... which we carried on the airplane back with us from our vacation and have been carefully doling out. Usually if we do sandwiches I cook chicken and cut it up.

Pesto - I had basil which a friend is growing, so I "whipped up" some pesto Tuesday morning while Elijah was finishing his math worksheet. Fun addition to the meal.

Cheese - Came all the way from America with Brant's aunt when she was visiting. (Yes, you can hand carry cheese over. You can also mail it in packages, if you're ever needing something heavy to fill some space. :) Gets a tad bit greasy, but firms up really nicely once you get it in the fridge and is perfectly fine and wonderful.) :)

Lettuce - Is really hard to find here. Brant picked me up a bunch of spinach the other day when he was doing supply buying so I used the spinach as lettuce. I had to clean, soak and cut all the leaves before we could use it... I soak all my fruits and veggies in a solution we buy at the local pharmacy. Kinda has me paranoid about eating stuff without cleaning it first, so I might take it back to America and soak all my produce there too. (Or maybe not!)

Pickles - Another expensive import treat. I just got some dill seed so am planning to try making my own pickles, but we finished off the jar we had last night.... you can only get the big whole pickles so I sliced them all into little pieces.

Tomatoes - Also wash and soak before you can eat them.

Then we busted out a box of Triscuits we got for Christmas. YUM.

And I made a French Onion dip.... YUM. I had originally asked Brant's aunt to bring the packets to make soup/flavor meat, but when I saw the picture of the dip on the front, I knew it wouldn't be used for any soup. :) But of course it's not as easy as just adding the packet to the sour cream... especially since you can't get sour cream here. Everyone here makes their own yogurt and the plain yogurt doubles really well as sour cream. My boys love the taste of plain yogurt and we probably go through 2 liters of yogurt a week. I make it from powdered milk, and just in the last month have gotten a system down so I don't ruin it. (Was only having about 50% success previously, but I had my water too hot and was killing the culture.) It's a riot.... we use the yogurt in the morning with granola (which I make once a week) and in the morning we call it "yogurt." But in the evening when we have tacos or baked potatoes we call it "sour cream." Elijah just caught on a couple weeks ago that the "yogurt" and the "sour cream" are always kept in the same container. :) Anyways, I had to whip up a batch of "sour cream" yesterday morning so we would have enough to make the dip last night.

Then I cut up a papaya... I had never had papaya before moving here and it is definitely our favorite fruit. I think Ezra might starve in America without papaya. :)

So.... a lot went into the meal last night. But it was such a fun meal. And we really enjoyed it and though it was a ton of work, it is really satisfying knowing I could whip up my own ................ whatever I need for the night's meal.

*****
But........ I am really thankful that we are continually seeing more signs of progress in this back corner of the world and part of that means more and more restaurants and places to eat out when I am in no mood to cook. :)