2014

January

Nate turned 4 in January, and we pondered over how it was possible that 4

years had passed since that very eventful day when he came into the world.

My parents also made their second trip to Kenya in January. We took them
several new places, including Arabuko-Sokoke forest and Sabaki River.
And of course, we took some trips to the beach!

February

The highlight of February was Nate's half-term break.
We headed to Malindi for a long weekend. We spent our time in the pool,
on the beach, and at ice cream and pizza parlors, per Nate and Ben's request.

March

March is hot. While coping with the heat, we got ready for our trip to the US!

April

We went to Texas! It was a longer visit this time than the last time we went,
with break time worked in throughout the weeks we were there.
We started our trip with a real vacation - fun family time with no work on the side!

May

It seems (from the outside) that our time in the US should betotally relaxing -
after all, we aren't home cleaning our house, cooking for ourselves, keeping up
with the daily grind, and we're in the most comfortable place on earth (the US).
But, we are on the go all the time. We took a few days off here
and there, but it was still a tiring month of travel and visits.
Nate and Ben really, really love Texas.

 June

The end of our US trip. At one point I calculated the number
of miles we traveled, excluding trips within the towns we were staying in
at different times, just from one stop to another around the state.
I don't remember what it was anymore. Thousands. Texas is big,
and we didn't even make it to west Texas, the panhandle, the valley...
Nate got back to school almost as soon as we were home. He missed it so much!

July 

We got back in to the swing of life here.
The Maisha Kamili Transition Home became fully functional,
eventually housing 4 transitioners.

August

Kenya's school breaks are in April, August, and November-December.
While Nate was on break, we took a family trip to Nairobi to
renew his passport. We stayed an extra day or two to take
advantage of time in the Big City.

September

This was the beginning of the last school term in which
Ben would not be in school yet. We also celebrated him turning 3!

October

We started going to church in Malindi this year. It is quite a drive to make
(several times a week), but we feel it is a place we can
serve usefully. We are all making new friends, which is
something we really needed (especially me!).

 November

We celebrated Thanksgiving with great friends!
It was the best Thanksgiving I've ever had outside of the US.

December

With schools closed and many people on leave, December has
brought a lot of visits with friends!
We will spend Christmas with Rodgers' family, followed by a
Skype with my family during their Christmas celebration. 

It's hot, we haven't had running water for weeks,
Nate and Ben have spent way too much time with each other since schools
let out last month and they are getting on each other's (and my) nerves,
people disappoint us, we disappoint ourselves, but God is here.
He has brought us a long way this year, and he continues to
mold and shape us into the likeness of Jesus.
The year was good because God is. 

us vs us

We love the movie Cars in this house. Recently, we found Cars 2, and now it is also a favorite. We watch both of them once a week. In the credits of Cars 2 is a cool song, Collision of Worlds by Robbie Williams and Brad Paisley. It compares US to UK, not in a better and worse kind of way, in a different yet the same kind of way. It has me thinking about Texas and Kenya this way. Rather than us vs them, this is us vs us because we are Kenyan-Texan.

In TX, we have Dallas Cowboys (American football).
In Kenya, we have Harambee Stars (soccer football).

In TX, we drink iced tea.
In Kenya, we drink hot chai.

In TX, we have I-35 and I-10 (among many other major highways).
In Kenya, we have Mombasa-Nairobi Road and Mombasa-Malindi Road (which have numbers, but no one knows them).

In TX, "taking lunch" means packing it up and bringing it with us.
In Kenya, "taking lunch" means eating lunch.

In TX, "sweet" means something has sugar (whether cane sugar or another sweetener) in it.
In Kenya, "sweet" means something is delicious, even if it's savory, tart, spicy, or otherwise not ... sweet.

In TX, we love shopping at Target.
In Kenya, we love shopping at Naivas.

In TX, "smart" means intelligent.
In Kenya, "smart" means well dressed.

Texas is a state, part of a country, and it contains counties, on the continent of North America.
Kenya is a country, which contains counties but no states (though it used to have provinces rather than counties), on the continent of Africa.

Texas has TXDOT.
Kenya has KeNHA.

In TX, we can buy food from the driver's seat of our car by going through the drive thru at a fast food place.
In Kenya, we can buy food and more from the driver's seat of our car by sitting in traffic and waving to a street vendor.

In TX, we can get TV via antenna, cable, satellite, U-Verse, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Instant, or Roku.
In Kenya, we can get TV via antenna or satellite.

In TX, we have 2 seasons: summer and Christmas.
In Kenya, we have 2 seasons: dry and rainy.

In TX, we often hear English mixed with Spanish.
In Kenya, we often hear English mixed with Swahili.

In TX, we drive on the right side of the striped road, which has designated passing zones and speed limits.
In Kenya, we drive on the left side of the may-have-been-striped-at-one-time road, which is full of speed humps and pot holes (and maybe we drive on the right side if it's smoother and there is no oncoming traffic).

In TX, we have the Gulf of Mexico.
In Kenya, we have the Indian Ocean.

The list can't be complete yet. What else?

Kenyan or Texan?

Me: Are you Kenyan?
Nate: No
M: Are you Texan?
N: Yes
M: Do you like Texas?
N: Yes
M: Who lives in Texas?
N: Tex
M: What about Gigi and Grandpa?
N: No, just Tex.
M: What about your cousins James, Megan, Lauren, and Ryan?
N: Only Tex lives in Texas!!

taco night: a recipe

Months ago, I found a recipe for homemade flour tortillas. We have occasionally found some imported tortillas here and there, but they are horrible. Really, extremely unpalatable. I made this recipe a few times. I blogged about it. I tested various methods. A few secrets I would add to that post are these:

The oil. The recipe calls for 2 tsp of vegetable oil. Our vegetable oil here is palm olien. It's ok in the tortillas. I tried coconut oil, but it made them too stiff. EVOO is the best for tortillas, in my experience.

Cast iron. I have a cast iron skillet now. It does a great job! And it is big enough that, when the tortillas are done, I can cook the taco meat in it. Great tortillas, fewer dishes to wash. Win/win!

Fluffiness. I don't know the true scientific basis for this, I'm no chemist, but it seems to me that in our warm, humid, coastal Kenyan kitchen, baking powder has super fluffy powers. I have to reduce the amount I use in our pancakes to keep them less than an inch thick. I also reduce the amount in tortillas to 1 tsp.

Floured surface. Perhaps also because of the climate, the dough is either way too sticky to work with or it has too much flour in it to stick together. I use about 1/4 cup of flour re-flouring my hands, rolling pin, and surface as I roll them out.

1/2 cup this time because I made a double batch

 Most importantly. When I first started making tortillas, I would stack them on a plate when done, covered with a towel. Then we got these nifty insulated serving bowls, with lids. In there, the heat from the tortillas creates a bit of condensation, which helps them retain their chewy texture. I think this has improved my tortilla results more than anything else. I'm assuming it's the same concept as a tortilla warmer.

But, this is about taco night, so on to the taco filling.

In Kenya, people don't really eat raw vegetables. We've gotten into the habit of cooking ours, especially if we're having company. It's only natural for our Ken-Tex-Mex tacos to have cooked vegetables in them.

A couple of months ago, I wanted to make cheesy enchilada casserole, but I didn't want to go to the trouble of making tortillas just to put them in a casserole. I had seen recipes for noodle-less lasagna, using slices of zucchini in place of the noodles. I had zucchini. I tried to mimic that for our enchilada casserole. It ended up soupy, so we used it as dip. But it was so yummy, Rodgers asked for it again! I tried it again, but didn't have the zucchini that day. It was not as good. We realized that ground beef + taco seasoning + zucchini = a winning combination. Thus, our taco meat recipe includes zucchini. And it is so, so yummy.

2 medium tomatoes, boiled, peeled, and smashed
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp oregano

Prep the above ingredients in a large saucepan while the tortilla dough is resting. Put it on to simmer while cooking the tortillas.

4 zucchini, cubed
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp black pepper
oil

Prep while the tortilla dough is resting (or get your husband to do it while you're cooking tortillas, like I did). After the tortillas are done, wipe out any flour left in the skillet with a clean towel. Heat oil, then add above ingredients and saute until done. Add to the tomato sauce (which is still simmering).

1 kg ground meat
1 tsp salt

Brown the meat with some salt (I always add the salt to the meat, rather than the sauce, don't ask me why - that's just when I remember to do it!). When it is done, drain and spoon into the sauce. Continue simmering. Do a taste test. I'm never sure quite how much spice I want to use, so I keep tasting and adding more spice. For the dip, I use the same amount of tomato sauce, but half the zucchini, half the meat, and top with cheese. Mmmmm, boy.

Finished product. Ben can't keep his hands out of my plate.

creepy

For my 12th birthday (if I remember correctly), I was given a super fun gift: Creepy Crawlers. It is an oven similar to an Easy Bake, but comes with little metal trays and "Plasti-Goop," with which you make little rubbery bugs. They are fun to make! I have heard that they now have gummy solution, so that you can make edibles. That sounds like even more fun.

Every now and then, when I am at my parents' house, my dad goes to Toys 'R' Us to buy some Plasti-Goop and pulls out the Creepy Crawlers for us to make some. My parents have moved a billion times since I left home. I moved back home once or twice and had "my room" at their house again, but still, they have moved a billion more times. That they still have the Creepy Crawlers is a testament to just how much fun we've had making rubber bugs over the years. The fact that it still works after 18 years is simply amazing.

While we were in Texas in January, of course, we made Creepy Crawlers. Nate and Ben were already asleep for the night by the time we got it out, but they had a lot of fun playing with the bugs the next morning. Rodgers did not participate, as he wasn't feeling well (possibly flu). Only one was ripped to pieces: the giant spider, which was a new mold.

Giant spider cooking

I don't think I realized before that they would stick to the wall. 

tastes of home

A few years ago, I started writing down all of my favorite recipes in one notebook. This was before Pinterest. I had some recipes bookmarked on the internet, some saved in a Word doc, some on recipe cards, and others in recipe books. My recipe notebook is my one spot, which I can access even when the power is out and the computer battery is dead, even when there is no internet connection because the signal is bad, etc. 

When we moved here, we brought our Betty Crocker recipe book - there's a lot of great stuff in there which we haven't even tried yet, plus basic cooking guides (how long to broil a steak?). And we brought my trusty recipe notebook. Mostly, I don't cook supper from recipes. I remember more or less how it should go and approximate something similar to the recipe. But sometimes I need a real recipe, especially when it comes to breads. 

One of the hardest things about living outside of Texas is the complete lack of acceptable tortillas. We have found adequate tortilla chips, but the tortillas we've found are either inedible or more like a big super thin wrap, rather than a fluffy, chewy flour tortilla. Then someone pinned this on Pinterest, and our lives were improved. (If you don't feel like clicking it, it's a recipe for flour tortillas.)

Unfortunately, I don't have a cast iron skillet. I have seen some here, but they all have grill bumps (is there a better word for that?) on the bottom. If you're cooking meat, the grease drains off a bit, and the meat ends up looking like it was cooked on a grill. But it does not work for making tortillas (or cornbread - still working on that one). I just use my nonstick skillet over med-high heat.

Welcome to Taco Tuesday.