Elections!

I'm working on this blogging from email to see whether it can help me be more regular (haven't blogged since November!!).  All the while I'm listening to the show "Opinion" where a group of the most uneducated, loud, rude, proud Albanian men discuss different topics often focused on politics  Tonight we're awaiting the results of the local elections and all the men are speculating, tripping over one another in their aimless drivel.  Not sure why we're watching except that it's culturally and linguistically interesting perhaps. 

I'll post a picture of my kids being goofy just to see where it will come out on the blog post.   I hope that I can do better blogging.  I wanted to be thankful for something today.  What will it be?  Maybe that I can understand at least 99% of what I hear in Albanian.  Too bad my speaking has gotten much worse than it used to be, but at least I can understand these guys talking all over on top of each other.  I'm also thankful for this wonderful spring weather!! 

gimme dat camera!

Sibling love....

Pumpkin Pancakes!

Wow, I feel domestic. I've two blog posts about food in the last week. Anyway I sort of discovered something yummy this morning when I needed to make a second batch of pancakes. One recipe doesn't feed us anymore!! So, for the second batch I decided to add some freshly baked pumpkin and some cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter just for kicks - and guess what - it turned out great!! It was especially good with nutella - or the cheap nock-off version we get here that has both dark chocolate and white chocolate paste. Decidedly not healthy fare, but so yummy. I decided to shave a little chocolate that I got for my birthday on top of one of them as it was cooking. When Nik sat down to eat, I put some whipped cream and shaved chocolate on his, and it sort of looked pretty - in my mind's eye at least. It may have come out better if I wasn't stumbling over a little toddler clasping at my legs while I was doing it. ;) I love that toddler and who cares if things aren't pretty these days? The kids are way prettier than any of us!!

So, the recipe I will steal from another website that I like as I'm sure it will come out better than if I tried to write my non-recipe-lucky-it-turned-out way of cooking this morning. Try it if you have some pumpkin around. I bought 6 kilos of pumpkin (half a huge big one) yesterday and baked most of it up in the oven and reserved some for some thai red curry with pumpkin, chicken and red peppers tonight. I hope to be making pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie with the rest of the pumpkin pulp. I also baked the seeds to snack on.

Ok. Here's the link to the recipe at allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Pancakes/Detail.aspx

fun with collaging in picasa

Baba Ganoush

photo credit: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/babaganoush-recipe/index.html

This turned out so well and it was the first I've made it ever or in a LONG while, so I wanted to encourage those of you out there that like lebanese or middle eastern food to give it a try. I've been trying my best to eat foods that are in season, and since eggplant is still a good deal in the market, I decided to try my hand at this. I was pretty sure it would be a disaster, but as it turned out well and was really easy, I thought I'd share the recipe. I'd love to hear from all of you what you do for lunch after church. In the past I have eaten out, but I don't like that because I wouldn't want one of my christian friends to have to be cooking my meal on his sabbath, so I prefer to find cook-ahead recipes, or things I can pull together with minimal fuss. This rich dip is good served with pita, or just whole-wheat bread, carrot and cucumber sticks, and we added some qoftas from the store (yeah, I felt bad about that one, but they did help round the meal out a little). Plus, it was a hit with the kids (1 and 3), surprisingly. The garlic and the fact that the base of this dish is eggplant didn't seem to phase them a bit!! Daniel (3) did mention that it is "spicy", but he kept eating. ;)

For the recipe, I used:

5 small (6 inch long) eggplants, pierced all over with a knife
1 small head of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
juice of one lemon (actually a little less as I had already used some of this lemon on aloo gobi I made the other day)
3 Tablespoons tahini paste (I made this myself some time back- super easy. Blend up a some toasted sesame seeds with a bit of vegetable oil - keeps in the fridge forever. I'll never buy it again.)

I baked the eggplants on the wire rack in the middle of the oven at 200 degrees celsius, or 400 degrees F for about 40 minutes - or until sort of charred and dark on the outside but squishy when touched (to be sure it's all cooked well on the inside). While the eggplants were baking, I peeled the garlic and threw them in the blender, along with the tahini, salt and lemon. Then when the eggplant was cooked, I cooled and then opened them to scoop out the flesh and added that to the blender. I blended it all till it was a paste. This can be put on a plate and served with a bit of olive oil and some sprinkles of paprika to make it pretty. This is something that can be made a couple of days before as the taste gets better over time - up to 5 days I read somewhere.

Don't forget to give me an idea or two of how you make Sunday lunch less work. By the way, next week I plan to do hummus.

It's raining... a lot

Thought I'd post a couple pictures illustrating what Abby got up to today as we were indoors most of the day. It has been nice that my mom has been off work this week and has stopped by more often and spent time with us. Both Daniel and Abby love rides in the basket. I couldn't resist taking a picture of Abby when she settled herself in under her high chair to work on her apple.