In the Kitchen September 19, 2009

Here in Albania I cook a lot more than I did in the States.  Not only are there less “pre-made” items, which certainly translates as less “convenience” items, there are many items we were used to in the States we can’t get here at all.   There are also fewer  places we eat out as a family – not a lot of fast food (American style anyway) and not many restaurants that we all like.

So… I spend more time in the kitchen.  I really believed I knew how to cook from scratch.  I had not even scratched the surface.  Here’s a rundown of what I made today:

Banana bread: 2 loaves- one for now, one for the freezer.  I needed to use up all my over ripe bananas.

Chicken stock (later we turned it into chicken soup): We like to eat rotisserie chickens as a quick meal when I need a break from cooking.  I save and freeze the bones and skins to make chicken stock/ broth which I can’t buy!)

Maple Syrup: It’s just sugar and water, people!  Easy and cheap.

Granola bars: This was a new one.  I subscribe to a healthy snacks list from Allrecipes.com. There was another recipe that came in the e-mail this week that called for sweetened condensed milk which I can, in fact, get here, but I found this one for which I had everything in the cupboard.  Robert and I think they turned out great but the kids were not so impressed.  I’ll keep trying!

Egg noodles: These were for the chicken soup that we eventually made out of the chicken stock.  This made three batches.  One for today and two for the freezer.  I still can’t get the noodles as small as my grandma’s.  I guess when I am 96, I’ll have it down.

Whew… that was quite a day!

And the temperature is….. March 3, 2009

Robert 98.6

Jenny 99.4

Jadyn  99.6

Austin 99.8

Tyler 101.6

Yeah, we’re under the weather.

The one about New Year’s Eve January 19, 2009

Our New Year’s Eve day was full.  We got up in the morning (not early, mind you… we are on vacation) and took a trek up Mount Dajti.  This is the local mountain which has a gondola you can ride to the top.  There is a playground, coffee shop, lookout over the city and a number or restaurants.  (To read about one of our early Mt. Dajti adventures from our third month in Albania click here.)

We took a Frisbee and a ball so we would be able to enjoy the wide open spaces and mountain air and bundled up for the cold.  But we found plenty to do between the playground, lookout and SNOW!!

In the afternoon, I helped cook my neighbor’s turkey (their stove broke a few weeks ago).

This was after she spent a week in my freezer. At least I didn’t have to cut her head off and pluck her feathers.  That might have put me over the edge.

Later that evening (after the hair episode) we gathered at Matt and Cindy’s (with the Watanabe’s and the Zollinger’s too!) for an evening of food and games while waiting for the fireworks at midnight.

ALL the kids stayed up for the fireworks which we watched from Matt and Cindy’s 4th floor balconies. Fireworks in Albania brings a whole new meaning to the word “DANGER” so we’ll give you a little peak.  Unfortunately, I lost some of my videos from this year so this one is from last year when my mom and dad were here but you will get the idea.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It’s the little things December 12, 2008

I wish you could have seen the smile on my face last night when I got into bed and snuggled down under my covers.   I mean it was gleeful.  And that goes along with the Christmas season right?  I might have even giggled!  Usually in the winter, getting into bed has been an excruciating experience.  I put it off as long as possible.  You see it was only 55 degrees in my bedroom when I went to bed.  And usually the sheets feel like they froze sometime during the day.  But last night I was toasty warm because my sweet friend De gave me an electric mattress pad for my bed!!  YEAH!  It really is the little things in life.  I thanked God that I have the opportunity to experience the JOY of a warm cozy bed.  And I only know it because I have experienced the cold.

I think this is somehow analagous to life…… yes, i am sure of it.

Cultural Encounters of another kind February 22, 2008

Some days I think we have just too much culture. Here are our two encounters from Wednesday of this week.

On Wednesdays, Robert usually lets me sleep in. It is the one day of the week we don’t send lunches to school with the kids (YEAH for Food to Go day!) so he can handle breakfast and the getting ready routine! So I blissfully slept until about 9:30! As soon as I was up, he headed out to talk to Zeman our landlord. Last night we overloaded the circuit upstairs. We have been running the heaters upstairs a lot at night the last few days and the circuitry is probably old and could not handle the wattage. The power went out twice while I was IN the shower and once when I was drying my hair. We kept turning more things off as we went until we discovered that the circuit was burning at the breaker. Eek! End of power for upstairs for the night. I read my book by flashlight for a few minutes and then called it a night! While he was gone (having his own cultural encounter at the coffee shop in attempt to communicate the household repairs needs), our neighbor Bona and her son Armando came over for a few minutes (the other children were in school).

They were returning my plate from Valentine’s day. The neighbor kids had come over after school and we baked Valentine’s day cookies. Culturally she can not return my plate empty (we have done this several time….it is great!) so she baked some sweet cookie like biscuits for us! I was horrified to have her here on the morning I have slept in and done NOTHING …. toys, food, dishes everywhere… what are you going to do?! Today she was telling us that her daughter Uendi (Wendi) has been asking for her to buy another baby for their family like Jadyn. Uendi complains all the time that she wants a baby! Like Jadyn… why mommy? We need a baby like Jadyn! Uendi got a new baby doll last week for her birthday that she has named Jadyn. Yesterday she threw the doll down on the couch and said “Go to sleep Jadyn!” It is very culturally odd to them that Jadyn sleeps so much in the afternoon and that all the kids go to bed so early. Anyway… we had a good visit, looking at these pictures I had taken of our last visit and with promises to give them prints of the pictures!In the meantime…. Robert has been to the coffee shop and told Samir about the problems we are having with electricity upstairs and the water tank. About 30 minutes later, Zeman comes and very animatedly describes the problem as we already know it. He repeats himself several times, trying to say the same thing several different ways

• you have used too much current,
• you can not run both heaters and the water heater,
• you only need one heater in the children’s room,
• when it is cold out you should have the children sleep in the kitchen and the baby in your bed
• it is burnt!
• Look it is black from too much current
• Look it is defective!
• I will have to buy a new one!

Remember that each of the phrases are spoken with a lot of force, animation and loudly so he knows that we have heard him. Even after we both have said “we understand!” he says, “they don’t understand” and we go through the whole ritual again. All of that to say…..it is fixed. He had to buy a new breaker and installed it today and told me all these things again when he came back.Can you say, “too much culture”?

Side note: I have gained a whole new respect for those who move to the US and attempt to learn the language. I will have a much greater level of patience with those who are struggling to acquire the language!

Spoke too soon February 18, 2008

I really spoke too soon when I said it was cold.  Today we woke up and it was 38 outside and 47 inside our bedroom!  Eeek!

47 outside, 61 inside February 16, 2008

It is 47 degrees out today (might be warmer in the sun) and only 61 in the living room.  Sheesh… I’m chilly.  Last night I could see my breath in the bathroom.  Did you know that when we first moved here someone told me that missionaries were more prone to urinary tract infections during the winters here because they “hold it.”  When your rear end sticks to the seat you’ll know why!  I have to constantly remind myself that it is warmer outside and if we would all bundle up and go for a walk we would warm ourselves up!

Tide: The #1 detergent in America January 23, 2008

Just recently these sign started popping up all over Tirana. “The number 1 detergent in America, now available in Albania! NEW!” And we can now buy Tide detergent in stores!

It is a silly thing but, I miss the smells of things you can buy in the States. I confess I bought some Tide. It doesn’t smell the same.

Electrical Heaven January 15, 2008

It is amazing the things I take for granted in America. We just naturally assume we will have electricity all the time. Just recently several of our friends were without power in Oklahoma due to the ice storms. We know some people who were without power for 8 days. Now that is extreme, but imagine if you did not have power for 5 hours of the day and you are living like the average Albanian.

BUT… and I hesitate to write this down at all for fear of jinxing it… we have had 24 hours of electricity for the last month. In my small and relatively insignificant opinion, it has been a little slice of heaven in our otherwise basic existence here in Albania! I am waiting for the moments when it will go out again. Some times just the waiting will stress you out… will it be today? It is intersting to me the mental strength it takes to keep up with the what ifs.

So there are these few verses in Matthew that apply to me today!

Do Not Worry

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]? 28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I also love this quite by Elisabeth Elliot….

“Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now.”

Lord, help me not to strain my spiritual eyes, but simply see what is required of me now.

Morning wake up call January 11, 2008

Today … a little known tidbit. We have a standing morning wake up call at 6:30 or so. Our bedroom window is above the “garage door” to the coffee shop of our landlord. When he opens the shop we get a creaking metal garage door shriek as the alarm. In the summer, he was coming even earlier… as soon as the sun was up! Since we sleep with our windows open in the summer it was quite startling! We do a little better now… most days I can sleep through it. Bright and shiny! This is a picture of the door to the coffee shop and our window above!