small budget, big taste

No one ever said that you have to spend lots of money to enjoy one of life's most amazing gifts. Food!

We have been experimenting with a much smaller budget lately and I am amazed at how great we continue to eat. Food is one of my favorite things, so it's hard for me to skimp on taste, but you don't have to if you add the right spices and use the right flavor combinations.

The past week or so I was craving soups a lot, probably because it was so cold outside. As a result I tried two recipes that are super easy and I have never made at home before. Why? Because it's so easy to buy canned soups or cartons of soup at Trader Joe's.

So this post may not be very helpful to those of you who have that option. But to those who don't or who want something a little less artificial/processed. Here you are :)

Tomato Soup:
Serves 4 small bowls of soup

5-8 medium tomatoes (mine were overripe)
1 cup tomato paste
1 cup water + 1 vegetable bullion cube (or 1 cup vegetable broth) 
1 cup milk
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp pepper

Cook onion until soft with 1-2tbs olive oil, add garlic, add tomatoes, add tomato paste, add broth or water & spices, add milk. Cook until it's boiling, simmer about 10 minutes or more. The longer it sits, the better it tastes. 

Delicious tomato soup! The perfect companion of a grilled cheese sandwich :) 

Veggie Noodle Soup:  I was craving chicken noodle, but didn't have any chicken
Serves 4 small bowls of soup

1 large onion
2 medium potatoes
2 large carrots
1 cup of broccoli
2 cups water + 1 chicken bullion cube (or 2 cups chicken broth) 
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp pepper
1 big handful of rice noodles

Cook onion until soft with 1-2tbs olive oil, add garlic, add potatoes & Carrots, add broth or water & spices, add broccoli. Cook until veggies are soft, then add rice noodles and cook about 10 mins until rice noodles are soft. 



We may not have had chicken we did however have toast! Our friends who are moving away ;( sold us their old toaster and we have already put it to good use. 

Our dinner was complete with a delicious salad made with these amazing cherry tomatoes that I stumbled upon. I can't remember the last time I ate cherry tomatoes. These were amazing and crunchy and perfect! So much so that I went back and got some more the next day! 

They only cost about $1 a pound or $2.50 a kilo. 

Red Wine Vinaigrette:

serving size: enough for 2 salads

1 tsp olive oil

2 tsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 clove garlic

Tip: This dressing tastes really great over crushed hazelnuts or almonds :) 

Dinner is served!

These recipes may be simple, but they are delicious and easy. I guess I'm still learning how to eat well here.

The food is different. But I like that it forces us to try making things on our own rather than always buying the packaged version of everything.

I don't know if I will ever go back to buying pre-made items such as soups or salad dressings and I can definitely taste the difference now between a box mix and homemade pancakes. Although I still don't mind a good Betty Crocker box of brownies every once in a while.

I can't wait to share what I learn from my newest cookbook, also something I purchased from my friend. 

But that's for another day :) For now I gotta enjoy the sunshine that finally decided to show it's face again! I'll be saving these soup recipes for the next rainy day. 

Life tastes good

These are some recipes that I have tried out lately. Sometimes I am more inspired than others to bake and actually take pictures of it. I guess I got inspired to go a step further this time and make some cute little pictures with text as well :) 

1. Black Bean Enchiladas:

I have never made enchiladas before, mostly because all the recipes I looked at used cans of sauce. I knew there was a way to make it, but I was never inspired enough to look one up. Then I stumbled upon this recipe and I can't believe I waited so long! I hope to make them again soon ;) 

You can get the recipe here: The Garden Grazer

2. Yeast-less Cinnamon Rolls. 

I don't know about you, but when I want Cinnamon Rolls, I want them quick! Out here I can't get the little Pillsbury or Trader Joe's tins of Cinnamon Rolls. Since I must make them from scratch, I found a quick-prep recipe that is better than most other recipes that I have tried with yeast. 

You can get the recipe here: food.com 

I also added an egg to the dough as one reviewer suggested and make sure to use lots of flour when rolling because the dough is quite sticky. There are other recipes out there for quick cinnamon rolls, but I have made this several times and people are always asking for the recipe, so I definitely recommend this one :) 

3. Chocolate Birthday Cake 

A good double chocolate recipe is a must have for any serious baker's recipe collection. This is my go-to recipe for a quick and delicious chocolate birthday cake.

I could not find the source. I remember finding this recipe on pinterest, but not repinning it. So I will post the ingredients and my apologies to the originator of this recipe. I DO NOT take credit for this and if you know the source, please let me know and I would be happy to give them credit :)

Chocolate Cake Recipe:

cake: 

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cup flour (that's right, more sugar than flour ;) 

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

directions:

mix dry ingredients, add eggs, milk, butter & vanilla. mix well. add boiling water, mix slowly! pour into 2 greased and floured round pans. bake at 350f for  25-30mins. cool completely before frosting. 

frosting:

6 TBS softened butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla 

I used only 1/2 the original frosting recipe. so this is modified. this was enough to frost the top and the middle, as well as a batch of 12 cupcakes. So basically you could use this recipe to frost the top, middle and sides generously.

Hope you can enjoy one or more of these recipes :) 

Spinach Parmesan Quinoa

I posted this photo about a week ago and got several requests for the recipe. I found this recipe on pinterest and it was super easy, quick and healthy too! 

Here is the link of the original recipe with step by step directions: Spinach Parmesan Quinoa  

Here is my modified version: (italics=modified) 

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic pressed

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

1 bouillon cube

2 handfuls frozen spinach

2 handfuls of frozen red pepper

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (original recipe calls for fresh, but I used the kind that they sell in containers and it was delicious

Directions

1. Grill the onions in olive oil. Add in quinoa, water & bouillon. 

2. Defrost the spinach and red pepper in a separate pan. Then add to the quinoa mixture when water is about halfway absorbed. Stir together.

3. Cover for about 10-15 minutes until water is completely absorbed. Add parmesan cheese. Add Salt & pepper to taste. Stir well and enjoy :) 

Birthday, new job and a cupcake recipe

Since my last post I have been to Turkey and back. Not to mention the craziness of training for my new position and celebrating my birthday along with the biggest Holiday in the country, Nauryz! I have lots to catch up, but I will not do it all in one post. Istanbul deserves a post void of distractions such as talk of birthdays and so on.

I got back the 15^th and my birthday is the 16^th. I was just so excited to see Curtis again after seven days apart. That day marked 8 years since our first date! Sometimes I can’t believe it’s been that long, other times I can’t remember life before us. My life has changed so much in these years and I am blessed to have such a man, one who is passionate for his Sav!or and who loves me more than I ever imagined, it seems that he gets better at loving me as time goes on.

I came back to a whirlwind of events, including my first leadership meeting and several birthday greetings from students and friends. As usual, I was reminded of how much love surrounds me on this special day. Dad has really provided many people around me whom I love and who return that love. I am so thankful for the friendships that I have here. He has truly provided me with a second family. Not to undermine how much I miss and love my real family. I am just very blessed by my creator as the road he has put me on can be difficult, he knows what I need and has blessed me with people that I love very much here as well in America 

On my actual birthday we had a really special event at the Cafe! We stayed open a little late in order to do a Music Preview. One of our volunteers is very talented with the gift of song. It seemed like basically everyone who has ever set foot in the cafe showed up! There were about 130 people in the cafe, it was packed and it just seemed so right. People filling the chairs, faces with smiles and joy lighting up the room. 

I celebrated my birthday over the weekend with Curtis on Saturday and with some friends on Sunday. I decided to have friends over because it was snowing like crazy and I really wanted to try a new cupcake recipe. I fell in love with this recipe for Funfetti Cupcakes :) from Eat, Live, Run which really shouldn’t be a surprise since that was always the kind of cake I would request for my birthday. It felt like old times but better and less artificial than the kind you get in a box 

I didn’t have vanilla bean, so I just used more vanilla!

Funfetti Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Recipe adapted from Eat, Live, Run 

makes about 12 cupcakes

1 stick butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

3 tsp pure vanilla

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

buttercream:

1 stick butter, softened

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon milk

2 tsp pure vanilla

For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350. Cream together the butter and sugar and add the eggs one by one, beating after each addition. Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl and in another bowl, mix together the milk and vanilla. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk/vanilla to the batter. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in rainbow sprinkles.

Pour batter into greased (or lined) cupcake tins. Bake for twenty five minutes. Let cool thoroughly before frosting.

For the buttercream, beat the butter and vanilla on high until soft. Add the confectioner’s sugar and beat well. Add milk and beat on high for about six minutes, until very light and fluffy. Pipe buttercream on cupcakes and top with more sprinkles.

We had a great time on Sunday laughing, talking and eating good food 

Monday was my first day as Cafe Manager.

It was a slow day, we were only open two days this week because of the holiday. But it was a great way for me to ease into the job. Because it was so slow I was able to get my office organized.

On Tuesday we celebrated Nauryz, the Persian New Year, with our Annual Nauryz Party at work. We work in a poor area and we invite all of our neighbors to come and enjoy a big party complete with dancing, singing and of course plov! Curtis even gave a last minute speech in Kazakh, you can see it here on facebook. Also spring finally came in our city and I think it’s here to stay this time 

On thursday we celebrated Nauryz by going to a big stadium and watching the National game Kokpar, aka “Goat Polo.” They basically play polo with a goat carcass. It’s pretty gruesome, but interesting. We also got invited to a small party (toy) and were given a small feast (dastarhan) for free.

It has been a blessed week jumping back into work and life here and then quickly jumping into vacation for the holiday. We were blessed with three days off, plus the weekend, so that gives us five days total to recover from the festivities and from my trip to Turkey. Can’t wait to tell you about Istanbul, but for now, I gotta get some sleep!

A few days of rest

Can make all the difference. The last couple of days have been so refreshing and wonderful! I have been reminded of all my blessings. Mostly my wonderful husband, my best friend, whom I treasure above all earthly things. I continue to see more and more how great he really is, how he treasures me and truly sets a g*dly example for me and spurs me on towards good things.

We had such a great time together just doing whatever we wanted to do! I started by making blueberry muffins (Thanks grandma   on Tuesday morning

After being greeted with beautiful roses and a loving note from Curtis.

Once we ate we decided to work out together. I have been doing THIS workout and I asked Curtis to join me, he danced around the house while I did the first eight minutes on the bike and then we did the rest together. It was so much fun, we were both so worn out in the end, but ready to relax all day!

After that we started our two-day campout on the living room floor! We began by watching “Letters to Juliet.” About half way through I decided I wanted to bake something sweet to eat after dinner, so I made these: Peanut Butter Cup Marshmallow Blondies! Delicious! (Note: I changed the Marshmallow fluff to regular marshmallows and they turned out great)

After that we finished the movie and when we turned off the movie we saw that “Dumb and Dumber” was on TV in Russian. It was so funny! I forgot about all the classic lines in that movie. It was fun to watch together as we both reminisced about our obsessions with it when we were younger.

By then we were ready to take a walk. The weather was nice and sunny, so we walked to my favorite Italian Restaurant for dinner. We had a lovely dinner together and then returned home to watch more movies and play cards.

It was a special Valentines Day, but the fun continued on to Wednesday. For breakfast I made fruit smoothies for us and they were so delicious! They had practically no added sugar but were delicious nonetheless, just natural yogurt (Kefir), milk, fruit (frozen strawberries, peaches, berries, banana and pomegranate seeds) and a couple teaspoons of honey.

We had another great day of relaxing, watching movies, playing games and just remembering how much G*d has blessed us! I also made this hummus for dinner 

Today I was sad to see him go to his language lesson, but I ended up having a great day again! It was really relaxing just being by myself and doing whatever I wanted to do. I ended up calling some friends that I haven’t talked to in a while, painting my nails and making this granola.

Then sat down to watch “You’ve got mail,” which I decided is one of the greatest romantic comedies ever! And I don’t care if I showed “Sleepless in Seattle” on Monday at movie club, I am still going to show “You’ve got mail” next week. I seriously love Tom Hanks as an actor, but I was thinking, “Who is actually attracted to Tom Hanks?” I don’t know many women who are, but man, is he lovable! He is really up there as one of the best.

Tonight we also had a great time with some friends. Our language is really moving along because I didn’t think twice about asking our friend and his wife over and I knew that neither of them spoke English. We had a great time with them and their precious daughter.

Well, I hope that you all had a Happy Valentine’s Day and were reminded of the love that surrounds you, especially the everlasting love that is offered from above.

A little experimenting

It has been a while since I posted about a new recipe. I have tried several in the past month or so, but have been quite busy and had very little time to post anything. I really love trying new recipes and sharing them here as much as possible. I was reminded of that tonight when I tried two new simple recipes for dinner and felt quite refreshed and satisfied when I finished preparing.

There are just some things in life that really fill us up and give us joy, making something delicious is one of those things that really fills me up.

Tonight I made Crispy Corn Cakes & Roasted Cabbage Wedges which both turned out delicious. I didn’t have any green onions or fresh corn for the corn cakes, but they were still great.

This weekend I made snickerdoodle bread for the girls group on saturday. The recipe was super easy, but the finished product was delicious! Like the perfect piece of Cinnamon Toast. (Photo credit: www.lilluna.com)

Every Tuesday I try to make something special for breakfast, so last Tuesday I tried this amazing recipe for Baked Oatmeal. It is baked oatmeal with strawberries, banana and chocolate chips! It was perfect, even better than it sounds!

Last, but not least, my very favorite of all! I have already done this several times as a snack when I am craving something sweet, but somewhat healthy, Apple Nachos! These are amazing, sweet, crunchy and perfect!

I hope that you have a chance to try some of these recipes. The ingredients are simple, but the combinations are perfect!

A series of Christmases

This season went by in a whirlwind of pain and joy. The loss of our friend definitely changed our perspective this holiday season. Despite the grief we felt, we put our hope in the writings of Paul to the Corinthians:

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to G*d, who gives us the victory through our L*rd Gsus Chr!st. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, alwaysabounding in the work of the L*rd, knowing that in the L*rd your labor is not in vain.”  (1 Cor. 15-54-58)

Despite the difficulties we were also able to celebrate with all of the usual Christmas festivities. In fact I did about two weeks straight of baking!

Here are a couple new recipes I tried out this month:

By far my new favorite Christmas cookie: Chocolate Chip Peppermint Crunch Cookies

Another good one: Candy Cane Blossoms

I also tried out an idea that I have seen before, but never done myself, for Christmas Gifts this year:

My Russian Teacher loved hers!!

Curtis said that I am not allowed to Bake or entertain again till Valentine’s Day! I agree that I will probably not bake on a large scale till about Valentine’s Day, maybe just here and there for pure joy and nothing more!

So, what did I do all this baking for anyway? You wouldn’t believe the amount of gatherings that we had this season!

First we had a gathering with all of the expats in town to sing Christmas Carols and just be together corporately for Christmas.

Then we had our annual Student’s Christmas Party. I will tell you, it might have been the last time we do it here. It felt like a little too much this year and since we have so many friends now, and we have the café in the English Center, we might just have our friends over next year and do a small party for our students in the Café.

Despite the difficulty, the party was fun, we did a gift exchange, ate lots of sweets and even got to share the story of the very first Christmas 

That was the Sunday before Christmas, and the week before Christmas was filled with many more festivities with friends, co-workers and teammates.

On Thursday we had a work party, we ate good food and our “Secret Angels” were revealed. It is basically the same thing as Secret Santa. It was a lot of fun.

That afternoon we made sugar cookies with our students. I prepared the dough and frosting ahead of time and they rolled them out and decorated them. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work!

On Friday we fed the homeless as a part of our monthly service program that we call “Prosto Tak.” It is basically something that we do each month to serve the community “Prosto Tak” – which translated directly means “simply so,” or because we can.

On Saturday (Christmas Eve) we had another gathering with our team. We all brought something to give to Gsus for his Birthday. It is a really special tradition that we have been a part of since we came here. I brought my earbuds (headphones) because I want to spend more time in silence before Gsus, listening to Him. Curtis brought his Calendar because he wants to give him his plans and his days. He has been extremely busy and knows that it will continue as he continues to work on the curriculum for his new class, but he wants direction from our Father in how to spend his days, busy or not.

Saturday night, Christmas Eve, we had some of our closest local friends over. It was another opportunity to share the Christmas story and just relax with friends. It was a real blessing and far from stressful. It was probably the most relaxing gathering of all besides the one on Christmas Day 

We had lots of gifts to open because we received two packages before Christmas, one for Chris (Curtis’ Mom) and one from my sister Tara.

Curtis and I also exchanged gifts, we both got a little creative this year. He made me an ornament and I made him some nifty coupons.

We had to wait a couple more days for my sister Angela and my mom’s package to come, but when it did, we had a second Christmas!

We also hosted Christmas dinner for the very first time, which wasn’t as stressful as I thought it might be. It was a simple chicken pesto pasta dinner since we had turkey and pork the day before. I also made Guthrie salad, carrots and garlic bread and for dessert we had pumpkin pie with real homemade whipped cream!

We didn’t have a white Christmas, the snow came late, but boy did it come! We got a dumping of snow last night! It looks like New Year’s will be white, which is special for the people here since New Year’s is their special holiday 

This season was crazy, but truly a blessing because we were able to really enjoy those around us and not focus too much on the sadness we felt at times. Though we miss you all dearly, we do feel blessed to have those that G*d placed in our lives here. These people are very special to us and we are truly grateful for the beauty and the support of the body around us and back at home as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Life changing cookies

Do yourself a favor and make these cookies. You NEED them. I haven’t been this excited about a recipe in a really long time! These things are DELICIOUS, ochen fvakooszna, as we say in Russian. But back to the cookies, they are caramely, creamy, spicy and ridiculously good! Yes mom, I am aware the caramely is not a word. The dough tastes like chocolate chip cookie dough with a fall kick, sans chocolate chips. But the actual cookie is SO much better than the dough, unlike, chocolate chip cookies, at least in my opinion. Dare I say, these cookies are better than chocolate chip cookies! For me, that is saying a lot, since chocolate chip cookies are my absolute favorite.

So, here’s the deal, these babies are pretty simple, but I got the recipes for the cookies and the icing in two different places. This cookie recipe just seemed so much more delicious than the one that was paired with the caramel glaze and since I didn’t have any cream cheese, I decided to make the caramel glaze instead and it turned out to be the most perfect melt-in your mouth goodness that you could ever imagine. If you LOVE caramel as much as I do, you WILL love these cookies! I also used half white sugar and half brown sugar in the cookies and I think it emphasized the caramely goodness even more. Yes, I said wrote it again.

Pumpkin Cookies: 

Adapted from:House of Hepworths

Combine:

½ Cup Butter

¾ Cup white sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

Add: 1 egg

Mix in: 1 cup pumpkin

Now add: ½ tsp. vanilla 2 & ½ cups flour

And then add: 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. baking powder ½ tsp. salt

Now, bake @ 350 for about 10-12 minutes.

Caramel Glaze

Source: Simple Girl at Home

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1  teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup confectioner's sugar

Cook butter, milk and brown sugar until dissolved.  Cool and add confectioner's sugar and vanilla.  Spread over warm cookies.

"Priyatova appetita!"  (Russian for- "Have a nice meal" or Bon Appetite)

Back in the groove

The last few weeks have been busy. I continue to fight with counting the cost a lot. Things seem harder now. The streets seem meaner and the people less welcoming. I try not to say bad things about the country we live in, I don’t TRY to hide the bad things and give you a rose-colored picture of what it’s like to live here. I usually write from my perspective and I am pretty real about it. I have been blessed in the past to truly see things in a very positive light. But for many reasons, adjusting back has just not been so easy and I have begun to see more flaws in the culture and just life in general here.

With that said, the last couple of days have been good. I have begun to gain more perspective and get comfort from my maker. He has confirmed many times that I am exactly where he wants me, which at times has frustrated me quite a bit and left me asking “Why?” But, you know what? It really doesn’t matter. He gave EVERYTHING for me, and even though it SEEMS like a lot, I am giving up SO LITTLE for Him. Although, I have been struggling, I have still been able to enjoy the good things that He has been bringing my way these last couple of weeks. So, here is a recap of some of those good things 

I must apologize for not giving you more information about the opening of the café. It is so wonderful to finally have it up and running, but it also seems like things have been going non-stop since then. I intended to write a special blog post about the opening, but I did not succeed in doing that before this post. I do intend to update the café page and write more about what we actually do there on this page when I have some more free time. In the mean time, here are some pictures of opening day.

We also attended a traditional wedding this month complete with the National dish, Besh Bar Mak, served in a wooden tray, which also happens to be tradition 

The week following the café opening our classes began. It helped me to remember that one of my favorite things about life here is teaching! The way that our students love to learn is priceless and the way that their faces light up during lessons makes my heart smile  :)

The next good thing that happened was today! Today was a really nice day thanks to Curtis. He is a very loving husband and he knows how to make me feel special. The day started with some lovely fresh flowers.

I then made a special pancake breakfast with some warm peaches covered in sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to top them off. After breakfast we shared what we have been learning from Dad this week and lifted up our requests to Him together.

Once we finished that we got dressed and headed out to a nature park to walk around and just enjoy being out of the city for a little while. While we were there we sat down and played cards in a little café while we sipped some coffee.

Later in the afternoon Curtis took me to my favorite restaurant in the city, a nice Italian place called Mozzarella, where we enjoyed an early dinner. While we were there it started raining, so we had to take a taxi home, our taxi driver was so excited that he met Americans that he gave us the ride for free! That was the first time this has ever happened, I guess he was just excited because he had been to America and spoke a little bit of English. Either way, Dad took care of us and blessed us with a free ride.

This evening when we came home we watched part of one of my favorite movies “13 going on 30” and I made the most amazing hot chocolate I have ever made, maybe even the best I have ever tasted!

Here is basically what I did, I melted about 1/2tbs of butter on the bottom of a 2.5 quart pot with about 6 squares of dark chocolate and added ½ cup of Creamer, after everything was melted together I added about 1tbs of Penzey’s Cocoa, then 3 tbs of sugar, 1 tsp of Vanilla and ½ tsp of Cinnamon, then 1 cup of milk. I topped it off with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cocoa. It was a perfect treat for a rainy day

All in all, I know my life is blessed. I have hard times and I struggle with the calling that I have at times too. But I know that despite the difficulties of that calling, I have a Dad who gives me wonderful gifts. Today was one of those gifts 

Summer in the states part II

This summer has been indescribably wonderful! It has exceeded all of our expectations and blessed us beyond belief. We have been blown away by the love that we have felt here from our family and friends. Not to mention the things we have gotten to experience here, especially all of the time that we have been able to spend staring at the beauty that is the pacific ocean. Here is a recap of the second part of our summer in America and most of it is in pictures. I hope you like pictures 

Shortly after returning from Mammoth and our visit with Curtis’ sister we made our way out to Newport Beach area to visit my sister Tara, her husband Bill and their beautiful children Henry & Scarlett. This is a picture of Tara and I in Laguna Beach on our double date with her and Bill.

We spent a lot of time at the pool with the kids and one day at a cute little beach spot in Laguna called Crystal Cove. I fell in love with my beautiful niece Scarlett who was born in January this year. Who could resist falling head over heels for this precious baby girl!

Curtis had a lot of fun playing with Henry and having good conversation with our brother-in-law Bill. What a great family, what great memories!

While we were in the area we visited our friends Masha and Chris. Masha is from the city that we work in in Central Asia and Chris is from Orange County, they met in Central Asia when Chris was volunteering there a few years ago and we met them on their brief visit to our city in January 2010, but we got to spend a more substantial amount of time with them visiting at their home in Orange.

After visiting Tara we headed out to Long Beach to Visit my brother John and his wife Sheila.

And their beautiful “children” Eowyn and Lexi.

When we came back, after going to my cousin’s beautiful wedding. We said goodbye to my brother Dominic and his Family. I will miss these girls so much!

Later that week I had the pleasure of reuniting with my three closest friends from Middle School. Michaela, Cristin and Tiffanie. I love these girls so much! We had such a great girls night, watching “Now & Then” a movie we coined as our own in middle school and even now it reminds us of ourselves in some ways. We plan to make this a summer tradition, which I truly hope that we keep 

I then got the privilege of spending some time at the beach with my friend Laura and two of her three beautiful daughters.

Following this Laura and I met our friend Mary-Lou for lunch. Our time together was so sweet. There was lots of laughter, tears, pr*yers and hugs!

Shortly after that wonderful time, my best friend from childhood arrived at our house! She was supposed to come the next day, but her and her brand new husband surprised us when we got home from our friend’s house that night. They were in the backyard when we arrived and we hear this “am I gonna have to stay out here all night?” come from the backyard. I immediately knew it was Katie’s voice! This is the second time that she surprised me like that, gotta love her! Here is a picture of Katie with her husband Danny and their dog Boy 

Danny is a surfer so we went to the beach two days in a row while they were here and we all had a blast.

While they were here, my cousin David, who lives in New York City, came for a visit. We are hoping to visit him someday too since we have never been to NYC. We still laughed together like we were kids.

The next morning Curtis woke up early to achieve his dream of running a marathon. About a week ago he decided to run a half marathon and ended up running 20 miles. He realized that since he was able to run so far, he might as well try to run a marathon, so he planned his route and we met him halfway to give him some gatorade and a power bar and he completed the 26.5 miles in 3 hours and 50 minutes. What a man!

That day we went to the beach again. He rested a lot and soaked his muscles in the icy cold of the pacific and Katie and I played around like we were still 10 years old.

Then this bum showed up, so we decided to take off 

We said goodbye to Katie and Danny and Dad reluctantly said goodbye to his new BFF Boy.

Then we headed out to Long Beach again to say goodbye to Curtis’ baby sister Theresa.

The same day we went to lunch with my Aunt Coleen’s family, including my beautiful cousins John and Katarina.

Later that day we reunited with some old friends at the ESI training in Pasadena. We went to say our goodbyes and just to help out a little bit, with a marriage seminar for the small number of married couples who are going overseas together for the first time and then a game fair, where we taught the new teachers some of the fun games that we played with our students over the past couple of years.

But really the best part of training was reuniting with these wonderful people and just talking to people who do the same thing we do and can totally relate. It is a beautiful thing to have that when you do something like this. It was also great to get a short visit with Carolina!

After training we spent the afternoon with my grandparents and my Aunt and cousins also joined us later in the Evening.

Now we are in Redlands saying goodbye to Curtis’ family. We already said goodbye to his friend Mike yesterday.

Lastly, you all know how much I love to bake and tell. I can’t hide the secret of some of the wonderful things I have tried while in America. So here are three things I have made lately that I loved. Two of which I made twice in the last month.

The first recipe is for Barbecue Cilantro Pizza with Apples.

This delicious pizza was so easy to make. I got it from Katie. The recipe is very simple so I will just give it to you.  You can use Trader Joe’s prepared dough or use this recipe.  Roll it out onto a non-stick cooking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Spread around 4-5 tbsp of your favorite bbq sauce.  Top with ~1 cup of cheese, thinly sliced apples, fresh cilantro and green onions. I made this twice when Curtis and I had the house to ourselves and it was delicious. I might even make it one more time for my parents before I leave 

These Butterscotch Meringue Bars are to die for! I made them for girls night and the fours of us ate about half of this 9×13″ pan of them. Then I made them for a barbecue we had at our house, at which they got devoured quickly.

Lastly I made this Blueberry Crisp that I grabbed from Eat, Live, Run  also for a barbecue. 

I almost forgot to mention these salted caramel topped shortbread bites that I made with my friend Anna. Pretty simple recipe with delicious results 

Lastly I want to share one tip that I gave my friend Lindsey, which I forgot was something that not everyone does. We made rice crispy treats together and I always add one teaspoon of vanilla to my rice crispy treats, which makes quite the difference. Try it if you dare 

Thanks for reading along about all of this hoopla. We leave the states in 8 days! Please be lifting us up as we prepare for our journey! We love you all and will miss you, but have greatly enjoyed the time we have had here!