Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Lucy made delicious pumpkin pies, and we have just returned from a Thanksgiving feast (after work of course).  Lucy is cutting the desserts with some friends below.  We are sorry we cannot be with our friends and family in the U.S but have been thinking of everyone.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

On a related note, I haven't gotten a lot of feedback on a certain issue since being in Tanzania so thought Thanksgiving gatherings might be a good time to survey the crowd.  This issue concerned me during the last election and continues to be in the news quite regularly.

What would you do if Sarah Palin became President?

Let me know what you find out!

Thanksgiving in Tanzania

Jon and I are going to a Thanksgiving potluck tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is not a school or work holiday for us, so we'll head over for dinner.

This is one of the three pumpkin pies I made to contribute to the party. We don't have a pie pan, so as you can see, I improvised. I used this recipe from King Arthur Flour for the filling and one from smittenkitchen.com (have I mentioned how much I like her recipes??) for the crust.

Because you can't buy canned pumpkin here, I roasted 2 pumpkins in the oven and then scooped out the insides and pureed them in our blender. The blender is a big development for us--last year I had to mash the pumpkin by hand with a potato masher. Then I added spices, cream, milk, eggs, sugar etc. to the pumpkin, poured the filling into the pie crust, baked it, and voila!

Please notice the very appropriate tablecloth. I bought it last weekend at the fabric market downtown. I was quite excited!

I am very thankful for all of my friends and family, both near and far. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh How I Miss Bacon

Bacon is delicious!  When I was a child the smell of bacon cooking at my grandmothers' houses used to get me out of bed.  The last bacon I had before returning to Africa was served at Tim and Christina's wedding in Lake Tahoe where dates were used as a vehicle for bacon consumption.  I can taste them now...

Well these signs are the closest thing I can really get to bacon these days ("Quality Meat Products!" is an untrue statement), and unfortunately they line the street outside our house.  So close...yet so far...

In conclusion, I disagree with this Wall Street Journal article (WSJ: The Bacon Backlash) claiming bacon is so 2009.  Obviously, those people haven't been to Africa recently.

KFC Releases New Double Down Chicken Sandwich!

Well, we have returned from our travels in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania and hope to get some posts up on our trips soon.  In the meantime, I am ecstatic to learn about KFC's new sandwich offering: The Double Down.

"KFC is redefining the chicken sandwich with its meatiest sandwich creation ever. Chicken lovers get two 100 percent all white meat chicken filets topped with cheese, bacon and the Colonel's Sauce."

Sandwich	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)
KFC Original Recipe® Double Down	540	32	1380
KFC Grilled Double Down	460	23	1430

Sounds like a dream come true!

Can someone please confirm the successful purchase and consumption of this brilliant item?

From Hayne: "That monstrosity is just shoving it in the world's face that we have so much chicken here, we no longer need bread."

From NPR via Becca: Live Blogging While Eating the Double Down

Bagels!

This past Friday was bagel Friday, a VERY exciting day for me. Some American missionaries here have started an organization that trains widows and orphans to make bagels. They come to ISK every other Friday to deliver them, so we get two bags at a time, freeze them, and then eat them for breakfast (me) and lunch at work (Jon) until they run out. They make plain, everything, cinnamon raisin, and a flavor of the month. September's flavor was Cheesy Onion (it didn't taste much like cheese or onions, but it was delicious) and October's flavor is pumpkin. This week there was added excitement because the bagel man brought his friend the tortilla man. We bought 30 frozen tortillas from him for about $5.50. Not a bargain, but not too bad either. The discovery of tortillas opens up new culinary options for us (burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas) which is great since the other things you need for mexican food like rice, beans, cheese, tomatoes, avocados, peppers etc. are all available here. The tortillas also give use something to eat our guacamole with. Since avocados are everywhere here and very cheap, we've had guacamole a number of times. But we've been eating it with bread, or just spoons, since you can't get any kind of chips. We are very excited about both the tortillas and bagels!