Happy Thanksgiving

Our learning tour arrived last Sunday.  It's been a great group and we're enjoying our last tour group here before we leave.  We finish up with them tomorrow afternoon and then Trey's parents arrive tomorrow at 4pm so we'll be off to the airport.

We'll be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with them which will be very nice.  I found an oven here in Bethlehem that will stuff our turkey with rice and meat and cook it for us and all we need to do is pick it up!  Thank you Doug for that tip. Hopefully there will be some good juices so we can still make homemade gravy. 

Life will be busy until December 5 but I'll try to post some pictures in between of our happenings with Trey's family.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope you have a wonderful week with family and friends.

Dead Aid

Trey has been reading the book, Dead Aid. He got it from a friend and thinks the book points out some interesting points.

This week I was reading the blog of Kevin DeYoung. He's a graduate of Gordon-Conwell and was an intern at our church in Massachusetts while I was living there.  I think he provides a good review of the book on his blog from what I have heard from Trey.  Go to his blog for the review but below is a brief summary of what is to come.

Why is it that Africa, alone among the continents of the world, seems to be locked into a cycle of dysfunction?  Why is it that out of all the continents of the world Africa seems unable to convincingly get its foot on the economic ladder?  Why in a recent survey did seven out of the top ten ‘failed states’ hail from that continent?  Are Africa’s people universally more incapable?  Are its leaders genetically more venal, more ruthless, more corrupt?  Its policymakers more innately feckless? What is it about Africa that hold it back, that seems to render it incapable of joining the rest of the globe in the twenty-first century?

  Has anybody read this yet?

How to do it better.....

I read a blog called Passionate Homemaking. I've put links on here before from her blog. I appreciate her information because she works to do things all naturally and on a budget. 

I appreciate one of her latest posts "Baby Steps to Nutritious Eating".  It can feel so overwhelming thinking that you have to change everything over to organic and all natural.  She gives some good tips in this post.

My goal when we go home in January is to try to switch over some products. Shampoo, Laundry Detergent and Deodorant specifically. I posted some time back about that stuff in shampoo and soap that makes things bubble up--Lauryl Sulphate blah blah...I can't remember the full name.  It's usually one of the top ingredients in any of your soapy stuff. 

Do you make any of these homemade? If so, how did they turn out?

The Farmer in the Dell.....

I took a trip the Pork Man the other day to buy some stuff.  I wanted a pork loin specifically.  You know how nice it is at home.....you go to the store, find the one you want...it's wrapped all up in secure plastic and sometimes even pre-spiced for you.  Not here.....

 They whip out the whole half of a pig from the fridge!

Yup, there you have it!  The pig.

Can you see the leg on the table...yeah, he cut it off.

It was pretty interesting to watch him do the whole process! He cut the skin off first, then dug around until he got to the pork loin.  His pork tastes great. He told me he does all the work himself...he's a 1 man show!  He doesn't give them any antibiotics or hormones.  Depending on what he feeds them, they could be labeled Organic.   The piece of the pig at the very top of the picture....essentially the butt, is where you get the ham from.  I told him that I want one for Christmas as we'll be having some family and friends here for Christmas Eve.  I just need to give him 20 days notice and he'll make me a fresh ham!  He said he salts it and does everything himself. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

I asked him about the skin because for some reason it seems like such a waste to throw it all away.....I have no clue what you would do it it.  I could try to make myself a nice warm scarf or some fun shoes, but I' not that handy.  He said that back in the day (he didn't tell me the year and I'm not even sure if he said "back in the day" but that is what he meant) they would sell the fat to companies to make all sorts of cream.  Since the Muslim population here is growing, you can't do that anymore.  Maybe they used to do that in Bethlehem when there were more Christians living here. 

Inside, Outside, Upside, Downside, Happy All The Time......

There is a signature Palestinian Dish and it is called Maklubeh. It means "upside down" and you'll see why at the end of the pictures.  This tastes great and I hope to perfect this in the future since we like it. Really, Palestinian food is so good!  There aren't many dishes that are totally gross except those that include tongue, liver, heart, brain or any of those sorts....otherwise, most things are pretty tasty and I'm sure that you would agree!

First, you soak the rice. You always soak the rice.  This soaked for probably 2 hours or so.

 

Peel a ton of garlic.....2 heads actually. This isn't 2 heads. I was working slowly.  Peel enough that you stink for the next couple days!  Maklubeh isn't anything unless there is a lot of garlic. Thinking about it, you actually don't taste it that much, though.

 

Then you do the really healthy thing....and FRY up your cauliflower!

And some potatoes.  Trey loves the potatoes in it.  Some people do eggplant

too or all sorts of things.

Be sure you clean your chicken well.  Our friends like the

thigh and leg.  We removed all of the skin (give that to your goats outback) and

throw the cleaned chicken into

a pot with some oil and lots of spices.  Tumeric, allspice, nutmeg

salt and some other secret ones...not really,

I just can't remember them!  Fry it up til it looks good....

not sure how to tell you what "looks good" is.

Then you add water--half of the water necessary for cooking the rice.

A lot of people here do 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water.
She adds the other half later.  Let it cook around in there for a while with the chicken

Then you start layering.  A little potato, some cauliflower, then rice

then potato, cauliflower and some rice...do you have that or

do you want me to go through the order again?!

After everything is in the pot, you add more water.

They have this special way of knowing if the water is the right amount.

After everything is in and you put all the water in the pot, then they stick

a big wooden spoon in the pot. If it falls over, it means there is too much

water! Wish I had known this trick when I made this for Trey's family

this summer.  It's too little if you can see the rice.

Then you gotta work up your muscles and get ready

to do some flipage work.....

Hence the name Maklubeh! You flip it upside down on

a big tray.

And there you have some good food!

How do you say....

We get the question about where we are from a lot here.  When Trey says "Massachusetts" it becomes a problem as that can be a pretty hard word to say.  Our friend Afaf and her kids have had over 2 years to practice and we took a video at dinner one night.  They do pretty well.....

Nothing, nothing, nothing....

So I've been wanting to post a blog this week, but I didn't have anything to say and still really don't.  But I'm going to post anyway.

My Fantasy Football skills are much worse than my event planning skills.  My team stinks this year.   I have a couple theories about why maybe....just maybe. 

•  Usually Trey and I play in another league and there is one guy that I always want to beat.  He's just one of those people that trash talk a ton and you just want to hate him.  Maybe it gave me great motivation. I don't know.   Really, I love Jesus, but this guy....I'll tell ya!
  
• Last year on our illegal cable box we got NFL football....for some reason they decided to take away that channel this year....they keep saying it will come back.  I think after we move it will come back.  These things always happen here and I never believe them!
  
• Maybe Trey and I were better as a team.....this isn't true for everything in our life, but maybe for FF.  Really, wives and husbands shouldn't work together....and I don't mean yard work, I mean a job that gives you money. We can talk about that later. 
  
• Maybe I just picked a sucky team...yup, this is probably the most true statement!  We did a different draft than we're used to....we had money this year...I was so worried I'd use up my $200 and not have any money for my end players....I realized that at the end everyone goes for like $1 or $2....maybe next year.  I am playing next year, Jon! I might stink just as badly.....
  
• The guys in our FF league are like pros. Some of them do research and have notebooks of information for their draft.  Yeah, maybe I'll start working on that for next year. 
• Some of you could care less about this.
• The fun part is that I really enjoy reading the message board. It makes me laugh so much.  I never comment but appreciate the sense of humor amongst our friends. 

Today is a perfect fall day. I'm making banana blueberry bread and enjoyed some time with friends this morning.  I know our end time is going to go fast so we need to make time to see people.  Trey is off doing what he loves most....visiting the Bedouin out in a village outside of Bethlehem.  I got really sick the last time I visited them for like 2 weeks after so I'm done with that for a while. 



Did you see this story about a Brazilian man who showed up at his own funeral. Wouldn't that make you pee your pants if you were there?!  Really, what in the world would you do!

We started cleaning out our closets this week and getting ready to move a little.  Man, you can accumulate a lot of crap in 2.5 years!  Thank goodness we have family coming for Thanksgiving and Christmas so that we can send stuff home with them.

Lately, I've been enjoying the podcast "Stuff You Should Know".  Ever listen to that?  They have some fun topics and you can learn some useful and useless information.   I enjoy listening to the podcasts from NPR..especially Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Any other good podcasts you can suggest?