Fiesta Bunco Night......

We had a blast at our Fiesta Bunco Night last evening!  I think everyone else would agree with me.

 So everyone is asking, "What is Bunco?"  It's a dice game that is super easy to play with anybody and everybody.  You play 4 sets and in set are 6 rounds.  So in the first round, your goal is to roll 1's on the  3 dice, in round 2 you want to roll 2's, in round 3 you want to roll 's.....get it?!  Pretty easy, right?   Then, for example, if you are in round 4 (the round where you are trying to get 4's on the dice) and you roll 3 4's on the dice (there are only 3 dice) than you get a BUNCO.

 Are you with me?   There are 3 tables with 4 people sitting at each table.  So 12 people total.  There is a Kings table, a middle table and losers table.  Depending on if you lose that round or win, you move up and down to the different levels of tables.  Alright, that's enough.  Google it or go buy and throw a Bunco party for your friends if you want to know more!  It's fun and easy. Promise.

Now comes the Fiesta part!  We had a salsa contest.  Each party member had to bring a home made salsa of their choice.  We had 3 categories that we voted on.

1. The best overall salsa
2. The hottest salsa
3. The best tomato-less salsa 

 We even had a picture corner with all sorts of props.

And there's always a few characters in the group....... meet Ty and Cheryl.  A sweet couple from Connecticut.  Ty reminds us of Trey's dad and is also making comments that crack us up.

Then it was time to announce our winners!  There were Bunco winners and Salsa winners.  Crazy Ty above won the best overall salsa, and senorita Cheryl above won the most Buncos.  They were the happy winners of a TRIP TO MEXICO.   Just kidding.  But they did go home with a portable grill and cooler. I would say that they are ready for a fun winter b-b-q at a park.   Poor Brent--the guy with the toilet paper on the right.  He could not get away from the LOSER's table at Bunco.  But since he had the most losses, he too won a prize. 

Min has been working on making this pinata for a while.  It was a fun way to end the party.  Who doesn't like pretending they're back at their friend Susie's birthday party from 4th grade?! 

Mexican Bunco Night.....

Tonight we are hosting a BUNCO night at our house!  I am so excited because I haven't played this in a long time.  And we have a Fiesta theme to go along with it.

Some pictures of our getting ready.

 The pinata getting stuffed.

We did all kinds of fun colors of cupcakes. 

Bunco and Salsa winner prizes.

 The picture corner. I hope to show you some fun pictures tomorrow.

The die and timer. 

 Picture corner.

The buffet is ready for the salsa competition. Bring it on. 

On the road again....

I think I have seen almost every part of the city of Al Ain these past few days when we have been visiting for Eid.  Each year on both Eid's (Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha) we will visit long time friends and patients of the hospital.  We had about 14 women go visiting from our staff.  We are like the UN when we go visiting (Hungary, India, New Zealand, Philippines, America, Argentina, Iraq, Jordan and others that I"m probably missing). 

We also visit the Shiekha's.  Sh. Zayed founded this country so essentially we visit some of his wives, daughter-in-laws and kids.  It's pretty fun going into those huge palaces-- but man, they should just give me a week and I would help them decorate a bit.  Decorating is not everyone's forte here. 

One thing Min and I were laughing about last night is imaging if our family all lived in a compound together.  Here, once you get married, you live with your husbands family.  On the compound could be your in-law's, their parents, your husbands sisters who didn't marry yet --or who might never marry, an aunt who maybe lost her husband and decides to live with you, servants, maybe a chicken and I'm sure there would be a few others in there.

So that would put me in a compound with my husband, Trey's parents, his granny and her husband, his Aunt Louyse, brother Jared, possibly Virginia's dad and the dog Luke.  I'm not sure how that would go down......family, what do you think?! 

Min and I were also sure that there would be a garage full of everyone's junk.  We're all good at collecting things. 

Think about your family doing this?!  Does it make you laugh....or cry?!

It's the end of the......

Ramadan ended this evening.  We are now into the celebratory time of Eid.  The roads are packed this evening (I can hear the beeping cars outside of our house) and everyone is getting ready to celebrate.

This means:

1. We get to go visiting a lot of friends of the hospital over the next couple days. It's sort of a like a marathon and we will drink more tea, fresh juice and some things which we might know, in one day than we have probably had in the last few weeks.  
2. We can drink again out in plain site.  Woop woop. It's hot here and carrying around a water bottle is necessary.
3. Places to get coffee in the morning or middle of the day will be open again!  Even though we don't do this every day, it's just nice to know it's there if I am feeling extra sleepy in the office.
4. Sad part: Our 6 hour work days are over.  We go back to a normal day after the Eid holiday is over. Sad, sad, sad.  It's enjoyable to go to the pool for the afternoon or to leave work early and take a nap.  It's sort of a like a whole month of afternoon vacation days.  Well, until next year.....

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood....

So it sounds like all you peeps back on the east coast might be feeling like this right now.....

I sort of wish we were there. It feels like a snow storm on tv.  We're getting such as much coverage on CNN International as you probably are.  That's all there is!  No other news.  My favorite are the reporters that are standing in 2 inches of water or who are half blowing over to prove to us that there is a hurricane on the east coast. 

On the other hand, we over here are still melting. 

It was still 47 degrees C on our car temperature gauge today.  

A friend told us the other day that it would be cool in about 3 or 4 days.  Hmmm,

I'm having a hard time believing here.  Either she's A) Optimistic, B) we think "cool" 

means something different, or C) all the heat did something to her brain

and she doesn't know what she is saying anymore:)

So this what we feel like....

It's the end of the season and I'm almost fully melted. 

You put the lime in the coconut.....

Have you ever been looking so forward to a recipe that you have wanted to make for a while.....you make it and it turns out EXACTLY how you expected it to be.  Then it makes you want to shout "I'm an amazing cook!".  Yeah, well that happened this morning.  Honestly, the opposite happens sometimes, too.   Or maybe you're a bit more humble and never say those kind of things.

You ready for what Min and I made for our Saturday morning breakfast?! 

COCONUT CRUSTED BANANA BREAD

A breakfast restaurant could be successful on this recipe alone.....well and in my humble opinion, some eggs benedict. 

Are you ready for the rather easy recipe?

First you need to get your butt of the couch and make 

yourself some chocolate chip banana bread.  Any recipe.  

You can make your grandmothers recipe that your family has been making since 1875, 

you could steal from Betty Crocker or you could invent your own.  

But don't let yourself cut it the night before. It's a bad idea.  

Then you just want to eat the banana bread all alone. 

Slice your loaf up

 Get your pan ready with a bit of butter and some cooking spray

Put the coconut out on a plate.

Whip up an egg mixture of eggs and milk.  

Start dipping your bread into the egg mixture like regular french toast.

Then bath it in coconut and start frying it until it is golden brown.

Can't you just taste it now?!

If you're good at multi-tasking while cooking, I recommend

you make these caramelized bananas to go on top.  

It was a bit rich but well worth it.  C'mon, that's what the gym is for. 

Put some butter in a pan and add brown sugar.  I just kept adding butter

and oh a little more butter until the consistency was what I liked.  

Then I threw in the bananas and let them get a little soft and that was it.

Make your french toast all pretty on a plate so that you feel like 

you are eating breakfast at the Ritz Carlton, light some candles, 

get your coffee and start filling your plate......

Can you taste it!?  Every bite was as delicious as it looks.  

EVERY BITE!

The watermelon crawl.....

What do you do on Friday night at 5pm?

Enjoy a watermelon martini.  Delcious-o!   I know it's Friday morning for you all back at home and you wish you could be having this right now.....but soon it will be 5:00pm for you, too.

Grab yourself a watermelon and ice on the way home -- pull the alcohol out of the cabinet--throw it into the blender and enjoy yourself a good drink.

We're off to an Iftar dinner this evening at a friends house.  Ramadan will be over next week which means we can drink water again on the street but our we go back to normal work hours. That is the hardest part.