Popcorn

Product of the USA - packed in UAE...strange isn't that?

Popcorn in a pop-top can...love it!

I have a love affair with popcorn. Is it heriditary? Some sort of wierd genetic mutation? No clue. What I do know is that popcorn is meal in my family. My mom has this ginormous metal bowl that is used for popcorn and making cookie dough at Christmas. She has no secret recipe - its airpopped corn with butter. I think my cousin, Tina, has this gene as well and maybe a new coworker. I think you either LIKE popcorn or you never really think about it.

Eric is the cook in our relationship and when he runs out of ideas or is in no mood to cook we have "fend for yourself" dinner usually some random assortment of bits and pieces that we call dinner. And because Eric is who he is - we dont have "fend for yourself" very often - maybe 1-2 times a month. My all time favorite "fend for yourself" dinner is a bowl of popcorn.

It was no surprise to me that when I went to make popcorn for Halloween yesterday...the popcorn container was almost empty. Only about a scant 1/2 cup left and, as any popcorn lover will tell you, that is not enought popcorn. Good thing I have a husband who looks after me - like some magician in a big top circus - he pulls from the closet a can of popcorn. I take a look at it and it cracks me up. Product of the USA but packed in UAE - I have visions of a large cargo ship with popcorn in the hull. Is that really what happens? Who knows...all I know is this...Eric saved the day and orange popcorn balls were made with crisis averted.

Cooked Fruit

It almost feels strange to start typing here again. I have a love hate relationship with this blog. I love that its here and that my family and friends can take a look and see what we have been up to but on the flip side its not easy. Our Internet connection often times sucks, I tried uploading a 32 second video the other day about 50 times and it took so long that the computer timed out. I still have not been able to load it and let me tell you its a cute video of Orion riding his new birthday balance bike. Damn, that kid has no fear, he rides it down the hill of our driveway like a bat outta hell and uses his "brakes" aka his feet to stop. But alas, I digress. I write a million and one blogs in my brain and I actually thought about keeping a note pad with all my ideas but that never materialized either.

What has got me lately is this. I went to a dinner at a friends house a couple Saturday nights ago. It was a small little gathering - 5 of us in all - with lots of great conversation. She had prefaced the email dinner invitation stating that it was going to be a sllllloooooowwwww dinner, with tipsy croquet, new wines and long leisurely eating. It was! We chatted in the kitchen, sipping new kinds of Virgina wine (who knew??!) snacked on nuts and Oreos (a rare gem here in Kigali) and yes, indeed, we did play tipsy croquet. I was so horrible at croquet that I made it my responsibility to knock everyone else's balls out of line (bad girl, bad girl). Then we had dessert and out they come...a chocolate zucchini cake and a strawberry rhubarb pie. Now if you know me, you know I have a serious aversion to cooked fruit. Its so weird and has such a strange consistency...but alas, the pie was what I envision being handed at the pearly gates. You know like, "welcome to heaven, have some pie". I still really can't believe that I am writing that I liked a cooked fruit pie. So now that I have had this awakening, I need to make myself some pie. My mom sent me her favorite recipe which is this:

MB's No Fail Pie Crust

4 cups flour
1 3/4 c shortening
1 T sugar
1t salt

cut together with a pastry blender

mix 1egg beaten
1T vinegar
add enough water to make 3/4 cup of liquid.

mix the two together...makes 2 pie crusts...
just until the ingredients "ball"

this is the best one I have ever used..
the key...do not handle it to much.
roll out once and gently

good luck

hugs, mom

MB's recipe looks all fine and good but where the heck am I supposed to get shortening? Not available here and, honestly, its always kinda creeped me out. So my next thought was, lets google it and see whats out there. Well, you can tell where this is heading...there are a million and one recipes for pie crusts out there. Scrolling through a few and they all basically have the same ingredients...then I laid my eyes on this one and I think I fell in love with her pictures of pie. Those close up of the lattice work really got to me and thus this will be the winner in the "which recipe for pie crust to try" competition. Wish me luck!

Flights of Fancy

So, I am supposed to be working but I got all sorts of crap floating around in my head. You know those kind of times where you feel like you must write it all down or you wont remember what you were thinking. Plus, its 11:35 which means it almost lunch time, right? which means its OK to just write nonsense for a bit, right?

These are the bits of matter in my cranium:

1. my friend T is pregnant with twin boys. I got an invite to her baby shower which is all the way in Chicago so needless to say, I had to RSVP with regrets. That said, I need to find her something or the boys something. I was checking out Etsy and fell in love with these - thinking that I can convo the artist and get them made in two contrasting colors - maybe orange and green? or should I get her a pregnancy massage - you know, something for her alone? They do live in Chicago and the babes are due in late November so you know its gonna be COLD!

2. I need to figure out how to pay a deposit for our upcoming Turkey Day holiday. We are headed here for some much needed beach time! I miss the water terribly and the sun. Whoever thought Rwanda was supposed to be sunny cause its in Africa never lived in Seattle. The weather is remarkably similar minus the constant temperature around 75 degrees. So how do I get Wells Fargo to do a wire transfer to a place in Kenya? Also, which airline has better deals Rwandair which is a direct flight or Kenyan Air which will fly through Nairobi? Do I want to save money but have to fly through Nairobi?

3. I need to come up with a plan to make treats for O Boy's BIG number 3! Eric asked his school how many kids are in his class but we keep getting conflicting numbers. Weird, huh? Last year they told me 50 but i think that meant there were 50 kids in the entire school. I was thinking that I was going to make cupcakes for him to take but the idea of transporting 50 cupcakes makes me want to cry so maybe I will go for chocolate chip cookies or brownies. They would both be a hit as chocolate chip anything is no where to be found here and brownies are unheard of. Eric also scored two packages of cream cheese (you dont even want to know how much he paid for it) that I need to do something with - maybe cream cheese brownies? Anyone got any great (no need for only good) recipes out there for a baked good that includes cream cheese?

4. Ok - I got sidetracked with my job and forgot half of my list. I know it will come back to me but for now its out there in the great beyond, just waiting.

5. Ohhh...I just remembered one more thing. I was reading this blog and wondering if I can find rosemary here when I then read this post that she linked to this - which has got to be the funniest craigslist entry I have ever seen. Read it now and laugh hysterically! And if you know me just shake your head and remember the infamous BROWN BULLET!

Happy Almost Birthday O Boy!

It’s Orion’s Third Birthday!

Please join us for an
afternoon of fun!

When: Saturday October 8th from 3pm

Where: YoAli Residence

What: bouncy house, happy hour drinks, and of course birthday cake!

Scoop: In lieu of gifts we’d like to collect new or gently used children’s books to donate to Kacyiru Primary School’s library

Questions: call Eric at 072 281 7113 or
Stacy at 078 830 5128

Christmas Trees

I have become obsessed with getting a Christmas Tree. A fake big green thing to put up every year. Is this because I have a son who is starting to get the whole Christmas/Santa thing...I don't know but whatever it is I have become a WOMAN OBSESSED.

Growing up we always had a live Christmas tree and I made fun of fake ones but then we lived in the Pacific Northwest where evergreen trees are so abundant they named the state - The Evergreen State. Then Eric and I moved to the SW - where the only thing dotting the landscape was red rock and cactus and it became difficult to find a live Christmas tree. So I did what any self-respecting person does and bought a 3 foot funky white one that I loved! See the use of the past tense "loved" - I am feeling the love a lot less these days and think perhaps I am outgrowing my white Christmas tree infatuation.

Thus, the hunt for a new and improved fake Christmas tree - maybe I shouldn't call it "fake" cause it still represents many things - but more like "not-white" Christmas tree. I have bid on two Christmas trees on eBay hoping to score the tree of my dreams. Alas, some sneaky person keeps outbidding me by $1. What the hell - these auctions are ending at like 3am - who the heck is up at 3am looking to deny me the tree of my dreams!

My co-worker, who has heard about this newest obsession everyday, told me to try walmart or kmart or target but no go - they had nothing remotely interesting and every tree was over $250 dollars. YIKES! Who knew "not-white" Christmas trees could cost so much?!

This is similar to my favorite Christmas tree on eBay and I am still smarting from getting outbid!

99 Not Red Ballons

What's better to a 2 year old than a big old bunch of balloons that were left over from a "bunco for boobies" fundraising event. While back in Auburn on holiday, MB hosted this amazing afternoon event. There was a $40 buy in that got you drinks (three cheers for margaritas!), dinner and 1/2 the pot. The other half went to family friends who were doing the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk. There were about 50 women that attended and it was a hysterical good time!

Our visit to THE BAY

In search of comfortable shoes for Oma we head to the bay - as in "The Hudson Bay Trading Company" you know - old school, trappers and fur traders and such. Now its a big'ish department type store with not a lot of inventory. What they did have in stock were plenty of mannequins just waiting to talk to Orion. Thinking back, I am not sure that he has really ever seen mannequins up close and personal or maybe he has but now he's old enough to appreciate them. I caught him in the swimsuit section saying "my name is Orion, how are you doing". I about peed my pants laughing. That combined with the good taste in high heels made for a very adventurous shopping trip.

O Goes to the Dentist

While back in Auburn on holiday, Orion had his first visit to the dentist. I chose a kid friendly dentist close to my mom's house and it was a great experience. The office had an electric train going all the way through it, a special little kid sized door to walk through and everything was kid friendly - from the special dental chairs to the toothbrush sizes to the small rewards for being a good patient. While sitting on my lap he had his first set of xrays and then with TV as a distration (see his fixated gaze in the pictures) the hygentist cleaned his teeth and the dentist examined them. Three cheers for a great visit except for the first sentence out of the dentist's mouth - "looks like he's going to need braces" - yikes, how can you tell that in the first two seconds of an exam and do we start saving now?

"look momma there is a TV in the roof"

Summer Days...

Sushi with the Family