Snow Days!

My kids enjoy school, but nothing compares to the joy of a snow day!  I love them just as much as the kids do. I love waking them up at the normal time but instead of rushing them out of bed, I say, "Guess what, you have a snow day!  Go back to sleep."  The blizzard which has blanketed the Midwest for the past 5 days has brought some good.  Now, it's not all fun and games at our house on a snow day. As I write my girls are practicing their algebra while listening to a Mozart concerto.  Ryan is reading a picture book that teaches Chinese characters.  Later today I am planning to teach them how to bake bread, and if the temperature rises above 2 degrees we'll go out to build a snowman.  

Stay Warm
Kathy

Matooke

 Habari! That's "Hello" in Swahili.  Our Ugandan Feast was delicious.   2/3 of my kids thought it was good, which is always the true test of whether the meal was successful.  I made the mistake of mentioning the plantains in the matooke are similar to bananas. Jessica decided bananas don't belong in stew so she carefully moved them to the other side of the plate.  The curried potatoes were a hit with everyone.  If you're interested in the recipes, I'm posting them at my other blog,  foreign food fest.
 
Uganda borders Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya.  In 1962, it gained its independence from Britain.  According to the CIA World factbook website, 82 % of the population is employed in agriculture.  What I found heartbreaking was that Uganda ranks as the 9th highest country in HIV/AIDS deaths.  In 2007, 77,000 people died of AIDS in Uganda, a country which is about the size of the U.S. state of Oregon.  The median age of Uganda's population is 15 years compared to 36.8 years in the U.S.  I found a wonderful book on the tragic epidemic in Uganda called The Price of Stones by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri.  Mr. Kaguri lost a brother to AIDS and is now living in America and raising money to build schools for the many orphans which AIDS has created in his native country.  Check out his website at The Price of Stones.

Kathy

Christmas Card Delight

Ice cream in Whistler Village

I wandered through 2010's memories this morning, in hopes of finding the perfect picture for our Christmas card.  I relived our family ski trips and the Mississippi riverboat ride where we spotted nesting bald eagles.  Less memorable moments were also captured, like my grandpa and me looking up something on the computer, the kids being silly together, and a shot of my son's toothbrush.  It amazed me how many instances I hadn't remembered until the photo jogged my memory.  Another year almost past.  I wonder about those tiny special moments, not captured on camera yet somehow stored in the depths of my mind.  What will bring their images into the light again?

Kathy      


Stay tuned for our Ugandan Feast for Friday Foreign Food Fest.  Hopefully my pictures will be better and if you have any traditional recipes let me know!

Kathy

Winter Wonderland

 A soft white blanket of snow.  Lazy snowflakes drift down, muffling all man made sound.  Tree limbs bow, laden with their heavy burden.  The only sign of life is a tufted titmouse at the bird feeder, fattening himself for the long winter.  The rest of the world lies in sweet repose.          

Kathy

A Little Time Means a Lot

Last week Ryan asked me to help out with his class trip to the roller rink.   Usually his field trips are planned for times when I'm at work so I jumped at this opportunity to spend time with him.  When I arrived at the rink, the kids were already skating and he was looking around for me.  His eyes lit up when he saw me.  He told me I should go get skates on which I did apprehensively. (I might be good at ice skating, but roller skating is a different story!) We held hands and skated around the rink.  He  took me around to all his friends and introduced me to them.  He was able to go much faster than I was comfortable going.  He lapped me a few times, but he always came back to grab my hand.   We skated the "Hokey Pokey" together and then it was time to get all the kids back on the bus.  The time had gone so fast, but it was an hour that I will always remember.

Kathy

A Finnish Success

Salmon with Dill Cream Sauce

Our Finnish dinner was a great success, but I am definitely not a food photographer.  I tried multiple times to make this salmon look as delicious as it tasted, to no avail.  The other picture I took was even worse.  I had a nice plate set up with the braised red cabbage, a piece of salmon, and the quark dessert off to the side.  My husband said the picture of the cabbage looked like a tarantula on the plate, so I chose to show only the salmon.  Anyway, the Salmon with Dill Cream Sauce was excellent and as a bonus it was quick and easy to prepare.  I did make one small change in the recipe, I added about 1/4 cup of plain Kefir (a yogurt type drink), because I didn't have enough cream.  I love Braised Red Cabbage so I was excited to try a new twist on  this dish.  The molasses gave it a delightful depth without too much sweetness. Then we ended with Quark Dessert.  I had no idea what this was at first.  But I found out that quark is very common in Northern Europe. It is actually a type of soft cheese.  I was able to find it in the grocery store and it was similar to creme fraiche.   I mixed fresh raspberries and blackberries with about a cup of quark and then folded that gently into lightly sweetened whipped cream.  It was the perfect end to our culinary visit to Finland.

Kathy

Foreign Food Fest--Finland

Hei, (Hello in Finnish), today for our official Family Foreign Fest, we are sampling the delectable Scandinavian cuisine of Finland.  I was lucky enough to find a plethora of recipes on http://www.finnguide.fi/finnishrecipes/ .  Currently I am simmering the red cabbage,  Haudutettu punakaali.  It smells delicious, unfortunately my pepper grinder broke over the cabbage and I have a little more pepper than I had planned. Oh well.  Later, I am preparing salmon in dill sauce and something called quark dessert.  I'll let you know how it goes.


Kathy