Cambodia... Yum...

I found it fitting that while one of my best friends is doing humanitarian work in Cambodia that we try a recipe or two from there! The meal was delectable! We had Cambodian Marinated Beef with Lime Sauce and Nhuem (Cambodian Cabbage Salad) and Jasmine rice. SO GOOD!

So I actually marinated everything the night before, so... yeah, the longer you can marinate, the better!

:)

Anyhoo, here are the recipes. They are SUPER easy!

Cambodian Marinated Beef with Lime Sauce
serves 2-4

1 T. sugar
2 T. lime juice
1 1/2 t. fresh ground pepper
1 t. water
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. canola oil
7 garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2 lb. sirloin

Combine sugar, 1 t. pepper, soy sauce,  and garlic. Stir well. Add beef. Mix to coat. Marinate for at least 1 hour.

Combine remaining pepper with lime juice and water. Place in small serving bowl.

Saute beef in oil, three to four minutes until medium rare. Serve over jasmine rice (or any kind of rice) with sauce.

Nhuem (Cambodian Cabbage Salad)
serves 4-6

1 small-medium cabbage
1 sm. package glass noodles (rice noodles), cooked
1/3 lb. (or 1 can) chicken, shredded
1 bunch green onions
1 c. peanuts, crushed

Sauce:

3/4 c. soy sauce
3/4 c. vinegar
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. water
4-5 cloves garlic, minced

Combine salad ingredients, chill. Blend sauce ingredients, pour over salad right before serving. Toss to blend.

Try these, even if you're not the best cook. They're super easy recipes and amazingly good!

Smashing British Fare...

Hallo...

We picked Great Britain out for this last week. And let's be honest, Britain isn't exactly known for its exotic fare... it's typically roast beef and other hearty, yet fairly bland, foods that smatter the plates of the Brits. So I went searching for some kind of recipe that would give a little twist on typical British food...

And I found this AMAZING braised pork recipe (adapted a little, of course, as most of my recipes are)! I paired that with green beans and roasted potatoes and classic Yorkshire puddings and we had an amazing, tasty British meal! This pork is particularly good for those of you who are not huge fans of pork because it gets dry. This pork was incredibly moist!

Braised Spicy Pork
serves 4

2 lb. pork shoulder roast
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2" fresh ginger, peeled
3 T. soy sauce
3 T. honey
1 t. freshly ground pepper
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
4 red chilies
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
500 ml (or so) chicken stock
1 t. butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Put garlic, ginger, soy, honey, pepper, and olive oil into a blender or food processor (it will make a paste). Place pork into a large roasting pan/tray and smear the paste all over the pork.

Snap the chilies and throw them in the roasting tray with the cinnamon, star anise, and chicken stock. Cover (if desired) and roast about 30 minutes for every pound.

For the last 20 minutes of cooking, uncover and baste with juices. Increase temperature to 400 degrees F. Test that the internal temperature is 160F and remove from oven.

Allow pork to rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Strain the juices from the pan into a small saucepan. Place over high heat and drop butter into sauce. If a thicker sauce is desired, thicken with cornstarch or flour. Serve over pork.


Yorkshire Pudding
serves 6

3 medium eggs (or 2 large)
Milk
Flour
Salt
Vegetable Oil

Heat oven to 425 F.

Pour the eggs into a liquid measuring cup. Note the amount of eggs. Pour into a large mixing bowl. Measure out the same amount of milk (as the eggs) and pour into the mix. Whisk and add a pinch of salt. Let stand for at least 10 minutes.

Measure the same amount of flour (as the eggs) and whisk into the mixture to create a lump-free batter resembling thick cream. Leave the batter to rest for AT LEAST 30 minutes (longer is better).

Take muffin tin and place about 1/2 t. of oil in the bottom of each cup. Give the batter another good whisk adding 2 T. of cold water. Fill a third of each in and return quickly o the oven.

Leave to cook until golden brown (15-20 minutes). Repeat if you have additional batter.

*we ate them the next morning cold with jam and honey and they were delicious! They don't reheat well due to their makeup, so don't reheat them :)*

Roasted Thyme Potatoes
serves  4 (I cooked these at the same time as the pork)

6 potatoes, cubed
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Thyme

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix cubed potatoes with remaining ingredients. Place in baking dish and cook for about 1.5 hours. Increase temperature to 425 and cook for 10 minutes to get a nice browning.

It was all delicious! And the fresh green beans with butter and salt and pepper were so good!

Mauritania!

Not to be confused with the island Mauritia... Mauritania is a country in the west of Africa (doing this international food night has made me realize that I really have no idea about African geography!). At any rate. Originally we were going to make pepper steak with coconut... but we couldn't find any coconut, so we combined this recipe with a recipe for lamb couscous and came up with Pepper Steak Couscous!

Try this! It's really good. It's a cross between Asian and Middle Eastern food to create this Mauritanian awesomeness! On a side note, I used two habanero peppers. I've chopped them before and never had a problem, but apparently these were really potent, because about 30 minutes after I chopped them, my hands burned like whoa! Chemical burns are fun. The end. Moral of the story: use gloves even if they usually aren't that bad. Luckily it only lasted a couple of hours.

Pepper Steak Couscous
serves 4

1-2 lbs beef, cubed into bite-size
1 onion
2 green peppers
1-2 habaneros (or hot chili of your choice. If you use habaneros, use gloves!)
3 small potatoes, chopped
2-3 T. oil
1 t. salt
2 t. black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
8-10 drops of Tabasco
2 T. soy sauce
2 beef bullion cube
4 T. cornstarch

Add oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and Tabasco. Fry onions, peppers, and habanero. Add steak cubes. Brown. Add potatoes. Add soy sauce, beef bullion, and 1 c. (or so) of water. Cook until potatoes are soft. Mix cornstarch with water. Add to sauce. Bring to a boil. Cook until thickened.

Cook couscous according to package directions. Serve over couscous.

It's spicy!

Llama Fest!

Saturday was pretty fantastic! We ate Thai food... which is a favorite of mine... and then we went to Llama Fest, which, of course, is always an experience. Here are a couple pics from the fest!

So all of the other llamas were over in a corral across the way as part of the petting zoo... so we came to visit the outcast llama...

So the llama didn't want to take a picture with us... but Ian got one!

Yeah, if we got any closer he would run...

The end.

Spicy Belizean!

So I had success... we hit a 7/10 on Ian's food "hotness" scale. WOOT! That's what two habanero peppers will do for you :) The food was pretty durn good! The chicken had a citrus kick, but it was awesomely spicy. (BTW, it was my first time ever cooking a whole chicken... yeah, preparing it, not my favorite thing ever... for real). It all turned out quite excellently though!

Here's a picture to document my first attempt at cooking a whole chicken:

Looks good, no? It was spicy deliciousness!

Here's the meal in its entirety. We had the chicken, Belizean rice and beans, and oranges. Yum!

Try out the recipes! You won't be disappointed!

Belizean Spicy Chicken
serves 2-4

1 whole fryer chicken (could use chicken breasts or whatever you wanted to)
3/4 c. chili sauce
2/3 c. chicken stock
1 lemon (juice)
1 lime (juice)
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 T. soy sauce
1 garlic clove
2 habanero chilies, minced
2 T. ground mustard
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 chipotle chilies, minced
Zest of 2 oranges
salt and pepper

Place all ingredients except chicken, salt, and pepper into a pan and simmer for 20 minutes. Let cool.

If using a whole chicken, butterfly the chicken-not for the faint of heart. (If you don't know how, I included the instructions, since I had no idea really what to do the first time either...)

• Place the whole chicken breast side down with the drumsticks pointing toward you. The backbone is now on top. (You can feel it running down the center of the chicken)
• Hold the tail (or flap of skin) that is pointing toward you and cut along each side of the backbone with a pair of kitchen shears or a sharp knife. Remove the backbone. (You'll cut through the ribs, which is the crunching sound.)
• Turn the chicken 180 degrees so the drumsticks are pointing away from you.
• Using a small knife, cut through the piece of white cartilage (or gristle) covering the breastbone. It's located in the cavity of the chicken on the end facing you.
• Grasp each side of the chicken and bend the carcass backwards at the line of the cut you just made. Bend until you hear a crack, this exposes the breastbone.
• Run a finger along each side of the breastbone to separate the bone from the meat. Once separated, remove the entire breastbone.
• Push flat to butterfly the chicken, and remove any excess fat.

Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Generously apply sauce to both sides of the chicken (or chicken pieces if you decided not to fight with it). Continue to baste every 15 minutes or so of cooking.

Cook slowly at 275 degrees for 1.5 hours. Increase heat to 400 degrees for the last 15-20 minutes. Tent with tinfoil for ten minutes. Serve immediately.

(If using chicken pieces, cook accordingly. If using a whole chicken, use a meat thermometer to check the thigh temperature has reached 160-165.)


Belizean Rice and Beans
serves 4

1 can red kidney beans
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. salt
1 can coconut milk
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 t. thyme
1 1/2 c. rice
1/2 onion, minced

Brown garlic and onion in a small amount of oil or butter in a saucepan with a lid. Add beans. Use the can of coconut milk and add water to make it two cups. Add to saucepan. Add spices to taste. Mix in rice. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the rice is done and the liquid has been absorbed.

Enjoy!

Independence Day!

I must admit, the 4th of July is a pretty fantastic holiday... always great BBQ food, fireworks, summer weather... it's just plain ol' awesome!

We had a really busy weekend! Ian and I both had family in town and so it was a little crazy, but it was a lot of fun! On Friday we finally were able to see Graham and Heather's townhouse finished! The last time we were there they were painting everything and the inside of our noses looked like winter pine forests. It was kind of funny, not going to lie. Their townhouse is awesome though! It feels really spacious (I think because it has really high ceilings). I like it a lot.

That evening we went with the Oxborrow clan to the family restaurant: Red Robin. I hadn't ever been to the one out by Daybreak. It's a really cool little shopping/entertainment area out there! While we were waiting there were a bunch of balloons, Livvi, Seth, Ian, and I proceeded to play with them. Livvi was hit in the face a few times... we all took stupid pictures, it rocked. After the meal, we headed back to Graham and Heather's. We picked up a Redbox movie: Planet 51. I had head that it wasn't very good, but I was thoroughly entertained. Definitely not one to watch over and over again, but entertaining nonetheless.

Saturday we all got breakfast at a really neat little bakery in American Fork called Flour Girls and Dough Boys. Then we went and bought Ian some much needed new shoes. Then we headed back to Provo to go to my Mom's family's BBQ. We had some delicious food and smoked turkey (YUM!), and celebrated my Uncle Ken's 50th birthday. Then we headed back to Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks. It was actually a little chilly! The Vegas natives were freezing! :)

Here we see the lovely Oxborrow clan. Hehe.

This is Ian "sleeping" before the fireworks.

Happy 4th of July! We both are looking a little sleepy in this picture...

Sunday we spent the day at Graham and Heather's playing games and hanging out. We had a really great BBQ. It was delicious!

Monday we had an adventure trying to get out of Provo while the parade was going on. Bad idea. It took us 30 minutes to get out of our neighborhood! But we eventually made it to Lehi and we watched The Last Airbender. It was a pretty sweet little movie. I'll be excited when the actors become a bit more seasoned and hopefully they won't try to smash as much into the next movie... but we shall see!

Then after eating a quick lunch we went up to Temple Square to look at the new model of the Salt Lake Temple. It's pretty cool! You should go look at it in the south visitor's center if you have the opportunity.

Following that we headed up to Bountiful to the Muhlestein's home for another great 4th of July BBQ. Ian and I played foozball... there were some amazing shots. I'm not going to lie. We're actually pretty evenly matched in it... which is a rarity in sports (usually he pretty much kills me). Not that foozball is really a sport... but it kind of is... right?

ANYWAY

We evenually ended up back at Graham and Heather's and chatted for a bit longer until we headed home!

It was a crazy busy weekend, but it was a ton of fun!

New Caledonian ... weird? Yes.

This week's culinary adventure took us to the South Pacific nation of New Caledonia. And yes, the food was a bit weird.

We had coconut chicken and sweet potato and pineapple casserole. Weird. I know. I really actually liked both of them, but I thought the coconut chicken could have used a bit of spice for flavor.

At any rate, here they are in all of their glory (PS, the casserole sounds gross, but really, I liked it.) Try it. I dare you.

New Caledonian Coconut Chicken
serves 4

1/2 head cabbage, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, cubed
2 potatoes, peeled, cubed
2 c. coconut cream
2 chicken breasts, cubed
2 onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

Wash and chop veggies.
Pour 1 c. of coconut cream into the bottom of baking dish. Layer cabbage on the bottom and spread remaining ingredients on top. Cover with remaining coconut cream. (I added salt, pepper, cayenne, and a little thyme).
Cover and bake at 350 F for 1.5 hours.

New Caledonian Sweet Potato and Pineapple Casserole
serves 6

2 large sweet potatoes, cooked and sliced
2 c. cheese sauce
1 T. grated coconut
1 fresh pineapple, cored and sliced
2 T chopped green onions
2 T butter
Salt

Arrange in layers: pineapple, sweet potatoes, coconut, onion, cheese sauce. Repeat.
Bake in oven at 350 F for 30 minutes.

Cheese Sauce:
1 T. butter
1 T. (heaping) flour
1 1/2 c. milk
3 T cheese
salt and pepper

Melt butter. Mix in flour. Remove from heat.
Add half of milk.
Return to heat.
Slowly add remaining milk.
Add cheese and spice.
Stir until cheese melts.

Last Week's Adventures

So last week was pretty crazy. We got back from Vegas, took a trip up to Ogden to celebrate Father's Day (and to see Ashlee in Footloose). Then we spent two days at home and drove up to Ogden again for my cousin's wedding.

Aaron is actually my Dad's cousin, but he's exactly my age... so it really feels like we're actually cousins (well we are... but I mean first cousins) ANYWAY... the day before we went to Ali's bridal shower which was really nice, and on the way Kimi and I saw this awesome tree:

Kimi thought it looked like the tree was giving us the bird... and it does.

So the wedding was at the Bountiful temple. It was beautiful! My cousin Nate has a relatively new baby and the kid is a tank! He is HUGE! It's awesome. At any rate... here are a few pics...

 

Aaron and Ali coming out of the temple.

 

AWWW. :)

 

We went and saw Toy Story 3 on Friday evening... and it was awesome! We got to spend a bit of quality time with the fam. Saturday morning Ian and I got up at 4am (that's right, 4am) to watch the lunar eclipse. It was almost a complete eclipse... and it was beautiful... and we were eaten alive by mosquitoes. Rock on.

This week has been pretty low-key thus far, which we've enjoyed. It's been nice to have some down time. But this weekend is the holiday and it's chock full of family and fun, so you'll be getting a full report soon...

A Lad an' a Lassie

So, as has been my tradition for many a year, we went to the Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving point. I tend to volunteer for the various festivals that I want to attend, mainly because you get free entrance, usually a t-shirt, and other cool perks. We were assigned gate duty and basically I sat there for three hours and watched Ian be the gatekeeper. It rocked, hehe.

Yay for us during our downtime before it started pouring...

Ian's head. Haha.

At any rate, we saw a bunch of interesting people... like a girl with a fake tail, many people dressed up like medieval peeps (... I thought it was a Scottish Festival?), and more than enough kilts. I love Scotland :)

Anyway, after our shift we were starving, but didn't feel like shelling out $10/plate for a meal at the festival, so we ran into Lehi and grabbed some food. At which time it decided to start POURING. We went back to the festival, and the weather actually wasn't too bad once we got there, but a lot of the patrons and many of the vendors and booth owners had packed up.

We looked at cool swords, thought about getting a printout of the Oxborrow family history/crest/etc., but in the end didn't get anything. I wish the weather had been nicer. We were going to stay for the concert as well, but in the end it was just to dampish, so we went over to my aunt and uncles to visit.

We watched highlights of the USA v. England World Cup match (they recorded it for us) ... and got a major kick out of their little Yorkie Mysti. She was staring at the tv, following the little white soccer ball across the screen. It was hilarious.

Anyway, I thoroughly suggest attending the Scottish Fest if you have the time next summer! And volunteer ... it seriously saves you a bunch and the shifts aren't that bad :)

On Tuesday we decided to brave the crowd and drove to Pleasant Grove to their Strawberry Days concert in the park. It was a local band doing soft rock from mostly the 70s. It was fun... and watching people was even more fun. :)

Yay for summer!

Y Mount is Conquered

So yeah, I almost didn't make it this morning. I don't know if it was a lack of food, water, a combination, or simply the fact that my cardio exercise has been severely lacking of late... either way, it was ridiculous and I pretty much felt sick the entire way up. Ian kept offering to go back, but, being the stubborn person that I am, I refused and kept moving forward... albeit at a VERY slow pace. (I am reminded of the time that I walked the entire distance of the pioneer trek when I was fifteen... despite being incredibly ill and dehydrated. I would have been one of the first pioneers to the valley... or else one of the ones who died because I didn't know when to quit...) ANYWAY... the point is, we made it!

This was Ian's first time up the mountain, so we decided to take most excellent conquering pictures.

It is amazingly green right now, and I love it! This is looking up the mountain from the trailhead.

Up at the top! I made it. Just barely.

My victory picture... which was seriously more of a relief picture.

Ian's victory picture, which looks much more victorious than mine.

Our view of the valley, sitting on the Y.

The valley's view of us. Haha.

It was an early morning this morning, but I was glad we made it. One more thing to check off the list of things to do before leaving Provo...

PS We saw the cutest little bunny on the way down... AWWW....

Where in the World is Benin?!

So we originally pulled out Iran from the bag of countries this week, but we cheated and put it back. We figured since we just had Middle Eastern food, we'd give ourselves at least a week's respite. And out came Benin! Originally we thought it was a country in the Caribbean. Not so much. It's a tiny county in West Africa on the southern coast. Yeah. Who knew? Probably some of you, but not us.

The food was excellent. We made two dishes. Beninese Beef Stew (which was a curry... and so delicious!) and Couscous Azindessi.

This is the couscous azinedessi (couscous with peanut sauce!)

Here's the couscous with the Beninese Beef Stew over rice. Both delectable! Also really simple to make. (Though it does take a couple hours of simmering to make the beef tender.)

Here are the recipes! Enjoy!

Beninese Beef Stew
serves 4

1-1 1/2 lbs. beef stew meat
2 medium onions, chopped
3 T. Spicy Curry
2 t. salt
ground Cayenne Pepper (to taste)
ground Chipotle Pepper (to taste)
1 can coconut milk
1 c. water
1 sweet potato, cut into chunks, and deep fried
4 T. butter
1 T. flour
4 T. smooth peanut butter
5 garlic cloves, minced
several whole okra with tops removed (we couldn't find any, so we didn't use them)

Melt butter. Brown beef. Remove beef and use the remaining oil to fry onions and garlic until golden brown.

Add flour, curry, salt, peppers, and peanut butter. Heat for a minute, then slowly add coconut milk, then add the water. Heat for a minute. Simmer until thickened. Add beef and simmer until meat is tender (can take up to two hours)


About 20 minutes before serving add sweet potatoes and okra.

Serve over rice.

Couscous Azindessi
serves 4

1 package couscous
2 cans chicken stock
1 garlic clove, minced
1 slice gingerroot, minced
1/4 t. freshly ground pepper
1 large tomato, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 T. oil (peanut, preferably)
1 T. tomato paste
4 T. peanut butter
1/2 c. peanuts, crushed
green onions, sliced for garnish

Cook couscous according to package directions, substituting chicken broth for water. (We had 2 c. broth and a package of couscous, about 1 1/2 c. dry).

Brown garlic, ginger, and onion in oil in a separate pan.  Transfer to blender with 1 c. chicken stock and tomato. Puree. Return to pan. Add peanut butter and paste. Heat through.

Mix peanuts with couscous. Top with peanut sauce and garnish with green onion.

Summer Comes

So we had quite an eventful weekend! It was a ton of fun.

On Friday night we joined Seth and his friends for a night out launching potatoes. It was awesome. Ian had the record for the potato that shot the farthest. Fantastic!

That's a really big potato...

Aww... how cute.

Our "serious" picture. Haha. We're awesome.

We also watched The Princess and the Frog. Ian and I first saw that on Valentine's Day. And we still love it. It is so hilarious. If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you do. It was Seth's first time seeing it, and he really liked it as well. So... you know, it has a pretty good track record.

On Saturday we spent some time with our friend Lori... we went over to Macey's and got ice cream cones. Ian got the King Kong Cone... which seriously is like a medium-size soft drink cup full of ice cream plus a half and a cone. Sick! We'll take a picture next time.

That evening we went up to the Bee's game with Seth and his date Mary. We met up with Graham, Heather, and Jack. It was so much fun, and there were fireworks at the end, which made it five million times better.

Haha. I think this picture is hilarious.

Post-game getting ready to watch the fireworks out on the field!

And this... this is just funny. So we had a ward FHE on Monday and we went over to the Burgess' home. They had a pinata for the activity... and Ian found the broomstick that they used to hit it with... and this is what happened:

He's my favorite. :)

Bahrain

Okay. So either I'm not looking in the right place... or Arabian/Middle Eastern food is pretty similar. They all use pretty much the same spices, and a lot of rice and some tomatoes. But at any rate, it tasted pretty good, and we especially liked the sweet rice.

So... Bahrain is a little island country off the coast of Saudi Arabia. We looked it up. Haha.

We essentially had two things, and they pretty much looked the same. Though they were very different in taste. Machboos and Muhammar.

This is the Chicken Machboos. It's a savory dish with a lot of spices in it.

This is the sweet rice Muhammar. Yum!

Essentially we ate rice with a bit of chicken and veggies for this meal, but it was incredibly filling and we had a ton of leftovers. (They're also pretty much one-pot-wonders, which is a plus.)

Enjoy!


Chicken Machboos
serves 4

2 c. water
1 1/2 c. basmati rice
2 tomatoes, chopped
4 chicken breasts
2 onions, finely chopped
coriander (fresh chopped, or powdered)
hot pepper
cinnamon
paprika
tumeric
cloves
cayenne
cardamom powder
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 slice gingerroot, minced
2 T. butter
1/8 c. lemon juice
3 T. oil
3 t. salt

Heat the water. While heating, mix together paprika, tumeric, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cayenne. salt, and pepper. Rub onto chicken.

Heat oil and fry onions, garlic, and ginger until golden brown. Add your favorite hot pepper. Add chicken and brown. Sprinkle more cinnamon and the remaining mixed spices. Cook on medium for about 3 minutes, turning often.

Add tomatoes, turn ingredients, and cook for 3 more minutes. Sprinkle additional salt on top of everything and pour water on top while it is still hot.

Cover the pan and let it cook for about 1 hour on medium-low heat until the chicken is cooked. Add coriander about 5 minutes before you remove chicken from the stock pan. While the chicken is cooking, wash the rice in cold water and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot, place in pan, brush with oil, and sprinkle more cinnamon on top. Place in oven at 325 degrees and allow chicken to become golden brown.

Add rice to the stock pot. Stir and cook at low heat until the rice absorbs the stock and is almost done. Sprinkle the lemon juice on top, and place butter pieces. Cover and cook on low heat for 30 more minutes.


Heap rice in serving dish and top with chicken.


Sweet Rice Muhammar
serves 4

2 c. basmati rice
1/4 t. saffron
1/4 t. cloves
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
 2 T. water

Soak together saffron, cloves, and cinnamon in water.

Boil 6 c. of water and add rice. Boil to half cooked (about 8 minutes) and drain.

Stir sugar throughout. Add butter and stir. Pour spices on top and stir.

Cook on very low heat for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to serving platter. Top with more melted butter.

Enjoy!

Malagasy Dining Extraordinaire...

So for international food night on the 19th we pulled out Madagascar and both looked at each other like... wha? But it turned out amazingly well! (On a side note, we didn't do an international food night this last week because we had so many leftovers... but we will do a new one on Wednesday!)

So the menu was really awesome, and was as follows:

Lasopy (beef veggie puree soup), Varenga (roasted shredded beef), Vary Amin Anana (rice and greens), Lasary Voatabia (tomato and scallion salad), with Sakay (red pepper sauce), and Salady Voankazo for dessert (vanilla fruit).

Traditionally Malagasy meals are served on a mat on the floor. We didn't have a mat, but Ian insisted we eat on the floor ...

This was the best photo of us sitting on the floor we could get. We tried doing it actually sitting up... yeah, that didn't work.

So the first course was Lasopy:

Does it look gross? Kind of. But it was a really good, thick vegetable soup with a whole lot of vitamins and nutrition, and it was super easy to make!

Then the main course:

 

It was really quite good! Our favorite was the rice. (And we forgot to take a picture of the dessert...)

At any rate, try it out. It's all pretty simple to make and makes a great meal together, or you could piece and pair with some other favorites.

Lasopy

Vegetable Puree Soup

serves 4

Beef stock (for base)

1 qt. water

salt

pepper

3 carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces

1 turnip, peeled and cut into chunks

1 bunch scallions, cut into large pieces

2 c. fresh green beans

2 tomatoes, quartered

In a large pot, simmer for about an hour until veggies are tender.

Puree in blender or food processors.

Serve thick soup hot.

Varenga

Roasted Beef

serves 4
 

2 lbs. boneless chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 qt. water

2 T. salt

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 c. onion, slices

In a large pot, cover and bring to a boil.

Simmer gently for about 2 hours or until meat can be shredded easily with a fork.

Add water if necessary to keep meat at simmering point.

Shred the meat and transfer to a 9x12 in baking pan. Pour sauce on top.

Roast at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes until meat is nicely browned across the top.

Vary Amin Anana

Rice and Greens

serves 6

1/2 lb. boneless chuck, cut into small cubes

2 T. oil

1 tomato, cut into pieces

1 bunch scallions, cut into 1 in. pieces

3/4 lb. spinach, cut into small pieces

1 bunch watercress, cut into small pieces

1 c. rice

salt

pepper

Brown meat in oil.

Add all except rice

Saute, stirring occasionally until veggies soften and volume is lowered.

Add 2 c. water (or enough to cover veggies)

Add rice.

Cover tightly and simmer until rice is thoroughly cooked and water is gone.

(Serve with Sakay sauce)

Sakay

Hot Red Pepper Sauce

Combine

1/2 c. crushed red pepper

1 T. ground ginger

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Add 4 T. oil to make a mush.

Lasary Voatabia

Tomato and Scallion Salad

serves 4

1 bunch scallions, finely diced

2 c. tomatoes, finely diced

2 T. water

1 t. salt

Tabasco sauce to taste

Combine all, stir lightly, and chill.

Salady Voankazo

Vanilla Fruit

1 fresh pineapple cut into 1 in. dice

1 small cantaloupe, cut into 1 in. dice

1 mango, diced

1 c. strawberries, sliced

(you could add whatever fruit you wanted)

Mix fruit so it is well blended.

In saucepan combine:

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

1/4 t. salt

2 T. fresh lemon juice

Bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.

Add 2 T. vanilla extract.

Pour over fruit, chill.

Can serve with additional vanilla extract on top.

Ore-Ida

So last weekend we went up to Hermiston, Oregon to visit my grandparents. It was a lot of fun (a lot of driving... but a lot of fun). We didn't take a whole lot of pictures, because the majority of the vacation was spent watching my cousins' baseball games, playing video games, eating, and just relaxing... not particularly picture-worthy occasions (although maybe a Mikami food-fest is.... hmmm....)

In the car for the 8 hours of bliss. Huzzah.

At a random rest stop. So funny note: we were walking around and all of the sudden this motorcycle shoot out of the parking lot blaring "Highway to the Dangerzone." And we laughed. A lot.

Superman? Yes. Absolutely! (We had to take advantage of the phone booth... there are so few these days...)

So we got to Oregon, hit up a few Little League baseball games. And Ian sprained his ankle. It was great. Really. We had a Japanese food fest that night (which was amazing).

Saturday we went shopping (and got Ian a one-size-fits-all-except-Ian ankle brace). We also went and saw Iron Man 2 which I thoroughly enjoyed! The plot was a bit all-inclusive, but I liked it. We also went to Jack-in-the-Box (which I don't think I've eaten at for like a million years... well, maybe not quite that long). That night we had pizza and watched some of the Jazz game, but the majority of the remainder of Saturday was spent playing Super Mario Bros., some Wii games, and a few PS3 games, but ultimately what took the cake was playing Halo on X-Box until like 2 am... yeah, we're sometimes really big nerds and something like video game losers... but it was awesome. We got to a point in Halo where we couldn't figure out how to get out and our brains weren't really functioning. At that point, we threw in the towel and quit for the night.

Sunday we went to church and celebrated Mother's Day. My Dad cooked us steak for dinner and we had fresh rolls and all kinds of goodness.

We left early Monday morning and made the long drive home. And the reason this post is called Ore-Ida... well, Ian saw the Ore-Ida plant as we were around the border of the two states... and he says, "AHHH! I get it! Oregon-Idaho." HAHA, I love him. He makes me laugh all the time. And thus we have Ian's first venture north of Ogden!

Czech

So Ian picked for this week... and it was Czech. Yeah, never really had Czech food before. So... the menu ended up as follows:

Moravský Guláš (Morovian Goulash), Bramborák (potato pancakes), and Sopsky salad.

And the photo:

Yeah. It was really delicious. Surprisingly to me, the potato pancakes were my least favorite part of the meal! And I love potatoes. I really liked the goulash, but the winner was the salad... and it was by far the easiest dish (and really, one of the easiest salads ever!)

This is us before we ate. We're happy to be eating at last.

This is us post-eating. Eating makes us sleepy... We call it Czech Zen...

Here are the recipes! The Goulash is a one-pot wonder, the salad is amazing and can really be used with any meal!

Moravian Goulash ~ Moravský Guláš

(4 servings)

2 large onions chopped
1 lb. pork, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
2 T. oil
pinch salt
dash freshly ground pepper
1 c HOT water to cover
1 t vinegar
1 can tomato paste

1 T flour dissolved in 1/4 c [60 ml] COLD water
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped

2 T. fresh Italian parsley

Cayenne Pepper

Thyme

Heat oil in stew pot. Chop onions and add; stir constantly until golden. Do not let onions scorch. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper; toss well and place into pot. Mix thoroughly and cook uncovered until meat is no longer red.

Cover pot and simmer 15 minutes, add enough HOT water to cover meat and simmer another 30-45 minutes until meat is very tender (depends upon toughness of meat). Add vinegar and tomato paste. Add spices (can add others to taste) blend well, stir in flour/water mixture and bring to boil 3-5 minutes while stirring to thicken. Lastly add chopped tomatoes, parsley, and green pepper stirring in well, but don't cook any longer.

Potato Pancakes ~ Bramborák

(serves 4)

1 lb. potatoes (I used frozen hashbrowns)
1 eggs
pinch salt
grinding of pepper
1 T marjoram
4 cloves garlic, pressed
3 T parsley, freshly chopped
1 large onion, diced very fine
1 c flour
2-3 T oil (for frying)

Put potatoes in cold water to thaw. When ready, squeeze excess moisture out of potatoes and put in bowl. Add egg. Mix well. Add spices. Mix. Bleand in flour. The dough should be sticky.

Heat 1-2 T. of oil in a non-stick pan. Put a ladle full of batter in the center of the pan. Spread to form a pancake about 7 inches across. (Pat the dough down and out). Fry for about 5 minutes until browned, flip and repeat.

If the pancake breaks apart, add more flour before making the rest of the pancakes.

Sopsky (pronounced "shopsky")

Serves 4-6

2 tomatoes

1 English cucumber (I really like these better than normal cucumbers)

1 green pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 red pepper

1 sweet onion (yellow or white)

Feta cheese

Salt and Pepper

Chop all veggies and combine. Add salt and pepper. Mix. Shred or crumble feta on top. Serve chilled if possible. (Easy, right? But DELICIOUS!)

Mexican Mania

So this week's international adventure was Mexican food, and since that's Ian's forte and realm he took the lead on this one. We went to this internet cafe (Cybergate) over by ShopKo and Olive Garden and had Mexican tortas. They were scrumptious! And we forgot to take pictures of them... sorry...

Later that evening, Ian made Mexican smoothies...

Don't they look scrumptious?! The cantaloupe really adds a great dimension, I suggest throwing a melon in there next time you make a smoothie!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful (save for the fact that in the last two days Ian and I have been enjoying the bliss of either a virus or food poisoning together... huzzah...)

Last Saturday we went to our ward's closing social. It was a Brazilian BBQ and sports. It was a lot of fun...

Kimi and me enjoying the bliss that was the weather on Saturday.

Me, Ian, and Ian's tongue. A frequently seen element in our photos ;) hehe.

The rest of the week has been spent getting ready for finals, taking finals, relaxing from finals (not that I have finals... but...)

And there ya have it. A week in review.

Dragons!

So a couple weeks ago Ian, Seth, and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon. It's a new animated flick by DreamWorks. AMAZING! It's seriously one of the best and most-enjoyable animated movies I've seen in a long time.

The character development is great, and although you know how it's going to end, the getting there is pretty durn exciting! It had enough surprises in it to keep me interested and enough real-ness to it to make it worth watching. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Go see it!

It's awesome!