Nov. 9: A Midwestern Homestyle Dinner

A Midwestern Homestyle Dinner

So today I decided to make the boys a typical, traditional, midwestern dinner. Growing up, Jim's mom made homemade beef and noodles frequently, and when we got married I got to taste them! She taught me how to make them. We LOVE this meal!

I made noodles from scratch, and told the boys how I did it (I didn't think about teaching them how to make it until too late).

We had quite a bit of pork left over from a gigantic roast earlier this week, so we made pork and gravy instead of beef and gravy. It was awesome! We also made mashed potatoes. Yum...

I had some fresh apples from my dad's trees, so I made an apple pie for the boys. We were talking the other day and they had never really had pie before. They had eaten McDonald's apple pies, but not a real one! We had a truly American meal tonight!

To top off the post, I decided to stick in a couple of more sunset shots from tonight. (The boys are going to have quite a collection! :)

And one from earlier this week...

Nov. 2: A Nigerian Dinner

Nigerian Okra Soup

Alex brought some ingredients with him to make a couple of Nigerian dishes for us. One thing he brought was dried cassava root. It has the consistency of hard dried milk, and once it is cooked up, it is like very thick oatmeal. The cassava is similar to the potato. Read to the end of the post- I tried to recreate the recipe as best as I could so you can try it, too!

Step 1- chopping the onion and pepper

Cassava prepared with boiling water. The lid went on for about 10 minutes, kind of like how we prepare minute rice.

This is the sauce, or soup. It was actually much more colorful in person. The red peppers looked really pretty!

Alex explaining how to eat the meal the traditional Nigerian way.

Karley giving it a go!

Jermaya isn't sure....

Jamo trying it....

 Another demonstration: First you make a ball and roll it up in your hands, then you dip it in the soup, then you eat it!

Explaining the process to Kaydey, who did like the cassava!

Thank you, Alex for making us a wonderful traditional Nigerian dinner! I loved the flavor of the sauce! Alex toned it down for us, and did not add any hot peppers, because he was afraid we would not be able to eat it. 

Nigerian Okra Soup

1 onion, chopped                      2 t curry

1 bag okra, chopped                black pepper to test

1 red pepper, diced                  1 T seasoned salt (Lawry’s)

Bake 2 or 3 tilapia filets

Put ½ C peanut oil in a soup pot. Sautee the onion and pepper in the oil. Add several cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the spices. Add the okra and continue boiling. The soup should be thick like a sauce. Cut tilapia up into bite sized pieces and add to soup.

Gari (Cassava)

2 cups potato flakes (best substitution for cassava I can come up with)

Boiling water

Prepare according to box.

Makes very thick mashed potatoes. Like oatmeal cookie dough thick.

How to eat: Put the soup in a bowl and the potatoes on your plate.  With your hand, take a wad of potatoes and dip it into your soup. Eat with your hand!!! When your hand gets sticky, dip it in water in a bowl by your plate.

Nov. 2: Fall Activities

Fall Activities

Each year we like to go to the pumpkin patch and the apple orchard. It is something that we love to do! This year, we waited too long and missed the boat- I was crushed! We went to the pumpkin patch first. There is a huge play area for the kids, a fall barn for the parents (decorations, jams, homemade stuff, etc.), and tons of gourds and pumpkins to buy. There is a huge corn maze, too. There are lots of fun photo ops as well. We thought they would be open this weekend since Halloween was on Friday, but we were sadly wrong. We took a couple of pictures of the boys anyway, even if they didn't get the whole experience.

the cool old truck

"turbans"- a funky squash

very bumpy PVC slide

Oct. 31: Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat

Here in the USA, we trick or treat on Halloween night, which is Oct. 31. Around here, the towns have different nights for trick or treating, so you could actually end up going to several during a week. This year, Fort Madison did theirs on Oct. 31! The downtown businesses had candy to share, and County Market had a hotdog dinner. We went to the downtown businesses and then went to a few friends' houses. We collected a nice assortment of chocolates, sweets, gum, and toothbrushes! :)

Oct. 30: Trunk or Treat

Trunk or Treat

I'm not sure how this tradition got started, but in Denmark, Iowa, the members of the UCC church hold Trunk or Treat. They pull their cars up into the parking lot & decorate their trunks and hand out candy. People really get into this, and wear costumes. One year, someone had a whole table set up to look like a mad scientist's laboratory complete with jars of body parts! Sometimes, the youth group will set up a "haunted bus" which is a draw for the little kids. This year, they had hotdogs inside the church for us to enjoy after treating.