Turning the Heat On

This is the control knob for our oven. In case it isn't very clear, the options for the heating elements in the oven are: 1-top & bottom, 2-bottom only, and 3-top only. Mastering the use of this oven is a work in progress. I continue to learn, experiment, and otherwise "walk" in the dark.

I would like to give an example of why working with such limited settings makes for a frustrating baking experience... Anytime you need to use the oven for more than 10-15 minutes you have to do something like this:

1-Put food in the oven
2-Turn on the oven
3-Set a timer for 10-20 minutes (it's your dinner on the line, you decide how daring you want to be)
4-When the timer goes off, check the food
5-Turn the oven off
6-Set a timer for 5-10 minutes
7-When the timer goes off, check the food (the residual heat in the oven continues the cookin' process)
8-Turn the oven on (both elements? just top? just bottom?)
9-Set a timer for 5-15 minutes (again, it's your dinner on the line, the longer the timer, the greater your chance for a charred delight)
10-When the timer goes off, check the food....

This process can go on and on: turning the oven on, then off, then on again. The more I cook/bake the same things the more experienced I get at using this awkwardly designed appliance. For instance, we have made brownies quite a few times and I have learned a few things:

• Preheat the oven (I know you probably already do this in the States, but I assure you, it is not always the way to go... especially when your oven has three settings)
• Don't preheat the oven too long (if you would like to define "too" in minutes, I'd appreciate it, it would probably help the next time I bake brownies)
• When you first put the brownies in the oven, only bake them for about 15 minutes-there should be a small peak in the middle, then turn the oven off
• Let the brownies sit in the hot oven until the peak is considerably bigger
• Unless the oven is too hot, then you will want to take the brownies out for a few minutes
• When you turn the oven back on only use both heating elements if the top isn't too dark
• Powdered sugar hides a scorched top

On The Road Again

This past Thursday we jumped on a bus to one of the Almaty's main bus stations. Set up similarly to a train station, the bus station is basically a bunch of buses and cars parked in front of a large building. Conductors stand outside their vehicles trying to recruit passengers.

We walked to the far side of the parking lot where Chris was able to make a deal for the back seat of a car (an older Mercedes, if you're interested) that would take us to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The driver then attempted to find someone else to fill the car so we could head out. We waited around for about an hour until we decided to just pay for the whole taxi and get on the road (it's amazing how a little 11 month old can guide our decisions...). We had a good drive down and a nice visit to Bishkek, but that's all for a later post.

During our wait Chris discovered a really cool samsa stand. Samsas are pockets of flaky dough filled with things like cheese, chicken, lamb or beef. They are usually rather cheap and pretty tasty (if a little greasy). These particular samsas have a more bread-like dough and are called tandoori samsas as they are cooked in a tandoor (a cylindrical clay oven).This is a glimpse inside the tandoor, with samsas stuck all along the inside.

Cabbage Pirok

We love cabbage pie

...and Addie does too!

Responding to the Call

Soon after we first arrived in Almaty we began to notice a peculiar sound daily, or almost daily. It was a man talking on a megaphone, but we weren't initially sure what he was saying. Initially, we thought it was a call for prayers (since Kazakhstan is predominantly Muslim) but eventually Chris was able to listen close enough to realize it was a produce vendor selling things like carrots, apples, bananas, cabbage, etc.

I don't think it was until late fall that we actually responded to the produce "call" and went and checked out the goods. We were soon able to learn that the red produce truck has some of the best deals coupled with good quality produce.

The red produce truck is the first of it's kind that we became acquainted with, but I have since noticed copy-cat travel merchants in the area (including a woman selling fresh dairy products like milk, butter, tvorog/cottage cheese, and sour cream, out of the trunk of her car). The "red truck" team of merchants are really effective at their business, the man who walks around with the megaphone is quite the salesman and does a good job of promoting their produce, there is a younger man that makes sure the baskets of produce are kept full as the women from the neighborhood make their selections, and there is a woman who weighs the produce, takes the money and makes change. Besides being good at their respective jobs they are also really friendly, nice, and patient.

We Have A Deal

Some time ago we worked out a deal regarding dishes: whoever makes the meal gets to take a break from cleaning up. I know everyone has their own policy, but this one has brought me a lot of happiness.

The picture below gives a good idea of how Chris feels about our deal:

Actually, Chris is a pretty willing participant, but you can't blame him for sometimes being a little less enthusiastic as I'm the one that prepares the really big meals for guests. Although I normally do pretty well at cleaning as I go, there are always plenty of dishes used for actually serving and eating the meal.

What, if any, chore "deals" or arrangements do you have with your spouse or roomie(s)??

For Men

Yesterday Chris made a quick run to the grocery store and after he returned I found this in a grocery bag:

Underneath the name of the candybar, it says, "Keep from women". Chris loved the idea. If the name alone didn't give him enough fodder, there's also this:

It states:
This is a new, special form of tenderness, created specially for men! This powerful, fat milk chocolate is only subject to us, to men. And not one woman can lay claim on it, because Nestle Classic FOR MEN is our untouchable, masculine possession.

And around the anti-women symbol:
Store in places inaccessible to women

In case that isn't enough to deter a woman from eating it, the chocolate squares are even stamped with the same symbol.

Chris doesn't buy candy bars. As he attests, the name of this one got his attention and sparked his curiosity so much that he bought it. If that's not good marketing, I don't know what is! =)

The Eggs in My Basket...

Probably don't look like yours. (Unless you get them straight from a chicken's nest!)


This isn't the best example, but our eggs come: 1-stamped (not sure of specific reasons), 2-chicken poop-streaked (I always wash before breaking... you never know when you'll drop a piece of eggshell), and often 3-with little feathers stuck to them.

Pelmeni

Our lunches are often pelmeni or vereniki, little "dumplings" filled with meat or potatoes. Pelmeni is the name for any type of meat "dumpling", so it can be made with a variety of different meats.

We purchase large bags of beef pelmeni, which don't have a cute picture of a cow, but the bags below show the other types of meat-stuffed pelmeni's which we often purchase.


People are usually most interested/intrigued/disgusted by the bag on the right.

Jack Sprat

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.

His wife could eat no lean.
And so between them both, you see,
They licked the platter clean!

My parents were fond of noting that Chris and I are the complete opposite of this childhood rhyme. Chris loves fat. I do not. He would prefer whole milk, I would prefer skim. We compromise with 1%. He likes dark meat, I like white meat, it's a perfect marriage, really it is.

During the winter it is common to serve salo with bread throughout the former Soviet Union. Salo hails from the Ukraine, where it is a favorite food, perhaps even considered a delicacy. We have been served it a few times. This is what it looks like:


So, what is salo? Raw pork fat. The fat is purchased and you take it home and season it with garlic, salt, herbs, other seasonings, and then you let it sit and soak in all the flavor. This is salo that our friend Anya made and brought to our home. I have tasted it, and while full of flavor, I'm not quite sure about the texture. Chris loves it.

Lagman **pronounced lawg-mawn**

A few weeks ago our Relief Society had an activity. We met at the church at 11:00 a.m., then left a little after noon, to go to the home of our branch president and his wife. (If you thought "Mormon Standard Time" was bad in the States, just imagine what it is like when you rely on public transportation!) Our branch president is Uyghur ethnicity, and although his wife, Elmira, is Ta-tar, she has learned some of the Uyghur dishes from her husband's family. This activity was so she could teach us how to make lagman.

The pictures below are of some of the sisters in our Relief Society. It took us a while to get started as there was another car of sisters on their way. (President Sultan drove from his house into the city to pick up the rest of our group from the church--it's at least a 30-45 minute drive.)


Lagman is a noodle soup. The soup has meat in it, but it is fully of veggies and noodles. These noodles are not your standard macaroni. They are homemade and yummy! They are also a lot of work.

The large picture in the collage below shows us working on step 2 (or was it 3?) of stretching the dough into noodles.


To be honest, I can't remember exactly how many times we stretched the noodles. It was at least four times, but may have been five. The dough starts out as one very thick "noodle" (they compared its size to a sausage), then you stretch it and divide it into a few noodles; the resulting noodles are thicker than a hot dog, and can be divided. The process of stretching the dough is similar to making snakes with play-dough except it is much more difficult. {The dough takes much much more work to stay in the stretched snake form than play-dough, I'm not sure why or what causes it, but it has a much different texture (more dense/tougher??) than play-dough and needs more "encouragement" for formation}

The picture in the upper left of the collage below shows Elmira standing behind me a little to the left. She is stretching the noodles in this picture, and doing it speedily with great precision. Watching her makes it look like a cakewalk... she was kind enough to reassure me that she used to stretch the noodles with as much difficulty as me.


One of the amazing things about stretching the noodles was becoming aware of the muscles in my fingers and arms that I apparently don't work very often. Although I wasn't sore later, these muscles were telling me they were tired long before we were finished.

You boil the noodles and then divide into bowls:


Then you top the noodles with the veggie-meat part of the soup and broth. Then, serve.


These are the women of our Relief Society. While a few are missing, these are most of our sisters. These women are amazing! They are simply so committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ and have great faith in Him and this work. I believe most, if not all, have had to gain faith in not just a few of the principles or doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but in Jesus Christ himself. It is humbling to see and hear these wonderful sisters bear testimony of the change that has come into their lives as they have heard the good news and embraced it with full purpose of heart. Their desire to learn and live according to the Lord's commandments is amazing. Their love for each other is quite an example as well. These gatherings are more than just a bunch of women getting together, it is truly a bunch of sisters getting together and the bonding and exchanges shared are proof of that unity and sisterhood.


When it was time to depart we were divided into the two cars according to the regions of the city so the drivers could save on gas. As we left the neighborhood I saw two wild dogs that both looked like wolves. I gasped and said something like, "Oh! Look at those..." and then realized (and said aloud) that none of the other passengers in the van knew English! It took me another second to remember that President Sultan does know English, and we both started laughing. It was an interesting experience, and a first for me. Never before had I been unable to communicate with people I knew.

A Little Bit of Cereal

So, we started feeding Addie rice cereal a while ago... but haven't mentioned or pictured it yet. Thought we'd remedy that, so here you go:

This is her first actual taste of solid food. Please excuse our silliness.

We initially had difficulty finding a baby cereal without milk, sugar, etc. so her first taste was homemade rice cereal... a little chunkier and harder than it probably should have been.

No child was harmed in the making of these videos.

And since the videos are a little dark, here's the photo summary:

What? No Turkey?

Nope. We were unable to locate a turkey, so we decided to get a whole chicken and some chicken pieces. Thanks to my friend Susan's amazing brine, the chicken was quite tasty! We also served: meatloaf (practically standard at our dinner table..), corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, dressing/stuffing, sweet pumpkin casserole, bread, cranberry sauce, and apple pie.
Because I think it's worthwhile information... the origin of the dressing/stuffing goes something like this:

Wednesday we shopped at RamStore. One purchase happened to be a tea Chris had enjoyed while in Turkey (the country). He was really excited for it because the tea is the actual dried leaves (packaged in a ziploc bag). It's about as natural as you can get. Well, so we get home and he steeped a pot of this tea and served some up for us. I was not a fan and told him that it tasted like chicken. He proceeded to tease me for my lack of enjoyment of this Turkish "delight" and finally said the name of the tea in English: sage tea. Jessie, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm pretty sure sage is a very common, if not prominent herb in poultry seasoning. I was very excited to realize this as I hadn't been able to figure out how we would manage to season the dressing (or the chicken for that matter). So, the sage worked wonderfully, but now Chris is feeling a little queasy about drinking chicken tea. ;)
Our party! Mike on the left, Chris, Aundrey, Stacia, Anya, Addie, me, Sam, and Asiyat.
After dinner we asked everyone to say what they were thankful for, and while the majority of the group mentioned family and friends (in meaningful, non-rote ways), I was really grateful for Asiyat's contribution. Asiyat works for the US State department and is the contact here for the Fulbright scholarship recipients. She mentioned that she was most thankful for the opportunity she has to work with the Fulbrighters, young adult Americans who come to her country not to teach about their own, but to learn about hers, and then return to America and teach other Americans about her country.

We often get a lot of questions about why we are here. We are here for Chris to do research, but the grant doesn't exist to enable research on his specific topic. The purpose of the Fulbright program is to promote mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the peoples of other countries. The Fulbright program provides the opportunity for participants to learn about other cultures and bring that knowledge and experience back to the States. [Bet'ch didn't know that this blog is actually helping to fulfill the purpose of the grant money... ;D]

In all seriousness, it was pretty amazing to realize how much the program means to her, a Kazakh who is aware of the program's purpose and sees its fruit. I have really enjoyed being here. I can honestly say that I love this country (with all its quirks) and I hope those we are acquainted with grow to love it too. Before I knew Chris, I was ignorant to the Central Asian area of the world, but have quickly become intrigued by these countries, these cultures and these peoples. I am so grateful to be a beneficiary of the grant and this experience.

Yummy in the Tummy

I bet you thought this was about Thanksgiving... But it's NoT!

When Chris' family was here I had my first taste of shashlyk. And I loved it. In essence, shashlyk is a meat kabob, but really, it is SoooOoo much more... Shashlyk is traditionally lamb, and there is a type that is ground meat formed and put on the kebab (lyulya kebab). My first try I had lamb lyulya kebab, and chicken and lamb shashlyk. All are served with onion.

Sometime after family left, Chris went to the bazaar and returned with shashlyk from one of the vendors. It was wonderful!!! (and very cheap!) Just a quick picture to tempt you with...

Since I "have to" try some of the things that are available here... we purchased this juice. The carton is designed as a hint of the contents. It's also in English at the bottom.
It wasn't anything too crazy or unusual in taste. It mostly just tasted like sugary water. Chris said that the authentic version tastes mostly like water.

If Three is Company...

Then what is eleven??

For starters, it's the number of mouths we fed one night a little more than a week ago. At the time there were nine (now there are twelve) missionaries here for paperwork regarding visas and immigration cards. We decided it would be fun to feed them. I know, what were we thinking...

What you see here is one meatloaf, eighteen stuffed (packed is more like it) peppers, mashed potatoes, boiled carrots, tomato & cucumber salad, and two of three purchased loaves of bread. With one sister and eight elders we wanted to make sure we had enough to feed our guests! We finished off with some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Dinner took a little while, so I literally stood outside our door with a plate full of hot cookies on napkins to distribute as the missionaries left. I think they were most excited about the fresh-baked cookies... none of them have had fresh, warm chocolate-chip cookies since leaving home (and they have all been serving for 6-12 months).

We didn't even have enough chairs to go around! Two of the missionaries sat on the arms of the sofa-chairs! And we had to borrow 3 sets of silverware from our neighbor!
The two Elders in the back dished out all of our plates. At the end of the meal they both managed to sneak to the kitchen and start doing the dishes too!

Food

So, I mentioned recently that I have had difficulty "remembering" how to cook and my dad mentioned in conversation that it looks like I'm "wasting away" (he did acknowledge that he's probably just thinking of the pregnant version of Evelyn). Although I may not feel fully confident about cooking, we are definitely eating well! Chris says he has never seen me eat as much as I do now, which we attribute to a nursing-induced appetite. I have put together some pictures (with descriptions) of some of our yummy food.

The "dumplings" on this platter are manti. Half were made with a meat filling the other half with a savory pumpkin filling. It was honestly love at first bite! Amazingly enough Chris never had pumpkin manti when he previously lived in KZ because he thought it sounded gross, but he admitted he was quite mistaken. Our neighbors returned our platter to us (earlier that week we gave them the platter full of a tomato & cucumber salad). I don't know that our salad warranted such a wonderful array of foods, but we certainly won't complain! Oh, and the carrot salad was also really good.

Shortly after our arrival we discovered a new little company in the area. Most similar to Schwann's, the company delivers frozen foods except at very competitive rates. Our first order was to test their products out and we combined with our neighbors to give it a trial run at the minimum order amount (around $14). We have since ordered again and filled our freezer... =) What you see below is a pretty standard lunch. Cucumber and dill salad with potato-filled vereniki (my version of the phonetic spelling).

Sometime ago we stopped at a cafe where I had my first taste of plof (it is actually said and spelled "plov" though the "v" is often fudged into an "f"). It was wonderful!!!

Our neighbors, Aundrey & Anya brought this to us after Aundrey returned from their home (they live here but are from Tajikistan, where they have a home & garden). You are looking at Tajik plov (the Tajik's use a special spice called zira--commonly known in the U.S. as cumin. I think theirs may be a slightly different version of it, but let me just say "AMAZING!" I just don't have the words...), tomato salad, homegrown grapes and persimmon.

This was my first time having persimmon and it was really good, a very interesting fruit for sure!!!

A mouse attacked our bread! Oh wait, no it was just a hungry husband snacking on his way back from the errand of getting the bread. A fresh loaf usually costs the equivalent of fifty cents.
We picked up some fresh pumpkin since the soup turned out so well. You can buy pumpkin by the kilo which means the vendors either display it already cut or they will cut the pumpkin for you to give you as much as you need.

The pumpkin-curry soup. Yum!!!

As we prepared to move here we learned that Almaty was the around the 30th most expensive city in the world. It beat the D.C. area and L.A. but wasn't as expensive as NYC. Lucky us, right? What we learned pretty quickly is that bazaars and little stands are where it's at! Generally speaking, the little stands on the side of the road as well as the bazaars offer some amazing prices on fresh fruit and veggies.

You are looking at about 4 kilos of potatos, 1 kilo of peppers, and 1 1/2 kilos of carrots. This cost us the equivalent of $3. A kilo is a little more than 2 lbs.

Russian style stuffed peppers which I made for dinner on Sunday. Our neighbors shared some with us the first Sunday we were here and I have made them a few times since. I am still working on tweaking the recipe. Most people use rice as the main filler, but we have used greshka (buckwheat). I like to use buckwheat simply because it's in whole "grain" form (buckwheat isn't wheat, technically it's a berry).

We purchased some phyllo dough which I attempted to use with the apples from the picnic a week ago. It turned out pretty well.

We returned our neighbors plate with 3/4 of the apple tort/pie/thingamagig.

We purchased some frozen manti (definitely nowhere near as good as homemade) which cooks in this "double-boiler" of sorts. You can see in the second picture that there are metal plates with holes in them stacked inside the top pot which allow the manti to steam cook (for 45 minutes). The manti after it has been cooked...

Picnic in the Mountains

We had a picnic with the members of our branch (congregation) here in KZ. We met up at the church between 9 and 10 a.m. Saturday morning, and then we headed to the busstop around 10:15 a.m. We took a bus up to one of the last stops and then began to walk. Since we had Addie we were given a ride in the first "caravan" to the picnic site. The members who had cars drove the picnic supplies, small children, older members and us first and then went back and brought the rest of our company to the picnic area (Clari--I believe it was a new spot and not the usual mountain picnic area).

It was actually a bit of a drive to the picnic spot, but we found an area where we could have a campfire and keep out of the wind. The picnic was a lot of fun. The first thing that we did was assign the men and children to go find some dry firewood. And boy did they! Then children found berries that they could pick, so they brought those around for us to eat. Meanwhile, a table was set up where a few of the women began preparing the food. They made little sandwiches of sausage, bread, cucumber, and a seasoned tomato paste of some sort. We then waited (and played a "game" the missionaries put together) while the plof cooked and the women prepared the salad to go with it. The food was great!!! Everyone was given a generous helping, and man was it tasty! Chris got us each a second helping, which I sat down to eat with the other women. I finished the salad and began eating the plof when one of the women began serving me more salad. I began to laugh and gestured to her that it was enough and she continued to heap it on. While there may be a VERBAL language barrier, I assure you that was not the problem. Someone translated "it's for the baby" (since I'm nursing). Goodness gracious! So, I continued to work on my food and they started dishing up more plof. And wouldn't you know it but I was given another huge serving of plof! I simply couldn't finish it all. Chris helped, but even he didn't finish it. So, we let that settle and then they broke out dessert and tea (herbal, of course). Afterwards the missionaries pulled out what Chris calls "the fireman game" and some of the girls headed up into the orchard to pick apples. They came back with quite a haul! We ended up with about a kilo or two of fresh picked apples.

We took some pictures on the bus, behind me you will notice some black curtains in the windows and behind Chris you will notice some tassles hanging around the lights. Some of the buses are decorated, and I believe it's done by the driver. Sort of fun... =)



Cows in the road! Moooo-ve over! ;)

The first field we went to could easily have been named "cow pie clearing" or "tin can alley". There was an abundance of both.


While everyone seems to love nature, there doesn't seem to be much done to keep it up. There was trash everywhere! Big piles of it as well as pieces strewn about.

I will say though, the view was pretty.




Because no meal is complete without tea...

The yummy sandwiches...

The women at work...

The wood collected for the fire...


The actual pile of wood used...

The kind of chair nature intended ;)

The game the missionaries played (with a thought afterwards). Everyone was blindfolded and led to a rope that was wound around a path. There were good voices to lead them to the end and bad voices to try and frustrate their efforts. At the end of the rope/path was a tree where they were each given an apple. Sound familiar anyone?? =)



Plof!

Dubbed the branch baby, we can hardly keep Addie in our own arms!


Horses anyone? (to give perspective, this first picture shows the hood of one of our vehicles)


One of a few breaks to feed Addie

"The firemen game"

One of the girls was able to get a picture while feeding a cow an apple from her hand (up in the orchard). When the cows ventured our way I decided I needed a picture like it. Unfortunately this cow would not comply no matter how hard I tried!!! Geez-Louise! =)

The happy group before we head out!