The Welcome

When we came home from our trip to Lomé we had a welcoming committee. A few kids in our neighborhood came running when they heard our truck. One little girl in particular who normally never has clothes on came running with open arms to me wanting a hug, Bryce another little boy was jumping up and down saying white person white person and the minute I stepped from the truck came and gave me a big hug, what a welcome. I love being home with all the familiar sounds and smells and people I love this place.

God's protection

Every once in a while we need to go down south about 6 hours to purchase things like Cheese, meat, milk, and other food items. Each time we go we ask the Lord to bless the trip and guide our car, and protect us, and that His will be done in all of our lives. The reason why I say this is the roads in Togo are not the best, many accidents take place going down and up the mountain. Not a trip goes by that we do not see many horrible accidents with big trucks. This past trip was no different we saw accidents, but we were blessed we arrived safely. We know God is in control and that He holds our lives in His hands and His will is perfect.

I thank the Lord for His protection.

French Lessons

This week I talked with a lady who teaches French to children, and I set up a schedule for Joshua to start taking French lessons. I will be taking some also just to brush up on some grammar and conjugations. Please pray for Joshua, he already is doing a great job in speaking French and I know he will do a great job. He is very excited, when she came over for our meeting I could not find Joshua, I called for him and when he came around the corner he told me that he wanted to brush his teeth and wash his face before he talked to her. How cute, he thought he was taking lessons that day.

I could have eaten tons of these

Just the other day I made some Kabobs for dinner using a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, it was a really big hit. Jesse, when he was finished said I could have eaten a tons of those. Through the entire meal all I heard was ohh this is so good oh this is so yummy, and to my surprise Joshua ate big chunks of onion and green pepper and tomato just becuase of this wonderful marinade. This is a must try, it will make your tastebuds come alive and it will make you want to eat ALL of your vegetables.

Beef Marinade (The recipe said you could use this on a chuck roast or Kabobs)

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

3/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup white wine vinegar

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 Worcestershire sauce

2 T. ground dry mustard

2 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 T. ground black pepper

1 1/2 T. chopped fresh parsley

2 T. ground cloves (I have never put cloves in it).

The instructions say that you need to marinade the meat for three days, but I have found that the marinade is very strong and it is not needed for the little pieces of meat, it might be different with a big chuck roast.

Also, this is a really big recipe you might want to cut it in half if you are making kabobs.

Japaanese potstickers

The other day I decided to make potstickers, if you have never had them before they are wonderful. I found a great recipe online and with the help of my pasta maker and Jesse we made potstickers together they were delicious.

Potstickers

½ lb ground pork (1 cup)

¾ cup shredded Napa cabbage

1 green onion, diced

2 teasp minced ginger

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tbsp soy sauce

¼ teasp hot chili oil, or to taste

¼ teasp sesame oil

2 tbsp vegetable oil for frying, or as needed

30 gyoza wrappers, or as needed I used a different recipe for the wrappers, I used this wonton recipe.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch the shredded cabbage until it is tender but still crisp. Plunge into ice cold water, remove, and drain thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, combine the ground pork, cooked cabbage, green onion, minced ginger, egg, soy sauce, chili oil and sesame oil.

Lay a gyoza wrapper in front of you. Wet all the edges with water. Place a teaspoon of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Fold the sides up to form a semicircle, and then pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the rest of the gyoza wrappers until the filling is gone.

To cook, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-high to high heat. Add 12 - 15 of the gyoza and cook for 2 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom.

Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Cover the dumplings and cook until the water is absorbed (5 to 7 minutes). Repeat with the remainder of the gyoza dumplings..]

Wonton Wrappers

1 egg

¾ teasp salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

⅓ to ½ cup water, as needed

Extra flour as needed

Preparation:

Lightly beat the egg with the salt. Add 1/4 cup water.

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and water mixture. Mix in with the flour. Add as much of the remaining water as necessary to form a dough. (Add more water than the recipe calls for if the dough is too dry).

Form the dough into a ball and knead for about 5 minutes, or until it forms a smooth, workable dough. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out until very thin, and cut into 3 1/2-inch squares. Store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.

"This recipe worked perfectly for me. I did modify a few things. I ended up using (probably) close to 1/2 cup of water. The dough was still very, very dry and unkneadable. Much dryer than you would think it should be. I left it covered for 15 minutes, then kneaded it (by which time it had relaxed a bit), then left it for another half hour (covered).

It was beautiful. I rolled it out using a hand-cranked pasta machine, using half of the dough each time. The pasta machine made it 6 inches wide, which fit 2 three inch cut-outs side-by-side. I used a lot of flour, folded the rolled dough over itself so it was in 4 layers, then cut out with the biscuit cutter. I left it under a damp paper towel for about 1 1/2 hours and had no trouble with sticking, except around the edges where the biscuit cutter had kind of smooshed the layers together a bit. Next time I wouldn't do more than 2 layers.

I am very blessed

This past week I heard about a friend who just lost one of her children to SIDS. As you can imagine she is grieving for her little girl. This made me start thinking about my own family and how blessed I am, I live in Africa exactly where God wants me, with my best friend Jesse, and we have together a wonderful son who brings us much joy. I live in a wonderful house with electricity and water, this is a big deal seeing I live in Africa, I could go on and on. I love my life that God has given to me, and I am truly blessed. We all are blessed, if we stop and think about who and what we have we will consider ourselves very blessed, and the only reason why we are blessed is because of God.

Counting the days

Everyday Joshua has asked me how many more days do we have left of school. He is anxiously waiting for the day he is finished with 1st grade, he has done a great job, only three days left.

He just learned Roman Numerals this week and loved them, he told me that he has been wanting to learn these so he can read Lisa's (a missionary in Kara) clock. He makes me laugh he caught on real quick. He is anxiously waiting for THE BIG BREAK.