A well-spent Sunday

Today we had a little meeting and a big lunch. This is the last Sunday meeting we will have for one month, so we invited them to stay and visit for lunch. I am so glad they accepted! For lunch, we had lasagna, squiddlies with sauce ( I forgot to take pictures!), steamed cabbage, frozen veggies (for the children), mastif, and to top it all off, pumpkin pie with real whipped cream! My belly is still full.

Here are a few pics from the past two weeks:

Here is a crab that we saw on the concrete walkway beside the building. It started out right by the stairs that leads up to our apartment. The crab continued beside the low retaining wall to the backyard. I kept teasing it with a stick to get a good video which the children laughed over for a while.

These pictures are on last Friday at White Coat Ceremony. This is for the 4th semester students that are about to finish and leave the island, some will stay for 5th semester. To clarify, All Saints is a "fast track" med school, which means that after the students get past pre-med, they have 4 semesters here and a 5th either here or back in the US. After that, they go into clinicals.

Here is miss Taya on the day I was taking belly pics for the blog and Facebook. Her smile was so infectious, I just had to add it here.

These pictures are from Wednesday night when the owner of the property had a dinner for tourism. He made a wonderful chicken dish with local dasheen, plantain, and sweet potato, lentils. rice, fresh avocados, and fresh pineapple juice. It was very good and I overate. Big surprise.

Trinton had his hair spiked.

Here are the middle 3 asleep in the livingroom. Taya is asleep with her legs off the chair in the background. Trinton and Taleah are on the couch.

Fried rice and hamburger buns

Tonight we ate fried rice and saifun (Chinese bean thread noodles). Near the end of supper an interesting conversation occurred:
Trinton: Are there seeds in the rice?
Me: What seeds?
Trinton: Tomato seeds.
Me: No, but there are sesame seeds.
Trinton: What are sesame seeds?
Me: Sesame seeds are what are on hamburger buns.
Taleah: What are hamburger buns?
Travis: I think they have been here too long.

I made fake Chinese rice (fake since I know it is not how my Chinese grandma would have made it.)

5 cups cooked rice
2 cups frozen veggies
1/2 garlic bulb, peeled and minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
oil for stir frying
1 sprig thyme, de-leafed
2 sprigs parsley, chopped
1 cup chopped, pork
4 eggs
black pepper, salt, lemon, sesame seeds to taste
soy sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
chopped green onion for garnish

Prep all ingredients. Measure rice, veggies, garlic, onion, and green pepper into separate bowls for stir frying. Fry in small amount of oil in this order, taking out each ingredient and placing in bowl before adding next ingredient:
1. veggies
2. garlic
3. onion
4. green pepper
5. meat (until cooked through)

Beat 2 eggs. Spray pan with oil to coat. Add egg to pan and roll around pan so that egg coats inside of pan and cooks. Use rubber scraper to roll egg from one side to the other, making a long roll. Take egg out and cut in thin slices and hold to add to rice later.

After pan is emptied, add rice, thyme, parsley, lemon, sesame seeds, and black pepper. Stir fry until heated through. Add other ingredients in this order while stir frying:
1. garlic
2. onion
3. green pepper
4. veggies

Beat the last 2 eggs with grated ginger and a few splashes of soy sauce. Let sit while you add meat and previously cooked eggs to rice.
When all ingredients are heated through, add egg mix and stir to evenly coat all rice. Continue to stir fry until rice is moist but egg is cooked. Salt to taste if you wish.
Place on serving dish and top with chopped green onions.

Typing it is making me hungry, and I ate too much already!

Oh and I forgot! Today we celebrated 9 years! Happy Anniversary Travis!

Tonight we had homemade pizza. Not Papa Murphy's or Pizza Hut by any means, but it was very good. I will even try another crust recipe as this one turned out too thick and light, like rolls.
Here is the recipe I used:

Easy Pizza Dough
2-1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp yeast
2 T oil
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water

Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar. Let stand until bubbly. Combine all dry ingredients. Add yeast and all other ingredients to mixture and mix until smooth. Stretch out dough and spread onto cookie sheet or roll out with rolling pin on floured surface and then transfer to cookie sheet. Bake dough for 5-7 minutes before adding toppings. Bake with toppings for 20-25 minutes at 375F.

We added leftover spaghetti sauce and extra tomato sauce. The sauce had hamburger, seasonings, and sausage in it already. We diced onions, sweet peppers, and fresh pineapple. We shredded mozzarella cheese. It turned out pretty good, but the second crust was better as I added extra olive oil.

Next time I want to try a Pizza Hut style crust that is more chewy and a bit thinner.

I remember having English muffin pizzas with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Carl years ago. I don't even remember how long ago! Maybe when Trinton was a baby...

I am open to your recipe if you have a favorite. But please don't tease me with easy crust that is made from store-bought crust or refrigerator rolls. I won't buy them because they are too old, too much money, or just plain don't taste good!