Calzone Saturdays

Richard couldn't wait for me to post this one.

"Calzone Saturday" happens every few months. A huge batch of dough is made (usually 3-4 batches). 2-3 different fillings are concocted, and then dough is shaped and stuffed to make 18-24 calzones which mostly go into the freezer for nights when cooking just isn't going to happen. At least 12 are the spinach and cheese variety. The spinach here is not quite the same - a little more bitter and earthy, and tougher. I wouldn't eat it in a salad, but it's good enough when it's cooked down. And it's name: Ka La Loo

One of the local food distributors actually sends a list to the Embassy with cheese products that arrived that day, and we are able to buy a bunch before they go to the local stores. We bought 4 containers of ricotta and about 5 Kraft shredded mozzarella cheeses. Not your best, but good enough for calzones (or better than none!). At home we would put sirene (Bulgarian feta) in the mix, but none of that here! So the cheese shipment meant it was time for our first Calzone Saturday in Guyana.

Richard's getting more efficient each time, but it usually takes 5-6 hours for the whole process (including allowing time for the dough to rise).

Some people think we're crazy. But if you actually divide the amount of time by the number that are made, it works out that each one only takes about 15-20 minutes - not bad for home cookin'.

Yummy yummy, good good, they are! And Aidan can now eat them also, which he does very enthusiastically!

However, Aidan's not getting the ones that Richard slips anchovies into - no way, no how - none for me either!

The Chef ... threatening, er ... encouraging his savory pastries to be tasty!

Before going into the oven ... see the one with the anchovie on top? Yuck..we had to come up with a way to mark them so I wouldn't be surprised! (Give it a rest, Diana, anchovies are simply divine!)

..and out of the oven..yummy, glorious, calzones ... just sprouting with cheesey goodness!!!

Frog Legs

Aaahhh, there's a frog in Aidan's diapers!! 

I didn't mean to scare you...the frog was not in his diaper while he was wearing it!

Here's my cloth diaper cleaning routine: Soak diapers in cold washer in the washing machine overnight or for at least one hour. Then drain water and wash with a small amount of liquid soap on hot, with extra rinses.

Well, I guess the little froggy decided the cold soaking water was a nice location to hang out. I went out to the washing machine this morning, and opened the washer to drain...and I see these little beady eyes peering up at me, as he gets ready to launch, jumps up, and scares me out of my shoes. I called Richard to go get the frog. He couldn't find it, and thought I made up this crazy frog story to get him out of bed. Now why would I do a stupid thing like that?

So, then I see the little guy crawling up the inside of the washing machine and quickly out of sight. I left it open for a long time, but we never found him.

So, I decide to proceed with the wash, hoping that he found an escape route.

Later, taking out the diapers and their inserts one by one, a lone frog leg fell to the floor. Don't know where the frog ended up, but he's missing one of his important jumping legs :(

I might expect to find a mischievous little boy, a bit older, hiding a little froggy friend in his pocket....but finding a frog in the washing machine was more than I could have imagined. Did it have to be the diapers? Froggy hanging out on what goes against the precious baby's skin? 

Ribbit Ribbit...

Cassette Tape Glory

He made fun of my cassette tapes as soon as we moved in together. Every time we moved, he continued to mock the cassette tapes, cursing their existence as we moved the "bulky" tapes. 

I always said, "Buy me all the CDs or download all the music and I will gladly get rid of the cassettes." Of course, I would never get rid of the nostalgic mixed tapes from friends, live music recorded from radio programs, or my signed tape from 10,000 Maniacs...but the majority would be gone.

Now, we own a 1995 Toyota Rav-4 with a steering wheel on the right-hand side. And guess what? It has a cassette player and no CD player!!!!!

So, who's now glad that I have some cassettes??? 

Na na, na na, boo boo...

Little pleasures.

Obligations

I need to blog.

I know it.

I see Pittsburgh, PA and Woodstock, GA checking daily (these are the "rents" locations, so I know the grandparents want new info on the boy),

but...

there's been a resume and cover letter to submit,

roving toddler to say "No" to,

Olympics to watch,

free tickets to stand in line for for Carifesta, which starts tomorrow (more on this later!),

no internet,

shoddy internet that doesn't allow me to post photos that must accompany my planned posts,

not to mention cooking, laundry, organizing stuff...

excuses, excuses!!

I feel panic, anxiety...blogging shouldn't be an obligation.

I decided when I started this blog that I would try to write at least once a week. I'm already falling behind.

Now I see three BIG weekends with many events planned (Carifesta you see, and Richard's BD).  

When to blog??

Don't worry, my thoughts are here, and there.

They just might not get written down for all of you just yet.

Yeah - Our stuff is here! Do we need it?

Our household effects arrived yesterday! Now we're in the process of organizing and cleaning, while trying to keep Aidan's little sticky fingers at bay. It's very nice to have our own plates, food processor, cookbooks, wine, peanut butter, CDs, the rest of Aidan's stack of books, etc.  --after over two and a half months. We found out from the shipper that the crates were vacationing in the Bahamas for about a month (since June 23). So far, most things appear to be okay and undamaged, which is a relief.

However, Richard is now thoroughly convinced that we have too much "crap"...things that he didn't remember that we had and could have lived without. I suppose there's some of that, and this experience will help us to streamline more than we might if we were living in the same house for 10 years. And I won't mention (okay, I guess I'm mentioning) all the "toys" Richard bought before we left....and when I say toys, I do mean toys: basketball, boche ball set, whiffle balls and bat, tennis racket...luckily he received golf clubs from his sister and brother in-law....and he had to have a grill and grilling tools. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Even with all this "stuff", there are still some things I would like to add -- like an ice cream/sorbet maker. You see, although they have cows and wonderful fruit, it doesn't seem that anyone has figured out how to process the milk to make all of the wonderful dairy products that I love, or make tasty nectars that I so enjoyed in Bulgaria. 

So, that's next on my list of "wants" from the "materialistic/need to consume" side of me. Do I need it?  Of course not, but mango sorbet sure sounds good right now...or nice creamy ice cream, even if it's made with boxed milk. 

I suppose we'll try to get rid of some of the stuff here, but more will ultimately be added....toys are a given I'm sure. 

Stuff, stuff, stuff everywhere....

Standing!!

The boy is getting into the standing position all by himself! He starts on all fours (the first photo) to a squat, and then to a stand, and he's even taken a few steps from the stand position!! Usually he gets too excited and falls down. In the last one he's laughing because he did it!

A Slice of Guyana beyond Georgetown

Hello, all.

I recently had my first chance to make it outside of Georgetown and see some more of this fascinating little country!  Here are a few random observations and photos ...

Driving east from Georgetown, you encounter the interminable village.  It just goes on and on -- sure, there are a few breaks here and there for a cane or rice field, but pretty much the entire distance between the capital city and the border with Suriname is populated.  The one caveat, drive more than a mile south of the main road (if you can find a passage) and you have just left civilization for a thin strip of cultivated land, and beyond that -- the green heart of Guyana! Largely untouched tropical wilds.  More on those later.

For most of the time since its independence from Great Britain - which is to say from 1966 until sometime after the end of the Cold War - Guyana was nominally socialist.  I guess somewhere along the way there was some warm and fuzzy cultural exchange between Guyana and North Korea ... and somehow a street in a town in Berbice province was named in honor of ... 

Maybe it's time for a re-christening!

As we may already have mentioned, there is a sizable Chinese presence here in Guyana.  You judge their presence not so much as by seeing them out and about on the streets (which you don't), but by the ubiquity of their restaurants.  I thought this might just be a capital city phenomenon.  But I was wrong - by a mile.  Just about every little village in the interminable string of them from Georgetown to the Suriname border has one Chinese restaurant.  OK - so you want some interesting juxapositioning of cultures - imagine you're in a mixed Guyanese village (and grossly oversimplifying for simplicity) ... there are the Indo-Guyanese with their colorful temples and mosques, the Afro-Guyanese with their tidy little churches of just about every Protestant denomination imaginable, and then you see a little restaurant with sign bearing Chinese characters!  As for the cuisine - yeah, it's predictable (actually, all the menus are identical) and not very memorable.  And I hear that a typical Chinese restaurant will remain virtually unchanged for decades in Guyana, but the proprietors and hired help will turn over, and over, and over, remaining just long enough to pay off their debts and save a little money for the next leg of their journey, wherever that might (hint - north!) be.

More tidbits later -- remember, small country - two years!  -Richard