Pumpkin

It's fall and I'm missing Bonnie and Russ and friends back home carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. There are some pumpkins that are grown here in Kstan, but they aren't quite the same as pumpkins back home.

Fortunately, my roomies and I share a love of pumpkin products. Every time someone from the states comes to visit and asks "what can I bring?" we say; "canned pumpkin!" Recently we helped our neighbors "gut" and boil some pumpkins. Then we introduced them to eating the boiled pumpkin with brown sugar and butter, mmm! As they were about to throw out the seeds I asked if I could have them. The first batch I burned to a crips, darn propane oven without any temperature control. But the second batch turned out really good.

That's what neighbors are for

Project 365 Day 26: Our neighbors often send children over with plates of hot food fresh from their stove. It's really nice to know they think about us often. Today was a particularly neighbor-food-full day. From left to right: Lentils, Kitilk (meat and rice stuffed inside rice cakes and fried), dates, honey, fried green beans. We usually send the plates and bowls back with baked goods like pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, and banana bread.

Bubble Tea

Project 365 Day 25: I was craving bubble tea today. Reminds me of great friends back home.

Kdish dinner

Project 365 Day 22: A typical Kdish dinner (from bottom left to right) shredded spiced lamb, deep fried egg, yogurt, and cheese. Each of these dishes is eaten with bread, which is used to scoop the food out of the bowl. No forks or spoons required!

Sheep guts

 Project 365 Day 20. When they slaughter a sheep or lamb, the K's use every part of it. They like to stuff the intestines with a mixture of rice, meat, tomato paste, onions, and spices. It's actually pretty tasty.

Project 365 Day 15: Bread Shop

Bread is served at literally every meal here. Along with rice. Both of these foods have historically symbolized life. That is why in Kdish culture it is considered sinful to waste even one scrap of bread. Every neighborhood has several bakeries so it is easy to find all sorts of freshly baked breads for very little money. I can get at least 8 of the loaves in the picture below for about $1.

Project 365 Day 10: Fish Sticks Take 2

Ah, I forgot to post yesterday! So here's a series of 2 related photos - one for today (day 10) and one for yesterday (day 9). The way these fish were cooked was really fascinating (see photo on the day 9 post below), and they were really tasty. In a place where there isn't much to do, let me tell ya this is pretty exciting.

365 Project Day 9: Fish Sticks

During the summer and early autumn months, these fish are caught in a nearby ancient river, then skewered and roasted around open flames. Restaurants have outdoor seating on the mountainside nearby underneath grape vines and apple trees. My roomies and I had a lovely evening here with some beautiful Kdish friends.

365 Project Day 6: The Butcher

Being brought up in the "country" and having seen my father gut a deer didn't fully prepare me for a trip to the butcher in Kstan. It wasn't so much the sights as it was the smells that grossed me out, something a picture can't fully convey. Anyway, these baby cows, slaughtered earlier in the day, were reported to be of top quality. I don't really know how to grade meat at this point, but I have resources and I plan to figure that out...

365 Project Day 1: Mom's Chicken Enchilada's

I'm plagiarizing an idea for my blog. The 365 Project. A photo-a-day for a year. Since I love photography and I need blog material that's fast and easy to post...I thought I would give it a shot.

My roomies and I made lunch for friends today. Based on the fact that we miss Mexican food and there have been an abundance of imported tortillas in stores around town for a few months, we had decided earlier this week that we would make enchiladas. Wouldn't you know it, when we went to purchase said tortillas, they were all gone! Instead we substituted some really thin pastry bread "tortilla-equivalent" product. Surprisingly, they turned out better than the last time we made this recipe using real flour tortillas :-)