Dinner with the Taylor-Pierces

These dinner even was a week ago Sunday, but I have to showcase these birds.   I started making this recipe for rotisserie chicken quite often a few months after John and I got married.  It was an easy and delicious recipe and tasted quite similar to those rotisserie chickens they sell at grocery stores for $5-$10.  And I usually paid $3 per bird so it was a great deal.

I've had to make a few changes although I would really recommend the original recipe because cooking it low and slow makes it sooo much more juicy and the skin even crispier/stickier.

Roast Sticky Chicken-Rotisserie Style
    adapted from Sue Rogers

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 onions, quartered
• 1 (4 pound) whole chicken

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, paprika, onion powder, thyme, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder. Remove and discard giblets from chicken. Rinse chicken cavity, and pat dry with paper towel. Rub each chicken inside and out with spice mixture. Place 1 onion into the cavity of each chicken. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
3. Place chickens in a roasting pan. Bake uncovered for 1 hour (1.5 hours for 3 chickens), to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Let the chickens stand for 10 minutes before carving.

I used 3 chickens.  I also cut up a bunch of potatoes and carrots.  I seasoned them with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme and put the chickens on top.  It smells SOOO good when it is cooking and is quite impressive, yet so easy.

I had John cut up the birds... he is getting much better at it! :)

We had over our friends Rene and Modupe Taylor-Pierce and their three kids.  They are such a NEAT family!  They are Sierra Leoneans who just recently moved back to the states after having lived there for more than a decade.  They moved back for a few reasons.  1.  So their children would know the country they are from  2.  To help further develop the country in economic development and spiritual development

We got to hear his story of how he was chosen as the first Sierra Leonean to attend West Point Academy.  He is currently getting his doctorate (I'm not sure in what? Leadership I think)  He took about an hour and half to tell his life story which is incredible!! It makes my life seem so boring.  He also met his wife in New Jersey and she happened to be Sierra Leonean as well.  

His father is a prominent figure here in Sierra Leone and just published a biography of his life.  
This was the night before Peggy and Bob left.  Here are a few pictures.

 Here is another of the African dresses I bought when I first got here. 

  
I bought another one but I'm going to try to trade it in.  Most of the dresses are stretchy 'one-size fits-all' types so I thought I would be fine.  However... this one is just too short in the torso.  I will see if I can trade it in for another one plus 10,000 leones or so.  

Hope everyone is having a good week!   

Upcoming posts (in no particular order):  Bureh beach photos, ultrasound results 

As Most of You Probably Know. . .

I'M PREGNANT!

I am 8 weeks (still very early)... but praying to God that everything goes okay.

God put me in the path of some midwives that work in the Woman's Aberdeen Center (formerly the land-based Mercy Ships Compound).  They will do an ultrasound on me sometime this week.   I call tomorrow to schedule.

As also many of you may know... I have a bicornuate uterus with a small-ish septum.  This puts me at an increased risk for miscarriage, pre-term labor, and breech positioning (requiring a c-section).  Because of these risks, I will be coming back to Arizona in a few months.  John will stay another month or 2 here to help Chad with some medical teams coming. 

We had been trying for a while for kids, but because I was so into exercise and had so little body fat, my body wasn't ready to conceive.  I had to cut out running and other intense exercise as well as gain some weight before my body was ready.  I actually thought it would take a lot longer, but God blessed us with a very precious gift.  Unfortunately, our maternity insurance doesn't kick in until 2-3 months after the baby is due!

We ask for prayer for health and safety of the baby, good news at the ultrasound this week, and God's provision in the financial matters of pregnancy.

Symptoms so far:
1. fatigue and extreme GROGGINESS!  (oh boy wasn't expecting that)
2. not real nausea and no vomiting but some dizziness and feeling a little sick to my stomach which makes me want to lay down and nap all day
3.  Bloating
4.  I've been eating some very non-traditional Kaysie foods (ie not good for you! lol!)

John wanted picture evidence of this to show the world...

Yes I am eating gummi bears.  Filled with high fructose corn syrup, red dye, and probably lots of other things that I don't want to know about that aren't good for my health.  I had brought some chicken and an avocado for lunch, but the avocado had gone sour and I was still hungry.  The gummi bears were there and I caved.  John was very excited and insisted on taking a picture.

I am trying to eat as healthy as I can for the baby given the resources I have.  Last week I've felt a lot better and I don't know if its because of some huge meal-size salads I've been having.  I say yes... John says its psychological lol!  Oh well, he's still been buying tons of lettuce for me to make me happy and feel better :)  (And because I think he misses it as well but shhhh!)

If you have any specific questions about my story, feel free to comment or email me at johnandkaysie@gmail.com.

Pie and Salad

Thanksgiving meal was such a blast!  Someone did end up buying a turkey for something like $83!!!! Everybody just pitched in a little over a dollar to help offset her costs.  It was delicious!   There was most of the regulars... turkey, potatoes and gravy, cranberry relish, stuffing, sweet potatoes.  I was surprised that nobody did green bean casserole though!  For dessert there was pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, apple pie, an apple crumb, cupcakes, and brownies.

I was sooo glad that someone else had the bright idea of making pumpkin pie.  I thought my recipe might make 2 but it only made one.  At that point I was a little worried there wouldn't be enough to get a decent piece.  The green eyed monster was coming out!  Luckily, my fears were soothed when there were two!

Just a recap of my pumpkin pie making extravaganza based off this recipe:

      I got my pumpkin (pretty sure it was a butternut squash) and steamed it in my pressure cooker for about 10 minutes and let it cool, picked off the skin, and left it in the fridge overnight

     The next morning I tried to drain the excess liquid off per the recipe, but there didn't seem to be much. Then I pureed it.

Then I got to work on my crust because I knew I needed to let it cool after I mixed it all together.  I froze the butter, and instead of Crisco I used coconut oil (yes they have that here!) which I froze as well.  I also put my flour in the freezer to cool.  John wanted me to use half and half whole wheat to white flour.  He worries about my healthiness affecting the taste.  Instead I used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup white flour.  I really don't think there is a difference except possibly the color of the dough.

I don't have a pastry blender so I used a fork.  Here it is after I incorporated the fats.

Then I forked in 1/8 cup of cold water.  The recipe called for 1/4 cup but I just didn't need that much.

I put the dough in the fridge while I got to work on my filling.  I added the butternut puree, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, eggs, evaporated milk and sugar.  Next time I may try replacing the sugar with honey. 

Then I rolled out my dough.  I at first thought it would make 2 pies because my pans were smaller than the recommended deep dish 10" pie pans but it actually only fit one.

Then I put foil around the edges so it wouldn't burn, and poured the pumpkin mixture while it was in the oven.

Here it is out of the oven

It turned out really good!  It cracked a little because of the excess moisture of the butternut I believe.  That is my one critique... But the crust was great!  There is just something about those Costco pumpkin pies!


John, to my surprise and delight, requested that I make a 'Kaysie salad' to bring to the dinner.  Although he isn't as big of a salad eater as me, he did admit to missing that kind of fresh food here. He brought me home lots of lettuce.  I added cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots.  John also brought me some star fruit for some salad pizazz.  If you've never had start fruit it tastes remarkably similar to Spree candy.  Very tart and tasty!

Next up... a fun announcement! 

Happy Thanksgiving and a Family Photo

I want to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving!

A few people have asked us what we are doing... We are attending a potluck Thanksgiving meal put on by the International Bible Study.  It is basically a bible study for expats, NGO workers, and missionaries as well as for anyone else who would like to attend. 

The people trying to put it on were looking so hard for a turkey to make it a traditional Thanksgiving.  The lady in charge asked Chad to look for a turkey at the UN store, but to no avail.

Yesterday, I set out with John to buy some ingredients for pumpkin pie.  They do have pumpkins here and so I was just looking for some as well as some allspice, cloves, and nutmeg (we already have cinnamon).  The first roadside stand had no pumpkins.  She said I was the 2nd or 3rd person to ask her today.  I explained to her about the American Thanksgiving.  She promised to have some tomorrow.

The second place I stopped did have pumpkins!  They sure don't look like American pumpkins though... more like a butternut squash with a slightly greenish tinge.  I know you can make a pumpkin out of butternuts so I bought one anyways.  I am planning to use this recipe for the pumpkin pie filling and this recipe for the crust.

I will let you all know how it turns out as pumpkin pie is one of my favorite foods of Thanksgiving (stuffing and my sister-in-law Sally's sweet potatoes are right up there)!

After I found the pumpkin, I was in one of the Lebanese markets Monoprix and found all my spices I needed and some evaporated milk.  While I was perusing the aisles I see this fellow American get all excited and nearly scream "I've got TURKEYS!!!"  I too get excited because I know we were having trouble finding some for today.  So I go grab the LAST TWO and get them to be weighed because the cost is by weight.  I also call Chad simultaneously to see if he wants to come down and buy them because I only brought enough money for my smaller groceries.

While on the phone with Chad, I see the price for one of the turkeys on the scale as 79,000 Le which is about $18.  I figured this is pretty reasonable for a 3.5 kilo bird (about 7.8 lbs).  Then I realize that it is $18 dollars per kilo!  This bird was going to cost us $66!!! Haha, I put the birds back and tell the guy that I may come back.  There was just no way that bird is in the budget!  Or worth that kind of money.

I got behind the American in line that bought two turkeys.  She was convincing me that I should go back and buy these birds.  I was like 'they are $66!'  Apparently her and her roommate do a proper Thanksgiving meal for 80 people every year and just charge the guests a certain amount to cover the cost of food. 

So those are my Thanksgiving plans.  Robin is bringing some potatoes au gratin and we shall see what others bring to the spread.  Have a great time with your family everyone!

Here is a photo of the Campbells, the Courtneys, and the Kuests before they left on Monday back to Washington.

Last Conference Day

Sorry it has been so long since I've put up a new blog... most of last week I was feeling pretty crummy.  I was feeling a little dizzy and some stomach upset, but I'm much better this week.  Bob put on another conference for pastors on uncommon leadership, but this one was for 3 days from 9 am to 4 pm.  It was a lot more in-depth AND it was out in the provinces (Waterloo to be exact).  Still many pastors traveled for 3-4 hours to make this conference.

Bob's message is very and encouraging and uplifting to pastors.  Many of these pastors don't have any kind of networking with other pastors.  They are off by themselves in a small province and have nobody to bounce ideas off, answer questions, compare problems that they are facing, etc.  I am sure it can be very lonely in leading a community.  Bob says he heard at Waterloo and hears very often how these kinds of seminars never go to the provinces, but are always in the big city.  These pastors were like sponges, soaking up Bob's words.

I only went on Saturday to Bob's conference.  It was the first day I was really feeling 'up to it.'  I loved his ideas as well.  Much of his message revolves around the idea that nobody likes a leader who is iron-fisted and power hungry.  But everybody loves a leader who is willing to get down in the dirt with them and try to provide for the needs of those he serves instead of thinking only of himself. 

However, I was also sitting by a window trying to catch the breeze and was somewhat distracted by the events going on outside.  First of all this cute little boy was playing in the laundry wash bucket.

Then, they had the neatest, most colorful lizard outside. 

I believe this guy is a male because pretty soon a female showed up and he started doing push-ups.  Seems very similar to when I started dating John...

I am sooooo kidding lol!

Mid day we breaked for lunch.   Somebody had worked hard to make some groundnut stew.  It was spicy just the way I liked it.

All the meat in mine was goat, but looking around at many of the pastor's plates had mostly fish.  It seems like they gave the goat to their guests (all us whities) and fish (which is the cheaper meat) for the pastors.  What a show of honor!  This culture is so sacrificial for guests!

During the break John noticed a neat little creature up in the rafter of the small church...

At the end of the day, I was somehow nominated to read the names of the certificates made for the attendants for completing the course.  Let me tell you, African names are not easy to read, especially in the provinces!  Apparently, the Krio tribe names (the city or Freetown tribe) are a lot easier because they are adopted from the British when they first colonized this area.  Last names such as Campbell are fairly common here.

Well hope you enjoyed... next up will be a dinner we had with Modupe and Rene Taylor-Pierce.  A Sierra Leonean family that just returned from 17 years in the states in order to help their country spiritually and developmentally.

Uncommon Leadership

Last weekend our guests, Bob and Peggy Kuest, put up a conference called Uncommon Leadership.

The way God works is so funny!  Apparently Bob and Peggy have known Robin and Chad for many years.  However, once they flew in we realized that they had a connection to both John and myself as well.  They go to John's family's church (Christ Church on the River) whenever they are in town and have met most of John's family.  They've also been to Myanmar on a missions trip with John's aunt and uncle Bob and Liz.  And finally, Bob was a pastor for 17 years at a church my brother first went to.  My brother wasn't there when he was, but he also was really good friends with some of my mom's friends that attended that church.  So cool to see how God weaves all of our lives together.


It was held at this building called The Wisdom House where Robin runs the kids club.  It is really high up on this hill (a little scary to drive up) but you could see a beautiful view of the city.  The pictures do not do it justice.

 You cannot really see, but the ocean is in the background.

Bob's ministry involves training and equipping local pastors to be better leaders, calling them to a servant leadership, based after the example of Christ.

This is Samuel... pronounced 'Sam-yell.'  He works for our good friend Gwen and ran this conference this weekend.

Here is another picture of Samuel and his wife Catherine (pronounced 'Cath-reeen')  She is our language coach.

She was in charge of cooking a dinner for after the event.  She cooked groundnut stew for 40 people.  It was quite incredible.  This is what most people cook on..

It was kind of funny because Catherine and her cousin that came to help got me and Robin to start helping to serve the rice and groundnut stew.  However, I think they just did it to watch us struggle lol! They were laughing the whole time as we were trying to fluff up the rice the way they did and serve it on a plate.

They served soo much.  John and I shared this plate and couldn't even finish it!

Bob's conference went over really well... I loved his seminar personally!  We had a great time!

 PS... this is the dress that John bought me for my birthday!

Nigerian Neighbors

On Sunday we went to an International Church Service... a service that many of the NGO and other mission groups go to.  It is one Sunday a month and is at 6 pm with a potluck dinner after.  So we asked our upstairs neighbors if they would like to do lunch on Sunday.

They are sooo sweet.  The wife is Chica and the husband is Afam and they are from Nigeria.  They have a three boys, and the youngest is 5 months and named Casey!  Its not his real name, but his real one is harder to pronounce and they just call him Casey anyways.

So the lunch was a potluck also.  They wanted us to make American food and they made some Nigerian/West African food.  We made hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, and sliced pineapple.  They brought fried rice, fried beef cubes, and a macaroni/bean/cabbage salad.  Robin also made brownies which neither Chica nor her boys liked lol!  I thought everybody liked chocolate!

We got some group pictures outside.  Chica and Afam are sad to see us move out to Allentown and they are truly great neighbors to have.

While we were grilling up the burgers and hot dogs on the grill we found a pretty cool praying mantis outside.  It was pretty neat looking!

Hope everybody is having a good week!  I'll post next a little more about the work that Bob and Peggy Kuest are doing while they are here.

Birthday in SL

Last Wednesday I turned 26!

I kind of figured once we moved to Africa that birthdays and other holidays would be either non-existent or very minimally celebrated due to lack of funds or busyness in ministry.

However, both John and the Courtney family made my birthday so FUN!

For my birthday, John bought me an internet connection cord and service for two months!  We had been borrowing one of the Courtneys since we arrived, but one of them barely works at all.  We bought this brand called Sierratel and its been working really great since we bought it.   He also got me an African dress that I will show you soon!

John and I went to a restaurant called Bliss for lunch because it has high-speed internet.  That was a part of my present too... that we could call some friends and family!  However, Bliss had just renovated so their high-speed internet was down!  We were so bummed, but we brought our Sierratel connection and it worked GREAT!  I think it doesn't work that well in our neighborhood right now because it is soo NGO dense.  We are hoping it will be as fast as it was at Bliss in our new neighborhood come January.  If it is... we may not buy and set-up satellite internet because it is 4 times as much!

Robin asked Awutor if she would come over early to help her make flour tortillas in the morning so we could have another Mexican food dinner.  I made refried beans and guacamole.  We had bean and cheese burritos enchilada style with guacamole and Spanish brown rice!  It was so delicious!

And the kids were so sweet, they decorated the dining area with balloons and a happy birthday sign!  And for dessert, Robin made her delicious chocolate cake with frosting.  It always turns out so moist.  She says its because she adds a cup of hot water to it at the very end.

 This is us, the Courtney family, and 2 visitors... Bob and Peggy Kuest here to do conferences for pastors and teachers.  He's written two books Uncommon Leadership and Uncommon Relationships that I would love to read soon.  He said he would upload them on to my kindle!

After blowing out the 6 candles, the kids all brought me presents!  A box to put dirt in, a package of flower seeds, a hand rake all for a garden! I will try and start that asap so it will be ready when we move! Also, a beach towel.  John and I had only brought regular towels to the beach... we didn't think of bringing beach towels!

Well I had a wonderful birthday thanks to my hubby and new family the Courtneys!

Next up... lunch with the Nigerian neighbors!