Blond Kendi?

I think not! LOL! The kids were playing dressup tonight. Kendi came down sporting this look. Umm... nough said.

Africa Night Fellowship!

What a FUN night we had tonight! I admit I was a bit stressed today, getting everything ready. Between the cooking and the cleaning we were going strong until about 30 minutes before everybody got here. Let's just say that today was a "home economics" day at Gillispie Christian Academy. =-)

We had our dining table set for eight, a regular sized card table for the big kids, a kid sized card table for the mid kids, and a little toddler table for Kendi and Bright. We ended up with 20 people (9 adults and 11 kids), so ended up with 5 at the card table and 9 at the dining table (as if you care!). I think 20 people is about the limit for our house when it comes to actually sitting down for a meal. Yikes! But it all worked out.

We ended up with families who had experiences with countries in African including Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, S. Africa, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone (missions, adoptions, immigrants, and work visas). Such precious families.

The food was AMAZING! We had Waakye, Tomato Gravy, and Jollof from Ghana; Injera, Dora Wat (chicken "soup"), and lentil wat from Ethiopia; white rice and a really interesting beef/walnut/raisin/cream dish eaten in S. Africa (but actually Malian); and Kenyan tea with chocolate cupcakes to wash it all down with! All the dishes went so well together. I didn't get a picture, I just realized. Darn! Only got a picture of the kitchen ready for all of these yummy dishes!

Bright and Kendi have a new favorite person. Gitanga! Gitanga immigrated from Kenya to be with his wife Danae and son Sampson (19 months) just over a year ago. He and the Ghanaian kids just clicked from the get go. Gitanga even sat down and ate his dinner at the little tiny dining table for Kendi and Bright. Too cute. Bright also now "gets" what I hope his hair will eventually look like. Is that not the coolest hair?! The whole family is just precious.

After dinner the kids (and some adults) got the drums out and had fun playing around. The highlight was when Sampson and Bright got down, jumping and beating without that shyness that adults feel about such things.

Our friends Faith and Todd were here, with their 3 current kiddos Graham (5), Lydia (10), and Elise (7). They will be welcoming 2 from Ethiopia in the next few months. Can't wait for little Adam (16 months) and Lydia (yes, another Lydia!, 9 years) to get home! Our kids, at this point, treat each other like brother and sister--complete with little sibling-like spats. We lost Taevy to the E. family for at least a day, maybe two. She just loves spending time with them.

It was also such a joy to have Jan and Marisa and their two boys Enray (5) and Devan (6)! They are from S. Africa. It has been so interesting to get to know more about S. Africa. I was so naive about S. Africa. I thought most spoke English, when in fact Jan and Marisa's boys are learning English for the first time here in America, having spoken Afrikaans their whole lives. It's such a beautiful sounding language. Jan and Marisa are here for 3 years while Jan does something very over my head with engineering and petroleum! =-) I love that my kids don't think of all Africans as black. Because of this family my kids know that there are also blond haired, blue eyed people that are also "from" Africa.

Our pastor also came by, with his son Solomon. Our pastor just got back from a really amazing mission trip to Sierra Leone, and has also been to Tanzania in the past. He also used to live in China. So cool to have a pastor who sees the world as a small place, as we all should.

When it's all said and done, the work of cooking and cleaning and preparing to host friends in our home, is worth it all and then some. Being a hostess is not something that comes naturally to me. Opening up my house is HARD. But the Lord is showing me that I should work on that. I think He would desire that all of His children always have an open house.

Party Perfect Jollaf Rice!

The Jollof Rice was a HUGE hit tonight! It was the easiest of the three recipes I made because after the initial prep it was just a matter of baking it in the oven. It tasted exactly like the Jollof I've eaten in Ghana, except not quite as spicy (which is how I would prefer it). Everybody in my family (even Samren!) loved it and went back for seconds. Eric said that Jollof will be added to our regular family menu. =-)

The recipe I used came from THIS BLOG. I haven't talked about BetumiBlog here yet, but I LOVE this blog! It is the best resource for Ghanaian food that I have found to date--at least Ghanaian food that really tastes like what I eat in Ghana. There are also recipes from Ethiopia and other African countries. I know of several adoptive families that use Betumi as the go-to source for making comfort food for their Ghanaian kids. Thanks to Fran, the author for the wonderful resource!

I used green beans (cooked fresh yesterday) and shredded carrots as the veggies in the jollof tonight. For our family that combo worked great. But you could use peas or cabbage or just about any other veggie.

I think I got confused when adding spices, and have a feeling I didn't end up putting in as much as I was supposed to. But it was just right for our clan.

For some reason, long grain rice never cooks for me in the amount of time listed in recipes. The recipe called for about 35 minutes. It took about an hour for my rice to be done.

Anita

Waakye and Tomato Gravy

Mmm...Mmm! Smells like Ghana in my house! Tomorrow we are hosting a get together for young families in our church. Looks like we could have about 30 people all together (mostly kids! LOL!). We're not sure exactly how all of these people are going to fit in our house, but I guess those things usually work out.

The theme tomorrow night is Africa! So everybody is bringing an African dish to share. Our church is extremely diverse. We have maybe 75 people in our church (?) but included are families with ties to Ghana (us), Ethiopia (another adoptive family), Kenya (immigrant hubby), and three families from S. Africa (here for work)! These are just the "Africa" families!

I am ashamed to admit that I haven't cooked Ghanaian food much for our family. Kendi and Bright love it (of course) but the rest of the family isn't too impressed. Hopefully this round of foods will be a bigger hit. In the past I've made Tom Brown, Red Red, and fried plantain. For the fellowship tomorrow I decided to make Waakye, Tomato Gravy, and Chicken Jollof. Yum!

I made the Waakye and Tomato Gravy today, since they are fine heated up.

Waakye (waa-che) is seriously just beans and rice. No special ingredients. When traveling in Northern Ghana this is my standby dish to eat! Of course in Ghana it is usually pretty spicy. The recipe I used didn't call for any spice, but I added a bit of Cayenne pepper because it didn't seem right without it. I have to say, what came out tastes pretty much exactly the same as what I've eaten in Ghana. Maybe just a bit more "wet" because the stuff I get in Ghana has probably sat out for hours before being served. =-)

I used THIS recipe (#2). However, I doubled it. I had to add extra water because the rice wasn't done before the water was all soaked up. And I probably added 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

In Ghana the Waakye I've had is usually either served with Shito (a very hot pepper sauce) or "tomato gravy." I'm sure there's a Ghanaian word for tomato gravy, but I don't know it. When I've asked what it's called the Ghanaians I've asked always say "tomato gravy" or "tomato sauce." The recipe I tried tastes pretty much like what I eat in Ghana. I LOVE this stuff. The recipe I made today was posted by a (white) missionary couple and is less spicy than some of the stuff I've eaten in Ghana. It's still definitely got a kick though. Give me a plate of plain rice with tomato gravy and I am a happy gal. What I made seems to be more chunky than what I eat in Ghana, and not quite as deep red. This could be because of the non-organic tomatoes, or because I didn't keep in on a stove all day ready to serve. I'm betting if it just sat on the stove for hours it would become more saucy.

THIS is the recipe I used for the tomato gravy. I think my onions were too large, so I ended up adding 2 more tomatoes for a total of 10 roma tomatoes. It was really more chunky than I wanted it so I ended up using my handy-dandy wand blender to puree it just a bit. And I cooked it for about an hour rather than just 30 minutes.

Tomorrow I'm making a Jollaf rice that is traditional in ingredients but not in cooking method. I'm cooking it in the oven. Hopefully it will be good. I'll update tomorrow on how that goes.

Kendi and Bright were so happy today. They wanted to test mommy's Ghana cooking over and over. Particularly Kendi. They eat spoonfuls of the tomato gravy without blinking (while my husband thought a small smattering on a spoon was PLENTY spicy)! Kendi would have eaten a huge bowl of the Waakye if I would have let her. She's a northern Ghana gal, so I'm thinking this would be like mac and cheese (comfort food) for her. =-)