Sunday Suppers : The Harvest Meal

A couple weeks ago (more like a month ago), our garden was overflowing with patty pan squash.  I couldn’t use them fast enough.  I decided that one way to use the bigger squash (and make a dent in our supply) was to stuff them.

The recipe is easy.  Mix together ground pork (or any other meat), onions, garlic, seasoning of your choice, breadcrumbs (a meatball mix) and some of the squash.  Hollow out the squash and stuff it with the meat mixture.  Brush the squash with olive oil and pop it in the oven.  Done.

Besides patty pan, we had lots of these little lemon cucumbers ready to harvest.  I’d never had one before we planted them.

They look more like plums than lemons but look and taste like traditional cucumbers.  Well, maybe they are a little sweeter.  I made my Mom’s cucumber salad to go with the stuffed squash.  All it is sliced cucumbers, a splash of white vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar and couple shakes of pepper.  That’s it.  It’s very light and refreshing.

Serve the meal with a little bread and your done.  The whole thing took about 10 minutes of prep and about 30 minutes in the oven for the squash.  The meal was really good and I’m thinking I’d do stuffed patty pan squash again.  I do think that next time I might try stuffing the squash with couscous.  Yum!

Anyone else have a healthy garden harvest this summer?

Can’t Miss Travel Memoirs

I’ve got a guest post up on Married up With Wine where I list some of my favorite travel memoirs.  Head over and check it out!

Fishy Friday

I spent most of last week in Choma which a town about 280km from Lusaka.  I was observing a training and went on a few site visits to local clinics.  Choma is a small place and isn’t exactly the culinary capital of Zambia.  There were very many choices besides Village Chicken (stew made with purposely tough chicken meat) and fried tilapia.  I did have this:

No, it’s not meat.  It’s made out of a local root combined with groundnut.  The texture is similar to fried tofu – maybe a little spongier.  I don’t remember what it’s called.  This dish wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t memorable.

Most of my meals actually looked like this:

This is fried tilapia with a local white bean and sautéed rape (greens).  It’s served with n’shima (Ogali) which is like the texture and color of dry instant mashed potatoes but made out of corn.  On this particular day I didn’t have breakfast or lunch and dinner wasn’t until 7pm.  I demolished that meal:

I guess it’s lucky that I’m used to eating tilapia like this.  It was pretty common growing up.  The n’shima is always too much for me.  They give you two scoops with each meal and I barely finish half of one.  It’s not bad, it’s just heavy.  That’s the point though – to fill you up.

Last Friday on the way back to Lusaka we stopped at a local fish market.  The market was a little overwhelming.  Outside, no refrigeration, very fishy smelling and few flies – not what I was expecting.  Once I got my head around where I was, I was fine.  It’s not ideal but you work with what you’ve got, right?

My co-workers stocked up on fish because it was so cheap.  Each fish, no matter how big was 5,000 kwacha which is about $1.  Our office in Lusaka does communal lunches where each person contributes 50,000 kwacha ($10) and gets a home cooked lunch for the week.  The housekeeper cooks daily.  My co-worker suggested that instead of putting in the money, I buy 50,000 kwacha worth of fish to contribute.  Sounded like a good idea to be so I picked up 10 fish.

The lady I bought from was really excited that the foreigner chose here.  She even hooked me up with some extra ice for the journey back.

I’ll have to snap a few pictures of my fish contribution from our communal lunches.  Actually, I’m sad I didn’t get a shot of this really yummy eggplant dish I had yesterday.  It’s definitely nice to have a home cooked meal daily especially when I’m staying in a hotel for an extended amount of time.  There aren’t very many Zambian restaurants non-Zambian’s would go to, so lunch at the office is my way of sampling the local cuisine.

I hope everyone has a good Friday!

Organizing on the Road

Greetings from Zambia!  Things have been busy and while I’ve had a bunch of blogs posts on my mind, I just haven’t had the time to organize them.  Speaking of organizing, I have to share my favorite new travel accessory, the Grid-It. 

I love this thing.  It keeps all my electronic gadgets and cords organized.  The Grid-It holds my travel phone, earphones, dongle (mobile wifi thing), SD card reader, iphone cord, camera charger, kindle cord, extra USB cord and headlamp.  Yes, headlamp.  Blackouts are not uncommon here.  There is a pocket on the other side that is the perfect size for my Kindle. 

I’ve been recommending the the Grid-It to everyone.  All my co-workers here want one.  I want one for my toiletries and I’d love one for the car.  I could see all my relatives getting one of these.  I’m so glad Micah gave me this and the Kindle for my birthday.  And I’m so glad that I can FINALLY check out library books on my Kindle.  I’ve borrowed 2 books from the Seattle Public Library from here. 

What are your must have travel accessories?

Through My Lens

I’m participating in a travel series called Through My Lens over at A Room With A View.  I was really excited to contribute and hope you will head over there and check it out. 

p.s. I’ve been moved into a spider-less room!

Where Am I?

OK, I know where I am.  I’m at a motel in small town about 300km outside of Lusaka, Zambia.  It took a few hours to get here and when we finally did, we were told that someone gave our rooms away.  Awesome.  I got the last room in the place and my 3 companions had to go next door to another hotel that had room.

I know why my room was still left.  It’s because of these guys and their friends.

Ignore the cleanliness of the bathroom.  One or two of these guys would be fine but I counted 6 of them.  I don’t even want to know what else lives in this room.  I thought about heading next door but my colleagues said they were waiting for their sheets to be changed after noticing various stains on the bed of varying colors.  Even better. 

It' also took us 1.5 hours to get dinner.  We’re on a roll.  We’re told that the nice rooms that we actually booked will be free tomorrow.  I can’t wait.  I guess at least there is power and internet. 

Ah…the joys of being on the road.

Wally on the Wall

We have this wall you see as you are walking up to the top floor of our house.  It big and white and needs something. 

I have spent a lot of time looking at this wall trying to decide what to hang on it.  I’ve thought about one of our many posters or maybe a new one, then I saw this:

This is Wally.  I got Wally on sale at the Velocity warehouse sale.  He was half off and I was sold.  It’s a felt planter you can hang inside or outside.  Eventually, plants can grow on the actual felt.  Wally is lined to prevent water marks and mold on the wall.  I had wally for a while and finally stumbled upon this succulent flat at Lowes for $12.  It’s perfect for Wally.

The great thing about this flat is that you can just cut into it and customize the shape you need.  There is no dirt and cut the roots don’t hurt the plant.  Once I added soil and planted the succulents, I (actually Micah) hung Wally up.

The plants are small but they are supposed to grow and spread fast.  We’ve been watering everyday by spraying behind the plants and hope they will grow big enough to see.  Right now the best view is from the top looking down but isn’t that always the case?

Anyone else tried a Wally or other wall planter?  I’m hoping that by the time I get home in a month it will be full and overflowing.