Gorgeous spring peonies are still in bloom in Colorado!
I just experienced the longest Thursday of my life.
I woke up at 4am in Manila, ready for a 19 hour trip to the US- the shortest, best connections ever!! We were scheduled for a 2:20pm arrival in Denver, perfect for getting over jet lag quickly. But what actually happened was that our plane turned around 3 hours outside Tokyo due to a “medical emergency.” I put “medical emergency” in quotes because the reality was …
Even the green ones are orange inside! But they will take a few more days to fully ripen…
It’s been a mango kind of a day…
My friend Emilie has a mango tree in her backyard, and last fall it was sprayed so that it would flower properly and produce fruit. It was not a blessing (more like a curse!) when all the flowers fell off and clogged up her pool, but pretty amazing now that there are hundreds of gorgeous ripe mangoes ready for harvest. Just look at these beauties!!! I’ve eaten mangoes from several countries in Southeast Asia, as well as from Mexico, and sorry to spout my opinion to you so freely, but……
Camote (Philippine sweet potato) falafel with curried tahini dressing
Girl food. We all know what that is.
It’s what you eat when your husband or boyfriend is traveling and you are on your own for meals. My version of girl food is all the things my husband would consider either too healthy, too light, or just too darn weird to ever call a “meal.”
Mark worked the night shift for the first 6 years of our overseas tour. While there were some advantages to this, such as family dinners every night before he went to the office, the downside was 6 years of him having to (try to) sleep during the day. Shift work throws your hormone levels all out of whack, raises your cortisol, contributes to weight gain, and makes you feel permanently jet-lagged. Not fun. I said some mighty fervent…
My children are looking forward to home leave as much or more than I am. But as I recently found out, our eager anticipation is focussed quite differently.
Theda: “I can’t wait to get to the U.S.!”
Sara: “I know!! Because Pa has GOLDFISH!!”
Tommy: “And Cheetos!!!”
Theda: “And Toaster Strudels!!!”
Yes folks. These are the kids of a dietitian, and I won’t fault you for the secret satisfaction that you must feel from knowing that they crave junk food just like normal people’s children. My kids are not…
International summer is upon us!! And that means the mass exodus of us foreigners living abroad, as we either relocate or merely flock to our home countries for a welcome dose of family, friends, and all things familiar.
Consequently, my bootcamps are wrapping up for the season, leaving me with a scary thought:
We will now be responsible for kicking our own heineys this summer!!!
It doesn’t matter if you’re an ex-pat looking at a 6-8 week “home leave” or a regular person living in your home country with kids on summer vacation… we’ve gotta acknowledge that long holidays bring a change in the routine, for better or for worse. While things could go better given that we might theoretically have more time to exercise and eat right, the reality is …
Lest you think I spend all my time making homemade almond milk and chickpea patties, I wanted to show you what I’ve been up to my eyeballs in this weekend. THE VOLCANO CAKE.
Tommy had his “early” birthday party on Saturday (his birthday is not until July) to celebrate with his mates before school lets out and everyone goes home for summer. For most kids, the summer birthday must be pure bliss- no school or homework, time to sleep in, friends around to celebrate with… But for the ex-pat kid, having a summer birthday can bring the loneliness of saying goodbye (maybe forever) to good friends, as we all depart our host countries for the holidays. To get around this, each of my kids winds up having a couple of celebrations in order to catch both friends and family. I’m sure if I aged my children a year for each party they had, they would not only be legal, but probably older than me!
But back to the cake……
Sometimes I’m a killjoy at parties.
Don’t get me wrong… I don’t mean to be. I love parties. But imagine this: we’re all standing around, plates in hand, making small talk.
“So what do you here, Rebecca?”
“Well, just call me Bex. I’m a dietitian. I…” But whatever I was going to say is lost in the blaze of panic that ensues from my statement “I’m a dietitian” and I see eyes flitting from plate to plate, making instant comparisons. And all of a sudden I find myself standing alone with my plate of… whatever it happens to be… again.
Let’s get something straight here… …
Apparently, several more people than just my aunts and 5 others read my first post. I know for a fact that at least 3 cousins read it too… and one of them is not even on my side!
Seriously, folks, I was so overwhelmed your wonderful and supportive response to my first post that I could not wait to share the next thing with you. And that next thing is going to be the first “official” recipe that I ever wrote- this beautiful creamy roasted red pepper soup! I thought it was appropriate since we are just starting out, don’t you agree? I’ve been cooking for a long time, but like most of us out there, my first recipes were from cookbooks, the internet, and my mother (usually written on the back of grocery receipts.)
I’m like my mother in that…
Have you ever prepared for or anticipated something for so long that in the end, nothing can do it justice?
That’s kind of how I feel about this first blog post.
I’ve been planning IT, the BLOG, for an embarrassingly long time. Like 2 years. Or 3, I can’t remember. Part of my hold-up was that I know less about computers and on-line stuff than my 13-year-old daughter. And part of it is that once you put yourself out there, you’re out there… vulnerable! But then I reminded myselfthat probably only my aunts and 5 other people would actually read my first post, and that made me feel better enough to write it.
I resisted the urge to …