The Indian Embassy in the 'Burg

What did you do on Memorial Day? Did you have a picnic or a barbeque? Did you go out to dinner with family or friends? Did you have a good time? We did!

While the 'Burg is a tiny town of about 14,000 folks, and the University of Central Missouri is considered a small university, we do have a handful of international students. UCM international students have to be some of the nicest folks on the planet. Every fall they cook (yes, cook!) for anyone at the university that wants to come and enjoy a global meal! Every spring they host a multi-cultural talent show.

These international students have to be some of the hardest working and generous students I've had the pleasure of knowing. Several of them volunteer to cook for the Newman Center (Catholic Student Center) on a regular basis.

Manisha, pictured below is a graduate student in Speech and Language Pathology and works as a graduate assistant in our department. From time to time Manisha has brought me samples of her marvelous cooking. And during the past year, she and Orion became good buddies as she helped him on several occasions with his (cursed) cursive, reading, and writing.

Manisha and I are always talking about cooking together, and getting together to have dinner, and yet this past semester was so busy, I had absolutely no time. Finally, we picked a date! I made it a holiday in hopes that I would be home!

(Manisha cookin' up Chicken Curry)

I picked up Manisha and three of her friends at about 1:30, just as it started to rain! Thank goodness we weren't having a picnic! We got to the house and I showed them around and they went to work in the kitchen.

(Manisha, Sadiq, Tanvi (in the back), and Towino smile as they work in the kitchen)

(Sadiq and Tanvi peel potatoes for samosas. Sadiq later made six quarts of lhassi: strawberry, blueberry, and plain)

I was so impressed with how hard they worked and how much fun they were all having. Manisha showed off her "management skills" by organizing everyone and creating chicken tandoori, curry chicken, samosas, pakoras, vegetable Basmati rice, and she applied henna to my hair!

My friends Sally and John arrived at about 3:30. There was nothing for us to do but sit back and watch these students cook up a storm.


Around 5:30 John left to retrieve four more students from campus: Mona, Ankita, and Poorvi (Tanvi's identical twin), all Indian students, and Phat (a young man from Vietnam). Now there were six to eight 20-somethings cooking in my kitchen at any give time!

(No room for me in the kitchen!)

(Towino was only invited for his onion chopping skills! Or so we were told!)

After roughly five hours of cooking we were ready to eat! I couldn't wait! My house smelled great! There were 13 of us eager to eat, eat, eat!

(Manisha stands ready to start the meal!)


(Clockwise from top: curry chicken [short pot], Indian soup made by Sally [tall, shiny pot], 10 pounds of tandoori chicken, samosas, pakoras, and vegetable rice in the center)


(Ankita samples the pakoras)

(Orion and Poorvi fill their plates)

(Sally contemplates all the tasty choices)

I had such an amazing time. Of course, I haven't posted any pictures of myself as my hair was covered in mud and I looked rather scary. We all laugh, visited, ate, and had a marvelous time. I ate too many samosas to count and ate two more before bed! Oh my!

I was impressed by many things yesterday. The first being the amazing taste of everything that was prepared. John and I agreed that this was THE best Indian food we had ever eaten. Yum. The second being that my kitchen was clean before we even sat down to dinner! All we had to do after dinner was put away left-overs and toss the dinner dishes into the dishwasher! Thirdly, I was so tickled by the friendships that these students had forged- their cheerful banter, singing, and joking filled the house. It was a great feeling!

Thank you Manisha for bringing your friends to my house and for cooking for my family and our friends. Thank you Sadiq, Towino, Tanvi, Ankita, Poorvi, Mona, and Phat for your culinary talents, your hard work, the great fun, and a taste of India.

Mother's Day Bonus

Some of my friends call it the Texas Two-step, but I've heard it referred to as the green apple splatter or quite simply the runs. We call it "Number Six." But Shannon calls it "The Bonus!" The Bonus, indeed! Whatever the case, something did not agree with me Saturday and I spent Saturday evening calling Earl on the porcelain phone. Mother's Day consisted of 7-up until dinner!

What did YOU get for Mother's Day?

Oh, I did get an awesome pedicure from Orion!

8 Crazy Nights

Sing along with Adam Sandler!

Happy Chanukah

They say chicken soup is good for the soul. And your immune system. And both could use a shot in the arm!
Yesterday started early. Too early. 5:30 the alarms went off and the three of us were up! We spent about two hours tidying up the house, getting the cats situated, and loading the truck. It was dark and about 2 degrees F. Surprisingly we were gassed up and headed south by 8:01. Right on time. We drove for about 3.5 hours; as we headed south, the sun crept up over the land, and the temperatures rose to about 18 degrees by the time we crossed the Arkansas state line around 10:45.

We met Shannon in Harrison. We had a quick lunch and she picked up a few boxes so we wouldn't have to keep up with them. We were back on the road by 1:30. Of course, we couldn't cross the Buffalo River without stopping to play, even though it was only about 20 degrees by that time. Brrr! The edges of the river were frozen and made the coolest sound as we skipped rocks across the ice.

The rest of our trip was uneventful and despite our little jaunts, we made it to Conway by 4:00.

Orion and his cousin, Tabor, made quick work of our bags while I got started in the kitchen. I spent the weekend working on my secret chicken stock. Out came the pots. In went the stock. In went the carrots and celery and chicken. I got the mixer going and got the matzo balls started.

Meme and I peeled 8 potatoes and several onions while John zipped them through the food processor (Cheating, I know!). Soon we had potato pancakes (latkes) frying up in golden oil. As the soup began to boil I dropped in my light-as-air matzo balls. I have to brag, they floated effortlessly in the chicken stock and tasted like a little bit of heaven.

John was kind enough to snap a few of these pictures. Yum! I'm wishing I hadn't frozen the left overs. I think I'd like another bowl of soup!

P.T.S.D.

Post Thanksgiving Stress Disorder that is! It's the scary realization that Christmas, Hanukkah, and other winter festivities are around the corner and you've done nothing to prepare! I hope your holidays are P.T.S.D. free this year!

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving! A friend and colleague invited me to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. There I spent the afternoon with other friends, colleagues, and a group of Latino guys and gals (friends of my friend's youngest son). We partook of some seriously tasty victuals. There was shrimp cocktail, bread, crackers, cheese ball, deviled ham spread, to start us off.

From there we found ourselves at the table consuming turkey with Panchetta hidden under the skin (yum!), duck, mashed taters, candied yams, various steamed veggies, and so much more.

The most difficult decision was deciding whether I wanted seconds (more turkey and dressing) or whether I wanted to try the deserts. You may be surprised to discover that the deserts won. I had a small slice of tasty pumpkin pie and a healthy slice of some impressive cream cheese pound cake! There were really too many wonderful choices! I split a German cookie that took me back about 30 years or so. The cookie was moist, almost cake-like. But it was not sweet. It seemed to be heavy on the ginger, orange, and possibly molasses. It reminded me of a Christmas cookie my mom and grandma used to make. This one was covered in a tiny layer of chocolate, but the ones I remember as a child were covered in powdered sugar.

Mom, if you have any idea what I am talking about send me the recipe! Amber, with your baking expertise you might know what I am talking about. Readers, can you help?

By not having to shop or make Thanksgiving dinner this year I not only saved a tremendous amount of money, I had an extra day and a half that I used to clean my house. It's still not as clean I would like it, but at least now I have an idea of where things are. All it all it was a good holiday. The best part was spent with family and friends. I hope your Thanksgivings were just a wonderful! Feel free to share in the comments, especially any tasty recipes!

October Catch Up!

October has been a busy month! I've had more meetings than I can count. I've even forgotten several meetings. I'm analyzing my data. And analyzing the data of others (various papers I'm working on). But more importantly, I've not taken the time to blog and wish my friends and family happy days!

Birthdays to Note:
Dominic is 17 as of October 9!
John is way over 40 as of October 12.
My most best special brother-in-law, PD had a birthday on the 18th!
My sister had hers on the 19th!
My other brother-in-law will be 60 something on the 31st.
My friends Jim, Danny, Eric, Darryl, and Nancy all celebrated their birthdays this month too!

Our 15 th wedding anniversary was on the 2nd. I think I actually blogged about that.
Tree and PD celebrated their 10th anniversary on Friday, October 17th.
Michael and Robin celebrate their 14th or 13th anniversary today, October 22!
My Aunt Fran (Dad's little sister) and Uncle Joe (Mom's little brother) celebrate their anniversary tomorrow on October 23rd.
Mom and Dad shared that anniversary as well.

It's been a busy month! Happy days friends and family! Happy days!

I Fought the Lawn and the Lawn Won!

Friday, July 4th! Independence Day! Early Friday morning I snuck over to my friend R's house to borrow her awesome push mower (It's more like a drag you behind it mower!). Upon returning home I immediately started in on the front yard. Our mower has been out of commission for weeks. The grass in the yard was up to my calves. In fact, in the back yard, the last 15 feet to the fence hadn't been mowed previous and was up to my knees! Some weeds were chest high! (We've been getting a good deal of rain!) I mowed. And I mowed some more. R's mower rocks! The grass was high, so I took it easy, mowing in four to six inch passes (Did I mention we have a HUGE back yard?). I would stop regularly to make sure grass wasn't sticking to anything and refilled the tank at least once. By 2:00 I had mowed to the line where the grass had grown too high. I didn't want to risk a stroke OR R's awesome lawn mower. I called it quits and considered letting that last bit of yard serve as a "Prairie Restoration."

I stumbled into the house, dropped my drawers in the laundry room, and stood in the shower for several minutes wondering how I got grass on the inside of my under garments. Shortly after my shower I heard the doorbell ring. John answer to find our neighbor, Mr. Droege. Mr. D began, "While I was napping, my wife was watching your wife mow the yard. I don't think you all will be able to mow that back part. Would you like me to make a few passes with my riding mower?" Of course, we accepted. Mr. D made a few passes and in NO time the prairie was tamed. I am humbled by the kindness of my neighbors and reminded why I like Warrensburg so much! Thanks to my friend R for lending me her mower (for an unspecified time) and to Mr. D. for getting the big stuff!

T is for Earthquake...

T is for Earthquake! Okay, make that earth tremor. I experienced my first earthquake on Friday morning at approximately 4:30 a.m. Thursday after class I drove to St. Louis to spend the night at a friend's house. I would be presenting math games at her school the next day. I was very excited to be back in St. Louis, albeit briefly, and had a hard time getting to sleep. I was sleeping on the futon in the guest room when futon rumbled and bumped and rumbled some more- with me in it! I sat up in the middle of the bed and strained to hear something. Inside I heard nothing. Outside I heard something that wasn't quite wind and wasn't quite a train. Now that I think about it I think it sounded like thunder when it rumbles through the mountains during a big storm. The bed swayed a bit more and then everything was quiet. I heard my friend's husband get up, but there was no screaming or alarms going off, so I got back in bed and tried to sleep. That morning on the news everyone was talking about the earthquake in Illinois, about 120 miles from us in St. Louis. Seems it weighed in with a rating of 5.2. (It is important to note that the 11 year old in the room next to me slept through it!) Later that morning, about 10:00 a.m., I was presenting and felt a little woozy. I reached out to steady myself and realized that I was feeling the aftershock. The aftershock was measured at 4.5. My first earthquake! It was a great day! Unfortunately for my friend, I think there are a few extra cracks in the plaster of her 100+ year old home!

T is also for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! Food, family, and fun! Turkey and stuffing! Cooking and baking. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and pumpkin bread! A chance to share all the things I am thankful for! And sometimes my birthday lands on Thanksgiving! Double Yum!

Happy Day!

Happy Lupercalia or Saint Valentine's Day - you decide! I hope that this day brings a little something special for each of you.

Happy New Year

Happy Near Year Friends! I promise I will return to my regular postings soon!

Elf-Help Fun!

Got time on your hands? Wanna "elf yourself?" Head over to the Office Max site and have fun. But before you do, take a gander at these elf-alicious videos.

Michael, Robin, and Dominic ring in the New Year!

Elfin Grandkids swingin' to the Christmas beat! Yes, that truly adorable elf is my niece, Ellie.

Thanks brother Mike for the Dissertation Diversion! But it's back to work for me!