Injera and Berbere

The last few weeks have been somewhat frustrating waiting for updates and pictures of our little babes. Today we went on an emotional roller coaster that I'm not sure I want to share with anyone yet. We're still waiting for more info... hoping things get cleared up tomorrow or very soon. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week.

We did get Jalele Lark pics. She is getting so chubby! And her hair is simply gorgeous. This week's stats:
11lbs 7oz, same length and hc

On another note, Lucas and I have been doing some Ethiopian cooking. We are finally using our skills from the Ethiopian cooking class we took back in March 2011 (R.I.P. Generous Servings Cooking School, sniff). We also received some ingredients from a very sweet friend of the family for Christmas: teff flour for injera, berbere spice, tamarind, and fenugreek seeds. She also gave us a cookbook by Marcus Samuelsson, a celebrity chef who happens to be adopted from Ethiopia.

We used his recipe to make our version of Injera, and it actually turned out good!! Not quite as sour as what I have tasted before, but perfect consistency and look! We were pretty proud of ourselves (and special thanks to Hayley for perfecting the batter). This is not a traditional injera, as apparently, the real thing is made with a sourdough culture type starter. I hear that is virtually impossible to find in the USA.

Here is the close-as-it-gets recipe:

2 cups teff flour or fine ground whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 cups club soda
2 Tablespoons clarified butter (although I just used cooking spray)

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk the yogurt into the club soda, then stir into the flour mixture to make a smooth thin batter (like a crepe batter). Strain through a sieve or strainer to remove any lumps.
Grease a large skillet with clarified butter and heat over medium-high heat. Pour 1/2 cup batter into the pan in a spiral, starting at the center, and cook for 20 seconds. Cover the pan and cook for another 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate and cover with a cloth to keep warm while you cook the remaining injera. Makes about 12 large flatbreads.
*my notes: I didn't want to use all of my hard-to-find teff flour at once, so I used 1c teff, 1c whole wheat, and 1c all purpose flours. The batter should be very thin. I found I had to add almost double the club soda to get the right texture (which could be from my use of greek yogurt instead of regular- I thought it would make it a little more sour?). I also had a huge pan. If you don't have an extra large non-stick pan, I would use a little less than 1/2 cup for each injera so it can get thin enough. It took a bit of practice. But we had plenty of flatbread to serve with our meal.

Final product served in what I will call "Modern Ethiopian" style (ha!):

Miser Wat (Berbere spiced red lentils), Injera, Ginger Honey Sweet Potatoes, and an Arugula Salad. Oh, and wine, lots of wine. Success! We had fun sharing with our Wednesday night dinner crew Doug, Hayley, Rob and Steph.

Crossing my fingers for a snow day tomorrow, and good news.

XOXO

4 months waiting

I shouldn't really say 4 months. That would be cheating ourselves! We've actually been waiting ONE FULL YEAR now- since we first received application materials from our adoption agency.

It has been quite a year. And remember back when I was so bold as to predict a date for when we would have our baby (let alone babies!)? Ha! I laugh at that and now I know better than to do any date predicting.

But if you've been following this blog, you've seen a lot of the last year already. Here is what we've been doing in our 4th month of waiting since being placed on the wait list for our little boy and girl.

• Had a delicious traditional Indonesian meal made by Trixie's mom, visiting from near Jakarta, Indonesia. (Don't tell anyone, but we're pretty sure she smuggled in the delightful spices like saffron and lemongrass on her flight!)
• Went to Lucas' work holiday party at Wynkoop. 
• Friendsgiving (Thanksgiving #1) Lucas and I made Hasselback sweet potatoes with goat cheese and sage butter. This was the first time we had ever done a dinner with friends for the holidays. We had a great time and I'm hoping it's tradition!

Meat-carver Matty and his stout-brined turkey.

Friends.

• Thanksgiving #2 Dinner with friends and family at my parents house in Castle Rock. We made a green bean casserole despite the fact that I usually loathe it because everything in it comes from a can and it tastes so processed (*glimpse of food snobbery here. I try not to show it- but it probably comes out  more often than I care to admit). So we made one from scratch- and boy, was it good! We also made baked brie with a raspberry almond sauce. Mmm.
• Thanksgiving #3 This was in Wellington at Lucas' mom and stepdad's house. This year, Carrie raised her own turkeys from chicks and I'm sorry to say we ate one of those boys. But not too sorry, because he was delicious. AND, did I mention he was 40 pounds? He barely fit in the oven. I made my favorite alternative to stuffing- another recipe from my favorite Alton Brown- a sweet corn bread pudding. It didn't turn out quite as good this year- maybe because I skimped on the herbs and had to refrigerate the batter before putting it in the oven since we were waiting 6.5 hours for Mr Turkey to cook. Oh well.

Jon and one of the turkeys. 

This turkey makes the oven look mini- but I assure you it is a regular sized one!

• Thanksgiving #4 was a great one as well with all of Rick and Claudia's family. Everything was delicious here too, which surprised me, since it would be my 4th turkey of the week. The puzzle this year was a scene of 36 of the top 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I doubt I will ever get to all of them, but at least I'll get to go to Ethiopia- which I'm not sure is even on the list. But it's on MY list.
• Celebrated my beautiful sister Sarah's 28th birthday with a Sunday brunch party, sister margs, and a trip to the much anticipated and newly opened H&M. At her brunch birthday, we got to catch up with a few old friends and meet Moses and his mom Kate. Moses was adopted from Ethiopia about 6 months ago and is about the cutest little guy ever. It is reassuring to know we have some friends that we will soon have many things in common with. 

Sari is going to make a wonderful aunt. Happy Birthday!

• Got a check-in from the adoption agency, saying everything is moving along nicely in Ethiopia.
• Got really excited as our friends Jennifer and Tom left for Ethiopia today to go meet their 2 baby boys! They are using the same adoption agency as us and will likely be at the same orphanage where our kids will come from. I can't help but wonder if our babies are there now, or have been born yet; but hoping that wherever they are they are experiencing love from someone close to them. Really looking forward to catching up with them when they get back. 

Now- time to exercise after all that food! And yes, I do mean I will be getting to know Gilad quite well in the next few weeks. Haha! (Hey- it's a free workout! No money for a gym membership around this household)

We have MUCH to be thankful about! Love you all,

Love Ethio food!

Lucas and I have had the chance to eat a few more meals at Ethiopian restaurants in the last couple of months. We had Ethiopian at Nyala in Fort Collins with Lucas' fam. We had a great time showing Rick and Claudia how to eat with their hands and were happy to have Lucas' brother Barry join us! I found some of the pictures (from my phone- sorry about the quality):

A traditional version of an Ethiopian place setting

While Nyala was good, we discovered our FAVORITE Ethiopian restaurant in Denver this week: Queen of Sheba (at Colfax and Quebec). This is by far the best quality of food we have had yet. Our Wednesday night rotating dinner group decided to take a break from cooking this week and head out for a new food adventure. It was Doug, Hayley, Rob and Stephanie's first time with Ethiopian food. Of course Lucas and I were so happy to teach everyone about our new love of this food. A sweet older Ethiopian woman runs the place, and was very happy to explain the dishes and let us try samples of the Tej (sweet honey wine) before we ordered it. The Tej was more effervescent and Sake-like than at other places, which I liked. Also the Sambussas were amazing and all the meat and vegetable dishes were spiced extremely well. We will be taking people here from now on to introduce them to the food. There is also an Ethiopian market (Merkato) next door where we can buy Injera- the spongy sour bread used as a utensil to eat- when we finally cook some of the dishes from our cooking class.

Lucas and I had a chance to get away to the mountains last weekend where the weather was perfect and the aspens were changing colors. Very relaxing after a hectic work week. 

Grandma Dolan writing her memoirs on her special Chinese red desk in her cabin sun room.

enchanted forest

Family cabin in Bailey, CO

Mom and Sari

Josh and sister Sarah

Happy Fall!

Ethiopian Cooking Class

Sorry it's been so long since the last post-- crazy week with Lucas's knee (no driving makes for some complete rearranging of schedules for both of us) plus school and work. Lucas is back to work, and is actually trying to play a few shows on the weekends. I would stop him if I could... but hey, Lucas does what he wants! He is feeling good, and on the road to a full recovery. Thanks to all our friends and family for meals, snacks, video games, movies, and helping with cleaning and driving Lucas around!

Last week we got to take a cooking class at Generous Servings (thanks for my early birthday present, Rick and Claudia!) and we had SO much fun. Lucas and I learned about 6 recipes that we will add to our cooking repertoire. If anything, we learned some ET cooking basics and flavor profiles so we can make some traditional meals for the kid on special occasions (and cook for friends!). Here are some pics of our fun class-- hope they look ok since we used our phone to take the pictures:

Prepping the Injera, a squishy sourdough flatbread used in place of utensils and made from Teff flour

Curried Brown Lentils, Spicy Red Lentils, Beef in Red Pepper Paste, and Spiced Vegetables. This inspires my next culinary purchase to be a dutch oven.

Getting ready to eat!

Hambasha, a traditional honey bread. Delicious!

Our Stewed Beef- we made a traditional spice mixture which is used in many dishes called Berbere as well as a Temsi (spiced clarified butter) before adding to the beef. 

Finished traditional family-style plate. The white on the plate is Iab, a fresh cheese we learned to make from buttermilk.

2nd Home Study and good food

We had our 2nd home study on Tuesday, and everything went smoothly. This time, our social worker separated us and interviewed each of us for about an hour an a half. The questions this round were mostly related to our childhood and family lives. We realized through talking with her and actually putting into words what a wonderful support system of family and friends we have. So thanks to you all for being there for us and reading these updates!

On Friday, one of our friends had a birthday party at a local Ethiopian restaurant on Colfax (where there is an Ethiopian community and about 12 different authentic restaurants). We had lots of fun and dancing. We decided to get food at a place down the street called Habesha and the food was great! This was Lucas and my 3rd time having ET food, and this was by far the best. I can't wait to go with those of you who haven't tried it yet (OR I can make it for you after I've taken my cooking class- Thanks Rick and Claudia!!).

A little about the food. We started with delicious sambusas (ET version of a stuffed wonton or empanada) filled with lentils or spicy beef. And then our entree- I realize this picture looks a lot like colorful slop, but it is so much more! This is a vegetable platter for 5 people. Every color is a different spiced dish. ET food uses a lot of lentils, onions, greens, and spices similar to Indian food. Everyone shares and eats with their hands using a spongy sourdough "pancake" called injera to pick up the different stews. Quite filling! I also had some traditional honey wine, which is a very sweet white wine served cold. Lucas and friends tried some ET beer that they liked. It was a good night.

Round 2

We'll have our second home study this Tuesday afternoon, and then our third and final pre-adoption meeting with our social worker the following Thursday. So far, it's been a fairly comfortable process. But we still have a mountain of paperwork ahead of us for our dossier (dah-see-ay) to be sent to Ethiopia. We'll also start our adoption training classes on March 11th. We are excited for that, since we'll get to meet others who are going through the same process.

On a completely unrelated note... Lucas and I purchased 1/8th of a Bison carcass from the winning bulls at the Western Stock Show a few weeks ago. Our freezer is filled with grass-fed, Colorado ground Bison, steaks, roasts, etc. We definitely have more than we can handle, about 85lbs, so if you would be interested in getting some ($5/lb) just let us know! Bison is leaner and healthier than beef, but still has great flavor. Tatonka!

Negative 11 and dropping...

I got my snow day wish! This gives me time to clean, do school work, and watch a movie that Lucas would hate. And dream of this:

http://www.generousservings.com/EthiopianMarch29.html

Ethiopian Cooking class! Maybe an early birthday present (hint hint, wink wink). Anyone else want to join?