I've always liked rice. I just never made it all that often. When we moved here, we lived in the hotel for three months while waiting for our shipment of belongings to arrive. Every single day, the hotel served beans and rice. Every single day. Fortunately, Emma's been a bean-liker for quite a while, so we all survived. I took a little break from beans and rice when we first moved into our house. Then, our maid offered to make lunch for us once. Man, this lady can cook! I think my pride keeps her from cooking more often, but about once a week or so, she'll make us beans and rice. She sautees garlic and red pepper and then throws in a few other secret ingredients with the beans and we eat like we haven't eaten in a week! I think the beans are better than the canned ones I used to buy in the States, maybe because they're not soaked in salt and other stuff!
She cooks like my mom used to in the sense that what she makes could feed about twenty people! My mom never did know how to make a meal for just three people. Thirty or three hundred, maybe, but not three!
I used to buy boneless, skinless frozen chicken breasts from WalMart or HyVee. I could buy several packages and freeze them until I was ready to use them. Well, they do sell boneless, skinless chicken breasts here, but it's like chewing on a piece of tough rubber. Emma pretty much refuses to eat it because she can't chew it enough to swallow it. I can't stand it and even Kevin, who will eat just about anything (except olives and celery), can barely eat it! So one day I bought a whole chicken and threw it in the oven with a ton of fresh garlic on it. I was sold. I haven't bought frozen chicken since then! This is so easy and the meat is so tender and moist! I miss the ease of stocking up on the frozen chicken breast and I don't thoroughly enjoy pulling the meat off the bone, but I have to admit, it tastes so much better than the rubber we were eating before!
Mmmm. . . Roasted Garlic
Last week I made Roasted Garlic for the first time. Holy cow, could it be any easier?? I cut off the tops, wrapped 'em in aluminum foil, threw 'em in the oven for 30 minutes and voila! I ate a few cloves before I went for a run. I had to test them while they were hot! Bad idea. . . I was tasting the garlic well into the next day! Bad for my breath. . . good for my health! Since I made four bulbs of Roasted Garlic, I was able to use it in pasta, on bread and then I popped a few in my mouth for good measure:)
I can't use most of the recipes I have in my possession due to the lack of ingredients here. I'm very aware of how much Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom we were consuming! Some of my favorite recipes call for those ingredients and the stores here simply don't sell them. I had a small stash in our sea shipment and I'm down to one can of each. I'm saving them for a rainy day. . . or until the expiration date starts to scare me.
When we were preparing to move, other ex-pats mentioned there's no peanut butter here. I added a couple of jars to our sea shipment and I'm almost out. However, when the new store opened here in September, I found peanut butter!! It tastes a little different, but if I'm reading correctly, there's no hydrogenated oils included in the ingredients, which would actually make me happy! It's not different enough that I won't buy it. I'm so thankful for little things like that!
Almost every week Americans are coming to our town to work on some project or another at Deere. People are always asking Kevin if they can pick something up for us. I need to start a list because I normally can't think of anything off the top of my head. Sure, I miss so many familiar things, but I've learned to make do with what I have. My recipes are much simpler now and my cupboards aren't stocked with cans of ingredients. We eat a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables and of course, beans and rice! Different has become normal for us.
