Kitchen Nook- Irish Beef Stew

It has gotten much chillier around here than I like lately.  I'm much more of a summer girl than...well anything else.  If it's below 75 degrees I'm usually chilly or cold.  So with the temperature dropping around here it started making me think of some fall type meals.  Fall and Winter foods are about the only good thing I find in the changing of seasons.

So this weekend I decided to make, what I thought, was a pretty awesome meal for this chilly weather!  Irish Beef Stew, Mashed Potatoes and Beer Bread.  It was amazing if I do say so myself.  So I thought I would share some of this awesome-ness with you all!

Irish Beef Stew!

Here is "The How To" in picture.  Also, please forgive my lack of camera skill!

First do your prep work.  

Chop up your carrots and dice your onion.

Mince 2 cloves of garlic.

My stew meat came cut up, but if your meat isn't you
should cut it into bite sized pieces now.

Next...

Brown the meat in Olive Oil.

Add Carrots, Onion and Garlic and spices.

Deglaze with beef broth.

Transfer to crock pot and let it go for 2-4 hrs!

 When you are ready to eat mix butter and flour together and add to the stew to get the broth more gravy like.  Also at this point add frozen peas!  I love peas.  So I added more than called for.

This meal was so simple!  I would really suggest it the next time you want to make some comfort food this fall or winter.  We ate ours over mashed potatoes and it was wonderful.  I'm sure you could dice up some potatoes and actually put it in the stew if you'd like.

Ingredients
Serves 4-6

2TBS olive oil
1lb stew meat
4 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste (I didn't put any in mine and didn't miss it)
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary
2 cup beef broth
2TBS butter
2TBS flour
heaping 1/3 cup frozen peas

 In large pot or deep skillet, brown meat in olive oil (4min).  Pour in onion, carrots, garlic and spices.  Cook for another 5 min.  Deglaze with beef broth.  At this point transfer to crock pot and let it go on high for 2-4 hours.
When you are ready to eat mix soften butter and flour until smooth.  Stir mixture into stew with frozen peas.  When gravy thickens slightly it's done!  Enjoy!

Up next :  Beer Bread

Miss Mittens

I have always had a pet in the house.  When I was born my parents had the sweetest dog and when I got older (okay I was in kindergarten) I got 2 cats.  As a kid we ended up having 3 other dogs, we had bunnies and gerbils and mice (yes, mice) and a snake.

When Brett and I got married I naturally started to bug him about having a pet.  It just felt so weird not to have one.  So, on our first Christmas together as a married couple I came home from work on Christmas Eve to find a very large, noisy box sitting under our tree.  Brett had found me a cat!

A man from his work found this poor cat wondering the streets in his neighborhood.  And when asked if anyone wanted a cat Brett said we did!  She wasn't a small kitten, but she was still very young.  It took her a little while to warm up to us.

We named her Mittens since she was almost all gray except for her white paws.  For the most part we loved having her around.  Except in the morning.  She would sit outside of our bedroom door and cry until one of us got up.  We tried the "squirt your cat with water" method, but that didn't work.  We were losing sleep from this cat!

And this girl loves her sleep!

Eventually we had enough and listed her on Craigslist.  A lady agreed to take her if we could meet half way (about an hour away for us).  So we did.  It was really hard.  I won't lie I cried the majority of the time.  So we waited...and waited...and waited...for about an hour we waited.

This freaking lady NEVER showed up!

Needless to say we took it as a sign and Mittens came back home with us for good.  She has since gotten much better at the morning thing.  Honestly, I think she just wants to sleep in our bed...

Kitchen Nook- Brownie Strawberry Trifle

I am by no means a pro in the kitchen.  I get freaked out when I see more than 5 or 6 ingredients go into a dish.  I like to keep it simple.  I've never been very experimental either.  When it comes to cooking I usually go by the book.  I just never knew what to experiment with.  I don't understand what herbs and spices go better with what.  Stuff like that.

Ever since I was a little girl though I have always LOVED to bake.  I find it calming (usually).  I still don't know the science of it all, but I do know I love mixing it all together, tasting the dough (or whatever), smelling it as it bakes and eating it fresh out of the oven.  What could be better?

So I thought I would start sharing some of the things we like to eat here at our place every once in a while.  Simple, but yummy things!

So first up I would like to share with you the Brownie Strawberry Trifle.  It's quick.  It's simple.  And most importantly it tastes amazing!

Here is what you will need.

Ingredients
Box of Brownie Mix (and everything the box says you need to make brownies)
Chocolate Pudding
Whipped Cream
Strawberries

First step is to make the brownies according to the box.
While the brownies are baking go ahead and make the pudding and slice up the strawberries.
Let both the brownies and pudding cool.
Once cooled you will start the layering process.
Break the brownie up into bite size pieces.
Layer the bottom of your bowl with some brownie.
Spoon half your pudding mix over the brownie bites and half the whipped cream over that.
Stick some strawberries around the side.
REPEAT!
This time after you place the whipped cream over the pudding decorate the top with more strawberries and brownie crumbs.  You could drizzle some chocolate syrup on top.  Whatever you heart desires!

Here is what it will look like from the side. (Please excuse the messy background)

And there you have it!  This dish fed 13 people dessert one night!  Everyone really seemed to like it.  And the great thing was it took me no time at all!

The Debate

Last night my husband, part of his family and I drove about an hour away to hear a debate between an Atheist and a Christian.  Following the debate one of the hubs favorite authors, Ravi Zacharias, spoke.  This was the first debate (other than the silly ones we would have in class) that I've ever been to.  I was actually pretty excited.  I was interested in hearing their arguments.

Sadly, I was not impressed with the two men debating.  I mean the debate was short and they didn't have a lot of time to form their arguments, but I didn't think either argued their side well.  Thankfully Ravi Zacharias turned that all around during his time on the stage.

He made some really good arguments and gave great examples of how we can KNOW God exists.  Ravi was once an atheist himself, so he knows what it's like to be on the other side.  To really try and deny God.  But even though he tried to live life not believing anything, he eventually came to the conclusion that there is more.  God is real.  There is a Creator.  There is a Savior.

If anything I walked away from last night wanting to know more and wanting to do my part in making my relationship with God stronger.  What if I was asked some of the questions those men were asked?  Would I be able to defend my God?  Would I have the knowledge?  There is always room to grow, right?

Anyways...

After the Debate we stood in line for a good half hour or more so Brett and his brother, Chris, could get their books signed by Ravi.  It was fun to watch them as we inched closer and closer.  They were like children in line to meet Santa Clause or something.  They were so excited!

And just in case you need proof...

Jelly Beans

I know.  I know.  A little out of season right?

BUT!

A few weeks ago I was at a women's event at our church and we played a game with jelly beans.  We each had a cup full of them and had to suck each jelly bean, one by one with a straw, into different cups to separate the colors.  I felt ridiculous doing this and once I learned that we could keep the jelly beans that were left in our cup... I secretly (okay, obviously) started to do a really bad job!  I wanted those jelly beans for myself!

I don't think any of them made it home that night.  They are like chips.  You can't just eat one!

Well the lady who brought said jelly beans had a large amount left over and last night gave my hubby and I the rest of the bag!  I tell you what.  The girl knows how to make this couple happy!  In one night we've gobbled up most of them.  I even brought in a few butter popcorn and grapefruit flavored beans in for a late breakfast snack today.

I think I can feel cavities forming in my teeth already.

Anyone else love a good jelly bean or two??  What's your favorite kind?

The BIG move

When we returned from Uganda back in April I was still working full time at a bank that was super slow!  I mean so slow the only way I survived the day was by watching TV.  But more on the job thing later.  I would also look at houses for sale on Trulia.com.  We weren't planning on house hunting for another year, but I found a cute little place and showed it to Brett.  I figured he would just say “Oh, that’s nice” and ignore it as usual.  But he actually liked it!  He even looked through the pictures!

So, I called my dad, asked him what our next step would be and he hooked us up with a great Realtor!  Turns out the house I saw would not be the one for us, but our Realtor stuck it out with us and in 2 months we made an offer on the one that we live in now!

Ignore the awning.  We hate it.  And ignore the flower beds.  I don’t know much about gardening, but they are way over grown and I plan on fixing it next summer.

Anyways…Packing and moving out did not take as long as I thought it would.  We had an army of people helping us out!

And moving in didn't take long either!  

We thankfully don’t have many “big” projects to tackle.  Just some painting (which is not shown in above picture) and ripping up the carpet and deep cleaning.  These people were…hairy.  I find their hair everywhere!  Ew.

The bathtub still freaks me out too.  Any cleaners you suggest us using?  I would appreciate the help!  We've scrubbed it and used bleached on it, but I still am not pleased with it.  Help?

We are so excited to have our own space with a yard to mow and neighbors that talk to us and walls we can hang things on!  Beyond blessed is what we are!

Zirobwe Church

Remember that night in Zirobwe of prayer, testimonies, sermons and dancing I had told you about?  The one that was to last all night and was cut short due to the worst storm I have ever been caught in??   Remember that?

Well that night as we all huddled in a random hut near the open area we were worshiping at the church the locals met in was being blown away.  Literally. This was the church the people there met in.

At the time we were all pretty bummed that our program had been cut short.  We had worked hard putting this program together.  We were excited to show the village their first movie too!  We had brought a Jesus movie dubbed over in Lugandan.  It was a pretty big deal!   We couldn't wait to see their reactions and the lives it may have changed.  But God had much bigger plans for Zirobwe that night then we had (or could see at the time).

Because of this storm, and the condition it left the current church in, the founder of EAC decided it was time to start building the new church!  The extra money we had raised gave them just enough funds to start digging and pour the concrete.  Even buy some bricks for the walls!  We felt so blessed to be there for the beginning part of this new chapter at EAC.  Brett was even able to help break ground with them on one of our last days there.

It was so encouraging to see the men in the village step up and help in the building process!

Since then they have put up the walls and built on the roof!  The people of Zirobwe now have a safe and solid place of worship!  Isn't it amazing how God can take such a bad storm and turn it into something beyond our wildest dreams?

And this is just the beginning of what is to come in Zirobwe!

Since We've Been Back

This is the second blog I have started.  The first blog didn't make it 2 months before I quickly neglected it and then totally forgot about it!  I almost did the same with this blog.  Life got pretty crazy in the past 5-ish months since we've been home.

5 months.

Wow that is a long time!  Some days I feel like we just arrived home yesterday!  I've been looking through all of our pictures from Uganda a lot lately and I secretly am wishing to go back! *Sigh*

Anyways...Things have been amazing here too though!  A lot of new changes and things to keep us busy!  I thought I would give you all a brief overview today and I promise to do better at updating from now on.

Big Changes...

     1- We Moved!  No more apartment for us!  We are quickly making home to our new little pad in the school district Brett grew up in.  We are loving it here.  Our neighbors are sweet, Brett gets to mow the grass (which he loves), we can both be in the kitchen at the same time without bumping into each other...the list goes on!

     2-I got a new job!  Brett and I decided it was a good idea for me to go part time at work since we're so busy in the evenings.  So I left the bank and now work part time at a cute, little school.

     3-Church groups started back up.  Brett and I love our church and are thrilled to be as involved there as we are.  We spend at least 4 evenings/mornings there a week if not more.  This is where me working part time is a wonderful thing!

     4.My little sister is now a Mrs.!!  Tony and Beth got married back in August.  It was such a wonderful celebration and I couldn't be more happy/excited for them!

Okay, so as I said earlier I will update more on these areas at a later time. I just wanted to get back on here and make my presence known. (because there are so many of you reading this haha!)

Good Friday

Earlier this month we asked for your prayers as we headed to Zirobwe for an overnight prayer session.  Your prayers were felt and answered, so we thank you!!

We arrived in Zirobwe around 7 or 8 at night and planned on staying until around 5 in the morning.  The night was mainly geared towards adults with a lot of prayer, sermons, testimonies and praise and worship time.  We also planned on showing a movie of Jesus’ life that had been dubbed over into Lugandan.

  As we arrived we were greeted by about 200 kids screaming our names and jumping up and down with excitement.  We were all blown away.  We weren’t expecting there to be any children, but they were the first to arrive!  

Hanging out with the kids.

We pulled out mats for the kids to sit on in the front.

Killing time before the program started.

Both Brett and I got the chance to share that night.  Brett put together a great sermon on how God Provides.  Everyone enjoyed what Brett had to say and I know lives were changed.  During the night about 5 of us shared our testimonies.  Later we were told that the people there were so shocked that even "Mzungus" have problems and were encouraged by our stories.

We also had a lot of praise and worship.  Praise and worship is so different there than it is here.  There is a lot of singing, but there is A LOT of dancing!  At one point all 400 people there had a good 20min dance party.  God was so present and I'm so thankful for the experience.

Around 2 or 230 in the morning a big storm rolled in and shut down our program.  It came on so quickly.  We were all soaked in a matter of minuets.  Everyone quickly got the sound equipment covered with tarps and ran for cover.  A handful of us huddled inside a small hut nearby.  The rain was coming down so hard we could hardly see outside and with the tin roof above us we had to yell just to hear the person next to us.

After about an hour or so the rain let up and we were able to pack up the vans, pass out some warm porridge to the many people who stuck around, push the van out of the mud where it was stuck and head home.  It was a long night, but I truly believe God was there and touched many lives.

The How To

Since we have been back there have been a few people asking us how they can sponsor a child through EAC.  It's so easy, so I thought I would share on here the 'How To'. 

Step 1:  Go to http://www.empower-a-child.org/eachome/

Step 2:  Click on the "Sponsor A Child" button at the top right of the page.

Step 3:  (Warning!  This step may be hard and take some prayer!) 
              Choose the child you would like to sponsor and click on their picture.

Step 4:  Click "How To Sponsor" button

 Step 5:  Start loving, praying and supporting your precious child.

*It only takes $30 a month to change a childs life!*

**There is a 'Sponsorship FAQ' link to the left of a few of the pages to click on if you have more questions about sponsoring a child in Uganda.** 

THANK YOU for your interest in these children.  I can tell you first hand that they are so dear and deserve a chance to go to school, gain an education and change the country of Uganda.  Even more importantly these children will get to learn about The Bible and the God who loves them so much from the EAC team.

Back

After some annoying delays, sickness and waiting we made it back.  

We were dropped off at the airport in Kampala around midnight on Saturday.  Everything went pretty smoothly...until we were about an hour away from landing in Turkey.  Brett started to feel sick.  We landed and  got medicine in him, but he didn't start feeling better until we got closer to landing in JFK.  Our second flight (from Turkey to JFK) was delayed about 30 min.  Which wasn't a big deal...until we got on the plan and sat there for over 2 hours.  I watched a whole movie people.  It was horribly long.  And poor Brett was pretty sick.  

After being on that plan for over 13 hours we finally landed at JFK and quickly moved through customs and got our luggage.  My mom and Dave were there to drive us home and we passed out in the car.  Neither of us had slept in over 48hours.  

So while there were some hiccups we made it back safe and sound.  Thank you so much for all your prayers.  We are excited to see everyone, share our stories and pictures.  

Thank you everyone for your sweet comments!  There are a few comments that were posted as anonymous and no name was posted with it.  We would love to know who wrote what, so let us know :)

Anyways,  today is our last day here in Uganda, and it is bitter sweet.  We are excited to see everyone back home, but at the same time we aren't ready to leave here either.  We fly out of Kampala Sunday morning around 2am (that would be 7pm Sat. for anyone in PA).  We fly to Turkey with a 4hr layover and then a 12hr flight to New York.  I believe we land around 430pm on Sunday.  We want to say thank you to everyone in advance for all your prayers for a safe journey.

We have so many stories and pictures we want to share, and will share on this blog (and in person), but we are short on time here.  I will leave you with a few pictures of our Safari trip.

Safari group at the Murchison Falls.

We saw so many Giraffes!

Hippo yawn!

Momma and baby Elephant :)

Two of the 4 lions we saw!

Sponsor A Child

When Brett came to Uganda the first time, four years ago, I started to sponsor a little girl named Lillian.  She was 6 years old and so adorable.  I pay a very small amount every month so that Lillian can go to school.  She writes me letters every few months and tells me things she is learning and how she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

This past Saturday Brett and I had the amazing opportunity to meet her and her family.  She lives about a 10min walk away from where we are with her grandmother.  Her mother and sister live in a village about 2hrs away, but this was so important to them they made the trip here.  This is a very big deal for them.  Not only does it cost them money to get here, but Lillian's mom is disabled.  She has no control of both her legs.  People need to pick her up and move her if she needs to move, or if she is in a room she can drag herself around with her arms.

Anyways,  Lillian and her sister (Lillian is 10 and her sister Jackie is 11) came to get us Saturday afternoon.  They took us to their grandmothers home to meet their grandmother and mother.  They live in a one room home.  There is no light and it reeks because their 6 or 7 chickens also live in their home.  My heart broke when I saw the living conditions.  They were so welcoming though.  And kept thanking us for what we were doing for Lillian.

Me, Jackie, Grandmother, Mother, Lillian, Brett

After talking with them for a while, learning more about the family, we took Lillian and Jackie out for lunch.  Both girls were very shy and hard to talk to.  Lillian knows English pretty well, but Jackie didn't know very much at all.  Since Jackie lives in the village with her mother she hasn't been able to go to school....or afford school.  So lunch was a struggle for us, but after lunch we took them shopping.  We got them some normal every day wear and then we got each girl a new dress for Easter.

Lillian trying on her dress at the store.  This was the first time she smiled.

Once we got them shoes we headed back to their home.  We stopped first to buy the family some staple food here (Rice, Beans, Sugar, Oil).  When we arrived at the house the girls were so excite to show their mom and grandma their new dresses and shoes.

They are so cute!

Again, the mother and grandmother opened up about their lives to us.  We learned that Saturday was THE FIRST TIME Lillian and Jackie had ever met!  When Lillian was born her dad left them and the mom had to send Lillian to live with her grandmother.  Since Jackie is not sponsored she lives with her mother in the village and can't go to school.  This got Brett and I thinking....We asked our interpreter if we were to sponsor Jackie would she stay here and go to school with Lillian?  Would her mother be okay with Jackie not returning home with her?  Is Jackie on the sponsorship list?  If not can we put her on the list?

He talked with them, telling them we wanted to also sponsor Jackie, and they freaked out!  They were so happy.  I can't explain to you how happy they were.  Our interpreter said that we could request Jackie be put on the waiting list at EAC, she would get to stay here and go to school with Lillian asap and her mom was so thrilled.  It's amazing the sacrifice parents will make to get their kid an education.

Chicken!

They were so thankful that we were going to sponsor both girls the grandmother grabbed 2 of her chickens to give to us as a gift.  She said "Two kids, two chickens".

Freaking out!

I wont lie, when she handed them over to us I freaked out a little (okay maybe a lot).

You can see they aren't happy we're holding them.

It was such an awesome day for us.  This is getting pretty long though, so I'm going to post it before the internet cuts off :)

Our Easter!

(This will be the 6th time I try to post about our Easter.  The internet keeps kicking me off.  Here goes nothing)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  We missed being with everyone, but we also had such a neat Easter here in Uganda.  We started the day off by traveling to Zirobwe (as we do every Sunday) to run church and Sunday School.  Brett and I helped with Sunday School this week.  We had over 200 kids show up!  We, along with others, held an Easter party for them.  We sang extra songs, had a dance competition, taught them how to play chubby bunny (and taught them what a marshmallow is) and we got cupcakes/juice/candy for everyone.  The kids were very excited and seemed to have a great time!  Oh!  And we put on a skit of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Brett was Jesus).

The rest of the day I’m hoping to show you in pictures, but we’ll see how it goes.

We invited about 14 sponsored kids from the neighborhood for another Easter "party".

We taught them how to go on an Easter egg hunt. 

They didn't fully understand at first, but once they got it....

They loved it.

We actually played about 4 or 5 rounds.  When they found their egg they would dump the candy in a bag, we refilled the eggs and played again.  The smiles on their faces was priceless.

Some of us standing with our sponsor kids.

Brett started a fire and we taught the kids how to make smores.  They thought roasting the marshmallows was pretty cool and each had about 5 smores.  They all went home on a sugar high :)

After all the kids had left a group of us went out for dinner.

Sorry it's so dark. 

This was our Ugandan Easter though.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Uganda!

Prayer Night

As mentioned in earlier posts EAC has purchased land in a village called Zirobwe.  This village is about 2 hours away from where we are staying right outside Kampala.  Right now we travel there to run Church and Sunday School on Sundays.  The church is in a poorly constructed building and Sunday School is held under a tent.  The vision is to one day build a church, training center/school, medical clinic and dormitories.  EAC is hoping to start pouring concrete for the church before we leave.

Friday night our team is planning a prayer night with the community of Zirobwe.  The main focus will be prayer, but we will also be sharing testimonies, sermons and a movie about Jesus' life.  Brett is preparing a short sermon to share and I will be sharing my testimony.  Pray for us (Brett and I and the EAC team) that God would speak through us to the people of Zirobwe that we might encourage them with what we have to say.

I know this is short, but I will leave you with a few pictures of one of our favorite projects we go to.  It is a primary school called Brainstorm.  The kids are full of energy and crave your love and attention.  As soon as we walk through the gate you have at least 10 kids trying to cling to you.

Singing praise and worship.  The shack in the back?  That would be their classrooms.

Listening to a bible story.

These kids came in to listen to the story.  You can tell the difference between the school kids and the kids who can't go to school by the way they dress.  Kids that can afford school wear uniforms.

Chasing the van as we were leaving.

Saturday

Saturday and Monday during the week are "rest" days.  This past Saturday we had the privilege of traveling with Wilson (the 'Founding Director' of EAC) to visit his family.  It was about a two hour drive from Kampala to get to his village.  On our way we stopped in a small shopping market to buy Wilson's mom and family some beans and rice.

Beans.

Here you can see bags of rice.  We also saw goats being taken in there to be slaughtered. Yum! 

Wilson's family were very thankful for the gifts.  We also were able to pass out some clothing and toys for the children.  It was good we had these gifts to give because most of the children had not seen a "muzungu" (white person)before and were very afraid of us.  We were told they thought we were coming to take them.  But after coloring in coloring books and playing cars with them they warmed up to us and we had a lot of fun.

While we were there it rained for about 20min or so.  We all crammed into the small living room where we had to scream to hear each other.  The rain was so loud hitting the tin roof.  Wilson's mom made us each a boiled egg and gave us Mt. Dew for lunch.  She was so happy to have us there.  It was such a neat experience to see where Wilson came from. 

 Unfortunately we are not very good at remembering to take pictures and have none to show for this day....other than the 2 you see above when we were buying food. We promise to do a better job capturing our days on camera this week!