Around My Kitchen

First of all, I should start by saying it's really not my kitchen. Yes, I feel like I have control of it, but really, I don't. David is in there cooking now-a-days just as much as I am. But, I still can't help but call it my kitchen! David and I are both good cooks, however. I am what you call a Recipe Follower and my husband is what you call an Experimental Cook. We've found we do not do well cooking together, it just causes too much conflict in the kitchen. However, I am appreciative of a husband who can and actually enjoys cooking. Especially here in Ukraine, where you can't always find the ingredients for every recipe, my husband thrives well... and I stand back and make a batch of brownies to go with it. :)

Finding our way around the grocery store and then making those ingredients into a good meal at home has been quite an adjustment since we've moved to Ukraine. Because of that, I thought I'd take a couple minutes to post about our kitchen and some of the foods we buy here.

First of all, this is our kitchen/dining room. It is a small little place, but we've made it work well for us. We do not have a microwave yet, but plan to get one soon. It took some time to come up with a place to put it since there isn't a lot of counter space or plug-ins. (We finally decided to put it on top of the fridge when we do get around to buying one!) Anyway, our kitchen is abnormally nice for kitchens in Ukraine. You may think our oven is small, but really it's bigger than most ovens here. Our fridge is also gigantic... most fridges are about 1/2- 2/3rds this size. We are blessed and love the extra fridge and freezer space!

• You may also notice that we have dishes drying in our cabinet above the sink. That's very traditional for over here since dishwashers are extremely rare. They drip dry above the sink and it has a nice little pan at the bottom to catch the water. It's not only convenient for a kitchen with little counter space, but it also hides the mess.
• Between that cabinet and the sink there are Ziploc bags drying... my sister taught me that handy trick! Who would have known they'd just stick to the tile by themselves?
  
• In the picture to the right, there is a white thing hanging on the wall next to the window sill. That is our radiator for the kitchen. These are in each room of our apartment, turned on in October and should be turned off sometime soon. There is no regulating the heat that comes from them, so we open windows when it gets too hot (which happens almost every day, even in the winter!).
• Also notice the water jug on the floor. Tap water isn't good for drinking, so we refill jugs like these from a water truck that comes to our neighborhood once a week. So far, we've found two good trucks that come not far from our apartment, one on Thursday between 4:30-5:15pm and one on Saturday between 11:30-12:15pm. It's sometimes hard to be home around that time, plus a little bit of a pain to lug all that water up to the third floor, so we're looking into other options right now. Until then, we set our alarms to be home on time and are strengthening our muscles!
  

Now onto some of the foods we buy here. The first picture to the left is an array of some of the items in my fridge. You can probably pick out the milk, juice, mustard, and hot dogs.

• Next to the hot dogs is one of the cheeses we buy. Cheese is not easy to pick out here. It may be labeled "Parmesan," but it will taste nothing like it. Most of the cheeses are white as well, so it's hard to pick out based on color. Honestly, we finally found two we like and have stuck to just those two cheeses. We've tried numerous others and liked some, but when we go and buy the exact same cheese the next time, it tastes completely different. We're happy we at least found two good cheeses! Another interesting thing about cheese here is that it does not melt completely in soups.
  
• Next to the cheese is our butter. Butter doesn't come in "sticks" but rather "slices" that weigh 200g. It's close enough to 2 sticks, so we just round up.
• In between the juice and the mustard is our sour cream. I have a funny story with that one. We buy most of our products in the supermarket right now, but here lately we've been getting less and less pleased with the quality of what we're buying. I mentioned this to our language teacher and she started talking to us about where she buys most of her food-- the bizarre (or outdoor market). We'll be looking into that more really soon. But, she buys almost everything there: meat, vegetables, milk, etc. etc. Even her sour cream. She says she brings it home and tests it (especially the sour cream) on her cat. She'll pour some up for her cat and if her cat eats it, she knows it's good. If her cat smells it and walks away, she knows it's bad and will throw the whole lot out. Interesting!

The next picture is items in my cabinet. You can certainly pick out most of the items here. The flour comes in bags like it does at home, potatoes in netting, etc. The sugar is in a little different container (in front of the flour) and the coke bottle looks different, but it's still easily recognized in the store.

• On the far left is our version of canned tomatoes. They come in jars like these, whole and with their peels. So, for most recipes, we have to take the peel off and then cut each tomato up. Just a little extra work.
• In front of the tomatoes is a sachet. That's our version of canned cream of mushroom soup. We add water, cook for a bit and it's a pretty good substitute.
  
• Next to the sachet is a bar of chocolate. There are no chocolate chips here, so we buy the bars and chop them up every time we make cookies.
• Next to the chocolate is our powdered sugar. It comes in a little different bag, but we were really happy to have found that item. You wouldn't believe how many different bags I would put my finger on (because the powder was on the outside) and then taste trying to find powdered sugar before we ran across this.
  
• The squares next to the powdered sugar are our chicken bullion cubes. :)
• Just above the powdered sugar and bullion cubes is potato starch. Another "find" of ours. They don't have corn starch here, but they do have potato starch which works the same. I had to find that the "finger taste" way as well. :)

I'm also including some pictures of a part of my spice rack. The spices come in sachets like the one to the left of this first photo. It's hard to keep those sachets sealed up properly, so I got these little metal containers and then labeled them all. My labeling system has the spice in English, then in Russian, then finally in Ukrainian. (See close up picture.) We are learning the Russian language and everyone here speaks Russian, but everything in the store is in Ukrainian. Sometimes Ukrainian is similar, sometimes it's not even close. So, knowing all three names for the spice is important.

The final picture is of a few frozen goods. You can pick out most of these, but probably not the top two. The long item is pastry dough. We can't buy crescent rolls in a can here, so we buy this, thaw it out, and cut it to suit our needs. It works quite well! The bag next to the pastry is ice cream. This is the way most of the ice cream is packaged here, but we also buy it in the plastic tubs (see just below it) because it's a lot easier to work with--the bags get messy quick. Ice cream is something we miss because it just doesn't taste the same over here, nor do they have many choices (including David's favorite mint chocolate chip). But, we've found one good chocolate we like, so we're happy we at least found that!

We are really pleased with how many things we've found over here in the grocery stores, many things we thought we'd have to bring back with us or do without. Grocery shopping for us has been quite the adventure, sometimes an exciting adventure and sometimes a frustrating adventure. But, almost 6 months later, we know where to go to get what and have adapted quite well. I hope you enjoyed this post about our kitchen and some of our foods... I enjoyed sharing!

A Memorable Day

Ok, so I really didn't want to write a birthday post just because it seems a little too self-centered. Those who have kids and write about their birthdays... that's great, but to write about your own birthday? Very different. Nevertheless, there were too many people who put a lot of work and time into my birthday to not recognize it. I am so blessed!
I turned 25 on the 25th of February this year in Kharkov. Mom and Lindsay both arranged to stay long enough to be here for my birthday and that was so nice. Mom and David arranged my whole day and it turned out great. We met the team at the bowling alley here in one of the malls and all bowled together. Unfortunately, Dougle was sick, so he missed out on the fun. We all bowled and had the two best cheerleaders anyone could ask for. Malachi and Canaan sat contently on their chairs, watching us bowl, and would yell "Good job! Wow!" and give us high fives almost every time. (Except once... after watching me bowl a nice gutter ball, I came back and Malachi greeted me with "You're supposed to knock them over!" It was too cute.) We had a great time and Denyce beat us all!
After bowling we all order Fajitas. Yes, I said Fajitas... in a bowling alley... in Kharkov, Ukraine! It was amazing and they were great. The fajitas even came with flour tortillas! Who would have thought? After lunch, we all came back to our apartment for cake and presents. David had worked earlier in the morning to make me a cake from scratch, but accidently burnt it. So, when we got back from lunch, he made me another cake (still from scratch). For those of you who haven't had Black Forest Cake, you're missing out. It is my favorite and my husband made me the best one this year. (And he doesn't even like cherries!) As you can see in this picture, it was a masterpiece and so delicious!
I was so blessed by our team and my family that day... we had such a nice time and they really pulled out all the stops. But, it wasn't just them... I've received 11 birthday cards in the mail, several e-cards, numerous Facebook posts, emails, and calls. I am truly humbled by so many of my friends and family and am so grateful.
Thank you for the love and encouragement you poured out on me. What a neat reminder of Who I belong to and how He continually works through His people to bless us here.

New Teammates!

We have had a very exciting week: Max came early Monday morning, Nancy (Liv's mom) arrived later that afternoon for an extended visit, a package from our liaison team at Legacy came on Tuesday and we felt that our cup was almost over-flowing. Well, Saturday evening our cup reached the brim and ran over with blessings. Brandon and Katie Price called our team to let us know they were accepting the invitation to join our team here in Kharkov!

We had invited Brandon and Katie to join our team earlier last year. They have been prayerfully considering our request. In December, over the holidays, they were able to come to Kharkov to visit the team, spending time with each family and interacting with our whole team. We all got on wonderfully and it was easy to see how they could fit into our team and be a great asset to the work here in Kharkov. The went back home and have spent the last month praying, fasting, and seeking wise counsel about this decision. On Saturday night, they let us know their decision.

Please be praying for the Prices and our team as we all begin to work together. They will continue to work in Lubbock (coordinating and running an after school outreach at Central Lubbock Church of Christ and working as assistants for the Adventures in Missions program at SIBI) while they seek support. Please keep them in your prayers as we are apart, yet grow together as a team, and also as they begin raising support to be with us here in Kharkov.

What a wonderful end to a great week! Here is our latest team picture, including them. If you'd like to check out their blog you click here: http://www.brandonandkatie.com/

What A Week!!

New Addition
Our week is off to a fabulous start! :) On Sunday evening, David and I got a phone call just before midnight from the McDougles... Lucy was having contractions and they needed to head up to the hospital. So, we quickly put on our snow gear and headed over to their place to stay the night with their two year old, Canaan, while they went to the hospital. They left and within an hour and a half we received another phone call telling us he'd been born! Lucy made it to the hospital just in time, but had a very short labor! So, we have a new nephew and teammember: Maximus Craig McDougle, 8 lbs 2 oz and 53 cm long! I was able to go up and see Max and Lucy on Monday afternoon and David went up today. The hospital here is a huge answer to prayer. They have really treated the McDougles well and gone above and beyond helping them. Hospitals here in Ukraine are much different than in the states. You have to take basically everything you need with you (including drinking water, bed sheets, blankets, cups, plates, silverware, toliet paper, etc. etc.). Visiting is also different because only one person is allowed in the room at a time. So, while one person is up there, the others have to wait in the lobby downstairs! The hospital is also a good distance away, so our visiting has been a little limited because of that. It's all a different experience for sure, but we are really glad they have been so good for the McDougles, making their child's birth in Ukraine a good one! They will hopefully be coming home tomorrow sometime, so keep them all in your prayers!

Mom Visiting
On Monday afternoon David and Rob headed out to the airport to pick up my mom who had flown in for the month. She left on Sunday morning, so was suprised to hear that Max was already here! Fortunately, she made it in safely, on time, and with all her bags. (And boy did she have a lot to carry for Max and the rest of us!) Later on that afternoon Dougle came and picked her, Denyce, and I up to go to the hospital to visit Lucy and Max, so she didn't even miss out on the first visit to the hospital! She will be here for most of the month of February, visiting us and helping the McDougles out as they adjust to life with two kidos. Needless to say, she's been playing heaps with Canaan here and he's loving it! Tonight she went to stay at the hospital with Lucy and Max so Dougle could come home for some rest finally.

Our First Package
As if having Max and Mom around aren't big enough blessings, we received our first package since we have been here in Kharkov. It was sent from our liaison team at Legacy, stuffed full of goodies from peanut butter, salsa, spices, and velveeta to scarfs, ear muffs, and English books-- just to name a few things! We felt like Christmas had come again, it was so wonderful!! We are so excited to eat some of the goodies this week and break in some of our new winter gear. We've been looking forward to some of the items like maple flavoring so we can make maple syrup and have pancakes now. I had also finshed my last English book a while back and was really looking forward to new stuff. The selection of English books we've been able to find here in Kharkov has been slim, so it was nice to receive more-- and books more geared at what we'd like to read.

It's been a great week and we're certainly thanking God for all He's done to pour out blessings on us!