fourth of july

our fourth of july menu:

main dish: homemade pizza with lots of veggies and some precious pepperoni that was sent to us
side dish: watermelon
and of course, for dessert there isn't anything more American than apple pie, right?

I had been wanting to try making my favorite (and super easy) apple pie recipe as little mini pies, so we did just that.

The only differences? It took a little bit longer to arrange the crusts since we had to do mini versions of the lattice crust. And we diced the apples instead of slicing them.

Perfect mini-apple pies. And no messy cutting a slice deal- just personal pies for everyone.

How's that for individualism, America?

countryside food

we've returned from our first ever trip to the much revered Mongolian countryside and it was absolutely beautiful and filled with fun and blessings.

and we of course ate all of the beloved Mongolian countryside food-

boiled goat insides- they loved this more than you could possibly imagine

roasted goat meat on a stick

goat meat sitting on a wooden board, waiting to be cooked and consumed

tsuivan- potatoes, carrots, onions and flour noodles

milk tea!

the boys slaughtering the second goat of the week

Hol bought popcorn and brought it with us, so we made big buckets of it and they devoured it:-)

Now, I have not suddenly become a large fan of boiled goat stomach, but I do generally really like Mongolian food. And being able to drink milk tea made with pails of fresh milk, eat bowls of homemade yogurt and have soup with goat meat was a delicious treat.

which just proves the myth that everything food wise really is better in the countryside.

rainbow cupcakes

"pleeeeeeeeeaaaaasssseeeee bachshaw!"

That's what I heard last week from my elementary students. They were desperate to make cake during English class.

And I, being a complete sucker for my students, baking and their pleas- promised that we could.

I even pinky promised Mongolian style.

And so we tackled cupcakes on Tuesday- measuring and stirring and dripping and cracking eggs.

To add to the fun I brought food coloring and let them stir the colors into the cupcakes.

Rainbow-colored fun was just what this English teacher ordered.




a happy class and colorful cupcakes to boot. An A+ in my non-existent grade book.

fried veggies

lightly fried collection of all sorts of vegetables- snap peas, corn, cucumbers and some onions that were supposed to be onion rings of sorts. Not quite so, but they still tasted oh so good anyway.

random delicious carbs

pita bread- a favorite that we used to put homemade veggie patties in (corn and bean variations)

everything bagels- with all sorts of good stuff baked inside and sprinkled on top. Then used to make egg, bacon and fried pepperoni breakfast sandwiches. Best bagel sandwich ever.



Carbs are good. All the time. Especially in the pita bread and bagel variations.

a mongolian version of mexican casserole

The little American food store here got a new container shipment a few days ago. This is like an every few months Christmas day for us. We usually just walk around the tiny little shop and look at all of the food we won't buy because the prices are too expensive. And exclaim things like, "Ah! Look at that [insert food item we can't usually find here]!"

But this time around we did find some reasonably priced tortilla chips and salsa. (Chips and salsa, oh how we have missed you!) So Hol and I have been planning Mexican themed meals with our finds :-)

Our version of a Mexican casserole began with a layer of tortilla chips:

And some corn mixed with tomato sauce and garlic.

Diced tomatoes, onions, red and yellow bell peppers and rice

More crunched up tortilla chips on top

And some hunks of cheese to melt on top

There are no finished pictures because we were too hungry to wait for photographic evidence :-) The casserole was a good substitute for real Mexican food (or Tex-Mex for that matter).

holy yum

This was all Holli's creation. And man oh man, it was gooooooood.

Chicken BBQ vegetable pizza- with homemade barbecue sauce, bell peppers, onions, broccoli and a little bit of garlic on top.