Kenya 1

We made it to Amsterdam, had fun exploring the city, and now 30 hours later, we've made it to Nairobi, Kenya. We're staying tonight at an AIM Missionary Guest house place, kind of like The Juniper Tree in Thailand, except it's all one huge house. We had thanksgiving dinner with about 40 other missionaries. I got to pet a cheetah this afternoon, and got licked by a giraffe. Tomorrow we drive out to Rift Valley Academy and start camp. We're all really tired. Pray for us that we would get good sleep tonight and be energized for tomorrow.

Here are some more pictures...

A Mug Shot

Joce found a new favorite mug.

Fresh Basil

I bought a Basil plant from Trader Joe's so that I'd have fresh Basil for cooking tasty meals. It's been hanging in there despite the freezing cold window and lack of direct sunlight. I do take it outside on occasional warm afternoons to find a spot of sun for it to soak in.

This is seriously one of the best deals at TJ's. It's like $2.99, and will keep you with a fresh supply of basil for months on end. Way better than that dried stuff that costs you $4.50 a jar.

First Snow

This is from the first snow that we had October 29. It didn't snow here at Hume, or if it did, then it didn't hit the ground. We saw this driving on the way out towards Cherry Gap. (We went down to Fresno to see the No Town Allstars take on the V-Town Derby Dames at the Roller Derby!)

I'm so excited for winter to be here. It's been cold enough, in the lower 20s each night, and not higher than 50 during the day.

Eat More Bread

I decided that I would try to bake a different loaf of bread each week this fall. I love having a big kitchen for baking and cooking, and plenty of friends to share the food with!

So far I've made Zucchini Pecan bread, two loaves of pumpkin bread, Country French Bread, and Pizza. I guess Pizza's not really a loaf, but it still falls in the bread category. This week I'll try an Artisan French Bread.

I've been getting the recipes from Allrecipes.com, and then been making variations as necessary. I don't think I've followed any of them exactly. I didn't have wheat germ for the pizza dough, the temps and times couldn't be followed exactly for the rising of the french bread, Icrushed the cloves myslef and added allspice to the Pumpkin Loaf, and I used half brown sugar and made nut substitutions on the Zucchini Loaf.

Here's the Zucchini Pecan Loaf sitting on a make-shift cooling rack of knife handles.Since Jocey's allergic to walnuts, I substituted pecans. In the background you can see what's left of the French Bread. It didn't rise like I expected, probably because it was only 60 degrees in my kitchen, and the (faux?) granite counter tops tend to hold the freezing cold night-time temperatures. It still tasted great, but ended up more like a Focaccia bread.

Here are links to the recipes, if you feel inspired. They've all been quite good so far.

Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Bread

Country French Bread

Whole Wheat and Honey Pizza Dough

Sometimes I think He's showing off...

Watching the sun set from the corner of King's Canyon and Hills Valley Road.

I caught a glimpse of this in my rear view mirror a few months back, and had to stop and capture it.