The Elusive Pumpkin

My newest obsessions are masala tea and curry. Masala tea is just a mix of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and other fall-ish flavors that you can make tea with. I made it every day last week, it makes me think of fall! Now all I need is a pumpkin muffin or pumpkin latte… I also discovered how easy it is to make curry, I made it the other night and then was too lazy to cook rice to go with it, so I just ate it on top of slices of bread. It was still really good.

Last Friday was my turn to cook in the office. I think I’ve said this before, but I started a cooking project with my coworkers where we take turns cooking on our office days (Tuesdays and Fridays). It started as a gender equality thing because my two male coworkers never wanted to help cook. They said that if they went home and cooked, their wives would get angry with them and kick them out of the kitchen. I told them, it didn’t matter what they did at home, but since we all work together as a team, it isn’t fair to have just the women cooking. They’ve totally embraced it (even though they still put on a front of “really? Do I have to today?”) and Erick is a really good cook. Kennedy…. well he can make ugali and tea and… that’s about it. We’re trying to teach him other things. So, this cooking project has turned into a fun project and has become a culture-sharing experience. Most times they’ve never tried what I cook, or if they have, it’s prepared in a different way.

Some examples of things I’ve cooked: burritos (with guacamole and everything), hamburgers, pasta salad, French toast, lentil burgers (like a veggie burger), spaghetti and garlic bread, pizza (that was a pain in the butt), apple pie, Spanish rice, mashed sweet potatoes (with cinnamon), mashed garlic potatoes, and at Thanksgiving last year I made a turkey and stuffing. Everything I’ve made has gone over really well, even though the men are always hesitant to try new things at first.

So, last Friday I made pumpkin soup! As I said earlier, I’ve been missing fall flavors. I’ve always heard people talking about pumpkins here, but I’ve never actually seen them in the market. I decided I would hunt down a pumpkin so I could attempt pumpkin soup. I’ve never made a soup, and just once I observed when Katie made us a “fall soup” in our apartment in Boston. I asked around and pumpkins are out of season right now, of course… But, Lily, my favorite lady at the market found one and saved it for me. I looked up a recipe and figured it wouldn’t be too hard. And, it wasn’t! The soup was delicious (I added sweet potatoes and some nice fall spices too), the only thing that could have made it better would have been a food processor to make it smooth. But even with the bumpiness it was still yummy and I ate leftovers for dinner on Friday and breakfast on Saturday. My coworkers loved it, the cats liked it… what a great success. This means, I’ll have to attempt a pumpkin pie next. Only thing is, I don’t think they have condensed milk here.

I saved the seeds so we can roast them, and now I know I can carve an actual pumpkin (even though it’s green, not orange) for Halloween instead of a watermelon, like I did last year. Another yummy thing I’ve discovered? Pumpkin leaves, you can sautee them and they’re oh so good. That’s what I love about Kenyans, they utilize all parts of a vegetable or animal, no wasting anything. Like sweet potatoes: did you know in addition to eating them boiled and plain, you can mash them up and substitute them for flour in making things like cakes or chapatis? Or that the leaves from the sweet potato plant can be boiled and made into a nice juice? Or sautéed like spinach/kale? I've got recipes if anyone's interested.

Ok now you’re probably hungry, I know I am.

Lastly, I’ve been busy running around getting all the things for the Peace Corps Partnership project and it’s taken longer than I thought. I couldn’t find the jars to sell the honey in Kisii or Kisumu. Luckily I had to go to Nairobi anyways for other reasons a few weeks ago so I was able to fit that in my trip. I found even better containers than before and at less than half the price we had thought they would be!!! The group has been great with contributing their part and even contributing to unforeseen costs that have popped up in the process. I’ll post pictures soon. AND, within 5 days of putting out the new hives, the bees had already started populating them. We didn’t even have to split a hive (which we learned how to do in the beekeeping training). Oh, and I helped design labels for the honey jars so now we look all professional. AND, we’ve had many requests for honey. Things are looking up for Mang’ang’a Youth Group.