Who knew cauliflower could taste so good!

With all of the wonderful fresh produce we get from our food drop every other week, I have been on the look out for equally wonderful recipes. I have never been much of a cauliflower fan but Eric loves it. We had 3 heads of cauliflower in our fridge and I went hunting for how to spruce it up before it went bad. I hit the jackpot! In the past 2 weeks, I have made this recipe 3 times!

I found this recipe on pinterest which was pulled from a blog titled My Kitchen Escapades: 
http://www.mykitchenescapades.com/2013/01/garlic-parmesan-cauliflower.html.

Here is the recipe:

                                    

Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower
recipe adapted from One Perfect Bite
1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
4 large cloves of garlic, minced (I use a microplane)
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
2 Tb fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 C freshly grated parmesan cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, except for the parmesan cheese.  Mix well until all the seasonings are evenly distributed over the pieces of cauliflower.  Pour the mixture evenly onto a large ungreased jelly roll pan and spread out so the cauliflower is in a single layer.  This is very important so don't crowd your pan!  Use two pans if you don't have a large enough pan to put it all on at once.  Roast in the oven for 25 minutes.
2.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle on the parmesan cheese.  Put back into the oven for another 2-3 minutes.  If you would like to serve this in a nice dish, transfer the cauliflower into a serving dish before adding the cheese, then put the pretty dish in the oven for the 2-3 minutes.

The last time I made this, the head of cauliflower was a bit on the small side. I would recommend reducing the amount of olive oil you use. We also were out of lemons and I bravely tried limes. It was just as good! Because we have not had fresh parmesan, we have not used it and do not miss it! I look forward to seeing how this would work for broccoli as well :)

Oreo, peanut butter and brownies, OH MY!

I think I have stumbled upon the most deliciously sinful dessert EVER! I found a version of this on pinterest which was in cupcake form. Because I only have one cupcake tin, I had to make these in a regular 9x9 cake pan. They were a little messy and took about 30 minutes to prepare but worth every second!

I ended up using 2 bags of brownie mix, peanut butter and 12 oreo-like cookies :)

I then put a tsp. of peanut butter on top of one cookie, stacked another cookie on top of the peanut butter and finished off the stack with another tsp. of peanut butter.

Next, I lined the up in a 4x3 pattern in the cake pan. 

Finally, I poured the two bags of brownie mix in between and on top of the cookie and peanut butter stacks.  I think if I had only done one cookie with peanut butter on top, I would have only needed one bag of brownie mix.

They took much longer than expected because of the doubled mix. Although I did not measure the time, I believe it was equivalent to 2 times the amount on the brownie mix suggested. I made this for the  girls night originally. When we heard the boys were making hot dogs, we all wanted one! One by one the boys brought their wives over a hotdog over about 30 minutes time. After the first husband came over and had shared what I had made, each one of them came to not only bring the hot dog but to look at the brownies and see if they cold have one. It was super sweet of them to have brought us a hot dog so we decided that we would bring the brownie pan over to share with them :) Hence, they went fast and I did not get a chance to take a picture of the final product but here is one that I found online that looks just like it.

They were super rich but wonderful! An easy item to bring to a party or get together that almost everyone will enjoy!

I am hosting the first Girl's Night at our place tonight!!!!!!

Since we have been here, everyone has welcomed us with opened arms! Talk about making a transition into a foreign country, new culture and environment as easy as it could ever be! We have made friends with several married couples all between our age and 30 and they are a blast. We go into Malabo once a week to eat at different restaurants. We have played "closest ball wins" golf together and attended quiz night at the Club House. We also try to do a dinner and/or brunch at someones house weekly. This week, the boys will be a few apartments away and I offered our apartment for the girls and am super excited to have them over! This will be my first time to have company. I am slightly nervous, not sure why........ :( We barely have any decorations and entertainment cookware :( I am sure it will be just fine.We have decided on quesadillas. So something that I have loved since being here is the sense of community and sharing. I do not have tortillas, sour cream or cheese other than Gouda :( In our email communication, we mention it, and then almost always, someone brings over what you are missing. Because you can not just go out and get what you need, it is the neatest thing to have a group of friends that are always so kind to share. The week before last, our neighbor had mentioned at small group that she did not have spaghetti. Eric and I went into town for groceries and I had remembered and made sure to get her some. It is the best feeling to give something to someone as small as spaghetti, but know how much it has meant to me to have that one thing to complete your dinner etc. Let me share with you the value of someone offering something so simple with great impact.When we received our air shipment, I was so incredibly excited to open the 14 boxes! One of the large boxes that I had made sure was in that shipment was the one with food. It was full of boxed brownies, tons of seasonings, numerous package seasonings, peanut butter, jelly, ranch dressing, ketchup, gourmet mustard, beans, rice, pasta, other condiments, all of the ingredients to our amazing chili, all of the ingredients to the awesome chicken and peanut wraps from cuisine (the ones Lindsey made for us in North Dakota), all of our cooking wines/oils/vinegars, GARLIC SALT (my favorite!) and a bunch of other things. I got about half way through the boxes and had not found it yet. I was about on my tenth box and started to get worried. Once I opened the last box, my stomach fell to my toes. Eric and I had talked almost daily about being so excited to get that box as there were copious amounts of recipes that we could not make without its contents and can not buy in town. Although I knew that the nail polish I had smuggled into the boxes may be confiscated, I had never considered not getting the food items. I was devastated! We went out to dinner with our friends and I shared this story. The next day, there was half a bottle of garlic salt on Eric's desk. He called me, and of course I was so shocked and excited I got a little emotional. Eric worked a little late that day and I was home alone and there was a knock at the door. It was our neighbors that walked in with a huge bottle of Tony's Chachere's seasoning, another bottle of garlic salt, several packages of fajita and taco seasoning and several bags of brownies. I could not believe it! It was the sweetest thing to have those few comforts especially in a time of so much unknown. The Lord has shown me in my short time here, how much joy there are in the small things! He is so clever! Anyhow, back from my tangent . . . I am sure we will be good with ingredients tonight.       I have also found what looks like a delicious dessert that calls for brownie mix, peanut butter and oreo cookies that I will try tonight. YUM! I am off to start getting everything ready. Wish me luck!

Our First Post!

Hello family and friends! Believe it or not, it has been 4 weeks and 3 days since we have arrived in Africa. Other than a severe sinus infection, mystery rash and stomach bug, all is well. In such a short time, we have already made some amazing friends and had some equally amazing experiences that we are so excited to share! Oh! We must not forget our sweet little Parker Bob, a.k.a Doodle, HE LOVES IT HERE! In fact, he is now the resident millipede, gecko, Agama Agama (to be explained later :), crab and spider hunter for the C-block apartments. I tell him he is kinda' a big deal :) We hope you join us throughout the next several years of amazing adventures, defyning trials and blessed learnings.