International Dinner -- Galushta making!

Each year, our church celebrates missions week with an international dinner kick off.  All the classes decorate a table according to a specific country and everyone is encouraged to bring ethnic foods for a pitch-in style meal.  Our class decorated our table as Russia (we have a couple ladies in our class who are originally from there, so our table was authentic!).

The dinner was originally set for Sunday evening; however, a big snow storm was supposed to blow threw.  I really wanted to make Galushta (pronounced ga - looosh - ta) -- a Romanian meal my grandma taught me and made every Christmas.  Steve is not a fan of it; so I wasn't willing to gamble making a big pot, and being stuck with it if the dinner was canceled.  So I decided I wasn't going to make it.  On Sunday morning, they snow hit and they moved the dinner from Sunday night to Monday.  I decided I could make it happen!

On Monday morning, as soon as Bean woke up, we rushed to the store.  Galushta takes all day to cook, and can take awhile to prep as well.  Since it was just me doing it (plus having to watch Bean at the same time), I wasn't sure how long it would take me and felt like I was in crunch mode.  We rushed through the store and got home in time for Sesame Street.  I knew I had an hour to speed through the prep work while Bean was entertained with Elmo (that's one of her new loves).

I only had to call my mom and sister each once to answer a couple of questions.  I've helped in the Galushta making process since I was young, but never have had to do each part by myself.  I was nervous (especially since I had to substitute a main ingredient) about doing it all myself, but I found a rhythm and quickly got all the cabbage rolls made.  It took me a total of 1.5 hours to go from raw ingredients to Galushta cooking in the pot!  Bean was a trooper and even played in the kitchen during the last 30 minutes.

(One of the prep steps is mixing raw beef, rice and water together.)

(Another prep step is -- mixing onion, the "secret" ingredient,  and salt & pepper together.  The secret ingredient is called intuda - or at least that's what my grandma called it.  It's the fat of the neck of some animal.  My grandma always had a chunk in her freezer so we never really needed to know where to get more.  But that supply has run out and it's taken some time to figure out what it actually was.  My mom told me to just find some pork jowl.  I couldn't so I substituted bacon fat.  It worked for me!)

(Next came coring the cabbage and placing the hole head in boiling water.  Then you peel the leaves off one at a time.  Next you put the meat mixture into the cabbage and roll it up.  I ended up using 4 pounds of beef, 2-3 heads of cabbage, and got around 50 rolls.)

(Once the cabbage rolls are done, you start filling your pot! You put a thin layer of the onion/intuda mixture on the bottom of the pot.  Next comes a layer of sauerkraut.  Then you neatly tuck a layer of cabbage rolls so that you can easily scoop them out.  Cover with more sauerkraut and and some mini sausages.  Another layer of rolls, sauerkraut, sausage, etc until the pot is filled with an inch of clearance.)

(You then fill the pot with water till you can just see it in the top layer.  Then you put on the kid and start cooking!  As it cooks, the liquid swells and you have to take some out to keep it from overflowing.  Then the water level goes back down and you add it back in. It only took about 3 hours to cook.)

I may or may not had a couple helpings of it before we made it to the dinner.  I made it last year and it all got eaten up.  This year, the attendance was a little lower so not all of it gotten eaten.  Oh well, more for me!

Cupcake Extravaganza

I know I brag on my friend Sara a lot, but seriously, that girl amazes me!  At 8 months pregnant, she is still a cupcake baking machine.  Our church just celebrated its 60th anniversary and Sara was asked to supply around 650 cupcakes for the event.  She rallied a group of ladies to help her out knowing that with two other big events booked for the same weekend, she couldn't do it all.

I of course jumped at the chance to help her out and maybe learn a trick or two about cupcake making! Sara is always super organized and had everything all printed out and bagged up in batches.  We started at 1, just the two of us! She and I were all on our own for the baking portion (there were a couple of ladies who bailed last minute, and a couple who showed up later once they got off work).

I had Bean with me, which made things twice as hard.  She didn't want to nap right away, and wasn't happy about playing in the play yard.  So for a little bit, I had to hold her AND make cupcakes.  I, of course, reminded Sara that this was just a glimpse into her future, ha!  Bean finally did nap, and we found a baking groove.

I stuck to mixing up the batches.  We had 4 Kitchen Aid mixers in use throughout the day.  I'd pick up a bag of a specified dry mix, follow the recipe to add in the wet ingredients, mix it up, and pass off to Sara.  She'd scoop into all the cupcake pans and bake.  When I was tending to Bean at times, she'd have to do double duty.  Just as the last batch was baking, the rest of our help arrived and we switched to icing mode.  Sara did a quick icing making lesson and let a couple of us make the icing while she iced all the cupcakes.  Another lady followed behind and added the toppings.  We all took turns on cleaning up the dishes!

(Sara trying to convince me that we can totally bake 630 cupcakes all by ourselves. And I'm pretty sure this picture was after she realized if she worked on the opposite side of the table, she could face me so that we could talk.  Only took about 30 minutes to figure out!)

(Look at all those mixers! Sara owns the two on the left, we borrowed the red in the middle from our friend Candace, and my orange one on the right!  We had all 4 going at one point  - but we had to move one due to it holding peanut butter and one of the ladies being allergic. ha.)

(I brought both the pack'n'play & playyard with me.  Bean napped in the pack'n'play for about an hour in the pantry room next to the kitchen.  Then when she woke up, she wanted to be in the kitchen with us, so I just pulled the pack'n'play in there.)

(More help arrived!)

There were 3 different icings being done, so we assigned a specific icing to each mixer.  Then, as Sara needed that icing, we'd just make more.  My favorite part of the day was when Sara said I made PERFECT icing.  Sara is a perfectionist and isn't one to give over control.  So her letting me just make the icing and not shadow over me was HUGE.  Haha!

(I had the playyard set up in the fellowship hall right outside the kitchen.  Bean played in there a little bit while the cupcakes were being iced, but then she wanted out of jail.  One of the ladies ended up playing with her for awhile until she had to leave. That's when daddy came to the rescue to take her home!)

Steve was able to cut out of work by 5, pick up dinner for a few of us, and take Bean home with him.  It's amazing how much easier it is to do things without her.  Just having to check on her, worry about her, etc takes up time and side tracks me easily.  We finally finished up all the cupcakes and cleaning around 6. Our goal was to be done by 7 - Awesome!  We could have done it all on our own, but so thankful for the other ladies who showed up and helped!  Definitely made things go quicker :)

I was able to take a few things that I learned from our huge cupcake day and cranked out some gluten free cupcakes on my own.  There are a few ladies in our church who are gluten free and one of them was supposed to supply cupcakes.  However, she got injured so I stepped in to help.  I first had to make sure to deep clean my kitchen (and mixer) to get rid of all the gluten and not cross contaminate.  It made for a stressful day, but in the end, I was pleased with the outcome!

(My gluten free cupcakes!  I borrowed an icing tip from Sara.  This was my first successful piping bag experience, haha!)

(Proof I had made and packaged the cupcakes.  The box was really big and wobbly when you picked it up.  So I wanted proof of perfect cupcakes before the "treacherous" ride to church.  Okay, really it wasn't treacherous but I may have panicked a little over some stops. Sorry Steve.)

A New Endeavor

I generally don't share health issues on the blog (other than "we're sick"); but recently, health issues have been popping up with us.  Since we share all of our "antics" on here, I guess we can share the health stuff, too.  (Especially since I will need some encouragement in my new endeavor!)

In the past 6 weeks, I've been to a doctor 3 times for various reasons, and have another appointment today.  The first one was for a sinus infection upon returning home from Europe.  I was given a 10-day antibiotic which cleared up the sinus issue.  A few weeks after that, Steve and I had a joint "new patient" appointment to get set up with a doctor here in Lima.  Steve was given antibiotics that time for sinuses, but I was cleared with "good health".  Not a week later, I was having some crazy lower abdominal pains and a fever so I went back.  I was diagnosed with a bladder infection (even though I had no regular symptoms and know what that feels like because I've had several) and given another round of antibiotics.  The doctor thought the abdominal pain was deferred from the bladder; however, after being off the antibiotics for a week, I still have that constant pain, which is what today's appointment is about.  Plus, the antibiotics the second time really hurt my stomach.

Now we need to go back in time to set up my overall health.  When I was young, I had an unexplained seizure that left me unconscious and in a coma for 3 days.  I snapped out of it and had to do some therapy to relearn basic motor functions.  5 days later, I walked out of the hospital on my own with new explanation of the experience.  A few months later, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Hypothyroidism -- meaning, my thyroid not only doesn't function but is slowly killing itself.  For 15 years now, I have taken a small pill everyday to help my thyroid function (okay, I will admit not everyday because I forget a lot -- you'd think after 15 years I'd remember, but nope!).

Recently, I've done some research on Hashimoto's and have discovered that 9/10 people with Hashimoto's also have Celiac disease. That hit close to home since my mom has been diagnosed with Celiac and my brother & niece both are gluten intolerant.  When I went to the doctor for the new patient appointment, I got tested for Celiac Disease (via a blood test) which came up negative.  I have decided to go ahead and try a gluten free diet for a few weeks just to see if I can notice a difference.

I've always fought my mother on the fact that I don't have celiac symptoms; however, after research and talking to other "normal" people, I've discovered I have quite a few on the list.  Just to name a few, I get lots of stomach pains at various times, I have constant skin rashes,, some other digestive issues, and just general lethargy (which can also be from my hypothyroidism).  I figured, I'll never know until I try it.

Now, this is a new and very difficult endeavor.  I LOVE wheat, I LOVE a good crusty bread, I LOVE pasta, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE cakey desserts and brownies!  I know that there are several gluten free substitutes for all of those things, but let's face it.  Eating gluten free is less convenient, more expensive, and doesn't taste quite like the original wheat products.  OH well, I am reminding myself to stay positive on what I can eat.  (By the way, I'm still pretty positive right now because it's only day 2.  I'm expecting to hit a wall during week 2).

I plan on continuing this diet through the end of May.  After a few weeks of no gluten in my system, I'll introduce it back in and see if I notice a difference.  I have no idea if the current paint I deal with is tied into the thyroid/digestive issues I have or if they are unrelated.  I get pretty frustrated over health issues because there are so many different variables when it comes to health.  I'd appreciate prayer and encouragement during this time as I try to figure out the crux of all my health issues.