International Cuisine, Everyday

With over 30 nations represented on board there is a chance that you can experience international cuisine everyday.  We have a crew galley that is open and has equipment for multiple cooking stations and cleaning up.  During certain times of the day or week you can go in here and find many different people cooking their own 'home' comfort foods or 'favorites' from any cooking style.

Last night I was showing a lady from Ghana and Jamaica how I make bread, and bread rolls fresh from yeast, flour, salt, oil, and a little sugar.  (kind of like a home demonstration).  During this time they were also cooking their own dinner.  No, this does not offend me in the least.  I encourage it so people can be more independent of the ships galley and maybe have a better appreciation of what we do for 400 everyday.

[As a side note I have found that people who like to cook for themselves from time to time do not usually complain about the food on the ship...mostly its those who are confined to eating the ships menu everyday because they don't or are unwilling willing to cook for themselves from time to time who complain the most...or maybe they just don't like cleaning up after themselves or have time to do itl.]

Also the guys from Nepal (our security Gurkhas) were cooking at the same time.  Let me tell you, these guys are nice...yes sir, no sir, yes chef, good evening chef...it goes on and on.  They treat most everyone on the ship with much respect and are always ready to give a helping hand.  Very humble in their demeanor.  But if there is an emergency, alert, or security issue...Yes, it would be in your best interest to NOT find out what they are capable of.

As I came back after the second rise of the dough (which were formed into rolls after the first rise) my wife and I were offered Curried Chicken (Curry was a Jamaican blend and it was cooked with coconut milk) & fried Plantains by Joyce from Jamaica.  And she was in collaboration (preparing food and rice to share) with Comfort from Ghana and she offered us Jasmine Rice with home made Shito.  During this time we were offered a stew of sorts (I don't know any Nepalese) from Ganesh & Chitro from Nepal.  The stew was like a Brunswick Stew (minus the meat) mixed with some Indian & Thai (?) spices (best I know how to describe it not necessarily what it was)...Wow!  Although it was spicy hot, it was VERY flavorful.  I could feel the beads of sweat literally popping up on my forehead as I ate more.

Several groups actually get together no matter how big or small and do certain country/culture foods from time to time.  You just need to know when to be 'hanging out' in the vicinity of getting fed.  Timing is everything.  And if you have mastered that 'hungry look' then you should apply it here.  The invitation will usually materialize soon after!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Last night we served chicken tortilla soup with fresh chips (corn tortillas cut in wedges and fried & salted) and salsa, a friend of ours Kathy L. came and made it at my request.  And an excellent job she did too! (I will save the salsa recipe/making for another post later).  We also served rice but at home, I usually do not make rice for this meal.  Other condiments were shredded cheese, sliced Jalapeno, avocado, etc...
I won't bore you with the bulk preparation but walk you thru a recipe that's close to mine that is from allrecipes.com: chicken tortilla soup  -->

INGREDIENTS

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chili powder

I omitted the chili powder and use chipotle peppers or roasted cumin instead -- much better taste I think
In order to spice things up consider crushing or using powdered chipotle peppers.  Chipotle peppers are smoked & dried Jalapeno peppers, not as hot but great smoky taste.
Also consider using a non-stick pan, dry, heated up for toasting some cumin seeds to add whole to soup or grind up...this develops a greater taste than just adding some cumin powder.

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

Alright, last I checked these following products started becoming more available in grocery stores, I prefer Muir Glen, but I have not tasted the Hunts brand Fire Roasted Tomatoes.   *Or see below how to 'oven-roast' your own

• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken broth
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked
• 1 cup white hominy

If you are not a hominy person, leave it out

• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
• crushed tortilla chips

In an earlier post I noted Chili's chips are a good pickup option without costing much and being 'same day' fresh

• sliced avocado
• shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• chopped green onions

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Stir in corn, hominy, chiles, beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, and chopped green onion.

The way I like to eat it is to put some chips in the bottom of the bowl, put the soup on top, a little cheese, slice of avocado, then (if you have limes) a fresh squeeze of lime juice over the top.

*  Oven Roast your own tomatoes!  Preheat oven to 250°F (120°C). Cut tomatoes in half, toss with olive oil to coat, and place, cut-side down, on a baking sheet. Roast for 1-1/2 hours, until the tomatoes are soft and have just begun to exude their juices. Cool, remove the skins, and pack into a container. They keep for several days, refrigerated.  I am sure you can find several uses for them!

Francis

Francis is the cutest little guy. He came in with chronic malaria and needed to have a splenectomy (removing part or all of his spleen). He is the sweetest little guy and has the cutest smile ever. He has been involved with some math, reading, and English classes and he excels. His dad is always at his bedside and talking about when Francis gets better he will be able to go to school and maybe he will be the next Liberian President.

Missing Camera (stolen?)

Well my L60 Samsung digital camera is 'missing'.  It has been about a week now and I have checked the only 2 places I keep it, my cabin and the office.  So I am not optimistic about it re-appearing anymore.

I checked with 'lost & found', reception, and various other places...so I am now tempted to move it in the category of possibly stolen. SIGH

Stephanie still has a great camera that her parents purchased for her as a gift, so we will not want for one.  But it was nice when we had our own, and I used mine for work and blogging a lot.

If you are on the ship and reading this, let me know if you find one that looks like this with a possible black foam type case.

Outcast

Outcasts are people that are not allowed to even think they are a part of a community. Yeme was the definition of an outcast. She had this monstrous growth overtaking her petite 14-year-old body. Yeme believed the lie that she is unworthy of love and could not make eye contact when she first entered the ward. I can not express to you how much admiration I have for this little one. She was dropped off (from Guinea) at the gate by herself, does not speak English, and has been treated like a monster most of her life, but she came in took her place in the ward, and began her journey towards healing.

To say this tumor was huge is an understatement. I was in the OR as they were cutting away at this 7.5-kilo mass. Dr. Bruce took it off in parts and each part filled these huge metal bowls. Yeme now has an incision line from her ankle up to her bum where it overtakes all of the left side and some of the right side. She will need skin grafting on her bum and she also has a growth over her left eye that needs to be taken off as well so she will be here for a while, lucky for us.

I get a bit overwhelmed when I really think about what it was like for her living with that huge smelly growth. No one touched her, played with her, educated her, or loved her. Yeme looks like a different person now not only because of her surgery but because the nurses, translators, and disciplers have lavished love on this child that she could only have dreamt of. She has visitors constantly. I love her not only because she needs it but because I feel this pull towards her. She has such a sweet, gentle, and helpful spirit. When I did her GINORMOUS dressing yesterday she laid still on her tummy and lifted up when I needed her to and was incredibly patient. I have never met anyone so brave in all my life

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Have a great day Mama!! I love you!!

New Mercy Ships Logo

Subtitle ~ ...and loose chronological order of logo and missions statement

Mercy Ships first known web presence (web site) made its debut 'back in the day' in (that I can dig up online) is September 1996.  See for yourself! Mercy Ships -  Wayback Time Machine 1996

Here is a 'LOOSE' chronological order (meaning it may skip or miss a few things) of Logo (plus header/banner) and Mission statements:

1996 - Mercy Ships is a non-profit Christian humanitarian organization committed to a three-fold purpose of mercy and relief, training, and ministry. Mercy Ships has served the poor in over 70 port cities by providing medical care, assisting through development projects, and fulfilling basic daily needs in order to demonstrate the message of hope through Jesus Christ.

2000 - Mercy Ships utilizes ocean-going vessels to bring physical and spiritual healing to the poor and needy in port cities around the world.  The ministry encourages societal change by following Christ's example,
mobilizing volunteers to serve others through medical care, relief,
community and church development, proclamation, and training.

2003 - Mercy Ships, a global charity, has operated a growing fleet of hospital ships in developing nations since 1978.  Following the example of
Jesus, Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the poor, mobilizing people and resources worldwide.

And now, can we have the drum roll please...(pause)...for the new Mercy Ships logo!

Some things to notice about the logo: The ship is more defined than before with a medical cross on the side & a Christian Cross serving as the ship's antenna.  A globe is transmitted from the antenna (or Cross) and envelopes our ship and the 'usual' Mercy Ships text has been brought in line to be more vertical or up-and-down and the tag line is still “Bringing Hope and Healing”. The Colors of the logo are now a deeper blue and more contemporary vivid green.  (this is a paraphrase by me of the actual attributes of the logo being described).

I am not so sure how keen I am on it yet, but hey...I will wait and see if it grows on me.  What do you think?

_______________________________________________________

For further fun use this link to see more archived pages of Mercy Ships - http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://mercyships.org

Or for some archive fun checking any website, go to the

Liberian Pigs

I know...they cute like me! LOL

Baking comes to an end...

The baker comes back in Sunday night and I told him before he left that he doesn't have to come in to work till Tuesday so he would have Monday to rest so I may get to bake a little more on Monday BUT...

In my two weeks of being able to cover that 'baking' side of things I managed to bake quite a lot while also getting my other responsibilities done as the galley manager.  I still took weekends off because I had baked enough bread to carry me through Saturday & Sunday.  I enjoyed myself.

In the last 2 weeks in bakery:

• Baked approximately 1200 loaves of bread (white & wheat combined total)
• Biscotti 300-400 pieces
• Dinner Rolls 400
• Herb & Olive Rolls 400
• Focaccia 400+ pieces
• Jalapeno Cheddar Bread 400+ slices
• Cinnamon Rolls 700+ (Twice @ 350 average)
• Brownies 350
• Pieces/slices of Pizza 1100

Back to cracking the whip next week and maybe working on some new recipes for the menu.  It was a good time to renew in my mind the possibilities of what can and could be done in the bakery...maybe in the future I can get around to a few things I was thinking of but didn't have time for such as:  coffee cake, muffins, breakfast breads, garlic cheese biscuits, breakfast biscuits, etc.  Just to name a few things I was considering.

Jalapeno Cheddar Bread

For this bread you want to actually add the jalapeno's into the flour/dough...but add the cheese later when tri-folding and rolling the loaves of bread up.  Kind of like when I talked about making the cinnamon rolls except with cheddar, not a cinnamon-sugar mixture.

In this one, we see the bits of Jalapeno...

Ingredients ~ the rolling pin is just for looks, I just smashed this one out with my hands as well, notice no flour everywhere...I like to work 'clean'.  Cornmeal in the bowl is to lay down on trays so loaves do not stick as bad.  Usually, they never stick especially with well-seasoned trays, but some of that cheese melting out of the bread makes a difference.

They 'sprang' a little more than I expected from the oven so I have MONSTER BREAD but you know nobody was complaining.

See that cheddar and Jalapeno goodness oozing at you...

The cheddar is trying for an escape...

Yeah, I had a good time and got carried away...but they didn't leave any leftovers.

Just a good ole rolled ugly home loaf with easy ingredients: cheddar, jalapeno, flour, salt, sugar, yeast, water.  Yep, that's it.

Biscotti

Biscotti
The word "biscotti" in Italian is the plural form of biscotto, which applies to any type of biscuit, and originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-baked": it defined biscuits baked twice in the oven, so they could be stored for long periods of time, which was particularly useful during journeys and wars. Through Middle French, the word was imported into the English language as "biscuit".
American biscotti are indeed crisp cookies often containing nuts or flavored with anise. Traditionally, biscotti are made by baking cookie dough in two long slabs, cutting these into slices, and reheating them to dry them out. A basic recipe is a mix two parts flour with one part sugar with enough eggs to create a stiff batter. To the mixture baking powder and flavorings such as anise, chocolate, or nuts are added. The slabs are baked once for about twenty-five minutes. They are then cut up into individual cookies and baked again for a shorter period. The longer this second baking is, the harder the cookies will be. In contrast to the Italian version paired with wine, American biscotti more frequently accompany Italian-style coffee- and espresso-based beverages, including cappuccinos and lattes.

Well, I guess you could say that I made my biscotti with nuts, coconut!  Below is my coconut and orange biscotti.  Using desiccated coconut (extremely dried out) and orange oil, extract, and/or peel.  Again, I needed about 300 to 400.  Gone quick.
Below is a simple process of how it's done, first bake is approximately 25 minutes at 350 F, second bake for 15 minutes at 325 F.

Now enjoy with coffee, espresso, tea, hot chocolate, milk...

Stephanie took some of them, melted chocolate chips in the microwave then slathered them on one side with the chocolate and waited for them to cool again.  Try doing this with a lot of chocolate (semi-sweet, dark, milk, or white chocolate) or any other melt-able addition that tastes yummy and dips, drizzle, and/or both for a more 'gourmet/fancy looking' delicious biscotti.

My heart...

There are our lovely Bible study girls from Mama Victoria's orphanage. They came to ship yesterday and we had so much fun. They are so funny and they find humor in EVERYTHING!!! We gave them a tour around the ship and they were most enthralled by the kitchen and the laundry room. They could not get over the idea of putting your clothes in a box, adding soap, walking away, and coming back to clean clothes. They thought it was silly and that we should just do it the right way and scrub our clothes with our hands. They also hated the idea of the kitchen with no open fire.

I wish you could know them, I wish you could hear them laugh and sing. They do both wholeheartedly with smiles that make my heart melt.



Cortu is 16 and has been raised by the Suzanna (Mama Victoria's daughter) and has a wisdom that goes far beyond her years. When she speaks she does so with confidence. She reads the chapter that we study every night for the 7 nights that we are gone and writes down what she learned, then she shares her best insight with the group. I often find myself taking notes when she shares. I love Cortu, and I find myself drawn to her.



Regina is a HAM! She is about 4'8" and has this explosive energy. Anytime there is a camera she is in front of it posing. She is the one out of the group that makes them laugh so hard that they literally fall over. When she was on the ship she used the bathroom and it has a vacuum flush that is quite loud.  Apparently it scared her and she came flying out of the bathroom and proceeded to laugh so hard we thought she might suffocate.



Alice is quiet and a little reserved. She is one of the younger girls and listens intently in Bible study but does not say much. She has a sweet spirit about her.



Mary is a unique blend of being motherly yet very playful. She listens intently when you talk and truly wants to know us. She is conservative but yet is in the middle of the whooping and hollering when they all get riled up (which is often).



Ruth is the seamstress of the orphanage and loves to cook.  She really wants to go to school to be a caterer. Ruth does not say much during Bible study, she usually is catching up on her reading.



Annie is the oldest of the girls and definitely the big sister of the group. She is very sassy and definitely sets the tone for the group. She is taking her entrance exam for nursing school on August 30th. Annie always knows her memory verse perfectly and she contributes with her own life experience, even the hard parts.



Betty is one of the younger girls, she usually doesn't know the memory verse and is a typical teenager that is very chatty. Her energy is contagious and she gives the best hugs.



Gerilyn has been the hardest for me to get to know. She is an observer by nature and doesn't compete for attention like some of the other girls. The more I get to know Gerilyn the more I see her authenticity. She told me yesterday that she wants to be nurse like Jenn, Jeanne, Becky, Sarah and I.

Cinnamon Rolls, Cinnamon Buns, Sticky Buns

Whatever you like to call them, just make sure there good & fresh preferably.

I make cinnamon rolls freestyle.  That means I make the dough, a cinnamon-sugar mix (just to clarify I like to use 2/3 brown sugar and 1/3 white sugar and as much or little cinnamon as you like, no cinnamon creates caramel tasting rolls/buns), and melt some butter then just start making them!

This site from King Arthur Flour has good pictures and recipes for doing them at home, I do them in bulk, you know 300 or 400 at a time!

King Arthur Blog - Cinnamon Rolls

I don't use flour to form, roll, or flatten the dough.  Just a little oil or no-stick spray on my hands.  Then I beat the dough down after it has risen double in size.  Smash it out (flatten it) with your hands until it resembles a rectangle.  Pour a little melted butter and squeegee it all around the rectangle then sprinkle your cinnamon & sugar mixture around on top of that.  Yes, it will be messy but who cares?  Its a cinnamon roll!!!

Roll it up and start cutting your cinnamon rolls out of it... Make sure to roll them real tight but don't worry about how much the mess on your hands is sticking to the dough.  That's trivial.

If you want to be more precise (but why?  The dough is going to swell and rise again so who cares if the cinnamon roll is not perfectly round?) you can use thread or floss to slide under the log of rolled-up dough then pull the strings together on top until it cuts everything between the circle of string.  (kind of like choking somebody from behind with rope on a scary movie except that you carry all the way thru with pulling the string till the formed cinnamon roll pops off the end of the log!).

They make them pretty close to the way I do, using a soft white bread dough recipe.  Where they use milk to spread on the dough for the cinnamon-sugar mixture I use melted butter, which makes it more caramel-y. (yeah, that's not a real word)

Use parchment paper for easier clean-up in your pan, pyrex, or glassware.  Yes, it's available in your 'home' size at the grocery store along the same aisle as plastic wrap and foil.

Well here are pictures of the ones I make, hope they make you hungry and inspire you to try your own.  Quit buying those ones at the grocery store and get over your fear of yeast!

This chafing dish - 2.5" steam table pan holds approximately 24 rolls, I made about 15 of these pans.  None came back.



As you can see there is a good color on the cinnamon roll sides and easy cleanup with the parchment paper



Pull one out to reveal the soft bread and see the dough has cooked



Do you want to keep that thick rich creamy white look to your glaze?  Add in some cream cheese to your basic powdered sugar, milk, vanilla extract recipe.

Another trick is to NOT glaze them but put pecans (or nuts of your choice) in the bottom of the pan before putting cinnamon rolls in, then after baking flip them over on a plate or tray and have pecan covered sticky buns with the caramel tasting syrup running over the 'bottom' now turned top.

These are from scratch cinnamon rolls folks, please, please do not go trying to make a 'diet' or non-fat version of these or making them with wheat flour, there are CINNAMON ROLLS for crying out loud!

*(actually besides the butter that adheres to the cinnamon-sugar mixture -which is also substituted by milk sometimes- and maybe a small amount of oil in the bread dough, there is no fat just loads of sugar in the icing!)