Tyrone the Rock Star

Ever since we have arrived on the Ship everyone on board as greeted Tyrone with such excitment. They are tired of meat the tastes like rubber. He is making ribs and mac n' cheese today for dinner, hopefully he won't disappoint them.

AFM menu - Introduction

Welcome to the AFM menu. If you would like to view the menu right away click 'menu' on top underneath the anchor.

This blog is maintained by the Chief Cook/Executive Chef. The Africa Mercy is in West Africa. Our organization is Mercy Ships and we need volunteers of all work experiences, but this blog will directly be related to Food Service. Hopefully it will be filled with the current menu for the AFM and other relative food and personal experience posts while working in the Galley (Kitchen).

tyronebcookin...cook, chef, culinary sponge, traveler, volunteer, missionary.

The Taj Mahal

So we made it to the Ship with all of our luggage, Praise the Lord. Tyrone is still not feeling well (He has had a cold for about 4 days) and now his ears are giving him trouble due to the multiple take offs and landings. When we landed in Tenerife the feeling of relief swept over my body. We are finally here. We will have the same cabin (Lord willing) for one year. I finally feel like I can settle in. We have been planning on coming to the ship since February, so we have been in transition period since then. When I walked into our new cabin I got goose bumps. partially due to the freezing air conditioning, but mostly due to the beauty of our new home. We both lived on the Caribbean Mercy and were used to living in a junky, old, shoe box, but this is clean, new, spacious and organized. We both have our own night stands and closets!!!!!!! Praise the Lord. And in the closet there are 4 shelves. All my stuff neatly fits on to the appropriate shelf. Plus we have a desk with plenty of shelves and our bed has massive storage underneath. I am so thankful for the beautimus living space. Please pray for us and the ability for us to adjust to the time change and our new environment, plus I would really like some girl friends.

You smell the way I want you to smell.

During our time in  Huntsville, we have been able to hang out with my niece (Katie,9) Nephews (Noah, 7, and VJ,18 months). They all are so individual and delightful... most of the time. Katie is so smart and inquisitive, and Noah would say BOSSY. We play games together, currently, the favorite is Trouble in the bubble. The other day we painted her nails and it only took 1 hour, due to the multiple retouches. Noah is FUNNY. He says things like "You're my favorite Auntie because you smell the way I want you to smell."  (He has a thing for perfume, I think). He loves movies and he loves to re-in-act them even more. As soon as the movie is over he runs into his room and replays the whole movie while admiring his shadow. VJ has newly discovered the world of walking and mischief. He got a rocking horse for Christmas and he loves to give it "loves" and make nay sounds.

Christmas Meal & Stollen

As most of you know I (tyrone) have a disdain for the 'normal' holiday meals (Ham, Turkey) so I was pretty pleased at this years Christmas meal that was a collaboration between my mother, my brother-in-laws mother, and me.

My mom brought scalloped potatoes (tasty as to be expected) and a chocolate cake (because we do a 'Happy Birthday Jesus Cake!' from time to time as part of Christmas Dinner), Ursula (bro-in-law's mom) brought cranberry & apples (sauce/relish) dish and my personal favorite for coffee or tea, Stollen (at my request of course). I cooked the protein/meat which was a pecan-crusted chicken with a creamy honey mustard sauce, the vegetable was baby carrots with cream of cilantro sauce, and wheat rolls with butter/Gorgonzola/olive tapenade center (baked inside).

ALL the food was delicious and excellent but I want to talk about the Stollen for a minute...for all the tea, chai, coffee drinkers out there that eat biscotti, scones, or any baked bread item in between you should really try Stollen. Click the underlined link above for the Wikipedia definition, history, and recipes.



I guess I could have asked Ursula for the recipe but what's the fun in that? If I could make it for myself, would I? I don't know. Some things are more prized or special when other people make them their way for you, and you come to expect it that way...sometimes it's disappointing to try other recipes and not taste like when they make them.

At this point, If I ate someone else's Stollen I'm not sure I would like it, or if it would 'measure up' to Ursula's...because she is (by the way) German so I would suspect the Stollen would be as original and genuine as you can get (with of course any historic family influence it has had along the way).