Sunday, June 9, 2013

A New Toy....

Ryan received his camera, and just in time for our trip!  

Dive housing on the left, camera on the right.  The giant box is full of more lenses, underwater lighting, and everything else needed to making it underwater ready.
Luckily, the box is carry on approved.
He received his SCUBA certification during our honeymoon in French Polynesia, and enjoyed his many dive experiences.  Since then, he also completed a dive in South Africa.  After each return, he was always so excited to show me pictures he took, but he was always less than satisfied with his GoPro pictures.  With our upcoming trip to Borneo, and the dive package he bought for a portion of our vacation, and with a vacation we have planned for this November, it was only inevitable that he would start researching cameras, and underwater dive housing.

After months of research, he finally made a decision, and is loving his new toy!  He is has been taking lots of pictures, and experimenting with different settings.  Macy has been the ever patient model.

Here are a few pictures he selected.  The captions are what he named them.

Art Effects Wine Bottle
Our home bar area.

Dramatic Swing Set
Taken in the front parking lot of our apartment building.  We were having lots of storms. 

Inappropriate Macy
Long walk, she was tired.

Macro PB Kiss
I found Hershey Kisses at the store.  I just had to make Peanut Butter Blossoms.

Macro Eye
Macy, always the patient model. 

Super Wide Apartment Picture
He bought a fish eye lenses.  I am impressed how wide the view is.

Twister Movie Novo
During our recent storms, I saw this rain cloud moving by.  I told Ryan to grab the camera.


I look forward to seeing the pictures he captures during his Borneo dives!  Stay tuned!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Pack the adventure shoes....

Our Malarone prescription has been refilled.  The bug spray will be packed.  New, Columbia "mosquito repellent" clothing has been purchased.  Our travel documents have arrived.  In one week, we are going to:

 Borneo!

If you would have asked me this time last year if I could ever imagine myself going on safari in South Africa, I would have most likely shrugged my shoulders, and responded with a "maybe, why not."  If you would have then asked, if I could imagine myself enjoying the safari so much that I would then ask to be sent to the jungles of Borneo, I would have probably laughed, and called you crazy.  I sit here today, remembering how much I loved all the experiences in South Africa, and how excited I am for jungle, and animal experiences in Borneo.  

I would like to introduce Charlie:

I do not know Charlie personally, actually his name most likely isn't even Charlie, it's the name I have given him, and he is my current computer background.  He is a proboscis monkey, and lives on the island of Borneo.  I hope to see him, or many of his friends during our trip.  Also added to the list are pygmy elephants, orangutans, and sea turtles.  As with the penguins, cheetahs, and lion cubs in South Africa I will resist the urge to scoop one up and bring it home.

We leave Moscow for Kuala Lumpur a week from today.  Two days will be spent in KL, then we board a plane to Borneo, for nine days of jungle adventures, river cruises, and snorkeling/diving off the coast.  We return to KL where Ryan has a week of work training, and I board a plane back to Moscow, then to the States.  

And, since I have slowly become addicted to cooking, I prepared a dinner in honor of our trip.  I look forward to feasting on large amounts of Asian cuisine.  

Love all the colors of this Mango Chicken. 

Mango Chicken, Coconut Rice, Mango Tea

Banana Fritters with a dollop of Mascarpone frosting for dessert

I am trying my best to not let my excitement get the best of me.  I have definitely mentally checked out of Russia, I have a week, one week, seven days.  Actually, today is basically over for me, so I am down to six days, only six days. 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Traveling to South America....

As much as I would love to say, Ryan and I are traveling to South America, sadly, it would not be true.  We remain in Russia, but last night, our tastebuds traveled to South America, more specifically, Argentina.  It was June's Dinner Challenge.

This month's dinner challenge started with a suggestion, "Send Ryan to the grocery store, by himself, and let him buy whatever he wants.  What he brings home, you use to make dinner."  The suggestion was accepted, and Sunday, I sent Ryan to the nearby grocery store, alone.  My mind ran through the possibilities of what he could possibly find.  Judging by his few trips to the grocery store with me, I feared he would come home with bags upon bags of groceries, every item that was shiny, and caught his attention.

Earlier in the day, we did have a conversation about live lobsters.  I told him, if he brought home a live lobster he would either be served a live lobster, or find it living in our bathtub.  I was not a murderer.  He did not bring home a live lobster, he brought home this:

Pineapple
Sherry Vinegar
Peppercorn
Chocolate Ricotta
Sombrero Pasta Noodles
Mozzarella
AND a nasty, bloody, huge piece of meat.
He gave me all the other items first.  As I sat looking at them, he said, "wait, there's one more thing."
As I looked in the bag, which based on the size,  I thought was a whole fish, I asked,
"ugh, what is THAT!?!" To which Ryan replied (with laughs) "a whole tenderloin."  And, what am I supposed to do with THAT?!?!  More laughing, "it's your dinner challenge, you figure it out"
Needless to say, I was thinking the whole fish, or even the lobster would have been preferred. 


I feared I would ruin these cute little guys, so I wanted to capture the moment prior to their water bath, and oven experience.  

Using some of the pineapple, Sangria was our drink of choice.  With Tango music as our soundtrack, we sat down for an incredible dinner, and journey to Argentina.  

I treated the sombreros as empanadas.  Our appetizer was spinach and cheese stuffed sombreros, served with a peppercorn sauce.  Ingredients used: mozzarella, sombrero, and peppercorn. 

It may be my proudest moment in all cooking experiences.
A juicy, delicious, perfectly grilled steak (that marinated in a sherry vinegar bath all day) with Chimichurri and grilled onions.  YUMMY!
Butternut squash and pineapple stuffed sombreros for the side.
Ingredients used: tenderloin, sherry vinegar, sombreros, and pineapple. 

And, for dessert.  Dulce De Leche Dark Chocolate Brownie.
Since we live in Russia, and they do not have a "latin section" in their supermarket, I was left to make my own Dulce De Leche.  And make, I did.  It wasn't too hard, just required patience.
The chocolate ricotta was mixed with the Dulce de Leche to form that tasty ribbon in the middle.
Served on a fresh slice of pineapple, a side of vanilla ice cream, and a cinnamon/sugared sombrero bottom.
Ingredients used: Chocolate Ricotta, Pineapple, and Sombrero

If I am to be completely honest, it was not a pretty dinner cooking experience.  During the process of dissecting the tenderloin, and surprisingly coming out with steaks, Macy was the only witness to my numerous outbursts.  I few gags, a few ewwws, an occasional "I am becoming a vegetarian" sprinkled with "Ryan is only getting tofu for the rest of his life."  In the end, I showed that tenderloin who's boss, and we feasted on a fantastic dinner, and our freezer is filled with more steaks.  Ryan greatly enjoyed the steak, and I would agree.  It definitely was the star of the night, not only in taste, but the fact I was incredibly proud of myself.  But please, Ryan, do not bring anything like that home again.  Next time, it's your turn.  I have plenty of website articles, and YouTube videos to show you how to properly cut apart a tenderloin.

Or, a trip to Argentina would probably convince me to dissect another tenderloin.  Start planning!

I would say, stay tuned for July's Dinner Challenge, but I will not be in Russia for the entire month of July.  The two dinner challenges in May made up for the lack of July.  You never know, my Mother did ask if she and my family could provide me with a dinner challenge......