Millie and I should create a cooking show!

Today was nice and relaxing. Tigist is extremely busy with her work and writing a paper for her class, so she wasn't able to take Millie and I to church this morning. That was okay. I mean we all totally understand how busy she is, so it wasn't a big deal. She promised us that she would take us to church and do with stuff after tomorrow because that's when her paper is due. After she turns her paper in tomorrow, she has a huge break for a good couple of weeks! How exciting! It'll be great! Tigist said she would be able to do a lot of things with us from now on, so I can't wait!

Because we didn't go to church today, Millie and I were able to take our time getting ready and do whatever we wanted all day. Our plan is to make a dessert or treat for the Genebank every Monday and Friday until we leave. We thought that would be a really great idea, and give us something to do once in a while. Also, this way we can work on our cooking skills! Last week for the 4th of July and the barbecue at Andreas' house last Sunday we made the no-bake peanut butter thumbprint cookies with jelly. This week we wanted to try something with a totally different taste! We decided to make no-bake cookies with dates, peanut butter, and oatmeal. Neither of us had ever worked with dates before, so we really didn't have any clue what to do, so we pitted them, put them in my pot, cooked them up a little bit, added some water, smashed them down, and they turned out smooth! (We found a lot of recipes that include them, so we decided to try them! We didn't use a recipe though! We just kind of created it!) After the dates were fairly smooth, we decided to add the peanut butter in! We mixed that around while still on the burner, and when it got evenly mixed and the consistency we wanted, we poured that onto the oatmeal and mixed that around. When it got fairly cooled down, we rolled them into balls and set them on plates and put them in the fridge to cool a little bit more.

We weren't done yet! After a little while, we took the cookie balls out of the fridge and set to work on melting chocolate to cover some of the cookie balls with! Then, we crushed up some peanuts to sprinkle on top of that! Since right now some members are fasting and can't eat the cookie balls with the chocolate coating, we coated some with honey and peanuts. While fasting, they can't eat any products coming from animals. So as an alternative for our treats, we used honey instead of chocolate. I can't wait to bring them to work tomorrow for everyone! In my opinion they taste way better than our cookies from last week! :)

The cookie balls with honey

The cookie balls with chocolate

Both of them!

Oh I forgot! More food to talk about! Last night Millie and I decided to go to the Zebu for dinner last night. Neither of us were all too hungry, so we shared a burger and fried. The burgers here are pretty huge! They have a bun, another piece of bread in the middle, burger, tomato, lettuce, cheese, and some interesting, sweet sauce. It was very different, but tasty! The fries are also pretty big and very good! They're not too salty. Just right!

Burger and fries!

Other than making cookies, I watched some TV, read, played some cards, and did a little bit of research. So it was a good day!

Great story about my TV! I got a new one yesterday!!! It was so weird! Millie and I were out of our rooms in the morning because I had to go to the office for a while to working on staining the pistils. When we headed back to our rooms there were a few men outside of our hostel putting together new flat-screen TVs! We were kind of curious why they were putting them together there. It didn't even cross our minds they would be for us! It turns out they were! As we were walking past them, they asked if we could open our doors so they could install them! Sure! Of course I'll let you put a brand-new flat-screen 32' TV in my room! Before, our TVs were tiny small boxes that didn't have too clear of a picture and for some reason I couldn't get it to work a lot of the time... This TV is great! Now I can watch the last of the World Cup games right from my room! How neat is that! I have it totally made for me now! This is the life:)

That's right:) Be jealous:)

Now tonight Millie and I plan on either getting samosas from the Zebu for dinner or making some pasta with avocado and tomatoes! I guess we'll find out when either of us get hungry! :) 

I hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! I know I did! :)