Thanksgiving with a Kick

Along with our semi-American friends (throw some Russians and Canadians in the mix) here in our apartment complex, we decided we must celebrate Thanksgiving together and go all out. We started doing research about a month ago to find out where if anywhere we could get a turkey. Turkey is not a staple here and we were already preparing ourselves for a roasted goat instead. We got word that a Halal butcher would be carrying turkeys. Random yes but we jumped on the tip and I went to go visit Amou's Butcher Shop. The Egyptian owner told me that he would in fact have fresh turkeys that are being raised in Ghana and I could put my order in. Like most things in Ghana, I did this feeling that the chance that we'd actually get a turkey was extremely low. But, we went ahead with the plans and dividing up the menu. I would be responsible for the turkey, gravy, and stuffing...none of which I've made before. And since living in Ghana has been all about new experiences, why not take sign up for one more new one.

So as the big day approached I scurried around town looking for all the ingredients that I needed. Major challenges included celery, dried cranberries, cranberry sauce, and a baster. Four stores later and hours spent driving through traffic all was found, but had to pay an arm and a leg for the precious celery. Friday morning I called Amou's shop to find out when I could pick up my turkey and he said to give him a few hours...he just had to kill it! What?? Did I hear correctly? So it turned out we were getting a super fresh turkey...now the pressure was on. When I arrived at the shop, the shop keeper weighed it and it came to a whopping 22lbs! Frank helped me carry it upstairs to my apartment and the bag broke and there went our fresh turkey on the ground! It didn't matter though, the turkey got a good wash in my sink, got a salt rub and went to my friend's fridge for 24 hours (since I had 200 truffles and 100 cheesecakes in mine! - see previous blog).

On Saturday, after some small miscalculations on the baking time and converting kilos to pounds, I managed to barely get the turkey in our small oven and made the fixings.



Alan did his part and carried it over to our friend's apartment...hence the apron.




The turkey despite being baked upside down was a beautiful golden brown and smelled up our whole place but we didn't mind. We had an amazing feast at our friend, Marina's, place. There were 4 of us couples and on the menu besides what I made were mashed potatoes, green beans, carrot salad, and delicious apple and pecan pies.


Allen, Gilda's husband, carved the turkey as we all looked on.








We devoured as much as we could and then relaxed to our friend Antonio's jazz guitar playing and singing.



It was so nice to be surrounded by good friends even if we did celebrate a few days late. As much as I missed my family's traditional Thanksgiving meal, this was still great and at least now I know how to cook a turkey.

And making the Thanksgiving weekend even better was the momentous occasion of feeling this little boy in my tummy kick for the first time. In fact, the little jabs have been pretty frequent now that I know what I'm feeling and even Alan was able to catch a few kicks with his hand on my stomach.

Latin Flavor in Ghana

I recently was introduced to a Nigerian woman who as it turns out is opening a Latin American restaurant here in Accra. The food is to be a mix of Mexican, Cuban and Brazilian. The person who introduced us, the dutch owner of the store where we buy all our carved furniture, raved about my cakes and so this woman's interest quickly was heightened. It all makes perfect sense: she is Nigerian and owns an optics franchise, her husband is a Ghanaian banker, neither have ever been to Latin America, and both are opening a high end latin retaurant - only in Ghana! Low and behold, she said she had not found anyone to do her desserts for the restaurant - and by the way, her Brazilian chef could not make it either into the country, so the only Latin thing the restaurant had 3 weeks ago was the name. I was not expecting a phone call but she did in fact call a few weeks ago and so I agreed to meet with her. She asked me to make some samples of the desserts she had already decided she wanted and perhaps would ask me to bake desserts for the restaurant's launch party which was this past Friday. Excited I was but also completely overwhelmed,as she had invited 200 people (mostly diplomats and expats) for the launch and the desserts she wanted were not even in my normal repetoire...cheesecakes, mousse cakes, truffles...
I got to experimenting and had her over for a tasting 2 weeks ago. This was after some desperate emails back and forth to my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law who run a large bakery operation in Colombia. On the menu were Alfajores de Dulce de Leche cookies, Tres Leche cupcakes, Chocolate Chili Truffles, Chocolate Mousse Cake, Chocolate Mexican Brownies, and a Chocolate/White Chocolate Cheesecake. She seemed to enjoy everything and we agreed to correspond about prices and the order. The funniest thing of that afternoon came when she hinted she might want the alfajores with another filling, not dulce de leche - I had to tell her the only latin flavor of all her choices was the dulce de leche.

A couple of days passsed and I never heard from her as planned so decided she must not have wanted to make an order. And then the phone call came this past Wednesday afternoon...she explained that her emails were not going through to me nor were the phone calls but she'd like 200 truffles and 100 mini cheesecakes! By Friday!! After taking some deep breaths I decided I could do it and just would cancel anything and everything scheduled for the next two days. I proceeded to send Frank off to buy groceries for me but since he doesn't read I had to send him also with all the containers and packaging so he could find the items at the store. He did quite well with the chores which left me available to start melting chocolate and rolling truffles. I managed to finish everything but was left totally spent by Friday morning. After some inner strugling, I took a leap of faith and gave Frank the restaurant's map for him to take the order - Frank doesn't read maps or believe in them. He came back about an hour later with a big fat check written to Africake... what?! a check?? I don't have a bank account in Ghana! All this work for a check I can't cash? 95% of Ghana's economy runs with hard cash, everybody carries wads of cash to pay for everything... why do I get a check?!?!
Anyway, she did call me the day after the launch to tell me all was wonderful. She came to my apartment and wrote me a check for cash instead of Africake. She also wants me to do all her desserts for the next two weeks before I take off on vacation and then home for 6 months. I'm holding my breath. If and when I pull this one off, it will definitely be a feat.

Baby Prep and Photos

As promised, I've included some photos of the beginnings of the baby room preparation as well as my growing tummy. I have found my changing view from above very interesting!

Happy News

As much as my blog posts indicate that I am completely consumed by baking cakes, I've actually been consumed by something else quite large which Alan and I have been waiting to share until the right moment which is now. We are expecting a baby boy in April which makes me officially entering my 5 month of pregnancy today in fact. We're really excited about this major addition to our lives and even more so after seeing the little guy today on the ultrasound scan bouncing around and super active. He wouldn't even sit still long enough for the doctor to get a good look at certain angles but we're happy that he's got a strong heartbeat and the organs all seem to be developing well. The belly is growing and I went from people telling me two weeks ago that I barely looked pregnant to really popping out this week. I am anticipating feeling the little guy moving around any day now and can only imagine by the looks of his activity on the ultrasound that he will make his presence known soon. I'm staying as active and fit as possible and am keeping up my three times a week walks with my friend Marina who is also teaching a prenatal yoga class I'm in with two other pregnant women. I'm even going to try aquaaerobics in our pool tomorrow!

And of course, the fact that we're living in Ghana pregnant, brings with it funny and interesting stories. Like just today in the waiting room at the doctor's office, the nurse came out to inform us that there was no electricity in the office so we'd have to wait for some time to be seen until they fixed the problem. So we watched as electricians ran in and out of rooms trying to get it back on and even continued to when we were in the exam room after it was fixed. Luckily I was finished with the exam when they entered. And if my early posts didn't give a clear enough picture of our fear of malaria, it's only intensified now that I'm pregnant. I am not taking any antimalarials because of possible risk to the baby but getting malaria while pregnant can be very dangerous. So I am on strict dusk lock down in the house, windows shut, A/C blasting in an attempt to lower the exposure to malaria-carrying mosquitoes. I still get bit once and a while and every time we have a twinge of worry but the chances that an occasional bite leads to malaria are pretty slim. So bring on the deet...it's better than getting malaria.

Then there is the baby room prep which we're beginning a bit early because I'll return to the states in January where I'll safely stay until the baby is born. We wanted to get the room as set as possible before I leave and given that there is not a Babies 'R Us to be found in Ghana, you have to get creative. So we came up with a retro safari theme inspired by our orange velvet vintage chair and the 9-foot tall orange wooden giraffe that they sell on the side of the road that we just had to have. And after some heavy heavy bargaining, we managed to fit the giraffe in our car and positioned it just below the ceiling in the baby's room. Now we're on a mission to get a wooden elephant table! I've made some curtains and we found an orange shag rug so the room is really coming together. We still haven't figured out major items like the crib that we'll likely have to bring over with us on the plane but we have a few months for that. We're even getting a dresser/changing table made here by a shop that does great woodwork and carvings.

We're having a great time planning and enjoying the pregnancy so far and will try to post pictures soon of the growing belly and retro safari baby's room when my computer is back up and running.

Bake, Clean, Deliver, Repeat

I realize that my blogging has sort of been put on the back burner lately and mostly because I've been incredibly busy with my baking business here in Accra. When I got back from vacation in the US, I figured it would be a while before any new cake orders would come in but to my surprise, I quickly started to receive phone calls for orders. And what was wonderful is that some of these new orders were simply by word of mouth which of course is the best sort of advertising. And on top of these new orders, I've been working with a local Ghanaian woman here and her coffee shop to develop some sweets for the shop. Currently, they only serve sandwiches and salads with their coffee beverages and in my opinion could really use some sweets. I don't know about you, but salad is not what I crave with my espresso. This woman is also in the beginning stages of starting a bakery so she's asked me to help them come up with some ideas for their bakery menu. And in the meantime, I've been baking her biscotti every week to provide to customers with their coffee beverages.

So I figured I'd show off some of the newest creations and challenges given to me by the clientele here in Ghana. It seems that everyone lately wants a little something that I've never done before so in the last few weeks I've done everything from creating spider cupcakes for Halloween, gecko's for a furniture shop owner's cakes, and most recently a cake for the Marine Corps' 235th birthday. It's been a lot of fun to teach myself new tricks with fondant, gumpaste, and icing and learn a little about business along the way. I've had to figure out pricing, deal with 1 slightly unsatisfied customer (apparently bright orange icing can taste a little funny and can be a disaster for a kids' party), and even create invoices for one customer. And now, I've recently been propositioned to work with a Nigerian woman here and her Ghanaian husband as they are planning to open a Latin American restaurant in 2 weeks. She heard about my cakes and I'll be meeting with her today to see if I can be of help with their dessert menu.







Of course all this baking has led to countless hours cleaning and shopping for ingredients which I daydream about hiring someone else to do as it is backbreaking work on top of hours baking and decorating. And there has been no shortage of trials and tribulations like particularly when it comes to finding quality ingredients. For example, the chocolate factory here that produces chocolate from local Ghanaian cocoa beans has been under renovations since the summer which has made finding reasonably priced chocolate like a scavenger hunt. And just this week, I found a little hole in the wall grocery store that still has some chocolate from the factory in stock so I bought almost all of it!. Recently, I learned a bit about false advertising as I've been struggling to make buttercream successfully here despite having made it back home dozens of times with no problem. I finally decided to switch brands of butter and voila...buttercream was a success. Then, when I looked at the packaging that is clearly labeled "Butter," I come to find out that it has vegetable solids mixed in. No wonder it didn't work! But the butter saga doesn't end there. Just this week, I bought butter that clearly had gone rancid and ruined a whole batch of buttercream. That's what happens when there are regular power outages I suppose. I guess from now on I will have to open each package of butter before I buy it to make sure all is ok.

Now off to the next project...50 carrot cake cupcakes for a baby shower.

Finding Good Help

Living in Ghana has proposed all sorts of new situations to us that we had never even considered being faced with, as many of my previous blogs demonstrate. But, these new situations never cease to make us laugh in wonder at this life we live here. Recently my newest challenge has been assisting my friend Gilda in finding a new driver. She has gone through 2 already and is not happy with the current one. What I've learned from living here and relying on "help" to complete every day tasks is that it's not only about the person being able to complete the job to your satisfaction but is almost more about the comfort and relationship you are able to have with this person. Alan and I have been so incredibly lucky to have found Frank and Rita. We completely trust them and there seems to be a great deal of mutual respect between us. Others haven't been so lucky...from stories of people stealing, to refusing to do to the work asked of them, to lying, etc. And of course these types of issues are not unique to Ghana and can happen anywhere. It's just that in the US we would never have been faced with such issues because we never had any or needed any "help."

So anyway, I wanted to try to help Gilda find a new driver. Basically, the issue with her current one,  is that he often arrives to work with a bad attitude and complains about driving them to and fro despite that being his job. He doesn't seem to like to wait for her and on top of it has been requesting more payment since the first week on the job. I mentioned to Frank that Gilda was looking for a new driver, and like many drivers, Frank knows a handful of guys that are drivers (either unemployed or periodic taxi drivers looking for full time steady work). He told me that he'd bring his best guy to meet Gilda yesterday. Frank arrived at my place with Sunyani at 7:30am yesterday and we had to tell them that they'd have to wait because no one was even sure he was bringing someone and 7:30 is a little early for an interview. So around 9am, I called Gilda with the good news that we might have a driver for her. However, within 5 seconds of meeting Sunyani I had concerns. His English skills seemed very, and I mean VERY limited, even more limited than Frank's. But, we gave it a try. The interview went something like this, Gilda asked a question, Sunyani looked at her with a blank stare, Frank translated and eventually just answered the questions for him, Gilda's maid, Elizabeth, who was in the background ironing, jumped in and told Frank to stop answering for him, and then when giving the chance to speak, Sunyani could barely form sentences. But, when it came to discussing salary he got a little bold. Gilda proposed starting at 160 Cedis and if they liked him would go up to 180 Cedis. This, by the way, is pretty standard for drivers' salaries. So Sunyani says he'd like 300 Cedis which prompted our mouths to drop open, as he was totally serious. I watched Elizabeth in the background grinning. She appeared to already know this guy wasn't going to work out. Gilda repeated her offer and I jumped in to explain that if he doesn't like the salary to not take the offer because the last thing Gilda wants is him to request more money every week from her. And as expected, he eventually agreed to the salary. Anyway, to make a long story short, after sitting on the issue for a few hours, Gilda decided there was no way this was going to work and decided it was a no go. And of course, Frank said he'll line up other drivers for interviews and my only request was that he check their English beforehand.

It's situations like this, that we're reminded of Frank's "goodness." He won't get anything out of helping these drivers or helping Gilda but seems to just want to help because he's a good person. Just yesterday, I saw him talking to another driver in the parking lot who was explaining that he took his employer's brand new SUV home to his house for the night (which many drivers are allowed to do) and someone broke into the back window and when they didn't find anything of value they stole the driver's side mirror. Frank told me that he told the driver to do what he does from now on...when Frank on rare occasions is allowed to take our car to his house, he sleeps on the roof of the car to protect it. When I asked about mosquitos he said he just drapes a big cloth over himself. When I asked about comfort, he said he really likes sleeping outside. Now this is what I call dedication. Frank would protect us and our car at no cost I think. And clearly he pays the consequences from time to time, as he got a really bad case of Malaria 2 weeks ago that prompted days off from work and a hospital visit. I just hope it wasn't from sleeping on top of our car!