Foodies of the Desert

Yesterday I came to this realization that I will survive. Don’t take this to mean I didn’t think I would but yesterday I saw and learned that cooking here is doable. I am not the greatest cook and even with my limited cooking ability there is usually some sort of processed something in there. There are four other houses here filled with missionaries who have been on the field for years. Nancy has lived in Niger for fourteen years and I guess you could say she is a foodie of the desert. She was just going to teach Ashley and I how to make yogurt but then she asked if we wanted to learn to make tortillas. No question there. I was tempted to even pack some when I came but no room was left in my luggage. We went back to her place later in the day for our tortilla class. Well tortilla class turned into bread class, which turned into sweet roll class, which turned into icing class, which turned into vinaigrette class. All this in under three hours even. I’ll admit, for some reason making your own yogurt kind of freaked me out a bit. Leaving my warm glass jar wrapped in a towel on my counter in the heat of the day kind of concerned me but this is what you do. Tonight I made myself finally try it. It was bitter but as soon as I added a bit of sugar, I am already hooked! No more buying yogurt in the store. Beyond easy too. All you need is powdered milk, water, and a small bit of yogurt starter. Done. I’m already thinking about how to make frozen yogurt and using the yogurt for baking and mango yogurt and vanilla yogurt and… We documented our entire cooking day, basically step by step but I can’t seem to get pictures on here, sorry. I am sure more cooking days and stories are to come!