Rare Treats

After crops have been planted and the rains have come, one of our most favorite treats is fresh maize. There is not an abundance of fresh maize to eat because the Zambians will not harvest the maize until it has dried on the stalk. When fresh maize is harvested, one of the great ways to prepare it is to roast it. Just last week as I was coming home from the market, we saw a man with fresh maize on his bike! The time for fresh maize has already come and gone but he must have had a second crop and now has fresh maize to sell. We were so excited that we bought 10 ears of corn and cooked some for ourselves and gave the rest to friends that were delighted with the gift!

 Shucking corn

Lauren was so excited to shuck her own corn!

The kids make a "corn flower" then they break all of the husk off the corn at once.

The maize is ready to roast!

The braiser is ready with the malasha (charcoal) getting hot!

The maize goes on the fire and the waiting begins!

 Lauren loves to help, so she helped me to roast the corn. Man it was yummy, especially since it was warm and right off the fire! Delicious!

Another rare treat is to be able to prepare a birthday meal for someone that is a good friend and neighbor! Kim is our neighbor and is from Canada. Saturday was her birthday. On Sunday we had her over for Chicken Curry and Dunkin Hines cupcakes with Milk Chocolate icing. To our surprise, our Peace Corps friend, Drew, stopped by to spend the night and joined us for the festivities! 

Kim and me with her birthday meal, Chicken Curry!

D

Drew and Kim preparing their dinner.