apple cinnamon oatmeal chewy goodness

One of my favorite food/baking blogs is Joy the Baker. With the brisk weather starting up, I've been looking forward to baking with apples, cinnamon and pumpkin. Fall flavors I've been craving for a while now but didn't seem weather appropriate. This recipe seemed like the perfect one to start with, why? because I had this recipe calls for ONE apple, and thats all I had this evening at home :)

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies as adapted from Joy the Baker

I always decrease the butter & sugar in recipes. This recipe handled the decreased fat and sugar well, and still seemed slightly too sweet for my taste. We'll see how my new Kings Cross Community Group likes them tomorrow night! :)

My Birthday flowers :) beautiful!

26.

this year i will

- exercise more
- bake and cook more
- wear more jewlery

to pray for

²¹From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.²²Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"²³Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.²⁶What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?²⁷For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. ²⁸I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."'

Matthew 16: 23-28

Before church yesterday, Charles and I had a thought provoking talk about our future. We had some miscommunication and I was frustrated that I didn't have my facts straight. Beyond that though was the real heart issue. I was scared. I am scared. Marriage is so exciting and I can't wait to marry my best friend but I realized that I was overlooking what marriage entails. He will be the leader and I will be his helper. I want to be able to leave everything behind, my father and mother, my family and all the comforts of home to follow where God brings us as a couple but it is scary. The verses above really convicted me at church. I realized that I am clinging on to the things of this world, the things of man. Instead, I must set my mind to the things of God.

I am so thankful that God knows exactly what it is that I need to hear and I was quickly humbled by my own sins. Charles and I have been trying harder to put everything into prayer, all the little and big decisions including our wedding planning, but also just praying more for our time engaged that we may day by day become more of a man or a woman after God's heart. I'm trying not to worry about the things in the future, trusting God in the every day, praying and realizing that I must give God my time right now too, and not just planning for how I will be giving God my life after we get married

Prayer points:

- to be intentional at home with my family to show them my love, respect, honoring my parents

- God will use this season to prepare me to be the wife He intends me to be for my future husband

- be patient, not anxious for the future, valuing each and every day He has given me

- take advantage of every opportunity to build relationships with my family, especially my mother and gain insight from all of her wisdom

- handle schoolwork and serving at church with a pure heart

my cute lobster mommy

this is from an email she sent me and my brother:

Hello, my dear children,

I am very happy here in Maine. I ate a big, and huge lobster this evening! It was delicious and satisfied very much.

I have 10 minutes to chat with you guys. I will eat more lobster tomorrow and the day after. Then I will be a lobster woman.

she is soooo cute! :) i love my mommy!

India day 7- the day of the monkeys and lizard

We met Nanu at 8:30am and we started our 4 hour journey to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located. I had asked the hotel concierge for some headache medicine in hopes that I wouldn't get car sick on the ride there. I took the unnamed medicine and took the middle isle with Charles as Chris climbed to the third row and Wells took the front seat. 3 hours and no stops later, we stopped at a restaurant. We found out that it usually takes only 1- 1.5 hours to get here and it'd take another 3 hours to get to Agra! This is when the Bombay Tummies really started.

As we took a seat in the restaurant and went to use the toilets, both Charles and Chris asked for TP to brave the dirty men's restroom. Taking one look at the cups, we decided to just drink our water from the water bottles directly instead of pouring them into the cups. That should have warned us of the impending bathroom trips we'd have to take due to this restaurant! We ordered Chicken Tikka Masala (yum!), a Chicken Kebab and a Chicken Fried Rice and a garlic naan. The food was good enough and we set off to finish our journey to Agra. On the way we passed by all sorts of vehicles, toot-toots (make shift cars filled with as many as 15 passengers! Wells saw one with 5 people sitting on the roof!), elephants!, camels, goats, cows, water buffalo, horses, horse and carriages, mini trucks and mini cars. I think our mini-van was the largest regular mode of transportation there was! When we made another stop 45 minutes later and our driver got out to "pay the toll" things got scary! A bunch of monkeys came up to us from the left side of the window. Me, being the stupid tourist that I am, took out my camera and took a picture of Charles and the window hoping to get a good picture of the monkeys. After I took one I realized this probably was not a good idea because A minute later an angry man demanded money from us for the picture that I took yelling, "Money! That lady took a picture of my monkey, give me Money!" He even tried to open the doors next to us and ended up opening the front door next to Wells. Wells tried to calm him down and said lets talk like men, you don't need to yell but the man continued to yell and demand money. I decided to give him 10 RB hoping that he'd just leave but he demanded he wanted 100. After realizing that I didn't even get a picture with the monkeys I refused to give any more money. He pleaded with us telling us he's a poor man realizing that we're not going to give him money for the picture. Thankfully our driver came back and we left the toll unharmed and only 10 RB less than we started with.

We finally made it to Agra to our hotel, the JayPee Palace Hotel and Convention Center, a super long two floor hotel with rooms and amentities spanning 25 acres! We drank some lime juice as our welcome drink and made the what seemed like 15 minute walk to our hotel rooms. Putting our stuff down and using the bathroom again (remember, bombay tummy!) we set out to go to the Taj Mahal! Our tour guide Ragu (pronounced Roger) picked us up from the airport and along with our driver took us to the Taj. He started giving us a speech about how there are two types of people in the world, those who have seen the Taj and those who haven't and right now we're part of those who haven't but pretty soon we'll be part of those who have! We got to the Taj Mahal Tourist office where we paid 750 RB (around $15 US) each for entrance fee and we each received a bag filled with a water bottle and shoe covers. We paid an additional 20 RB to be driven to the Taj in a large un-airconditioned van. Ragu warned us about hagglers and to keep "stone faced" as we walked, telling us that all the things that they sell on the side of the street next to the Taj are fakes or very bad quality. We walked out stone facing our way to the security check point where the guys and the girls split up once again for security. They made me throw out a new pack of Eclipse gum because no food is allowed at the Taj.

The Taj itself was beautiful. As you get closer and closer you see just how grand it really is. We sat and learned a little bit about the history of the Taj, about how it was made as a loving monument to a dead wife and both the husband and the wife are buried inside. We were warned again about pickpocketers especially inside the Taj when we look at the tombs. We were given 45 minutes to walk around and take pictures. Two Indian men approached Wells and asked if they could take pictures with him. They each took turns taking a picture with him. Hilarious.

We also stopped by a factory where they made marble tables and figurines with the precious stones inside. Our tour guide told us that the owners of this factory are actually descendants of the people who built the Taj and created these figurines in the same way as the Taj was created. The sketchiest part of this was when the worker told us that he wanted to show us something that was "not for sale." I'm not sure why but we all followed him into the sketchy elevator up one flight. I was sure that we'd be sold or something! We were brought to a large Taj Mahal replica which he told us was the second largest Taj Mahal in the world. We walked around quickly knowing that we didn't want to purchase anything there. Next our tour guide brought us to the Agra Fort. On they way to the fort we were texting with Ravi asking him how much to pay our tour guide. Ravi replied that he never organized a tour guide for us and often times people pretend they are and then change ridiculously high prices so be careful. We all sat looking at each other in the car, unsure of what to do and unsure of what was going on. We found out soon that Ravi's family friend had organized the tour guide for us and we had to pay him 1200 RB for the day of sight seeing. Relieved but also freaked out, we asked to be brought back to our hotel. We spent the rest of the evening at the swimming pool and then split up again to enjoy the Turkish bath, sauna and jacuzzi.

Later that evening we took a hotel taxi to the Sheraton so we could eat at their buffet. We were all so excited to see non-Indian cusine and the large array of desserts. We ate our most expensive meal here on the trip, including drips equivalent to about $25 US! Not bad for the most expensive meal at all! We took a taxi back and called it an evening. That was enough fun for the day.

Twenty minutes later I found a lizard in our room on the wall. We called over the rest of the boys and we spent the next 15 minutes trying to move the lizard into a bag or out in the hallway. Finally we cajoled the lizard into the hallway where it moved into the room next to us. Wells yelled close your doors quick! and we both stuffed the bottom of our doors with towels so the lizard could not come back in. Fun times.

india day 5- the day chris got hit by a stick

Ravi woke up with food poisoning so we all decided to try to explore the city on our own, armed with our own personal driver of course! After a healthy and light breakfast of an assortment of cut up fruits and cereal, we were ready to go. A little nervous but also excited we set out for Colaba with 4 main places to visit. We first were dropped off at Metro shoes and we walked along a street filled with souveniers, bold colored jewlery and clothing, and incense. We decided to just walk around and see what we found and we looked into several stores of Indian homegoods. We saw many different linens, silk blankets, pillows and china. We realized after walking a little bit that we were really close to the Gateway and Taj Mahal Palace Hotel again and we looked at some of the stores around there such as Bombai Electric.

It was when we were walking along the stores here that Chris encountered a child around the age of 7 or 8 who pointed to his Pepsi and said "pepsi, pepsi." When Chris refused to give him the Pepsi, he hit Chris with a wooden stick! Thats not something we see often in NYC!

Next we decided it was time to eat and we found our driver, or actually he found us. We went to eat at Moshe Bakery, a Western cuisine cafe in the heart of Colaba. We ordered a variety of dishes such as garlic bread, hummus, kebab sandwich, pizza bagels with mushroom and peppers, baked spaghetti and of course dessert.. chocolate puddle, a yummy molten chocolate cake melted down with a sliver of cheesecake and brownie. Next we braved the monsoon that had just started up and went to Coloba Market to a store owned by Mrs. Nanwani's friend, Silver Market. We looked around at different silver goods and jewelry. We got back into the car just in time before the rain started pouring down again. Then we went to Cottage Industries, a series of three stores with different high quality Indian goods. We saw some beautiful pashminas of different qualities, different marble made elephants, and even diamond jewelry. Finally, we stopped by another jewelry store and then head back home to the apartment. We all took naps and rested up before dinner. We originally were going to go to Khyber, one of Mumbai's best Indian restaurants for dinner but decided to order in instead so Ravi could make it to the doctors office. We rested up back at the apartment and had a big family dinner in the dining room of lots and lots of really great Indian dishes and some Indian-Chinese dishes as well! The table was absolutely full of food and even taking one bite of each dish was enough to make me full. We had some butter chicken, almond chicken, dahl, different rotis.. Chris mistook a jalapeno pepper for a string bean! and ate the whole thing. He said he was trying not to cause a scene and he really did handle it really well! After some water and yogurt, he was much better but also done for the meal.

india days 1-4

day 1- arrival. 11pm india time (mumbai), 8am nyc time. slept ~ 5 hours on the plane. watched 3 movies on the way and had our first exposure to indian food and our first curry! we had this chicken dish with rice and mango sweet dessert to eat with plain yogurt. so yummy. we also had a mini chick-pea curry wrap which i actually did not end up eating but was quite excited about! :) the first thing we all noticed when we got off of the plane was this thick, heavy air with a very distinct strong smell. we are definitely in india we all thought. when we got to the airport, after waiting 1 hour or so to pick up our suitcases, we located our driver who held a sign with our names on it. the only thing ravi told us about him was that he's short with a mustache. there were many many short indian men with mustaches that night. many many people followed us to the car. we were so confused, wondering if they were also sent by our friend and were accompanying the driver. as we approached the car we kept accumulating more people trying to help out by carrying stuff which just made us more confused. when we finally got to the car, someone asked me to sit in the car first since i'm the girl. then one of the men proceeded to ask Wells to pay up 20 US dollars for the service that they gave us in helping out. apparently they were not sent by Ravi at all but were just random men at the airport trying to trick toursts into giving them money. We gave $1 US to the dismay of our friend who told us not to give them even a penny. Within hours of landing we all knew that this trip would be a learning experience for us all and definitely a culture shock. We drove in the dark, thankful for the airconditioning of the mini van to where we would stay the next 10 days. We had our first meal of butter chicken and lamb and green pea something with roti. Best meal ever. no exaggeration. We're in INDIA!

day 2- woke up at 5am mumbai time, tried to go back to sleep until 7 when I realized it was futile and decided to shower and read in bed instead. i waited not so patiently for my fellow travel companions to wake up and watched some tv in the lounge before our host woke up. i finally got to see the view of the apartment which overlooks that Arabian sea through huge floor to ceiling glass windows. It is amazingly beautiful with water as far as the eye can see but when you look at the border of the water and land you can see a small community of slums. People were awake as early as 7am as well. What a different living environment literally steps away from where I was staying in this beautiful apartment. We stepped out into the large balcony and looked at the streets of South Bombai, saw the dilapidated apartment buildings from outside, everything looks old and used. The air is so thick and humid, so much heavier than even the most humid of nyc days. We woke up and ate potatos and yogurt and fried bread, a traditional indian breakfast we were told. so amazing we all ate until we were way too full. we then proceeded to pack up to leave to see the city. We went to Colaba, walked the streets of the markets with stands on both sides of the street selling trinkets such as bracelets, necklaces, saris, pashminas, tshirts, clocks, etc. everything was so colorful, the air was thick with the scent of incense and the streets were crowded with locals. We went to a nice bar/restaurant Indigo where we ordered fresh watermellon juice so we could sit and rest up a bit. We then went to another market located indoors with rows and rows of stalls of household goods, foods, grocery items, spices and wicker baskets. The smell was so strong inside we almost could not stand it. Everyone looked at our group of 4 Chinese people with curiousity and eagerness to sell us their goods. We walked in the streets just in time to see a local mosque being filled for one of their daily prayer times. Women clad in burkas and long saris and men packed the inside and outside of the mosque on their knees praying. We stopped for some drinks and got canned fruit juices and soda, a much needed refreshment after only maybe 30 minutes of walking in the humid air. Then we went on our way to the next tourist attraction, Victoria Station. Mumbai's version of Grand Central (also where the train scene in Slum Dog Millionare took place!) where we saw 9 rows of trains. We were able to walk up to one of them which was waiting to be filled. I stepped onto the first cart (the ladies only cart) and took a picture. There was no airconditioning, women sat on the chairs or on the floor near the wide open doors in order to catch a breeze when it starts going. This is not the LIRR people. There were people everywhere in every direction moving. Then we went to the Gateway of the city, a large Arc de Triomphe type of structure at the waterside of Mumbai. We went into the Taj hotel and used the restrooms as well as explored the restaurants and bars of the beautiful hotel. This was the site of one of the attacks in 2008 so there was increased security both going into the hotel and also using the public areas within the hotel like the swimming pool. Next we went to a small Indian restaurant serving snack foods like chats. We tried our first mango lassi here and ordered many small dishes of fried foods. Everything was spicy and amazing of course. We were happy to go back into our airconditioned van to go home after a long day of exploring and experiencing India culture. Back at Ravi's apartment I took the best nap of my life, 2 hours of deep deep sleep which gave me enough energy to get ready for a dinner with Ravi's family and his future brother in law's family. Another apartment building that looks old and unkept from the outside but at 5 star hotel quality inside with another amazing front row view of the Arabian Sea. With frequent offers of drinks and hors d'ourves, we were all feeling quite luck and spoiled. When dinner came out and we were served the BEST lamb of my life (seriously) I felt like I was dreaming. We are soo lucky to be here.

Day 3- We went to Lenava, a countryside escape 2 hours away from the heart of Mumbai, a frequent vacationing and weekend spot for the wealthy of the city. As we drove and were caught in traffic we saw many more areas of slums, some of which were 3 or 4 floors high. We stopped by McDonalds where everyone but me got the McChicken MacHara Mac or chicken nuggets. I was feeling carsick from the frequent stop and go's due to the traffic and the crazy driving of our driver. We finally arrived to Lenava and was greated by monkeys and buffalo. It was like a rainforest. We also got to experience our first monsoon experience with heavy rains and winds causing the rain to only come from our left side! We went on a hike to see the waterfalls which was beautiful. Who else gets to say they went on a hike during a monsoon in India? It was a great day of just relaxing, hanging out with new and old friends, card games, mafia, taboo and relaxing. This is defintely not the normal India tourist visit I thought as we again had two amazing meals prepared for us by the maids and cook at this weekend house.

Day 4- The four of us woke up at 7 almost as if all meaning to together and waited for Ravi to wake up to head back to the city. We got back by 3 and went straight to Breach Candy Club, a country club with two huge pools close to Ravi's apartment. We ate at the restaurant inside the club and had lots of starters such as spicy cheese bread, cheese nan, different kebabs, chicken wings, butter chicken and mutton vindaloo. another amazing meal, no surprise there. after this we all changed into our bathing suits and went for a dip in the swimming pool. oh yea! and the club is right next to the Arabian sea so when you're in the pool its almost like youre swimming in the sea! The pool was salt water filled which came as a little surprise but was okay once you got used to it. We then went back to Ravis and showered and prepared to go to the upscale mall Palladium. The first stores I saw were Burberry and Zara. not quite what you would expect to see in India, and honestly the first time I've seen these in this country so far. The mall was beautiful, 4 floors, filled with stores from Americana in a Roosevelt Field type of environment. Besides the many Indian people wearing saris around me I coudl easily forget I am in India! We walked to the connecting shopping centers with more reasonably priced apparel and goods and also saw their food court with places like McDonalds, Dominos, and Chinatown Noodle Bar. We all passed out on the way back to Ravis almost thankful for the traffic so we could rest a little longer. When we came back we ate Chicken Biryani, a rice and chicken dish with spices and a yogurt sauce. SOO so good. And today is the first day that I've found time to write about our travels so far. India so far is really amazing, I'm having such a great time. There is so much more to do and see. I'm excited for the rest of this upcoming week!