Tibs Wat

We were recently given an amazing new cookbook (thanks M&P!) that I highly recommend to anyone interested in learning about African cuisine. The book, "The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa" was written by Ethiopian chef Marcus Samuelsson and includes everything from spice & sauce preparation to elaborate stews and of course injera. Today we prepared our first Ethiopian dish, Tibs Wat, and it was delicious! I think we spent the most money ever at the grocery store solely on spices (note to self: bring back LOTS of cardamom from Ethiopia!) but it was so worth it. Tibs Wat is a slightly spicy, gingery, garlicky, beef stew which is traditionally eaten with injera. We didn't tackle our first try at injera today but plan to in the near future.

Cheers to fabulous friends and fabulous cookbooks!



On the adoption front, we haven't heard back from our agency regarding the status of our dossier but at this point no news is good news - it just means that they don't need any more documents from us. So, hopefully their original estimation of the dossier arriving in Ethiopia somewhere between December 18-22 still holds. The last 4 CHI families to receive referrals all got their calls within 2.5 months of the dossier arriving in Ethiopia which means we could realistically receive ours late February/early March! Our first Amharic class with our Ethiopian tutor is scheduled for January 7th and we can't wait to get started - A March referral & May travel date leaves us with 5 months to learn as much of the language as possible - hopefully we'll catch on quickly.

So, for the next several months we'll be attempting to master (or at least moderately succeed at) the art of African/Ethiopian cooking and doing our best to learn the basics of the Amharic language. There's nothing better to pass the time than taking on a few new hobbies!