Adventures with the coal pot – sangria, too!

Arriving in Liberia, I knew I wasn’t going to have running water or electricity.  What I did not bargain for, however, is not having a stove to cook with.  Living with our home stay family in Kakata, I soon realized what life with a coal pot would be like.  Though Mona, my sister, was rather adept at lighting the coal pot, I realized that upon moving out to Maryland County, I was going to have a pretty steep learning curve.

Needless to say, I underestimated how long it would take me to truly master the coal pot.  While we were able to light it and cook some decent meals, our first month at site was rough.  Sarah and I went through so many boxes of matches, pieces of rubber, and last bits of patience, I never thought we would make it through.  Today, however, we have it down to an art, and I’m pretty proud of our coal-potting skills! :)

Once we mastered lighting the coal pot, it became time to experiment with what types of meals we could make for ourselves.  Some have been crash and burn experiences, while others have been all-star recipes we have repeated too many times to remember.  Our lunch is typically kidney bean soup and rice, which is a cheap and filling meal to make.  Dinner during the week is something equally as quick and easy to make.

Some favorites of ours include spaghetti (we put okra in the sauce for a little something extra) with garlic bread, fried rice, and eggs and tortillas (yes, we make our own tortillas!).  Other meals we have tried with varied success include sweet potato perogies, peanut butter soup, Spanish rice, refried beans, and chicken – our take on a Mexican night, pasta with a four-cheese sauce (thanks, Mom!) and chicken, jollof rice, Indian masala with chickpeas, eggplant parmesan, bean burgers, macaroni and cheese, onion rings, popcorn, and many more. 

Like I said, some have been huge successes (eggplant parmesan!), while others have been huge failures (like the time we made jollof rice so spicy we couldn’t finish it).  They all make great stories, though, and it is fun to laugh about it now.  We have an entire cookbook to work through while we’re here, and I’m excited to discover what else we can make.

Spaghetti with okra and garlic bread

Bean burgers!

Spaghetti with real tomato sauce

Baking with the coal pot

In the baking world, we have been adventurous, as well.  Some of our favorites in that department include banana bread, brownies, and muffins.  We have so many fruits available to us here, though, so after training at the end of November, our goal is to experiment a little more with what goodies we can bake :)