Wednesday, November 30, 2011

the Thanksgiving spread

This year's menu:
1. Pre-dinner Recchiuti Chocolate
2. An amazingly juicy bird (basted every 30 minutes).
3. Stuffin' Muffins
4. Homemade mashed potatoes with skins
5. Whipped yams
6. Homemade crescent rolls (with the secret ingredient: mashed potatoes)
7. Parfaits with quinoa, apples, Greek yogurt, pomegranate, and apricot yogurt.
8. "Vegetables in a cloud" dish
9. Fresh green and albino aspargus
10. Fresh green beans
11. Cherry, Apple, Pumpkin, and Banana Cream Pie

Sunday, November 6, 2011

one wild summer

2011 included one wild summer for the Abbotts. Sandwiched between two amazing adventures, Russia in May and Disneyland in October, was a whole lot of hoopla.

Picking buckets of raspberries in our neighbor's yard, hiking, 
and checking out the wine country in Napa Valley.

Camping and hiking at Sugarloaf State Park.

A real African Safari. I think the lady in back wished 
the giraffe like her as much as Margo. (no surprise)

Margo's surprise birthday getaway for me: 
a long weekend on the Mendocino Coast.

A few new sights in San Francisco: 
fireworks on Pier 39 on the 4th of July, 
and a symphony at the Davies Concert Hall.

A visit from Margo's brother Alex.

A visit from Margo's sister Maren and baby Adelaide.

A cross country drive in a U-haul to get these two cute guys 
(and their parents) moved from Washington DC to Heber Utah. 

A trip for Margo to Seattle for her cousin Mollie's wedding.

And a great week for Margo at girl's camp.

A day exploring San Jose, including the Winchester Mystery House, the San Jose Rose Gardens, and finally cashing in a 
3-year-old gift card to Maggiano's Little Italy.

The last home game for the Oakland A's. I had to include the second photo to prove there were actually people at the park.

And last, but not least: a few amazing 
discoveries and rediscoveries of incredible foods. 
1) White Chocolate Raspberry bark from here
2) The most AMAZING bread in the world from here
3) Bread, pizza, and pasta that will change your life from here
4) Delectable drinks from here, and
5) Classic shakes from where they do them right, here.

Whew! Can't wait until next summer.

Monday, August 22, 2011

KYIV


After attending sacrament meeting in Tuapse, we jumped on a train for the approximate 30 journey to Kyiv. We bought the cheap train tickets from Tuapse to Rostov (since this was during daylight hours and we would be sitting anyway). We sat next to a Ukrainian lady. At a train stop in Timashevck (just North of Krasnodar) this lady jumped off the train and bought 4 gigantic halves of smoked fish. She slapped the fish on the table of our little seating area and then wrapped them in newspaper, threw them under her chair, and went to sleep. Margo thought it was pretty interesting.


From Rostov to Kyiv we bought the LUX tickets, which means you're in a compartment all by yourself. As our final and longest train ride, we felt it was a wise purchase. We actually tried to buy these tickets at least 3 times, but kept getting denied because they were "ridiculously" expensive. The cashier lady would just say, "Oh no, you don't want to buy those." Well, it was worth it and they weren't that expensive.


This is the only city we visited that I hadn't been to before, so it was awesome for both Margo and I to discover on our own. Overall, we really loved Kyiv. Everything we saw was very clean and well maintained.


Once again, the Russian (or Ukrainians) know how to build a good monument. The motherland statue is amazing, the metallic version of the stone statue we saw back in Volgograd.


Some amazing ice cream was also a nice surprise. We saw a little ice cream stand outside the main train station when we came into town, so we thought we'd try it. It was so good. I don't know what they put in it, but it was some of the best ice-cream we've ever had. Luckily, there were dozens of stands selling this same ice-cream. We bought ice-cream at least 5-6 times in the 2 days we were there.


Spring was a great time to see the city with the trees blossoming and new flowers. Lot's of people were out on the streets for their National holiday.

A highlight of Kyiv was visiting the Temple. It was dedicated just last August.



This trip was pretty spectacular; truly an unforgettable time together.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Сочи и Туапсе: Sochi & Tuapse

Every now and then I stop and think to myself, "Did we really go to Russia?"  Honestly, I sometimes find it hard to fathom that we really went! But we did and I'm so glad we were able to go.  Now to share the more of the journey with you (or really just to blog about it so we have it recorded somewhere).
Sochi and Tuapse were our last two cities in Russia.  They were also two cities I was especially excited to see; I'm not sure why, maybe because of stories Tim told me from his time there.



SOCHI:

 Yes, there are palm trees in Russia. And yes, Sochi will be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. After seeing the picture you may be skeptical, but I promise it's true. Sochi is lush, green, and about as south as you can go in Russia.  However, there are tall mountains around the city were many of the events will be held (this should take care of the snow aspect of the winter games).




Sochi was just a day trip during our time in Tuapse.  Make that a rainy-day trip.  It is definitely a place I want explore again, but I felt good about what we did in the time we had. Especially with the rain. In all honesty, I'm afraid this was not one of my most stellar days.  I felt like I complained a lot (I definitely did in my head which was not helpful) and was a bit down about things.  My Toms were soaked and I was trying not to let wet feet bother me, but I was not being very successful.  Looking back I remember a lot of really great things about the day.
They include:
Beautiful buildings, the voskal (train station) and sea voskal (port/ harbor)
Sochi Sea Voksal
a couch and cheesecake in a mall
McDonald's
random sculptures and beautiful parks
Taking the bus to the end of the line (it was brilliant idea, see the city and stay dry!)
Experiencing a new Russia treat: small chocolate covered mousse bars- super rich, super good.
Joking about the rain.... but seriously...
"Someday we're going somewhere like this.  Minus the raincoats."



 Tuapse:
I absolutely loved Tuapse.  It was one of those things were I knew I was going to like and then was surprised how much I loved it in the end.

Tuapse is set on the Black Sea, with rolling hills and lots of foliage.  It is incredibly beautiful.  We stayed with a wonderful member, enjoyed time visiting different families, and never had a shortage of delicious food and gracious hospitality.



We mixed our exploring and visits with a bit of down time. All in all I think we ended up with a good combo and got a great feel for Tuapse.
The view from where we stayed was very beautiful.  Notice the boots I'm wearing just one evidence of the hospitality we enjoyed! They were loaned to me because everyone was worried about my feet getting wet, they were definitely appreciated and I did surprisingly well walking in them.
Of course we took in some vistas of the Black Sea.
Rain or shine the market is up and running!
The most phenomenal bread!  I may or may not have obsessed about this bread.  I was so excited to get it and it did not fail to exceed all expectations.  It is actually a type of lavash from Armenia.  They slap the dough rounds on to the sides of a fire stone/cement oven, pull the cooked rounds off by poking a hole in the middle, and then hand you the fresh bread! AMAZING! I don't think this explanation does it justice, but just imagine warm, soft, and the perfect flavor.  One downside was that it's not very polite to dig in as soon as your hands are on it.  Tim got me to wait until we found a bench in a near by park.
I could barely stop eating to get a decent picture, but some how I managed to wait two seconds before digging in full speed.

All throughout Russia we encountered stray dogs.  I feel like America and Russia have a similar number of stray cats in cities, but the number of stray dogs in Russia was nothing like I've ever seen before.  This sweet guy had an owner, but acted much like a stray and joined us on a hike, looking for signs of food every second.
One of the best adventures in Tuapse was a short hike to some ruins in the hills just outside the city.  The forest was beautiful and the ruins were pretty cool.

Seriously, the green of the foliage was just a bit more intense than foliage we find around here.  None of these pictures have been photo shopped.  It really is that bright green and it was gorgeous.

Really in the end, as with each city we visited, it was the people who added such a special and personal touch to our time in Tuapse.  They are all such wonderful, giving, and loving people.  They opened their homes and hearts to us.  They shared of their time, resources, and selves.  I am so grateful to know these amazing people and to be able to call them my friends.

 
The Tuapse branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Ростов-на-Дону: Rostov-na-Donu


A few thoughts from  
Tim and Margo
 
Rostov is the flagship city of my mission. Again, it was awesome to see all 
these places that I thought I may never see again. Coming back made me think, 
this is actually a pretty cool place to visit.


Rostov was one of my favorite cities.  At this point I think the "shock" (or whatever you want to call it) had worn off. In Rostov I felt truly immersed in Russia. I loved that there were not many tourists (not many is probably an understatement, because I think the only tourists were Tim and I), so we were just seeing Russians living their lives.  We saw a lot of people outside in Rostov because they were celebrating a holiday, which in Russia means no work for a few days and some serious partying at night.
  I loved walking down streets and having Tim remember where people lived or places he had been. Here's a pic on the Don:

Here we decided to stay in a hotel and found an excellent one. This was also the one of the first places we got to buy some of my favorite foods from the mission days. I know this sounds a little intense, but it really is the breakfast of champions: chocolate-stuffed cereal squares with caramel-filled croissants and peach nectar juice. Amazing. 


What made the breakfast Tim is talking about particularly special is it was our anniversary breakfast!   And Tim's not joking, it was seriously an AMAZING breakfast.  I still crave the cereal.  Mmmm "chocolate pillows"... why oh why do they not sell this in America?  We are missing out! 
Note on the hotel: such a good decision!  We loved staying with members and everyone we stayed with treated us SO well. Still it was nice to have a bit of time to ourselves.

Before coming to Russia, I asked Margo to look up something that she might want to see or do in Rostov. Seeing as Rostov is really not a touristy place, the only thing she could find were some ceramic tile murals on the walls of underground walkways. They show various aspects of idealized Russian life, the example below being a hospital with parents taking their new born children home. I only went to one hospital on my mission and let's just say it was not ideal. Some other highlights pictured below are a night at the opera (top right), a stop by O'Keu (bottom left) which is the new Russian Wal-mart type store, and my old apartment in Rostov (bottom right). 

I didn't go to Russia with many ideas of things I knew I wanted to do.  A few things did make the list: the Rostov murals, try to find a show, and try things Tim did!   
The murals were surprisingly fun to run into and added a lot to the underground tunnels.  They are definitely idealistic, even the depictions of war. 
The show. Not a classic ballet, but instead an "opera" which ended up being much more like a musical.  Let's just say, I didn't get much of the story.  It was still fun and I'm glad we went, but we've both agreed next time we'll stick to something more Swan Lake or The Nutcracker-esque.
I was super impressed with how much Tim remembered from his Russian days.  Tim definitely succeeded my expectations for sharing things he had experienced at each and every stop.

As in Moscow, there are Russian Orthodox churches everywhere. Most of these are newer and not as ornate, but they are everywhere. Interestingly enough, most of the churches (Russians would call them Temples) are surrounded by markets, with people selling stuff right up to the Temple door. Kinda reminiscent of Jesus and the moneychangers? One of my for sure "to dos" was to show Margo the meat market, which she handled quite well.

The market. What to say? Definitely SO different from anything I've experienced.   

Good times with old friends.

I am so grateful we were able to connect with the people we did. Although our time wasn't that long in any one place, I really feel a bond of friendship with so many of the people I met.


 Lastly, McDonalds is just way better in foreign countries. The food actually looks like the picture! The locations are always super sleek and modern. Although it does 
seem odd to eat the epitome of American food while in Russia, 
we needed something to balance out all the borscht.

If it seems like I am in every picture of food, it's because I am. We rarely (honestly pretty much never) make a MceeDs run at home so I almost laugh to think we went twice while in Russia.  For me going to McDonalds fell into the category of doing stuff Tim did on his mission.  I imagined them going here all the time, come to find out they actually didn't go that much. But if we are going for honesty here, and I did promise to keep this real, the day before we went to McDonalds a major craving for the good ole' burger, fries, and ice cream hit me. So yes, I was quite happy to make a Russian MD run.