Avocado 3 ways

When days get long here in Ethiopia, I find myself grasping for something to hold on to that makes me happy. If I can identify just one little thing about Addis Ababa every day that is truly amazing or beautiful or delicious, then I can get through that day*.  More often than not, these little life saving things are edible.  It's a perfectly spiced cup of tea at Bambis, amazingly frothy macchiato foam at TO.MO.CA, the special sauce on the cheeseburgers at Sishu, or the grilled eggplant yogurt sauce at our favorite Turkish restaurant.  I love food and simple good food makes me happy.

And it doesn't have to be something at a cafe or restaurant.  Preferably it's something I can have at home-every day.  Right now that something is avocado.  The avocados sold right now at the road side produce stalls are divine.  They are creamy when ripe like Haas avocados but have almost a sweet taste to them.  They remain nice and firm when sliced before their prime, perfect for salads.  As a family, we're eating at least two avocados a day.  I don't plan to stop until the lovely fruit can no longer be found in the city.  When you find something like this here in Addis, you eat it continuously until you can't get it anymore!

Avocado lends itself to being used on top of things as a garnish.  But in this case the garnish is hardly an afterthought.  The avocado garnish in these dishes is truly what brings all the components together.

Let it be known that I eat avocado plain.  Well, not plain, I like lime juice and salt on mine, but I am perfectly happy eating it by the slice or mashing it in traditional guacamole.  Those uses are a given but my three new favorite ways to eat avocado are the following.

1. Avocado topped bagel with cream cheese.  I can't get enough of this for quick lunches.  I make bagels at home because it's hard to find good ones in Ethiopia.  The cream cheese is truly just a soft white cheese we order from Kenya.  But it does the trick.  The avocado on top of this bagel makes the meal quite delicious.  For the avocado, I roughly mash it with a bit of chopped onion, tomatoes, lime juice and salt.  No recipe details needed.  Simple as that!

2. Avocado with polenta cakes and a chickpea bacon gravy.  This was one of those meals where lots of great stuff got thrown together.  It was a hit among my girls.  Polenta cakes are a nice change from the usual potatoes or rice.    The avocado is such a nice cool element compared to the other components of the dish.

For the polenta cakes
Boil 1 3/4 cups water with a large pinch of salt.  Whisk in 1 cup of polenta slowly and take off the heat.  Keep whisking until thick.  Spray a 8x8 inch square baking pan with non-stick spray and spread the thick polenta mixture in the pan.  Cool in the refrigerator.

For the chickpea bacon gravy
Bacon maybe 6-8 strips
1 med onion chopped finely
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1-2 carrots diced
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 can chickpeas drained
1/2 can mushrooms chopped or fresh is even better

Brown bacon until crispy in a large skillet.  Set the bacon aside but leave 2 Tbsp of the grease. Add the onions and carrots and saute on medium heat in the bacon grease for 3 minutes.  Add the garlic, a dash of salt and pepper and continue cooking for a few minutes.  Add the flour and using a spoon stir to coat all the vegetables in the pan.  Turn the temp up a bit and continue to stir for 3 minutes.  Slowly pour in the broth and bring to a light boil stirring frequently.  The broth will thicken.  Add the chickpeas (I drain most of the liquid but don't rinse them-I like the flavor the juice adds), mushrooms and crumbled bacon.  Stir and add salt and pepper to taste.  A little red pepper flakes would be nice if you aren't cooking for little people.  Let the mixture simmer on very low heat covered with a lid so the liquids don't all boil off.

Take the polenta out of the refrigerator and cut it into four large squares.  Then cut the squares in half to form triangles.  Heat another skillet on medium-high with a tablespoon of olive oil.  When nice and hot, place the polenta cakes in the skillet and brown them on each side for a few minutes.  The outer edge will get crispy.  Slide one onto a plate and top with the chickpea bacon gravy.  Don't forget to add large avocado slices!  Tomatoes were also a nice garnish for this meal, balancing out the salty bacon gravy.

3. Zesty Chicken and White bean soup (topped with avocado).  Here I am with soup once more.  Try this soup and you will be so happy you did.  It's not too zesty because my girls loved it.  I made a whole wheat cornbread to go with the soup.  Try substituting a bit of whole wheat flour in your cornbread recipe next time, it's really nice!  This meal is super healthy.  Absolutely no oil, cheese, cream, etc.
Zesty chicken and white bean soup
1, 15 ounce can no sodium added chicken breast (or fresh cooked and chopped chicken is even better-sadly, we're short on chicken in Addis these days)
5 cups chicken broth (homemade or from the box-low sodium preferably)
1, 10 oz can mild green chilie sauce (enchilada sauce)
2, 9 ounce cans white beans
2 large onions chopped
2 medium carrots chopped
1 med or 2 small zucchini roughly chopped
2 red peppers roasted with skins removed and diced
salt
cumin

In a large soup pot combine everything but the chicken, beans and zucchini.  Add a teaspoon or so of salt and a tablespoon of cumin. Bring to a boil for a few minutes then turn the temperature down to a simmer and let the broth and vegetables simmer for 10 minutes or so.  More or less won't matter too much.  Add the chicken, beans and zucchini and stir.  Taste the broth again and add salt and cumin to taste.  Let it simmer on low for as long as you want.  When ready to serve, ladle the soup in a bowl and place a big hunk of cornbread in the middle.  Add avocado slices on top.  The cool creamy avocado is so nice mixed with bites of the hot zesty soup.

*let me say here that obviously my three amazing daughters and fantastic husband always fall in the category of "something that makes me happy, and gets me through the day".  This blog post is just about the other stuff that help with that.

Day 4: On my own in Paris and final thoughts

Sunny and I grabbed some flaky fresh croissants for breakfast.  To be honest, I purchased two loaves of bread, a baguette, 4 croissants and 4 pan au chocolates to bring home with me on the airplane for my family.  Day old French pastries are better than anything we can get in Ethiopia.

Sunny and I said our goodbyes since her train was departing early.  I returned to the apartment and packed everything before heading out to do some walking and shopping on my own. I stopped for one last terrible cup of French espresso and then decided to wander around for an hour and a half before the shops all opened.  I found an interesting monument and park to sit in and watch all the commuters with their sack lunches and totes full of gym clothes and sensible shoes briskly walking by.

I found an entire strip of garden shops/nurseries along the Seine with beautiful flowers for sale.  Just one last morning to soak up a little bit more of France and pick up a few last minute things for my family before the journey home.

Day 4 heading home
"I had a real vacation and a great weekend being a tourist and feeling the freedom and selfishness of traveling alone.  But this weekend also made me think about how much extra work it is to live our life in Ethiopia.  So much more mental work to keep myself happy and feeling fulfilled.  I'm so used to this extra work, mental and otherwise, that I'd forgotten that life can be easier.  Things move smoothly and predictably.  People wait in lines and for walk signals to cross roads.  Trains have schedules and buses have set destinations.  Life, in general, is easier when you are going with the flow of things in the first world.  Seeing my life and myself from the me that was walking in Paris made me tired but proud.  Proud that I can be happy in Ethiopia.  Maybe this weekend was more about me really being on the other side of Ethiopia-the opposite side and the other end of the spectrum.  Maybe it was about me existing in abundance and really seeing that we are thriving in Ethiopia despite the challenges.

I had a truly wonderful time in Paris.  It was comforting and predictable in all sorts of first world ways.  No surprises when it came to cash registers, metro schedules, prices, food.  Everything was efficient as expected.  It felt good to be immersed in that world again and blend in with the crowd.  But more importantly, I'm going to give my self a little pat on the back for hanging as well as I am in Ethiopia."

livin' and livin' in Ethiopia

I don't have many opportunities to photograph the daily life of average Ethiopian people or families.  It's always something I wish I could do more of.  This would require walking in Addis and this city is simply the worst place for walking. Although it's the only mode of transportation for most Ethiopians.  OK, so I could walk if I were more adventurous.  

While we were in Gonder we took horse drawn carts through the villages to get from one historical site to another and during these rides I snapped a few photos of what we saw.  Using a term coined by my wise 3 year old Addie during our time in Manila- "Everyone's just livin' and livin'".  Indeed

Homes

Making injera

 Market Day in Gonder

women selling onions

spices

the mattress and bed shop

shopping in Addis

There is very little traditional shopping in Addis.  When I say traditional, I'm referring to driving to a store, parking in a parking lot, walking in a door, choosing something and paying at the register. Not in Ethiopia. Most shopping is done at little road-side stalls, often grouped together on long stretches of roads or side alley ways.

We drove to one of the larger market areas at the bottom of Entoto mountain to show Kiki this wild way of life and let her purchase any last minute souvenirs before her flight back to the US.  We were bombarded by street children and beggars, people selling pirated African DVDs and just the average Ethiopian market shopper that crowded us and followed us with their friends or family laughing and pointing and generally acting shocked that this group of white people were walking along and shopping at the local stalls.  For the new-to-Addis tourist this could seem fun and delightful even. Seeing the colorful goods and locally made clothing and smiling at all the locals who are surely just heckling.

 But for me, a fairly seasoned third world resident, these situations just turn me into a total jerk.  I admit it.  I hate it when people touch my daughter's hair (let alone their faces).  I don't like the snide comments or laughing.  I hate being charged quadruple the price for something because I'm a Westerner.  The street children with their green dripping noses and flies buzzing around their lips make me cringe. Especially when these faces are way too close to my baby.  See, I am a total jerk.  So we don't normally shop like this. Or walk in areas like this.  I hate being a jerk, but when the kid that runs to my car door, so he can open it and assist me into my car in the hopes of getting one Birr, slams the door on my foot-because he doesn't really get it; I kind of loose my cool.  And that's when we leave! But not before I can snap a few colorful photos of the stalls.  I think Kiki was a little overwhelmed by this shopping trip.

easy parsley pesto

I talk a lot about how I compromise and substitute in my recipes here in Ethiopia.  I do this almost exclusively because an ingredient is simply unavailable.  But I've been thinking a lot about how substituting can simply be about using up what's already in your refrigerator.  If you are not living in a third world country, maybe you simply don't feel like going to the grocery store to get that ONE ingredient.  Swap it out for another.  This is what I did when I found a delicious pesto recipe and fresh basil was no where to be found.  Fresh bunches of parsley, on the other hand are always in my home.

Parsley Pesto with walnuts  (adapted from a recipe in the March issue of Real Simple)
1 lb Penne pasta (the ones with the lines in the sides so the pesto sticks well)
2 1/2 to 3 cups of flat parsley leaves
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
juice from a small lemon or lime
4 cloves garlic minced
5-6 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tspsalt
1/4 tsp pepper
about 1 cup ground pork, turkey, or Italian sausage

In a food processor pulse the parsley, walnuts, cheese, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper.  Slowly drizzle in a few tablespoon of the oil and pulse until combined.  Add more until the consistency is right.  Taste and adjust for salt or pepper if needed.  Set aside.

Brown the sausage in a skillet and break up into very small bits.  If not using Italian sausage add salt, pepper,  garlic powder and onion powder.  Just a little of each. Set aside.

Cook the pasta al dente and save 1 cup of the cooking water.  Add the sausage to the pasta in a large bowl and add a big dollop of pesto.  Add in a little of the pasta water and stir to coat.  Keep adding pesto and water until it's coated to your liking.

This pesto just gets better the next day.  You could definitely keep the pesto in a small jar in the refrigerator for a few days to let the flavors melt even more.  My girls thought the pesto was a bit too spicy from the garlic so next time I might add a tad less or try roasting the garlic first so the flavor is milder.  I don't know about you, but I like my pesto to have a sharp garlic flavor.  There was more for Justin and I that night which is just fine.

I served this pesto with prosciutto, date and caramelized onion flat bread.  The sweetness from the dates paired well with the pesto.  I won't insult your intelligence by typing out the "recipe" for this flat bread.  It's so darn easy.  Your favorite pizza dough recipe will do (just roll it out very thin). Here's my favorite dough. Saute onions with oil for long enough they start to caramelize and then spread on the dough along with the cooked prosciutto and chopped dates.  Bake until crispy!

The girls turned their noses up at the dates and onions on this flat bread.  Some night the kids just end up a little hungry after all is said and done.  I am a believer of making sure your dinner line up includes "adult" choices too.  In my house if my child squinches her nose up at what lies on their plate and says something like "I didn't want xyz,  I wanted abc!".  I quickly let said child know that I'm not only cooking for them.  There are other people who live in this family too!  Some nights I need grown up food.

#third world problems

Are you on Twitter?  I'm not and I hardly understand what it all means.  I do know that it's a pretty big deal and lots of people tweet and in the world of twitterland there is all sorts of lingo and such.  Just last night I learned that if you have a twitter account you can categorize your tweets into groups by something called a hash tag (#).

If I was a twitter-er I'd have a hash tag for my third world problems.  For the most part I don't complain or discuss my third world problems much on the blog.  I've been trying to focus on the positive here in Addis Ababa.  It's helped my overall psyche.  But some of my third world problems are kind of funny and interesting to hear about if you've never lived in a developing country.  I find it funny that a some things have just become "normal" for our family.

So here is what my #thirdworldproblems tweets would look like;

"Spent the day airing out the house and washing all the linens from the burnt beef lung (for the cats) that my housekeeper left on the stove until all the water had boiled off.  Don't worry, the house isn't on fire, it's only the smoking beef lung." #thirdworldproblems

"Another fly colony has hatched in one of our bathroom floor drains.   Thank goodness we put packing tape over them so we can't smell the sewer every time we flush the toilet.  Only now the clear tape gives us a very interesting view of the fly's life cycle." #thirdworldproblems

"All of my clothes that hang out to dry smell like diesel exhaust from the generator that runs when our power goes out.  I get a headache sitting in the car with my fumy jeans on." #thirdworldproblems

"tired of pulling out clothes from my drawers that have been folded and put away inside out by my housekeeper." #thirdworldproblems

"My trash can gets raided every week by our household staff to see which empty boxes or containers can be reused in their homes.  Cool until my trash gets piled up in the yard as a new flower pot or something equally as tacky." #thirdworldproblems

"Playing, Is that a dead person or just someone sleeping on the side of the road, with the hubby as we drive through town." #thirdworldproblems

"Mom, is that human poop or cow poop? "I don't know, just don't step in it." Is a common conversation during our outings." #thirdworldproblems

"Must be a holiday in Ethiopia, the bloody sheep skins are pilling up on the sides of the roads." #thirdworldproblems

"Grown men peeing on the side of the road" #thirdworldproblems

"One of my household staff is out ill almost on a weekly basis usually from eating rotten food and giving themselves food poisoning." #thirdworldproblems

"Power's out, generators on, shut all the doors and windows so we don't gag on the fumes."

"There is no water today girls, you can only drink juice." #thirdworldproblems

"Giving the baby a bath again because after playing with our household help she smells like B.O." #thirdworldproblems

OK, I'm going to Hell after that last one for sure!

a country in mourning and reinventing the sweet potato souffle

If you pay attention to international news, it might have come to your attention that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia passed away last week.  You might be asking yourself, "What's the connection with sweet potato souffle?"  I'll explain.

Last week when we heard that Meles Zenawi had passed away, I immediately made a few small preparations for an emergency evacuation in case the political environment became hostile in Addis Ababa.  One such preparation was to defrost the ham I was saving and cook it.  If we had to leave suddenly, it would have upset me to leave that honey glazed ham behind uneaten.  The meal needed sides.  Are you following my train of thought?  Prime Minister passes away. I panic and bake ham.  Ham needs to be accompanied with sweet potatoes smothered in brown sugar and buttery oats.  This is how my warped mind jumped from one completely unrelated, yet devastating event to this recipe.  It's the musings of a crazy cook, I admit it.

Thankfully, there is no reason to evacuate.  Ethiopia is a very sad mournful place right now but things are stable.  It's taught me a little lesson about how short life is and how we can't be certain how long we will have in this country we have come to love so much.  One shouldn't save ham.  It's all very philosophical.

There are no yams in Ethiopia.  Sweet potatoes are the purple skinned white flesh variety.  They taste wonderful but don't have that nice orange color.  I have a friend here who made a sweet potato dish and added food coloring to the sweet potatoes to make them pinkish.

I made a key discovery during my panicked-ham preparations.  Turning the dish into a sweet potato with carrot souffle provides the color, flavor and more vegetable healthy goodness than a traditional sweet potato concoction.  I'm not sure I'll go back to the only sweet potato version, even if do I have access to yams some day.

The best part: my kids never knew the difference!

Sweet Potato and Carrot Souffle
3 large sweet potatoes
3 medium carrots
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
large pinch of salt

Boil the sweet potatoes and carrots in water until soft for mashing.  Transfer the vegetables to a food processor and add 1/2 cup of the cooking water.  Blend until smooth.  Add milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt.  Blend until smooth and combined.  Pour the mixture in a oven safe baking dish.

Souffle topping
1 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup butter melted
pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)
1/2 cup walnuts chopped finely

Combine all the ingredients and sprinkle on top of the souffle.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Notes: I removed the butter from the sweet potato/carrot mixture because it just isn't necessary and I wanted to make a healthier version of my traditional sweet potato souffle.  I didn't miss the butter.  If you really need that buttery taste, I'd recommend 1/4 cup of melted butter at most.

The carrots provide the nice orange color and add sweetness to the souffle.  The texture is slightly different because the carrots aren't as starchy as the sweet potatoes but my husband only noticed after I told him I had added carrots and the girls didn't notice at all.  Score!

Ethiopia is honoring their late leader this week and weekend with candle light vigils and a burial on Sunday.  The streets are closed along with school on Friday and traffic is a mess.  The entire country is in mourning.  I've listened to enough sad instrumental music on the radio in the car to last me through a lifetime of funerals.  I hope the sadness passes soon.  I wish I could feed everyone ham...and souffle.  

Ethiopian eggs

I was thinking about a conversation I had with a newcomer who told me about her first trip grocery shopping and how she was shocked to find the expiration date on the butter only two weeks from the day she bought it.  She explained that in the States they'd go through four sticks of butter in maybe 6 months. Sometimes it took them a year to use it!  I chuckled a little bit because as I expected, she came back to me a month later enlightened to the ways of cooking in the third world.  Now with a new appreciation for butter!

Cooking in the third world requires all the basics; butter, cream, flour and lots and lots of eggs.  There is zero prepackaged food here.  Anything (of quality) you want to eat, has to be made by you!  Needless to say, we go through a ton of these kitchen staples.  Especially eggs!

We can buy fresh large brown eggs (the equivalent of medium or large eggs in the States) and small white Ethiopian eggs. I just recently decided to try the local eggs.  They are very tiny but the flavor is rich and the color is bright yellow.  They are delicious!

All eggs have to be bleached and floated to make sure they are clean and fresh

mini egg and cheese souffles for breakfast.  It is HARD to make a souffle at this altitude.  They were collapsing as I took that photo.

I haven't used them in baking and probably won't because I'm not sure about the substitution.  Instead, I use them for omelets and quiche or frittatas.  I use two small Ethiopian eggs for every one large brown egg in my recipes.  The taste can't be beat.

I swear I didn't adjust the color on this photo.  The eggs are bright yellow!

not quite bountiful harvest

After weeks of watching nothing grow in our little garden plot, Tecklu told me it was time to harvest the one and only head of lettuce that decided to persevere.  It's bright green and quite lovely.  I have no idea why none of the herbs grew or why the other lettuce didn't work out.  I don't have an ounce of green in my thumb and had absolutely nothing to do with this garden (the seeds were even a gift from a friend).  I can't take credit for this lonely bit of pretty lettuce at all.  But I do love that I get to eat it tonight with dinner.  

chip kick

I've been on a chip making kick lately.  I made homemade potato chips last week.  Yesterday I used the same recipe but made sweet potato chips instead and they were amazing.  I highly recommend using sweet potatoes.  The crunch and flavor is unbeatable.

Justin brought home delicious homemade flour tortillas from Market Day on Friday.  I made a batch of chicken enchiladas with half the bag then tucked away the rest of the tortillas for later.  Homemade anything, including tortillas, don't stay fresh for long so I whipped up a batch of guacamole and then made tortilla chips with the rest of the flour tortillas.

I'm not going to pretend this is revolutionary.  People do this all the time.  I just forget how good they taste!  Fresh homemade tortillas are the best.  Just cut the tortillas into triangles, spread them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, and bake at 350 degrees until crispy and browned.  These were gone within the hour.  It was a perfect Friday afternoon snack for the kids.

If you're curious about the guacamole; I mash together avocados, lime juice, salt, and granulated garlic until the flavor is to my liking.  Then slice, seed, and dice a ripe tomato to stir in.  If I had cilantro, that would also be thrown in.  It's simple and I can't give you my exact proportions.  Guac is one of those things that should be improvised so that it comes together when you taste it (or your hubby tastes it) and says, Yes-that's it!

I need some salt

"I need some salt" is a common statement that comes out of my husband's mouth.  It's usually after dinner or at any other snack time.  There are very few pre-packaged snacks in our house here in Addis Ababa.  This is a good thing 99% of the time.  That is, until we "need some salt".  I've also been in dire need of a good bag of crunchy salted potato chips.  And I don't mean the $9 bags of Lays at the commissary.  I mean good quality chips.  Like the delicious ones you get alongside a big deli sandwich back in the States.

Well, you know where this story is going, right?  I made some homemade baked potato chips and they were crazy good.  It's the first recipe I've tried from The Homemade Pantry that I raved about the other day.  It was a delicious way to initiate this cookbook into my repertoire.

The girls and I cut the potatoes with the thinnest setting on my mandolin (I feel less and less guilty for owning this kitchen gadget with every new recipe I use it for. Total recipes I use it for now-2! HA!).  Adelaide was fascinated with the mandolin.  She was a big help with the slicing process.

The sliced taters sat in a big bowl of salted water.  I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the big bowl.

Once they soaked for about 5-10 minutes, they were removed and dried on a towel.

I followed the recipe in The Homemade Pantry and oiled my cookie sheets, preheated my oven to 450 degrees.  Spread the potatoes on the baking sheet and sprinkled with salt.  They baked at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then 300 degrees for about 20 more minutes. I rotated the pans from the higher to lower shelves every 5-10 minutes so they wouldn't over bake.  I baked my chips in four batches so they weren't over crowded on the baking sheets.  Once I saw the chips start to brown and curl up on the edges or flake off the pan I moved them to a paper towel.  I added chunky sea salt at the end.

Almost the entire batch of chips was devoured right away by everyone but Ashlynn (although she grabbed at mine the whole time).  We ate them straight off the paper towels. No time to move them to a bowl. They were delicious; hot and crispy with lots of salt.  The small handful I shooed by husband away from later that night so I could save for the girls for snack the next day; I placed in a Ziploc bag.  They didn't stay crispy though.  Next time it might be best to eat the entire batch.

You definitely want to make these the day of the party or the day you plan on eating them.  Next I am going to try my hand at salt and vinegar chips.  Those are my all time favorite.  I'm going to add an extra bag of potatoes to my shopping list every week because these chips are a new family favorite.  They definitely fulfill that need for salt!

sidewalk livestock

Our little blonde crew draws a ton of attention on a normal day.  When we pull over on the side of a random road and pile out to ooh and aah over a snow white lamb; we draw a crowd.  

The streets and green spaces (read sidewalks) in Addis Ababa are always crowded with livestock of all sorts.  Herds of oxen, cattle, goats and sheep are always grazing and being herded by shepherds to and fro.  It's not unusual to have herd traffic on the roads competing with vehicle traffic.  It's ordinary for the Ethiopians.  When I saw the lamb, I knew the girls would think it was extraordinary so I told Zalalem to pull over.  I very politely asked the shepherd if I could show the girls and photograph the sweet little thing.

Very quickly the observers became the observed as local children and adults stopped dead in their tracks to watch the crazy ferengi taking pictures of the lamb.  We must have looked ridiculous but it was well worth it. The girls saw the lamb suckling his mama. It was an educational moment.  Isn't that what life overseas is all about?

Seriously? How could I not stop?

the Yuppies are roasting

Justin picked up 2 kilos of Yirgacheffe coffee beans during his travels.  He plopped the big bag on the counter and announced that we needed to roast them ourselves.  My initial thought was to find someone in town who can roast them for us, but Justin insisted that if Ethiopians can do it, so can we.  

And he's right, we found a great tutorial online for roasting your own coffee beans at home on the stove.  It's simple and straight forward.  

We started with a cup of green coffee beans, which smell delightfully like chocolate.  

green Yirgacheffe beans 

Place the beans in a sauce pan with a glass lid on a medium-high burner.  When the lid starts to get a ring of steam we turned the burner down to medium.  Here the beans are starting to yellow.

yellow stage

Most of the process is diligently agitating the beans in the sauce pan every few minutes as they roast.  We turned our burner down to medium low and agitated about every two minutes.

starting to brown first crack

As the beans are roasting you hear a crackling sound as the shucks start to flake off and the beans go through first and second crack stages.  As often as we agitated the beans we had to blow the shucks off.  We held the pot over the sink and blew inside and the shucks would fly out of the pan.  It's messy business.  Our kitchen floor, sink, and clothing were covered in the shucks by the end.  I even had a few stuck in my hair.

the shucks from the roasted beans

We erred on the side of caution for our first roasting session and took the beans off the burner to rest and cool possibly a tad early.  We used a bag of already roasted beans as a comparison to know how dark we wanted to roast our own beans.  In the end our roast was a tad lighter and a bit more uneven than the pre-roasted beans we have purchased here in Ethiopia.  We were really nervous about over roasting the first time.  As we get more accustomed to the process we will probably try to get a darker roast.  We were pretty proud of ourselves to get what we did for the first trial.  I'd call this a medium roast.

Towhead Ladytroupe

We left them to air overnight. In the morning, Justin made the inaugural cup by grinding and French pressing two cups, one for each of us.  It was an extremely complex flavor.  There was a bit of a citrus tang up front and then a deep rich chocolate body.  It was quite possibly the best cup of coffee I've had in Ethiopia.  The Yuppies are roasters now and we've named our blend Towhead Ladytroupe.

The bottom line is that we may not win any coffee tasting awards. The roast was uneven and maybe a tad underdone, but it reinforced the lesson that I've been learning here in Ethiopia.  Homemade is superior-almost every time.  Sometimes things (like roasted coffee beans) seem mysteriously complex in theory but in reality it's very basic, even easy!  It's such a nice revelation to have.  You don't need a fancy drum or temperature gauge; just a pot and a heat source.  Ethiopians have been roasting coffee beans like this forever, and now, so are we!