Friday List!

Jill's List:

I was looking for interesting ways to talk about nutrition with a sustainability angle with my middle schoolers, and stumbled upon this.  Everybody loves a little Michael Pollan and Jamie Oliver, right?

Short Films image from this site.

Confused about cloth diapers and overwhelmed by the crazy information overload online?  Check out this downright soothing tutorial using Bum Genius diapers.  Love it.

Photo from the lovely blog, Bleubird.

A gorgeously curated online shop called Clementine.  (P.S. I adore most things from here anyone-who-might-want-to-gift-me-anytime-in-the-near-future.)

Photo from Clementine's "About Us" page.

Before you roll your eyes at me for suggesting you consider making Millet Croquettes to take with you on your next airplane flight, just go and take a look at this amazing cooking blog.  Among other creations, this woman carefully prepares delicious little packets of goodness to replace the muck served on most airlines.  Swoon.

Millet croquette image from 101 Cookbooks.

Have I jumped on the hair powder bandwagon yet on this blog?  Because I have in real life.  I got a sample of this stuff and have been using it religiously to combat the Congo grease.  Design Mom posted this amazing hair photo in her recent post about the subject that has me pining for long hair again...

Image from Design Mom.

What do you think?  Is this true?  Is technology changing the way kids learn?  Is that a bad thing?

Image from the New York Times

If you didn't catch Wednesday's post-Sandy Colbert Report, you should get on it. Faux news at it's poignant best.  Example:

Colbert had only one explanation for the unexpected bromance between Obama and Christie: “Hurricanes have a well-known liberal bias.”

Colbert Report image

Oh yeah.  One more thing: VOTE.

Image by Jason Wong

Sarah's List: 

I've become really good at scanning the text in articles about Eastern Congo just enough to inform myself without reading too many details to get nightmares. I've been following this story where we almost lost a doctor who has treated over 40,000 women. Too close to tragedy in a battle of good vs. evil. 

  by  Julien Harneis 

Adam and I have finally finished a project we started this summer. No, not a respectable project like home renovation, but rather watching MasterChef Australia. (Don't click if you want to watch! The winner will be spoiled.) I'm resisting the temptation to write an entire post on my love for this show. (You're welcome.) If you're interested, each season of MasterChef Aussie totals 70 episodes at over an hour each. Yes, that's why it's considered a major undertaking. But well worth the time to see what Aussies get right in reality TV. Drama free, educational, wholesome television producing. A completely foreign concept for many of my compatriots.

All this elegance in a dish.

  by  szeke 

Straws as art, who knew?!

  by  Nina Matthews Photography 

"Your Friend, Conan" and "IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER" and other fascinating Letters of Note: Correspondence deserving of a wider audience.

Letter image from here.

This one's been floating around all week, but in case you missed it Sorting the Real Sandy Photos From The Fakes.

And Brain Pop, an ordinarily paid subscription only website for kids, is free all week! If Sandy closed your school, they wanted to make sure kids still get their learnin' in. Thanks, Brain Pop.

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Restaurant Review: Roi du Cossa

Don't get too excited. This will not be a series. Adam and I have long given up on dining out in Kinshasa because it's not worth, well, dining out in Kinshasa. A cheap pizza is $20. A meal for two is almost certainly over $50. And these are not great restaurants we're talking about here.

But it's our anniversary so to give the house chef (Adam) the night off, we went out for dinner. Thanks to the upcoming Francophonie Summit traffic was a nightmare. The kind where everyone turns off their cars and gets out. After we had been sitting in the same muddy pothole for an hour, I told Adam I really wished we had just stayed home and watched Master Chef Australia. Just what every husband dreams of hearing on his anniversary.

We eventually made it those 5 miles down the road to Roi du Cossa, a Portuguese restaurant specializing in, you guessed it, cossa cossa. We were seated between parents of one of Adam's students and parents of one of my students. The perfect, romantic evening.

Cossa cossa are giant Congo river prawns, which are so big they could possibly pass as lobster tails. They're ridiculously delicious and I could eat dozens, but they only give you 6 so you don't embarrass yourself.

Speaking of embarrassing yourself, they tie a bib on you. Without even asking. But not in the novelty beach restaurant kind of way, in the you're-about-to-splash-garlic-butter-all-over-yourself-this-is-serious-business kind of way.

And just in case the bib doesn't do it's job, there's a bathtub in the bathroom. I would like to point out that I know of several restaurant bathrooms in Kinshasa with bathtubs. I feel an investigative report coming up...

In the end, Roi du Cossa was definitely worth the 5 mile/hour and a half trip. That's saying a lot for a few river prawns.

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Friday List.

JILL'S LIST:

The things you imagine about your fellow plane passengers - all on one, pants-inspired, list.

  

Twitter is the first place I go to find out what the heck is going on during local explosions and elections.  Kenya police apparently have the same idea...

Obama.

Mary Temple.  From the series, "Currency, 2007-present"  5.09.12

PRESIDENT OBAMA: SAME-SEX COUPLES SHOULD BE ABLE TO WED

This sounds like Ira Glass should come and investigate.  Ira, we have a spare bedroom.

Can't wait for a reunion with Jim of Elk Run Farm at the Harrisonburg Farmer's Market next month.  He's our go-to guy for weird wild greens, incredible pork sausage, and jam made by his wife, Susan.  Oh man...did I mention that this is going to be the summer of salads.  I cannot wait to gorge myself on reasonably-priced (i.e. not $50/head/bunch/wilted sprig.), insanely fresh, Virginia lettuce.

As we enjoy our newly Chinese-paved roads here in Kinshasa, this article is very interesting.

After a year of intensely strategical methods for getting an expensive, injectable, heat-sensitive medication to the Congo, I'm intrigued by this article discussing a new pill offering the same benefits (and risks) as the miraculous Humira I currently take for a pesky post-baby rheumatoid arthritis problem.

Interesting news for U.S. expats expecting to vote...


SARAH'S LIST:

Spent the day sick in bed yesterday. I secretly love being sick. The misery of an illness is kind of worth the time alone. And I got to watch an embarrassing number of Top Chef episodes. Made me think about how much Adam and I love Master Chef Australia. Seriously, this show makes every other competition show look one dimensional. Australia knows how to do its TV shows. When Master Chef airs, it's on 6 nights a week for 4 months. That's some serious commitment. I'm pretty sure Adam cried during the finale. (Okay, I'm not "pretty sure," it happened folks.)

Jill and I keep thinking about writing a post about baby names. In the meantime, here's an article about how adults feel about a lifetime with a weird name.

Holy Breastfeeding Controversy. Is everyone talking about this? Her husband would pump for her while she slept? Is this woman a genius or crazy? I haven’t read the article, but apparently there’s a tie-in to my favorite pediatrician of all time, Dr. Sears. Maybe he goes crazy in this article, I have no idea. But I love his Baby Book and philosophy of you’re doing okay no matter what.

This is the only video game I’ve ever played. Ever. (Okay, except for Snood which got me through college). But my dad and I used to play Wolfenstein and my mother HATED it. Which made me think, of course, it was awesome. Who else remembers this?

  by  Martin Kliehm 

Fascinating list of where else in the world same-sex marriage is legal. I guess we’re not that cool after all. South Africa, really? And I thought I couldn’t love that place more.  Rainbow nation.

  by  jikatu 

Happy Mother's Day. I think the husbands are making Jill and me a hamburger lunch on Sunday. I almost had Adam convinced Mother's Day was last weekend. Two weekends of hamburgers would have been awesome.

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