Relocation!

Thank you for your patience! Although Blogger has been good to us, MyDailyPhotoFix needed a place to call its own and has recently found a new cyberhome: Please bookmark www.mydailyphotofix.com (just skip the blogspot part) for further Burns adventures! Come by and have a look at the new and improved photo space!

Tuesday Treats: Cinnamon Scones

Since it is one of Dan's favorites, the Starbucks Cinnamon Scone recipe is still on my search list.  I tried a recipe today which is NOT the same, though Dan still thought he might manage to choke them down.  The rest of the family didn't seem to complain much either.  This wintry weather just makes our kitchen a baking haven. . .

Allison's cute friend Mandy spent the afternoon with us and we discussed the finer points of British high tea and were confounded by the question, "What in the world is a crumpet anyhow?"  In the end, we consulted the internet and disovered that a crumpet is a non-sweet, pourous yeast bread, much like an English muffin, only better. (Thus said our internet expert, anyway.) In the search of higher knowledge, we just might have to put crumpet-making on our to-do list. . .   I would just love to offer you a platter and say, "A crumpet with your tea, perhaps?"

Yowza!

I spent a little more time with Polina and Vova today and found a few more gems.  What an amazingly beautiful and animated couple they are! And so in love. Whew!

Leading the lamb to slaughter??

Catch the bouquet!  Maybe you will be next, girls!

Turkish Delight!

Our friends Ashoni and Milana invited us out for an afternoon of Turkish feasting.  We had a lovely afternoon relaxing around the table with them. Here is just a sampling of our Turkish fare - so MANY varieties of bakhlava.  Yumm!  I think I am set for the week!

Polina and Vova's Wedding

Weddings in Kazakhstan do not have the same level of advanced planning as they do in America. Although the attention to detail is still high, people simply do not operate on a long-term timetable. I recall church sanctuaries, photographers, and popular restaurants being booked as much as a year in advance when our circle of friends was getting married. Perhaps only in Kazakhstan could a photographer receive a phone call TWO days before a wedding and be found available for a booking.  Yes, indeed, it happened to me. So, today I found myself becoming quickly acquainted with Polina and Vova, minutes before their wedding.  Although the light and time were limited this afternoon, I enjoyed getting to photograph this beautiful and energetic young couple!  Here are a few quick highlights:

I will be spending even more time with them during the next week as I go through their pictures for editing. Stay tuned. . .

Neighborhood Art Show

They're Off!!

Allison and Masha just found out yesterday that there were a few empty spots at the Young Life Camp this weekend!! Wahoo! (insert much high-pitched-eardrum-shattering-screaming)  So, the two of them are off to spend several sleep-deprived, high-energy, soaking-wet days in the mountains.  Well, it sounded like fun to them, anyways. . .

                                                    

Twenty-Ten Reading List

I have just embarked on my reading journey of 2010 - to read and become more educated about cultural and social issues around the world.  I started with Kidder's Strength in What Remains, an incredible story of one Burundi man's horrific escape from Hutu/Tutsi violence and his equally amazing journey as a homeless person in New York City to a Columbia University graduate.  Well-written and thought-provoking - a definite recommended read!

A brief snippet: After living through horrific atrocities, Deo escaped his homeland.  As many who face tragic circumstances,  he tried to come to grips with his loss and the world around him.

"As he waited in the terminal for his next flight, Deo watched what looked like a big family make a fuss over a young man about his age, a fellow passenger as it turned out.  When the flight started to board, the whole bunch around this boy began weeping and wailing. The young man was wiping tears from his eyes as he walked toward the plane. Probably he was just going away on a trip. Probably he would be coming back soon. In his mind, Deo spoke to the young man: "You are in tears. For what? Here you have this huge crowd of a family." He felt surprised, as if by a distant memory, that there were, after all, many small reasons for people to cry.  His own mind kept moving from one extreme to another. Everything was a crisis, and nothing that wasn't a crisis mattered.  He thought that if he were as lucky as that boy and still had that much family left, he wouldn't be crying. For that matter, he wouldn't be boarding airplanes, leaving his country behind."

The effect of the book on me? It certainly made me want to hear the stories of the many refugees living in the US and reach out in compassion to ease their way. May we all have patience and ears to hear beyond the broken English to understand the plight of the oppressed.

World's Best Scones, $100.00 Savings, and a Night at the Ballet

Since the great victory with the Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup, I have discovered a whole world of copycat recipes on the web.  It is truly unbelievable what is out there!  Since Dan really loves Starbucks scones, I decided to try one of their copycat recipes.  The result??  Amazing-melt-in-your-mouth-delectable-delicacy.  Yes, indeedy, these scones are worth it.  Butterscotch chips are a rarity here in K-stan but, if you have them, THIS would be the place to put them!  In preparation for a post-ballet "pretend-we-are-at-Starbucks" coffee hour, I made a double recipe this afternoon.  Just imagine. Thirty-two amazing scones were in our kitchen at one time. . .  And with our evening tab of four Grande Lattes, two black teas, two hot chocolates and THIRTY-TWO scones, I figured we just saved about a hundred bucks! (okay, we did not eat ALL the scones in one sitting. . .)

 Since Russian Orthodox Christmas is on January 7, the Nutcracker is still showing here in Almaty. And, despite the fact that our car decided to spew oil minutes before departure time, we hailed taxis and made it to the ballet on time for a wonderful evening.  Here is a picture of some of the featured performers:

Okay, not really. . . no pictures allowed inside the performance hall.  But, the ballet and music were as wonderfully beautiful as they should be. A lovely evening out with friends and family!

And, for all of you recipe collectors:

Starbucks (CopyCat) Butterscotch Scones

3 c. flour

1/2 c. butter

3/4 c. half and half or light whipping cream

1/3 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 c. milk (for best results, use whole milk)

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. butterscotch baking chips

Topping

1/3 c. butterscotch chips, fine chopped (use food processor)

1 egg white, slightly beaten

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.

Place flour and butter in med. mixing bowl and combine with you fingers to a coarse meal consistency. Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt and combine well.  Stir in the cream, vanilla, and egg, blending well to form a soft dough.

Divide the dough in half.  Pat each half into a circle about 1/2 inch thick. Brush the tops with beaten egg white and sprinkle ground buttercotch chips over the top.

With a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut each circle into 8 wedges, pizza-style.

Place the wedges on the baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart.  Place in the oven and bake until browned (about 16-18 minutes).  Allow the scones to cool a minute or two on the baking pan and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Dust with powdered sugar.

I found this dough to be quite sticky -- sticky enough that I was unable to simply "pat it into a circle" or "cut it into wedges, pizza-style".  I ended up turning it out onto a floured surface and adding a little more flour before I could handle it.  Also, I added a little more sugar to the dough and did not do the chopped butterscotch bit on the top.  Instead, I sprinkled sugar on the top before baking and planned to do a little powdered sugar zig-zag drizzle on the top, but unexpected guests came at the crucial drizzle moment, so it didn't happen.

Good-byes

We enjoyed our final day with Jackie as she prepares to head back to Northwestern in the morning.  Studying is a very good thing, but we will miss the full family moments. . . Friends dropped by in the evening to say their good-byes and have a few last laughs together.  How I am going to miss the multiple guitarists and singers playing together throughout the day!  Good times. . .

                       

Russian EE

I can not tell you how impressed I am with our girls.  Both Jackie and Allison have now successfully completed Evangelism Explosion (From Heart to Heart) training in the Russian language!  Quite an accomplishment as the program involves a LOT of memorization.  (The full outline takes about twenty minutes to present.)  I followed Allison's progress all fall as she weekly recited parts of her outline to me while I checked the appropriate boxes and signed the bottom line.  And, I will tell you, sometimes I could barely read the Russian outline and verses as fast as she could recite them. Not only that, but Jackie and Allison, as non-native speakers, hold the record for the two highest scores on the final exam - go figure!  What smart cookies they are!  May they be blessed in their efforts and used by God to share the gift of eternal life!

Our Journey with the Black Box

I stopped watching TV about the time I was thirteen.  To mark the era, I will reveal that Fantasy Island and Loveboat were the last two shows I followed, entertaining me on Saturday night baby-siting jobs.  Sometime after that, my social life and athletic endeavors picked up enough to leave little need for additional high school entertainment. Once I entered Rice University, the demanding student-athlete schedule left very little discretionary time. Excluding a brief membership in the lunchtime All My Children following, television programming just did not make my college agenda.  When Dan and I got married, we knew the importance of building a good first-year foundation for family life and, being the young radicals that we were, sold his televion and VCR and purchased Scrabble, Yatzee, Cribbage, and other table games with the profits. Little did we know that this decision was going to have a PROFOUND impact, not only on our life, but also on the lives of our future generation. 

When toddlers entered the picture, we decided to re-purchase the TV but only use it as a video monitor.  We selected the videos/recorded programs  that we were willing for our children to watch and we limited viewing time, spending much more time reading-aloud, creating things, or playing games than ever even watching videos on TV.  When we moved overseas, the chance of finding anything worthwhile on the tube descreased even further, so we never even hooked up an antenna to the house. One year, however, we subscribed to cable for a month in order to feed our Olympic craze.  The cable company could not even fathom why we wanted them to come and take DOWN the antennae only a month after they had installed it on our roof.  As a result of our fanatacism, however, our kids all became avid readers and game-players and developed incredible attention spans.  As Daniel entered his teen-age years, we purchased an XBox with much fear and trepidation.  Would this decision blow what advantages we had gained by our early vigilance?  Much to our joy, our children seemed to have internalized the early lessons and values and adopted them as their own.  Frequently,  Daniel will play sound-less Halo while listening to a classic like Jane Eyre on tape or will go on an XBox fast if he feels his video time gets out of hand.  More often, you will find our children scattered all over the house, relaxing with a good book, playing guitar, or working on a project.  The video component does add attractive options for group teen entertainment, though, and gives our kids more equal footing with other Western teens. Another risky decision we have not (yet) regretted.

A couple of years ago, we heard about the reality show Amazing Race (yes, we were WAY behind the times).  As it seemed right up our alley (families racing around the world), I purchased the first season on DVD as a Christmas present for the family.  Somehow, it seemed to be the perfect timing for our family to watch a competitive reality program.  We were hooked!  We watched that season over Christmas break and ordered other available series of Amazing Race and Survivor for our spring/fall weekly family nights.  Although we are not a TV family, the competitive and non-scripted nature of the shows was attractive to us.  We loved cheering for and yelling at the various competitors as they raced or schemed for money. Our teens were old enough to handle some of the unsuitable language and/or life choices (giving us a forum for discussion as well) and we could watch them at our convenience.  While we would have never watched them when our kids were younger, again, the timing was just right for this new stage in our family life.  Thus, Burns Family Survivor Nights were born.

This holiday season was spiced up by Survivor: Samoa and the sock-burning, idol-finding, ever-scheming Russell.  I must admit, we (except for Abby, who tends to vote for the beautiful, sweet, [rat-killing] girls) were quite disappointed in the final jury vote and we are hoping that Russell gets a chance for further play and redemption in the upcoming Survivor 20 Anniversary: Heroes vs. Villains.

Given our family history, it is amazing for the KazBurns to say, we are actually LOOKING FORWARD to an upcoming TV program.  It promises to be a memorable season!

                        

Our 2009 Playlist

I really wish I were tech savvy.  I wish I understood html code and could add various gadgets to this blog. Currently, I wish I understood how to add a jukebox to this post - one which would automatically begin when the blog opened and you could listen to the KazBurns Top Musical Picks of 2009.  Not happening.  I even looked at Blogger Tips for Dummies. . . Obviously, they were not prepared for me.  It could take me YEARS to understand what they are talking about. So, until someone can come and alter my code for me, you will just have to imagine. 

I will mention that our top pick list is quite varied.  There are musical selections in three different languages and the list includes pop, alternative, worship, rock, country, and jazz songs.  There could have even been great sermons on the playlist, but Dan generously gave permission to leave some of his top ipod choices off the collective soundtrack.

A&E, Agnus Dei, All You Wanted, Antebellum, Augustine, Birdland, ByeByeBye, Caravan Girl, Elusive Thing, Gluklich, Harbor, Hello/Goodbye, I Don't Know a Thing, Just a Dream, Just the Girl, Knock Knock, Livin' On a Prayer, Love Song, Lullabye for a Stormy Night, Mighty to Save, Shasta, Sky, Slipping through My Fingers, Stray Italian Greyhound, Suddenly I See, Things I'll Never Say, Teper, The Tower, The Voice, Ti Moy Angel, Tre Poloski, Unbreakable, Vorbei, We Will Not Grow Old, Whatever You Want, Wherever You Will Go, You Belong With Me, Ya Podaru, Ya C Toboy, 100 Years

{sounds like the making of some great lines of poetry as well as great music}

All of these songs will somehow manage to get stuffed into that cute little binder pocket, made for such a time as this. . .