News from the mountain

Greetings!

I hope you are all well- and not too many of you fall victim to cruel April Fool's jokes! Ryan's sister, Erika, will celebrate her birthday on the 1st of April, so a Happy Birthday to you, Erika, if you are reading this! We continue to pray for Erika as she recovers from her surgery, but as far as we know, all seems to be going well. Thank you to everyone who has been remembering Erika in their thoughts and prayers.

Otherwise, Ryan and I have started back at school after having a week and a half off for the Easter holidays. We had thought about traveling, but decided to stay home and enjoy some local touring, thinking the weather would be nice. Unfortunately, although it was warmer and extremely humid, it was not sunny at all, and we had many days of prohibitively heavy rain. At least we could just stay home, do laundry, and bake!

We enjoyed a beautiful Easter sunrise service at Christ Temple at To Fung Shan Christian Center, followed by communion at their big cross which looks over the modern city of Sha Tin. It was misty and a little surreal that morning, with all the sky scrapper lights still glowing in the early hours of dawn... then we had a full Scandinavian breakfast prepared by the Ascension House ministry team (four young Scandinavians) at their cute little cottage near the cross. A good time was had by all, and we left with full bellies (well, I have to confess I can't manage much food that early, but the others seemed to be stuffing their faces with the pancakes and home-made Scandi bread and toppings!).

As for Katrina's birthday celebrations (I am now a quarter of a Century old!) we kept it simple at home. We were considering some fancy restaurants, but then I decided we would just make the food I wanted to eat at home- because I have to confess, I know I can do a better job than most, I have control over the ambiance, the bathrooms are always cleaner, and I prefer the bill! :)

We had a lovely Salad Nicoise with huge sardines that were first grilled with carrots, onions, tons of garlic, capers, herbs, etc., a shaved potato, french beans, organic lettuce (what a find!), more capers, spinach, and fresh lemon juice and olive oil dressing (and fresh pepper and more herbs... probably other stuff too that I just can't remember, but it was delicious!). We had some home made herbed pita bread with it, with huge pieces of rock salt that really pulled it together, and a great tomato sauce to dip it in... yummy....

For dessert, Ryan had baked two goodies: a light lemon cake (sort of scone like, but lighter), and a thin but dense chocolate brownie-type cake which was not sweet but very satisfying (baking gluten-free/dairy free is always an insane adventure!). We had them together with Rice Dream Hazelnut Vanilla Fudge ice cream which we had been lucky in finding at an expensive health food store in Central--- but we got a few pints on sale for dirt cheap! Let me tell you the Rice Dream tastes so much better when you buy it at a fraction of the original cost... and it was just as good as an dairy dessert. They have definitely improved their recipe since I first tried the stuff years ago....

I am such a foodie! Anyways... at least now you have a better idea of what we have been up to- or at least, what we have been eating!

Love to all of you,

Katrina and Ryan