First Community Shabbat!

Other than keeping up blogging and journaling while I'm here in Cyprus, I also would like to continue working out. Before leaving Katho and I bought a bunch of these Latin "Dancing With the Stars" workout DvDs. Thursday night Ray and I tried one that focuses on toning your body with chacha, tango, and freestyle. We had a good time and took a few self portraits. HAHA

Well unfortunately I wasn’t able to steal Mrs. Rudolph’s infamous Moroccan chicken recipe (Sorry Jerri!) but I DID manage to memorize Serah’s delicious “Lemon Poppy Seed Cake” recipe.

3 eggs

½ cup sugar

½ cup butter

2 ½ cups flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup plain yogurt

2 tbsp lemon zest

2 tbsp lemon juice

¼ cup poppy seed

Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs 1 at a time.

In separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Gradually add to wet mixture. Alternate with yogurt. Add lemon zest and juice. I did twice as much zest and juice than the recipe called for (so about 4 tbsp of each and some!) Serah normally cooks it as a bunt cake but we made cupcakes for Shabbat! Cook at 200 Celsius for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. (Totally stole the pic but they looked a lot like this!)

Glaze

2 cups powder sugar

¼ cup butter (melted)

2 tbsp lemon zest

¼ cup lemon juice

Immediately puncture each cupcake and glaze the top. The puncture allows the glaze to seep in. When cooled, remove cupcakes from pan and glaze generously!

We made 4 batches of this tonight. Abigail zested about 100 lemons and Julia made the awesome glaze that really makes the whole dessert work! Without the glaze the cake is so heavy and not very sweet.

Serah did a fabulous job with the Moroccan Chicken over cous cous. She got a standing ovation for her hard work and cooking skills. I am always so honored that she depends on me in the kitchen. She makes me feel like I am somewhat in her league when it comes to her culinary expertise! It also goes along with the theme that we are so much alike and both need moral support and someone to bounce ideas off of! Thanks again Serah for all your hard work and not only what you do in the kitchen but the life that you pour out for us. It’s such an amazing example of servant leadership. =) I love you dear friend!

I think Shabbat was a hit not only food wise but the whole night was full of great encouragement from Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph and inspiration by Matt. After a few hours of table fellowship the dance party began with “All My Single Ladies” off of my bachelorette mix and I danced with little Maddo and Liel as Sarah and Kes did some more mature dancing with students.

Tony, David, Matti, and Joel did a Romans rap that was hilarious and had the whole room in an uproar. It made me really miss Corin and his talented prophetic rapping back when he was in Cyprus!

Everyone began to leave so the last of us were putting things back in order when Matt broke out Chandy’s accordion out of nowhere. For some reason that’s one of my favorite instruments. I think its incredibly romantic and always reminds me of my outreach in the FIGS (France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland). Matt brought his newly learned instrument into the kitchen and Hannah began to “sing” along. It was pretty amazing so I caught it on video for all of you to see: