Song of the South

On most nights there isn't too much happening around Limuru, so a little bit of creativity goes a long way in creating fun times. A few months ago I discovered that some of my South African and Zimbabwean friends had an odd, new-found love of country music, and it didn't take long before we started planning a good ole-fashioned hoe-down in honor of all things Southern! Over Christmas I started planning recipes with mom and brought back my cowboy boots, and last Saturday a few of us went on a shopping excursion into Nairobi to do some grocery shopping. We found most of the things we needed (or alternatives that we thought would substitute) and Saturday saw about five of us in the kitchen for most of the afternoon preparing a country feast.

For dinner we were able to pull together cheeseburgers, creamed corn, mashed potatoes (southern style, of course), and peach cobbler, along with a couple gallons of real sweet tea! We were planning for about 12 people at dinner, but we ended up making about 12 pounds of mashed potatoes...it didn't seem like too much at the beginning, but as time went on we realized we had a LOT of mashed potatoes - more than two whole pans worth, one of which is still in the fridge! After some experimenting and guestimating, plus a lot of dancing around in the kitchen, all of the food turned out great. It was so fun to have people from the UK, Zimbabwe, and South Africa trying creamed corn and cobbler for the first time, and I was happy that they all loved it! The one exception was sweet tea - it turns out British people just don't like their tea cold and sweet...

After our big dinner, we cleared all of the furniture out of the living room and got ready for some dancin'. I taught the whole group a few line dances to classics like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Boot Scootin' Boogy," plus a little "Honkytonk Badonkadonk" in honor of mom. It was most people's first time line dancing, but we had a blast and everyone was laughing and getting the hang of it in no time. Then a few of the more adventurous friends stuck around for some swing dancing lessons before heading out to the porch to relax for the rest of the night. All in all it was a great day, and it renewed my (probably obnoxious and overstated) pride in the South. Many thanks to my wonderful southern family for teaching me the value of good food, sweet tea, and good manners!