Interview: Nick and Corinne

Today I'm featuring an interview with Corinne and Nick, two of my college classmates who were married in 2007. Their wedding photographer (who is also my photographer) told me their wedding was one of the most tender he's ever attended. I remember he called me afterward and said it was the first time he'd been moved to tears at a wedding.

I'd imagine that's because these two have such big, honest hearts. They're in their second year of serving in Satpaev, Kazakhstan for the Peace Corps. I thought it would be interesting to hear more about what it's like cooking abroad as newlyweds. Talk about challenges! You can read more about their Peace Corps adventures here.

1. Newly Domesticated: What were your diets like when you were newlyweds stateside? How did that change?

Corinne: Our diets in America were crazy. Our meals were based on our schedules. I was always in my car so my diet consisted of a lot of trail mix and dried cereal. Usually I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast or a baggie of dried cereal on the way to school at 6:25 AM. Then, for lunch: sometimes peanut butter and jelly [because it was super easy to prepare at 5:45A] and some trail mix. My coworkers joked that I ate like a squirrel, not funny. My recipe collection consisted of various hamburger helper recipes, frozen pizza of course, chicken seared in Italian dressing, and that was pretty much the extent.

Nick: Trying to work 2+ jobs on top of finishing a master's degree (Corinne) and theoretically preparing for graduate applications (me) left us with time for mostly high-fructose corn syrup. I would cook more often than Corinne but I rarely had time to go beyond basic frozen veggies, a boneless chicken breast, and some sort of starch. Our diet was pretty bad but not because we actually enjoyed what we were eating. I, personally, just viewed it as a temporary sacrifice.

2. What was the first challenge you faced when shopping for food abroad?

Corinne: First challenge?! First time in the supermarket: "OMG. WHAT IS THAT? A SHEEP'S HEAD? O.M.G."

So, I guess the first challenge is just the fact that there isn't a Food Lion or Harris Teeter or Trader Joe's within walking distance. It was a huge difference to have to ask for everything over a counter. You can't just walk around, browse and pick things out, you have to know what you want and how to say it, in Russian. So, in general, language would be the first challenge. Buying meat is also very difficult. Nick and I have been eating A LOT of soy meat and it is way better then looking at all the dead animals hanging in the bazaar.

Nick: All the problems really hit you at once. 1) No hamburgers. 2) No one understands you. 3) You don't understand them either. 4) The money looks like it might have been used in a steam punk film and is more or less indecipherable not to mention 8 different sizes. 5) People are much more interested in enjoying the foreigner's crazy charades than trying to ascertain the nuance of the "EGGS COME FROM CHICKENS WHICH FLAP THEIR WINGS LIKE THIS AND THIS IS HOW THEY LAY EGGS I WANT EGGS" motions. 6) Supermarkets are, if available, usually way too expensive for Peace Corps Volunteers which makes the first five problems inescapable (at least for the first few months).

Nick's efforts toward soy burgers with onions. I bet Nick will DIE when he gets some Five Guys.

3. What food would you kill for that you just can't buy there?

Corinne: I can only choose one? Can I choose a meal instead? :) For a meal that I would kill for that you just can't get here would be Chicken Brian from Carrabbas: the boneless, fatless chicken breast, the goat cheese, ooooh the goat cheese, the seasoning, the side of a vegetable, a green vegetable, perfectly seasoned. Kill. for. it. I. would.

Nick: This changes every day. The only constant, really, was my favorite food: a serious, backyard-grilled hamburger. I craved hamburgers daily for almost a year. Now the cravings are more casual. Once in a while I'll just think, "oh man, remember blueberries?" or I'll be surfin' the ol' internet and suddenly, "CORINNE! GREAT NEWS. GATORADE IS STILL AROUND!"

4. What local delicacy do you love?

Corinne: The only thing I've ever bought with any kind of frequency has been a pastry that is kind of scone textured with "tvorak" which is kind of like cottage cheese on the inside. It sounds really strange, but last year I would eat two of them for dinner and it was awesome. They can be eaten for dessert, dinner, breakfast, really, anytime.

Nick: Food here is a lot like the heat in Florida: you don't ever get used to it, you just learn to live with it.

Kazakhstan was basically controlled by nomads until Nikita Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign really changed the social makeup of the country. So, not surprisingly, the traditional foods here are those produced by a culture concerned with raw energy and long "shelf-life," as it were. Flavor: not a concern.

I will tell you that monti, a type of dumpling filled with meat and/or pumpkin, are usually very tasty when homemade and can be served with a little broth, ketchup, mayo, or just plain. I skip the mayo.

Corinne's homemade cherry pie, made from ingredients bought in Satpaev.

5. What was your proudest cooking achievement, here and/or there?

Corinne: My proudest cooking achievement has been preparing 7 dinner parties for both volunteers from Peace Corps and locals here in Satpaev and Zhezkazgan [our neighboring city]. I prepared Thanksgiving dinner, TURKEY AND ALL, my first time, while here in Kazakhstan. That night I prepared a turkey, peanut butter cookies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, and homemade stuffing. Not only did the fix volunteers and two locals totally LOVE the food, but the Americans said it might have been the BEST pumpkin pie they had EVER HAD. IN THEIR WHOLE LIVES. Awesome.

Nick: There isn't a proudest moment that comes to mind for me; Corinne has had most of those. Anytime I made something that our host mom also enjoyed was pretty special, though. I've made burgers here, especially now that we live alone. They're hit and miss. Ground beef here is a different, ahem, beast.

6. How do you guys divide the kitchen duty?

Corinne: Haha. Divide the kitchen duty. That sounds awesome. Nick is awesome in the kitchen. We try to do the dishes as we work on dinner and Nick is great, if I'm cooking dinner, he is usually doing the dishes as we go, unless dinner is not as intensive. Usually we have the rule that if YOU made the dinner, YOU DON'T have to do the dishes.

I take care of most of the grocery shopping. I usually buy groceries every other day on my way home from school because we don't have a car so I can only carry groceries for about three to four days. The walk from our grocery store to our apartment is about 20 minutes and when it is negative 40 degrees it is LONG.

Nick: Corinne cooks, more or less. There are exceptions but she's the one who's really found joy in making things from scratch and spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

I'd rather spend my free time obsessing over the intelligence of ravens (WHICH IS TOTALLY NUTS! by the way) and foraging the interwebs for that magic graduate school with a fellowship called "The Nick Huber Attends For Free And We Give Him Health Benefits, a Car, and a House Award." So next time someone tells you that "you can find ANYTHING on the internet!!!!" make sure you challenge them with that one. And report back to me.

7. What was your biggest cooking failure, here and/or there?

Corinne: I've had two really bad cooking failures here. One, Nick and I had a dinner party with our counterparts, the people who asked Peace Corps to send them volunteers, and the first batch of Sloppy Joe Turnovers turned out GREAT, but then I made another batch and forgot about them because we were playing a board game and they were SO BURNT. bleh. My second failure was a banana bread mistake. I was trying to make banana bars and it turned into banana lava and spilt over the sides of pan and onto the bottom of the oven.

Nick: Here in KZ, I've made hamburger buns from scratch twice. The second time, they were great. The first time I misread a measurement and they suddenly became dense bricks of flour with a salt content so high they created a moisture vacuum in your mouth. Really, really awful but also sickly fascinating.

8. What's the first thing you're going to eat when you arrive back in the states?

Corinne: The first thing I want to eat is anything prepared by my mom. I miss her so much and there is something about the way she prepared things that just makes my heart and tummy happy, like only a mother can. First Mommy meal request: Nachos. ;)

Nick: The first thing I see. If that's a family member, so be it.

Nick and Corinne at the opening of their Resource Center last week.

9. Tell a little bit about your work in Kazakhstan. What is the best thing about the country and its people?

Corinne: I am a teacher of English in Kazakhstan. My bachelor's is in Music Education and my master's is in Teaching so I find ways to incorporate music into a lot of my lessons. Typically I teach children about 19 hours a week and then have a variety of clubs: English Club [young kids], Music Club, Girls' Club, Aerobics Club, Running Club, Theater Club and I attend Nick's club for teachers.

I am also planning a girls' leadership camp for the end of June [second annual]. We attend a variety of conferences and camps throughout Kazakhstan and just have a lot of fun learning new things.

The best thing about this country is the people. At first I was really intimidated because they are all very serious looking on the street, but once you get them into their own homes and into their comfort zone, they are the sweetest most hospitable people in the world. When they DO smile they light up the world.

When I first met the other Peace Corps Volunteers I was like, wow, this is a very interesting mix of people. A lot of people are here for their careers. This is a stepping stone in their future of working for the government or for NGOs.

I am the exact opposite. I am just here to be here. To have the experience. To help. I remember telling a volunteer last year, "I'm just here for the kids," and she said, "that will fade, you should find another reason." And I am so happy to say, it hasn't faded and everyday I love these kids more and more and this has been an awesome experience so far.

Nick: I teach 9th-11th grade English at a gymnasium (something like a school for gifted and talented, but seriously only something like that). I've done a lot of other things but that's really my core. The other constant has been a Colloquial English Club for adults which runs once a week. We've watched everything from It's A Wonderful Life to Beetle Juice to episodes of The Office.

We just opened a resource center in the town library here. The center consists of 1500+ books and magazines from the States which is pretty special. Most of the English texts they have here aren't authentic - they're translated from Russian or Kazakh or (innocently) corrupted in some way. The best thing about Kazakhstan is its people. There are so many hospitable, warm families here it sort of puts America to shame (in that one specific way). The world could use a lot more people like our host families we've lived with and the folks we see and work with every day here.

A Freezer Smorgasbord

Today's post comes care of Laura Rennie, who was an intern at my first newspaper. Laura is a recent graduate of JMU and has been married to her husband, Andy, for a year. 

My husband is a manager at a grocery store, which means we have access to whatever food cravings are haunting us because Andy can simply pick it up after work.  If I see something delicious being made on the Food Network, you better believe we’re eating it for dinner. 

Inevitably, by the end of the month we’ll have overspent on items such as fresh fish, fresh produce, organic sauces, bakery items and even cereal.  I spent $18 on salmon that was gobbled up in minutes and $12 on chicken legs that took so long to cook on the griddle that Andy and I ended up eating salad for dinner.  I haven’t even told you how much money I waste on produce that never gets eaten … like when I bought a basket of mushrooms, used 1/3 of it for our meal, and let the rest sit in the back of the fridge for three weeks.  Oops.

Not to worry, though.  We have come up with the perfect solution:  eat out at home.  At the end of the month when our grocery budget is more than used up, we throw open the freezer and pantry door and take inventory.  There is almost always something, because when I go out of town Andy gets to buy what I refer to as “bachelor food.”  Here is what we usually come up with:  Ramen, chicken patties or fish sticks, tuna, frozen veggies, rice, tomato soup and boxes of crackers.  Here is what we do with them:

• Reinventing Ramen:  Add corn or other vegetables to Ramen while it boils.  Drain if desired, top excessively with broken crackers (we use Saltines). 
  
• Easy Chicken Parmesan: Chicken patties can be the starter for an easy Chicken parm, but my personal favorite is to melt cheese on the patty, toast a bun, add mayo and then bacon and lettuce if I have it.  A fish stick sandwich made the same way is delicious, too.
  
• Tuna Melt: Another hot sandwich we love is a tuna melt.  Toast a slice of bread, spread tuna over it and top it with a slice of cheese. Broil until cheese is melted. Also delicious with bacon and lettuce, but wait until the melt is out of the oven before adding lettuce.  Eat open-faced or add another slice of toasted bread.
  
• Mashed cauliflower: Prepare frozen cauliflower like you would mashed potatoes.  Cook until tender, add salt, pepper, butter and milk to taste, then use an immersion blender to work out the lumps.  The end result will blow you away by its subtle flavor and extraordinary texture.
  
• Frozen Veggies and Rice: Cook frozen vegetables in sesame oil or soy sauce and serve over rice. 
  
• Veggie Grilled Cheese: Grilled cheese with veggies cooked inside and tomato soup topped with crackers (we use Cheez-Its) is the perfect comfort lunch. 
  

Sure, none of the above meals are exactly mind-blowing or difficult to come up with.  All we’ve done is taken one thing, added another and made a meal out of it.  Best of all, we didn’t spend a cent!