No bake cookie recipe-Bangladeshi style

Do you love sweets but struggle with your weight? Do nutritional issues seem to be the BANE of your existence? Well, your worrying is over…here is the perfect sweet treat recipe for you! It is typed here VERBATIM from the Hershey’s cocoa box I found it on here in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The picture does not do them justice…these treats are YUMMY! Enjoy!

FUDGEY COCOA NO-BANE TREATS

3 c. quick cooking rolled oats

½ c. (1 stick) butter
2/3 c. REESE’ Coreamy or Crunachy Peenut Buttar

½ c. milk
½ c. chooped peenuts (optional)

½ c. HERSHEY’S Cocoa
2 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1) Line coolde shet with wax paper or foll, Measure oats, Peanut butter and peanuts; set aside,
2) Combine sugar, butter, milk and cocoa in med, saucopan, Cook over med. Heat, atiming constantly, until mixture comos to a roiling boll.
3) Remove from heat, Add oats, peanut buttet, peanuts and vanilla; atir quickly, mixing well.
4) Immodiately drop mixtiure by heaping tsp. onto wex paper, Cool, Store in cool dry place, About 4 doz.

GOLD MEDALis a Registerad Trademiark of General Millis, Ink.

Running in Dhaka

Running in Dhaka feels like running laps in a sauna wearing your warmest wool sweater, a pair of pants and a burlap bag over your head! You feel the heat and humidity right away and your lungs and legs feel heavy as a result. I am convinced there is no such thing as "tempo" pace here. Dave and I have only managed to find one pace and it seems little more than a jog. We started doing 15 min runs and have also done some 30 and 45 min runs. A far cry from the DC Roadrunners SLR of 10-22 miles!!! These pictures were taken after a one hour run (I got lost) and you unfortunately cannot see that I am absolutely soaking wet. Luckily we brought some powder gatorade with us (its already running low!) and after this run, I quickly sat on the kitchen floor to get my heart rate down and try and cool off. There is a lake here we run along and try to imagine it is the Mt. Vernon trail in Arlington. Unfortunately, the garbage in the water and frequent wafts of rotting fruit/meat/whatever in a pile along the path quickly brings you back to reality. I have run on the treadmill here more in the last 2 weeks than in my entire life combined. Unfortunately, I only have the patience for 30-40 minutes even with CNN on! You can see from the picture I am not fully covered (no burkah) but do cover my legs (thank goodness for PRANA yoga pants!) and wear a dri-fit shirt with short sleeves (thank goodness to triathlons that have good shirts-road races need to get with the program!-the red one here is from the Chicago Triathlon this year). We tried running with the local hash group but with traffic it took us over an hour to get to the meeting point and we missed the run. We will try again this week-end as we have met some folks who run with them and it will be good to get involved with them. Only speed workouts to date have been racing rickshaws at the end of a regular run. This can be a decent speed, if not merely entertaining, workout. More later on running, biking and swimming in Dhaka.

Catherine Kegan in Dhaka

Catherine has adapted remarkably well to her new home. She has a new nanny (=Aya) named Mina that she has taken to very well. She has had to endure lots of changes over the last month and she has done GREAT. She now has her very own room, which we have tried to make very pretty and special for her. She loves playing in her room with Mina during the day. She has a soft playmat on the floor that covers half of her room and she has lots of blocks, books, balls and other toys. She has a princess mat (picutred here) that sits in front of her bed. She has a big girl bed and white mosquito net covering it. She also has a small table and chairs where she likes to play and sometimes have her afternoon snack. This photo was taken after she received a lovely pink dress to use for dress up or special occasions. She loves, loves, loves the shoes! She has been eating well and sleeping very well. With her own room, she gets into bed around 7:30PM and wakes up about 12 hours later. She also just got new curtains in her room. Will post more pictures of her room later. All in all, she is doing AWESOME! :)

Dhaka playgroups

Catherine and I both have really enjoyed attending the various playgroups here in Dhaka. Tuesdays is singing at the BAGHA (British) club and then tea aftewards for the parents. Wednesdays there is a great playgroup from 10-noon that rotates around to different homes in Dhaka. The host parent does a great job of putting out wonderful snacks and drinks for the kids and parents and pulling out every toy imaginable! There is a wide range of ages and nationalities represented, which is great. This photo was taken last week as Catherine sat with some of her "peers" during a break in the action. Thursdays is another playgroup with many of the children of teachers from the American School here in Dhaka. Catherine is one of only two girls in that group, but so far she has been holding her own among the boys...Big surprise there! :)

The American Club in Dhaka (ARA)

Well you can see we are really roughing it now. We have joined the American club here officially callled the American Recreation Association (ARA in future posts). They have a great pool and toddler pool. They also have a nice family restaurant (that serves Starbucks and other bakery items), pool side snack bar/resto, pub bar (great for happy hour!) and roof top terrace restaurant. They also have a multi-purpose room where I have taken yoga on Saturday mornings, a video/DVD rental room, tennis courts, squash courts and fitness center with treadmills and TV with CNN! This was one of our first days in Dhaka and we had lunch on the beautiful rooftop terrace and then went for a swim. We have used the video rentals and watch DVDs on our laptop! We have also gotten good use out of the fitness center. The pub bar is a real bar (but no smoking-hoorah!) that has great happy hour specials. We can have a tiger beer for $1.25 each and order potato skins, nachos or any other "comfort food" we happen to need that day!

Going on our first walk

Getting ready to go on our first walk around town. The stroller has fared well on the terrain here, but the traffic and pollution are the bigger problems. Catherine had some leftover goldfish crackers from the plane she is holding. We are now officially out of goldfish. I guess that is what you call "roughing it"! :)

First meal in Dhaka

We arrived mid-morning in Dhaka with no water system or refridgerator. Our first order of business was to get some water. Dave took a rickshaw and went to a local grocery and bought bottled water, powdered milk, baby cereal and bananas. A feast! :)

The trip from Washington, DC to Dhaka, Bangladesh; August 30-31, 2007

Catherine slept most of the way to London and so did I as Dave gave me his 1st class seat. Upon arrival in London Catherine and I watched as Molson was offloaded from under the plane. I couldn’t help crying as I saw his wooden crate move slowly down the steep ramp, get loaded onto a BA truck and slowly drive out of sight.

We enjoyed a nice layover in London in the BA lounge. We all took showers (aka tub-tub time) and changed clothes. We then took turns chasing Catherine around the Business class lounge and trying to keep her out of trouble while one of us tried to relax and eat lunch. They have a playroom in the lounge where she met some international playmates.

We watched Molson get on loaded on our plane in London. I cried again and was anxious for him as this was the longest leg-10 hours from London to Dhaka with no food, water or potty breaks.

Catherine only slept a couple of hours on this flight as it was daytime for her, but nighttime in our destination-Dhaka. The Bangladeshis on the plane seemed taken with her-maybe it’s the blonde hair and blue eyes? We tried to see Molson get offloaded in Dhaka, but the windows were all steamy from the heat and humidity on the ground. I was anxious to see him again. With the help of some staff of Dave’s new office, we picked up all THIRTEEN of our pieces of checked luggage. We loaded into 2 landcruisers and drove to Cargo village to pick up Molson. Dave went in to pick him up and about 20 minutes later they called me in to bring some water, I practically sprinted into the place, which had men hanging around and looked like an old factory. I came around a corner and saw Molson. His tongue was wide and he was panting, but he looked okay! He drank the entire water bottle in a matter of seconds!

We arrived in the new apt. to find no water filtration system, stove, or refridgerator which were all part of the lease agreement. We had some work to do to get settled in!