Sister Taimalelagi Makes Us Dinner!

April 06, 2025

Kia ora! This post is super special because it tells about when Sister Taimalelagi (we call her Sister Tai for short) made our big ol' family dinner. And man alive did she make us a big ol' delicious dinner! We felt spoiled, special and loved and I hate to think how much of her weekly allotment went to the groceries for this one night.

Sister Simon (from Utah) and Sister Tai were companions at this time. We love them both! Sister Tai is half Samoan, half Tongan and half Californian (don't worry about the math and hopefully I remembered the countries correctly!). She loves to cook and when we signed up to have the sisters over for dinner she told us she wanted to cook for us. Well, I'm not one to turn down help in the kitchen so we set the date - August 20th - for a special dinner by the Sisters.

They showed up with several bags of groceries. I promise, I offered to buy the ingredients, but Sister Tai would not hear of it. She's like that. Generous and stubborn! We put Sister Allen in charge of the bread - and by that I mean she was in charge of toasting the bread and buttering it. She did a fantastic job.

For dinner Sister Tai made us what I like to call carb overload casserole - it had chopped up chicken breasts, noodles and potatoes. It has been too long, but I believe there was also soy sauce and probably salt and pepper and I don't remember what else. I'll have to email her for the recipe as I'm really wanting it again! It was quite tasty! She also made us Koko Alaisa How To Make Koko Alaisa (Chocolate Rice) Recipe – The Koko Samoa, if you want to know). Which is basically chocolate rice. She used koko that her mom had sent to her. Autumn and I quite liked the koko rice (mmm, I find now that I"m wanting to make that again as well). Not sure if there are any stores in NZ that sell koko, though.

She also brought us Samoan Keke Saiga that her mom had sent her as well. ("Samoan Keke Saiga: Colourful Cookies That Will Blow Your Mind!" youtube video showing how to make them). They look like they will be sweet and cinnamony (I can't believe I didn't get a picture, do a search for Samoan Keke Saiga and you'll see what they look like) but they are not, they are savoury, though also a little sweet. But, the stuff you think is cinnamon is definitely not cinnamon, I think it's like chicken bouillon or something similar. So, at first I didn't think I liked them, but then I couldn't stop eating them (she left us a package of them and James and I quite enjoyed eating them through the week!). I would love to try making them sometime when I am feeling brave - they look quite tricky.

Sister Tai also made us a yummy dessert, with coconut milk and canned mango. I also need her to send me that recipe! Just the smell of it was divine!

After dinner we played a blindfold game, comparing it to having the Holy Ghost to guide us. We loved having the sisters over and again, felt beyond special by having Sister Tai make dinner for us. Later that week, very unexpectedly, Sister Tai was transferred. We were so sad to say goodbye but also so grateful for the memories we made with her! We love you, Sister Tai!!