Making Dinner

Yesterday I made dinner for my host family. The menu was spaghetti with garlic bread. Everything started with shopping. Most things were easy to find, but I didn't know the Arabic word for basil (I do now!). Once we figured it out, I realized I had to order by the kilo, and if not by the kilo, then by the gram. I only needed a little bit! I spent one pound, and bought enough basil to last a year!

I got home and realized I'm very much my mother's daughter. I spent about an hour cleaning the kitchen before I felt I could start working. If there was a dishwasher, it would not have taken quite so long!

I started cooking, and my host sister was helping. She kept suggesting all these weird things, like adding pepper to the ground beef to take away the raw meat taste. I told her that the raw meat taste will go away once it's not raw anymore. After a while, I gave in and let her add pepper, as I would add it anyway. She also tried to insist that the water was boiling when it was still at all the little bubbles stage. I didn't let her put the pasta in! Finally, the oven is gas, so it doesn't have any heat directed from the top. The bread was toasty, but not from the top, like I'm used to. Overall, however, it was quite tasty. The sauce I bought was pretty sweet, which I don't prefer, but I think it was good anyway.

We also bought a box of brownie mix for dessert. This is a treat, because the imported foods are quite expensive. Unfortunately, someone had turned off the oven, so when I went to check them they weren't cooked. I started the oven, and everyone forgot about them. They were quite burned! We ate the middle part anyway :-)