Adventures in Cooking

We had a friend over yesterday, which was a perfect opportunity for me to try a new recipe. I made Italian Wedding Soup. One great thing about living here is all the fresh produce. The picture is what I started with: spinach, carrots, basil, parsley, green onions. Those, along with ground beef, orzo pasta, and chicken broth were all the ingredients. But the recipe didn't call for carrots, so now we have extra. Oops. The unfortunate thing about the fresh produce is that it takes a lot of prep, particularly the herbs. But fresh basil and parsley is super cheap, and tastes so much better than dried!

I was thinking about my sister-in-law as I made this. She's a big fan of Italian food, and I wish she could have been here to share it with us. The friend who got to enjoy it with us is not feeling well, so I sent him home with leftovers, some banana bread, and some carrots, green onions, spinach and herbs. There was way too much for us to eat before they spoil!

A Felucca Potluck

On Friday afternoon we went on a boat ride with a group from church. I love potlucks and totally ate too much. It was fun. Here's some pictures:

One More Food Post

Soon after our arrival I got a craving for French Toast. I bought the special bread (just a regular sliced loaf - that's sold in the foriegner-frequented stores) and put it in the freezer and stocked up on eggs and butter. French Toast has to have syrup, so I was determined to wait until we found some. A week or so later, I came home and Jeff had purchased a big thing of yummy, liquid maple-flavored sugar. That night was breakfast for dinner:

Culinary Endeavors

I like being home on the weekends because I get to cook. This weekend it was chicken and rice for lunch after church and a pasta salad for a potluck. I should mention that we have chicken and rice almost every weekend because it's relatively inexpensive and it's the only thing I've bothered figuring out how to make. The potluck was on the Nile - pictures of that will be posted soon!

New Foods

This weekend was fun. I'll post about the long walk later, but for now, I want to share the fun new food I tried.

First, I had Abu Farwa, or chestnuts. Believe it or not, I've never had them before! And, they were roasted over open fire - the gas stove to be precise. Too bad I kept picking rotten ones. Yuck.

I also tried a new fruit or vegetable (I'm not sure what it is classified as). It's called harenkesh (ha-RENG-kesh). The street grocer told us it's also called "the hidden lady". It takes kind of tart, a unique flavor that I've never experienced. Here are some pictures: