my dubious culinary skillz

So my culinary abilities are renowned. In the sense that I absolutely LACK any. If desperate, I could possible make something edible – in the sense that you won’t die afterwards from food poisoning. But enjoying any meal I may make is, unfortunately, out of the question. 

Coupled with my hectic and full schedule, my Dad – love him to death – has taken over the kitchen. But enough is enough – for both him and myself since all he makes is RICE *shudder* – and I decided to give it a go. I pulled up a recipe, went to Superstore and an hour in the kitchen later, it was good! Actually, it was better than good. It was excellent!!

I cooked some chicken chow mien and GOD was it amazing. 

So today I have off but tomorrow, I’m going to try my hand at honey garlic chicken.

Oh! And I actually snapped a photo. Yes, I’m that deliriously proud that I made something I enjoyed eating, rather than forced down my throat in a pitiful attempt to prove to my family that yes, it is edible and no, it won’t kill you! My dad found that hilarious. 

Yumm! Me + Chinese food  = <33

I didn’t get to eat any till about 3 hours later though, since I had to give a lesson at the mosque that night! Very hungry teacher I was. And yes, I can see that the long beans are kind of burnt. But it’s only kind of, which is a VAST improvement on all previous attempts.

The things we eat and drink…

For all you Red Bull drinkin’, Tim Hortons’ chili eatin’ people: listen up!!

Puttin’ the Coke in Coca Cola:

(The Canadian Press) BERLIN – Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans started Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per litre in the drink.

Five other states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations.

Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Monday that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. It planned to produce a more detailed report Wednesday.

Red Bull said its cola is “harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe.” It said similar coca leaf extracts are used worldwide as flavouring, and a test it commissioned itself found no cocaine traces.

Notso Chillin Chili:

CALGARY (CBC) – A Calgary man who claims he crunched down on an insect while eating Tim Hortons chili says he is looking for an apology from the company.

“Things were going good until I heard a crunch sound in my mouth. And then I kind of gave it a chew again. But I thought that something was not right, and so I kind of spit the food back out. I looked down at it and I thought that I was seeing an insect, maybe I was just seeing things, but immediately I scrambled to the washroom and spit everything back out. I rinsed my mouth out,” Lee told CBC News on Tuesday.

He snapped photos and contacted Tim Hortons, which put him in touch with a regional manager.

Gross!!

On the topic of food and what it contains, it turns out the gum I’ve been buying ever since I got back – Trident Splash – has gelatin in it. =( So saddd I am. That’s one of the things I have to get used to again… checking the ingredients. No more Skittles for me!!! 

*sniff*

Which reminds me.. anyone know what the Kosher sign is?? Cause I’m down for that =D

I lost my place but I can’t stop this story

So I’ve gone off on a sabbatical of sorts.. but, I guess since I’m Muslim, it’d be like a khelwah? Only without the spiritual enlightenment and ascending of spirit and descending of peace and grace. No, it was really closer to me wallowing in self-pity. You know Jim Carey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas?

“4:00, wallow in self pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger – tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me – I can’t cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness. But what would I wear?”

Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. Or it was. Pretty pathetic, that is.

Buttt it’s over! And I can now open this blog again without feeling the urge to pound out some seriously monotonous and depressing “why me” drivel.

Instead, I come bearing news! After two and a half – actually, it’s two years and eight months, but hey, who’s counting? – years I’m finally moving back!! Plans are for either mid May or June, but either way I’m out before summer starts. 

You’d think after two years and eight months of constantly searching for that silver lining – and sometimes resorting to making it up – I’d be ecstatic. Well, I am and I’m not. I think this sums it up best:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Maybe I should pull a Yogi Bear – when you come to a fork in the road, take it – and accept whatever happens as what is meant to happen and not look back and wonder. But I’m already missing Syria. In fact, while my brothers are going around playing our traditional traveling game – what’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get there? – I’m always asking everyone what they’re going to miss most. So far, no one voluntarily admits to missing anything, although I’ve gotten three to concede that they’ll miss the convenience of having a mosque around every corner, but my list is pretty long. Lol. Maybe I’ll post it up when I’m done =)

Oh, and funny thing happened. My answer to my brother’s question was “Subway – EAT FRESH.” And then yesterday, I went to a new mall – which, considering there’s like ONE mall in Damascus, you’d think they’d endeavor to build the new one pretty much no where near the preexisting mall. Well it isn’t. There’s about 10 meters – if that – between the two malls – in Damascus –Damasquino – and I was going solely for Second Cup when my friend’s student let her know they’d opened up a Subway! The real deal!! Holy crap, eh? It wasn’t exactly the same since they didn’t have my regular Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki or BBQ sauce but the Teriyaki Chicken was pretty good and instead of my cookie I got Lays chips =( AND the cute guy who used to work at MY subway wasn’t there (and I really hadn’t realized till now that I’d sorta integrated him into my Subway experience, but there he is! And yo, it’s completely beyond my control. He’s made my sandwiches at not one, not two, but THREE different Subways. This guy knows my sandwich. And unless Subway is cloning this one cute guy to attract customers like hmm… me? he has every right to be an essential – and much missed – part of my Subway experience! So there). But subway followed by a butter pecan latte at Second Cup, whilst playing Sudoku? It was the closest I’d expected to get this side of the ocean. 

So now my second choice has been bumped to number one: Timmie’s here I come! XL black coffee  and a cinnamon and raisin bagel, lightly toasted, with cream cheese. *drool*

Pomegranate <3

It’s that wonderful time of year….

pomegranate time that is. 

In the spring and summer we have to make do with pomegranate molasses, which we mix in with our salads and taboulehs, and drizzle onto our homos and tesieyeh (a dish I’ll have to do another post on).

Come September though, and the souks overflow with fresh pomegranates. Tangy? Sweet? Juicy? Mouthwateringly sour? I can’t possibly put to words the taste of pomegranates, but I can say if you’ve yet to try one, you’re missing out. Big time.

When buying in Syria though, there’s one thing to keep in mind. They come in 3 ‘types.’ Sweet (which will more often than not not be), sour (for the very daring.. yum), and lafaan (the in-between). And asking to taste from the blood-red pomegranates he’ll have displayed artistically isn’t going to get you anywhere… they’ll all taste amazingly sweet. The ones you end up buying though are a whole other story.

As they say in arabic, it’s like opening a watermelon, you never know what you’ll get!!!