National Celiac Awareness Day

Happy National Celiac Awareness Day everyone!

http://www.celiaccentral.org/celiac-disease-in-the-news/us-senate-designates-september-thirteenth-as-national-celiac-awareness-day-8481/

http://www.csaceliacs.info/celiac_awareness_day.jsp

Thankful

I am not sure if I have mentioned on here before that my doctor here only allows his mom's-to-be to gain 8 kilos (about 17 lbs) during their pregnancies, but since I'm tall, he said I could gain 9 kilos (almost 20 lbs).  They mentioned it several times in the beginning of my pregnancy and as I was getting closer to 9 kilos, the nurses would give me "looks." I knew that just 20 lbs is a ridiculously low amount to gain in a pregnancy, but I was still a little self conscience about it.

A couple of nights ago, I was looking online about all the drugs I may or may not get when I'm in labor and how that will affect my celiacs.  I have to be very careful about medications I take, because they love to hide that gluten anywhere they feel they can get away with it :)  One of the things I kept seeing over and over again is how common it is for babies of celiac mommies to be underweight at birth and/or have organ problems because they weren't able to get the nutrition they needed when their little organs were developing.  It really hit me then, it doesn't matter how much weight I gain during my pregnancy, or how above average little Zoe is when she is born, I am just so thankful that she is able to gain all the weight she needs.  I am thankful that every ultrasound has come back showing that all of her little organs are in perfectly normal condition.  And the fact that she is extra long just goes to show how she has been able to get the nourishment she needs!  It really is a miracle!  It has been a pain and constant worry this whole pregnancy, trying hard to stay completely gluten-free, and worrying about every little thing I put in my mouth.  But it has all been worth it for little Zoe to be big and strong!  Now that I am getting close to the end of my pregnancy and just about home free, I feel like my emotions or view of it all is changing from constant worry to thankfulness.  It is quite a freeing change as well!  Of course once she's born, I'll have two mouths to worry about keeping gluten-free, but I am thankful that God has protected her from the times that I have accidentally eaten gluten and that He has kept me from so much gluten during this pregnancy :)

Pregnant Creations

Since I have been pregnant and over the morning sickness, I have found a renewed love for food.  I know it's obvious because I'm pregnant I would want to eat, but it is pretty discouraging and frustrating eating Gluten Free.  And since I'm pregnant, I have to be even more careful that I don't accidentally eat anything with Gluten, which means I only eat in my house, what I cook.  Having Celiacs Disease really does take the joy out of eating.  You always have to worry about how it was prepared, could there be anything, a preservative, a thickener, something I've never heard of with a crazy name that contains gluten.  You have to make from scratch literally everything that you eat.  But, lately I have enjoyed putting in a little bit more time and effort to make something that tastes good and reminds me more of the good ole days when I could eat whatever I wanted :)

Here's a little something that I made for a get together

Mancef

Yesterday I got to learn how to make one of the favorite traditional meals people love to eat where we live. I wrote about this meal previously here.  The same friend who made it for us the first time, came over yesterday to teach me to make it for myself or "lonely" as they like to translate it.  I am not entirely sure I could make it exactly right, but it seems that most foods here just throw whatever you can find spice wise together with rice and chicken and it makes a meal.  This particular meal, Mancef, is singled out because of the liquid jameed, you pour onto your rice and chicken.  Jameed, is basically a warm, salty, milky substance.  I think it would be similar to buttermilk if you warmed it up and added some salt.  It sounds a little scary at first, but it does taste quite good if you give it a chance.  The other important spice for Mancef is some kind of yellow spice that gives the rice and chicken it's yellow tent.  My first thought was that it was Saffron, but I have been told many times that it is not, but I have no clue what it is.

It was an experience preparing this Mancef.  A few mistakes and burnt edges, but in the end I think it turned out pretty well and quite delicious!

The ladies Mancef, the men got a much bigger tray :)

Some Days

Some days I just miss the comforts of the States...

Easter

Easter this year was different than any other Easter we have had before.  This Easter we spent half-way across the world among a people who do not celebrate Easter.  We made the best of it though, and enjoyed ourselves none the less.  We celebrated Easter on Saturday evening rather than Sunday.  Here, our weekend is on Friday and Saturday not Saturday and Sunday.  While we did take off language on Sunday, we still celebrated Easter on Saturday.

We and another American couple, friends of ours, planned to celebrate with some local friends.  It was a good opportunity for us to show them how we celebrate in the States and what it is that we are even celebrating.  Our other American friends hosted the dinner.  They bought and cooked a leg of lamb (while it's not necessarily what we always eat for Easter in the States we thought it was definitely fitting).  Combined, we prepared lots of American sides (aka macaroni and cheese) and a couple of deserts. The meal was completely Gluten-Free as well!

The food turned out very delicious.  I think our friends were disappointed that the biscuits were not sweet.  Here, they call cookies biscuits, so they were a little let down even though we warned them they were not sweet cookies.  After our meal as tradition holds, we read the Easter story.  We all had a good time and I believe it was a good, successful first Easter overseas.

Hats & Steaks

We have officially been overseas for six months now!  The time has flown by.  It has been great and challenging at times.  We have finally found a new language tutor that we still start with tomorrow!  I am excited about finding a new tutor, but we still really need to find a separate tutor for Andrew to work with.

To celebrate our 6 months overseas we went out to a fancy new steak restaurant that opened up in a new hotel in town.  In reality, we were just going out for a date night and wanted to try out the new restaurant.  While we were there, Andrew remembered it was our six months overseas anniversary, so we decided it was a perfect reason to splurge.  I believe we were the first customers they have ever had.  We were the only ones there (apparently they had a media group coming in right after we left) and they were very attentive to our needs.  Which is why I think we were their first customers ever.  While we were there, it was almost had to believe we were still overseas.  The place was so fancy, and I probably only one or two of the staff even spoke Arabic.

Andrew waiting patiently for his steak, enjoying his freshly baked bread and complementary soup.

Sarah waiting patiently, not enjoying freshly baked bread, but enjoying complementary soup

It was so good, we forgot to take a picture before we began eating

If you read here, then you will know about the hat I ordered off of etsy a couple of weeks ago.  Well, it finally came in!  I think it turned out super cute.  I haven't worn it out yet, but I am excited about it's debut.

Script of Life

We have just recently started a new phase of language study.  One of the things that we are doing now as part of our language study is something called "Script of Life."  This is basically taking a simple task that we are familiar with, breaking it down literally step by step and learning how to say each of those steps in Arabic.  We go over all the new words and then we act out actually doing the steps in order to reinforce the action with the Arabic word.  Our Arabic teacher loves this and she thinks it is a great time to teach us how to make simple Arabic foods (or mostly salads since they are quick and easy).  We have been enjoying learning how to make these delicious foods as well.  So, instead of just pantomiming the actions of doing something, we actually make the food.  One of this week's salads was hummus.

I made a fresh loaf of gluten free bread to go along with our hummus which conveniently finished up about the time we finished making the hummus.  Thus our language study continues to pay off and be rewarding. 

Stuffed Grape Leaves

Well, I am officially an Arab Chef.  Just kidding, but I did successfully learn how to make stuffed grape leaves today :)  I am pretty sure that I would be able to do it again without any supervision (maybe).  My best friend here came over this morning to teach me how to make them.  She is amazing and very patient.  Conveniently enough, she is also the one teaching us Arabic so it works out pretty well.

So, for these stuffed grape leaves, you will need:

 rice without peels (I never even knew peels was an option), 

grape leaves, 

salt and pepper, 

bouillon cube, 

cardamom, 

tomatoes, 

garlic and 

onion

About an hour before you are going to start stuffing the grape leaves, you need to soak the rice in water to make it soft.  After an hour or so, drain the rice.  Add salt and pepper to taste, one bouillon cube and some cardamom (and meat if you like) to the rice.  Mix it together well.  Grab a big bowl and soak the grape leaves in medium warm water to help make them softer.  

Next you begin stuffing the grape leaves.  Just put a little bit of the rice on the vein side of the leaf.  Fold over the bottom edges and begin rolling.

It takes some time, but it is actually pretty fun.  It helps if you lay out a few grape leaves before you start stuffing, that way the stuffing goes faster.

After you have stuffed and rolled, place them in a pressure cooker.  You will probably have a couple of layers, so between layers put slices of tomato, onion and garlic.

Once you have finished all the leaves, add another bouillon cube, 2 tbs of olive oil and water.  You want to put in enough water to cover the first layer, but not completely submerge the second layer.

Now I have never cooked with a pressure cooker before.  Apparently if you want to cook anything Arab, you will need a pressure cooker.  I borrowed my friends :)  The pressure cooker is quite fun, especially at the end when you get to take the little nob off the top and all the air shoots out the top!

Cook it on low for 10 minutes or so then turn up the heat and cook for about an hour.  Turn down the heat after an hour and cook for another 15 minutes.  If you do not have a pressure cooker you will cover the leaves entirely in water and cook for 2 hours.  Let the pot rest for 10 minutes or so on no heat before attempting to open.  

Yum Yum!  Delicious stuffed grape leaves.  You just dump them out of here into a bowl of your choosing.  Depending on how sour your leaves are, you may need to add lemon to make them more delicious.  We added lemon, because lemon makes everything more delicious according to my friend.

In the states when I have had stuffed grape leaves, they have been as an appetizer or salad, but according to my friend they eat them as a main dish.  I guess they would be satisfying enough if they had meat in them.

Its been a crazy busy day and weekend!  We've had fun and had lots of good food.  Thankfully all gluten free (I hope).  Today I actually forgot we were in another country or away from home.  It feels good to finally be fitting in and feeling at home here.

Meal of Destruction

Tonight Andrew and I went over to one of his friend's house for Mancef.  Literally translated: Destruction. Andrew has met a couple of buddies at the gym.  One of whom is newly married and invited us both over for dinner.  We were especially excited to be able to hang out with other married couples here.

Here we are all ready to go out with new friends.  I've realized I haven't been taking as many photos of us lately, so I thought I would start again.    In this culture, when you go to visit someone, you take a gift with you.  Earlier today, Andrew and I walked down to the souq, to pick up some chocolate.  All along the top shelf in the ducan, they have these canisters of chocolates.  As we were looking at them, one of the men who works there came over to tell us which chocolate is best and which ones are good.  Once we had decided on which chocolates we were going to get, I think he kept asking us if we wanted it wrapped.  We told him no, but then it got me thinking if we should wrap up the chocolate.  I also think I heard him say something about a wedding, so it could be that you only buy that kind of chocolate to give to someone for their wedding and that's why he wanted to wrap it.  In the end, we decided we should wrap it, it couldn't hurt.  Worst case scenario we come in with a wrapped wedding gift :)

That was the most difficult thing I have ever wrapped.  The wrapping paper here is not paper, but more metallic and the container was a crazy shape.  In the end this is what I came up with.  I'm a pretty big fan of the crazy fan on top :)

Mancef, is a delicious meal of rice, parsley and peanuts with chicken.  The thing that makes it, is a warm salty milk you pour over the chicken rice combination.  I was a little weary of the warm salty milk, but it was really good in the end.  I was also thankful that our hosts didn't make us use our hands to eat with, but gave us spoons.  During dinner they were talking about how people who are really good can roll up balls of this stuff in one hand and pop in in their mouth.  Andrew tried it (somewhat unsuccessfully), but they said that even they cannot eat it that way.

This meal was really quite delicious, and apparently it was the first time she had ever cooked Mancef before!  Notice in the back right corner of the picture, this is a glass of the warm salty milk if you want to pour extra on your spot.  We joked about the fact that Andrew wanted to drink it (they eventually made him try to drink it, not delicious).  That brings up another interesting and different thing about eating here.  You do not drink while you eat your meal.  In America we always have a drink while eating and almost ever other bite you take a sip.  Not the case here.  We were so thirsty but only had olives and tomatoes to quench our thirst.  After the meal and the table was cleared, they brought out glasses of Pepsi (aka bebsi) and a little while after that we had coffee and a little while after that we had fruit smoothies.

It was a fun night.  Good to make new friends and experience new foods and new cultures up close.  Tomorrow my friend is coming over to teach me how to make stuffed grape leaves so keep a lookout for a blog about how that goes.

Bob's Red Mill

A couple of weeks ago, Andrew and I went downtown to this local food store that has lots of things that expatriates like.  They have a lot of gluten free pastas and even my favorite cereal.  Unfortunately, he did not have any gluten free flour.  We thought the man seemed very nice and if he knew he was going to sell something he might order it.  So we asked him if he could get gluten free flour.  Yesterday we went by to check things out and we found three of these in the flour section:

Even though we just returned from the big city where we stocked up on gluten free flour, we went ahead and bought one.  I am pretty sure we will be the ones to buy the other two as well.

Thankful for helpful people around the world.

Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving, we went over to some American friend's house.  Since I'm gluten free now and Thanksgiving is what I like to call Gluten Paradise, I fixed my own Turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie.  Here is what I have to show for myself.

I am fairly proud of myself.  It was the first time I have made anything Thanksgiving and I was cooking under completely different circumstances that I am accustomed to and Gluten Free.  Granted I think I will do better next year, but for my first time I think everything turned out pretty well.

After dinner at our friend's house, we came home to drink Egg Nog and put up our Christmas Tree.

Again, this is not the best tree in the world, but I am guessing for the tree, ornaments and lights we probably spent about $10.  I think that is pretty good, especially considering we now live in a place that does not even celebrate Christmas.

Sarah's GF Spice Cake

As many of you know, I am planning to enter the Gluten Free Baking contest in the GA National Fair this year.  I am quite excited about this, but I am not sure that I will even be here to enter.  Thankfully, my great friend, Sandra, said she would make the cake for me and enter it.  I am quite excited about this cake.  I have been working on it and tweaking it a bit, and I think I've got a final recipe.  Tonight I am going to a Ladies Dessert Social, so of course this was a great opportunity to have another test run of my cake.

I am still not entirely sure I've got the icing like I would like it.  It is a cream cheese icing but I can't seem to get it thick enough and it runs down the side of the cake.  Maybe when Sandra makes it for the final cake she can tweak it to get it right.  The taste is delicious.  It is a three layer cake.  Gluten Free flours don't rise as much as wheat flour does, so I added an extra layer to make it tall enough to decorate and look pretty.  This cake is not decorated like it will be for the fair.  I made some Marshmallow Fondant Icing, which I colored into four different fall colors.  I found a leaf mold at Hobby Lobby to shape leaves with the fondant to decorate the cake.  I think it will look pretty when it is done and I am sure Sandra will do an amazing job on it.  Probably better than I could have done :)

Gluten Free Bread

Well, I attempted my first gluten-free bread baking from scratch.  It was quite interesting.  I did a bit of reading and looking at different recipes before I got started.  Since rice flour, sorghum flour and all the other flours that are used as substitutes to wheat are so much thicker, it creates some difficulties.  The neatest thing that I did different for baking this bread was putting a pyrex of water on the bottom self of the oven.  It helps to add moisture to the oven and therefore helps the bread to be more moist and not dry.  I also used a convection oven for the first time ever on this bread.  Between trying out gluten free baking and using a convection oven, I'm not sure which one made the biggest difference.

I also decided not to put it in a loaf pan.  It turned out interesting, but it is definitely better than the gluten-free bread that you can buy in a store.  It wasn't exactly bad, but I do think I need some more  practice baking it before I get it right :)