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.

Detergent

I think I have finally mastered actually washing my clothes this week.  Unfortunately they are no where near as "soft" as they were before, but thankfully they are clean :)

Fabric Softener

Well folks...I've got to admit it.  I have been using fabric softener instead of detergent for three months now.  I know, I know, it's embarrassing.  I remember several years ago reading a guys facebook post about how they had been using fabric softener instead of detergent.  I remember laughing and thinking "Bachelor.  Those guys don't know how to do anything."  Well, the time has come, it was me :(  The really sad thing about it is that I was on our second bottle of fabric softener!  After I finished up the first, I went back and bought it again without a clue!

A new American couple came into our city last week.  We had them over a couple of night ago.  We were all standing around in the kitchen (where our washer is) and the girl asked me if fabric softener really helped the clothes to be softer.  Another American lady here told her that it didn't really help.  I told her I didn't know because I didn't use fabric softener, just detergent.  She looked down and said, "Oh, I thought this was fabric softener."  Yea, it was.  It was like all the dots lined up and instantly it was obvious to me that it was clearly fabric softener.  I mean it said "Soft" in english right there on the bottle!  I mean, I knew my clothes smelled nice, I didn't stick around to make sure there were suds in the washer, but I was pretty sure I had seen some.

Yes, so that's my story.  I have been using fabric softener for three months now and a girl who has been here for less than one week pointed it out to me.  Goal for the week:  Buy detergent for my clothes that are probably ridiculously dirty now because they haven't been legitimately washed in three months :)

The Gym

January 1st Andrew and I signed up for the gym.  Actually, Andrew got a membership a few days before the 1st, but for New Year's resolution's sake, we will say that he got it on the 1st.  Andrew is actually a member at an all male gym while I am a member at an all ladies gym.  Andrew's gym is a bit of a hole in the wall, while my gym is a gym/spa with all the fancy amenities.

When I went to sign up and start going to the gym, I thought it would be just like any gym in the states.  You pay your money and then they let you loose to workout however you want.  I like to say that here, you really do not know what you are getting yourself into until you are actually doing it.  Well, I signed up and planned to head up to the aerobics class I was planning to attend on my first day, but rather they ushered in into a corner, took my weight and every other measurement they could think of except my height.  I may be a lot of kilos but I am also a lot of centimeters (height wise) and I think that should play a factor into how big they think I am.  After the tedious measuring session, I was finally able to go to my aerobics class which I have faithfully been attending ever since.

The first day I walked into aerobics, I was a good foot taller than ever other person in the room, and not to mention the palest person in the room.  For those of you who know me well, I am not the most graceful or balanced person in the world either.  So, lets just say a 185 cm pale girl trying to step in rhythm to arabic aerobics was quite a picture.  But thankfully I do have the gift of being able to laugh at myself, and I am proud to say that now after two weeks, I think I can step without falling over :)

I am also proud to announce that after two weeks of working out at the new gym, I have lost a little over a kilo which is about 3-4 pounds.  Unfortunately this does not help out my esteem too much when every time I go in someone asks me if I am pregnant or just had a baby.  I am hoping that this question comes up a lot more because their culture is baby centered and they are always thinking about wanting or having a baby rather than me really looking like I am pregnant.  But regardless that is why I am at the gym so hopefully in a couple of months people will not have to wonder because my stomach is so flat :)

Joining gyms has also been a good opportunity for Andrew and I to meet some new friends.  In this culture, Andrew has had no problem meeting guys, but I have had a bit more of a challenge.  It has turned out to be a lot more difficult than what I expected.  Women are usually in their homes, taking care of children and their husbands.  They socialize together, but in their homes.  Going to the gym has been a great way for me to meet ladies.  Andrew is not with me, so they feel more comfortable talking with me.  I get to see the same ladies over and over and we definitely bond together over the challenge of aerobics.  I am excited and encouraged by making new friends as well as getting in shape and loosing some weight!

Happy New Year!

This New Year celebration was by far the most different celebration we have had.  I have celebrated New Years in Georgia, Texas, driving from GA to VA, in El Salvador and in India.  Each New Year brings it's own excitement and adventure.  I am not quite sure where this New Year's celebration fell amongst the other New Year celebrations.  It was new and different but also a little of a let down.

Andrew and I went downtown for a late dinner at our favorite restaurant (also where one of Andrew's friends works so it is a good place for us to go).  We enjoyed a relaxed dinner and then made our way to where we were told a lot of local people celebrate the New Year.  There is an old castle ruin in our city, and our language helper told us that a lot of people go down there for the New Year.  She said that they count down and then it is a good place to watch fireworks from.

We made our way down to the old castle.  It was incredibly crowded right around the castle area, so we moved a little bit away down along the beach boardwalk.  There were so many people out.  Families were gathered together on the beach, drinking tea and coffee, smoking argeela and even some people singing and playing drums.  It was fun to just sit and watch everyone enjoying themselves.

According to our watches, the New Year was approaching.  About a minute before we thought should be the New Year, close to where we were, about five fire works went off.  There was no counting, no one even did anything different.  Just the few fire works that went off near us.  We could look out across the water and see the fire works of the neighboring country.  We were able to see many fire work shows along their coast line going off.

After a minute or two of watching their fireworks go off, we decided to head back up to the road and catch a taxi.  Thankfully we found one easily and except for the minor traffic jam on the way home, made it home easily.  It was neat to see yet another culture celebrate the New Year.  There was no kissing at the stroke of midnight.  No one played "Auld Lang Syne."  And as Andrew is quite sad about, there will be no Football games on the TV today.  Oh the excitements of what a New Year will bring!

Oh Little Town