Friday Rambles - Your Sin Will Find You Out

I am not supposed to be blogging. I skipped baseball today as Lil Kinz’ team doesn’t have a game, and I have TONS of work to do. ALSO, because last week I was just trained to be a score-keeper. Do you know how hard it is for a social, talkative, ADD, non-detail oriented person to sit for kam innings, PAY ATTENTION to every move on every base, then TRANSCRIBE it? It is a set-up for humiliation, shame, and THE LOOK when all see who is keeping score. Do you know how much patience coaches, umpires, players and parents have with scorekeepers like I will be? NONE. And I am the only mom involved who can even remotely do it, since the others either speak no English, have no idea how baseball runs, or are sleeping and send their kids to the game with The Driver. Hee-hee, and it is a double-header today, so I really escaped.

I know this is a way God is going to deal with all those little weaknesses, and break down my people-pleasing addiction (sort of like He has through blogging, as a dear friend told me: “You actually present contrary opinions, you know, that is a big change. Remember when you never HAD an opinion so you wouldn’t offend anyone or avoid any conflict? Heh-heh”). She thinks blogging has been very good for me.

Anyway, that wasn’t the point of the post. The point is, I am getting summer clothes out and it is not a pretty sight. I sort of let go of my snacking moritorium this winter, stuffed my face with popcorn at every opportunity and visited Galler once a month religiously (that is my entertainment budget, btw) with friends. And dear readers, it shows. I know some of you are going “So what is she whining about?”. But, you know, it is great to be tall and hide the winter-weight well, but my sin of gluttony is finding me out. Funny how regular fasting makes you more mindful of eating for entertainment instead of hunger.

So I am trying on clothes, and discovering my apple shape has reached interesting proportions. I wear an 8 in one place, 10 in another, and 12 (gasp, even 14) in another. Long-waistedness is great for carrying babies, but not for finding pants that fit. I can usually buy one size of pants, and get them altered when the torso has just two size disparities, but not three. The fabric just isn’t there! Land’s End, where I could always count on a 12 Tall fitting well, betrayed me by going the way of designer labels; lowering the number to make us ALL feel better about extended girth. I also wondered who in the world can wear size 00, but when I wear an 8 in Jones New York, and my leg is the size of that of that Beckham woman’s waist, well, there you have it.

The bad news is, this is my summer to visit Aunt Jane’s, where there are always home- baked goods, candy of every assortment, where even the meat is honey-baked flavored, and Dollar General and Mac D’s are walking distance (think small town, mid-America). We go to Country Home Buffet and feel skinny next to all the morbidly obese white people, which makes us feel safe to eat more than we need to. It is too hot and humid to go out an exercise, so we OD on TV and eating. Uh oh. At least, summers in Jordan, it is bearable, and the yogurt and cucumbers taste good.

Back to closets. Maybe I’ll just have to hit the Mish Normal store at Duwwar Hawooz and see if I can find anything.

Real Snowfall!

OK, can’t resist yet another snow post. Especially since it is Still Coming Down at 10am!

Last night, I thought there was no way it would snow, pressure and tempurature were rising and the storm system on satellite showed us just in the bare fringes (ya muskeen, Armenia, what kind of snow did you get there!?). LOL, like Nas posted, even I have become Mrs. Junior Meteorologist. I grew up with a recording barograph, a contraption that measures and graphs the rise and fall of barometric pressure; it would always do this major dip when we would get Real Snowfall.

Musta dipped after we went to bed. I really didn’t think this would happen, since for the last three years it has been disappointment wara ba3d. The kids prayers are answered, and although I wasn’t going to pray for snow that would leave so many cold in their homes, God chose to do His winter thing. May He supernaturally warm Bedouins and those with no heat. But for my kounouz, I am thrilled that they are experiencing snow as I know it, measured not in slushy smoosh-smoosh millimeters but in crunch-crunch centimeters!

At 6:30am, you would have thought it was Christmas all over again. ProjectBoy woke everyone up with his chirpy “IT SNOWED!! HEAVY!! CAN’T SEE THE TILES!!!”. Then came the call, no school; then another, no work. Skeeter, ever kind, let me attempt to go back to sleep. Ever prepared, he had purchased lamb bones and beans to make a hearty winter soup just in case.

Who can sleep when the excitement is coursing through the house like electricity? When all the kounouz are bundling up, the dog is wild with excitement, the cat wants a turn in the house? How is it on school days it can take forever to get them out of bed and dressed, but with snow they have managed to get up, eat, find everything and even tie shoes w/o help?

The radiators are draped with every coat, sweatshirt, glove and hat we own (even tho they aren’t on!). Even I have been out in the stuff, only because they dragged me, but it was worth it to feel dry pellet-like snow flakes that stay on my nose and eye-lashes…silver white winters that melt into spring…oops. I’m thinking about The Sound of Music, as my bud Urdani Babe has a fun tradition with their best friends: every first snow of winter, no matter what, they get together for fasuulia and watching the Sound of Music together. they will walk the 2 ks if the road is closed..it’s tradition. TRADITION!!!….oops, I feel another musical coming on, but I will spare you.

The kids made me go inside when they realized the only dry winter clothes were mine, so they are now wearing my boots, coat, gloves and hat on their THIRD round of snow play. The dog wants to be anywhere the kids are, I wish I could have captured her face when she was beaned with a snowball.  Like every victim of abuse, she puts up with way more than she should from those she loves. The cat retreated to her little cat-house in the shed, as it is now too deep for her delicate taste. I made sure her little house was ready yesterday, as  the outside place she lives in is regularly invaded by fighting toms that mess everything up, knocking her house over or even squatting! I can see her looking very cozy from the window.

Maher wins the prize for first snow greeting…at 5:15am, he left a comment for the Kounouz! And yes, Maher, I promise not to be a Grinch and we will be making chocolate chip cookies with NESTLE chocolate chips (THANK YOU EMILY!!!) and the kids will have unlimited time.

I thought I was going to get off the work hook, too, but at 9am my editor called, cheerfully looking for that first blog column! AH, the joys of working from home.

My neighbor is off at work. That is what 4×4 SUVs are for, indeed. Not for posing in Sweifiyya, nor parking at the mall, but for the work of snowy travel. He MUST though, as last time there was a big snow his car-lot was damaged big time.

Well, back to work. I’m having fun going through all your archives for “I”’s first blog review. Muhahahahah…

Christmas Bits and Bobs, Part I

Finally, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Except for no snow, of course. Tonight, I finally got the last of the decorations on the tree and the salon tidied up. NEVER, never has it been Dec. 21 and my home so NOT ready for Christmas. Never have I had not one gift wrapped at this late date. No Fruit-Nut Cake, no gingerbread, no plates of cookies ready to give to neighbors and co-workers, no plans for who to spend the Big Day with, no invites to our home given (well, to be honest that was set up a couple days ago, not today).

Losing Um Skeeter has really been hard. It brings me back to four years earlier when I lost my parents. Now I understand why my Jordanian friends do not put up decorations when there has been a close death. There is something about loss and mourning that takes up all your mental and heart energy. It has been such a blessing Skeeter came back just in time for the Eid, as the time off allows him the freedom to sit with a mug of coffee and contemplate life and death as he looks out onto the garden. He is getting used to talking about Mom in past tense, spending a lot of time journaling and writing his dad . Not many of you have lost parents yet, and it is so strange how positively orphaned one feels, even as an adult. Not to mention the reality that we are next.

But, for the kid’s sake, all the traditions are happening again. We had our first candlelight dinner last night with the Christmas dishes and a festive table runner. The kids actually got started on the present wrapping for me! Funny, how loss keeps you from majoring on the minors. Normally, I have a system for wrapping, and enjoy doing a gift-store quality job (why, you ask, when it all gets ripped off anyway? Rententive, I guess). But today, Little Project Boy brought me his first endeavor and it was just delightful. A delightful mess, but delightful. They are hired.

Listening to Christmas carols by the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been Spirit-led therapy. How can the soul not rise with the horns and strings? I had a very interesting sort-of answer to prayer yesterday, also.

I was playing around at Dan Fogelberg’s website, going through the lyrics of my old favorites and seeing what he had recorded after I traded him in for Michael Card (a Christian theologian balad writer much like DF). To my surprise, DF recorded a Christmas CD in 1999 I was unaware of. As I read the lyrics, I was astonished that all the songs were not just Christ-centered, but of the most sacred sung doctrine of my faith. Not one Jingle-Belly modern classic, all music that was meant to lead the soul to worship the Almighty God. Hardly music one would choose without believing it’s content.

I leave Dan Fogelbeg in God’s merciful and mysterious hands afresh, but with a joy-filled and thankful heart that I now will have a recording of his music with which to praise my Creator. An answer to a twenty-seven year old prayer. How gracious of God to reveal that He answered that prayer eight years ago; but I found out just when I needed a special touch from His hand

Cookie Party 2007, Chez MommaBean

My joy over last night’s excitingly sweet gathering is marred by the fact Umm Zaid didn’t get sufficient info to get there, and then had one of those mortifying Mall experiences with her friends. Shoes that didn’t fit, too much Christmas overkill when the main Eid here is Eid Al Adha, and finding an inappropriate book (really, what were those display designers thinking?). Umm Zaid, public apology for not writing down your number and following up! In front of the whole www and J blogosphere, I implore forgiveness.

Considering the party was on the first day of Eid, which was based on the convenience of our two schedules more than anything, we weren’t expecting a huge response. Au contraire (too much Galler chocolate is inspiring my long-forgotten French to reappear).

But huge it was, with about 90% invited showing up! I think it must have been the 65 (count ém, 65!) emails reply-all back and forth: Jano’s little joke to Jad about finding the place by “looking for the star”, Lina’s desire that all that is done at the party STAYS at the party (and since she didn’t come, must’ve not felt it a serious promise!) of course, Hala’s promise to do dishes because she loves it. I almost brought her my sink-full, if she loves it so much. Several said it was the curiosity peaked by the emails that made them decide to come!

We all have to admit, it is a little weird to meet your fav bloggers for the first time. We know WAY too much about one another, remember a stupid comment or post we made and hope that person forgets. Cookies are the perfect venue to smooth the waters and make everyone comfy after first greeting. Heads were bowed over that table for half an hour as discussion flowed like the frosting and snacks off the buffet table.

MommaBean, thank you for pulling off an AMAZING feat, providing a warm and welcoming home, delightfully dizzying array of cookies, frosting, decorations (oh, you should have seen the teeny-tiny sugar reindeer and snowmen cupcake toppers!), a separate room for two different ages of kid guests to decorate, and Helper Bean’s efforts in both prep and clean-up. Sorry I talked so much and helped so little - story of my life :).

In addition to all of us looking and acting like kids in a candy shop, my evening highlights:

1) MommaBean’s whimsical Christmas vest, handmade by her mother. TOO cute! How can this lady stay calm, cool, collected an smiling while buzzing everywhere hanging coats, refilling frosting, directing the masses and taking care of various child-dramas?

2) Meeting Dave the American blogger’s daughter (quite stylin’, he will have some serious wardrobe expenses in a couple years, and have to get a BIG stick to drive the boys away). Dave, in person, is also just like his blog persona, but his smile just sort of makes any sarcasm sweet. So unless he is ranting about traffic, imagine him writing it all with a grin. Mr. Leader, it was also his idea to do name tags. Shu shatre, huwwa.

3) BamBam’s presence! One of those guys that is who he is on-line as he is in real life, except he must be very humble on-line, as the guy is even more talented than I imagined. And he is darling, too. He BAKED the cookies he brought, on his own; not his sister, or his mom. No fluff, our No-Angel. Now we’ll have to see if he thinks his previous assessment of who I am was correct - can you tell what sign I am now? (besides the cross, yani)

4) Salam brought Raya and Zeid, and some delicious Pioneer Woman Cooks Bread Pudding. Raya was her angelic self, and the little Bean girls and Lil Kinz had a lot of fun together. Zeid has not forgotten his vertically enhanced method of decorating cookies from last year. He frosts, UP, not over. About 5x as thick as the cookie. If he had been my kid, it would have been the first one I stole and ate in secret.

5) Meeting Manal (don’t read blog). She is teeny and looks yet a teenager, what a combo to be that cute and smart. After a year of sporadic emailing, a pleasure to meet you! Manal may help me achieve my goal of becoming a less text-heavy, image-friendly blogger in 2008. (See, I DO read Bakkouz’ posts)

6) Hayat brought both her precocious little brother and precious Mom. Both churned out the cookie decor like nobody’s business. You wouldn’t have known tho, as the young man ate everything as soon as he decorated it.

7) Sam brought a couple relatives, as well as Ziad and a healthy Bilal. It was great to see her again, and we’ll have to have a St. Valentine’s cookie party before this treasure goes back to Canada. The interesting mix of blogger-kids was a good one!
Jad brought the Adiga-gals, Jano and sis-Fatoom, to round out the quieter circle of bloggers (there have to be SOME people that listen!). Jad, as well as the other 3 guys, was sort of a test case to see if we ladies could have JUST as much fun with men in the room. AND, to see how many cookies they would really eat. Jad showed extraordinary restraint, (passed the test, as they all did) by only eating what he had decorated himself. BUT, it happened so fast, no one got photos of his artwork.

9) Mazz, in Shad’s company, showed equal restraint. He was invited not only because of Shaden, but also because he bugged me FOREVER, ALL YEAR about being invited. Ok, that may be an exaggeration. But he did make some interesting requests as far as giant cookies go, so wonderful MommaBean granted the request and more…a family of giant snowmen! Shad helped design, she’s as good expressing herself with frosting as she is with words.

10) I couldn’t find my sheep cookie cutter, so we could do Eid cookies as well, but ingenious Dave was able to turn a train engine cookie sideways and create a very realistic sheep! So realistic, you could tell it was a post-10am-Eid-morning sheep: oh the wonders of red frosting.

11) Dave also broke several (not-to-be-named) hearts by announcing the marriage of the last of his brothers. Immediate consternation ensued, followed by inquiries about the possibility of male cousins, especially if they were as cute as Dave. For those who missed my Galler update, Dave is drop-dead cute.

12) Ramblin Hal was her delightful self, wearing those BOOTS she blogged about. She has found her mobile charger, btw: that Galler girl gets calls every five minutes! She kept everyone in stitches, Hal-ifing the most normal conversations into hilarity.

OK, I know I have forgotten someone, sam7uuni as the kounouz are wrestling and I need to referee. NEXT year, since the men of the test case have proven themselves mu’addab, we may make it open invitation to all if we can find a bigger place.

http://jadmadi.net/blog/2007/12/19/mommabeans-cookies-party/

http://janmania.net/blog/?p=656

http://alhayat-life.blogspot.com/2007/12/first-things-first_19.html

http://iread.blogspot.com/2007/12/okay-happy-eid-everyone-s.htmlhttp://a-tale-of-three-beans.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-happened-at-cookie-party-stays-at.html

Life Savers and Procrastinating

Not the candy, but friends who come alongside when times are tight. I have been naaming mit akhreh and óooming bakkir TOO much.

1) MommaBean - for taking Lil Kinz yesterday to the Big Event and treating ALL of us to hot chocolate (with whipped cream!) and cookies. MB knows what comfort food to ply me with.

2) Um PS2 for picking Spikekid up at 7:45am Friday for an event. Abu Arbay’3a for organizing the event which took my son’s mind off ALL his hamsters dying. Hamster drama, yabayay. Our garden now has four little hamsters going back to dust.

3) Andrea for loaning me 100 chick-flicks to watch while Skeeter is gone. I would never make him sit through Bridget Jones, those Traveling Pants, Ella Enchanted, etc. On second thought, I’m not sure I want to either.

4) Gaza Girl GETS THE FRIEND OF THE DAY AWARD TODAY. She is tutoring Project Boy for his empty-haan 3arabi, she made sugar cookie dough, did dishes, and will be finishing the Christmas tree decor for me while I madly type.

Why such a crunch to blog? Heh-heh, not to blog, but finish an article that is due today. When did I start? Today. What is the topic? PROCRASTINATION. Get it? I have a serious deadline on a very seriously busy day, and I am NOT working on it! And my topic is time management and goal setting!!! I kill myself sometimes at what a walking contradiction I am.

I must say though, that I am revenge-blogging. I got not only two phone calls, but a text, to make sure I would be done by the 15th. No problem, I am Miss Always On-time Freelancer, editorial favorite for my punctuality. Usually this editor gives me lots of leeway anyway, the pressure was due to her travel (how is it my Muslim Jordanian friends got to American and the UK for Christmas) I busted my behind to get a very good 35% finished rough draft sent in.

So I call the office to make sure they got it. No answer. I called her cell. Woke her up, at 12:30pm. Uh-huh.

SO, that is why I am blogging instead of finishing. I’m sure I can add this to the piece somehow.

Random Remnants (See #6)

1) Thanks SO much to all who expressed their condolences to our family. It was like having a virtual 3azza! Skeeter sent the link to our family, and many American friends, who got a taste of the kind of folks we live around (or blog around). Most importantly, Abu Skeeter was very touched. I can’t believe my father-in-law read my blog. Makes me happy.

2) Skeeter got back just in time for this big MidWestern ice storm, which makes it very cosy to sit in a warm home with family and remember happy times with Mom. All his siblings and their kids were there, making it an extended pre-Christmas gathering. He said everyone really missed us, which made me even sadder to be missing my man and his family. Worst of all was the thought the kounouz are missing their cousins. 1995 was a banner year, as Spikekid and three other cousins arrived. You should see the 20 of them, there are always enough for a game of baseball, frisbee golf or football. Those precious nieces and nephews help my kids navigate the American Way, and have even learned some Arabi.

3) My sweet landlordess has already offered to rally the neighbors and make qahwa sada when the real-time 3azza when Abu Kounouz gets back…just in time for Eid Al Adha. She did this for me when my parents died, the house was packed out with our friends and neighbors we didn’t even know we had. You know what makes our own 3azzas special for us ajaanib? No one mentions American foreign policy.

4) I’ve got my 3azza wardrobe together, figuring every appropriate social fashion combination. I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to wear black without looking either hot, or like a frumpy grandma. I don’t usually wear black, unless it is time to be elegant, which only happens a couple times a year. Beige is black for blondes, but it doesn’t work for mourning.

5) I’ve had a hard time enjoying the Christmas season. The tree remains half decorated - that is one Jordanian tradition I can’t do, forgo the decor. No cookies made yet, and it is near the 15th! Other than family, no Christmas cards ready, no gifts for my pals. Thank God all the kounouz gifts are purchased and ready to wrap. How organized am I? I even have all their little stocking stuff and their gifts sorted and bagged. This had never happened, I’m usually up til 1am 12/25 wrapping and sorting.

6) I went out for a goodbye party for a mag editor I’ve enjoyed working with. Now that was wierd, going to a party without my husband. I was able to balance hot and frumpy, but was seated next to a group of young men I had never met. Great. I had to pretend they were bloggers to feel comfortable. They started talking about girls then, and I groaned. But, all they said was stuff I had already learned from Blanet Beople until one guy said “Yea, things will get better when we handle relationships like you all do in the West. When we have the freedom to live together, it will be much better”.

Sputter, choke, cough. “Better for who?” I asked. “All the way around, you know, there is nothing like living together first to know one another”. I said “You mean, it is better for the guy. She agrees cause she wants to marry you. She splits the rent, cleans the place and cooks, and you get free sex. Then, when things calm down, you decide she isn’t the one and do it all over again. Yea, GREAT deal for guys. And you think that is going to happen HERE?”. What blanet did they live on?

So we had a very lively debate. They assumed my husband and I had lived together, and when I explained we had a ‘hands-off’ policy until marriage, jaws dropped, and they asked me how we got to know one another. Golly, we got to know each others minds and souls before bodies. I told them: WE ASKED EACH OTHER LOTS OF QUESTIONS. Not the romanciyya lovey-dovey stuff, but the: so how much discretionary spending would work for you?, Do you put the cap on the toothpaste? Clean the mirror after you floss? Snore? How much time with which family which holiday? How many cooked meals a day? Which kind of church? What is your doctrinal position on glossalalia? (yes, I wrote him an 8 page paper on the gift of tongues) How many kids? Pets? Hayki. Anyway, it was worth going. I learned that young men trust young women to be who they really are about as far as they could throw them. Pity.

7) Spikekid and I watched the latest HP movie. Was anyone else bored? SO glad we didn’t go to the theater. One redeeming point: I figured out WHO our emotionally damaged dog reminds me of: DOBBY the house elf. She is a furry blonde Dobby. She is so eager to please, so mortified when she blows it, destroys stuff when she gets overzealous. Her ears, oh my her ears, do just what Dobby’s do. Now don’t tell me Dobby wasn’t in this film, I know that, it was seeing Kreacher that got me thinking.

SO, I think I used up my 15,000 words today. Ciao!

New Sugar Cookie Recipe!

***12/15 Note to readers visiting from a search: I baked these yesterday, and they aren’t as sweet as my old recipe. The kids did NOT like them. The egg frosting idea looks great, but really does need some sweetener…or additional sugary decor as shown on PW’s blog***

Just in time for Christmas and Eid Al Adha cookie baking! (Did you know I get about ten visits a day from people looking for Eid Al Adha cookie recipes?)

What’s the difference? LEMON ZEST, or, in other words, finely grated lemon rind. It was orange zest that made last year’s gingerbread cookies so totally zaki, so I can’t wait to try this one. Also: baked on frosting!!! No more scrubbing the kounouz faces and fingernails to get the food coloring off before they go out in public.

Gotta give credit where it is due…another fine culinary experience from The Pioneer Woman:

http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/

I commented there that she is contributing to world peace through the kitchen: cultural cookie exchange. If we all love the same kind of cookie, can’t we all get along?

If you are following the Black Heels to Tractor Wheels LUUUUV Story, a new chapter is due soon. I check about every ten minutes, just to see if I can beat the RSS feed.

Welcome, New Readers! A Ramadan COOKIE Recipe 4U!

Just in case kinziblogs really DOES have some new readers, I thought: “why resent my blogging roots?” I’ll post a cookie recipe you can send on to your wives!

Cream together:

3/4 C. butter

1 C. sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

Mix in another bowl:

2 1/2 C. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 1/4 t. salt

Add flour mixture to butter mixture, , mix thoroughly and refrigerate at least a couple hours. On a floured surface, roll out dough 1/4 inch thick.  Dip the rim of a a  small tea glass in flour, use as a cookie cutter. Carefully peel away extra dough, and refrigerate. Re-flour the tea glass, and press half-way through each circle to make a crescent moon shape (and put remaining dough in frig). Gently lift the moons on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes (if you have a RUM oven, turn cookies half way through baking so they don’t burn). allow to remain on cookie sheet 1 minute before removing to wire racks to cool.

Glaze with icing made of powdered sugar, coloring and enough milk to make a thin paste. Or use a lightly beaten egg white instead of milk.  When done, place them in an airtight container and hide them from anyone fasting.

(This is my Christmas sugar cookie recipe, I hope that isn’t, um, breaking the rules or anything. “Issue” post about pornography to follow).

Valentine Cookie Party - building Community

What a fun evening we had a MommaBean’s last night! As I reflect on our time, the theme that keeps popping up is ‘community’. There we were, women from many different backgrounds and professions who met in a virtual community based on thoughts and ideas - not our ethnicity, our tribe, our religion, our politics or what we wear or don’t wear on our hair. Our on-line world merged with our off-line world and we are now building friendships. Between us we had two engineers, two architects, two writers (and two budding writers to be published soon!) and two project managers. We were mature singles and young singles, mothers with careers and stay-at-home, and as diverse as we are, have many of the same struggles and goals!

Blogging and cookies brought us together to bond and talk and go ‘mashallah’ over the seven darling JB/JP/QP kids who played together without a peep in the next room. We ate, and drank and slathered cookies with icing (especially Zeido) and decorations and TALKED and talked and talked. I missed some of the discussion, as I hadn’t gotten any cookies baked before we came and had also wanted to show them how. Since I am usually a social butterfly who usually doesnt’ stop talking long enough to notice there is work to be done, it was a healthy exercise in serving behind the scenes.

Very fun to meet TALL neighbor Dima (Raindrop)! Her friends couldn’t understand why in the world she wanted to spend her Thursday evening with strange people she had never met before, but that is the beauty of blogging: sometimes we know MORE about some of the heart workings of a person by what they reveal on line, things off-line friends might take for granted!

MommaBean, Khalidah, Rebecca, Oula, Salam and Dima; it is great to know you. Thanks for enriching my life, and may God bless us as we become a micro model of mutual respect and understanding for the macro world at large.

**UPDATE*** I forgot to mention meeting TAYTA Bean! Seedo Bean, too, but I’m not sure he is ok being known as Seedo Bean, or Abu 3atel :)! Get this…Tayta Bean READS OUR BLOGS!! What a cool grandma, the ultimate son and daughter-in-law supporter…reading their blogs and those who link to them! (or will link to them, when she gets it figured out :S)

Qwaider Bars, Mr. Firas Cookies & Short-cut Fassulia

It was church potluck this weekend, so time to pull out the secret stash of American stuff I cram into duffel bags from the bi-annual pilgrimage to Wal*Mart (no offense intended,  I actually think more people in the US worship at Wal*Mart than at church on Sundays these days).  As I contemplated which mouth-watering delight to choose, I remembered Qwaider’s cry for mercy from a previous post and decided to share an easy-to-make one and rename it in his honor.

So here is a total GUY recipe, SO simple. And since Mr. Q can find all the goodies, I’ll give the US version and the JO version:

QWAIDER BARS (formerly 7 Layer Bars)

1/2 C. butter (one stick) melted (CAREFUL if you melt it in the microwave)

1 1/2 C. finely crushed graham crackers (HE can buy them this way, we must use a rolling pin to smash them inside a zip-loc bag)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix  together, pat down with fork into a greased and floured 13×9x2″ pan. You know, get some shortening on a paper towel and lightly coat bottom and sides, add a couple tablespoons flour and shake it around until coated.

Then add in layers, one at a time:

1C. Chocolate  Chips

1C. Butterscotch Chips

1 1/3 C. flaked coconut

1/2 C. chopped walnuts

1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk (pour over all evenly)

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the lovely caramel color of Wadi Dana soil. Let cool thoroughly, cut into bars. Don’t let girls near them if you want any yourself! OR, hey, make them to impress your Valentine!

For the JO version, substitute Digestive Biscuits for graham crackers. Peanut butter chips for butterscotch, or cut up marshmallows or just more chocolate! If no choc chips to be found, cut up baking chocolate in dark or white. If there is no chocolate to be had as all is held up in Aqaba awaiting wasta, then chop up dates and it is just as delicious.

MR. FIRAS (IheartAmman) COOKIES

I was looking for a REALLY easy recipe for Firas, who wasn’t even sure where to find a cake mix in the store. Alas, I decided he should just go to Mecca Mall, get a two dozen Mrs. Fields Cookies, put them on a plate and serve them as Mr. Firas Cookies.

SHORT CUT FASSULIA (for single expat JO folk who need a quick taste of home)

1lb package frozen green beans

large onion, chopped fine

1 15oz can tomato sauce, one can water

1/2 lb  ground beef

2 t. salt

1t. pepper

1t. cinnamon

Saute ground beef and onion together, drain fat. In large tanjara, combine all ingredients and enough extra water to look like mom’s,  simmer 20 minutes and taste - add more spices to your fancy and continue simmering. Start rice. When rice is done, fassulia’s ready!