Butter worms

There is a nap with my name on it, and it is calling strongly, but in the interest of getting a post in before another few days goes by, I shall resist, at least until this is posted.


One of the new kitchen items I got when we were shopping a week or so ago was what I believe to be a potato masher.  What I really wanted was a pastry cutter but I'm not sure if I'll find one here or not and I figured this would do for now, if not for good.  I've used it twice for mashing butter/sugar together, and also last night I used it on some chickpeas. Fun!

So here's a picture from the first time I used it.  I was so amused by the little butter "worms"  lol.

And I suppose mashers can bring us to last night's dinner, which is what was deemed Melissa's Middle Eastern Extravaganza., with complete lack of seriousness.  lol

I started off with a yeast bread recipe for Greek pita bread.  It looked fairly simple to make and it was.  So while the bread was rising, I started making the caramelized onion hummus, which was also easy but took some time.  This is the part of the dinner that I used the potato masher for.  :D  I don't have a food processor or blender, so I used the masher to mash the chickpeas up a bit.  While I was making that I also started getting everything together for a garlic vinegar sauce which is VERY yummy, which was to go over the cous cous, which is the only thing that I didn't make from scratch.

All in all, it took a couple of hours, a little over I guess, to make everything.  The bread took a bit to cook as you cook it kind of like a pancake, and since you're only cooking one piece at a time and there are 6, it just takes a while.  I finished up the garlic vinegar sauce while I was cooking the bread.

The bread was really simple to spread out into circles, I didn't even need a rolling pin, which I was somewhat worried about since I don't have one yet.  I just used my hands to spread it out, easy peasy!  And it tasted really great.  Hubby had some of the leftover later on with a sweet spread called halawa.

Anyways, here's a picture of the food.  I had wanted to cut up some cucumber and put it in yogurt but I ran out of time and energy.  lol

The bread should be obvious.  The hummus is in the bowls to either side of the bread, and the garlic vinegar sauce is the little bowl with the spoon sticking out of it.  The bigger bowl with the black spoon is the cous cous.  Who knew one cup dry would make so much??!!!

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Actually, speaking of food, I was making pancakes the other morning.  I was on the last pan and looked down at the stove and saw the tiniest ants you could ever possibly imagine.  I would not have been able to see them with my glasses off.  They were just tiny specks moving, and also they were a light color, not dark.  VERY hard to see!  In any case, gross.  I couldn't exactly figure out where they were going to or coming from, except from one part of the oven to another.  And there's nothing in there to attract them that I know of.  It was odd.  And, like I said, gross.  Slightly ruinous of appetite, but I ate the pancakes anyways.  lol

I got some vinegar out a little later and wiped the stove down, and baked something later on that day and we haven't seen them since.  Kind of creepy though how small they were.

The ant sizes here are really amazing.  From the tiny tiniest, to the largest ants you could imagine.  They look like the ones you see on the nature channel when they magnify the picture of the bugs.  lol
Totally creepy.  Oh well.

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More food related... lol

We went by the in laws on Friday to celebrate my sister in law and one of hubby's cousin's birthdays.  I made some brownies and some chocolate chip bars.

The brownies were SO good.  The recipe stated that they tasted like the kind you get from the store, from a box mix, and it's true, they did.  I guess if you don't like the box mix this would be disappointing but I loved them as did everyone else mashAllah!  Very moist and chocolaty and I guess they are my new favorite as opposed to my old favorite, which is the Moosewood fudge brownies, which are very good in their own right.  No pictures of said brownies.  We all know what brownies look like right?  lol

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We finally got a new gas tank in for the kitchen.  The other one hadn't quite run out yet but we were fairly sure it was going to go in the next day or so, so we got a new one in.  We are actually getting a second tank to have on hand as a spare, though I'm not sure when.  It's an extra tank hubby's folks had and they need to bring it from another apartment.  But it will be nice to have that backup.  Also, we've been here for quite some time and it's nice to know the tanks last so long.  I've used the oven quite a bit!

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The elevator periodically goes out in the building, and I don't necessarily mind walking the four flights of stairs.  The stairs are wide and spaced well so it's not quite as tiring as it could be.

But what I do mind is the constant smell of cat pee.  When you walk in the front reception to the building downstairs, or going up the stairs, or coming out of our apartment, the one thing that you can always smell is cat pee.  It's gross.  Not just the smell but the fact that there's always some cat around peeing.  lol

I am sure the doorkeeper has other things he'd rather be doing than cleaning up the pee every day, but the smell is really gross.  I have noticed this in other buildings as well, so it's not like our building is unique in this.  I'm not sure how they can control it really.  The stairs are open and the front door to the building is open all day, but there must be some solution.

As much as I'm okay with the apartment itself here, I'm not thrilled about the building, and the cat pee is one of the reasons why.  That and the elevator.  I try not to touch anything in it.  It gives me the skivvies just looking at it.  lol

I'm not a clean freak, really, but with a little effort on the part of the doorkeeper, and also on the part of the people using it, the elevator could be nice.  Instead of dirty and smelly and oh my god get me out of there!!  lol

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Oh!  More food of course.  lol

I found pumpkin!!  I was so excited!  :D

After we left the in laws the other night we went by the grocery named Metro, which carries a lot of imported items.  And I found two large size cans of canned pumpkin!  I only bought one can, since it should last for a couple of recipes of something or other, and at least I know that it can be bought now.  Man I was SO thrilled.  We also found Bisquick, imitation maple syrup, and some blueberry pancake mix, the kind that has the blueberries in a can.  We didn't buy it but now I'm thinking we should have.  I've talked to hubby about blueberries before and I'm not sure that he's ever had any.

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Alright, I still haven't posted the pictures of the building demolition, and still haven't talked about the trip back from the previous time we were at the in laws.  Perhaps in the next post.  But don't hold your breath.  lol