Ode to a peanut butter sandwich

God bless George Washington Carver, that African-American marvel that invented peanut butter. I love that guy so much, I did a book report on him in sixth grade. I love him simply because he created one of the most comforting of comfort foods.
As a kid, in my house, if you turned your nose up at anything Mom made, you could replace it with a peanut butter sandwich. Peanut butter is good paired with anything. Some combinations I have tried and loved include peanut butter and jelly, of course, raisins, cinnamon-sugar, marshmallow fluff, and even pickles. Don't knock it til you've tried it.
If you slept over at my grandparents' house, not only would you be awakened by my Grampa sticking his finger in your ear, but after the cows were milked, Grampa would come up and make his specialty breakfast, Cream of Wheat, or Coco Wheat, your choice. But no bowl of this was complete unless you slather a slice of toast with peanut butter and then topped it with this hot cooked cereal.
My brother and I used to come home from school in search of snacks. Mom never really stocked up on prepared foods, opting for the homemade cookie instead. The cookie jar was not always full, more often than not, with five kids in the house, it was emptied quite quickly. So my brother came up with his favorite afternoon snack called the candy bar. He would start off with a spoon of peanut butter, some powdered milk, and some honey and mix it up til it got kinda hard. Then he would shape it into a log and find other things in the pantry to adorn it with. I am thinking raisins, chocolate chips, Nestle Quik, that kind of thing. Extra points for creativity. Some days it was goopier than others so he would freeze it first and then we would dig in! Disgustingly good. Nowadays, he has his wife to make delicious peanut butter balls, which are a chocolate covered melty peanut butter delight!
My favorite way to eat a peanut butter sandwich is with chicken noodle soup with a slight variation. I make my sandwich on pita bread and cut it with scissors into little crouton like shapes which I put in my soup. The peanut butter melts under the heat of the broth and the bread gets soft and noodly. It is good.
What's your favorite way to eat peanut butter?

Mujadarra - What would you do for a mess of pottage?

Way back before television, before there was such a thing as Klondike bars, people were making deals in exchange for treats that tantalize the taste buds. As the story goes, Esau exchanged his birthright to his fraternal twin Jacob for a mess of pottage, or what is known in Arabic as mujadarra. Mujadarra is made of the simplest ingredients, rice, lentils, and onions, things you probably have in your cupboard right now. If ever you don't know what to cook, or your cupboards are getting bare, it's time to make mujadarra.
A few days ago I made it for my family, adding "a ton of cumin" at a friend's suggestion. I don't normally play around with my mother in law's recipes, but I decided to take a walk on the wild side, throw caution to the wind and in went a heaping tablespoon of cumin. I was totally prepared to feed my husband something different. He doesn't like my getting creative with Arabic food. I must make it the way his mom makes it.
We set the table as we always do. I filled his plate. He took a bite. His eyes got big. Then he said "What did you do to this?" I had a split second of suppressing my urge to defend myself before he went on to say, "It's delicious!" Everyone at the table agreed and I believe we all ate seconds. Last night they fought over who finished the leftovers. It didn't end well, so I promised to make it for lunch again today. Again, I made it and again, they ate seconds. Fortunately Rod was born twenty minutes after Petra or I do believe he may try what Esau did. It's that good.
Here is my new and improved version of my mother in law's recipe:

1 and 1/2 cups brown lentils

6 cups water

2 large onions

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 and 1/2 cups rice

Add water and lentils to a large saucepan and boil for 20 minutes.

While the lentils are cooking, dice one onion and fry in olive oil. The onions should be cooked until they caramelize and get dark. I add bits of water as the pan gets dry to avoid using too much oil. This takes time but is what gives the dish it's amazing flavor.

Once the onions are done, add the cumin, salt, and pepper to the pan and saute for a minute to release the flavors.

Add the onions to the lentils and water.

After the lentils have cooked for 20 minutes, add the rice and cook for another 20 minutes.

Slice the next onion into thin slivers and repeat the caramelizing. Set aside for a garnish.

Serve with yogurt and the fried onions. Make sure you make plenty to avoid future inheritance issues.

Kaak, the Jordanian Breakfast of Champions

How do I love thee? Let me count the sesame seeds.

A major perk of driving the kids to school is the opportunity to get fresh, and I mean FRESH, bread for my breakfast and sometimes sandwiches for the kids' lunches. What better way than to pull over and have it made for you. My favorite place to stop is at the second circle where the service is friendly and fast. What would you like on your kaak today? Falafel? Hard boiled egg? Zaatar? Cheese?

Kaak, it's fast, it's fresh and it's fabulous!

Froggy ate a corn dog, he did cry "Mmmmm, mmmm!"

I recently went to a potluck with my newly famous corn dogs. Corn dogs were one food we were missing from back home, and I decided to find myself a recipe. I tried a couple that I found online and then I found this one. It's definitely a keeper.
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/a-plus-fair-corn-dogs/Detail.aspx
I did make a slight variation to the recipe. I used 1/2 yogurt 1/2 milk instead of the buttermilk and I added 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder and 2 tablespoons ofartificial bacon bits. It would be just fine without these. Next time, if I put the bacon bits in I will cut down on the salt, I think it was too salty.
For the hot dogs I used cocktail sized chicken franks, but you could easily cut a full size hot dog in thirds. For the sticks, I used toothpicks which I dropped into the oil with the hot dogs. I thought I might have to replace them with new toothpicks afterwards, but in the end they worked just fine. Just make sure to drain those little suckers on plenty of paper towels to absorb the extra oil.
When I find myself with extra batter, I drop teaspoonfuls in the hot oil for yummy hush puppies!

Potluck Friday

Who doesn't love a good potluck? I mean, everyone can cook at least one thing good. And if you aren't into cooking there is always chips, dip, and drinks. For all of its appeal, it has never made it big in Jordanian society, except among the expatriates and transplants. I attend at least one potluck a week. It's a great way to invite yourself to someone else's house, no pressure for the host to do much of anything. Just make sure your bathrooms are clean and the coffee pot is always full.
Today, my husband invited our family to his sister's house for dinner. I'm sure it started with "What's cookin'?" and when he liked that she was making fish, a dish I could never make often enough for him, he said that we would be coming and bringing whatever it is I was going to make. It turned out quite well in the end. I brought some leftover mloukhia, a fresh pot of rice and the prettiest shepherd's pie I ever made. My sister in law made a pot of lentil and rice soup, a beautiful potato and beet salad, fries and of course the fish. We actually stayed long enough to have another round of lentil soup, this time served in mugs as we all watched Slumdog Millionaire with both Arabic and English subtitles.
It was great company and great food. I could do that more often. I hope my in-laws do the same and I will look forward to a fancy free feast at my house.

Kissin' wears out . . . cookin' don't!

So goes the famous Pennsylvania Dutch saying. Growing up German (Deutsch) in Pennsylvania, I was exposed to the culture through our food and some language, although I must say most of the language I heard required my grandfather to put a nickel in a jar for using words he should not utter. My grandmother enforced that, and probably was able to buy herself something nice from time to time as a result.
We did have some similarities to the German and Dutch who settled in the southern part of Pennsylvania. My grandfather was born on a farm and lived there his entire life. His family aptly named it Greenwald Farm, as it was walled in by mountains of greenery. The women in the family were into canning and quilting. We ate schnitzels and knadles and sauerkraut, as well as scrapple, fritters and shoo-fly pie.
Shoo-fly pie is one of my favorite desserts. I love to make it because it requires a little kitchen chemistry when you mix the baking soda, hot water and molasses. It foams right up and you pour it in the crust, top it with a streusel topping and pop it in the oven.
Necessity is the mother of invention and shoo-fly pie is an example of this. The settlers, who loved their pie and would eat it at any time of the day, traveled to America by boat and the ladies were able to make this pie out of the long lasting staples they took along on their journey. While the origin of the name has been debated for years, it is most likely because they had to shoo the flies away from this sweet treat. This dessert has actually a day, May 14th, designated in Pennsylvania to honor it. But you most certainly don't need to wait until then to enjoy it.
So . . .
When you come over - come out. (When you're in the area, drop by.)
I'll make you some dippy eggs. (I'll make you some eggs overeasy.)
Don't eat yourself full. (Don't fill yourself up.)
After I red the table, (After I clear the dishes from the table,)
there's shoo-fly pie back yet. (there is leftover shoo-fly pie.)
Or you can make it yourself using my mom's recipe:
Shoo-Fly Pie
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 8-inch pie shell
Preheat oven to 450 degrees (230 Celcius). Combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Set aside. Mix together molasses, hot water, and baking soda. Pour into pie shell. Top with crumbly mixture. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees (180 Celcius) and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

On Julia and Julia

#1 Bestseller? Sure. I can see how this book would be a best-seller merely by the concept alone. A writer and avid foodie takes on Julia Child's cookbook in a yearlong project. 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen. This whole project covered through her blog. I really wanted to like it. I love cooking. I love writing about cooking. I love reading about cooking. I just didn't care all that much about Julie.
Putting down this book that everyone seemed to be reading was a difficult decision, but I was getting so little enjoyment out of it. Another thing that kept me going was that Meryl Streep acted and Nora Ephron directed this book turned movie. Those two endorsements alone made me doubt my gut instincts. Yet I could not get past page 68. I finally pulled out the bookmark, put the book in my purse and returned it to the friend who lent it to me.
Today, I watched the movie with my little kitchen helper, Layali. Here is the review through her eyes. This movie is kind of like Ratatouille. There is a lot of kissing. She didn't not like that, but she liked my having put my hand over her eyes until it was time to watch again. She watched in the same anticipation as I the scene with the boiling of the lobsters. She thought the aspic that fell from the mold eventually to the floor was "poop" because it kind of looked like it and because Julie yelled "Shit!" when it happened. Layali finally fell asleep in the middle of the boeuf bourguignonepisode.
So the movie was a far cry better than what I read of the book. I enjoyed it alot actually. To Julie's credit, she did take on a big project and for that I can admire her. I have gone maybe a week tops writing a daily blog before disappearing into my life for awhile. I never was a fan of Julia Child before, only having experienced her cooking show and that voice of hers at an age where anything different I would ridicule.
Please, skip the book, go straight to the movie. Go out and buy Mastering the Art of French Cooking instead. I might even buy The Joy of Cooking as well, although Julia would not be pleased with that decision.