I have to share this recipe.
Things have not been easy in Beirut. But I have to do what I do.
Sharing joyful stuff does not reflect the current situation and I don’t intend to share posts where I’m all negative and nagging. I’ve been trying hard to share genuine content on my Instagram account; reflect what’s going on in the country, go against the general “resilience” mentality that we keep getting brainwashed into, and speak my mind.
Continue reading “Budget Friendly Beetroot Cake”New year new me. Starting the year with loads of bullshit! 😂
The year of pretending ended with 2020 and with the new decade, we are about to get real 😂
To cut it short, this year is the birthday I spend with the least amount of people around me. Yes. Quarantine and a lockdown in Beirut. I am not mad. I actually had a relaxing breakfast and coffee followed by my tradition of baking a birthday cake for myself.
If you’re first-time visitor to my blog, this is where I keep sort of a journal to document what goes inside my brain and what is cooked in the kitchen.
In this time of instability –we’ve been living this in Lebanon since August/September 2019, don’t let anyone convince you the instability was caused by the October 17 Revolution. The movement was caused by the greed and constant incompetence and failures of the government and ever-reigning politicians– we are trying to find comfort in anything that reminded us of a good time, a good memory, a joyful moment, a pleasant smell, or a comforting flavor.
Everyone and their mother (literally) is making cinnamon rolls and banana bread and starting a sourdough starter. I am guilty of the last two. I had to… A boy needed his good loaf of bread so I started the starter on March 27, but only now I got a good loaf. I’ll leave that for a future post. But now, I MADE CAKE!!!
Last month I had the chance to pass by Saida, in South Lebanon, throughout our Clown Me In tour, and see the stalls of the last few citrus varieties before the season is over.
I bought a 20kg crate of beautiful yellow lemons and another of Valencia oranges and got them home. I swear I spent a whole afternoon with a big bowl of water to wash them and the zester to zest most of those lemons and orange and freeze them for later use. I’m grateful for sitcoms and comedy shows that kept me company all day.
But I can’t complain.
It felt good. Relaxed and unwound with the zesty citrus aromas.
And I have zest for the whole year! Continue reading “Lemonade and Orange Sorbet”
I’ve been obsessing over winter’s best fruits.
I’ve had crates over crates of different citrus fruits that I could lay my hands on.
It is fascinating how life gives us these fruits on the days we need them the most; gloomy, grey, dark, and rainy. Nature gives us these colorful fruits hanging from brown and green trees with leaves glistening with winter rain waiting to be harvested.
The colors fascinate me. I would only like the gloomy rainy days when I don’t make any plans and stay in bed. Or when it stops raining at the moment I’m stepping out of the house. The sight of bitter oranges on the branches of the line of trees in Monot street makes my day. It makes me dance with joy when now in March, those branches carry small yellowish white buds instead of the fruits and the scent of orange blossom fills the streets with a beautiful fragrance that covers up the recent smell of trash that is occasionally looming over Beirut.
My latest obsession was with blood orange. Continue reading “Blood Orange Dark Chocolate Cake with Blood Orange Glaze”
Cook in Five Square Meters 