Keeping up with my brand and my blog, I am mixing things up and posting things late.
Last week we celebrated the start of a great initiative started by two awesome ladies, Nadia and Mai. We celebrated on April 2nd, along with all the participants by hosting a gathering with my foodie friends at a local restaurant that I LOVE for its food, atmosphere, and simple feel.
The initiative is called April Is For Arab Food, and it is to celebrate our heritage recipes and bring exposure to it. To me, most importantly, this is so important in the west where our food is being appropriated and promoted as Israeli food. I live online and I SEE!
My friend, blogger and cookbook author, Bethany Kehdy said it best in her book and shared it on instagram. I could not have said it any better Continue reading “Ghammé; Fweregh & Kroush”→
This is not my first shakshouka recipe. It is said, once you make it, you’ll keep making it all the time. I am not an exception to the rule!
Rarely do I repeat the same dish exactly to the point. It has to be different in something. And this time won’t be any different.
My love for shakshouka is real. A real love story. Or in the terms of food writers; it is a perfect marriage of ingredients and flavors. Jokes aside, it is. If you haven’t tried it at least once, you’re missing out. Continue reading “Sausage Shakshouka with Anchovies and Capers”→
What do you usually do on Easter week and weekend?
Share those in the comments. I’d love to read them
Over the years, I’ve posted Easter recipes including traditional ones that my family prepares EVERY YEAR…
YES. KAAK ASFAR
If you are looking for that recipe and other things to prepare this week for this holiday, I will make your lives easier. Follow the list below to help you plan some Easter gatherings recipes, some traditional Easter recipes, and some fun Easter-inspired ones.
Maamoul and Kaak Asfar are Easter staple for my family. It never an Easter breakfast without Kaak Asfar with labneh and the colored eggs, followed by Maamoul and coffee.
The third MUST-HAVE for my family’s Easter table. We get the blessed eggs from Easter Mass at dawn and compete on who has the strongest egg by having a one-on-one egg-cracking contest. Watch out for the family member who is very watchful over his egg, it might be a fake 😉
I’ve been a follower of Jamie Oliver’s magazine and his shows. I’ve used one of his recipes to make these with a few changes to suit what I have at home, first, and suit the flavors I want. These Hot Cross Buns are nice pillowy bread buns flavored with great spices, ginger, and sweet dried fruits. Brush the top with honey for a beautiful glossy glaze and cover the sliced halves with a generous spread of butter. Try it and let’s see what you think
The ones pictured here, as I remember, over-proofed and looked a bit weird and tasted yeasty. But that didn’t stop me from sharing
A twist on the hot cross buns, also adapted from Jamie Oliver. As I was writing this, a video was released on his channel of Chocolate hot cross buns with melting chocolate inside! Possibilities are endless with these sweet spicy buns
Sneak in some booze into your Easter – because why not! – tradition by making these cookie balls with two shot of bourbon. Dress them up for the occasion
If you’re not into fancy sweets or you don’t have much time, this is yours. Just melt the chocolate, bring its temperature down a bit and pour it over a baking sheet AND DRESS IT AS CRAZY AS YOU WANT. Break it apart or let your friends take pleasure in the task
This is making its way into my family’s Easter lunch tradition, in case we have the stomach capacity after a food-loaded breakfast. Serve it with a zesty salad with ginger and garlic
The epitome of spring in a roast recipe. Grab the fresh herbs and grind them into a paste and rub it onto chicken with loads of olive oil and butter. The vegetables at the bottom will roast and crisp up from the fat dripping down from the chicken. Grab the pine cones from the forest, wash them and add them to the tray for an added aroma of pine and wood
Serve the above chicken with roasted vegetables with coriander and garlic. For me, roasted vegetables can pass as a main dish if well prepared and paired with something grains or pulses maybe.
If you’re not making any of the sweets above, use the seasonal strawberries and prepare this fresh dessert. It tastes like a sundae, only BETTER
Whatever you decide to prepare, the most important part is to celebrate the holiday (whether you’re a believer or not) and the family gathering and the delicious food.
Some serious social media suicidal thoughts were spinning around my head.
I have neglected my social media accounts to a point that they might have died. I tried reviving my Instagram account. But still, I have reached a point where I do activities that I don’t want to share online. I meet people and rather not post a photo of us together.
Is this growth? Is this growing weary of social media? Is it social media suicide?
It is equivalent to leaving the big city and escaping to the mountains and seeing no one, sitting in between of beautiful high trees and waking up to the sound of roosters calling the sun to climb up from its slumber. It isn’t that bad if you think about it.
But for someone who is making a living from being online, sharing stuff online, and getting work from doing work and sharing it on the worldwide web… THIS IS SUICIDE!
The draft for this post was written in 2015. I dug it up, edited it a bit, to post it in 2016 with more intention.
May 15 marks a turning point in the course of history with massive consequences
It is the day Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes to nowhere
It is when Palestinians started looking for home, a shelter, a roof to stay under. For 68 years, Palestinians are being chased out of their homes and lands, tortured, imprisoned, mistreated, and killed.
Massacres are happening on a regular basis. The world has become so numb. We count numbers. Unless there’s a notable person among those killed, the death toll is meaningless
Third Street: the street I live in
say a little prayer
art installation next to the church
the produce vendor
motorbike prayer
Photos from Dbayeh Palestinians refugees camp I took last year
As I probably have mentioned in previous posts, I am a 2nd generation Palestinian with a Lebanese nationality. I barely have any sense of belonging to neither. My grandmother used to tell me about how they fled and how they settled in the area that became the refugees camp of Dbayeh, the camp that neither most Palestinians nor Lebanese know about. Continue reading “Palestinian Msakhan; Pulled Chicken Wraps with Onions and Sumac”→
