Casseroles in Cairo

Last night I hosted a 'family dinner' for a group of my Cairene friends. The theme was 'Vintage Casseroles.' I spent most of the day in the kitchen preparing three casseroles: Chicken Divan, Tuna Noodle, and Baked Crab Dip. (Two of the three called for Campbell's condensed soups, which I think goes to show that a certain company had some great marketing in the hey-day of casserole making!) For a vegetarian option, my best friend T made a "Parmaggiano" with "Aubergines" (That's Eggplant Parmesan to readers in the states). My cheese came out a bit gummy instead of crusty, but I think I just need to start turning the oven temp up way higher than it seems it should be.

Additionally, each guest was challenged to bring a dessert. The table was filled with desserts and they were all so delicious. C made a Pecan Pie with Pecans she brought back from the states, E made Snickerdoodles AND brownies, A made apple crumble and Wife of B made a fantastic (from what I understand) carrot cake (it was certainly adorable with cute little carrots done in orange and green icing on the top).


After dessert, a few of us adjourned to the sitting room to watch Anthony Bourdain sample the delicacies of Egypt on an episode of No Reservations that I downloaded while I was home. His description of the traffic and food was pretty accurate, though we have to chide the editors for showing the Bab Zuela, one of the old gates of Cairo, when Tony (I've just finished reading Kitchen Confidential so I feel like Mr. Bourdain and I are on a first name basis now) said "old temples" in describing the many structures available for site-seeing in Egypt. Tony's descriptions of Cairo predominately echoed the feelings of those of us who live here - particularly our love for the culture and the food. There were lots of "Oh, that reminds me of the time..." types of stories flying around as we were watching the episode and I really recommend it if you have visited or are planning to visit.

Later there was the general, full-bellied sitting around and telling of tales like at many family get-togethers and I had a general feeling of happiness at having a house full of sated guests.


I'll be doing a complete post on Patchwork Apron soon on how the assembling of the casseroles went, along with some basic recipes, but for now let me just say how lovely it was to have a house full of friends sharing food and stories around my enormous dining room table (at one point there were 14 of us!) Despite the hours of prep and clean-up (which, thankfully, went quickly because some folks pitched in to help last night and this afternoon) I would do it again in a heartbeat. But next time I will make more Chicken Divan because it went so quickly!

Finally, I leave you with the vision of leftovers. Beautiful, delicious apple crumble that my friend helped me finish off this afternoon, with some hot tea on the balcony, as we watched a sand storm roll in from the West and I procrastinated over cleaning up from the party ...

NEW Holiday, NEW Adventure

First of all, it's fun to get an unexpected day off. Two weeks or so ago the government announced today would be a new public holiday - Police Day! I love unexpected, mid-week days off!

To celebrate the NEW holiday, I tried lots of NEW things on my unexpected day off.

Last night, I began my celebration by going to dinner at one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants - Abou El-Sid. If you've come to visit, I've taken you there for their fantastic Babaganough, Tahina, Quail, Kobeba, and Grilled Eggplant. Last night I decided, in the spirit of trying NEW things, to deviate from my typical order (Circasin Chicken in Walnut Sauce) and try the Abou El Sid Tournados Fillet with Chicken Liver and Vegetables. I was so NOT disappointed. The chicken livers, the sauce, the amazing flavors that came through the sauce - heaven. Absolute heaven. (Like, I kept running my finger around the empty plate and licking off the sauce, heaven...much to the chagrin of my "manners are important" friend)

This morning began with a trip to my favorite neighborhood coffee place. Despite the chilly weather, my friend and I sat outside and I stirred and stirred my cappuccino with a chocolate spoon until it had melted all away. Once I was sufficiently full of caffeine we hopped on the Metro (so excellent, and only about 18 cents USD!) to head downtown.

The target of today's adventure was the Egyptian Museum. It has changed so much already since I was just there in October and it was my co-adventurer's first visit. I recently met some American archaeologists who have been working on re-labeling many of the exhibits and their work is incredible.

Also, at their encouragement, I did something NEW and forked over the extra 100LE for the Royal Mummy exhibit. What made the extra spend worth it for me was Hatsheput's recently identified mummy which I had read the story of in National Geographic last year. The experts had thought the mummy they had was the Queen and the one they had left in the tomb was that of Queen H's wetnurse, but, after finding a tooth in a box with Queen H's cartouche on it (now displayed with the mummy), they realized that the mummy they had was in fact the wet nurse and the one they had left lying on the floor of the tomb was Queen H herself! (All very exciting, I think!)

While wandering the museum in a NEW backwards fashion from the way I usually explore, I noticed a small, almost hidden exhibit space - the ANIMAL MUMMY ROOM! I had never seen this space before and it was really fascinating - especially the enormous crocodile mummies and the dog mummy whose hair and bushy tail were still intact! (this made up for the fact that the NEW children's museum at the Egyptian museum, the one with the lego exhibit, was closed)

Finally, my friend and I wandered back to Maadi and, after a lunch on the outdoor patio at a popular local restaurant (which it was really too cold for, though our stubborn "but we live in EGYPT" mentalities would not allow us to admit it) we went to a NEW carry-out dessert place called "Pumpkin" on Rd 9. This place is going to be my new sweet-tooth mecca! For less than $10 we got 4 generous slices of pie - chocolate fudge & meringue, apple tatin (which I've never had - another NEW), apple pie, and chocolate-mars-bar-coconut-nutella-blueberry something or other (I didn't order that one, even though it seemed very NEW, as I am allergic to coconut).

Then I came home to blog about my day and, very soon, eat my pie and make a frog puppet for my theatre students.

NEW holidays are just grand.

UKE UPDATE!

Me and My Ukulele (I call her Molly - she is powder blue with an orange vinyl hibiscus sticker on the front) are having a grand time in Cairo. We've been to our first Felukulele meeting and she's been tuned. Tonight I taught myself "Brand New Key" (one of my favorite Uke tunes I first heard played by Mad Tea Party at a CA show) - though my strumming needs some work.

Speaking of the Felukuleles - if you see any of them around Cairo (or the world) give them a thumbs up - they WON the Bushman World Ukulele Video Contest with their video "The Old Bazaar in Cairo" (see previous post)!

I am now a new member of a WORLD FAMOUS, AWARD WINNING ukulele group! No matter that I still barely know how to hold the thing, let alone play it ;)

Back In Cairo and Life is Lovely

The first week back in Cairo after the holidays is always a hectic one. There is getting back in the swing of things as far as work is concerned, unpacking, reuniting, and battling the trans-Atlantic cold (as I call it) that one inevitably gets from flying back and forth and spending endless hours cooped up in a plane/airport/train/trainstation/car with other people only to have to re-adjust to the 7 hour time difference upon landing.

As the stuffiness subsides, however, I remember just what I love about Cairo.

For one I love dinners with friends in their homes, an assortment of people from all over the world with myriad experiences sitting down to a meal. This week my Bahamian friend hosted a dinner of American and English teachers and American archaeologists - oh so much fun to talk of antiquities and digs and mummies and tourists and living the all over the world!

Next, I adore the produce. Today I purchased an enormous tray (a kilo?) of perfectly ripe strawberries, mushrooms, eggs, zucchini, asparagus (the most expensive of my purchases by far), and 'aubergine' (that's eggplant to my American friends). I cannot wait to cook them all up with my Top Chef skills ;)

After picking up the produce, I stopped by the flower man and pointed to an enormous bouquet of yellow mums and hot pink roses, knowing they would look lovely with my gold curtains (sounds awful, but I promise you it's beautiful). The proprietor tried to turn me to the white and light pink roses, which I did not like and then said - "But these pink and yellow - the roses no good! I make you new one, 5 minutes! You are paying money, you should have nice flowers!" and he remade an entire new bouquet with at least a dozen roses and twice as many mums.

I walked home all a-glow with a huge bunch of flowers and a bag full-of fresh produce (all for less than $16 - take that Waverly Farmer's Market!) in the beautiful, 80 degree, late-afternoon light. As I put my key in the door, I heard someone beating a tabla in a wonderful rhythm and just had to come out, sit on my balcony, and write about it all.