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 ...