J has to work on Thanksgiving Thursday, so I was not planning on doing anything this year. What with being sick* and not knowing many people here in Cairo for whom Thanksgiving is a big deal, I was all right with the idea of not making a fuss. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized I didn't have to do much in order to mark the ( Read more... )

Been a busy week here, but not on the house cleaning front. Still haven't finished that, and what with the dust, it looks just as bad as when we arrived.  I'll get to it. Soon. Soon ( Read more... )

The bananas here in Egypt aren't quite as good as they were in Mayotte (you can't get a lot of different varieties, either), but they are so much better than the supermarket offerings in France.  You can, of course, buy them in the store here, but they are better fresh off the cart where the hands are still in a bunch.


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I wanted to post about our sea-filled Sunday, but I have to make some room on my laptop hard drive before I can play with photos. Instead, have a post about something else. How about food?  You good with that? OK.

I've been wanting to make this delicious-sounding recipe for " Chilli Chicken" khiemtran posted about a while back.  However, I could never ( Read more... )

I tossed my sourdough starter out!  I had put it into a different jar so I could clean the one I normally keep it in, and when I came across this "different" jar of starter in the fridge, I thought it was some extra that had been forgotten.  I just poured it down the drain.  Then today, when I went to feed it...no more starter. >.It had just ( Read more... )

I saw a twist on hibiscus tea the other (sweltering) day and just knew I had to make it. Score that I had all the ingredients on hand. The only problem was that I didn't read the directions all the way through and didn't realize it needs a night of chilling before being ready to drink. I cheated and tasted it after a couple of hours, when the chia ( Read more... )

- Had a productive writing morning; was able to plot out Bax's arc/scenes across the trilogy, give or take a few scenes that will either become redundant or be added as/if needed.  I am doing this plotting on index cards for all the POVs, just jotting down the basic scene ideas, sometimes no more than a couple of words. I'm OK with this part of the ( Read more... )

A perfect gift for me would be a guided walk with a botanist/forager extraordinaire. I know there are so many plants all around me worthy of my plate (80% of plants are comestible; not all 80% are delectable, though), but I just don't know how to identify them.

However, I do know alliums when I see--and smell--them; so during a drive with S and my ( Read more... )

Sorry that this is in French for now. Don't have time to translate it, but I want to have a copy of the menu to remember:

( menu )

...if I were Persephone* and, to boot, I'd be damned to an eternity at Hades' side because I cannot. stop. eating. pomegranate seeds. Four seeds? Who was she kidding ( Read more... )