I’ll be honest: I’m not that great at making bread.  Actually, I’m certain I’ve mentioned before how baking in general just isn’t my thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to eat baked goods.  I loved to eat bread, cakes, doughnuts… but bake them?  They usually turn out as hard as a rock.  Muffins, I can do.  Banana bread, no problem.  Brownies and cookies?  Sure thing. But the rest of it?  Usually a very sad story in the Lublink house.

Have I told you about the time when I made a horribly lopsided birthday cake for Peter?

Or the time when I used my bread machine to make bread and it overflowed (still liquid-y) out of the machine?

No?  I’ll just leave you with those tid-bits and let you bask in my incredible baking “skills”…

But things have changed… I found an AMAZING baguette recipe that I tried and it WORKED.  It worked beautifully!!!

It all started when friends of ours were having us over to dinner for shrimp scampi, and they asked us to bring some fresh bread for dipping in olive oil.  Awesome!  The only trick is that it’s hard for us to find that kind of fresh bread at the last minute in Kuwait.  So, I figured I’d give bread baking another chance.

I did a quick google search on my phone to see what I could find that would a.) taste good b.) be easy enough for me to make and c.) not take a zillion hours heating up my already-warm middle eastern kitchen.

I found this recipe, which is fabulous.  I really can’t say enough good things about it.  I didn’t make all that many changes.  I used a combo of white and whole wheat flours, I braided it instead of leaving it in the usual loaf shape, and I sprinkled it with zaatar (skipping out on the cornmeal).  Oh, and instead of cooking spray (because I don’t have it!), I used regular olive oil and just spread it myself.

So if you’re a terrible baker like me, do yourself a favour and try this recipe.  It’s a keeper in this house!

One of the quick and easy snack foods around here is called Fatiyer.  I like to joke that if you eat too much of it, you’ll have a “fat tire” around your waist… it might not be too much of a joke!  But in any case, it’s super delicious.  It’s kind of like an Arab twist on pizza meets calzone.

You can get it filled with a variety of things, but my favourite is cheese, tomatoes, olives and zaatar.  They fold it over and bake it fresh right there in their ginormous clay oven.  I love it!  It also helps that it’s approximately a 3 minute walk from our school…

I’ll miss grabbing a quick fatiyer here and there when we’re back in Canada for the summer.  It’s so much tastier than regular fast food.  Probably just as unhealthy with the grease factor, but at least the ingredients aren’t sketchy.

What’s your favourite fast food?

On vacation, other than relaxing, one of the things that I am most excited about is the food.  Tasting it, smelling it, seeing it… I just love exploring how other cultures eat!  Even if I’ve been there before, there’s still something new to try.

Before diving into our Middle Eastern Cruise with my parents, I’m pausing to do a quick post about the food we ate in Belgium.

Firstly, I had a dynamite hot chocolate the day we traveled to the edge of three countries and went to the Christmas Market. This hot chocolate was insanely delicious, and it was accompanied by the best cookies in the world: speculoos cookies. SO GOOD. Europeans really know how to do up a hot chocolate.

Then there were the desserts we had at Peter’s great Aunt and Uncle’s home: fruit-stuffed waffles and rice pie. Both of these are Verviers specialities. Peter’s mum has attempted to make the rice pie numerous times, and she says that although she’s gotten close she’s never been able to replicate it properly. She said that it has something to do with the water in Verviers. Crazy, right? I love how food can be so specific to regions – it’s amazing!! In any case, if my mother-in-law can’t make this, then I’m not even going to attempt it, because she’s pretty much a genius when it comes to that kind of stuff (and no, I’m not sucking up, because I don’t think she even reads my blog, haha!).

Okay, let’s talk German Christmas Market food.  This is slightly “cheating” because the Market was in Germany…but hopefully you’ll let that go.  Let me just say this: it smells incredible at the market. You can hear food sizzling and simmering all around you!  It was actually super challenging to know what to eat. There were traditional items like sausage, sauerkraut, etc., and tons of non-traditional items like pizza, pasta… We opted to have potato latkes (THE BEST I’ve ever had), and sauerkraut. Now, we don’t eat pork, which is pretty much a sin in Germany, so finding sauerkraut without the pork sausages was a challenge. To the point where although Peter tried to get only sauerkraut, it didn’t happen. So we left them on the side and his dad at them! The sauerkraut was so unique – so fresh, and it had a curry vibe to it. I really loved it!

We didn’t eat any of these homemade cookies this man was making, but it was definitely neat to watch him make them:

Backing up a bit, let’s chat about some of the homemade eats we had. Peter’s mum and dad went ALL out making Peter’s favourites and introducing us to new foods they’ve started to enjoy since moving to Belgium. One of those things was Chervil soup. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d never heard of Chervil before. Apparently it’s a green herb, and it’s common in Europe, but it hasn’t been anywhere else I’ve been. The soup is a veggie soup along with meatballs. It’s super yummy! In fact, we purchased some powdered packets of it to bring back. Of course, it will be nowhere near close to what we had made fresh by Peter’s dad, but c’est la vie.

Also, can I tell you how much I love lunches at Peter’s parents’ house? It’s incredibly European and I love it. Cheeses, crackers, bread, jams, pates, etc…so perfect for the lunchtime nibbler that I am!! Such a treat every time we visit. And this was especially nice because they got some extras since it was Christmas, and of course, because European dairy aisles are GINORMOUS (no joke – I went to many grocery stores in Belgium and the dairy aisleS are insane – in the most amazing way).

Last but not least, it wouldn’t be a trip to Europe without a stop in a Patisserie!  I love how they’re all displayed and each one looks absolutely perfect.  They’re almost too beautiful to eat!

Of course we ate way more than just what I’m telling you, but I thought I’d just hi-light some of the food for you to get a taste of what we ate while we were away!

We just spent the most glorious week on vacation in the country of Jordan!! I can’t wait to tell you all about it. I have some fun stories, great pictures, and possibly a video in the works…

I hope to share all of that with you as the week progresses, but in the meantime, seeing as it’s November, here are the recipes that were published in Faith & Friends magazine (to see the rest of the recipes that have been published, click here and scroll down a bit) this month.

You seriously need to try these Blueberry Basil Scones and this Curried Pumpkin Soup. They’re lovely on their own, but they’re even better together.

Happy November everyone (where did the time go?!)!!!

So…I was sitting here, and I realized that a bunch of people were talking about “the long weekend” on their blogs…and it occurred to me that it’s the Canadian Thanksgiving this coming weekend!  I totally had no idea.

I guess it’s the fact that a.) I’ve never been that obsessed with Thanksgiving before anyway and b.) I live in Kuwait where Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated.

I do have tons to be thankful for, though!!  I’ll save that for Monday though when it’s the “real” Thanksgiving.

In the meantime, for those of you from Canada who are planning your Thanksgiving menu for this coming Monday (or for you Americans who are really planning in advance!!), here are some of my favourite dishes to eat in the fall.

Appetizers: Perfect for sharing with a small crowd of friends or family while waiting for the main meal!

• Pumpkin Garlic Knots
• Bloomin’ Onion
• Cheese Ball
• Lentil Hummus

Side Dishes: Yummy options for taking to a gathering where you’re expected to contribute something to the main meal.

• Simple Sliced Side Dish (eggplant, potatoes, carrots)
• Cheesy Pepper Bread
• Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup
• Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad
• Crock Pot Cran-Apple Pecan Stuffing
• Squash + Lentil Soup
• Baked Sweet Potatoes
• Cinnamon Quinoa
• Curried Pumpkin Soup

Main Dishes: If you’re to into eating turkey (although I’ve included a recipe for that too), or you like additional options, these are some yummy fall-themed main dishes.

• Roast Turkey
• Butternut Squash + Sage Lasagna
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Mac ‘n’ Cheese (this could easily be a side dish as well!)
• Roasted Cornish Game Hen
• Crock Pot Roast Chicken
• Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Desserts: Perfect for finishing off a hearty meal!

• Pumpkin Spice Muffins
• Auntie Alison’s Date Cake
• Autumn Brownies
• Apple Pie

Since I’ve been teaching music I’ve sung all kinds of crazy little kiddo songs.  As much as I love the kids, I must admit, that at the end of the week I’m grateful for 2 days where I don’t have to sing kiddie songs allllll day long.

One of the song I have sung lately is called “Dipidu” which really doesn’t have much point to it lyrically other than to get the kids thinking about short and long sounds.  But we sing the words “dip” and “dipidu” a ton of times, and sometimes it makes me think of dip…as in, the yummy thing we eat veggies and such with.  Yup, food on my brain…

Anyway, the other night I was in the mood for a warm, creamy dip and I whipped this up and it hit the spot!

Creamy Dip:

• 4 tbsp. plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tsp. hummus
• 2 tsp. cream cheese
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. mustard

Mix, pour into two small ramekins and bake at 400F for 15 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with pita bread for dipping.

This also doubles as an awesome pizza sauce! I made my yeast-less pizza dough and covered it with the leftover dip, and then topped it with roasted vegetables (butternut squash, potatoes and green pepper), and a few more dabs of cheese and baked it at 400F for about 10 minutes until the crust was golden on the bottom. It’s a delicious way to use the dip in multiple ways!

Over the weekend I was feeling pretty sick with a bad cold and so that meant that on Friday (our weekend is Friday and Saturday) we were home-bound for the day except for a small trip to our bakala (convenience store) to get some small items.

Although, Peter did go out to a restaurant (we literally live next door to it) for some Yemenese food with a couple of other guys. While he was out I lounged by our t.v. watching “The Proposal” (classic!) and eating shawarma and fattoush. It was fabulous.

However, on Saturday, I was feeling a bit better and so we decided that we needed to get out and get some fresh air and a change of scenery. So we embarked on a little cab ride to Al Kout, a nearby mall area.

It’s an outdoor mall with various shops, a lot of which are very western. There was even a Marble Slab Ice Cream place, Dunkin Donuts and a Costa Coffee! It was soooooo quiet and next to no one was there when we got there. It was quite hot but we enjoyed the gentle breeze from The Gulf while we sat and ate breakfast.

After a while the beautiful water feature became “alive” as music started to play and the water danced to the sound of the music! It was a fun surprise and quite pretty for a lovely Saturday morning out.

We grabbed our groceries at the mall from the grocery store and also got some vegetables at the vegetable market. There was a meat market and fish market as well. We wandered through the fish one, but I refused to go down the meat market one…too many carcasses hanging around for me.

In any case it was a great outing despite not feeling 100%. I’m still feeling a bit off, but better than before, that’s for sure.

What did you do this past weekend?