Sometimes, the best fun you could have is unplanned. The plan yesterday was to go with the Kanoun's to a dine-in theater, but the kids could not agree on the movie. And Christmas day is usually so boring here with everything, I mean everything, is closed, except for the movies and gas stations. So out of the blue came the idea of let's get together in our place and do Emgatta' (homemade Libyan noodles).
It was interesting how it turned out and what coordinated teamwork it took to pull it together.
- Dough recipe consultation with Fairouz live on Skype from Cairo
- Making the dough by Sol
- Cutting the noodles by Tala
- Dry Gideed sent to us by mail from Sara and Adel in Cleveland
- Gideed oil leftover from some gideed I made a while back
- Fenugreek that my mother-in-law brought with her from Libya in 2000
- Cooking the whole thing together by Suhir
- The yeast for the bread came from the middle eastern store that was open but only had bulk yeast. The owner gave Sol enough to use for free
Since stores were closed we had to find a solution for the bread. It was not my problem, so I went for a nap and left Sol to start making the dough. I woke up just about when the Kanouns were expected to arrive. I found Tala helping Sol with the noodles; bread dough is done and set aside to rise... I felt really good. Everything got taken care of without me lol
The Kanouns arrived and Suhir was assigned the task of cooking the emgatta'. I relaxed on the sofa in the family room watching the busy bees in the kitchen and chatting away. It was fun not to have to do anything! After dinner, we had herbal tea with delicious magrood and ghrayba made by Sara, our niece, in Cleveland.
The emgatta' was out of this world... all gone!
All in all, it was indeed a Merry Christmas :)
The blessing of having family and friends... Priceless, for everything else, there's the plastic!
It was interesting how it turned out and what coordinated teamwork it took to pull it together.
- Dough recipe consultation with Fairouz live on Skype from Cairo
- Making the dough by Sol
- Cutting the noodles by Tala
- Dry Gideed sent to us by mail from Sara and Adel in Cleveland
- Gideed oil leftover from some gideed I made a while back
- Fenugreek that my mother-in-law brought with her from Libya in 2000
- Cooking the whole thing together by Suhir
- The yeast for the bread came from the middle eastern store that was open but only had bulk yeast. The owner gave Sol enough to use for free
Since stores were closed we had to find a solution for the bread. It was not my problem, so I went for a nap and left Sol to start making the dough. I woke up just about when the Kanouns were expected to arrive. I found Tala helping Sol with the noodles; bread dough is done and set aside to rise... I felt really good. Everything got taken care of without me lol
The Kanouns arrived and Suhir was assigned the task of cooking the emgatta'. I relaxed on the sofa in the family room watching the busy bees in the kitchen and chatting away. It was fun not to have to do anything! After dinner, we had herbal tea with delicious magrood and ghrayba made by Sara, our niece, in Cleveland.
The emgatta' was out of this world... all gone!
All in all, it was indeed a Merry Christmas :)
The blessing of having family and friends... Priceless, for everything else, there's the plastic!