posted 26 June 2005 01:20 PM            

Anyway, I had a friend, a girl, at university, who could not cook AT ALL. OK, she knew about onionpeeling but at the end of the first year she invited us over and promised she'll make a pizza. It was the driest most tasteless pizza I have ever eaten.

Anyway, in due time she got married and stayed at home with the small kid. Guess who throws the most lavish parties with the yummiest food now, 10 years later???? (and the good cooking began much earlier)

So, there is probably no better teacher than having a loving and very hungry husband coming home day after day and asking for food.

My fiancee also thinks I cannot cook :))) but this is only because first of all it is really difficult to cook in another country where you cannot find the same things and even if you can then they do not taste 100% same, which may distort the whole recipe. And I personally hate cooking the same things over and over again, so I usually improvise with the food I happen to have in fridge, or feed some ingredients into google, add "recipe" and choose from what it feeds back to me, sometimes quite interesting things.

posted 26 June 2005 03:34 PM            

The thing about cooking being easier abroad may be true in the sense that, e.g. to me, most food in Egypt tastes rather bland and becomes uninteresting after a while, I mean the meat and the vegetables etc taste really good and natural, but there are not so many spices and other stuff you can add to food to create more variety. E.g. the chefs tend to say meat is just meat whatever you do with it, but it is sauces that give it its endless different tastes. I think sauces are a thing that is completely missing from the Egyptian cooking. Also, milk, butter and cheese based recipes, that all give food a kind of nice mild taste. Baked juicy food of the kind the scandinavians love (e.g. ham with cheese and onion sauce, or any baked ham for that matter, OK maybe because one cannot bake veal in the same way one can bake pork or maybe the ovens are not that popular in a hot country?).

Or salads, in a hot country and with nice tasting vegetables what could be a more delicious lunch? But there is usually only one kind of salad of tomatoes, onions and cucumbers, no spices, no oil added.

Food habits in other countries due to free travelling and resulting wider experience are also more extensive, and imports or local producing is better developed, so you almost never need to repeat any food really, and you can use the best of any nation's food habits.

posted 27 June 2005 06:14 AM            

Diary Of A Successful New Bride/Cook
Dear Diary,
Monday;
Now home from honeymoon and settled in our new home, it's fun to cook for Bill. Today I made an angel food cake and the recipe said, "Beat 12 eggs separately." Well, I didn't have enough bowls to do that, so I had to borrow enough bowls to beat the eggs in. The cake turned out fine.

Tuesday;
We wanted a fruit salad for supper. The recipe said, "Serve without dressing." So, I didn't dress. But, Bill happened to bring a friend home for supper that night. Did they ever look startled when I served the salad!

Wednesday:
I decided to serve rice and found a recipe which said, "Wash thoroughly before steaming the rice." So, I heated some water and took a bath before steaming the rice. Sounded kinda silly in the middle of the week. I can't say it improved the rice any.

Thursday:
Today Bill asked for salad again. I tried a new recipe. It said, "Prepare ingredients, then toss on a bed of lettuce one hour before serving." I hunted all over the garden by my Mom's. So I tossed my salad into the bed of lettuce and stood over there one hour so the dog would not take it. Bill came over and asked if I felt all right. I wonder why?

Friday:
Today I found an easy recipe for cookies. It said, "Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat it." Beat it I did, right over to my Mom's house! There must have been something wrong with the recipe, because when I came back home again it looked the same as when I left it.

Saturday:
Bill went shopping today and brought home a chicken. He asked me to dress it for Sunday. I'm sure I don't know how hens dress for Sunday. I never noticed back on the farm, but I found a doll dress and some little shoes. I though the hen looked real cute. When Bill saw it, I wondered why he counted to 10.

Sunday: Today Bill's folks came to dinner. I wanted to serve roast, but all we had in the icebox, was hamburger. So I put it in the oven and set the controls for roast. There must be a problem with the oven, because it still came out a hamburger.

Monday:
I was going to bake bread today. The recipe said, "Mix well and knead well. Then stand in a warm place until double in bulk." I just won't bake bread if I have to double in bulk! Goodnight

Dear Diary:
This has been an exciting week. I am eager for tomorrow to
come, so I can try a new recipe on Bill.

posted 27 June 2005 11:24 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Laura:

Diary Of A Successful New Bride/Cook
Dear Diary,
Monday;
Now home from honeymoon and settled in our new home, it's fun to cook for Bill. Today I made an angel food cake and the recipe said, "Beat 12 eggs separately." Well, I didn't have enough bowls to do that, so I had to borrow enough bowls to beat the eggs in. The cake turned out fine.

Tuesday;
We wanted a fruit salad for supper. The recipe said, "Serve without dressing." So, I didn't dress. But, Bill happened to bring a friend home for supper that night. Did they ever look startled when I served the salad!

Wednesday:
I decided to serve rice and found a recipe which said, "Wash thoroughly before steaming the rice." So, I heated some water and took a bath before steaming the rice. Sounded kinda silly in the middle of the week. I can't say it improved the rice any.

Thursday:
Today Bill asked for salad again. I tried a new recipe. It said, "Prepare ingredients, then toss on a bed of lettuce one hour before serving." I hunted all over the garden by my Mom's. So I tossed my salad into the bed of lettuce and stood over there one hour so the dog would not take it. Bill came over and asked if I felt all right. I wonder why?

Friday:
Today I found an easy recipe for cookies. It said, "Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat it." Beat it I did, right over to my Mom's house! There must have been something wrong with the recipe, because when I came back home again it looked the same as when I left it.

Saturday:
Bill went shopping today and brought home a chicken. He asked me to dress it for Sunday. I'm sure I don't know how hens dress for Sunday. I never noticed back on the farm, but I found a doll dress and some little shoes. I though the hen looked real cute. When Bill saw it, I wondered why he counted to 10.

Sunday: Today Bill's folks came to dinner. I wanted to serve roast, but all we had in the icebox, was hamburger. So I put it in the oven and set the controls for roast. There must be a problem with the oven, because it still came out a hamburger.

Monday:
I was going to bake bread today. The recipe said, "Mix well and knead well. Then stand in a warm place until double in bulk." I just won't bake bread if I have to double in bulk! Goodnight

Dear Diary:
This has been an exciting week. I am eager for tomorrow to
come, so I can try a new recipe on Bill.

---

posted 27 June 2005 12:51 PM            

I don't know if my advice is particularly helpful, because I don't know much about Egyptian recipes, but when I moved out on my own, my mother gave me a copy of New Cook Book. The recipes were a bit boring, but the book was *invaluable* for the very basic information in it, like how and why to use a double boiler, how to grease and flour a pan, how to separate eggs, what cuts of meat are best for which recipes.....

Maybe there is an Egyptian equivalent?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0696212900/qid=1119894274/sr=2-3/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_3/103-4887566-0563036

Anyway, practice practice practice is the only way I know how to perfect recipes. And don't be surprised if they turn out differently in Australia due to different ovens, etc. I just moved to an apartment and was making an almond torte, something I make all the time easily, and it burned up in this oven because the thermostat is off. That's another tip -- get an oven thermometer (they hang from the rack) to make sure the oven temperature actually *is* what it says it is.....saves a whole bunch of food from disaster.

posted 28 June 2005 09:10 AM            

Liesie's sticky chicken bbq

1kg chicken drumsticks or wings
1 big bottle ginger ale
half tsp fresh ginger
2 tsp freshly chopped garlic
1 tsp whole cloves
salt and pepper to taste
1 chicken stock cube

cover the chicken with half ginger ale and half water and add all the spices. Boil untill cooked but not too soft. Remove and strain well. Allow to dry and cool.

Now for the sticky stuff!

3/4 cup apricot jam
3/4 cup tomato sauce(make sure the tomato sauce is not runny! but has a thicker consistency)
2 tsp spicy bbq spice(or chilly beef aromat if you can find it)