Food

I promised some recipes a few days ago, so here it goes. The first one has been the staple snack in the Dworkin household for a few weeks now. The last time we went to Carrefour (Egyptian wal-mart, as you may recall), I bought some popcorn kernels. I could see the skepticism on Ira's face. "What are you going to do with those?" he was thinking. That night I made my first attempt at the spicy popcorn to which we are now addicted. It was pretty good, a little burnt and I overshot the spices a little bit. I made it again a few nights later and this time it was a little too salty. The night of my birthday party (or the morning after my birthday party, depending on how you look at it) I made some for the lingering guests. It was very popular. The next time Amanda came over for knitting night, I made some for her, and the Ira and I had some last night while we watched "Burn After Reading". It's so simple and it tastes so good, it really makes me wonder why we ever made popcorn in the microwave...
Cajun Popcorn
first, you need a medium sized pot with a tight fitting lid
about 3 tbs. olive oil
about 1/2 cup kernels
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
salt
coat the bottom of the pan with the oil. Sprinkle the Old Bay on top. Dump the kernels in the pan. Over med-high heat, let them do their thing! It only takes about 3 or 4 minutes. I shake the pan every minute or so to make sure they're all getting a turn. You can experiment with different spices and herbs. This just happens to be the one that we like the best. After you hear the popping slow down, take it off the heat and place in a big bowl, salt to taste. However, a good movie or some bad reality TV are required to make this recipe taste its best.
And speaking of TV, one of good things about Egyptian TV is, well, European TV. I love watching all the British fashion shows and the BBC news, of course. But the cooking shows are by far the best. I know that the food network in the states has both Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver, but over here they each have like 5 shows. So the other day I was watching Nigella and she was making something with glass noodles (rice noodles or vermicelli) and shrimp. I thought to myself "I know I can find both glass noodles AND shrimp at the market!" So off I went. Not only did I find those two ingredients, but I found basil for the first time. I bought two bunches because I couldn't resist. Cleaning the prawns was a huge (and smelly) pain, but the resulting meal was delicious, and there was a enough for leftovers which almost never happens around here. While at the market, there weren't any veggies that looked exciting to me, you could add some snap peas or green beans and I'm sure it would be great.
Super Fragrant Noodles with Shrimp
one package vermicelli noodles
1 lb. shrimp (preferably fresh)
big handful chopped basil
big handful chopped cilantro
for the sauce:
1 tbs. minced garlic
1 tbs. minced ginger
2 tbs. minced scallions
2 tbs. peanut butter
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup sesame oil (plus a little more to saute the shrimp)
one sliced chili pepper for garnish
Because you have a few things going at once here, I would make the sauce first. Place the garlic, ginger, scallions, peanut butter, soy sauce, and oil in a bowl and whisk together. This is the ratio that tasted good to me, but you can adjust it if you need to. Set the sauce aside. Next, boil the water for the noodles. While that's heating up, clean the shrimp (or have the dude at the store do it, which is what I should have done!) Saute with the sesame oil over medium heat until pink. Remove from the heat. Once the water has come to a boil, turn off the heat and drop in the noodles. Only leave them in for a minute or two and then drain. Toss together the shrimp, noodles, basil, and cilantro. Place in bowls and top with sauce and chili peppers. It's also good cold the next day!

Obama in Cairo

I know that most of you are reading Ira's blog too, but just in case you're not I'm going to re-tell a story he has on there about our trip back from Dahab...we were at the airport trying to get through security to get on our return flight, when a guard (with a big gun, they all have guns and supposedly they're not loaded but it still scares me) asks for our passports. This also still scares me a little because I've seen too many bad movies where innocent people are accused of crimes they did not commit in forigen countries. So, he looks at our passports and then back at us and says "America?" and we both nod "yes", and then as he's handing back the passports he smiles a little bit and asks hopefully "Obama?" And we both say yes with huge smiles on our faces. And then he says "Not Bush" and we just laugh and say "not Bush" back at him. So we walked away thinking that was one of the coolest interactions we've had with any Egyptian person since we've been here. Until, we had to hand over the passports again, and the same exact thing happened! Almost as if they are reading from a script! I swear, there are people here that get by with very little English, please, thank you, yes, no, but they can say "Obama"! Now, I guess he is on the news and all of that, but I just think that it's probably been a long time since someone just running for president has made it into the daily vernacular of the average Egyptian citizen. And I'm sure it's not just Egypt!
So, as many of you know, I've been pretty psyched about Obama since he came on the scene. I remember hearing his name when he won his first senate race and thinking "Well, that's a weird name to have in politics!" And I also remember the late Tim Russert saying at that time "this guy is going to be one to watch". And I did! And then when he stole the show at the 2004 convention, I was hooked. I wanted him to run so much, but in the back of my mind I thought it was too good to be true, but on the other side of the back of my mind (there's a lot of room back there) I also thought that it was exactly the time for him. So, cut to this convention, last thursday. I was frantic. I was watching CNN and BBC and Al Jezeera all day trying to figure out when they were going to broadcast his speech. I was also trying to figure out what the hell GMT is and what it had to do with me. Poor Ira was sick in bed all day but that didn't stop me from running back there every hour or so and loudly wispering things like "Psst! Hey! Do you think they're going to show his speech live here, or should I try and watch it online?!" So what I finally figured out was that it was going to be on here at 4:00am. So the plan was to set the alarm and watch it then. And it didn't help that we were setting the clocks back an hour that night so I was worried that we were going to miss it. So, I set the alarm, woke up instantly, and bounced down the hall to the TV. I turned it on just as he was coming onstage and I got goosebumps! I know this is all very corny, but it was like this crazy dream I had years ago had come true. And the speech was perfect. I loved all of it. I didn't want it to end. I wanted to stay up all night watching commentaries and replays but I figured I could do that tomorrow. Little did I know that Insane McCain was going to trot out his little gun toting PTA mom and ruin it for me...grr... Oh well. When you have nothing but an iffy war record to run on, strategically placed manuvers are all you have I guess.