Dates are an integral part of my life. And by dates, I mean the fruit and not a romantic evening out. If you have never had a date, I suggest you buy yourself some medjool dates and give them a try. They have a lovely caramel taste to them. When I am trying to be… Continue reading My Favorite Kind of Date: Stuffed Dates, Three Ways
I’d like to introduce you to my first memory of coffee. It’s my mother’s favorite and a little known recipe outside of Libya. We call it Libyan coffee. In Libya, it’s just “coffee.” Kind of like how Libyan soup is just soup in Libya, and everyone just happens to know exactly what you are referring… Continue reading Caffeine Stories – Libyan Coffee
I’ve spent the past year living out of a hotel room, courtesy of my job. It was wonderful for the first two weeks and beyond tedious for the following 11 months. On the bright side, I have enough hotel points to have several weeks of free hotel stays! On the downside, I didn’t have access… Continue reading Updating the blog again, finally!
Imbattin is made of a spicy ground beef filling, nestled between two slices of potato, dipped in a tomato-infused batter and fried.
Libyan Magrood is a delicate semolina cookie stuffed with dates, soaked in a honey-syrup, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It melts in your mouth and is perfect with a hot cup of tea.
June always seems like a pasta salad kind of month to me. It’s the perfect picnic food and a refreshingly cool meal on a hot summer day. I firmly believe that pasta salads must include three ingredients: juicy tomatoes, tart lemon juice, and rich olive oil. Cheese is an added bonus. And I really like… Continue reading Simple Salads, Part 1 – Summer Orzo Salad
Aslooz is one of my favorite summertime dishes. It’s a couscous-based dish and I love couscous; however, only steamed couscous. If you haven’t eaten steamed couscous, you just haven’t truly tasted real couscous. Steamed couscous has a delicous fluffiness to it that you cannot achieve with any other cooking method. Someone once served me a couscous… Continue reading Tastes Like Summer – Libyan Aslooz
Ramadan in the summer calls for a refreshing dessert that is both light and cool. Here in Germany, our fasting days are 19 hours long. From 3am to 9:50pm. Honestly, I have no interest in food on these long summer days. All I really want is a tall glass of ice-cold water or iced tea.… Continue reading Ramadan Nights – Mhalabeeya
One of the best, yet underrated, comfort foods is a baked pasta. Consider lasagna, manicotti, stuffed shells, baked ziti and many other random dishes of baked pasta that are usually thrown together without a recipe. All of them are warm, delicious and…baked. And makroona béchamel is another one to add to the list. This dish… Continue reading A Dreamy Pasta Bake – Makroona Béchamel
Back when I worked 50-60 hour work weeks as a process engineer, I always craved a homemade dinner. Unfortunately, when you are living alone…you have to make that homemade meal yourself. After being at work 9-10 hours, I really didn’t have the energy to cook something that took long or required a lot of effort.… Continue reading Rooz fil Furoon (Libyan Rice Casserole)
Sugar, Spice and Life 