it's FINALS time !

It's sad that my course in Chinese History is ending :(. But all good things must come to an end and I have to do my final soon which means, less time on my blogs. So, I won't be around consistently the next few weeks because I really must study.

I will be in an out but not enough time to really post much. So with that I leave you, my dear little spot on the web and hope you don't miss me too much.

And to my fellow TWD'ers....I will miss you but I will be back in full force after I get my 100 ( I hope) on my final :o). So click the link up there already and go see how this weeks pick turned out for everyone!

So please, if you are reading this, check out the wonderful Fruit Gallette's that the Tuesday's with Dorie Crew has whipped up for this weeks recipe! It was specially chosen by none other than, Michelle of Michelle in Colorado Springs! Thank you Michelle and if I get time tonight..it's still Tuesday somewhere in the world, I will try to make your tasty sounding selection. :o)

i am tired

Ok my fellow Tuesday's with Dorie gang. I have not finished commenting on all the posts but I just left my last comment for the night at Anne Strawberry. I will pick up tomorrow and complete my world wide tour from aSweetPeace and end with Living the Life.

All posts that had their posts up before and after the above mentioned blogs have already been commented on :) yeah me!

I will check back regularly for some possible late postings as I love to look at all the posts and yeah it's alot of reading but I have found a lot of comedians in the bunch and my side hurts from laughing. I wonder if I am losing that cobbler I just ate? Do I care really...Nahhhh. lol. See you tomorrow. It's late for me.

Cherry Nectarine Cobbler

This weeks recipe pick was very great! I have never made cobbler before so it was really nice to get the chance to do that. Thank you's go out to Amanda, author of Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake... so stop by there and check out the wonderful cobbler she prepared. I really gotta find out how she got those little biscuits so poofy. Hmmm?

Unfortunately after several taxi rides and several stores that even cater to my American Style taste buds, I could not find Rhubarb. When I finally found the arabic word for it, the look of realization on my favorite driver was that of, I am so sorry, the season is finished. He said when it comes in, it's gone as soon as it is put on the shelves. (The arabic word for rhubarb sounds like rah wend, something to that extent anyways.) He had suggested to check the stores that import but no luck. So, the alternative was nectarines. I love nectarines and I love cherries and luckily for me this recipe came at the end of cherry season here in Lebanon. I almost panicked because I had gotten busy with a wedding to attend and boys to chase around and the cherries almost spoiled. Luckily for me I bought the remaining 2 kilos this guy had left and I had a lot to choose from. So anyhow, on with my little encounter with making a cobbler.

Of course we have to start with the ingredients. You already noted the first picture with my little sliced and pitted cherries and the nicely ripened nectarines waiting for their turn to be sliced and pitted as well. And yes, I did that myself :). I would strongly advise one to, NOT WEAR A WHITE T-SHIRT, ESPECIALLY YOUR FAVORITE ONE, while doing this! They have a remarkable cleaner over here called Vanish. I wonder if it can get those cherry stains out or will I have to dye yet another shirt?

The wheat flour here is not what I was expecting. It was not really a brownish color, I have no clue why I thought it would be brown, perhaps because wheat bread is brown? Color by association, that's me! So the wheat flour we have here is called Extra Wheat and it's like an off white color. My favorite flour is available here. Can you guess which one it is in the photo?

I wonder where that flour is she likes....

So hopefully you will have guessed by now. I am sure you have. Following Ms. Dorie's reciped step by step (with the exception of the ever elusive Rhubarb), I found this recipe to be very easy and fun to make. I don't mind making a mess when I cook and I always expect to have something dirty so I clean as I go to make it easier on myself in the end! My mother taught me that one...man I hate when she is right lol. So I gather up my ingredients and got ready to marinade that wonderful fruit.




I prepared the flour's and other nice little additions in my Braun (I love this thing and it held up quite nicely for our great pudding adventure last week, I am so proud.)

I forgot the grippy pad thing.

So a few pulses and I was ready for the main attraction, adding that butter and yummy milk! I so love milk. I remember for a while growing up milk had become too expensive and way back when, a military man, my dad, feeding a family of six on his salary often left "luxuries" out. So my mom decided we were going to have milk and we started getting fresh cow's milk. I never in my life had tasted anything so wonderful as fresh cows milk. I even like the creme' that rose to the top. Sigh* I wonder if any of you out there reading this have ever had fresh cows milk?

This was really really soft..WOW!

Dough ready, marinade finished. Now, a pan...GREAT! I didn't see that part. I don't have an 8 inch pan, what to do? Since my daughter loves to butter pans and that was usually my job as a girl helping out my mom with her pineapple upside down cake and the many cakes she used to make, she was a cake decorater..no, that gene did not pass to me. It would look like a big icing blob if I got a hold of it but rest assured, I am going to try and learn how to decorate just like mom used to do. My brother used to sneak and eat the icing flowers...he paid for it one day when he ate to many. I was laughing lol. Nice sister huh? Anyhow...before I get myself in to too much trouble, here are my two options for pans.

The nice little rounded pyrex.


OR


The nice rectangular regular one.

Well, I really wanted to use the glass one since Ms. Dorie kinda hinted towards that but it was just too dang small. So I opted for the nice rectangular one and was able to get 5 across and 4 down :) yippeeee for me.

So after I put it in my preheated oven that is in Celsius..not Farenheit :o) I waited and I smelled. Yep that is me, the sniffer of food. So guess what this one reminded me of?

Apple crisp is what this reminded me of when I tasted the dough. Apple crisp was confirmed when I smelled it cooking. I actually thought of my cafeteria in elementary school. Do you remember standing in line and you had this little white card that they would put a line on that you ate lunch? I remember that. And the most memorable smells were when they were making corn to go with our lunch, fish fridays and the days we had apple crisp. Man, I wonderf if they would let me in the school on Apple Crisp day? Anyone wanna come with me and just sit and smell that "memorable" cafeteria food? Hey, not all of it was bad.

I have been having a frequent visitor to my house. My daughters friend from Denmark...she is so loving the sweets I am making and the proof is a half empty pan of this nice dessert. It made me happy that they liked it, I am just hoping they don't get upset bellies. They had eaten a couple of bags of "Light" yeah right...potato chips (salt and vinegar to be more precise). I wonder how that whipped cream and rich dough with tons of fruit will mesh? Let you know later. lol.

My final result was this. A nice smelling kitchen and a pan of "wow, did I really do that?" I smiled because I was happy I didn't mess this up. I have dough issues. It doesn't like me.

Got my 4 down and 5 across or was it 4 across and 5 down?


Here is a close up of the bubbling cobbler.

Now like I said earlier I have two teenage girls in the house and I almost didn't get photos because they actually ate half the pan! Crazy teens. It's very humid here as well and the creme', outside of the fridge, began melting immediately so my pics are less that what I like but I hope you like them. I took a picture in the evening and then I tried to photo the next day but it just was not wanting to be a less than blurry picture. Natural light is my favorite form of "flash" but sometimes all you can do is use a flash.

A nice little serving.

My daughter found a lone cherry with one little bitty leaf attached to it and thought it would look nice for the picture. And then she thought it might look nice without all the fixin's and I would have to agree.





So there you have it! A baking success in my book and I can not wait to see the blogs of all my fellow Tuesday's with Dorie participants!

I finished it..yeah!

Well I did it. I started I think on Tuesday and I just completed today leaving comments on all the posts that participated in this weeks Dorie Recipe. It was a big task and I was very determined to visit all the posts. Even those that were not able to participate had some really tasty looking entries for other things. Of course I can not remember all of them and that is why I am thankful for bookmarks.

My blog reader made it very easy to see the posts instead of having to click back and forth for links. I really liked doing this and had a lot of fun. I really look forward to this weeks challenge and it will be just that, a challenge since the rhubarb season is finished over here.

Well, I am off to go make something in the kitchen!

comments and my taste buds

What a huge task commenting on all the wonderful posts for this past weeks, Tuesdays with Dorie pick! I have seen some really amazing presentations and could actually even "taste" some of the chocolatey goodness others have prepared.

Taste...how you might ask? By the description of course! Well that and the fact that I know what chocolate tastes like but since my ever aging pallete ('scuse the spelling) got used to the pudding cups that usually a child has a taste for, I had forgotten about those days of old until this week.

Does anyone remember LOVING the heck out of macaroni and cheese out of the box? Do you remember how that was like the best stuff you had ever had in your life? Does anyone remember saying that they would never in a million years eat shrimp cocktails? lol..I do.

It's cool how our taste buds change over time and we find ourselves eating things that we never really thought we would like. Well, that's all I wanted to express at the moment. For not, I head back to my ever so useful Google Reader to comment on the M's through the Z's. Yes, my goal is to comment on everyones beautiful personal blog.

As for my post, it was brought to my attention that my comment link was not easy to find so, and no, I am not fishing for comments *smile*...I just want to let you all know that should you feel the urge to type away, my comment link is the link that has either 0 comments or 5 comments, so you would have to click on the link that showed the number plus the word comments. I hope that helps with any confusion, also, on some people's blogs I accidentally left my regular blog link on the page and I apologize for that, hope it was no trouble.

Well, I have had a long night, my husbands cousin got married and I am a bit beat. Here a couple of photos from the wedding that caught my attention. Enjoy!

TWD - Chocolate Pudding

This weeks pick was from Melissa who can be found at It's Melissa's Kitchen and I am so very happy she chose Chocolate Pudding! Nice to have a pretty easy one for my first Tuesdays With Dorie project.

I remember from days past, yeah I am getting old and the word "past" just seems to fit this so nicely as Chocolate Pudding for me represents my childhood. I remember waking up one summer morning to check out side for snow. Yes, SNOW of all things. My mom was making chocolate pudding, home made of course, and the smell drifted through the house and it smelled just like the hot cocoa she made us during the cold winter months in Oklahoma.

So when I embarked on this trip down memory lane I could not help but sniff around the pan to see if I would be taking on a small trip to the past and as I closed my eyes and took that whiff...AHHH yesss..I'm home.




This pudding worked out so wonderful, and yes ladies, the Corn Flour that I have is Corn Starch!




The proof was in the "pudding" so to speak because my pudding set so nicely. So getting all the ingredients together was not that difficult and we are really lucky to have milk here similar to what I am accoustomed to in the states.




Once I got everything all dished up in the bowls, I realized I had not plastic wrap. So I had to use the little plastic lunch bags that are common over here for just about everything from freezing meat to sending a small lunch with love notes for the kiddies! I covered the bowls, I made big bowls of this delectible treat and into the fridge it went.




Here we go...we made some whipped topping, ground up some chocolate and there you have it. My trip down memory lane came to life on my counter.

Tuesdays with Dorie

Finally, I got my recipe book and am so excited to send my little e-mail to the site so that my daughter and I can participate in the baking goodness everyone else is already a part of. I am also very happy to report that now, in a local shop here, we can buy with ease, CREAM OF TARTAR.
This ingredient is not usually carried much and my sister in law told me that she used to have to go through her aunt to get some as some of her recipes called for the use of this.

I was bumming when I wanted to make something and could not really find a substitute for it. I was able to find substitutes for things like buttermilk etc but cream of tartar was just not working out.

So, it's ready set go for us and we will "attempt" this weeks recipe. Just unsure if we can even get the blueberries right now over here. I think we passed by that season for them already so that means going to the stores that ship in goods like that which will in turn me, an outrageous price. Oh well, as long as it gets eaten and turns out good, I don't mind that cost all that much.

So if your someone who would like to attempt a baking project but not do it alone, there is a wonderful group I found that I am sure you would like to be a part of. What started out as one womans desire to stick to something turned into a huge gathering of bakers worldwide! So hurry on over to Tuesdays With Dorie and see what all the fuss is about. And don't forget to order your cookbook, you will need that to participate since you can't really make something without a recipe.

If you don't live in the states, the solution I found for getting those hard to find books that are readily available in the states, was to go through Barnes and Noble. Shipping is pretty decent on the price and gets to you rather quickly and reliably.

Baking: From My Home to Yours

new direction

It has been so long since I have been posting here and when I was checking out the few things I put, which were actually so my mother would quit saying she couldn't find the recipe I gave her, I thought it might be nice to just make this a spot for *SWEETS*.

Here you will find a few Lebanese Recipes that I had posted for my mother and I will leave them. Who knows, maybe someone feels like making something totally different for dinner and they might try out these few delicious meals.



Lebanese Sweets are awesome though some of their cakes lack any sweetness. It's almost like it's diet cake or something. They for sure do not taste like that pudding cake mix in a box. But their more traditional sweets like baklava and knafeh have loads of sweety goodness and are not that hard to make. Time consuming but worth the effort.

I do not know what happened to me and baking, I just sorta got lost in "life". Letting myself get too busy with this or that and forgetting all those nice little things I used to do as a little girl with my mom. She was a really good baker and an awesome cake decorator. So it's time for me to open that door back up and share what I like and what I have tried from others out there that have a sweety spot like me.


I am seriously going to try the Tuesdays With Dorie weekly baking but still I am shy to try it because of where I live. Never really sure if I will be able to find all the ingredients. But I think I can manage. We shall see after all, a good thing is that I could possibly go for an, online kitchen gadget shopping spree! YIPPEEEE oh what fun, as my husband will ask, "You paid how much for that?" Just teasing, he wouldn't really ask that as long as I was actively using it and it didn't sit in the cupboard collecting dust.

Well, my little masses want me to come and punish them for fighting. I can hear their loud code for, "Mommy, we really want a time out right now that is why we are pummeling each other and screaming." My guess is that the little guy walked in front of the tv again and my older dude was disturbed. All he wants to do is play with his big brother. Awwww.