Cooking Lessons with Maunifa



My friend Maunifa is from Syria. She is super awesome because she is bossy and opinionated. I like bossy people. She seems to think I need someone to come and clean my house every week. I totally agree. Also I shouldn't eat salad dressing because that makes you fat. And one day a week I should put my kids in daycare so I can have a day to myself. I wish I lived in her world.
Maunifa loves to cook. She is teaching me.
Carlie tells me that good photos make a good food blog. Since I am not a food blog I don't have to take great food photos, but really food is one of my major loves in life. I think about it probably about 60% of the time. Or more. The first time Maunifa cooked for me she made something with rice and lamb and okra and a spice mixture she made herself. I was almost as excited as I was about the turkey at the Nelson's house. I LOVE TURKEY. Needless to say I have a huge mom crush on her- who just makes Syrian food every day? Someone from Syria. This is food I would pay a lot of money for in a restaurant. She is teaching me how to make it. Next week I am going to get a lamb at the Arabic store. I don't know how I feel about it- since I wish I was a vegetarian I decided to never eat lamb again- then she fed me something wonderful and now I ordered some. That 7 year long fast ended soon.
It is good for me to have to prepare the foods though- that makes me want to eat meat less. Just imagine if I had to hunt the animals or clean them. I would never eat meat. I think our society let's us be more emotionally detached from food with our production and food supply.
The last Syrian Meal- Falaffal and pitas with onions, lettuce, tomato, and a mixture of parsley tomatoes and other stuff. Quite healthy.
except the deep fried part. Maybe I need a deep fryer. Everyone seems to have one- just like everyone has a crock pot. Or a dirty festering stink pot, as I like to think of them. How else can I deep fry my falaffel and cook my lamb for four hours- then act like I just whipped it up in no time. Also how the heck do you spell falaffel? falafel falafal fallafel whatever.

Jennifer (February 25, 2010 at 11:54 PM)  

Oh, I LOVE falafel! Yum! I want to meet your bossy friend with the tasty recipes! Maybe you can steal some of the good ones for me?

Carlie (February 26, 2010 at 2:55 PM)  

I like your photos, but I don't have a super trained eye. I have a Japanese friend that sometimes shows me how to make yummy food. In fact, I'm going to make one of her dishes tomorrow :)

Chris W. (February 27, 2010 at 10:52 PM)  

I love falafel too! You can bake it in the oven - then you don't have to deep fry it. It's healthier that way, I mostly do it that way (or pan fry it) because I a horrible at deep frying things. Just ask my family...

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