This is pretty common knowledge, but if you're a foodie, or anyone who eats, DO NOT read cookbooks before bed.
Reading can be relaxing, but reading about food, unless it's a book like "Extra Virginity" by Tom Mueller or another less... hunger inducing... treatise, IS A MISTAKE.
You won't get to sleep even if you're tired, because you'll be too hungry to sleep, and you'll end up going through the drive through at the nearest In N Out (Shake Shack is MUCH better, FWIW, IMNSHO) or whatever is open late (Whataburger, Texas' greatest export since Shiner Bock, Dairy Queen, and oh yeah, around half of the US domestic supply of that most necessary of natural resources, petroleum), or reaching for that pint of Haagen-Dazs, or whatever late night snack one can find.
My favorite, as of late, is ANYTHING "rubbed" with zaatar, but I'm rather in love with that mix that my very awesome boss brought me back from Lebanon. I put it on and IN everything from eggs to macaroni and cheese to pizza (which reminds me, MUST make a Lebanese inspired "true pizza", probably with a garlic based sauce like toum, possibly some harissa in there, halloumi cheese, sujuk... and whatever else I can throw on there).
My husband-- who, despite the hiccup in our marriage, is VERY MUCH STILL MY HUSBAND, is already in Byblos, and I will shortly be joining him there. I was on the fence until recent family events, but now, I know I have family waiting for me there. Along with half of the city (rolled eyes), who will no doubt see me as some sort of "novelty" due to my husband and Lebanese in-laws spreading the word that an American is voluntarily leaving America to live in Lebanon, despite the "chaos" (which is just sort of one of those Lebanese "things") because the POTUS is a fucking twat waffle who is now... officially impeached.
I won't get into Lebanese politics, lest I be "detained" for insulting some Lebanese politician with whose policies I wholeheartedly and completely disagree with, but I'm somewhere in between the 8th of March Alliance and the 14th of March Alliance. Just like I'm somewhere in between a hardcore Democrat and a Trump-humping Republican. I vote for the candidate for office who I feel is the best suited for the position and whose values most closely align with my own (see below). And of course, because of my feelings about an (immense) miscarriage of justice being done by the Lebanese government against a man who is very closely tied to certain previous Libyan dictators. He was three, for shit's sake, what the eff can he know about the disappearance of a rather radical Shia preacher?
Yes, most of the time the candidates I vote for have been Democrats. Last election cycle, I'm not entirely sure WHO I voted for-- I was drunk (which explains the current POTUS-- the rest of the country was also drinking!). But officially here in Texas and elsewhere, I've always registered, when required to state party affiliation, as an Independent. I would've voted for both Frank Keating and JC Watts in Oklahoma if they'd been running in the year I was a student in Tulsa/Stillwater. I would consider voting for Ted Cruz... and I'm an "anybody but Trump" fan for 2020.
As for my original topic, I have enough cookbooks that I'm going to have to be "selective" as to which come with me to Lebanon. Yes to the DK ones. Yes to the tamale and quesadilla ones. Yes to the Weber Burger one that has an entirely too mild harissa recipe in there (mild because I've made a Carolina Reaper harissa that was swiftly polished off by my Marine/Green Beret father). Yes to the "Newlywed" cookbooks-- all three of them-- even though my husband and I will, as of April 20, be celebrating SEVEN years of marriage. Alhamduillah. He still drives me as crazy for him as he did the first day I saw him, January 4, 2013, in Ontario, CA at the airport there. Life with him is never boring, and life without him, well, tried that, can't bear it.
Reading can be relaxing, but reading about food, unless it's a book like "Extra Virginity" by Tom Mueller or another less... hunger inducing... treatise, IS A MISTAKE.
You won't get to sleep even if you're tired, because you'll be too hungry to sleep, and you'll end up going through the drive through at the nearest In N Out (Shake Shack is MUCH better, FWIW, IMNSHO) or whatever is open late (Whataburger, Texas' greatest export since Shiner Bock, Dairy Queen, and oh yeah, around half of the US domestic supply of that most necessary of natural resources, petroleum), or reaching for that pint of Haagen-Dazs, or whatever late night snack one can find.
My favorite, as of late, is ANYTHING "rubbed" with zaatar, but I'm rather in love with that mix that my very awesome boss brought me back from Lebanon. I put it on and IN everything from eggs to macaroni and cheese to pizza (which reminds me, MUST make a Lebanese inspired "true pizza", probably with a garlic based sauce like toum, possibly some harissa in there, halloumi cheese, sujuk... and whatever else I can throw on there).
My husband-- who, despite the hiccup in our marriage, is VERY MUCH STILL MY HUSBAND, is already in Byblos, and I will shortly be joining him there. I was on the fence until recent family events, but now, I know I have family waiting for me there. Along with half of the city (rolled eyes), who will no doubt see me as some sort of "novelty" due to my husband and Lebanese in-laws spreading the word that an American is voluntarily leaving America to live in Lebanon, despite the "chaos" (which is just sort of one of those Lebanese "things") because the POTUS is a fucking twat waffle who is now... officially impeached.
I won't get into Lebanese politics, lest I be "detained" for insulting some Lebanese politician with whose policies I wholeheartedly and completely disagree with, but I'm somewhere in between the 8th of March Alliance and the 14th of March Alliance. Just like I'm somewhere in between a hardcore Democrat and a Trump-humping Republican. I vote for the candidate for office who I feel is the best suited for the position and whose values most closely align with my own (see below). And of course, because of my feelings about an (immense) miscarriage of justice being done by the Lebanese government against a man who is very closely tied to certain previous Libyan dictators. He was three, for shit's sake, what the eff can he know about the disappearance of a rather radical Shia preacher?
Yes, most of the time the candidates I vote for have been Democrats. Last election cycle, I'm not entirely sure WHO I voted for-- I was drunk (which explains the current POTUS-- the rest of the country was also drinking!). But officially here in Texas and elsewhere, I've always registered, when required to state party affiliation, as an Independent. I would've voted for both Frank Keating and JC Watts in Oklahoma if they'd been running in the year I was a student in Tulsa/Stillwater. I would consider voting for Ted Cruz... and I'm an "anybody but Trump" fan for 2020.
As for my original topic, I have enough cookbooks that I'm going to have to be "selective" as to which come with me to Lebanon. Yes to the DK ones. Yes to the tamale and quesadilla ones. Yes to the Weber Burger one that has an entirely too mild harissa recipe in there (mild because I've made a Carolina Reaper harissa that was swiftly polished off by my Marine/Green Beret father). Yes to the "Newlywed" cookbooks-- all three of them-- even though my husband and I will, as of April 20, be celebrating SEVEN years of marriage. Alhamduillah. He still drives me as crazy for him as he did the first day I saw him, January 4, 2013, in Ontario, CA at the airport there. Life with him is never boring, and life without him, well, tried that, can't bear it.
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