I'm just putting my feet up after hosting yet another successful (at least, in my eyes!) dinner party. I bought some ground beef from the new supermarket the other day. It's such nice ground beef, and the experience of buying it is even better than at home! They keep all sorts of meat behind glass in a refrigerated display case. The first time I went there a few weeks ago, I started asking the woman behind the counter if I could have some meat, using English. I assumed at such a posh supermarket, the staff would speak a bit of English. But she immediately went to get someone else to serve me, as she obviously didn't feel comfortable with English. So I switched into my local Arabic, and she was SO pleased! So now we're friends :)
Anyway, once you ask for the meat you want, the woman takes it out of the container in the fridge, puts on plastic gloves and proceeds to weigh it out on a little computerized scale. Once she's done weighing it, it gets wrapped up on a little tray, and the computer prints out a little bar code, telling the cashier how much you have to pay for your meat. It's so... well... civilized! I love it! I've only bought ground beef there, since it's really the most versatile meat, and since I'm generally not cooking anything too fancy, it's good. But they also have boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and some meat which I want to try this weekend - beef already marinated for shwarma! The owners of the shop are Lebanese, so I'm sure it will be good.
I bought the meat a few days ago, and then put it in the freezer, and was going to cook it on Monday, when I've invited some folks over for dinner. But we don't have any electricity. We're just running on generator, which means all night, and for several hours during the day, my freezer isn't getting any frostier! So I thought I should cook up the meat and eat it before it goes off. And then I was skyping with a friend of mine today who works for a different NGO, and she invited me over for pancakes for supper... but I already had the meat out, so I invited her over here instead! Being relatively new to town, though, she doesn't feel so comfortable driving at night on her own, so I invited one of her colleagues along as well, to make sure she didn't get lost on the way. And of course, Sean was here (and kindly washed up all the dishes!), so it was quite the party.
I ended up making a bit of a "hamburger stew", which we ate piled on top of mashed potatoes. Not a bad feast, considering the few veggies that I actually have in the house - I had a tiny eggplant, some potatoes, onions, garlic and a tin of corn and a tin of tomato paste. So, it turned into hamburger stew over mashed potatoes! And it wasn't too bad, actually. I was going to make it into shepherd's pie, but ended up running out of time to put it all together and into the oven.
Really, this whole cooking thing is starting to get addictive. It's been a really nice relaxing thing to do at the end of the workday, and is giving me something to think about during the day - a little challenge to figure out what yummy treat I can come up with next, given the limited supply of things I've got here! Tomorrow I'm taking a friend out shopping to show her the market, and I hope to find some corn flour so I can try a recipe I found for baked tortilla chips!
But now, the generator is set to go off in a bit, and I still have a few chores to do before I sleep.
By the way, I watched the pilot to "Firefly" last night, and wow, I love it! It's a sort of old Western which takes place in space. The characters ride horses when they get to land, and wear cowboy hats with guns slung from their hips, and then they fly away in their spaceship and have an intergalactic battle. All set to a twangy sort of country soundtrack. While on their spaceship, the characters eat with chopsticks. It's all a really interesting sort of cultural hodgepodge, with some clever lines written in. I know, it's old. But remember that I've been living in the middle of Africa for the last several years! It takes me a bit to catch up...
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