The Tannour, Best Oven for Any Bread ever

A tannour is a three foot by two foot oven made from a special kind of clay that retains heat.  Usually, four to five families will share a tanoor, so it is placed in a location convenient for all the families involved.  It is usually placed on the ground next to a wall.  The space [...]

Stuffed Vegetable

I have often wondered who was the first person to invent stuffed vegetables.  It sort of got out of control when some unknown cook began stuffing and wrapping whatever was handy. People in the Middle East invented a coring tool to core the zucchini and eggplant.  They picked grape leaves off the vines and wrapped [...]

Food With Funny and Interesting Names

When I worked for the WIC (Women’s Infants and Children) in Rapid City, part of my job was to analyze the food inventory for each family that came into our office.  I would list everything the children of the family was eating in order to be able to tell the family what was missing in [...]

Lentil in Your Pocket for Wealth In the New Year

Today one of my staff gave me hand-full of lentils and told me to put it in my pants’ pocket on New Year Eve. She claims that this will make me make  mucho dinero in the coming year. Unlike the United States, where New Year’s day is spent nursing hangovers and watching football, there are a [...]

Tannour, The Best Bread Oven Ever!

One of my best childhood memories, is when we visit my grand parents in the village.  We get up in the  early morning hours so we can watch my grandmother mixing the dough and bake the  bread in thetannour.  She would snatch the bread out the wall of the tannour, paste it with Zaatar oil mixture, fold [...]

Spices Can Liven Up Food-and Your Body

We all know how  important spices have been over the centuries in improving the taste of food. Equally important, perhaps, is the role of spices and herbs in folk medicine.  Before chemicals were used in curing and healing, folk medicine was the sole source of curing people’s ills. One imagines that, by accident or by design, [...]

Living In Denial

When my husband’s sister, Virginia, was alive, she kept the entire family amused by denying her age.  Some people call it “lying” about one’s age, but with Virginia, we always called it “being in denial.”  For example, one day at lunch, her daughter told us that she was having her 50th birthday the second day.  [...]