Hot Town Thursday Night In Salalah

I missed it all. Another rockin night in lala land. First the Oasis had a bbq with open mic night, so any expat with delusions of grandeur, too much beer in the belly, or MAYBE even actual talent, could get up and sing. Then, the Hilton had one of it's occasional beach parties, with DJ Bassom justa pumpin' out the tunes. He's a great guy, don't get me wrong, but unless it's old school music, I can't bring myself to move away from my shisha and dance.

And oh how I love to dance. I really do.

I just couldn't do it. I couldn't go to either party. Something deep in my soul rebelled. Another party night in Salalah? Nope. Can't do it for awhile. I suspect you know the feeling. You've lived here for awhile. There are only a few places to go that serve "western" food and...let's say it...booze. The Oasis even serves pork, utterly unheard of anywhere else in Dhofar, except the military base. Somehow, after a couple years, the luster of an expat club wears off. I know some people who still go every Thursday, some who go just about nightly, and many who don't bother anymore.

I wanted something else. I wanted what I can't have. I wanted variety. I wanted choice. I wanted to go for a drive and try a new restaurant. Anything but the same thing. The Rotana won. We had a nice meal, amid the caterwauling of Omani babies and children running pell-mell around the restaurant. I cared for about ten minutes about the kiddos, because I have that New England Puritanical thinking that children should be seen and not heard at restaurants, then I got over it and ate seafood until my jaws hurt. It was lovely.

See we can't have variety here. That's just how it is. Time to get over it right? Time to be thankful there are lots of nice people where ever I go here in Salalah, who know me and wish me well. Time to be thankful it's ISN'T an anonymous city with thousands of options. If you walk into the Oasis, or the Hilton, or the Crowne on a Thursday night, the waiters know who you are. Friends will be there. Gossip will be shared and drama observed. Who is with who now? Who's zooming who? What's the scoop? At the Hilton, clothes will be tight, eyebrows perfectly penciled, and the Arab women dressed like it's prom night every night.

Come to think of it, what was I thinking? I missed it! I didn't see any of my buddies become Salalah superstars at open mic night! I didn't see the fabulous ripped jeans painted over awe inspiring hips, sparkly blouses, or any of the full length gowns and high heels worn at the Hilton. I didn't see my Filipino friend of a certain "orientation" tell me I am a FANTASTIC dancer! I missed it all. Sob!

Ah well. I had a good meal. Know what? One good thing about Salalah is if you miss it one night, you can surely catch it the next time around.

Beach Party (used with permission)

This cake was a box cake with Twinkie frosting. A Twinkie is a revolting American mass produced pastry. I did think the frosting using Marshmallow Fluff (available at Lulus) would be great for people with strong teeth. It also makes a pretty cake.

To make this, prepare a two layer box cake of your choice of flavor. You can certainly make a cake from scratch if that is your preference. The frosting recipe is really for a three layer cake, frosted as you see it in the picture. On two layers, it's a shocking amount of frosting!

Twinkie Frosting

(forgot where I found it)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 t. vanilla

2 cups Fluff

3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

In a mixer, blend the butter and cream until creamy. Add the fluff and whip. Add the vanilla and blend. Slowly add the confectioners sugar and whip on high until light. Frost your cake.

Clearly I am no longer doing a cake a day, but I still make a lot of cakes, usually to order. I hope this one is satisfactory!

Love,

Felicia El Aid

Muslim Grammy

Being a Muslim at Christmas time presents a quandry for me. What is a loving grandmother to do this time of year? I grew up with Christmas, for crying out loud. It's a deeply embedded piece of my cultural milieu, so to speak. For years, I really couldn't be bothered. I stopped decorating and ordered gifts for my grown children over the internet. The whole Christmas thing creates so much pressure for so many people. Too much money is spent, too many people place so much emphasis on every moment being joyous that they don't have much joy at all. That was kinda me. However, my daughters love Christmas, and all the wonderful decorations that come with it.

But I'd had enough. When I converted to Islam, I really let go of the pressure. Now I have this:

 Complete game changer.

And I want to buy this:

Or something equally tacky!

Opinions vary on this topic. Can we celebrate Christmas if we are not Christians? Welp, millions do it every year, to the annoyance and sometimes outrage of devoted Christians. Christmas is part of the cultural makeup now, and for many people it's a celebration separated from Christianity. For Muslims who grew up in countries where it is a non-event, this seems pretty odd. UnIslamic even. I spoke with a friend, another convert to Islam, who said he tried not to "do" Christmas, but simply couldn't bear it. It goes too deep into the psyche to ignore. His Arabic wife is understanding, and now even though she could not care less about December 25th, they observe it in a small way.

This year I am going to put up a few decorations. Not doing so simply depresses me. You can get a few things here. Carrefour has a small collection of decorations put in the farthest corner possible. Lulus is more overt. Home Centre has a display at the front of the store as you walk in, with several delightfully tacky artificial trees and enough ornaments to make a respectable display. I also have my eye on a Santa cookie jar. The lack of hoopla is a decided relief after suffering through months of excess back in the States, I must say. And as we speak, I am checking out the selection of baby girl Christmas dresses for my little buttercup back in America. Her parents, who are also decidedly not Christians, will go haywire this year celebrating the holidays. As I said, we have a game changer now. I can't do otherwise. 

As for cakes, I made my own recipe again. Once you make 20 cakes from other recipes, you start to get an eye for what is wrong with someone else's directions. I made another brown sugar cake for my regular client, but changed a few things.

This is the cake, without frosting

I would have done a simple glaze, but the client wanted chocolate frosting. No pic for that!

Brown Sugar Amaretto Cake

(with halal alternative)

1 1/2 cup butter, softened but cool

1 3/4 cups brown sugar, packed

5 eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup amaretto liquer OR 1 t imitation almond extract for halal cake (if using extract, increase milk by 1/4 cup)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F or 180 C

Grease and flour bundt pan. Place chopped walnuts in bottom of pan and set aside. Sift dry ingredients and set aside. On medium, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each. Add the milk and flour mix alternately in thirds, mixing just to incorporate. Blend in amaretto or almond extract. 

Gently spoon over walnuts and smooth. Bake for 50 minutes, or until toothpick tests clean.

I really like the brown sugar sponge. It has a caramel taste that a white sugar frosting lacks, and tastes more homely with tea than white cake. 

Bon appetit as my beloved Julia Child used to say!

Love,

Felicia El Aid

Thanksgiving?

The day is almost upon us and really, I am fairly well bummed out. Thanksgiving is a puzzler to people outside America (and possibly Canada). It isn't a religious holiday; it is a day to be thankful for what you have. It is a day to eat shocking amounts of food, possibly go shoot a deer, and watch a football game. And no, I don't mean a soccer game.

My kids will be rounded up at tables heaving with food. There has to be a turkey front and center. Stuffed, and not with any weird tasting, Saveur magazine recipe crud. Gravy is critical, as is pumpkin pie. My mother used to make candied yams, a truly revolting mixture. Picture yams (already a questionable vegetable) smothered in small marshmallows, then baked. She also made some yacky thing from the 1950's with whipped cream and cocktail fruit, and MULTICOLORED mini marshmallows called "ambrosia." Twasn't ambrosiac atall. We wouldn't eat that either. We teased her mercilessly about cutting up the turkey innards into the gravy (called giblets) until I just took over the whole process.

My mom worked her butt off at Thanksgiving, once she moved back to Maine.We ate off paper plates at the table...none of the fancy china for our crew. Washing up was too much work. Of course we helped, but it was her show. Then my mother got a little tired. Then she got cancer. She recovered from that cancer, and planned a move to Florida. We had a last Thanksgiving dinner at her place, after she married her high school sweetheart (long past the point when he was sweet I might add) and I waved goodbye to her in Clinton, Maine on a late November day, I think it was. She seemed fine. One the way to Florida, she suffered a massive stroke. My siblings and I flew to Florida in shifts, and during my turn, once she was out of the hospital, she tried to cook a turkey.

She put it in the oven raw and frozen the night before, and cooked it for a couple hours. Then she left it there, thinking she could finish it the next day. I'd just arrived from Maine and she was really excited about her sister and brother in law  coming over for a very late in the season turkey dinner. What do you say to someone who is brain damaged, and can no longer cook the dinners she's done all her adult life? I quietly called my aunt and we went out and bought a couple pre-cooked chickens, and I teased her a bit about trying to kill us all, just to make her laugh it off.

Mom got a little better, but now has Parkinson's disease, lung cancer, and dementia related to the Parkinsons. She has a great outlook on her situation much of the time. I suppose having dementia helps, in a perverse way. And here I am. I honestly try not to think about it very much. I haven't had a real Thanksgiving dinner for a few years now. I've tried. An American friend and I had a fun Thanksgiving last year, with friends from all over the world. My mom and her husband went to Cracker Barrel. I guess I am thankful that Thanksgiving isn't a huge deal here. I am insulated from all the stresses the holidays bring; unfortunately I am also insulated from much of the joy.

By the way, my mom knows how to cuss. If she knew about this cake challenge, she'd tell me I'd gone bats**t crazy!

My mother's youngest sister, me, and Mom, at 20 years old.

Tonight's cake was a special order, a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I have a yellow cake recipe on hand, which you can double. Even better, go buy a box of cake mix. Hah! I've also figured out another angle these cake makers use. The cakes pictured are three layers, not two. When the heck did three layer cakes become the done thing! Crimanitly. (Pronounced crime-ah-nit-lee). 

Her Cake

Cocoa Buttercream Frosting

1½ cups butter (3 sticks), softened

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

5 cups confectioner’s sugar

½ cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon espresso powder

1. Add cocoa to a large bowl or bowl of stand mixer. Whisk through to remove any lumps.
2. Cream together butter and cocoa powder until well-combined.
3. Add sugar and milk to cocoa mixture by adding 1 cup of sugar followed by about a tablespoon of milk. After each addition has been combined, turn mixer onto a high speed for about a minute. Repeat until all sugar and milk have been added.
4. Add vanilla extract and espresso powder and combine well.
5. If frosting appears too dry, add more milk, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency. If it appears to wet and does not hold its form, add more confectioner’s sugar, a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency.

This recipe really does make a great deal of frosting. You can frost three layers with this, and not be stingy with the coating. I will post my pic later. I dropped my crappy tablet and it broke to smithereens, so we will all have to wait until my husband returns home. It really looks yummy.

Love,

Felicia El Aid