Saturday, May 10, 2008
IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE.....
If you want something done - do it yourself. Last week I told you that our second chicken wings restaurant went out of business. What to do? My mouth was just watering for grilled chicken wings. Marallyn was dreaming about wings. Who knew if the Ben Moshe family would provide our "fix".
Last Sunday Marallyn and I went to the Mall for our weekly breakfast and afterward to "the museum" - otherwise known as Mega b'Ir (Mega in the City) supermarket. And we headed straight for the meat department where we bought chicken wings. I took them home - cleaned them - which is no small task in Israel as all poultry comes with millions of pin-feathers still left on - and put them in the freezer until the day before Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) when we were going to celebrate with Marallyn's Kurdi family.
On Wednesday I marinated them - a very simple marinade - but absolutely delicious - believe me. Just mix olive oil, some fresh lemon juice and chopped fresh rosemary - don't ask me amounts - who measures - schmoozhle (mix) it all together and marinate the chicken. (If you really want amounts, use about 1/3 the amount of lemon juice as oilve oil and about 1 tsp. of chopped rosemary ) Bubbie Chana and Marallyn's husband inhaled them - so did Marallyn and I and everyone else.
But do you think that's all we ate? Not at all. We ate Marallyn's famous chopped vegetable salad, her sister-in law's matboucha (a tangy salad of cooked tomatoes, peppers and spices), hummus (ground chickpeas with tehina), tehina (gound sesame seed paste), salat chatzilim (eggplant salad with tehina), pickles, olives and pita. That was it for the healthy vegetable part.
Then came the serious food...all done on the mangal (grill) - manned by one of Marallyn's brothers-in law and her son - the father of Sweetsie Tootsie and Sweetsie Girl. We ate - in no particular order - kebabs, regular steak, entrecote steak, chicken livers, shkaydeem (sweetbreads), skewers of beef, lamb chops, brains (only I ate them !), lamb fat (yes, dear readers - pieces of lamb fat grilled until crispy - don't knock it until you've tried it) - and wings.
And we finished with watermelon - cold and sweet and juicy - the perfect ending to all that meat.
You should understand that this took hours and hours - you can't ingest that amount of food in twenty minutes. This was an all-day proposition. And there was still food left over. But you can never prepare "just enough" - what happens if another contingent shows up unexpectedly? Which is actually what happened. Not to worry - we had enough food.
And we didn't eat non-stop. Oh, no. We took time to talk and laugh and play with the kids. But after about five hours we called it a day. Marallyn was smart - she wore pants with an elasticized waist. I - on the other hand - had to undo the button on my jeans!
Now it's really crunch time. I began a diet yesterday - for the millionth time. My cousin's daughter is getting married in seven weeks - and I simply must get into my outfit. Will let you know how that goes.
Yalla, Bye.
Last Sunday Marallyn and I went to the Mall for our weekly breakfast and afterward to "the museum" - otherwise known as Mega b'Ir (Mega in the City) supermarket. And we headed straight for the meat department where we bought chicken wings. I took them home - cleaned them - which is no small task in Israel as all poultry comes with millions of pin-feathers still left on - and put them in the freezer until the day before Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) when we were going to celebrate with Marallyn's Kurdi family.
On Wednesday I marinated them - a very simple marinade - but absolutely delicious - believe me. Just mix olive oil, some fresh lemon juice and chopped fresh rosemary - don't ask me amounts - who measures - schmoozhle (mix) it all together and marinate the chicken. (If you really want amounts, use about 1/3 the amount of lemon juice as oilve oil and about 1 tsp. of chopped rosemary ) Bubbie Chana and Marallyn's husband inhaled them - so did Marallyn and I and everyone else.
But do you think that's all we ate? Not at all. We ate Marallyn's famous chopped vegetable salad, her sister-in law's matboucha (a tangy salad of cooked tomatoes, peppers and spices), hummus (ground chickpeas with tehina), tehina (gound sesame seed paste), salat chatzilim (eggplant salad with tehina), pickles, olives and pita. That was it for the healthy vegetable part.
Then came the serious food...all done on the mangal (grill) - manned by one of Marallyn's brothers-in law and her son - the father of Sweetsie Tootsie and Sweetsie Girl. We ate - in no particular order - kebabs, regular steak, entrecote steak, chicken livers, shkaydeem (sweetbreads), skewers of beef, lamb chops, brains (only I ate them !), lamb fat (yes, dear readers - pieces of lamb fat grilled until crispy - don't knock it until you've tried it) - and wings.
And we finished with watermelon - cold and sweet and juicy - the perfect ending to all that meat.
You should understand that this took hours and hours - you can't ingest that amount of food in twenty minutes. This was an all-day proposition. And there was still food left over. But you can never prepare "just enough" - what happens if another contingent shows up unexpectedly? Which is actually what happened. Not to worry - we had enough food.
And we didn't eat non-stop. Oh, no. We took time to talk and laugh and play with the kids. But after about five hours we called it a day. Marallyn was smart - she wore pants with an elasticized waist. I - on the other hand - had to undo the button on my jeans!
Now it's really crunch time. I began a diet yesterday - for the millionth time. My cousin's daughter is getting married in seven weeks - and I simply must get into my outfit. Will let you know how that goes.
Yalla, Bye.
