I've posted before about how Qatar is vexing my efforts in the kitchen. The other day, at church, I was relieved to hear that I'm not alone in this. A new friend of mine who arrived here shortly after I did told me she gets so discouraged by her own cooking she wants to throw in the dish towel and quit altogether. I hear ya, Sister!
So I feel like I need to celebrate the few moments when things go right, when I do manage to cook something not only edible but even, dare I say it, delicious!
Today I had a bunch of red and yellow cherry tomatoes in danger of going bad, the result of my eyes being MUCH bigger than my stomach while I was shopping at the vegetable market and the fact that the yellow tomatoes were inexplicably CHEAPER than the red ones. What is up with that?? Like I said, I was so shocked I bought a half kilo of the yellows when I had already bought a half kilo of the reds! (NOTE: a half kilo is my new favorite measurement. When I'm at the market, I have a hard time estimating how much I will need of a given vegetable or fruit and talking about pounds is useless, but I have discovered that if I get a half kilo of most things, it's just about enough to get my family through the week. Plus, when I ask for a half kilo, they invariably give me more anyway, because it's so novel for a white woman to be buying her own produce and carrying it herself--thank you giant reusable shopping bags--and with a half kilo, a few more won't hurt, but with a full kilo, pretty soon I've got way more than we can eat. Just sayin!).
Anywho, I had all these yummy tomatoes that I didn't want to waste, so I looked for something simple and yummier I could do with them and I ran into this recipe and roasted cherry tomato sauce sounds pretty good, doesn't it? As a bonus, I had all the ingredients on hand (except I only had dried basil instead of fresh but CLOSE ENOUGH!). And, even better, it didn't violate my five ingredients or fewer goal for all my favorite recipes (spices you always have on hand don't count in your five ingredient total), and it looked super simple and virtually foolproof, which meant it might even be Qatar-proof! And it was! Omigosh, folks, this stuff is luscious! I want to eat it on everything. I think tonight we will try it on pita pizzas to class them up a bit. Granted, mine didn't look as beautiful as hers does, because you know what happens when you char yellow and red cherry tomatoes a little bit until they burst? They turn a different color but they still taste so so good, so I don't care!
My success buoyed me on to do some menu planning. It was a painstaking process but I persevered.
Step 1: Brainstorm recipes your family likes. Wonder at your list: are we really that American??
Step 2: Delete those recipes that contain ingredients that aren't available locally or cost more than your first child will ever make in his whole life. (Deletions will include your favorite pasta salad, pumpkin soup, and anything involving ham or other pork products.)
Step 3: Cry a little, take a deep breath, and brainstorm some more. Wonder about your fixation with pork.
Step 4: Come up with a 7 day rotation, talk to the husband about something else entirely, find out he has decided he doesn't really want to eat pasta any more, take off the (still cheap in Qatar, dang it!) pasta options, revamp your rotation, and try to expand into a 14 day rotation because you are a glutton for punishment.
Step 5: Make up a loose shopping list for your menu plan, bearing in mind always that many items may just not be in stock for some unknown reason, now or ever again, and decide to look at the whole process as a game!
Step 6: Go out for dinner!
So I feel like I need to celebrate the few moments when things go right, when I do manage to cook something not only edible but even, dare I say it, delicious!
Today I had a bunch of red and yellow cherry tomatoes in danger of going bad, the result of my eyes being MUCH bigger than my stomach while I was shopping at the vegetable market and the fact that the yellow tomatoes were inexplicably CHEAPER than the red ones. What is up with that?? Like I said, I was so shocked I bought a half kilo of the yellows when I had already bought a half kilo of the reds! (NOTE: a half kilo is my new favorite measurement. When I'm at the market, I have a hard time estimating how much I will need of a given vegetable or fruit and talking about pounds is useless, but I have discovered that if I get a half kilo of most things, it's just about enough to get my family through the week. Plus, when I ask for a half kilo, they invariably give me more anyway, because it's so novel for a white woman to be buying her own produce and carrying it herself--thank you giant reusable shopping bags--and with a half kilo, a few more won't hurt, but with a full kilo, pretty soon I've got way more than we can eat. Just sayin!).
Anywho, I had all these yummy tomatoes that I didn't want to waste, so I looked for something simple and yummier I could do with them and I ran into this recipe and roasted cherry tomato sauce sounds pretty good, doesn't it? As a bonus, I had all the ingredients on hand (except I only had dried basil instead of fresh but CLOSE ENOUGH!). And, even better, it didn't violate my five ingredients or fewer goal for all my favorite recipes (spices you always have on hand don't count in your five ingredient total), and it looked super simple and virtually foolproof, which meant it might even be Qatar-proof! And it was! Omigosh, folks, this stuff is luscious! I want to eat it on everything. I think tonight we will try it on pita pizzas to class them up a bit. Granted, mine didn't look as beautiful as hers does, because you know what happens when you char yellow and red cherry tomatoes a little bit until they burst? They turn a different color but they still taste so so good, so I don't care!
My success buoyed me on to do some menu planning. It was a painstaking process but I persevered.
Step 1: Brainstorm recipes your family likes. Wonder at your list: are we really that American??
Step 2: Delete those recipes that contain ingredients that aren't available locally or cost more than your first child will ever make in his whole life. (Deletions will include your favorite pasta salad, pumpkin soup, and anything involving ham or other pork products.)
Step 3: Cry a little, take a deep breath, and brainstorm some more. Wonder about your fixation with pork.
Step 4: Come up with a 7 day rotation, talk to the husband about something else entirely, find out he has decided he doesn't really want to eat pasta any more, take off the (still cheap in Qatar, dang it!) pasta options, revamp your rotation, and try to expand into a 14 day rotation because you are a glutton for punishment.
Step 5: Make up a loose shopping list for your menu plan, bearing in mind always that many items may just not be in stock for some unknown reason, now or ever again, and decide to look at the whole process as a game!
Step 6: Go out for dinner!
Anything roasted gets added to my recipe book! My dinners are not as adventurous as in the states either, but I am sure am more grateful for a home-cooked meal here! Good luck.
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