Lebanese Spinach Buns - Fatayir

I came across this recipe for spinach buns a while ago and thought they might be worth trying...if only to get some spinach into my children...

Yesterday, we were invited for an after dinner glass of wine to my neighbor with Lebanese background giving me the perfect opportunity to dig out the recipe:

Crust:

• 1 envelope dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 3-4 cups whole wheat flour

Filling:

• 1 package frozen, chopped spinach (or equivalent fresh spinach)
• 1 cup finely minced onions
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup of pine nuts
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 Tbs. dried marjoram
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 200C (175C in Convention). Make a yeast dough with the crust ingredients, let rise while preparing the filling. Blend all the ingredients for the filling. When dough has doubled, knead for a couple of minutes. With a rolling pin roll it out very thin, but not too thin that it will break. Cut 10cm squares with a pastry wheel, place heaping teaspoon of filling on each square and fold into triangle. Pinch the edges together and place on slightly oiled baking sheet. Brush with some olive oil and bake in oven for about 20-30 minutes or until light brown. Cool on rack or serve hot.

The original recipe is from "Breads of the World" by Mariana Honig. However, like quite a few of her recipes, the ingredient measurements are off. She only called for 1 1/2 cups of flour which isn't nearly enough. I also had to adjust baking temperature and time.

My neighbor thought the buns were pretty good, although I think she was being polite as I had skimped on the salt and the buns definitely needed more flavour, salt or otherwise. She also mentioned that Lebanese have different fillings, i.e. meat. The spinach buns are traditionally eaten with a dip that sounded very similar to Tsatsiki.

And did the kids eat them? Yes! Eureka...

Naan Bread Recipe

By popular demand here is my naan bread recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 pk dry yeast
• 4 tsp sugar (I use 1 or none)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 egg beaten
• 3 tbsp milk
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp minced garlic

Make yeast dough with these ingredients. Let rise for 30min-1hour. Form naan patties, make them about 0.75cm thick. This recipe makes about 8-12 depending on size. Brush breads with melted butter (I use olive oil). Grill 2-3 min each side (20min at 200C or 400F in oven works fine, too).

The recipe I made up in a hurry today (very yummy) was very plain. I used about 400g flour, tsp salt, 1 tbsp dry yeast and warm water (@350ml) to make a workable dough. Made 8 paddies, brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with minced garlic and dried herbs from my garden. Perfect fit for the wicked curry...

I have no idea where the original recipe came from. I hand wrote it in my recipe book.

Eliminating Household Chemicals

It took a while and I still cringe when I am buying new supplies of expensive, but non-toxic household cleaners, but I am proud to say that I have eliminated most harsh daily household cleaning products.

Motivated by skin irritations in family members, I started with the laundry detergents. Because I was a sucker for the nice smell of fabric softeners, I weaned myself very slowly from the product. Using less and less and finally diluting the product with water...until my last bottle was used up...Gulp. I don't think anybody in the family noticed.

Next on my list was the laundry detergent. I researched and shopped around and found VIP laundry soap at the local supermarket was affordable and met my criteria. VIP is a local company based in Mission. Their laundry detergent is Scent free, dye free, comes in a recyclable bottle (I actually used the granules that come in a plastic bag), biodegradable, septic safe, no Phosphates, no NTA or EDTA, not tested on animals and no optical brightener. The other product that I since have found is by Nature Clean. They have a whole line of household products which now are available at my local supermarket.

Laundry under control, I moved to find a general cleaning product. I do use Baking Soda and Vinegar, but do find that for dishes, floors, toilets I need a bit of sudsing action. Nature Clean, also a Canadian company (based in Ontario), has a great All Purpose Cleaner. I replaced my household cleaner, bathroom cleaner and dish detergent with this one procuct. Apparently, one can also use it for laundry. Eureka.

The last item on my list was the dishwasher detergent. The natural products for this purpose seemed shamelessly overprized. I finally caved in and bought a box of Nature Clean dishwashing detergent.

Because the products are quite a bit more expensive, I am using minute amounts. Luckily, the softness of Vancouver's water lends itself to that practice. Using about a teaspoon of dishwasher detergent per load, my box has lasted almost a year, or about 150 loads. Ditto for the laundry detergent. I eliminated the cost of softener and have cut down on the amount of granules used per load. A teaspoon full is about all I need for a normal wash.

Since embarking on this quest, sustainability and ecofriendliness have become part of everybodies vocabulary. Hopefully, with more and more people switching to less toxic alternatives, these products will become more affordable and widely available.

Dealing With Rejection

It's been a week of ups and downs...closing with a down it appears!

How does one deal with a rejection after interviewing for a job? I am not talking about the usual non response (how rude) or polite expression of "not interested" (thanks for being respectful). This is an established, growing (or so they said) company. The position was a good fit for my experience and qualifications. After the obligatory phone interview, I was invited for an in person interview at their office. It went very well and I was asked to continue the process and interview with the person I would be reporting to. That meeting was positive as well and I was told that a decision would be made before week end. They were moving fast, I had established a rapport, they seemed honest and personable. To my surprise the next phone call informed me of a change in pace in the hiring process, a change in the job description and closed with an invite for a third interview. Apparently, there were a handful of people left in the race. Not bad for today's job market. I considered the changed job outlook and decided that the company still represented a good career choice for me and I was willing to go with their slower outlook and downsized job tasks. They admitted they were flying by the seat of their pants, things were changing constantly and this position could be molded by the candidate...that sounded positive to me. I had a good feeling about the third interview, which was reinforced when I arrived home to find a request for references from the HR department in my inbox. No problem there, as I had lined up a handful of professional and character references. I confirmed coordinates and willingness to act as a reference with my list before emailing it to HR later that day. This was early in the week and again I was told that the decision would be made before week's end. Two days later - early in the day - I received a brief email informing me that the company decided to move forward with another candidate. After my initial surprise, I discovered that none of my references was called upon. What was going on here? It's hard to deal with a rejection when feeling so close to a "Yes". I am a level headed and balanced person, but my initial reaction was quite intense from stomach cramps over nausea todizziness. Wow, haven't had such a strong emotional reaction since my first love dumped me...

It's the day after and I am trying to rationalize. Taking into account that I am very good in reading people I've come to the conclusion that the position was pulled from underneath them. Too bad that they didn't have the courtesy to be upfront and honest about it. Yes, I invested a lot of time in travelling to these interviews and yes, they probably felt embarrassed about the situation. But who are they trying to fool?

My friends and references have been very supportive and expressedsimilar thoughts: "Think about it, would you like to work for somebody that acts like that and worst, be in on it and required to do the same thing?" No! "Their loss, you'd be such a gain for any company that would hire you". With that in mind, I try to keep a positive attitude and am still looking...

Elfin Winter Wonderland

We timed our annual trek to the Elfin Lakes perfectly. The forecast called for clear skies and crisp temperatures. Despite the favorable weather nobody had taken us up on the call for other adventurers to join our clan for this CFA Flash family adventure. Maybe no surprise given that we picked a Sunday departure and Monday return to avoid the weekend crowds at Elfin Cabin.

Considering that we lost an hour of sleep in the "spring forward" time change we were making good time, hitting the road at 9:30 and ready to rock at the trail head by 11:00.

My pack was immensely heavy. Everybody carried their own emergency gear, food, clothes, sleeping bags and mats. Ean had the honor of lugging lunch for all, breakfast and dinner, plus a chocolate bar or two. My pack held the "kitchen", but I swear, next time the little Action Jackson will get a bigger load.

Weighed down by my pack, I was the slowest on the long trek up the access trail to Red Heather. The boys had charged ahead, but luckily JoJo kept me company. For the first time ever, there was no whining what so ever. At Red Heather, we should have eaten our lunch in the bright sunshine outside, but ran into a gaggle of friends and attempted to get the stove in the cabin going. By the time the fire starter had kicked in and the freezing cabin started to warm-up, we said bye to our friends and continued toward Paul's Ridge. It's about a 2km climb from the warming hut to the highest point of the hike on Paul's Ridge. At 1660m JoJo was wondering if the thin air would affect her performance ;-) I doubt we felt any effects of the altitude, but foolishly promised a good nights sleep...

Menacing clouds started to move in, but fortunately, the views of Diamond Head, Mount Atwell, the Gargoyles and the Tantalus Range remained unobstructed. The trail meanders along the ridge for about 5km, every once in a while revealing the end point of our hike, Elfin Cabin, in the distance.

Nobody was at the cabin when we arrived around 4:00pm, but by the time dinner was served there were about 10 people vying for snow melt water and cooking spots. Speaking about melt water...ever noticed how a huge amount of snow results in a minute amount of water??? I had the production line going, the kids kept the melt pots full of snow and new arrivals were able to get a hot bevvy in no time flat. Chicken Noodle soup hit the spot in the appetizer departments and Macaroni and Cheese never tasted that good.

While the boys played a rather rowdy round of Monopoly and I unsuccessfully tried to finish my book club novel, more and more hikers and skiers arrived, filling the cabin with excited chatter. Word was that a school group of about 20 teenagers was also in approach. Bets were made if they would make it before midnight - apparently their pace was extremely slow. I didn't envy the teachers..imagine being on the mountain with a group of grumpy, cold and hungry teens. Mercifully, they pitched tents at Red Heather for the night.

Before heading upstairs to the bunk beds, we secured our food on hooks from the ceiling. A few years back, a little wood rat was busy all night trying to reach our food supply (unsuccessfully) and we rather not have any unpleasant surprises in the morning. On that note, the cabin was very clean this year (we'd like to think it was our friends around Rebecca who we met descending earlier in the day, that cleaned up and left everything spic and span. Unlike in past years, where food was left on the counters attracting mice, there was no food and no garbage sitting around. I had brought up an extra rag and garbage bag to be prepared for a clean-up...but we just had to deal with our stuff. Nice!

Action Jackson was tasked with telling "funny stories" as we huddled in our sleeping bags. I started drifting away very quickly...but a loud snorer interrupted our bliss. JoJo thought he was sawing through the supporting beams of the cabin .

Morning dawned very cold and foggy. Through the fog one could sense crystal blue skies...and by the time we had breakfast wrapped and the packs zipped up (I managed to get rid of the kitchen and lighten my load), the fog had lifted, revealing amazing 360 degree views of the mountain ranges around us. There was a new layer of about 5cm of powdery, light snow...when did that happen (unbeknowst to us, Vancouver also had been hit with more snow, resulting in morning traffic chaos)?

The plan was to hike back, have lunch at Red Heather and then tobaggon down to the parking lot to make it back to town before night fall. I was slightly stressed about keeping to the schedule as I had left a trip plan with two friends and didn't want to end up the subject of an unnecessary search and rescue mission. The sun was beckoning, though and the big and little Action Jacksons took the opportunity to slide down gentle virgin slopes. We found the perfect lunch spot in a protected little meadow. Oma's Frikadellen, boiled eggs, cinnamon buns and chocolate - we could have fed an army.

Where the ridge ends and the trail descends to Red Heather, the kids took their snowshoes off, strapped them to their packs and unrolled their sleds. Record time to the parking lot....I think the tobaggoning on the return trip is the major reason the little Jacksons like this trip so much.

Back at the car, the last remaining obstacle was the perilous drive down the access road. We've almost gone over the cliff a few times. I was laughed down suggesting we should put on the snow chains. Luckily, the new contractor in charge of clearing the road has been doing an amazing job. We inched our way down, past the steep and slippery pitches, but our little car and Action Jackson at the wheel had no problem.

Here are some more photos of our Winter Trip to Elfin Cabin.

Grocery Shopping

What does your family budget for your monthly grocery bill? I bet if you add it all up, you'll be close to $900 for a family of four just for food.

I did my bimonthly mega grocery run yesterday. Painful experience to say the least. It seems, every month I am noticing huge price increases in yet another product. I used to be able to get 1 litre of 100% pure Maple Syrup for CAN $9.99. I always grinched when I had to buy a new bottle...imagine my surprise when I discovered about 6 weeks ago that the prize had gone up to $16.99. I've remained hopefull and checked yesterday if the cost had gone down (yeah, right) only to discover that The Superstore has hiked the prize yet another dollar. Say bye bye to Maple Syrup - at $17.99 for a litre it is unattainable.