Lara Love

The Houston Marathon Expo that occurs the day before the race always has tons of vendors giving away free stuff, reason #857 to get out and run. One of the vendors is always the Lara Bar company giving away bite size samples of their oh so yummy energy bars which they got me hooked on. So for the last couple years these have been one of the bars I love to buy *when they are on sale* for quick snacks at work or wherever, which means I don't get them enough because I think they are pricey normally. Lara Bars are fruit and nut bars that are: Unprocessed - Raw - Non-GMO - Gluten Free - Dairy Free - Soy Free - Vegan - Kosher. ...and did I mention they were incredibly good?

But every time I eat one I look at the label and there are like 3 or 4 ingredients none of which include the words syrup, dextrose, glycerin, or any other nasty non-real food. I always think, you know I bet I could make these at home and today I DID!! Instead of trying to figure out the recipe, I decided I'd try to google it first (ah google, where would we be without you) and sure enough, I was not the first person nor anywhere close to being the most qualified to try this. I found the recipe on a food blog "Enlightened Cooking" and off I go.

So tonight, after a scant 15 minutes with my food processor and a sheet of wax paper, I have a dozen homemade "LARA" bars chilling in my fridge for all the healthy snacking I need. Can't wait to eat them all, I made both the Very Cherry (I used cranberries because I love them) and the PB&J variety to try. I will be experimenting in the future though, because one of my favorites from Lara is the Apple Pie and there isn't a recipe for that one on the blog.

All For Alicia

This past weekend was an incredibly fun way to celebrate Alicia's upcoming wedding, especially so for me since the only 11 break lapse between wedding and baby due date is going to keep us from going. Saturday was Alicia's Bridal Shower in Philadelphia at her parent's house. It was great party and we all had a great time meeting some of her family. Jess, Erin, and Heather also did a fantastic job on the food for the party. Later that evening was part two of the party for Alicia with all the girls and it was also a great time. With baby on board, I was quasi-chaperone for the evening but I still had a great time dancing and just plain hanging out. Most especially though, I was just glad that I could go celebrate with Alicia and best wishes for a long and happy marriage come October!

He Just Buzz'ed Him

Since the moon landing anniversary was yesterday, the idiot conspiracy theorists who think it didn't happen are suddenly back around. You can think stupid things, but really you should keep your mouth shut and not start name calling the second man to walk on the moon whether you believe it or not. Go Buzz! He has just moved up a rung or two in my list of favorite astronauts.

Sublime Street Food

Even with all the foodie posts from Nazareth, I realized there is one last food topic I hadn't covered. Street Food!!! Which is arguably the best food in any country and most representative of the culture. If you disagree take it up with Anthony Bourdain who could probably write a dissertation on the subject.

In Nazareth and most of the region, the street food is falafel. Mmmmm... falafel... crunchy, chewy nuggets of goodness. Made especially well in the street and topped with your choice of veggies, for me cabbage, pickles (an absolute must), tomato, pickled beets, and a healthy dose of tahaini. The other street sandwich the boys enjoyed was shwarma, which is lamb meat roasted on a spit like gyros are also done and then sliced off into a pita. But my fav is and always will be falafel and nothing beats it. As Shaun pointed out, there should be a food stand outside every club in America dishing that up at 2am. I agree, but I'll eat it any time of day, no dancing required.

Madoff: Texas Edition

A few years ago, John got a 'hot tip' for a financial advisor from his chiropractor. The firm got great returns and always got people more than 10% a year return because they were just so darn smart. When John told me about it, I shrugged, raised an eyebrow, and said sounds too good to be true. Since at the time we didn't have a large sum of money to invest and weren't really looking for a financial planner, the whole thing never got past our initial short reaction.

But we certainly have discussed it again since as the financial firm suggested to us was none other than Stanford Financial. You might have heard about them recently.

Tamales, Pierogies, and Grape Leaves

Q: What do the three foods above have in common?

A: They are all best made as a group so you can talk.

In the picture, on the left is Umtie Lamese and beside her is Umtie Zahara. Umtie Enayat has her back to the camera and in the background is Menal with her little girl Nadine in her lap which you can't really see. I snapped this photo the day of the Groom party as they were preparing stuffed grape leaves for a gazillion people. You can see all the leaves and the giant pile of stuffing on the table which all became some excellent eats.

Are You Ready to Order?

This was my brother-in-law Shaun's first trip to Nazareth and, while we prepared him for what to expect, we may have forgotten to mention a few things. For example, we went to dinner one night in Haifa with Shadi. The five of us saw the Ba'hai gardens lit up at night and then headed to a seafood restaurant run by Shadi's friend. Here was the massive spread of awesome food. We all tucked in and Shaun especially seemed to be enjoying his dinner.



Then the waiter came up and asked us what we would like to order... and Shaun's jaw dropped. Oops, seemed we forgot to mention the "appetizer" course is a little different in the middle east. Shaun thought that was dinner (and really there was more than enough food for it to be), but still enjoyed the actual dinner which came out shortly thereafter.



Generally speaking, this is how all the meals went while we were there, most especially the wedding party meals. But it is always phenomenal food and my only regret is that I can't eat more.

Naming Rights

Of course, you know I have an uncommon name for the US. When I was born, my father asked my Umo (Uncle) Atef to name me. Atef is his eldest brother and is essentially the patriarch of the family. Umo chose the name Nujoud after a star on one of the favorite arabic soap operas of the day. My name means 'glorious one' and is rather uncommon in Arabic too. As Umo told me, it is a classic name. Here is a picture of me and Umo Atef.

Nazareth Picture Summary

Since I posted a big photo album, I'll do a quick explanation for most of the photos. This by no means does them justice and there are much more detailed stories to tell for all of them. But that would require a book and not just this blog to complete.

The pictures in the market are from on of my family's coffee shops, this includes the spices and my cousin Shadi working behind the counter. The butcher is literally next door and I had to get a picture of the lambs hanging there for sale.

The graveyard pictures are of my relatives mausoleum and the large tomb is my grandfather's. My grandfather was the Mayor of Nazareth for a long time (count in decades) and, thus, the large grave site adjacent to the family building given his importance in the city.

The people are generally all my relatives from the young cousin's to the older ladies who are my great aunts (or Umtie's in Arabic). The big events for all of the family started with just an evening at the house with singing and dancing Tuesday night, then the Bride's Party was Wednesday at the wedding hall, Groom's Party Thursday at the house, and the actual wedding was Saturday at the wedding hall again. So there are many pictures of people dancing and having a good time. Best thing to note here is great Umtie Lamesse who loves to sing always led the singing and it was fabulous.

The pictures of the big church is the Church of the Annunciation built over what is believed to be Mary's home (as in Jesus' mama). The actual home is in the pictures and for all intensive purposes the homes back in those days in this area more closely resemble 2 room caves built into the hills. One room is the family area, the other room is the "stable" to protect the animals. So when Jesus was born in the manger, it really likely isn't like most people imagine it as a barn.

Missing from the pictures is The White Mosque which is run by my family and is the oldest in the area. You aren't allowed to take pictures in the Mosque but I do have pictures from the spiral staircase below it where they were expanding and excavating and found a 2000 year old wall and a well.

The olive and citrus tree pictures were from my family's compound. I took those all the day I wasn't allowed to help get stuff done for the party since I'm preggo.

There are then pictures from two other Church's, one the Synagogue Church the second is the Greek Orthodox church at Mary's Well. The Synagogue Church is where it is believe Jesus began to teach from. The Orthodox Church is in a beautiful building and was once a crusader hall.

I think that pretty much covers most of the pictures. I am going to blog a couple stories for a few still.

Picture Plethora

Tonight I got all the photos downloaded, named, and the decent ones uploaded to picassa for our trip. We promised to send the photos to our relatives so I uploaded one giant album for them. Here is the link. http://picasaweb.google.com/nmerancy/Nazareth2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWqxLHw992EgQE&feat=directlink

I am just posting this now in case anyone wants to thumb through the album and if you have any questions on the pics, I'd be happy to answer. But since it is 9pm CDT right now and my body is telling me it's closer to 5am, actual blog posts of the trip will have to wait. Time for me and baby to sleep.

Speaking of baby though, one quick comment. Did you know when you get hot, the baby will actually push away from you to cool off? Seriously, some of the days in Nazareth, since we were outside so much, it involved my tummy getting WAY bigger for a few hours and then going back to "normal". It's weird. I'm surprised it didn't just climb out like the Alien movie to cool off the way it was sticking out.

Come Sit Under the Olive Tree

John and I are visiting with family in Nazareth this week and our blog is on a temporary hiatus. We have some internet access but between the comings and goings and not having it in our room at night, the blog will have to wait. I will upload tons of pictures when I get back and am even keeping blog entries on my laptop to uplink later.

In brief for today are lots of preparations at the house for the groom (my cousin's) wedding party tonight, actual wedding not until Saturday. But since I am 1) a visiting relative from afar and more importantly 2)preggo, I am not allowed to do anything, including sit in particular chairs that may be less stable and supportive than others. The whole thing is quite funny to me. But for today, why don't you just come sit under the shady olive tree with me?