Quotidian

The lemon bars came out fabulous. Just as gooey and tart as they should be. The powdered sugar is cosmetic, added right before serving; I decided not to mess with that part of it. G, I like the idea of using a coffee grinder to make powdered sugar and may try to make some for the heck of it. Sorry, no photos of the yummy lemon bars. My camera isn't quite up to taking sexy food shots.

Instead, I will offer you a picture of the dogs that I took this morning while sitting on my porch enjoying my one cup of coffee that I allow myself per day. (Caffeine in all of its forms causes me to have extremely intense migraines. I see flashing lights, get nauseated, become light sensitive, feel like someone is shoving spikes into my frontal lobe--all of the classic symptoms fucking my brain up at one time for up to 24 hours at a time. Good times there. If I am super strict about my caffeine consumption, I can pretty much eliminate migraines; for example, I no longer eat dark chocolate. It has made a huge difference in my quality of life.) Anyway, back to this beautiful morning! It was 69F when I got up to take the dogs out to pee at 4:00 am and only 71F a few hours later when I snapped this picture of the dogs soaking up the earliest morning rays peeking over my patio wall. Fall is officially here in Dhahran!

I took this picture because the sky is almost never blue here. It is usually tannish and hazy or so overexposed from the sun you can't even really see the sky. During dust storms, it can become rusty orange. The clear blue today was a real treat!

View of the blue sky this morning from my porch.

I thought I would close this quotidian post with the recipe for one of my favorite dishes. It has many variants and names depending on the culture making it and the spices they like to use (raita, tzatziki, etc). I make it regularly for myself and frequently take it to potluck events since it is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Here is my recipe for cucumber yogurt dip/sauce/salad. It's low fat, sodium-free, and super easy to make.

• Wash some cucumbers. The final volume of the dish will be twice the volume of the cucumbers you use. You can peel them if you want. I don't since the Saudi cucumbers aren't waxed and I think the dark green skins look pretty in the final dish.  Dice the cucumbers and place in a large bowl. Dice is a subjective instruction. You can thinly slice, mince, dice, even grate--whatever strikes your fancy.

• Peel and mince some large cloves of garlic. You should know how much garlic you can handle--but this dish just cries out for you to let yourself run wild with garlicky abandon. Add garlic to cucumbers.

• Drizzle some olive oil into the bowl. 

• Stir well.

• Let the cucumbers and garlic marinate at room temperature for about an hour. Stir them two or three times.

• Just before serving, add a volume of plain, unsweetened yogurt equal to the volume of cucumbers to the bowl. Stir well.

• For exotic presentations, you can add mint (fresh or dried) or orange zest or grated carrot or sprinkle the top with sweet paprika.

• You can serve this dish as a stand-alone dip with crackers or use it as a side dish to grilled meats (it is excellent with lamb).

• This dish improves with age; keeping it overnight in the fridge and serving the next day enhances the garlic blast several times over.

Enjoy!