tonight's dinner

Tonight I made three dishes for dinner. Two recipes I've never made before and a vegetable dish that I love. The first was tofu lasagna. I saw an Asian woman prepare it on a cooking show the other night and since it looked yummy, I decided to make it... even though all of my in-laws are big meat eaters, including my husband (and I am not), I thought, "what the hell". I made my pasta sauce from scratch... something I've been doing just for a couple of weeks now, and tonight's sauce was especially good... I thought. Only a couple of ppl tried it. One SIL gagged when she tried it, but both Naief and I had a nice helping. Has anyone ever tried it? I'd be happy to pass the recipe if anyone's interested.

I also made fettuccini alfredo for the first time. Boy, that takes time, and it's so fattening! 1/2 cup butter, one pint of heavy whipping cream.... 2/3 c. parmesan cheese.... and then olive oil on the pasta. My only gripe about fettuccini noodles is that they always stick together and it drives me crazy. I put a heavy dose of olive oil on the noodles tonight, after cooking, in hopes that it would work, but still... Does anyone have a good trick to keep this from happening??? And it seems like no matter how often I stir the pasta while cooking, it sticks together - even while cooking. I didn't add oil to the water tonight... maybe that's the problem.

I also made a vegetable medley sort of thing w/ corn, red bell pepper, celery, cauliflower, shredded carrots, lime juice, garlic salt and a few cloves of garlic... you stir fry it all in a small amount of butter and oil. Not too much, but just enough to let it brown. It's really good... light and healthy.

My SIL made a salad, and my MIL made several other dishes.... tomorrow night I'll take a pic of the whole thing so you guys can see what it's like. Reminds me of Thanksgiving but w/ more food!

I don't know how many of you guys know it, but during Ramadan we eat on the floor. Actually, whenever the whole family gets together, meals are always eaten while sitting on the floor. They put out a long, rectangular shaped plastic covering on the floor, then all the food it sat in the middle of this w/ plates, glasses and such along the edges. At first I didn't really care for it, but I actually like it now. It's very informal and cozy. Everyone talks while eating and usually wait until my FIL has finished and gotten up before getting up to leave the area. The kids run around, sometimes sitting down to eat a few bites, or wind up eating later. We take Naief's highchair because he tends not to eat otherwise.

Another thing I've really started to enjoy is eating w/ my fingers. I've always been a finger licker... yeah, I know that many find it disgusting... but I enjoy licking my fingers. I don't slurp them or anything and I don't always do it... it's only if there's something really good stuck to one of them. ;) But, even w/ that said, I'm not one to go w/out the use of a napkin, and no one uses one at my in-laws. Everything is washed at the end of the meal, including mouth - both inside and out. Many ppl eat rice w/ their hands. Making balls inside the palm of one hand and picking it up and putting in the mouth w/ the other fingers. I've never been able to master it and I'm not comfortable doing it, so I eat rice w/ a fork or tablespoon. Many use bread - usually Bahraini or Lebanese - to scoop up food. I like to do this w/ foul, yogurt dishes and sometimes meat.

I think I'll make banana bread tomorrow. I've been waiting for some bananas to overly ripen and by tomorrow they'll be good and ready... I just hope it's as good as I remember.