Food!

Been out for a bit. I met my mother and brother for a trip through Jordan and Lebanon to trace roots and reconnect with a lot of family that my mom hasn't seen in many years.   I can't decide if I'm going to blog about my trip to Jordan and Lebanon. The thing is that I don't have enough photos to accompany the funny stories I would tell on this blog - and I don't want to just do a trip recap because that is boring for people that didn't go on the trip (c'mon admit it, reading about other people's trips is not so fun - i totally agree). The fun part is the stupid but hilarious stories that come out of these trips.  A lot of funniness and ridiculousness went down between my brother and I - it was just like old times - so fun!

So, completely off the subject, this post is about some good cooking that took place on Saturday.  I haven't seen my Nairobi friends in a while since I've been out of town for various trips so we had a few people over for dinner on Saturday.  The main dish - RIBS.  Now, I don't normally think about eatting ribs - to be honest, it's messy, there's not a lot of meat on them, it's a lot of fat, and it's a little cavemanish to think about nibbling on the bones of an animal - but my friend Candice made some AMAZING baby back ribs about a month ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them since!  Her recipe is simple (even a caveman can do it ;-) and they are SOOOOO GOOD! Sergio was the one that cooked them up for us on Saturday and it turned out just like the ones Candice served.  They looked like this (forgot to take a real photo)

Candice's amazing baby back ribs
 First you rub brown sugar and grilling spices over the ribs - any grill spice blend you have on hand. Then pour Jack Daniels over them, wrap them up in foil and then put them in the oven at about 330 or so for 2 hours. Then take them out of the oven, baste them with any BBQ sauce you have and grill them for just a little bit to get them a little blackened on the outside. They will be mostly cooked from the oven so they don't need much time.


Then, I made some Lebanese potato salad, which was really good.
Recipe - Peel and boil potatoes, chop them up into little cubes. Mix them with chopped parsley and spring onions.   Pour olive oil, lemon juice, and salt over it until it tastes good to you.

example - but this one looks like it's missing parsley.

Lastly, I made strawberry spinach salad, which people always love and ask me for the recipe.  Beware - this thing has TONS of sugar in it..so it's not so healthy of a salad  - but it is really good.

The Salad

• a lot of fresh spinach
• a lot of sliced strawberries

Salad Dressing

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Mix the dressing ingredients and pour it over the salad - top with some almond slices if you want. SO GOOD