fruits & vegies... delicious, cheap and organic

Why I love for Dubai? ... i.e. for vegetables and fruits! Today I bought some local vegetables and guess what impressed me! The fact that the eggplant was wormy! Can you imagine this in Dutch vegetables full of chemistry? These local veggies may not look as nice as the Dutch glasshouse one, they look like those from backyard - but they smell lovely and they are delicious. Tomatoes smell wonderful and they are sweet!
And to make it even better - they have great prices. One kg of aubergines cost 2.5 AED and courgettes 4 AED :)

Fat Thursday :)

Fat Thursday - no 2 for me here in Dubai.
Last year it surprised me a bit, but this year I'm fully prepared :) You can eat a donut in  Kryspy Kreme  :) They are really delicious ...
... but I decided to do Faworki and steamed dough cakes  - yumie!

Faworki: 500 g flour6 egg yolksok. 6 tbsp. of cream
pinch of salt 2 packs of vanilla sugar2 tbsp alcohol (i.e. vodka or pure spirit)icing powder sugar to sprinkle

app. 500g of oil for frying

Knead dough from all the components until it is similar to that one for pierogi (dumplings). Beat it with a rolling-pin so it blisters and leave for 30 minutes. Roll Out dough very thinly. Cut into stripes (app. 10-12 cm long and 2-3 cm wide). Cut a small slit in the middle of each stripe, pass one of its sides through it and afterwards pull it through (shape like a twisted ribbon). Now is time for frying, both sides, until colour will be golden.

Steam cakes with lemon icing:

1 glass of water

100 g butter

1 glass of flour

4 eggs

Icing:

150g icing powder

2 łyżki boiling water

2-3 tbsp. lemon juice

Pour water into the pot, put the butter and heat up. As the butter is melted pour the flour and stir. When dough start depart from the walls of the well leave it to cool. After cooling, put eggs to the pot and mix, there should be no lumps. Place dough on baking parchment and bake about 10 - 15 minutes in the oven heated to 180 c degrees. When cool sprinkle with icing.

Pets... how much you have to pay for a vet

If you live in Dubai and you want to have a four-legged friend, you have to have a lot of money...

Sick pet it is huge expenses :( My little prince Klusek for about a month had pneumonia... weekly check-up visit  with RTG its a cost about 350-400 AED.
Food is more expensive than in Poland - about 5 Euro, and threre are only a few of them. The best one is Beaphar Care+ Ferret -  so not a best sort.
If you have a cat or dog, it is easier. There is a lot of choices, you can buy normal food or veterinary diet.
Annual rabies vaccination (is compulsory as everywhere) - the cost 220-250 AED. All other vaccinations required its a similar cost.

You have to know that not in every area you can live with a pet. In some of them there is a prohibition a possession of pets at all. There are pet free zones - you can't go out with your pet there. And all the parks in Dubai are a pet free zone :(

New Year came...

New Year - 2012 - by Maya the last year of our existance... hmm I don't believe in it, but always you can feel a touch of uncertainty...
Recently someone asked me 'what would you do if you won 100 million US Dolars?'
I know what I would do!I would buy a house somewhere where the sun is always shining. It's good to have a place to which you can return. Apart from that I would be traveling around the world. From country to counrty, learning about the cultures, cuisine and I would learn languages!
I don't have a chance to win that money, there is no lottery like this in my country, but I live in a foreign country and I can learn new language :)
New Years resolution number 1 - form February I'm going to an intensive Arabic course. I hope I can manage :)

Maybe one day I will win this money :) But for now I can learn languages, first arabic, and then I'm planning to back to spanish - I love the melody of this language.

Enough of New Year's thoughts...
I wish all of you  to persevere in yours decisions, all the best, and that the Mayans were wrong :)

Bigos

Although I didn't make this bigos myself. Pawels mother made ​​it. It is delicious so I give you a recipe :) 

Indridients:

• 1 kg sauerkraut
• glass of dried mashrooms
• 200 g smoked bacon
• 500 g sausage (good one)
• 1 large onion
• 2 tbsp. of  tomato paste or ketchupu
• bay leaf
• allspice
• 3/4 glass of red, dry wine (option)

Cook mashrooms in a little water and than chop it. Pour boiling water to cabbage and cook for about 30 minutes, than drain. Bacon, sausage and onion fry on a soucepan. Add cabbage and mashrooms. Cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add tomato paste or ketchup, mix and fry again about 5 minutes stirring frequently. Season with pepper, pour the water remaining after boiling mushrooms, add bay leaf and allspice. Cook until most of the water evaporate.
Now you can do two things:
- you can put everything into casserole and put it to the oven for about 20 minutes or add wine and simmer over a low heat.