Hello Chef

A couple of years ago I tried out a food delivery service here, and even though it was a great experience, and a totally stress free cooking week, I never used it again for the simple reason that it this kind of service is really expensive here.

Recently I got a voucher for 100 AED off my first order of another, similar service, so I thought I'd give this one a shot too.
Meal planning is such a never-ending, and boring, cycle and more often than not I have neglected to plan dinner, let alone had time to go to the shop - cue tuna pasta... again... So this week we have tried HelloChef, and indeed, another pleasant experience!

We had a big box of four meals worth of ingredients delivered last Sunday; everything from the stock cubes to the spices, vegetables and meat we needed; along with recipe cards and instructions on how to store the food and prepare each meal.

Bear with me that my plating might need some work, but here is this weeks menu. Fish fajitas with Pico de Gallo:

Meatball marinara with zoodles for me and spaghetti for the kids:

 Chicken stuffed with brie and walnuts and tricolore rice:

 Vegetable curry with rice and cauliflower:

All the dishes turned out pretty well, the kids ate (most of) it, and the menu was varied and healthy. Although - the price, again, it is just way too pricey to justify for us. I also couldn't help but thinking of the environment. Sure, the box looks fantastic, and of course it is easily dealt with when packed and delivered like this; but it feels absolutely crazy to have all this food individually packed in tons of plastic containers and bags...

So, meal delivery is once again tried and tested, mostly for fun and to have a little project for the week - but back to my own creativity, the trusty cook books, meal planners and shopping lists it is!

Thanksgiving 2019

Time flies, and we have already had this years Thanksgiving celebration! Traditionally celebrated with our ex-neighbours, now in Dubai. Biggest one yet with almost 40 people! Amazing!

This year we could come all four of us, and it was the first time I saw Kristen and Chad's new house which they moved in to over the summer. Really, really lovely - gave me house envy... why don't we have those kind of nice compounds in Abu Dhabi..? We all fit outside on their lawn:

Food, food, glorious food..!

We ate, and played some games, and ate some more...

There was tons of kids there this year. Aiden was certainly living his best life with all these buddies around him! Linnea as well, getting to play with not just Wyatt, but two other little babies as well.

Linnea and Aiden drawing Thanksgiving turkey-hands on the window:

And as per usual, the next day we got to take a special take-away box home with some turkey and trimmings, for later. Art work by Aiden.

Thank you McGeHees for another wonderful Thanksgiving!

Cooking by numbers

While we have been here in Abu Dhabi we have tried meal boxes before, but they have never really been a complete success. Still, we have decided to try yet another type and so far, it seems to be a hit!
It is called Spring, and it is almost like cooking by numbers!

Twice a week, we get a cool box outside the door, with either 2 or 3 meals in each. Meals that we have picked out ourselves from their menu. I try to pick things that I would normally not cook myself, to try things and get some more recipes to add to my menu bank.

Each meal comes in a box with all the ingredients marked and ready to be cooked.

It really couldn't be easier, vegetables are washed and chopped, and all ingredients are measured and separated into vacuum sealed bags, each with a number that corresponds to a specific step in the recipe.

 

We have enjoyed all of the meals we have tried so far, some more than others sure, but they have all been tasty. Another thing I really like is the very little amount of wasted packaging. This has been a gripe of mine with other meal boxes, but here all the plastic is biodegradable, and the cardboard boxes by Spring. We just leave them in the cool boxes each time they gets picked up.

So the food is delicious, there is not a lot of waste, its easy to cook - and, it takes no time! What's not to like! Last night we had the Cajun Blackened Chicken with Avocado Dijonnaise Mayo, and vegetables.

Sure, it is not cheap. But. Apart from all the things mentioned above, I also do enjoy that I can adapt our order week by week, depending on how many days we want, and for how many people. This service does help us, as we have ended up going down the 4pm "hm... what are we going to have for dinner today... let's go to Waitrose and get something"-route too many times. Which is also not cheap, at all.
So, we will continue to "Spring" for a bit yet!

(If you would like to try yourself - let me know, and I will share my code with you for 50% off on your first 2 deliveries!)

The Semla

A 'semla' is a small, wheat flour bun, flavoured with cardamom and filled with almond paste and whipped cream. It has become something of a food icon in Sweden.
Traditionally you only ate these buns on Fettisdag (=Shrove/Fat Tuesday) as the last festive food before the Christian fasting period of Lent. Although with time, Swedes stopped observing Lent, added cream and almond paste to the mix and started eating these carb-loaded buns without any reservations. Nowadays semlor (the plural of 'semla') usually appear in the shops and bakeries already shortly after Christmas!

I have made many attempts over the years to bake these myself, with various results. As per usual, the aesthetics are often missing, but whatever I bake at least tend to taste very good! This year I had heard of a bakery in the city from where you could order these buns, and as I had promised some to my neighbours, I thought I'd give it a shot.

They weren't quite ready when I arrived to pick them up, so while I waited I got treated to a cup ginger and lemon tea and some small, delicious cookies. I was all alone at the time, in this very pretty tea salon:

I got a monstrously big bag, to take home my big box of semlor. Look!

I passed a few on to a Swedish friend, and took some to my Irish and German neighbours. Once the kids came home from school we all had one each for afternoon 'fika'. They have no connection to this tradition as they haven't really been exposed to it much, but were happy to try one.

Verdict?
Well, Linnea only liked "the yellow stuff" (the sugary almond paste that is... no surprise) but Lucas ate ALL of his with healthy appetite.

Me, I scraped most of the cream off as here you rarely get real cream, but that strange, fluffy spray can stuff. The bun and the paste both tasted great, but I found the composition was a bit off. You see, the proportions are really important to get the perfect semla!
But - as a non-authentic Swedish semla, it sure was alright and I'm happy I finally got my fix!

Corona Diary, Day 39-40

Day 39, Friday 17 April
I must admit sometimes it's hard to get that proper weekend-feeling when we are all at home anyway all day every day... But today we have tried at least.
I made fresh scones for breakfast and we cleared off the dining table and turned it into a ping-pong table for the weekend, something especially Linnea enjoyed. Bless her, she is really trying to keep herself busy, but she is becoming increasingly bored by this isolation. She also tried making macarons today, which turned into a bit of a fail as it's rather complicated, will have to give that another try another day. I kept her company in the kitchen in the meantime. It was time to clear out, clean, label and reorganise the food cupboards.

In the evening we had some real comfort food (chicken curry) for dinner while we binge watched 'Younger'.

Day 40, Saturday 18 April
Nathan was having a ride scheduled "together" with some friends via Zwift in the afternoon today, so it was a bit of an inverted schedule with some cleaning and organizing going on in the morning, and the training got done in the late afternoon.
Today we attacked the stove-top fan (yuk!), the top of the kitchen cabinets (yuk, yuk, yuk!) and the storage room.

I must admit I keep things pretty tidy around here normally as well, but today we really went through everything - even the inside of the tool box!

I guess all this cleaning and sorting out is a solution for two things, firstly it gives me a something to do of course, it's one of the ways I get time to pass. Secondly, it's a way to feel control in all this uncertainty - control of something.
I am a planner, I need to have things to look forward to and I like to be in control, but right now it feels like I am living in a void. All information about the different restrictions we need to follow here is given "until further notice", so we all we can do is keep living day by day. I feel like I'm treading water just waiting for - well, I don't know. I don't know if next week will be the same as this, if we will be allowed to go outside next month or travel during the summer holidays; or this year at all!
I can't make any plans, whatsoever - other than for today, and maybe tomorrow. I guess this is why I make sure I exercise every day and why I have created a to-do list of small projects to get into; at least I can control my daily life, and it feels good.

Seven hours at 7he Sevens

Today (on our "Sunday"), we were up earlier than a normal school day! I was in the kitchen packing a huge cool box with snacks and food at 6.15, and we were already on the road by 7am! Going where? To Dubai and the famous Sevens Stadium, for the kids to participate in the HSBC Rugby Festival.

Both kids played, Lucas in one of the two U11 teams, and Linnea in one, out of the three, Girls U12 teams. This event had over 4000 players participating, from Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, making it the largest grassroots rugby tournament gathering in the Middle East.

The kids played in two different areas, with a long walk in between. Hence not easy to manage, as I was on my own. Luckily Lucas played first and since his team didn't win any games, they were done after the pool play - so then we could move over to Linnea's pitch.
Lucas is in a grey helmet, standing in the far behind the scrum:

He is on the wing, so he didn't get into the heat of the play a lot today (either...), but he said in the car on the way home that even though he didn't get to touch the ball much, he had had a great day.

He probably had the best time while he was waiting for Linnea. He found some other friends who had finished their play, and they found lots of stuff to do. Besides the action on the pitches, there was plenty of activities to keep spectators and players in waiting busy. 7he Sevens is a great place for a rugby tournament as they also have a good selection of food stalls and there was live music pumping all over the area, to keep the atmosphere vibrant.

Linnea and her team:

And in action:

They played four games, and also lost all, although, a couple of them were chillingly close! I watched all the games and I must say that Linnea, and her whole team, got better and better for each game. They did some basic and silly mistakes (hence their losses), but they also managed to learn from their mistakes, and strengthen their defense and develop a nice flow in their passes - and, Linnea even scored a try!

Above all I think both of the kids had such a nice time, because they really got to bond with their team mates. We spent seven (!) hours at this tournament today, and there was a lot of waiting/playing around going on, which is kind of all part of the fun. Also, I think they both grow immensely with each experience of competition in these tournaments.

Luckily, we didn't have to come home empty handed, even though there was no wins, as everybody got a medal! Yay!

All your home cooking needs

This week thanks to a special offer we have tried something new, the service 'DinnerTime'. DinnerTime gives you a box of fresh ingredients and cooking instructions for 4 meals for four persons, all delivered to your doorstep. Each week there is a new set menu including one meat dish, one chicken dish, one fish dish and one vegetarian, pasta our soup dish.

For my Swedish readers, you probably know this concept already as there are many different variations of this idea in Sweden, 'Linas Matkasse' probably being the most popular one. This UAE version - DinnerTime - was actually founded by three Swedish women!

So what was the verdict?
Well, firstly I'm glad we had the 50% off because I think it's rather expensive. The normal price is Dhs 420, for a box with four dinners for four people. (To compare, the 'Linas Matkasse' cost the equivalent of Dhs 250 - for FIVE dinners for four people.) I know groceries are expensive here in the UAE, because everything is imported, but still.

The price aside, it was GREAT! All the dinners were easy to prepare, even for me. It was really fun to cook some new dishes and try some new tastes. Each dinner was well received by everyone in the family, some more than others, but all still finished. We had Moroccan Meatball Soup, Penne Pasta Pesto with chicken and Fish Tacos. (We still have to cook the tofu dish, which I'm actually a bit hesitant about myself...)

It was so nice not to have the stress of planning a menu, which is actually the hardest part of cooking for me. I liked getting everything I needed for the week delivered in one go. I just had to go do a quick shop during the week to get breakfast food and stuff for the lunchboxes for the kids.
The recipes made big portions too, so Nathan and I had for a couple of lunches as well, and I liked that there is no waste, everything gets used.

We will probably still get it again, every once in a while, on particularly crazy booked up weeks when all of us are home. It'll be good to learn how to cook a few new easy, tasty meals to add to our usual rolling menu.

Workshopping

The Abu Dhabi Tourist Guide Licensing Course I'm taking at the moment actually just consists of eight full days. But they are spread out over five weeks! We are now on week three where we seem to have the whole week "off"? Well, to study I presume?
So far we have done two workshops. The workshops have been held at the European International College in town, but next week again we will be going around town in a bus, learning the City Tour.

The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA) seem to give this course 2-3 times a year, and this time there are about 30 of us taking it. I'm one of the few who are just starting out, the others are already working as tour guides. Most of them are actually coming up from Dubai, only a few of us are actually from Abu Dhabi. The licenses are specific for each emirate so I will need to do another course, if I would like to guide also in Dubai in the future. But one thing at a time.

I've found the workshops really interesting so far. The first workshop was on the sights of Abu Dhabi, and the second was on Culture and Heritage. I especially enjoyed the second one as I love learning more about the history and traditions of the UAE. During that workshop we were also treated to Emirati food for lunch, delicious!

Obviously it is a completely different thing to guide here around the UAE, to for example Rome, where everything is about history, monuments and ancient times. Here - the city is ever changing, you really need to read up and keep up on what's happening around the area all the time. Quite a challenge!

Me after the workshop, dressed in a thick, long sleeved dress over trousers, with a scarf AND a woolly cardigan! The lecture room is so cold, like a freeze box! It was really nice to come outside and thaw out after the long day inside.