It's raining, raining, raining...



Yesterday morning I was in a really serious "poor me"-mood. Our home was a mess, I had discovered some unopened mail that had to be dealed with, mountains of dirty clothes, not to mention the ironing-pile... pheww!!



It was with the third cup of tea when I thought "Oh, come on!!! Stop whining and get things done!" Well, one of my new-years resolutions is: No more cleaning on the weekends! Does definitely not work right now... In the evening, everything was clean, three loads of dirty laundry were washed and I was completely exhausted!

Later that evening I watched the news. This week an eight-year-old turkish girl had dissapeared, they found her body on Thursday, abused and then suffocated. She could have been one of my son's classmates. Her body was flown to Turkey, and they showed those pictures, her mother bending over her daughter's coffin, stroking her daughter's picture on the cover with her fingers. It broke my heart to see her cry...


That night, I took a little longer kissing my son good-night.


And now I am sitting here, wondering what makes me whine, whine, whine all the time?? I do have a home, a husband and a wonderful son. Electricity, clean water whenever I want to. Food, and if the fridge is empty, so what, the supermarkets are not that far away. Nobody is seriously ill, alhamdullilah!



Later, when Hubby and son will return from their visit to the pool, I will make them some maakouda, algerian potatoe patties. And if my son will drown them in ketchup, so what? They are with me, who cares for the rain or dirty laundry??



And here is the recipe for the Maakouda, my favourite way to use up leftover mashed-potatoes:



Maakouda (3-4 portions)



2 cups mashed potatoes

1-2 eggs

1/2 cup flat parsley, finely chopped

1 onion or spring onion, finely chopped

grated cheese, about 1/2 - 1 cup

about 1 cup breadcrumbs



Mix the mashed potatoes, onion, parsley, cheese and egg(s) thoroughly with your hands. Season with salt and pepper, according to taste. You should get a "dough" that you can form into patties and that stays together, if it is too soft, add some breadcrumbs to get the desired consistency. Form little patties, mine are usually the size of my palm.

Turn the patties in the breadcrumbs, they should be covered evenly.

Heat some oil in a frying pan, turn heat to medium and fry the patties until golden brown in colour. Serve hot with a salad and, of course, some harissa for Hubby and ketchup for the kids.