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.

In order to stay organised ( a New Year resolution, every year...) I have to make a weekly menu. This will -hopefully- be published every Sunday, so watch out.

Sunday: Turkey-breast stuffed with spinach and cheese, pasta and salad
Monday: Lentil-chili, to use up any leftover vegetables from the fridge
Tuesday: Sweet-and-sour chicken with rice
Wednesday: Potatoe-pancakes
Thursday: Fried rice with vegetables
Friday: -no idea-
Saturday: Grilled fish-fillets, vegetables, mashed potatoes
Sunday: Dolma, an Algerian dish with stuffed vegetables, recipe to follow

This year we also will have to save some money, so using up what's in the pantry and planned leftovers will be the main themes, especially this month!

Another Foodblog?

It took me quite a long time making the decision to become a "Blogger". First of all, I love cooking. I love eating, I love food. Okay. I love to read foodblogs. Watch those wonderful pictures.

I always thought: "I love to talk about food, why not start my own bloog?" Time was passing by, and then, yesterday, I decided to go online! (Feels like my baby...)

Who needs another blog about food? Well - I do! Yesterday I went to the bookstore, looked through all those lovely new cookbooks from celebrated TV-Chefs and I thought something was missing. I came home, looked through some of my favourite Blogs, and became quite depressed. All those wonderful food, those brilliant pictures, why do these people have so much time?

This was the moment when I finally decided to "blog". Wow!

If you are looking for fancy food, designer plates and expensive ingredients, this may NOT be the blog you will read regularly.
But if you want to follow me with my daily struggle to feed a family and NOT become insane, then this will be the right place for you. There will be tasty dishes, dishes from Northern Africa, where DH comes from, and I will share my thoughts on organisation, food and life in general with you.

So come in, get yourself a nice cup of tea (or coffee...) and make yourself comfortable!