A Tale of Two Milks

"What's in a name? That which we call milk, by any other name would . . . still not be milk."

~ William Shakespeare (if he shopped at Al Osra)

A few weeks ago, when we were still in the fog of jet lag, we needed milk. Al Osra supermarket is just around the corner. Literally. The fridge was empty, it was 10 pm and we all wanted cereal. So, with new found freedom, we ventured out on our first grocery run. I have been amazed by the shopping here. You can find anything. Though usually it comes with a hefty price tag. A block of 16 oz. cheese is $8. Milk is $6 a gallon. We were not quite ready to dive back into the UHT milk pool, so we ponied up for some real cow's milk.



The containers pictured above were our cheapest options. We wanted the 'low fat' milk; (full fat milk here is serious fat. The best to have with an Oreo!) but there was only one container. And, quick Arabic language lesson here, in (egyptian) arabic, milk is laban. We read both labels. I could tell they were different, but I didn't know why. They both had 'milk' on them. Though why would they be spelling 'laban' in english, too? We were tired and hungry; so we got both and figured we'd mix the two together to make a sort of 1% milk.

Well, mixing the two never happened and two days later, we had blown through the first container of 'full fat'. At breakfast we cracked open the 'Laban' and poured it on Mairyn's bowl of cereal. One half bite later, Mairyn proclaimed, "This milk tastes like yogurt." I tasted it. Yep, it was plain yogurt.

*sidenote* They sell plain yogurt that is liquid-y for drinking, digestion, etc.

Spencer went back and examined both jugs. In the bright, clearheaded-ness of morning, it was obvious (to him). He said, "Oh yeah. They call yogurt 'laban' in the Gulf." Once he said that, the labels became obvious to me. In Egypt, yogurt always had a green label. Duh. Ok, good to know. Laban is now yogurt, not milk. Got it. We still used the yogurt. I just added some jam to a cup, stir well, voila, strawberry yogurt drink. The kids have actually requested that we buy this now, too. At least something good came out of our mistake!

Little Legs

One advantage in Bahrain? There is always enough hot water. At least in the summertime. I was just entranced by Jacqui's little feet & legs sticking out from under the shower curtain. In my head, a picture of her feet facing me would have been perfect.
Turns out, I like the back view of her legs even more.

Back to School Feast

First Annual Penrod Back to School Feast


Theme: To Learn with Joy
Jacob 4:3 ". . . our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow,"

No, this isn't my own original idea. But hey, what really is? I really wanted to do this because we now have 3 of the 4 in school (5th, 3rd & 1st grade). They are in a new school. And all had trepidations about everything; homework being too hard, tests, new stuff, etc. I wanted to start the year off with a "celebration" to celebrate education and learning. Hopefully, this can help kick-start their confidence & banish worries. We are all in this together!


Each child got their own unique crown to wear for the feast. They also got to pick their own menu. Meaning they each had something different for dinner; hence, the feast. Eliza & Jacqueline chose spaghetti & meat sauce. Mairyn chose chicken alfredo. Grant wanted pizza. And they all sampled each others food, too. They also each got a little treasure box with the theme written on a piece of paper inside. They are to put their special boxes in a safe place & look for secret messages from time to time. They can also leave each other messages of encouragement. Hopefully. Grant has been collecting seashells on the playground and putting them in his box.

This is what I get when I ask Jacqui to look at me. And I have only been able to snag the two youngest for their "crown pictures".

I have mixed emotions about this one of Jacqui. I like it, but she looks too grown up. *sigh* Also, I love love love these "picture walls" at my house. Grant is in the foyer & Jacqui out along the front porch wall. Perfect time of day, too.

Dra-gon

"Hey! Dragon. *Dra-gon* Not lizard, I don't do that tongue thing."
~ Mushu

Truthfully, that was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw these in the produce section at Geant.

It's a dragonfruit; or pitaya. I've discovered that they carry a lot of Asian fruits & products because of the high population of Southeast Asians. Here's what they look like on the inside.


Cool, huh? Though they look pretty, they are not that tasty. Maybe ours wasn't ripe enough (I wouldn't know how to tell) or just not a good fruit. I did notice that there were other varieties of dragonfruit listed on the wikipedia page.


Peeling & slicing the fruit was easy, the skin just came right off in one piece. It was semi-firm; I like the texture. I don't like to eat mushy fruit. Mealy apples? *blech* When you bite it, the little seeds popped kind of like poppy seeds in a muffin. But it tasted like dirt. We tried putting some sugar on it to see if it would improve the taste. It just tasted like sugar on dirt. But it's a pretty fruit & we had to try it once!

We cut up a more familiar piece of produce, pomegranates. Jacqui is the most fond of these little seeds. They make a great garnish for salads & I am so glad they get to be a staple in our meals again!!

YouTube Tuesday: Mumtaz!

The return of YouTube Tuesday! Through a chain of friends, this video fell into my lap. I am so impressed. Something so polished & professional AND it came out of Cairo! It makes me miss my friends & the memories we made in that dusty city. I don't know when I will have the desire to return to Cairo, but I do long for a return of floating on a felucca down the Nile, dear friends and the memories we made. Cairo will always be my 'Era of Babies'. When we fell off the airplane in 2005, we had a 5 yo, 3 yo, & 14 month old. Jacqueline decided to join the fun a year later; and then continued our odyssey through raising babies and growing in expat experience. Wow, I did not expect this post to turn into some mushy reminiscence, but hey, you get what you get. Enjoy.

Let's do laundry

Come on! Let's do some laundry together! Have you got your dirty hamper?

Out the back door . . .

And down the steps . . . though be careful, if your sunglasses have fogged up, you could miss a step.

Continue that way, toward the garage. See the water tank on the wall? Yeah, past there. I sure am glad I've got a wagon coming in my household goods!

*Whew* Take a look at how far we've come! (*smirk*) Let's get this chore done.

Oh, sorry, only room for one at a time. Washer's in the corner, dryer is beside it.

And last, but not least, the switch that does nothing. Sure, it says air conditioning, but there isn't one in this room. Don't worry, I've got a gecko to keep the ants and mosquitoes away. Not that he can keep me cooler . . . but I have a pet gecko, that makes me cool enough.

Pictures at sunset

Yesterday, I happened to look out the window and saw some perfect light! I grabbed my camera and ran outside to capture some pics of my garden. Though I forgot that here, in Manama, I have to wait at least 5 minutes to give my camera time to de-fog. Here's what it looks like, through my camera lens, as soon as I step outside. (It does the same thing to my sunglasses)


I fortunately have a special lens cloth to wipe it clean of the condensation while it's "warming up". Here's that same bush beside my steps after things have cleared up.


I am *loving* the front of my house. I love love love arches. And most of the doorways in my house are arched or oval-ish.


And here's a couple okay-ish garden pictures. But I'm not bothered, I have plenty of time to take many, many more pictures!