New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year Y'All ... better (very) late than never ;)

So, I spent New Year's with some of the geeks my friends in my research group at Collin's place (I appologized at the last minute to Bassam and Karen that I won't be spending New Year's with them).
It was really fun and not so crazy - which was exactly what I needed then :)

So, a picture of the girls helping Colin in the Kitchen (He didn't need much help because he is used to tossing pizzas and fries in the oven every time we go over to his place lol). I made the easiest thing EVER...Nachos with cheddar cheese on top :)
Tas on the other hand, made chicken wings. I am not usually a fan of chicken wings and would never order them at a restaurant or think about making them at home. But hers were really nice that I think I will make some very soon
Tas also made traditional Thai cookies (while I bought read-made minis cheesecakes). They were really nice and I couldn't believe that she actually bothered to cut each and every one of them in the shape of a flower!

And a group picture to end it...Moody knocked over Tas's glass twice before a proper picture was finally taken lol

P.S: I 'stole' most of these pics from Collin's facebook album

Christmas Long Weekend - Part II

Christmas long weekend - Part II: Friday December 25th

The night before, Karen and I had to stay up a bit after Bassam and Yorgos left our place to prepare some things. I kneaded the dough for the Manakeesh and Karen prepared the sauce and soaked the chicken for the Tawouk. Karen used a recipe that Bassam's mom sent him. Unfortunately for Karen, she had to use Tandoori spices and the strong smell of these spices stuck on Karen's hands all night.
As for me, I made the classical mistake of mixing the yeast with very hot water. So, the next morning when I woke up I and I discovered that the dough did not rise at ALL :(
Nevertheless, we did enjoy the thick tho nice Manakeesh.


Bassam looks skeptical, but he enjoyed them (plus, where else would he find Manakeesh here?)
yum yum :)


After breakfast, we went out for a walk - and some coffee in the lovely weather :)

We then went to Bassam's place and played Picturemania twice. The first time, Karen and I played against Bassam and Yorgos and we lost 13 - 25 *shame!!!
The second time, Bassam and I played against Karen and Yorgos and we won :D (no picture for the win tho lol)

Afterwards, when we started getting hungry we went back to my place to cook.
Three hours later (mainly because Karen and I did ALL the work - with Yorgos doing the dishes) we had a very lovely meal: Chicken Tawouk, Tabbouleh, Batata 7arra (spicy potatos), and FATAYER :) p.s. these are only 1/3 of the fatayer...I made triple the quantity because Bassam had been nagging for ages for some so I made him some for him to take home later


After the HUGE meal, we danced dabkeh :)
And finally, Karen and Yorgos did the dishes


I couldn't help with the dishes because I had cut my hand (yes, I look horrible I know but I was very late after a very long day!!)

Changes & من عاشر قوماً أربعين يوماً (Part III)

More updates on changes :)
I have finally given in after much resistance and started to use EN-UK language when spell-checking, and I am frankly not liking it. I have to spell check everything twice; once habitually using the EN-US dictionary and another using the EN-UK one. Swapping between EN-US and EN-UK immediately produces red lines everywhere in the document. Of the major mistakes is using a z in place of an s. For example, maximize becomes maximise and optimize becomes optimise; i.e. more s's and less z's. This was a bit confusing and to make matters worse my brother told me to be careful in coursework, emails, and exams because according to him British people consider these spelling mistakes and are annoyed by them! Thanks to spell checkers I wasn't facing any issues - other than my resistance - with coursework and emails. I got confused, however, during exams. I started out writing using s's and then I started getting a bit lost "Is magazine written with a z as in magazine or with an s as in magasine; wait I've never seen the word magasine before; but still that doesn't mean that this isn't the correct spelling for the word magazine; so should I write it with an s or with a z. I know that the French word is written magasin if it means a shop and magazine if it means a magazine, so is it possible that in British English it is the same for both or is it ... oh! **** that! I will just write it as I know it" hahaha. I later checked and magazine is written magazine in both UK and US lol!

Cooking updates ;)
I know I have written about this in (more than one) other post; but the zucchini experience is a major change. Other than that one very successful time when I made stuffed zucchini in youghurt sauce; I also made it in tomato sauce. The later one wasn't as successful (and dont tell anyone but I ended up throwing half of the meal) *shame. I should call mom and re-write the recipe because apparently I didn't write down how many tomatoes to use, so yes I am blaming it on the recipe :P. I have also made my mom's special omelette AND I have finally cooked 'rice with chicken and vegetables' without burning it yeeey for me :P lol.

George's Birthday

George's birthday was on Wednesday Feb 18th. He turned 31! We had agreed without his knowledge to make him dinner to celebrate it. We told him one day before but he decided to go to Brighton to celebrate it with his friends there.
So, we agreed to celebrate it with him on Friday. Each of Sheena, Fleur, and I would make something for the occasion.
Sheena made Cinnamon Rolls (Gassia, I will create a special post for you about that). I made Manakish with Cheese and with Zaatar. The cheese ones were really good but the zaatar ones were OK. The dough rose in the oven :S and when I asked my cousin Ghada she told me that I had put a lot of yeast :$. Also, I almost triggered the fire alarm because I accidentally spilled oil in the grill so it heated and started producing a lot of smoke. We directly controlled the situation by turning off the grill, opening all windows, and covering the smoke sensor! That really makes me wonder what people who always trigger fire alarms would be doing and how they do it. I mean there was a LOT of smoke in our kitchen but we directly acted to prevent the alarm being set off. Why can't other people be a bit mature about how they handle cooking/illegal-smooking-indoors instead of constantly setting the fire alarm off?
Fleur made Banoffee pie. It was really good and we got to keep it in our fridge - George and I just split the last piece.
Becky, Hardy, Peter, and Verena also came along. We played cards and had some "fun conversation" until it got a little late and Peter and Verena excused themselves. Later, Fleur and Lotte also called it a night and left. I had emailed Bassam earlier to come as well because I made manakeesh and he might want to have some. He was out watching some play and came along but there were only Hardy, Becky, and Sheena left. We chatted for a while and he had manakeesh and thought the cheese ones were really good - even though he did remark to Sheena the usual "If you liked Iman's manakeesh (?) then you can imagine how really good actual Lebanese manakeesh in Lebanon are"; sadly though he did have a point :P.
Finally we all decided to call it a night and Becky slept over at Sheena's.

Week of Feb 2

Semester 2 has started, oh no! But hey Amber was here to take our minds off that :D

Monday Feb02: back to class! I only have three courses this semester - double credit courses though! It should be less hectic than last semester - same hard work though because two are tough courses. I also have group projects this semester *doh.

Wednesday Feb04: I cooked Stuffed Zucchini in Yogurt Sauce (كوسا بلبن). YES! I cooked that! I had been postponing cooking it because it is a lot of hard work, even though it is one of my fave Lebanese dishes. I was telling Fleur about it once and she was impressed by the description so I decided to make it and invite her over. Since Amber was here I thought it would be fun if I cooked for them both. I also invited Sheena, George, and Bassam. George wasn't at all impressed by the description and declined the invite - his loss *roll. Bassam had other plans with friends so he also declined. So, it was us girls and it was FUN :D. Fleur and Amber came over to help and they were impressed by the way I emptied the courgettes and then stuffed it. That was even trickier as the courgettes were slightly bent so I did end up breaking two. Then when it was time to cook them, we discovered another problem. None of our pans were big enough for all 8 courgettes! lol we are all students and our pans are not made to feed more than 2 people, let alone 4 haha . So, we split the courgettes into two pans and cooked them separately! All in all, the whole meal took THREE HOURS to prepare! But it turned out to be great :D yeeeey for me! They all expressed their hmmm and yummmm and 'this is so good' :D
We then had Oreo Cheese cake that Fleur and Amber had prepared earlier and it was also very yummyy :)
My friends and family also expressed their opinions about me cooking courgettes:
Badr: "bass shu hayda ya naja? koussa b-labaaaann ?!!?!?!?!?!?
2aleeleh...wein elli ma kein ya3ref ya3mil pasta? halla2 sorna mna3mil koussaaaaa? :D :D :D...yalla bravo *clap" -- that was immediately added to my list of fave quotes LOL
Souha: "KOUSSA B LABAN eh bade 100 sene ta2a3mela hala2 na2arte koussa w hashaytiyon????????? Walla walla smalla 3layke"
Ghada: "WALLA BRAVO 3ALAYKI..KOUSSA FI LONDON :)"
Mum: "walla ana halla2 khalas ma ba2a lezim 2e3tal hammek"
Sheena named me a Culinary Goddess lol :)

Thursday Feb05: Amber and I went to the City Art Gallery. It was a lovely visit though we only had one hour so we couldn't tour it all. Later that evening I went over to Fleur's to watch a Dutch movie about "Sinter Claus", which is the Dutch Santa Clause except that he visits Holland on the 5th of December not the 24th! It was a lovely movie. It had the same theme as 'Love Actually' so it made us all feel good about everything. We also had Apple Crumble that Fleur and Amber made. George joined us half way through the movie because he had to work. He told us about two of his mental patients who walked out of the hospital and didn't come back! They did eventually find them, thankfully!

Friday Feb06: I made Lebanese Manakish! Finally! Sheena and I had been talking about that for ages as well and so we also said that we should make them while Amber was there so she can have some as well. We made Zaatar manakeesh and Cheese manakeesh. The cheese ones were a bit undercooked but both were really nice. We later went out for dinner as it was Amber's last night in Southampton. Sheena took loads of pictures and we made all sorts of silly faces :) It was a really fun night that ended with lots of hugs because Amber was leaving :( It was fun having her around and we will all miss her!

Saturday Feb07 and Sunday Feb08: I did fuckall and I enjoyed it LOL. I had been planning to study during the weekend but I ended up marathon-watching the Lebanese series Ghariba! Fleur and George went to see My Bloody Valentine on Saturday but I decided not to join them as I was totally in doing-fuckall mood. I should feel guilty about that but I was also in a don't-care mood LOL (apparently these two moods accompany each others most of the time :P). I think I still haven't gotten back to studying mood because I only had a few days of rest after my final exams.

New week tomorrow, should be busy as well. Wendy Hall's talk is on Monday. Grandpa's birthday is on Tuesday (I can't remember if he is turning 83 or 84 shame-on-me). I miss him loads and I can't wait to see him again! I am planning to attend the ECS career fair on Wednesday. I am meeting up with a Syrian friend on Thursday and I have no clue what I will be doing on Friday :P

A special post for Gassia

Gassia, you commented "ages ago" that you want to see pictures of my cooking
And because you are the sweetest person ever, I can't not comply and I will show you pictures
But since I don't want to appear as a complete kitchen-idiot :P I have taken pictures of a successful meal and a not-so-successful meal :P
Without further ado

1. Loubyi B Zeit: (the not-so-successful meal *sigh)

Step 1: 2alli l basal

Step 2: actually step 0 :P nassli l loubyi w hressi l banadoura w de22i l toom, bas ana ma 3andi mda22et toom so barashton ;)





















Step 3: double check the recipe Mom gave me LOL
















Step 4: missing, tenseef l loubyi w hek ... bas haidi picture la Step 5 (or later?) lama sar kil shi bel tanjra


















Step 'final': 7adan talab SHOURBET LOUBYI? hahahahahaha I think inno katartella mayy kter
















2. Yakhnet Bazilla (the successful one)
Step 1: 2alli l la7mi















Step 2: kamen actually Step 0 :P















Step 3: See above :P















Step 4: 2alli l basal b mar2et l la7mi






























Step 5: missing LOL honi kenet 3am 7ott sauce banadoura















Step 'during the cooking': check on the tabkha















Step 'before last': taffi l nar ta7et l tabkha w ntebhi ino jawayti l deni :P
















Step 'final': yummmi betshahhi .... alf sa77a















I hope you enjoyed
KISSES to you :)
Iman

Lots of Updates

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY
Exams are over .......
so here are some updates of what has been going on since my last blog about Christmas dinner
Fleur came back on Friday Jan 2nd WITH A HAIRCUT lol her hair had grown and she waited till she went back home to have it cut
Sheena had her birthday party on Saturday Jan 3rd - I got her a neck key ring holder because she could never find her keys lol and also a cute pink bracelet ... I bought them off amazon before the Christmas vacation because I was afraid that they won't be delivered on time during the Christmas/New Year days off ... but I didn't have time (nor the wrapping paper) to wrap them properly :$ so I hand-made a wrapping package :D thank you Internet :P
Lindley left on Monday back to the US
I went back to uni on Monday 5th as well .... I wasn't that into going back because I had 3 weeks of vacation but also I had so much coursework to submit
Tuesday Jan 6th: I had a small quiz but it was worth 4% of a 20 credit module "Foundations of AI"- but it was about logic so it was easy and I got an A on it :)
Wednesday Jan 7th: I had to submit a program that is a 'medical expert'. It is worth 20% of a 10-credit module. We were supposed to acquire some medical knowledge and formulate it in rules and facts so that the program can deduce what disease a patient has given the symptoms. Of course I "elicited the knowledge" from my dad - which basically meant that I spent loads of money on International phone calls. I actually ran out of credit in the middle of a phone conversation so I emailed Tarek asking him to SMS dad and tell him to call me LOL. Also, every time I call home my dad asks about "his grade" and I keep telling that the grades are not out yet and that the knowledge is only worth 5% .....
Thursday Jan 8th: I had a group presentation which was worth also 4% of the Foundation of AI 20 credit course. We did better than the previous presentations but we still got a B ... Our group was so inefficient in all presentations, we were never able to produce any proper work and our meetings were very unproductive. Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: "If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings”"
Friday Jan 9th: I had to submit a 2000 word essay on a topic I chose. It was worth 80% of a "Research Methods" module. I worked hard but kinda messed up the final part because I was sick of it. I chose Biometrics as a topic; something I was always interested in learning about but never had the time/bothered to actually do the reading. We had to use a 'professional' format so the final report was really cool, with an abstract, appendices, and a proper font! Made me feel like a true academic LOL :P
Monday Jan 11th: I had to submit a program and a report worth 25% of a 10 credit module. I worked on that a bit but the results produced were not as expected. I was very frustrated and sought the lecturer's help. We emailed each other a bit until he finally helped me sort things out and I was less frustrated. I submitted it but I wasn't very happy with it but I was glad it was over and done.
Tuesday Jan 12th (are you still reading? :P): I had to submit a report and a programming assignment worth 30% of the Foundation of AI 20-credit-module. That was the neglected coursework. I mean SERIOUSLY how can anyone cope to do all this. We had to do background research and write 1000 words about it then program something related to the research then do some reasoning about the topic. I worked on the background research and chose to code the simplest thing. But still, I didn't manage to finish it on Tuesday so I decided to submit it the next day even though I would be penalized 5%. I finished it and submitted it on Wednesday but I thought it wasn't that good. It is very clear that I rushed through it. Also, the 'reasoning' part was worth 35% of its grade and frankly I wasn't able to do any reasoning about the topic.

Oh well, done with the coursework ... on to the final examssssssssss

I had four final exams:
One on Wed Jan 21: was very long so there were some parts that I didn't manage to answer but was OK
One on Thurs Jan 22: was good, it was the easiest module so better results are obtained for less work :)
One on Tues Jan 28: was tricky, we were supposed to answer 2 out of 3 questions which I thought was soooo unfair given that we had to study 18 lectures!!!!! I was so pissed off the whole time I was studying it. Darko and I expected that we will get a Search question and a Probability question. I was 100% sure we will get a Search question and 90% sure we would get a Probability question. There were 5 lectures I decided not to study, two which I decided to read only, and the rest I studied but not that well. We did get Search but we DIDN'T get the Probability question!!! We got a Machine Learning question instead! But for me it was OK though it wasn't OK for Darko. He just told me that was the worst exam he ever sat for ... but I think he will survive :P.
The last final exam was on Wed Jan 29: That course was the hardest course. I was very very worried about that course since the first lecture. It was all about Maths. I was very good in Maths in high school but I kinda wasn't that interested in it in uni AND after four years of not taking any Math courses I had totally forgot EVERYTHING. So, I had to work double for that course, first refresh my high school Math knowledge and second try to understand the Chinese being spoken in class. But by the time I got to the exam most of the Chinese had turned into comprehensible English and there were only a few ideas which I didn't understand. I did OK on that exam. There were a few things which I didn't know. But, to my bad luck I noticed just about five minutes before the time was up that I copied a function from the test paper to my answer sheet incorrectly Oh NO! ... so instead of solving for a function I ended up solving for another function :( I hope not a lot of marks are deducted because of that !

What else?
Fleur's parents were here last week. They invited us over for dinner. Sheena and I couldn't stay long at Fleur's place because we had to study which was a shame because her parents are really nice and they are a great company. The food was good and the desert was GREAT :)
Speaking of desert, yours truly has gained A LOT of weight over Christmas and exam period :( :( :( All in all I have gained 5 kilos since I came to this country....SHSHSHSHS don't tell Mom and Dad!!! Dad would go crazy and Mom might end up crying. But, starting tomorrow NO MORE EXECUSES ... no exams and exam stress so no more binging on chocolate and loads of time to cook healthy and walk around for a bit ... keep your fingers crossed for me

Changes & من عاشر قوماً أربعين يوماً (Part II)

3) Chores: so it is not a big secret that I never lifted a finger when it came to house chores ... all that has changed now (sadly *sighs)
a. Washing clothes: the first time I wanted to do the laundry I was quite nervous about ruining my entire wardrobe. Luckily, my friend Fleur also had to wash her clothes so we decided to go together. To my relief, there was a big poster in the laundry room that guides (ignorant) students like me what cycle to choose for what type of clothes. Fleur helped me sort my clothes out and we chose the proper cycle for each load and thankfully no disasters resulted. Then it was the turn of the tumble-dryer. Needless to say I was clueless. Fleur chose the correct cycle and showed me how to clean the filter and in no time our clothes were fully loaded.
The next time I did the laundry I was again nervous because I had to do it alone. But it was easy and in retrospect I needn't worry because it is a simple chore really. The only thing that bothers me about it is that I have to walk for 7 minutes from my room to the laundry carrying my heavy clothes (accumulated over a period of three weeks :P)
b. Cooking: I have "miraculously" only burnt my food once (was a few days ago, left the pan unattended on the hob for 45 minutes *shame). Although I have been "cooking" mainly pizzas and pastas lately - because they are quickest - (or oven-cooked chicken nuggets because they are so good) I have managed to cook some Lebanese dishes as well.
bazilla w riz, loubyi w riz, loubyi b zet, riz b loubyi (haidi l tabkha yalli 7tara2et), riz b khodra (haidi kamen 7tara2et ma3i awal marra tabakhta), mjadra safra, djej bel furn, shorbet khodra....w 3am yetla3o ma eshbon shi ;)
I find it really annoying that most dishes require frying onions - makes me & my clothes smell like onions - so I have rarely cooked such dishes. Oh, w kamen la2et ino l foul l m3alab bel 'khalta l lebneniyi' kter tayeb.
c. Cleaning the toilet: definitely the least favourite of all chores. The only time I ever cleand a toilet at home was during a Red Cross training camp - not a tent/sleep-on-the-ground camp, but a camp in a monastery where we slept in proper beds and had proper bathrooms. I was assigned to clean the toilet on the second day - mainly because I was a committee member and one of the organizers of the camp so I wouldn't object on such a task - and so I couldn't object on the task because I had to be a role model to the other members and actually clean the toilet without nagging,,, hmmm,,, one problem arose: how? Another committee member Souha - who later became one of my best friends - was also assigned to clean another toilet so she volunteered to show me how ... learning by observation :p , she cleaned her toilet in no time then it was my turn and *shame i faced (some) difficulties and couldn't finish on time and I had to leave it to attend the next scheduled lecture so I locked the toilet so no one would use it. After the lecture was over, I headed back to deal with the un-finished business of cleaning the toilet - this time Souha came along - and with some help I successfully cleaned the toilet (Souha asked me to re-sweep the floor twice but let's keep that a secret ;) )
Back to the year 2008 - about 10 days after I came here I thought it was time to clean my toilet ... Of course I don't remember how I managed to clean that toilet 4 years ago, and I didn't want to call my mum and ask her about that hideous chore (I am a grown up now and I shouldn't be running to my mummy at the first sight of toilet-cleaning trouble hehehe). So, I did what any grown up educated adult would do in my place --> I Googled it, DUH! hehehe Yes! I actually googled 'How to Clean a Toilet' hehehe, well I watched some videos and read some how-to sites then I shopped for toilet cleaning stuff and I conquered that toilet and after one hour it was sparkling clean (I can see you rolling on your backs laughing that it DID take me an hour but come on I had to clean the mirror, shelf, sink, toilet seat, and shower! :p) ... it was so clean I didn't want to use it again and I was so proud of my accomplishment that I showed it off to my flatmates hehehe.
But afterwards, I was very careful to keep it clean so I won't have to clean it as often and I soak the toilet and sink with toilet bleach ever few days.
But, here are a couple of pictures of my toilet directly after I cleaned it two days ago:


















Anyhoo, that's about it for now, if I remember anything else there will be part III ;)

Cooking your own food

well,i knew this was gonna happen one day or another! the looking back and regretting my total lack of experience in cooking (& the fact that i wasn't willing to place a foot in the kitchen either) ... it is a good thing though that I still have a few days in lebanon that I can make use of by making my mom dictate some cooking notes!
i cooked 'loubyi' yesterday, of eight family members only my mum and my uncle had the guts to taste it (i didn't cook the rice;i left that task to chef souad - my mum :p ) ... they said it tasted good ... i tasted it too but i wouldnt yet trust my taste buds to dare & inform me my cooking was bad ... i am sure they would be shy ...i think that one time after another they would gather some courage to demand that i throw the contents of the pot in the trash can & order a delivery from domino's pizza :Din addition to my mum, my friend shirine emailed me & gave me some recipes, my cousin suggested a few recipes ... so i am armed & prepared for the world of kitchen .... i will definitely add new posts at my early cooking stages - just because my sense of humour allows me to laugh at myself and invite others to do that too :P
stay updated on any cooking posts :D