Ready. Set…

Work: V. busy week coming up and it’s short one day, too. That doesn’t forgive the work – it just means you have to make the other 4 days super productive.

Home: Someone will be traipsing about inside my house today measuring for new windows. I did not succeed in total decluttering of the unused /overused upstairs rooms. My strategy is to be at the office during this time so I don’t have to look the guy in the eye.

Health: Grateful that my husband knows how to make Cairo-style koshary by the tubful. Grateful that I can just Grab ‘N Go some for breakfast or lunch. Grateful that my breakfast plate is 2/3 vinegar vehicles. My husband is grateful that I’m using pickled onions instead of the precious stash of caramelized onions.

This is New Jersey-style koshary as envisioned by a Lithuanian-American. Cairo-style is rice and lentils cooked together, topped with caramelized onions and chopped salad dressed with O&V, S&P and mint. Alexandria-style is all that plus chickpeas and a layer of elbow macaroni mixed with garlicy tomato sauce. Any Other-style is bullshit.

Don’t bother looking up the recipe for koshary. The internet is completely wrong about this. If you must look it up to make it yourself, all of the layering and ancillary toppings are I guess a matter of taste but  the real key is to cook the the rice and the lentils together. They cook for different amounts of time so you will have to train yourself to get it so that both are done exactly right – the rice won’t be undercooked and the lentils won’t be overcooked and all of the water is absorbed. You’ll probably need a sitto around to supervise, cluck her tongue and shake her head.

Remember this?

Related: “The most striking feature of the Melkite rite is its love of mystery.“