On Peculiarities of Vegas

During my 2 years living in Vegas, I have stumbled upon a couple of amusing, peculiar and sometimes disturbing sights

Friday, early morning. A sofa in the middle of a parking lot. Trust me, it was NOT there last night! 

OK, you might not see very clearly, but THAT black thing in the center is a BOOT on a metal stick. It's been there for 4 days. And it does not seem to be going anywhere 

Send me some of peculiarities YOU have noticed!

A Cookie MASTER, not a Cookie Monster

I have decide that this specific post deserves to be in 2 languages, English and Russian due to the effort I had put into making the actual reason for the post and the tastiness of the outcome. 

Ramadan is at the door (actually, it has already started in most countries) and I could not help cooking the most traditional Moroccan cookie - Shebakia. It's a sesame cookie, coated in honey, crunchy, chewy and very exotic! In two words - it's quite one of a kind. Here I must warn you in case you are rushing Google for the recipe (which by the way are ample out there) - it's NOT an easy and quick thing to make. Above all, it requires crafty hands and patience. 

Honestly, I have NO idea how I had managed the task successfully, given my natural lack of both mentioned virtues. But this is the good news for you - you CAN do it, too!

I will not bore you with a very detailed  step-by-step cooking process, so, I skip the dough mixing stage and jump straight to the fun part. 

This is what I started with (well, almost):

This is the minimum requirement, easily achievable: 

This is how you begin shaping the Shebakia:

Don't ask me to explain how exactly the cookie gains its lovely flower shape, but this is the result you are striving for:

And then again, and again, and many more times over again: 

A close-up: 

Then you fry the to-be cookies in oil: 

When they become lovely deep golden color - dip them in hot honey (yes, I know, A LOT of honey and A LOT of oil - but trust me - TOTALLY worth it!): 

Taram! Please welcome - Shebakia, 

the ultimate Moroccan sesame cookie! 

  

P.S. Recipes: the wonderful and WORKING (I tried) recipes are here: http://cookingwithalia.com/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=185&Itemid=110 
(yields about 35 cookies)
and here: http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/tipsandtechniques/ss/How_to_make_Chebakia.htm - please mind the amounts as this recipe yield about 4 pounds of cookies!   

On Palm Trees in Vegas (a promise to a dear friend)

It might sound surprising, but there are people who have never seen palm trees. I mean real, naturally growing or man-planted and carefully looked after. Personally I  don't even consider palm trees as real trees. But I have promised my old friend to share the wander I was given to observe day after day, without giving proper credit.

So here I am, sharing Las Vegas palm trees and cacti with the World.

This is my favorite park. Actually, it is the ONLY place I can call park here: )

Those stings seem to be its flowers or fruit. As you see, I am not much a flora knower 

I like these pineapple looking palm trees!  

These appear during the vegetation, attractive but hardly eatable.

Now, don't ask, just enjoy the looks!  

An Inspirational Quote

For the past week I have been fighting - quite unsuccessfully, needless to say - my own laziness and the "block". With a lot on my mind, plans and projects buzzing in my head, I created and re-created day plans and weekly time sheets to pursue to help me become the me that I would be satisfied with and that I could be proud of.   

   

Now, here are pieces of mind that gave me that final push to stop dreaming and start doing:    

and this one: 

"Success is peace of mind 

which is a direct result of self-satisfaction 

in knowing you did your best 

to become the best you are capable of becoming."

John R. Wooden

Keeping my fingers crossed for all of us starting something - it will inevitably work out just perfectly if we do not stop going for it!