Grilling in the Garden & Almost Thanksgiving

Jared with his new toy... in absolute heaven... beer in one hand, pork ribs in the other, and wearing his bathing suit from just coming out of the pool... what could be better?

So, I've been a little lazy with my blog... It's hard to be motivated to write everyday, and we've actually been pretty busy. Plus, a lot of not so fun stressful things have been going on (scaffolding appearing out of no where into our garden, work and rental car issues), so I've been a little pre-occupied and not so excited about Dubai and therefore, not all that enthusiastic about writing about it. But, we did book our flights home this weekend, so I am pretty excited to be heading back to Boston for Christmas exactly one month from today!

And while, we have been a little stressed dealing with bureaucracy in the last week (maybe more on that later..), it hasn't been all doom and gloom because we've been absolutely LOVING our new grill! For our inaugural grill, we decided to go as American as we possibly could and made barbecued pork ribs (which were delicious once Jared got the hang of the heat level controls). And now we are pretty much trying to grill almost every night. So far we've done whole fish (Jared and his love of picking bones out of fish. yuck), chicken kebabs, veggies, HOT DOGS, and even German Curry-wurst. So, you could say we've been enjoying the grill.

This weekend, we were quite busy (as per usual) and headed back to our favorite brunch place, The Lime Tree Cafe for Friday brunch (breakfast bruschetta for me, yum), and then went to a UAE Handicrafts and Art sale to see about starting our Christmas shopping. We were successful on the Christmas shopping front, but also got a little carried way with stuff for us too, and ended up buying a painting... oops. It was too nice to pass up though because it is a painting of the Dubai skyline with the Burj (something that will mean something to us when we leave Dubai -- hopefully sooner rather than later), but done in a more modern art style, so it won't look all Middle Eastern where ever we hang it. Jared also got a little carried away with the homemade chutneys and dips this woman was selling and had to buy some tomato chutney (which was delicious) and then go back to her stand later to buy the delicious little crackers she was selling as well to dip in the chutney.

After we were able to pull ourselves away from the craft sale, we headed home and hung out at the pool for a bit, before cleaning our garden and getting ready to have our friends Melissa and Dom over for a BBQ. Melissa and Dom were running late though, so we ended up just having a couple drinks and nibbles in the garden first while we were waiting for Melissa and Dom to arrive and start the grilling. Soooo relaxing to just lounge in the garden and watch the sunset with a glass of wine, cheese & crackers (with REAL pepperoni), and fresh hummus and tabbouleh with flat bread.

Then when Melissa and Dom arrived we fired up the grill and had some chicken kebabs and German sausage that Dom had just brought back from his trip home to Germany. It was white sausage that he prepared by cutting it up in little pieces after it was grilled, and then covering it with ketchup and curry powder. He called it "Curry-wurst" and kept telling us it was the national dish of Germany... It was very interesting and surprisingly not bad... but not as good as the delicious German potato salad he also brought. So we chatted and drank in the garden for a few hours and then had waffles covered in vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. Really a nice night in.

On Saturday, I went to a work event in the morning and then we headed to the beach for the afternoon (perfect beach weather here now!) and then grilled in the garden again for dinner and had hotdogs and homemade chicken shawarma with our leftover kebabs. Very yummy, and then after dinner I was pleasantly surprised to get TWO calls from home! My step-mom Deb and my Grandma both called me and I was just overjoyed because it was my very first calls to receive from people at home. So nice to hear familiar voices and it made me so excited for the holidays.

My pumpkin chocolate chip muffins... So easy and yummy and a little taste of fall and home.

Before we can get to that though, we've got our Dubai Thanksgiving coming up.. I can't believe how fast November is flying and how soon Thanksgiving will be here. We have begun planning and have invited all our Dubai friends to come over and have a traditional American Thanksgiving with us. Thanksgiving is probably our favorite holiday because, although I LOVE Christmas, it really becomes all about the gifts and not about togetherness. Thanksgiving is better because it is really just focused on being with family, enjoying a delicious meal (you already know about our obsession with good food), and relaxing while watching American football. And while we're very sad that we'll be missing out on Thanksgiving with family (at Jared's mom's house), we're still excited to have a relaxing day of cooking together and then eating and drinking with friends. We keep debating how big of a bird we can fit in our oven and have begun to discuss the menu... I can't believe it's next week...

And thinking about the weekend before Thanksgiving just conjurs up memories of when I was little and would go to the Plainville Turkey Farm with my Grandma and Grandpa Weske the weekend before Thanksgiving to pick out our enormous turkey (Grandma never made anything smaller than 23 pounds) and pet the chicks and bring home a turkey feather... And more recent memories of going to the Harvard-Yale Football game with Jared's dad and brothers... Oh how I miss fall in New England!

The finished product of my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins... I tried to make them look festive with my limited supply of festive fall things... They'll be on the Thanksgiving dessert menu at the Jared/Jen Thanksgiving Feast.