Food Friday Questionable Food Edition

 People try new recipes for all sorts of reasons, wanting to impress a beloved or wanting to get through all of the recipes in a cookbook. Tonight's dinner, is a chicken stew with limoo ( dried limes).

Earlier this week my husband and I watched a documentary called Most Likely to Succeed about a handful of high school students that were voted most likely to succeed and the film followed their lives for ten years. One of the young women in the movie ended up in Dubai near the ned of the movie. She visits a shuk and picks up a package of limoo, dried limes. She asks the shopkeeper what one does with limoo and he suggests that it is excellent in a chicken stew.

We actually own a large bag of limoo. We bought it after an adventure in Brooklyn during the height of the pandemic. That first pandemic summer our youngest was still living at home. The isolation was making him depressed and anxious. Depressed and anxious was the new normal during those months anyway. On a hot afternoon, we drove our son to visit some friends in Brooklyn for a few hours. Our son joked that it was like a playdate from his childhood. All playdates leave parents with the inevitable chunk of time that needs to be filled. It isn't worthwhile to go home because by the time we would have gotten home it would be time to turn around and go back to Brooklyn. We hadn't made any plans so we were left with what I used to have tons of when my kids were little---stupid time, oddball useless chunks of time that need to get filled while your child is doing an activity.

We went for a walk and admired pretty Brooklyn architecture. We ate lunch. We drove to another neighborhood and took another walk. It was beastly hot and humid. I was wilting and getting grumpier by the minute. We passed a Middle Eastern cafe and walked in. The owners invited us into their shaded backyard. The owner took one look at my sweaty exhausted face and suggested that I get a glass of limoo tea.

The tea was cool and sweet and bitter and the most refreshing restorative thing I could have imagined going down my gullet.  Before we left the owner showed me her giant jar of dried limes and explained how to make the tea. You boil a dried lime or two in water with sugar and once the limes are soft you break them open and then continue simmering the mixture until you get bored. Then you strain and cool. My husband likes the limoo fairly diluted with water. You can add a splash of limoo tea to a glass of cold water or drink it straight for the full bracing effect.

I couldn't find a recipe for limoo chicken stew. I put two dried limes into our stew ( they pack a whole lot of flavor). I added a large bunch of Tuscan kale, parsnips, potato, rice and celery, ras al hanout and black pepper. Either it will taste delicious or it will not

Today is my birthday and this is our oldest son's last Shabbat before a long sojourn in Israel. That calls for dessert. For reasons having to do with not very interesting issues of time and household management, I decided to make a custard. Of course, I made one without a recipe. Of course, I was using an ingredient that I am not all that familiar with, tapioca starch, and of course, I didn't exactly have a plan. 

What I ended up with was delicious, a chai flavored custard. Unfortunately, the texture is awfully similar  to

LePage's Mucilage. The color is similar too. How appetizing! (Not!)

So I have 

resorted to high hostess camouflage, a pretty glass bowl, graham cracker crumbs, and chocolate drizzles. Maybe the less fortunate attributes of this custard will be less apparent or perhaps we will just laugh at this snotty but delicious pudding for years to come.

I woke up to a bouquet of long stem roses from my husband.  I decided to arrange them in the faux Victorian manner that was so popular in the late 1980s, in a vintage teapot.

This mystery floral arrangement was also delivered to me.

The card sent me birthday greetings but I have no idea who sent me these flowers. I called the florist who also didn't know who had sent the flowers because the order came from FTD. The florist suggested I get in touch with FTD. I did. FTD has some sort of a HIPAA clause and they were not permitted to tell me who sent me flowers. They will get in touch with the sender.

So if you sent me these beautiful mystery flowers---thank you.