Rain and Scalloped Potatoes in Cairo

Yes, it did rain today - I felt drops that kept falling on my head but sadly, it wasn't much in the way of real rain like we get in Delaware and Chester county. Just enough to make a little bit of acid rain and add to the 0.07 inches that fall in the Cairo area per year.

I did go out on a two hour walk, not planned to be so long but it took me a while to check out a couple of stores I had wanted to see. One of these was And Company where my jewelry teacher designs earrings and necklaces and bracelets. I looked at the price tags of a few necklaces and they were around 300-350 LE. Not bad if you consider the workmanship and unique beads - it's around $60. Of course, making the necklaces myself in class and buying the beads of semi-previous stones and silver is around 1/3 of the store price which is nothing. We will learn more techniques and get more practice this Thursday and NEXT WEEK get to go with teach' to the bead stores of the Khan. I still remember dipping my hands into the huge bowls of silver and coral and lapis in Rabat, Morocco.

Dragging my feet and sweaty despite the slightly lower temperature, I stopped at Mandarine Koueder for a lemon ice gulping it down to try and cool myself. Then once at home, those two cans of orange soda Mirinda worked like a charm.

Before coming home though, I wandered around trying to find the natural cosmetics shop called Nefertari. The street I was looking for was parallel to And Company but it had a different name, hence the senseless wandering. Just about ready to give up, it appeared. And then there was another one after I had purchased some things at the first one. They specialize in oils, soaps, Egyptian cotton robes and towels, scrubs and other fun things. Without much thought, I grabbed a wooden container of Egyptian kohl for the eyes (my unadorned eyes are looking so plain, I need help), Moroccan liquid soap in a mason jar. The directions say to soak in a hot tub covering the body. They haven't seen my reduced size tub! Hope I can get out of it. I also hope that my makeshift stopper works - my sister Loretta gave me a jar opener and hey, it's plastic and rubbery and just might work. The directions also said you needed a Moroccan scrub mitten and they had them. I bought one for Dominique too as she had been looking for one. They are NOT like loofahs but not quite like brillo pads. Kind of like the stuff you scrub your pots with! I guess that's why you have to soak first to loosen the dead skin. I may have to use the plunger again.

Now I'm cooking scallop potatoes with mushrooms, a bunch of butter, a combination of left over Egyptian soft cheese and will top it off with some shredded mystery cheese and roasted garlic. One half hour and voila! Vegetarian dinner. It won't be as good as Peggy's fabulous scallop potatoes but it will satisfy me and Dominique anyway. I used two packages of mushrooms and sauteed them in butter and layered them in with the thinly sliced potatoes. After this weekend's staring fish for lunch it will be a welcome change.