Sandstorm!!!

Well we have experienced a hailstorm in Kuwait, now for the real deal, the sandstorm. Since moving here we have experienced some really windy and sandy days. Dust typically is always flying around, but yesterday March 25, 2011 the meaning of SANDSTORM really took on a whole new meaning. They say it was the worst on in years... not sure how long though.
So I was just hanging out in the apartment working on my school work, not paying any attention to anything at all, probably grooving at the desk to some tunes when I got a knock on my door. My friend came to tell me to check out the storm on the rooftop. Seriously there was nothing to see, except darkness, and well after that I couldn't open my eyes the sand was so intense. It was a complete blackout, almost like in a snowstorm. But much different too. We were covered in sand just from being outside for a couple of seconds!
Brad was at a school conference, so he was stuck inside the school for much longer than planned. People all over the city were stuck in malls, in their cars in complete stops along the roads. I heard that it was 1M visibility, I don't even think that it was that much. The air was extremely thick with dust, making it hard to breathe... here are some pictures of the storm coming in (from the newspaper).

 No point in showing pictures once it hit! They would just be black

 This is inside the apartment... nice hey! and ALL my windows were closed

Fun hey! Well hopefully we have somewhat normal weather from now on. 

Cheers,

Serena

Going to buy of coffee...

When we lived in Canada, going to buy coffee was something that we put on our grocery shopping list. When we got to store we picked out our favorite kind, or perhaps bought one on sale or something like that. Well now in Kuwait our buying coffee has now turned into an outing.
This is what our coffee trip is all about. We walk to our local Kings Coffee, were they roast their own beans right there. They also are a chocolate shop too. You can smell the coffee from a ways away, so it makes for a nice walk there. We go in a order our coffee, half medium, half dark, Turkish blend, with a very very small amount of cardamom.  They start grinding our freshly roasted coffee, and we get offered coffee. Yes while we wait for our coffee to blend we get FREE espressos! It is truly amazing. The taste is so good, plus it's free. Also in addition to wonderful coffee they include a free chocolate, like the expensive nicely wrapped type. It is unbelievable. Anyways upon finishing our drink and savory every moment of it, we pay and take our amazing coffee home. I have stated trying to drink our coffee fast so that we can go for another "coffee outing" again. But hey it's not like we are addicted or anything ;)

Anyways just thought that I would let you all know how little it takes to now entertain us and make us happy LOL... just a now regular day in our life.

Cheers, Serena

Our tasty coffee

Hailstorm in the desert

Just as it says... we had a massive hailstorm last night.... in the desert. I guess I write this because I am still in shock of the events of last night.
Myself and Brad were fast asleep, and suddenly awoken at 3am. I jumped out of bed to the sound of cracking booming and banging. Brad also at the exact same time jumped out of bed. My initial thought was oh no another apartment unit is on fire. It had that sounds of a big fire with the snap crack and pop. I really thought that we were on fire. Brad on the other hand had a much different thought... and maybe it is because of our location. He thought that maybe there was an attack or bombing nearby... now I know that we are in the middle east, but I promise you... we are safe in Kuwait (and yes we are well aware that Iraq is our neighbor). But I guess it's easy to think anything when you awake from your dreams. Anyways... no fires or attacks/bombings, just a rather massive hailstorm in the desert???? I had no idea that hailstorms happened when it was high 20s during the day, and not that cold at night... really? Seriously the hail was so big like golf balls size and it was slamming against our window seriously causing to make me think that the windows were going to break. I have never heard hail so loud. I kept looking out of our window down to the cars to make sure that our car was not shattering to bits. I kinda needed to get to work the next day. Thankfully there was no damage. So anyways now we have experienced a hailstorm in Kuwait... CRAZY....
I was going to take a picture of it... but couldn't really put all my thoughts together enough to grab the camera and take the pictures... and well because of the heat, it was all melted by the morning.

Anyways... more to come later
Serena

Raw vegan brownies

This is in no way related to our trip or time in Kuwait, but I want to share this recipe that I just made.
I have always been intrigued with the raw vegan diet, but simply could not manage to make it happen, too much time to prepare all the food! But I came across this recipe and so I gave it a go. Also I took two days off work, and well instead of doing homework, I procrastinated. Here it is:
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of hazelnuts, soaked in water overnight, drained and rinsed
8-10 pitted dates
1/2 cup of cacao powder (Dutch-pressed variety cocoa powder works too, although it’s not considered “raw” anymore because it’s roasted at a high temperature)
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped, seeds reserved
pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Process the hazelnuts until coarsely ground.

2) Add the dates, vanilla bean, and salt. Process until dates are incorporated but there are still chunks of hazelnuts. Add water if you find it’s too dry or crumbly.

3) Spoon the mixture into a small cake pan and press down.

4) Top with shredded coconut or extra cacao and pop it in the fridge until your ready to serve your raw-some dessert.

I didn't add the vanilla simply because vanilla pods are hard to find in Kuwait, and when you can buy them they are super expensive... more than back home! I also doubled the dates because there seemed to be not enough in comparison to the amount of hazelnuts. I also mixed the coconut throughout... and on top.. I like coconut
I also do not have a blender or mixer here. I chopped and mixed all by hand... don't let that be your excuse :)

SOOO GOOD!!! can't wait for Brad to get home and try them.