Jenyfer Matthews

My husband sent me the following video clip from CNN:Damaging din in Egypt

It explains a lot about why I find going downtownsuch a draining experience and why he's so tiredafter work every night. (Permission to lounge onthe couch granted, dear.) Fortunately we don't livedowntown - it's bad enough where we are. Butwatching the video will give you some perspectiveon the crazy driving and why I have lived here fornearly two years now without a car, quite happily.

I have mentioned a time or two before that welive in a fourth floor walk-up. It occurred tome yesterday that by American standards weactually live on the FIFTH floor. What is calledthe ground floor everywhere else in the world isthe first floor in America, the first floor hereis the second floor in America, etc. It doesn'talter the fact that there are still 75some odd steps from street level to my home,but saying it is on the fifth floor makes itsound worse.

The weekend in Egypt is Friday - Saturday andwe have a busy one planned. Tonight we are havingdinner guests. Menu:Hungarian Mushroom Soup, salad, and spice cake.It's a first for me on the cake, fingers crossedit comes out. (I used some of the less-nice goldenraisins in it!) Going out on a date with my husbandto a new restaurant on Friday night and meetingsome friends for lunch after soccer practiceon Saturday.

In the virtual world, please join me onSaturday when I'll be a guestblogger at Killer Fiction.

How about you? Any plans?

One of the things I like most about living in Egypt is the fresh produce. I’ve gone on and on in the past about how much I like pomegranates. The season has changed and now strawberries are inexpensive and plentiful. But in addition to the strawberries I have a new love:

Raisins.

I know what you’re thinking: what’s so great about raisins? And up until this week I would have thought the same thing.

I’ve never been much of a raisin fan. It’s not that I would avoid them or pick them out of baked goods (the way my daughter does) but I never actively looked for them either. I just don’t think much about them one way or another unless I’m making oatmeal cookies or carrot cake. But it’s surprisingly hard to find a satisfying raisin in Cairo. There are golden raisins available but they are hard and dry and while they will do in a pinch for baking, they are not quite as nice as the black raisins I’m used to (Sunmaid)

When I saw the raisins at the green grocers this week, I decided to buy a package – I was sure my son would enjoy them and at a $1 for half a kilo, it was worth a try. The carton of Sunmaid raisins I brought back in my suitcase this summer was long gone. Then I tried them myself.

Best. Raisins. Ever.

I’ve never had such plump, moist, sweet raisins. Sunmaid is a shadow of raisin compared to these. Here’s where things get a little weird.

The produce in Egypt is phenomenally good but there are some things that are only available seasonally. Right now the shops are full of local strawberries and tangerines. In the spring there will be plums and in the summer there will be grapes. The upside of eating what is in season locally is that we get to enjoy wonderful, fresh, tasty produce. The downside is that we only get to enjoy things for a relatively short time each year.

I understand that in fact it’s a better system – the food is fresher and tastes better. But as an American, I’m really not used to the idea of seasonal availability. In America you can pretty much get what you want, when you want it – if you’re willing to pay the price. It’s all designed to look better than it tastes and who knows where it is from, but it’s available. I admit it, knowing that I can only get things for short periods of time does create some anxiety in me. It makes me want to stock up against the day when things are no longer in season. I know that by the time strawberry season is over, I’ll be ready to move on to something else – as I was last year. I know I should enjoy what I can get in the moment because it’s hard to stockpile fresh strawberries or tangerines.

But it’s not so difficult to stockpile raisins. Which is how I ended up with five pounds of raisins in my kitchen. Weirder still is that I am contemplating buying more.

Best. Raisins. Ever.

EDITED TO ADD: I did a search on “storing fresh raisins” – which seems funny to me considering the fact that it’s dried fruit so how fresh can it be?? And it seems that refrigeration is indeed the way to go:

According to Iowa State University Extension:

Storing tips: Store in an airtight container. To prevent sugar from crystallizing on the surface,
store raisins in the refrigerator or freeze them. In the refrigerator, the raisins can last up to 1 year. They keep even longer in the freezer and will thaw quickly at room temperature.

Special tip: If chopping, freeze raisins before putting in food processor to prevent sticking.

There you have it – my justification to go completely bonkers buying raisins!

It was overcast and cold and gloomy this morning and would have been the perfect day to stay in with a cup of tea, but unfortunately I had things to do. Life happens in spite of weather.

As I was walking home, it started to sprinkle. No big deal really. I didn’t have an umbrella with me so I just pulled up the hood of my coat. Normally I wouldn’t have given in a second thought after that only things get complicated when it rains in Cairo.

Cairo is a dirty messy place. You’d think that some rain once in a while might help that. Freshen things up. The problem is that normally it doesn’t rain very hard, so instead of washing the dust away, it just gets everything wet and makes more of a mess. And the rain itself is dirty. I was once caught out in my black leather jacket. When I got inside again, my jacket was covered in dirt tracks. And this was from me dashing across an open space from a taxi to a building.

If you ever find yourself caught in the rain in Cairo, don’t stand under a tree for shelter because all of the dust that has accumulated in the leaves will come down on you. Then you’ll be dirty and wet.

A good hard rain takes care of the dust, however, there are no sewers in the streets here so when it rains hard, it floods. If it’s bad enough, trucks have to come to pump the water out.

The driving gets even worse when it rains. As you might imagine, drivers here don’t get much experience driving in the rain. Often their windshield wipers rot in between showers so they don’t work when they are needed. If you are a pedestrian as I am, walking becomes much more hazardous. There are few sidewalks. As I walk, in addition to keeping an eye out for traffic, I am also trying to avoid either walking in puddles or standing next to them when cars are passing. They could care less if they splash you. The cars are also weaving to avoid puddles – better to run over me than drive through water.

All in all, I’m glad to be back home again, damp and chilled but alive and in one piece.

As anxious as I was for the holidays to be over and the children to go back to school, there is one thing I didn’t miss while they were off: packing school lunches.

The school they attend does not have a cafeteria so I have to send lunches. In theory, I don’t mind so much since I’m a bit of a granola mom and packing their lunch myself means I get to stick my oar in and give them what I want them to have. (And I might as well take advantage of that as long as I can!) In reality it’s not always easy to think up things to pack five days a week.

They get bored with the same old sandwiches day in and day out. Who can blame them? But my choices are limited when there are no facilities for warming up food in their classroom. I have to pack things that taste good either cold or room temperature, travel well and can be consumed in fifteen minutes or less (calling it a “lunch hour” is a misleading to say the least). Add to that the complication that my children have very different preferences.

My daughter is a protein hound. She’s on a peanut butter kick at present (not yet outlawed in their school, thank goodness!), but I know one day, just as I’m getting in a groove, the tide will turn and she’ll suddenly start rejecting what she loved the day before. Her other love is junk food – too bad for her I rarely indulge it.

My son is a fruit bat – the sweeter the better. He also likes pb&j or cheese sandwiches, but I could pack him a fruit salad every day and he’d be happy. Unfortunately, the time I tried that, the bananas disintegrated and the kiwi turned to mush. Pots of yogurt are hit and miss.

I’m not at my most creative in the mornings and having to pack for two different tastes isn’t always easy. Now multiply my pain by two: they have a “snack” period and a “lunch” period. My children are good eaters so they end up bringing quite a lot of food with them each day. Their lunch bags are heavier than their school bags by far.

I’ve been trying to come up with some easy solutions to keep things fresh and exciting and so far the only things that I’ve come up with are packing the same old cheese sandwiches on buns instead of sandwich bread (surprisingly simple but thrilling for them). Even if I wanted to fall back on more convenience packaged food, outside of chips, snack cakes, and juice boxes that sort of food doesn’t really exist here in Cairo. And until Luncheables starts marketing a vegetarian option, it wouldn’t do me much good anyway. I am thinking of ordering a pizza once in a while, just so I can send the cold slices in their lunch the next day.

They’d love pasta salad or hummus or veggies and dip but who has time to go to such lengths in the flurry of the morning rush? As much as I resist the notion, I know what’s coming next : I’ll have to start preparing their lunches the night before.

Like thinking up what to cook for dinner every night wasn’t challenge enough!

Vicky Burkholder is here this week to share her Cerridwen Press book Danger on XY-One with us.

As her alter-ego, Vicky has multiple homes all over the universe. Her place in Akashan’te was the first, but other planets drew her away. It’s hard sometimes, though. A lot of cultures are rather closed minded when it comes to “special abilities”. She looks human – for the most part – but when she starts writing about characters being able to move things or flicking fire from their fingertips, or changing the course of rivers, people tend to get a little freaked out.

She’s lost count of the number of places she’s lived over the years, but she has always stayed in Pennsylvania. She found the one guy out there in the universe who loves her for who she is. They’ve been together forever and raised four wonderful (now) adults and are owned by a cat, Pixel. Thanks to him, she gets to write about her fantasy worlds. Her first three books, Akashan’te (fantasy), Prime Time (futuristic romance) and Danger on Xy-One (futuristic romance) are available from Cerridwen Press. And her shape shifter story, Who’s Your Alpha, will be included in the anthology The Shape of Love, coming from Draumr Publishing in late February 2008.

In her human form, Vicky has served on the board of directors for the FF&P and the local Central Pennsylvania chapters of RWA and currently serves on the board for PASIC. Her writing career includes work as a technical writer/editor, a stringer for the local newspaper, and an editor and copy editor for four e-publishers. At various times in her life, she has been a teacher, a secretary, a short-order cook, a computer specialist, a DJ, and a librarian. She’s an award winning newsletter editor and does book reviews for Wantzuponatime.

Blurb:

Aleksia Matthews is an asteroid assayer who would like nothing better than to be left alone. Her life is soon turned upside down when a band of ruthless pirates attack her ship. She manages to escape, but fears the worst for her brother. Ali swears revenge. Although well-trained by Fleet Security, she knows she can’t do the job alone. When she literally runs into Jason Cole, a blue-eyed, raven-haired stranger, she knows she has met the perfect partner—in more ways than one.

Special agent and Bounty Hunter, Jason Cole has spent the past year tracking the pirates that killed his brother Zack and Zack’s family. He’s always one step behind; too late to help the victims. There are never any survivors—until now. It is up to him to keep the golden-eyed, auburn-haired beauty alive and out of trouble until the gang can be captured, and maybe longer.

by

Vicky Burkholder

Ali hurried to the practice arena. On her way there, she realized she didn’t know anything about Jason beyond his name. She paused as she thought about him. He had an air about him that both attracted and repelled her. For years she’d avoided people, especially men. Now that she was on her own, she could no longer afford to be afraid. It had this latest disaster for her to find her backbone again. Maybe something good could come out of this mess after all.

She arrived at the arena and signed in. The courts were almost empty. Only a few players stood around waiting their turns at various activities. She palmed open the door to the weapons arena.

“You’re late, Miss Matthews.” A low, mellow voice came from the shadows, stopping her.

Ali jumped and then reined in her momentary panic. Her old life and the fears that went with it was over. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Jason’s outfit, identical to hers, blended with the flat black walls of the court. Their gazes touched and locked. Lust—that’s all this is, the rational part of her mind screamed. He’s an incredibly good-looking man and what you’re experiencing is pure animal lust–nothing more.

From the smoldering expression on his face, the sentiment was mutual. That one look was enough to make her toes tingle, the feeling traveling all the way up to her shoulders. She took a deep breath and gathered her scattered wits and glanced at her watch. “Actually, I’m exactly on time. Are you in a hurry?”

“Not at all. Shall we?”

Confused, Ali broke her gaze from his. “What?” She blushed as he pointed to the laser pistols in the cabinet by the door.

“Oh. Yes.” For some unfathomable reason, she was disappointed. She had to be careful. If she had any hope of hiring him, he had to take her seriously. She had to regain control of the situation. Somehow she had allowed her emotions to get carried away—something she couldn’t afford if this was going to work.

“I hope you’re qualified for the job and willing to take it because time is of the essence,” Ali said.

Jason grinned. “The Commander implied I was less than welcome here, but your mission intrigued me enough to risk his displeasure. I enjoy a good challenge.”

Ali noted the way he moved with a natural ease, not an act meant to impress. So far, she liked what she saw, but she needed more. Unfortunately, he probably wouldn’t be forthcoming with personal information. She knew almost nothing about him, but instinct told her she could trust him. She picked out one of the weapons from the rack. Like the others, the piece was lightweight and well balanced and shielded for safety. She watched as Jason picked out a second pistol and tested it.

“Computer, half-lights,” Ali called out. The arena dimmed. “Run program Practice Weapons, Level 5, Random Pattern.” The mid-level program would help her judge his skills. “You’re red, I’m blue. Ready?”

Jason nodded and took up his stance. “Begin,” he said.

Floating targets appeared and darted around the room as both Ali and Jason fired at them. A short fifteen minutes later, Ali hit the winning shot a fraction of a second before Jason.

He acknowledged her win with a short bow. “Now that we’re warmed up, do you have anything harder?”

She’d watched him move during the match. He knew his stuff, but how would he be in the field with her in charge?

“Computer, next level,” Ali called out. Again, they hit almost every target, but this time Jason edged out Ali. She didn’t even bother to ask before calling out “Computer, next level.”

Ali enjoyed herself more than she was willing to admit. It had been a long time since anyone had given her a contest in the practice arena. She was very much aware of the man next to her—the way he moved and his skills told her more than words could. He moved with confidence and cunning skill. She began to admire him as an opponent.

By this time, they had a small audience in the viewing area above the arena. Their third game ended in a dead heat, something never done in station history. A round of applause startled them, but they took the kudos in stride and bowed to the gathering.

“What’s the top level?” Jason asked.

“Ten. Are you up to a little challenge?”

He raised his eyebrow and nodded.

“Computer, level ten, random pattern, maximum speed.” She heard a concerted gasp from the audience. As far as she knew, she was the only person to have ever attempted this level at maximum speed. “Begin.”

Thirty minutes later Jason squeezed off his final target a millisecond before Ali hit her target. The significantly larger crowd roared its approval.

“Game goes to red,” the computer intoned. “High score will be amended.”

“High score?” Jason asked as he looked at Ali. “Computer, identify previous high score holder.”

“Previous high score holder was Aleksia Matthews.”

“Seems like I’ve toppled you off your tower, Miss Matthews.” Jason replaced his weapon in the rack and grinned at her.

“Actually I should thank you. It’s such a chore being on top all the time.” Ali wiped a film of sweat from her face and grinned back at him.

He looked her over slowly from head to toe and back up again. “I do some of my best work from the top.” He left no doubt as to his meaning.

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