Fly Bird is an experience not to be missed with the collaboration of Dar Onboz (independent award winning Lebanese publishing house) and Beirut Art Center. Every Saturday between 1 & 2 pm, take your children and yourself and discover the magic of story telling by Nadine Touma, and the art of folding paper by Jad Hallaj, as well as many more activities emphasizing Birds in all its splendor. The exhibition and activities aim to rediscover the beautiful world of the birds, which is practically disappearing in the city of Beirut. Adults and kids will enjoy this outing, which is also for free. The exhibition relies on selling their artifacts, among them the beautifully drawn hand made tiles, the embroidery kits story books, CD’s and the coloring stickers.

Hopefully the pictures will inspire to visit the next coming Saturdays…

for directions to Beirut Art Center, click here.

Hurry up, the…

FDA has released its Inspectional Observations report (Form 483) covering the issues encountered during the agency’s September 19 – 28, 2012 inspection of the Kasel Associates Industries, Inc. manufacturing plant in Denver.

Last week, Kasel recalled a range of pet treats manufactured from April 20, 2012 through September 19, 2012 due to potential Salmonella contamination. As I reported yesterday, FDA found 14 different Salmonella strains in finished product and environmental swab samples taken at the company’s manufacturing facility during the September 2012 inspection.

FDA’s 9-page report documents improper sanitation throughout the facility, inadequate pest control – including live and dead cockroaches, rodent droppings, flies and a dead mouse – improper food storage, improper handling of work-in-progress, and inadequate maintenance. Following is just a sampling of the deficiencies:

OBSERVATION 1. Failure to conduct cleaning and sanitizing operations for utensils and equipment in a manner that protects against contamination of food…

CLEVELAND — The city’s Central neighborhood is set to open the largest urban garden in the nation.

The Green City Growers Cooperative is a 3.25 acre greenhouse roughly the size of three football fields and located at 5800 Diamond Avenue. The garden will officially open on Monday, February 25 at 9 a.m., with tours beginning at 11 a.m. Mayor Frank Jackson and Senator Sherrod Brown, along with 25 greenhouse employees, will be on hand to celebrate the grand opening.

The garden will operate as a year-round greenhouse and will produce more than 3 million heads of lettuce and 300,000 pounds of herbs annually. Vendors within a 50-mile radius of the garden will have access to produce grown in the garden. The greenhouse began growing lettuce on January 16, and is already producing 60,000 heads of lettuce per week.

The Green City Growers Cooperative is the third business to join Cleveland’s…

The biggest players in the food industry—from pesticide pushers to fertilizer makers to food processors and manufacturers—spend billions of dollars every year not selling food, but selling the idea that we need their products to feed the world. But, do we really need industrial agriculture to feed the world? Can sustainably grown food deliver the quantity and quality we need—today and in the future? This Food MythBusters episode takes on these questions in under seven minutes. So the next time you hear them, you can too.

(Protesters outside of prosecutor-general office Feb 22 by Mai Shaheen. Ahram online)

 Monday

• Constitutional court rejects election law.
• Al-Nour party advisors leave posts in strange circumstances.
• Protests freeze Port Said work for second day
• Israel proposes alternative to Suez Canal.‪
• As vote nears, tensions flare among Egypt’s Islamists.
• Egyptian economic delegation to visit Iran.
• Abu-Islam arrest ordered.

Tuesday

• Shura Council accuses SCC of undermining lawmakers.
• Egypt announces big fuel price rise for some industries.
• Egyptian prosecution to ask Interpol for arrest ex-PM Shafiq.
• Egypt’s NSF reiterates pre-conditions for dialogue with presidency.
• US military delegation arrives in Cairo to discuss security and defence.
• Hundreds block Hurghada streets over man’s death.
• Jama’a al-Islamiya forms armed squads to fight thugs.
• Sharqiya vigilantes kill two suspected murderers.

Wednesday

• ‪SCAF holding meetings in president’s absence: Military sources.
• Nour Party seeks to distance itself from FJP ahead of election.

We haven’t updated this blog in aeons because we’ve been very busy…

The great news is that The Gaza Kitchen has now been released!

From now on, all information about this project will be posted at the book’s website and/or the Just World Books website.

Thank you to those of you who have followed and supported this blog. Hope to see you at some of our presentation events…

Sunday morning is the day we make crêpes (thin pancakes)! Usually my husband makes them, but this time it will be me as he is away on a business trip and won’t be back before tomorrow…:(

The recipe is quite simple and needs 5 minutes to prepare. However I remember my mother placing the batter in the fridge for half an hour, to rest she said, but I am not a patient person, and I frankly don’t think it makes any difference in the taste, only in its consistency, it becomes a bit thicker while standing!

So for the ingredients: (for approximately 8 crêpes)

1 egg

1/2 cup brown flour (any kind would do, buckwheat flour…)

1/2 cup white flour (I like mixing these because it gives a nicer, thicker and healthier texture)

2 cups milk

2 tbsp melted butter

pinch of salt

pinch of sugar

Whisk all the ingredients…