NECESSITY; THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Our first couple of weeks here I was reminded how inventive and creative we can be when required. Aramco furnishes the house and kitchen with the basic things you need until your shipment comes. That usually takes about 3 months.

So in my kitchen we were given 1 sm sauce pan with lid, 1 medium sauce pan with lid, 1 large skillet and large stock pot with shared lid. Also we were given the basic set of untility items, spatula, large spoon, large slotted spoon, ladle, meat for, and potato masher. And then there is the basic dishes, 8 each of teaspoons and forks, 4 each of table spoons and butter knives. Then they include a set of 5 knives of various sizes from paring to carving and bread size. Lastly there is a 4 place setting of dinner plates, salad plates, cup/saucers, and bowls; and then 6 SMALL juice glasses for dinking.

About the second night here I decided to make spaghetti for dinner. We had purchesed a can of spaghetti sauce. I took the large pot and began to boil the noodles, no problem here. Then I took out the medium sauce pan to heat up the sauce. That is where the problems began.

We didn't have a can opener. Now what do we do. Well this is where the inventive part comes in. I had a very small pocket knife and samll scissors in my luggage. I used the scissors to puncture a hole in the can then proceded to cut it open. Not the greatest but worked fine.

We knew there were a few things we would need from the store. So we took the bus to the mall the next day and purchased a can opener, while there I thought why not buy a 9x13 cake pan, just in case we needed one. Also we picked up a cheese grater. With these items we thought we were set for the next 3 months. WRONG!!!

I thought I would make a list of a few meals we would like to make and get the ingredients next time we went grocery shopping. One dish I wanted to make was "Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole" (thinks Chiara, we really love that dish).

We get to the store and I am telling Mike what we need to pick up. When I tell him that we need ham he just gives me a funny look and says, "Really, ham in Saudi Arabia?" Thats when I remembered that there is no pork here. Well not to be out done we went to the deli counter and found some smoked turkey and bought that. This worked perfectly, you can't even tell the difference.

The recipe also calls for instant rice, couldn't find that either so we bought regular rice and decided to substitute there also. Then on home(see Grocery Shopping in Khobar).

When I began to make dinner I realized that I didn't have any mixing bowls. No problem, I would just use the pot I boiled the chicken. Worked great. For the rice I cooked it for only about 5 minutes then added it to the casserole, that worked great also.

Now came time to put the dish in the pan. I had made only a half recipe as we didn't need a so much for just two people. So I only needed an 8x8 pan. Well, we don't have one. Once again the old brain begins to work on how to solve this problem.

No problem, I had aluminum foil. I lined half of the cake pan to make into as smaller size. This also worked great. We had our dinner and loved it. It has become a favorite of ours.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures, that part of my brain was not working that night.

Since then the RS Pres gave me access to a couple of tubs of things that had been left by people who had left and didn't want to take them home. I have added a few extra things to make the kitchen a little easier to work in. But the adventure still continues and we love it all the time.