Happy Halloween!

Zaki's older brother is currently off on his first Hajj, so his wife Miriam and 3 kids are being looked after and entertained in his absence by all of Zaki's family.

Last night was our turn, we had invited the kids and Miriam (our Sister-In-Law) over.  Since Monday is Halloween, I decided to plan this amazing and fun-filled Halloweeny Saturday night together. I love kids, and they had never been to our apartment since we moved in.  I wanted to make sure I made a good impression.

Upon my insistence Zaki and I went to the store early that morning and picked up some pumpkins for carving Jack-O-Lanterns, I insisted because it's something that even as adult I've always loved to do, but also because he told me they've never carved one.  Since the kids were born in America I was surprised to hear this, they do take part in Halloween at school and they do trick-or-treat, but I guess never saw the need to buy and carve their own pumpkins.

So needless to say I was stoked to be able to share this new and fun activity with them!  We also purchased some Halloween cake mix to make cupcakes with chocolate AND vanilla frosting (colored orange) and Halloween sprinkles.

So they arrived around 4:30pm completely starved.  I had asked Zaki if we needed to sort out dinner ahead of time, but he said "We'll figure it out when they get here."  I was a little nervous about that, it was Miriams first time at our place, I didn't want her to feel obligated to cook for everyone.  So I started soaking some rice ahead of time to be safe.  Which was a good thing because when Miriam arrived she basically went straight into my tiny kitchen and began cooking.  Which was awkward because first of all, Miriam and I aren't that close.  We've really only been around each other a handful of times.  So for a traditional whitey person like me, I felt strange having her come into my home and begin cooking for us.  Seemed like something I should have planned for and figured out myself, but Zaki insisted it was fine and that she was excited to share her recipes with me anyway.

I had been told by Zaki's brother (the one on Hajj) that his wife's cooking was even better than their Mom's.  Since I've only learned Afghan dishes from Zaki's Mom (and they were all delicious to me), this was hard to accept.  After watching and writing down everything she was doing, when it finally came time to eat I was blown away by her simple curry dish.  Chicken, potatoes, chickpeas, traditional Afghan rice and yogurt.  We gobbled it up and I congratulated her on job well done and promised Zaki and I would try making it ourselves next week.  She beamed to hear that.

(I will post her recipe after this entry)

After dinner was cleared, tea was had and the kids and I got to pumpkin carving.  Though the boys seemed uninterested at first, by the end the were fighting over who got to do what, including lighting the candle at the end to see them lit up in the dark.   I was so happy it was a great success.  :)

Afterwards we did a mad dash to finish up the cupcakes before the kids had to go.  They were warm and delicious right out of the oven and it was almost 10pm by the time they left.

All in all it was a great Halloween night with the kids.  I got to speak with Miriam for a long time and get to know her better.  Any opportunity for me to make some good impressions on Zaki's family I'll take.  They were already so nervous about me from the beginning, so I feel like any time I can show them my true colors I'm winning them over.  After they'd finally left, even Zaki was surprised at how well it went, and he could tell Miriam was impressed with me.

Success!!!