The joy of sharing food together was extra special for our almost-back-to-normal meeting this month. Wafaa Powell gave an entertaining talk about Lebanon and shared three typical dishes from the region: Fattoush - a simple yet tasty salad; Laban - similar to tzatziki; and Dfeen - a bulghur wheat with chick peas dish, which is often served with meat. She told us to ditch the couscous and cook bulghur wheat instead, and any interpretation of these traditional dishes should be renamed when we served them!
She also told us about the traditional Lebanese mix of seven spices (aka Baharat) which is used as a standard flavouring and comprises ground black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, cumin and cloves. Apparently cumin is good for counteracting wind, especially when cooking with pulses - useful to know!
As you can see Wafaa had plenty of help with food preparations which was fun to do and afterwards everyone enjoyed a generous taste of each dish with plenty of time to ask questions and chat. Fiona P baked cookies and millionaire's shortbread treats for afters so we came away from the meeting with full bellies. Perfect!
Fiona P summed the evening up nicely:
"A fabulous, fun evening. Wafaa was very entertaining and obviously passionate about what she does. Lovely to see the Belles getting back to their former (pre Covid) glory and doing what we do best - learning, laughing and having fun."
Elsewhere this month, Book Club reviewed The Foundling by Stacey Halls and the Boneyard Belles had a muddy walk followed by the dramatic story of Hannah Twynnoy's demise in Malmesbury. The Our Town Group enjoyed Fringe February despite the Lyric Walk proving to be harder than initially thought. It got them questioning everything around them in town! The Crafty Crew made some pretty bath bombs and the Happy Hookers started their next project, which is making lap blankets. And finally the Unofficial Supper Club had a disappointing visit to the new Jamaican restaurant in town. There are some teething problems to sort out!