I have been sewing a dress for my daughter for her school formal. It is an eon since I have sewn clothing, and then she is a bit fussy as well. I just about had to redo the whole pattern- but it’s finished except for th ehem and we are all happy little vegemites. So have done very little otherwise ( building up the oomph to sit and sew a dress took quite some effort :-)

Tonight I made these Turkish kofte balls- they are great in summer and as a snack . They are vegetarian. I got the recipe many moons ago when I worked as a part-time tutor at the Migrant Women’s Centre.One of the women there had made it- and we all loved it.

So here is the recipe:

1/2kg cracked wheat ( burghul)

1/2-1 cup of flour

2 tsps salt

3tbsps tomato paste

3 tbsps olive oil\parsley

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp chopped chilli

Lemon juice

You can also add some crumbled fetta cheese to the mixture

Soak the cracked wheat in hot water - drain if still veyr moist.

Put a pot of hot water on the boil.

Put the cracked wheat , flour and salt ( and crumbled fetta if using) into a bowl and mix by hand.

Roll into small balls ( about 2,5 cm or 1 inch)

Drop the balls into the boiling water ( in 3-4 batches) for 5-10 minutes.

Thke the balls out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and cook the next batch.

Chop the garlic, and parslet finely.

Put the oil and tomato paste into a saucpan and heat,stirring

Add chilli, garlic and parsley.

Stir in the kofte balls and squeeze fresh lemon juice over them

Oh and wonderful news- I am going back to Syria next year with another exhibition. I have been invited to bring work to the al Ba’Ath Gallery in Damascus as part of Damascus’ celebrations as cultural capital of the arab world. I am still to find out dates but I may also be doing an artist residency as well in a artist community they were renovating outside Seidanaya not far from Damascus- we will see.