H is for Honey

H is for HONEY!

I thought about what I wanted to feature for the letter "H." We love Hamburgers at our house, canine and humans alike, and being of Middle Eastern descent, I can never eat enough Hummus.

Honeydew is my favorite of all melons, and El Capitan Morgan is in line with my melon choice. That bird, he likes just about ANYTHING green. Wonder why? But, I decided to go with Honey instead. I love honey so much, there aren't words to describe it. It is also a food that I eat multiple times per week, so I wanted to feature a food that is a staple in my home.

You have probably have all heard or read about the powerful health benefits of honey, and that's wonderful because I love that stuff, but even if it was bad for us, I don't know if I'd be able to stay away from it. It's like syrup crack for me.

As a youngster in Afghanistan, I'd suck the honey out of the comb and then chew on it. I loved how it wadded up like candle wax in my mouth. A favorite breakfast sandwich is hot toasted bread with honey drizzled on it, so it melts & softens, and as it cools, it gets that crystallized glaze to it. When I bite into each morsel, I love hearing the slight crunch of the crystallized honey. Mmmmm, so good.

I also love peanut butter and honey sandwiches, honey drizzled on tart apple slices or my morning oatmeal, honey in salad vinaigrettes, and honey just by the spoonful.

There is an Afghani dessert called Jilabee (spelled phonetically) that is the one I gravitate to at weddings and parties. Essentially a variation on my favorite honey sandwich, but with fried dough swirls. They come out of the sizzling hot pan, get tossed with honey, and allowed to drip cool on a rack. It is so simple, yet so rich and delicious. Who doesn't like honey-dipped sweet fried dough? Tell me. Who? ;-) I get a GIANT mug of piping hot tea, a couple of jilabees, sit back, and enjoy the honeylicious feast.

I've never been able to get into commercial grade honey. I hunt around in ethnic markets for different kinds of honey, and there are MANY different kinds. A really good Middle Eastern market has opened up by my house, and I've been working my way through their extensive honey shelf.

I once bought a jar of dark, almost molasses like, Ethiopian honey from a farmer's market, and it was by far the most dense, most complex honey I'd ever had. I loved it and tried to make it stretch for as long as I could. That's because I could never find it again! I've seen it online here and there, but not the exact same kind. Makes me wonder if the current strife in Africa put the little honey exporter out of business. What a shame. They could have bought a yacht with all the honey I would have bought from them.

Honey is a favorite of my furbabies also. How could they even resist? The color of their Golden fur matches my favorite sweet syrup, as do their "sweet as honey" demeanor. I don't give them very much at all, but every once in a while they get to dabble in honey drizzled Granny Smiths with me. 3 Golden honeys and 1 brunette at the dog park--- :-)
Milo, Laverne, Shirley & Captain Morgan: "We love honey, honey! Please tell our mama not to be so stingy with our sweet treat, mmkay?" (BOL! Chirp chirp!)

Jen is a Honey of a Hostess for A to Z Mondays, and you can check out her blog to see what other fabulous bloggy folks have done with the letter H!

http://unglazed.blogspot.com/

Happy Honey Monday to you all.