Many years back – when blogging was THE thing to do – there was a group of three girls here in Germany that organized a blog exchange/swap with goodies from your kitchen. Think San’s Santa Mug Swap but baked and cooked deliciousness. I participated a few times. Those swaps always had a topic. I think once it was all the Christmas cookies (see a picture of my package in this post) when it was close to the holidays. Once it was favorite coffee cakes I think. And one was “Sommer im Glas” aka “Summer in a glass jar”.
After some thinking I settled on recreate the picnics I had with my family when we traveled in Israel. We shopped on the markets for pita bread and then got hummus and labané as a spread. Maybe some fruits and that was about it. Back in 2015 when I made this post it was not possible to get the spice zaatar in Germany. I had people bring it back to me from Israel. These days you can buy in Turkish or Oriantal shops. I am sure you can too wherever you live. Or you can make your own blend.
I also made homemade pita bread an hummus. All recipes are in the linked post and this blog treasure. The hummus was something I did for our white summer party too (I still owe you a recap – I know). A slightly different recipe though.
Reading this I really crave laban now. Maybe I should go ahead and do a batch. I have a lot of the spices sitting around and they are not getting better. Maybe it’s a good birthday gift for my mom in September.
Anyway, now go ad have a look at that old blog treasure.
Have you ever heard of the Qatar spice? Didi you happen to make hummus on your own? Have you ever had the cheese labané? Did you travel to Israel?
8 comments
Hmm! So labane is like a homemade cheese? Just out of curiosity, I checked, and you can get zaatar on Amazon. I’m sure it’s possible to find it in specialty markets as well.
Now I’m craving hummus and pita bread!
Yes it is a sort of cream cheese. Zataar being the key ingredient. I’ve never checked Amazon for it. Duh. But with so many immigrants from the region in the passed years it’s easier to come by now.
I’ve had labneh at cafes or restaurants with a middle eastern feel. I have also made hummus before. We had planned to travel to Israel but then Hamas attacked and we had to cancel.
I am sorry you had to cancel your trip to Israel. Hopefully you will have a chance to see in the future.
I found read to go Labane in the Turkish grocery store a few months ago back. It was good but the homemade version is better. Yet so much less work.
I’ve had labneh at restaurants, but have never tried to make it myself. The ones I’ve had are creamier than the one in your recipe appears – almost more of a sour cream consistency.
We often make hummus, though we rarely make our own pita. I have done it once and it was really good, so I’m not sure why I haven’t tried again. We can get zataar at our local grocery store nowadays. I’ve cooked with it a few times, it’s delicious on lamb.
Years ago I had a blog friend who was trying to get a business started with her baking, and she sent me some cookies that were SO GOOD. She had a mental health crisis though and her life kind of fell apart. I don’t know what ever happened to her, but she was an excellent writer and those cookies were kickass.
I’ve never been part of a food exchange via blogging, what a clever idea. I’ve done San’s coffee mug a few times, and way back when I was part of a book exchange, where we all sent each other books we had read and enjoyed. That was fun…but I don’t think I ever read the books I received! I need to put them on my TBR.
Hi Tobia! I am on this post because I just read the next post (Virtual Coffee Date) and can’t see how to comment at all – not sure if I’m missing something, or if something weird happened when you posted.
Thank you Allison, for some reason some posts are published with blocked comments and I can’t figure out why because it’s so random. Anyway I changed the setting and should work now. Thanks for letting me know.
Oh, what a cool swap idea!