SilkyCandy

Hello to you... VJ members. Thanks to all of you who have made this helpful site. I'm reallllly a newbie. So here is my first possibly silly question(answer is surely on this site but easier just to ask). Which visa should I apply for after marrying next year in Egypt. We don't mind waiting more time apart.We just want to choose the right one. And definitely we will want immediate residency and work authorization.So what should we do? Thanks to everyone in advance for your input. Cheers!!!

I find it interesting that every time I decide to come back to VJ, an opportunity arrises for me to do something cool to share with you all. This time, while I was editing the original Sultan's Kitchen Cookbook, I found an opportunity to create calendars. I think it would be really cool to have a calendar full of awesome pictures of MENA taken by my friends. I'd be happy with either an "all Jordan" calendar, a collage of all of our SO's contries for each month, or a different country pic for each month. I'd do polls on the pix and let you all decide which pictures would make the calendar. It would be all done via mena members!

Plz let me know what you think of this idea.

I'm still editing the original Sultan's Kitchen Cookbook. It's currently at 222 pages with over 200 recipes from the sultan's kitchen thread here in mena. I need at least 50 orders to be able to make them affordable to everybody. If I can get 50 orders, they'll be $40.00 each. If I can get orders for 100 books, they'll be $30.00 each (this is basically the cost for me to have the books printed and it covers all shipping.)

Payment is requested ahead of time as I have to order them all at once and money is super tight at my house.

PayPal and Money orders are our prefered methods of payment.

Please feel free to ask any questions.

amal

I'm all for it even my recipe doesn't make it into the book lol...I learned it a little bit late so yeah I posted it late too and no one has seen it yet,lol. but yes I definitely would like to have all the recipes I missed on here or have not tried yet too.

Hi all.. I am new to the site and I am american But I have become accustomed and a big fan of egyptian food because of my family in-law from my 1st marriage. And I am still extremely close to my mother-in-law of whom I have learned all my egyptian cooking from. So finally after 8 years of waiting for her to take the time with me,searching on the net and asking friends in Egypt on the net too,I LEARNED TO MAKE GIBNA(gibna beida I think)which is my favorite cheese in the world. lol. Yes she called me over yesterday and she taught me. So I am listing the recipe as I learned it. and if anyone else has other methods or recipes for cheese or milk dishes of any kind, well I know ruzz bil laban(dessert) too, please let me know. And I will be trying so many recipes from here. They all look so delightful for those i have not yet tried. I hope you enjoy and thanks to all. Blessings and peace.

Gibna

Ingredients:

5 pound bag of nonfat dry milk

10 quarts of half/half(half cream)

1 1/2 pints of salt

1 pint of milk

8 tablets of rennet(junket)

optional:20 jalapeno peppers or any peppers you like to taste

Materials:

4 3x19 inch pans

1 large mixing bowl

1 10 quart sauce pot or larger

1 hand mixer or hand blender

1 large spatula for scraping

2 extra large glass jars for storage

1 hammer or meat tenderizer

1 slotted wooden spoon for stirring

Directions:

Take the large mixing bowl and sauce pot and place them on the counter or table. Near the stove is best as the pot will become very heavy. In the mixing bowl you will begin mixing the nonfat dry milk with each quart of half cream in 10 close to equal parts until all is used up. Starting with one quart of the half cream and one portion of the dry milk,pour into mixing bowl and mix or blend for 3 mins until mixture becomes frothy(runny but full of bubbles) with no lumps. make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl with the spatula while mixing. Once done pour mixture into sauce pot. Repeat this process six more times. For the next two portions you will add the half pint of salt divided between the portions. Put the last portion aside to add the rennet tablets later. Now that you have most of the mixture in the pot begin heating. A high flame is fine as it will slowly heat the large amount inside it. With the wooden slotted spoon stir often through heating process. Heat for 30-40 minutes until mixture is warm. Do not heat until hot or boiling. You should be able to touch the outside of the pot without burning your hand or discomfort. During this process but right before the last ten minutes of heating, take the hammer or meat tenderizer and smash all the rennet tables as fine as possible. Then pour all the smashed rennet into the last portion of the milk mixture. Stir until dissolved and add into the pot. Stir all the mixture in the pot almost constantly until a warm but not temperature is reached.Turn off the flame. Next line up the 13x9 inch pans. Then using a large cup or bowl, pour the mixture into each pan until half full. There will be a small portion left. Pour it in each pan equally. Let them sit 6 hours or more,over night is fine.

Final Prep and Wait Time:

After 6 hours or the next morning check for the cheese to be mostly firm but it will not be completely firm.Cut the cheese around the lining of each pan and then cut it into 2x2 inch cubes.Open the remaining pint of salt and spread the salt over the top side of all the cheese in each pan. let the pans sit again for one day. The next morning turn the cheese over to the bottom side. cover all with the rest of the salt and let it sit again for a day. The next morning put the cheese in both jars equally. Add peppers too(optional). Close the jars and let the cheese sit for two days. during this process it will expel whey. After the two days there should be about a 1/4 of space left at the top. Take the pint of milk and warm on the stove for 5-7 minutes at medium heat until warm. let stand until cool. Then pour the milk into the empty space of each jar until full. it is ok of there is milk left over. Seal the jars tight with the lids and let the cheese sit for fifty days. Once the time passes,the cheese has aged you now have Gibna beida. Enjoy.

NOTE: This recipe takes time and patience but also very easy. And its well worth it to make. You can start with smaller amounts such as two pounds. and just split up the ingredients accordingly. My mother in law just happens to make gibna for a family of about 10 in one household so its why she makes so much at once.

Thanks to all of you for your advice. we are definitely gonna take everything said and learned into consideration to get the ball rolling. I'm sure we will be getting to know many of you. blessings all around to everyone...have great weekend.

Amal is correct.

It is much easier for you to travel there and take care of everything while overseas. If you have any questions about traveling to Cairo or being in Egypt...please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best of luck!

Thank you..I appreciate that very much. Cheers!!

Thanks to all...I figure it would be best if I go there too.. We are just anxious to have our 1st meeting. I haven't been with anyone for 5 years and him even longer. And I wish I could go before next year but I can't. Time and distance will continue to make us stronger for now. And I am so happy to have found this site. Blessings to everyone.

The embassies don't care whether or not an American citizen sends a foreign citizen an invitation to visit. The person would need to demonstrate to the CO (Consular officer) that performs the interview that there is no intent to immigrate to the US. Such proof would be owning a home, a letter from an employer, family ties, money in the bank, etc. If the CO even briefly thinks he is coming here to marry, I would almost guarantee a visitor visa would be denied. In my opinion, you would be better off to go there and then apply for a K-1, marriage in a MENA country can take a lot of time and extra money on top of the fees (bribes, or should I say "encouragment money"). Good luck whatever you decide, and have patience, it takes time...sometimes more, sometimes less.

I dont think marrying in egypt will be that big of a deal...and sure we know not to mention anything about marriage if he were to try to get a B-1 visa. it would not be me who invites him.I have friends who can invite him and they are egyptian u.s.citizens here...I have been married to an egyptian man before,FYI. In any case thanks for the advice. I found out more later in my research on the net that it isn't a good idea and might even be more costly for us in the process for the I-130/CR-1. no thanks. lol

Ok so my Samy told me today about speaking with a friend who came to USA to visit for a short time. And he said that if I send an Invitation then he can come and see me for a month or so. Then he said we could marry here and he will return to Cairo and take care of the documents and stuff there. So my questions are...

1. Will it work for me to send him an invitation to come here?

2. Can we marry with just his egyptian passport?

3. If we do marry this way...will it negatively effect our filing(when we do it)for the I-130/CR-1?

I'm going to continue to research on my own but I am so happy to have found this support system with everyone on here so I thought I would ask generally your opinions, thoughts or more...thanks everyone...God bless.

thank you Aya&John...but I was meaning to hire an attorney just to complete the process for a set fee without spending loads of money over and over. We have to set a limit. And these services are starting to spring up more with a set price for less than it has typically been and they guarantee approval. of course I'm not that naiive to think they can control the decisions of the government from either of our countries. So sure its not exactly a guarantee...they're sales pitching sure.

I plan on paying an attorney to to complete our paperwork...it seems less of a hassle that way... We are not beginning until next year but we are preparing now. As I keep studying and learning about the process,it seems that using an attorney is the best way to go in terms of having less complications. Good luck to all.