2011 was phenomenal. Insane. Exhilarating. Awesome. Joyful. Busy. Just all around generally incredible.

Probably my favorite year in my <27 years of existence.

Here’s just a few reasons why:

• Marriage – Best day of my life. We did it!! And it was wonderful!! Everything was perfect and beautiful, and everyone had a wonderful time. It couldn’t possibly have been much better. Not to mention our awesome honeymoon in Toronto (blog post coming soon, seriously)!!!!
• Israel – Best week of my life. Adam’s family, the sites, the history, the people, the FOOD!!! Such an amazing experience and SO thankful to have had it!
• Cooking – After returning from Israel and the week long experience of exquisite cuisine, I came back yearning for a healthier, more enjoyable lifestyle. And for me, that started with the abandonment of frozen bag dinners and the purchase of several great cookbooks (which eventually lead to Cuisine Week)!
• Genealogy – In between wedding planning and traveling, I was able to break through a few brick walls, connect with some distant cousins, and I even managed to win the GRAND freaking PRIZE in the Ancestry.com 15 Days of Discovery sweepstakes!! The trip to LA is in just a few weeks!!
• RootsTech – And going along with the genealogy stuff, I had the opportunity to attend the first ever RootsTech conference in February which was an awesome mashup of genealogy and technology. I’m already all booked for the second conference in Feb. 2012!
• CodeMash & An Event Apart (San Francisco) – My first two real web / developer conferences – all thanks to my new(ish) work home – Quicken Loans! These were a lot of fun, a lot to take in, and certainly reinvigorated my profession.

So much awesomesauce in 2011. It’s actually pretty hard for me to imagine 2012 being better than that.

No big life events planned and no super huge crazy travel plans. Just the Ancestry.com trip in January and RootsTech in February – which will both be awesome. After that I’ll be able to actually start conserving my time-off. Maybe towards the end of the year we’ll plan a bigger vacation, who knows what 2012 will bring?!

Time to go work on my list of New Years resolutions!

All in all, Middle Eastern week was wonderfully successful! One dish might have even made the #1 spot on my husbands “Best Meals Made By Julie” list!

One of my favorite things about cooking an entire weeks worth of dinners from the same international menu was that shopping for ingredients and avoiding the waste of ingredients was incredibly easy – almost every dish contained a base of the same ingredients: garlic, onions, and cilantro! This week was probably the first time I made it through an entire bunch of cilantro! :)

So here’s the run down of what I made:

Dinner No. 1: Yakhnat Samak
Fish in Aromatic Red Sauce

This first dish was probably my least favorite of the week – it wasn’t bad, but it ended up being pretty bland overall. The sauce was tomato based with a few spices, but more spice would’ve been better.

Rating: 3/5

Dinner No. 2: Falafel and Tomato Salad

“Holy shit, I made falafel!” That about sums up how I feel about this one. It was awesome. I got to use my new fryer for the first time, and they came out like falafel! They were soooo good. I’ll definitely be making them again.

Rating: 4.5/5

Dinner No. 3: Chicken Shawarma Pitas

This one was pretty solid. Nothing super special, but a decent shawarma pita sandwich – complete with hummus, tomato, and cilantro.

Rating: 4/5

Dinner No. 4: Kabab bil Laban and Duqous
Meatballs in Yogurt Sauce and Spiced Tomatoes

These meatballs were pretty darn tasty – and the yogurt sauce was a great touch. The tomatoes were good too, but they came apart as soon as I tried to remove them from the pan – so next time I won’t cook ’em as long.

Rating: 4.5/5

Dinner No. 5: Shawrabat Al-Nikhi with Pita Bread
Creamy Tomato and Chickpea Soup

A tasty soup to be sure. It had a great kick from the cayenne pepper and paired really well with the pita. But ultimately, wasn’t anything life altering.

Rating: 3.5/5

Dinner No. 6: Basal Mahshi with Spinach and Chickpeas
Onions Stuffed with Lamb and Rice

Oh man. This one was quite the star of the week. The stuffed onions were cooked in a pomegranate syrup sauce which infused the onion and lamb with sweet, savory flavor. The spinach and chickpea plate was a perfect complement with its salt and peppery touch. Total win!

Rating: 5/5

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Totally can’t wait for the next Middle Easter week :)

And since Theme Week was such a success, we’re trying it again this week with Italian!! Check back next weekend to see how it went!

Here for you now are some of my favorite photos from the trip, followed the itinerary and some of the highlights.

For more photos (especially the ones with people), check out my special Israel Edition of Jarchiver.

Day 1: Welcome to Israel

Arrival in Tel Aviv

After a 12 hour flight, we were all happy to be on land again and ecstatic to meet our totally awesome tour guide, Beni.

Bus Tour to Jerusalem

No time to waste, it was off to Jerusalem via the official Bellinson Family tour bus! Beni introduced us to the land, culture, politics, and more along the way.

Touring the Old City and Holy Sepulcher

A stroll through the bustling markets and then to the supposed place of Christ’s death.

Day 2: Discovering Jerusalem and Digging up the Past

Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum with survivor Eliezer Ayalon

As you can imagine, Eli’s story was heartbreaking and the Holocaust Museum was an experience which you could call “rough.” It was an amazing experience to meet a man of such strong will and graciousness.

Beit Guvrin Caves – Dig For A Day

Here we were able to participate in an ongoing archeological dig, something I’ve always wanted to do. Most of us found at least one or two bits of 2000 year old antiquities – mostly shards of pottery, small bits of coal and long petrified animal bones.

Western Wall Tunnels

In the tunnels, we were the closest one can get to the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments was kept according to the Hebrew Bible.

Day 3: Bar Mitzvah Day!

Cooper’s Bar Mitzvah

This was my first experience of the Jewish religion and it was a lovely ceremony.

Israel Museum

Here we had a chance to see some of the art and traditions of the Israeli culture, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Day 4: Heading South – Dead Sea and Masada

Masada

This mountain top was once the home to a group of Jewish extremists, but when troops from the Roman Empire threatened their livelihood they turned to mass suicide rather than give themselves up as slaves to the Romans.

The Dead Sea

It’s true!! You totally float in the Dead Sea! Quite a strange experience, indeed, but very cool.

Dinner in a Bedouin Tent

After visiting a botanical garden and seeking out some wild ibexes, we headed up into the mountains to a remote bedouin camp for an absolutely wonderful dinner.

Day 5: Heading North – Galilee

Central Galilee Partnership 2000 English Program

The Jewish Federation of Detroit is partnered with an Israeli elementary school which we visited and learned a bit about the students and their lives.

Ayelet Hashahar Shooting Range

Time to shoot some uzis!! My first gun shooting almost went out without a hitch – right after instructing us on safety, the teacher shot a live round off right across me while showing me how to pull the trigger. Nice.

Day 6: North to Tel Aviv

Golan Heights Jeep Ride

Off-roading through the cattle fields up to Golan Heights where we met with former colonel, Kobi Marom, to talk politics and relationships with neighboring Syria and Lebanon.

Army Base Security Tour with Kobi Marom

Next, we headed to an Israeli Defense Force base and met with a few soldiers, saw a bunch of missile launchers and ate a bit of Bar Mitzvah cake.

Tel Aviv Tour

And lastly, it was back to Tel Aviv for a few hours of touring and our final Israeli dinner before embarking on the incredible 25 hour journey back home (ouch).

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So As you can see, it was a fully loaded week – and that flickr set doesn’t even begin to cover it. For more photos (especially the ones with people), check out my special Israel Edition of Jarchiver.