About

I am a 55 year old mom of 9 who grew up in the beautiful Northwest. I was an aspiring Jazz vocalist and poet until I met and married a Middle Eastern man and that changed my life forever. I moved to Saudi Arabia with 4 small children while 8 months pregnant.  I lived in a run down villa with no furniture out in the neighborhoods of Riyadh. I then lived in an apartment with limited electricity, and later to a luxury Western compound. I met people from India, Egypt, Morocco, the U.K. and all over the world. I had five more children while living in Saudi. Life was colorful, eventful and lonely at times. I learned to cook many interesting authentic dishes as well as taught my own specialties to neighbors. There were many highs and many lows in this 16 year experience. My children and I relocated to the U.S. 6 years ago where we had a huge adjustment, I had never used a debit card, was not used to paying bills or being in charge of my own life. My kids grew up in a household  of 11 where meals were home cooked, from scratch and made in huge batches, cooking was a huge part of life. So, I decided with their encouragement, to pass on my real cooking as well as my experiences. I hope you enjoy!0622151118

809 thoughts on “About”

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  7. I stumbled up on your blog just now , actually from the picture of you and kids and the clothing which seemed like a burqa ?? I read only one of your post up to now, Good writing, I went through you about page and got to know , more ..and I would like to read more and soon get over to your other posts ..but I have to leave for work now, …Though native to India …. I lived in Saudi for most part of my childhood … ( Dammam ) ..nice to meet you 🙂

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  8. …I am not sure what I am thinking right now .. I have read up to part 2 ..( locked in ) … I came back after ( work ) and over dinner sat reading your blog from the start …. well dinners over long time back , and I am still reading your experiences 🙂 , The reason I mentioned I am not sure what I am thinking right now is probably because , there are all sorts of things just going on in my head right now , most probably having lived in Saudi myself , I think my mind was building the scenes , the images right from the villa to the apartment , the Saudi schools , the streets , the washer men hailing down cars , the bakala ( mini marts ) , arab dress codes , Safe ways parking lots , the train ride !! all these memories were being connected to your experiences , it made me feel I was there ,

    I have met and seen other ( westerners ) there in Saudi ) which is the other thing , there is this conflicting reality , While living there , any westerner that we’d seen was pretty well placed ( among the good life ) , though one thought I have always had was may be there might be another side , and you experiences just might be that other side ……reading up to now has been a walk down memory lane for me ..will read more ,…( I am sorry for the lengthy comment ..I just had to let you know …I have so many things to ask you to know , is there another way to contact you ? email perhaps …? that is if you don’t mind .

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    • Thanks for commenting and it is interesting that you understand things so well. It is hard to imagine unless you have lived in Saudi. So, you grew up there, did you go to Saudi school? You can email me any time. Thanks for reading

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      • Yeah I did grew up in Saudi , but no I did not go to a Saudi school but I sure had some Saudi boys in my neighbourhood , I went to an Indian School , but the teaching medium was in English , and since there lot of students came from all over India we all spoke in English , and when we were out with friends on our bikes , these Saudi kids used come by give us a hard time and the minute they heard us speak English , they’d go the Amereke !!…they couldn’t even make out from the accent 😛 ..as long as it contained ABC .. it was all Amereke to them 🙂 ..err … I couldn’t find your email on the blog .

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  12. Hello Lynn, I have a blog dedicated to reviewing books and stories. I hope you won’t mind that I “reviewed” your life story. I just published the article, but in retrospect I thought I should have asked you first. Please let me know if it’s ok with you or if you would prefer me to take it down, which I will understand.
    Have a beautiful week-end, Sev.
    https://labibliothequedesev.wordpress.com/2016/08/05/lynz-real-life-and-real-cooking/

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  15. Lynn, thank you for visiting my blog today & for the follow. Although I haven’t had much of chance to read your blog, your story intrigues me! I look forward to reading more & getting to know one another through our sharing life stories!

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  17. A life experience second to none. I am glad I ‘met’ you and I am now following your blog and would like to know if you may be interested to be a Guest poster with us, and share some of your awesome recipes on our blog?

    Have a look at:
    https://cookandenjoyrecipes.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/update-fellow-bloggers-sharing-is-caring-recipe-exchange/ and leave me a note in the comments of this post, with a link to your recipe, if you’re interested. That will be just fantastic. Hope to hear from you soon 😊

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  18. Hi Lynn. You had followed my first blogging project, which I’m just about to shut down. I’d love for you to follow christinanifong.com, my new baby. Thanks!

    Love what you’re doing here, BTW!

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  27. Wow. What you have done with your life is admirable. I read further up that your children had to cope with racism; well, would you believe that even my kids (half French half American with Portuguese origins), especially the oldest, had to put up with some nasty attitudes and comments while attending a small school in rural France. Unfortunately prejudice is universal…
    I am interested in your recipes, I love learning about new flavors!
    Take care.

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  28. Hi Lynz I have nominated you for Song Challenge (Music That Means Something)
    The rules are:
    Post a song a day for five consecutive days.
    Post what the lyrics mean to you. (Optional)
    Post the name of the song and video.
    Nominate 1 or 2 bloggers each day of the challenge.
    willow xx

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  30. I am excited to read your earlier posts and am inspired by the difficult yet wise decisions you have made for yourself and your children (as well as your children’s children’s children). Bless you and your beautiful family! And thank you for sharing your story.

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  34. Just WOW! I will be coming back to spend more time reading about your interesting life! It is especially poignant because I attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, and currently live in Boise. Glad I found your blog! ~ Lynn

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  37. Dear Lynz

    Firstly, I wish to take this opportunity to thank you in person for connection with me via EsmeSalon.

    This is a personal invitation to come and join us next week and every coming Monday through to Friday and share a post link here with us at Senior Salon. Thanks for your visit/s to my blog and looking forward to reading your posts

    Also, if you wish to participate in an Interview or Guest Post, please do not hesitate to contact me, as I will be happy to showcase you and your blog.

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  38. I know it’s been a while since this was written, but I just wanted to say that you’re story is beautiful. Your resilience, and strength was amazing to read. I’m glad that you’re now living a safe and happy life. 💖🙂

    (P.S. and I’m just curious, and I’m sorry if I’m a little nosy, but are you still a Muslim?)

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  40. Hi, Lyn! I am writing a blog post about pasta/noodles as comfort food during our shared COVID stay-at-home days,and I am asking great cooks if they had any go-to pasta dishes that helped them get through the quarantine days. Do you have any favorites? (If any are in your book, we can link to that!) If you ahve time to let me know, I am at pamkirst@yahoo.com, and if life is too busy, I understand!!!

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