Passing Through This Life

so i`m sitting in my chair finishing my first blanket and thinking to myself what can i do now , then my 10 months old wobbles over to me and as i`m looking at her i think she need a hat so i went on a mission to learn how to crochet a hat and bam i found a lovely tutorial on how to make one and masha`allah it was so simple http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWFUOay8ajk so i sat down with my yarn and started it took basically a half day to make  and as i went a long i kept thinking how to make more out of it so here is how it is before i added to it and this is it after i finished  

so this is one of my most favorite dishes , being Irish i love cabbage and to join it with garlic makes all the difference   this dish can be made two ways , it can be made in a white sauce were you use onion or a red sauce were you use garlic ... tonight i made the red sauce   ingredients   1 head of cabbage mince meat garlic small amount of rice chickpeas peper, salt, cumin, carwia 2 eggs a little flour tomato puree   method   so i take the leaves of the cabbage one by one and place them into a pot of hot water to soften them a little while they are being soften i put the garlic and some oil in a pot i used my pressure cooker and fry on a small flame then add spices and chickpeas add some water and continue to cook i closed my pressure cooker and cook it for about 20 mins while this is being done i took the leaves from the water a left them to cool while i made the mince mixture which is mince, a handful of rice , 1 egg , and a pinch of each of the spices and mix well then i laid out

so as you can see form my earlier post i have begun to crochet but the piece i did before i was not happy with so i took it apart and decided to re do it even with this one i have made mistakes and that being not counting the number of stiches but i have learned no and decided to start another project at the same time so what am i making ..... well i am making two blankets .... one is from a granny square and the other is a star shape the star shape one i`m very happy with and have done all the counting that is need with it masha`allah granny square blanket star shape blanket     oh i should have put the link to the pattern for the star shape here it is

so how far have i gotton on my crocheting well i decided to keep going with my granny square and i have even added a second colour to it   the only thing is i know i have made mistake in it as you will see with the picture it`s not a complete square in some places but i think for a beginner it`s not bad .... well i hope that it`s not ... lol

so i decided to give this a go my best friend masha`allah has so much patience to take me on, and what laughs we had in the teaching method so she has decided to teach me a granny square so i have spent most of my day starting and then ripping , starting and then ripping so in the end what did i get for my trouble   so umm z how did i do

so masha`allah i was watching a lovely blog that i really enjoy reading and came across this recipe so i decided to try it , and masha`allah it was delicious so thank you henia we really loved this to find recipes please look here at Simplicity`s table by the sea then then

my memories of soup as a child was a packet taken from the cupboard and water added to it and heated on the cooker so when i moved to algeria i found that nearly everything is done form the beginning even soup now in my dh familys house they mostly make all different veg with celery leaves but thier is only so much of that you can take so i have tried different ways of making soup and todays soup is just veg with the bones from a chicken breast , where i had used up the breast   so what i used for this today was   2 courgettes i big fresh fennel 4 medium carrots 1 onion 2 big potatoes 2 luft and the bones from a breast of chicken   all i did was  wash all veg  peeled and sliced them and placed them in a pot then i added a little salt and black pepper and put the lid on and placed it on a medium heat to draw out the jucies from the veg then i added the bones once everything was cooked i took the bones out and picked at the bones to remove the little bits of chicken left on them and then

it`s hard always trying to think of what to cook and sometimes i get so fed up of it all so tonight i decided to make potato gratin and some spiced chicke n   so used my blender and chopped my potatoes and onions     then add bachemal sauce and grate cheese on top i only put a little as i didn`t have enough bachemal sauce   butter flour milk salt /pepper and garlic if you choose to as for quantity it depends on how much you use i just eye it as i have been making it for years     as for the chicken i just used some spices from my cupboard and sprinkled it over the chicken and i put a little pil in my hands and rubbed it into it as i don`t like too much oil   and thats it , i hope you enjoy

so my kids have been driving me mad about making coleslaw they have become experts in it if we buy it when in the uk they oh umi thats not nice yours is nicer , what a way to get to your mothers heart so of course i made it for them     you need i head of cabbage     and about three to four carrots (your choice)   and 1 medium onion   now some ppl dont use onions but i like the tang it gives     and their you have it mixed with the mayo i made previously   enjoy

till i came to algeria i never knew how to make mayo then i was in my bil house and his wife was making it so i watched with interest and masha`allah could not believe how easy it was   here we have 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard 2 egg yolks and salt mix well and add oil slowly , about 1/2 litre till you have this     then add some vinegar and juice of 1 big lemon or just add to taste    

so i don`t want this blog to turn out to be all about cooking so i thought i would share what my children do in school this year my dd11 has entered secondary school and now all she talks about is art they are teaching them different shapes and patterns so here are a few samples of what they do

so today my mil brought me some rishta and chicken , so that was dinner for tonight rishta and i done something extra cauliflower and cheese which i love it`s a piety i didnt have brown sauce to go on top .... i know not nice ... but to me it is ingredents i pack of rishta i chicken chickpeas onion courggets luft (white raddish) or you can use parsnip black pepper salt cinnamon method chop the onion small add chicken pieces and place in a pot with a little oil and cook for a few mins then add spices and chickpeas and place lid on leave fora few mins then add some water halve way through add veg  in the meantime prepare the rishta , this can be steamed the same way as cous cous it`s just cauliflower with a bachemal sauce and cheese of your choice , i can only really get cheddar here , their are other but i`m not a cheese person so i don`t bother and if my dh was here i would put some garlic in the bachemal as that is the only way my dh will eat cauliflower enjoy

so i have decide to try to increase my eman so what i`m doing is taking out my tafsir of the quran and started with surat al baqkarh and going slowly and as i go i will take notes just as i have decided to this my friend as if we can do it together and compare notes so masha`allah we will have a study sessions i`m really looking forward to that

so when i started this blog i wasnt sure if i would keep it up as i have never done anything like this before i wasnt even sure what i was going to put on it but when looking through things i realized that you are following it and i am so grateful for that so i would like to say thank you to you all and i hope that you will continue to follow my blog

so today i decided to try something different i have never cook this dish before but masha`allah it came out really nice and even i used fresh fennel and was able to hide the fact that it was their as my kids would never have eaten it ingredients chicken breast fennel spinach onion garlic black pepper cumin ginger salt rice method dice onion and chicken and place in a pot add a little oil and cook on a low heat then add the spinach and fennel that has been cut into strips and then the spices and cook for a few mins then add water or stock and cook on a medium heat when half cooked add rice and continue until rice is cooked and their is a little sauce then place on a big plate and let cool for a little while so that some of the sauce will be soaked up and eat with bread enjoy