Passing Through This Life

Assalamu Alakium So its been nearly a month since the birth of my second grandchild  and wow has it been hectic ... his big sister is nearly 2 and such a handful , i find this generation of kids are different to when i grew up or even to when i had my kids ....  So far what we have dealt with is the boy having to have numerous blood test done due to jaundice , its amazing as to the level it gets to in order to have these tests done ... alhamdu lilah everything was fine but still as the yellow is still in he eyes he had to go for a prolong jaundice test to make sure its nothing to do with the liver so now we wait for the results Im in such awe with this little fellow to the point that when he cries and does this special thing with his bottom lip i find my heart breaks and all i want to do is pick him up and cuddle him and then he does it a second time and  find tears coming into my eyes ,,,,ive become one of those soppy grandmothers lol,,, But r...

When i started this blog i never knew what i was really going to post . i started out with doing posts about food but when on a budget their really is only so much you can post about then theirs the hobbies i had which was crocheting but also stopped for a while i did take it up again and started on a new blanket for my grandson to be pics will come once im done . then the family grew kids are all much older now .my son is 22 and doing well in his studies . and my daughters well as i said before one of my daughters got married and has been for over 2 years now she had her first baby in January 2018 and now is due her second who at this time is 4 days over due . so now that the family has grown time to change the way i post . i hope to do more cooking but also take about life as a grandmother too and the differences between me raising my kids and the way my daughter and her husband may choose to raise their i know their will be a few opinions going back and forth but i see that ...

Asalamu alikum  I'm back and ready to go ... things have changed and i started to learn some new recipes so i think it is a great time to start posting again  so what have i learned well the first thing is algerian bread called motula Ingredients 3 bowl of flour 1 bowl of seomlina 3 tbsp yeast 6 tbsp of sugar 3 tbsp of salt  and around 2 bowls or warm water ..you may need more  my next post i will take pics of every stage of making the dough  the bread above is made on the tajinn but you call also make it in the oven your oven must be very hot 

Asalamu alikum alot has happen this last year we moved into our new home and even tho we moved it isnt finished but alhamdu lilah i love it .. we have all turn a year older and my daughter seems to have gotten the baking bug and love making caked this is one of hers .. it is a simple sponge cake in fact it is 3 cut in to half and a coloring added to each ..she made a cream to place between each and then when assembled she covered it with cream and then place  fondant over  it and decorate it she did this when we held the monthly meeting in my home and it went down a treat since then she has been experimenting in the kitchen .... and i will hopefully post some of her creations here to show you  OPEN PIE The crusty is  2 cups of flour  10grms of baking powder  a picnch of salt and sugar  half cup of oil  and water to bring it together  the dough can be placed into the fridge for about a half hour ...

Asalamu Alikum  Subhan Allah i had such plans for my blog in ramadan and was so looking forward to it as i was enjoying posting again ... and then my hubby says that were ok to the uk for a few weeks which went on for the whole of ramadan and eid which i didnt enough ...but Alhamdu lilah i back in dz and rearing to go ... so stay tuned

Asalamu alikum this is new for me as i am using my phone to write i hope this works so i can start to write again

Asalamu Alikum Subhan`allah it has been way too long since i posted anything here ... i kind of lost myself when it has come to cooking and have tended to stick with the same thing over and over again... but ma'shaa'allah ramadan is coming and even tho i want this year to be about worship and pleasing allah cooking also will come into this ... i will try to stick not not cooking as much as i have done in previous years and try to stick to the way i did it last year ... I am looking forward to what this ramadan will bring me in the way of deen and my family and the changes that came this year too So stayed tuned my friends and in'shaa'allah by the mercy of allah i hope to be able to place some new thing on my blog Jazak`allah khair Anisa umm imran

Asalamu alikum Well it sure has been a long time since i posted so i thought let me share this Pocasi recipe with you while i remember This soup is made from split green peas first i wash the peas and then add them to my pot (i used a pressure cooker) i added onion ... garlic..... i diced up carrots ...courgettes...and potato into  really small bits and added to the pot i also added black pepper....salt ...cumin...and razel hanut.... fill with water and placed lid on  and allowed to cook about 30 to 40 mins in total ... then let the pressure out and open then  stir.... if you need more water add and allow to cook towards the end add some tomato puree and allow to thicken up a little .... when i make this i do not use oil and i should say that this type of soup will continue to thicken and even the next day you will need to add more water to thin out ... but masha`allah is a really nice soup

Asalam wa alikum So whats for afternoon tea ...well let me tell you .... after 9 years of living here i still dont know the names of a few thing and this is one of them .... what i call it is Algeria`a version of french toast with sugar.... even to say french toast might be wrong but when i was growing up and was doing cooking in school that was one of the things we were taught but not with the sugar so all you need is some stale bread i try not to buy to much bread these days as it doesnt get eaten to much ... my family seems to prefer when i make pitta bread anyway what you needis stale bread (we use french stick) eggs sugar oil to fry it in and thats it ...easy huh!!! just cut the french stick into rounds as big as you like dip it in the eggs that also has a little milk in it then fry once finished ... dip straight into sugar and presto chango!!!! enjoy with what ever takes your fancy

So yes once again another djuezzes .... one of the thing i love about algeria that one name can mean so many things So what djuezzes did i make ... well it`s a mince meat balls in a red sauce with carrots and peas ... the carrots are diced and the spices used are black pepper , cumin, salt . and paprika ... i also use carwia  and garlic then i cut some potatoes in rounds and fried them and that`s it i was first introduced to this by a friend and in her husband family they would put chilli in it to make it hot ... now masha`allah i love it that way ... but my kids aren't too fond of it  In my husband family they make something similar but the carrots are cut in circles and they dont but chilli or paprika in it or even carwia ... but when i make it i do  they also dont use garlic but i do .. this is how it looks

Being on a budget mean i have to think of way to feed my kids and now that they go to public school i now have to start to give them something for break time ... i`m not much of a baker and i hold my hand up to that ... so i try to find things that are simple enough and dont cost too much money to make and the kids will like so broiche is what i thought i would try today .... i have been wanting to try this for a long time and finally i did i got the recipe form my friend  but what i did is join two of them together  so from this one  and this one and this is what i came up with so what do you think ?

So it has come to it ... Back to menu Planning and tightening the purse string a bit  especially with the kids back to school on sunday and they will now be coming home for lunch so i need to be more orgnaised .. So over the last few day thats what i have been doing i made my menu plan for the week and masha`allah so far so good i have stayed on track I was told about this dish form my friend Being Kate and masha`allah i could believe ow simple and tasty it was and also how one piece of a chicken breast could be stretched and still everybody have some so yes it is a pasta dish .... made in a bachemal sauce but without the butter and the chicken is poached in some chicken stock and then shredded it went down a treat masha`allah so this will be used again ... jazak`allah khair umm z

So now with the kids back to school i have to try to make extra things so as to fill their tums and one of those things is Msmem now i have made these a few time but always had a little problem with them ... so i started to research them and found a youtube video on them and masha`allah was a difference it is measurement are totally up to each person for what i made today ... i used 1 bowl of semolina fine and 1 bowl of flour and salt and mixed with water but i followed some of the ways of this video  http://youtu.be/d9yC9Nf1FHs ‫

So this is oe of the cakes i made for eid .... now i`ll let you in a secret this is the second time i made them The first time they didnt have the fullness like these one do ... but according to my dh and kids they tasted great The problem the first time was i added to much egg white to the nut mixture and they to help firm it i kept adding sugar well that was all wrong so this time around masha`allah i`m so pleased that it worked out ... and even better their my dh favorite type of cake ... so i can see him come home every so often with almonds for making them The recipe for this was given to me by my neighbour Nut Mixture 3 bowls of almonds (this works out about 1/2 kilo of almonds) and these were place in machine to powder them down 1 bowl of icing sugar vanilla/lemon egg whites .( it will depend on the mixture as to how much you use ... i ended up using a little over two) Pastry 3 bowls of flour 1 bowl of melted butter/margarine vanilla/lemon mazhar ...

salam wa alikum bloggers it has been to long since i wrote ...so let me tell you what i have been doing ... i have started a new chapter in my life which is losing weight masha`allah .....so far i have lost nearly 24 kilo and i`m so pleased with this .... i still have a long way to go with ramadan approaching to i`m hoping that i can get the best of it both spiritually and physically Spiritually in learning new duas and trying to memories a new ayah everyday as well as the reading of the mushaf Physically ... i will keep with my diet and exercise and hope that i will have good rewards at the end of it In case any of you are interested these are some of the videos i use to help me lose the weight  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dTApo0gkdY&feature=g-vrec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La14c-9TAe8&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUieo6Mc9EA&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52uvwCi03yE also these i mix and match but ...

In algeria we use alot of different spices and one in particular is carwia  also know as carvi or caraway ....i have asked many time my dh what exactly it is and he could never tell me    Caraway plant In my dh family their are a few good cooks and they always told me to  use carwia ... when using garlic and tomatoes as it goes hand in hand ... but smell it i knew it can be used alot more than that so i had to goolge it to find out exactly what it was a this is what i found  Carwia   the seeds can also be ground up  but dont leave for too long like most spices it will loose it fullness

After a couple of weeks of having the kids at home and my dad and dh being here too and the amount of cooking that got done ... you can well imagine when the kids are back at school and dh and my dad gone that i like to take it easy ....so thats what i do .... and to have easy meals that take no time at all in cooking is what i look for i love all in ones that you can just place on a big plate and get stuck into so here we have some mince cooked with onion and garlic ... black pepper..salt...cumin... and carwia..... 2 tomatoes chopped and a little tomato puree cooked together adding a little water to help  and then when finished adding cooked pasta of your choice  and bring it together and enjoy ....... their is one lovely recipe i want to try courtesy of a friend  thats belong to a forum i`m on  and it looks really good it looks like a lasagne take a look  

Isnt it amazing how your days just mange to slip away and then you sit down and think wow where did today go .... this has been happening alot lately ... it`s even amazing how the year passes by so quick well for us it has and i cant believe that it was nearly a year ago my dad came to visit and already coming again .... this week end he will be here for the second time ... but staying a little longer than before ...all the kids are so excited even the little one as she knows he has some gifts for her even this last month has been one for the books ... it has been busy and to say that with out my dh being here .... my son fractured his arm which meant that i needed to do more of the outside chores that he does for me and these days i would rather sit at home .... also the kids have had exams and alhamdu`lilah they have come out the other side of it ... with two of them getting excellent marks and comment form teachers ... and one not so good ... but she will have next term to ma...

so it has been a couple of weeks since i wrote a post  .... so now my routine has changed again ......i have had to start budgeting and menu planning so this has changed the way i do things a little i still get up at 6 and then after breakfast and bedrooms tidyed and 5the 2 year old dressed and feed it`s time to take the kids to school so by 8:15 i`m back i sit and have a cuppa and when thats finished i will get into the cleaning .... masha`allah by 10/ 10:30 i will be finished and when my hubby is here i will make some lunch unless i have something left over form the night before then i will heat that up and maybe make some small and light to go with it ... now on some days i will have to go back to the school to pick up the kids around 12 but most days it`s 4 .... so if i dont need to pick them up until four then i will feed those who need their lunch and after this clean up and start to prepare the dinner for the evening ... some time i will cook it through and o...

So here`s another one for you it`s an algerian dish called k`babh  this dish can be made with either chicken or meat balls so today i went with mince balls .... it is a very simple dish and very tasty ... to tell the truth it had been a while since i made it as alot of time i leave out the parsley and egg  but this time i went to whole way to getting this dish right  you must be careful that their isnt too much sauce or too little sauce  and as long as you can get that then the dish speaks for it`s self ... believe me it took me a long time to get  it right ... that now my dh nephew  says i cook better than his mum and he love to eat what i make TO MAKE THE MINCE BALLS mince meat (as much or as little as you like) a handful of rice ( this also depends on the amount of mince ) breadcrumbs (optional ) 1 egg black pepper salt cumin TO MAKE THE SAUCE 1 onion handful of chick peas black pepper salt cumin chips(fried potatoes) METHOD ...