Passing Through This Life

Assalamu Alaikum Life changes and so does the weather ... their have been some cold days and some really cold days but for me i have really felt it but i do miss that time of the year in ireland ... sitting beside the fire and drinking a cup of tea ...  of a nice hot bowl of soup and being irish it must come with some butter bread  my daughter made this wonderful soup it was hot a spicy and really warms the body ...she likes to try out new recipes this one has fennel and potato as well as chilli flakes and cream  on the days that are not so cold then something light is good  A nice light egg omelette filled with salad .. this has become a favourite of ours  and so easy to make ... it goes good with some home made pitta bread too  whats your favourite dish ???

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 For months my oven hasn't worked and all of a sudden it was working again so the first thing i made was pizza roll ... while doing this i was teaching my daughter my 13 year old how to do this as my 15 year old already knows how to this is basically the samr as the homemade pizza i make only the sauce is a little different ... all i do is use tomato puree and add spices of my choice and then i thin it out to make it easier to spread it is roll out like normal pizza here is my recipe for that you can add any topping and then just take the side and roll the dough till it's like a log ... then cut into rounds and place on tray ... i will add cheese on top as well as the cheese that is inside and then bake for about 15 to 20 mins

So as you know kids are well and truly back in school and home life has gotten quieter .... in my house this is a change and the biggest change is having the kids come home for their lunch everyday ...as before their were in private school and got fed their I must admit i like it ... it keeps me on my toes and gives me bak the routine i use to have so it`s all good For lunch i do like to give them something lite as i do like the idea of them going back to school and feeling heavy and not giving their full attention to the teacher  So i made these sweetcorn fritters ... these i had last year in my friends house and loved them ... and i had made them a few times and then stopped ...and really forgot about them till just now .... their easy and tasty 1 tin of sweetcorn small onion diced really small some parsely black  pepper and salt 2 eggs take small spoon fulls and drop in to hot oil and dont press them down then once cooked eat as you please ....

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

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 ‫

Subhan`allah theirs only and few day left and thats another ramadan finished ... i have to say it went too quick I hope each and everyone of you have manged to get what you wanted form this blessed month and that it will continue  for you into the next year and it will make you stronger in your deen Now normally half way through ramadan i get to a stage where i get fed up and dont know what to cook ... but this year masha`allah it only happened today .... and these are the days i love that my dh can cook when he wants and he takes over the kitchen . so what did he make ..... well the pic says it all this is a fish dish but can also be done with chicken  and any kind of fish ... i asked dh what fish this was he sai merlin ... but not sure about that anyway the sauce was made by grating onion and garlic and frying in a little oil on a low heat ... while thats been done take some tomatoes and place in a bleander with some black pepper and salt and thyme and th...

Masha`allah .... allah has blessed me with the husband i have and the family i have so i bet your wondering why i`m saying this a.... well let me tell you .... at the beginning or ramadan i tolad my dh i wasnt going down the same ramadan road of cooking ..cooking.... cooking that ramadan iant about that and masha`allah he agreed.... so i tld him that things will be simple and not too much well masha`allah thats how it has happened .... usually on my table we would have borak  and pizza as well as other things like the chourba ... and if it wasnt borak then some sort of pies .... well this year i have done one item every day so one day borak ...one day pizza.... one day pies ... you see how it goes so a few days ago i had no cooking and decided that i would treat everybody and thats what i did ... i made apple tart some biscuits and these wonderful stuffed bread rolls    I started by making the apple tart and found that i had messed up the ingredients by ad...

So here`s another one for you using the same recipe as my stuffed bread and bread rolls i made pitta bread Now this is the second time i made them .... the first time was with just brown flour ...but i found that it was too heavy so this time around i mixed both brown and white together and masha`allah it was defiantly much better and lighter I`m defiantly liking the way they turned out and will be making them alot more even when the kids go back to school as they can be used for everything I aslo think that us buying bread form out side will be reduced alot too.... which is good as i hate waste ans sometimes depending on whats cooked the bread doesnt get eaten So what do you think...... Enjoy your Ifter today and may allah accept all of your fast

So with ramdan in full swing and everything is going to plan masha`allah i though that  it was time to learn to make a few new things one o those was bread rolls so i took the recipe form here which is my stuffed bread and increased the amount .... which is you can double of triple the amount it`s really  up to you ... i actually just eye balled it i also added some brown flour to it to  and masha`allah i was impressed by how well they turned out .... i would imagine that you could stuffed these too So what do you think... not bad looking ... and masha`allah they taste real good too

So i want to be able to try new things this ramadan .... so sitting here and trying to think what i could make for iftar ..... then i remembered i needed to make some bread .... but what to do ... then i also remembered my Friend  stuffed bread  and always wanted to try it so that what i have done here`s how mine turned out     so what do you think .......and now the inside Right i think i should have written the recipe fo you so here it is but you can also get it from the link which is coloured under the name friend 150ml tepid water 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 1tsp oil 259g flour 1 1/4 tsp instant yeast as for the amount of water i just eyed it till it came together just knead together and allow it to rise and then poll it out to your require amount ... but if you go to the blog of my friend you will even see pics their 

So i thought that i should every so often do a review on something that i have tried form other blogs and their recipes .... i think it`s a great way to let other know that it does work and tastes great so here`s one for you .... this recipe come form a very good friend of mine and her blog Being Kate Masha`allah we always make this type of food in out house but never thought to do it the way kate makes it so i thought lets try it and see Well masha`allah it was excellent  and looks so much better than the way most algerians do it ...which is by mixing in the eggg and keep mixing which by the end doesnt look very appealing here`s how it turned out for me I would defiantly recommend this  recipe and tell you to pop by kates blog and let her know weither you liked it too

masha`allah clear skies and sunshine all around ...well thats the weather in algeria at the moment ....it`s just nice not too warm yet .... and what come with this time of the year  Well for one the food changes no more big one pot stews as it gets too warm for that .... the prices of veg is coming down slowly but surely peppers are coming back into season ..even tho they are around most of the year ...but once the season for them hits they become cheap ..so every home you pass will have the smell of peepers being cooked in one way or another so this is were the thinking cap come in as i now have to try to find light dinners to feed my family One of those dishes is Fish Cakes  and masha`allah they are going down a treat here even my dh likes them and place a big dish of salad beside them and were away to go These are light a filling and so easy and the quantity to use depends on the size and needs of your family for me i used just potatoes...... tuna..... pars...

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  

i`m always on the look out for a good recipe when it comes to chicken breast and maha`allah i found one here .......jazak`allah khair nicola for such a great recipe everyone loved it and insha`allahit will become a regular in our house so as usual i have to be the taster in my house and i got so carried away that i placed them on the table and nearly forgot to take the picture ...so thats why you only see a few left on the plate .... so big thumbs up

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 ...

Sometimes it is so hard to find things to put on the table and especially when some of your kids are a little fussy ....also i hate to throw out veg that might start to go off a little because they didnt get used  ....till just recently when my friend was here and mentioned that she made some carrot and courgette fritters and that all her family loved it ..... now the amazing thing was that i had been browsing for a while and a few of the sites i came across had the courgette fritters and i really wanted to try them but i was afraid  that they would not be eaten and i would end up throwing them out ... but after listen to my friend i decided to biet the bullet and masha`allah i`m so happy i did ... they have become a favorite in my house so much that dh loves them too ... now i couldnt remember exactly what my friend added to her but i made mine like this 2 big courgettes About 4/5 carrots (this depends on size ) 2 eggs about 3 tbsp of flour .. (you can add more if you...

Many years ago i was in my friends house and she was making this dish and masha`allah when i tasted it i though yummmmy .....so when i went home a little later i tried it and everyone loved it ... i have used it over the years but of lately forgot all about it til today i was sitting in my kitchen thinking what to cook tonight especially after dh bringing  me my shopping and also having that friend drop in to me today too ... so what did i make you ask well it is a djuezzes with chicken and potatoes and parsley so first of all i marinated my chicken with onion.... black pepper ...salt.... cumin.... and razel hanout (all spice). and parsley ... i left this for about a hour then place it into the pan and fried it until chicken is colored at this stage i add a little water and allow to come to the boil then adding a little more water i add the potatoes and allow to come back to the boil and leave simmer  keeping an eye on the sauce and not allowing it to dry out .... by the e...