I haven’t been sharing much on the blog because it’s been the usual hussle-bussle. I won’t say nothing is happening in life… There is a lot happening but somehow I don’t want to sink myself into it. It is always better to try and stay afloat, rather than push yourself down and feel awful about it. From the start of the year, things haven’t been really positive, and that has stalled even my weight loss. I am not able to put in as much discipline into my eating as I had done last year, and this is frustrating me to the core. But I am trying to stay focused on myself and keeping myself on line, making sure that I don’t lose all the hard work that I have done last year. Maintenance is as important and sustainable at the stage I am in, I guess… 🙂 Talking…
Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
Hazelnuts are pretty expensive nuts, just like pecans and pine nuts. That’s why it is something I never buy. The only times I have bought some pecans were to bake these cookies and these ones too and I treated it like gold. I buy pine nuts only when I know I have to be using it for some recipe, and that too, I buy so little that I invite a stupid look from the fellow at the counter. 😀 It so happened that I was walking towards the vegetable aisle when a box of hazelnuts stared at me. I looked at it, wishing I could buy it and then looked at the price. I re-looked at it again. And again. And again. I couldn’t really believe my eyes. The next thing that happened was that the box landed up straight into the trolley. Once the box reached home, since…
Wheatgerm Cookies
If there is something that can be baked within 30 minutes, then there is no points for guessing – cookies! Even muffins can be done in that time, but totally dependent on the density of the batter. Cookies also have its condition – that the dough can be used to bake immediately, which is usually not the case for cookies like chocolate chip ones. While wondering what to come up as the third post for the “Meals under 30 minutes” theme for the Blogging Marathon #94, my eyes fell on these delicious cookies that I had baked recently. There was this box of wheatgerm that I had bought and was approaching its best before date. Bloggers and cooking fanatics would definitely appreciate how that feels! Even though I have truncated my purchases so much now unlike before, I still have such issues coming up once in a while….
Ghorayeba ~ Arab Shortbread Cookies
I can’t mention how relieved I am. My blogging mojo has just not picked up as much as I would have loved. Last year Ramadan, if I filled my drafts with as much as clicks I could take before the sunshine vanishes, this year, I have done nothing. My blog is moving with drafts that I had clicked last Ramadan – I am being very honest here! This Ramadan, I have been time tight and locked. Over and above that, I have no mood to click anything new or cook anything new. I am sure, this too shall pass… So when I put up the Muslim Food Blogger challenge post for this month, which is based on the theme “Eid Specials from Around the World”, I searched up a bit and pinned up on my kitchen notice board the easiest cookie recipe in the world! But I procrastinated…
Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies
Remember I had mentioned in this post how I used to land up with recipes while riding the metro? This cookie I am going to share with you is one of them. Thankfully, the article in the paper mentioned from which site it was and I hunted down the link for it too… This cookies is a mixture of sorts – all the ingredients used would anyway be there in the pantry, and is apt for finishing off anything remaining! Like a over-ripe banana nobody wants to eat and isn’t enough to bake a whole cake… or a peanut butter jar that is right there touching the bottom… These peanut butter oats cookies are full of goodness – sweetened with honey and the banana, flavored with peanut butter, having bites of rolled oats and then generous amount of chocolate chips! I have used half of chocolate peanut butter…
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
I am excited to be doing the review for a very cute and interesting upcoming cookbook! Miranda Couse, who blogs at “Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt” is releasing her cookbook called “The Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook”, which is up for release on October 31 and up for pre-booking on Amazon. Since I am a pretty lazy cookie maker but a lover of cookbook reviews, I decided to jump at the opportunity and get it going. The book is published by Rockbridge Press and contains more than 150 recipes of classics, occasion special and other American favorites. The book starts off with a lovely introduction about how Miranda started the whole process of working on the cookbook and she dedicates it to the two cookie monsters in her family – her husband and little boy. The book then moves on to mentioning the essentials required for baking, and…
Triple Chocolate Pecan Cookies
Since the main cook (ahem ahem!) has a soft spot towards chocolate, somehow by default it gets selected. I am not someone who likes to make cookies. I feel it is a lot of work. For a cake, mostly you do the batter, pour into the pan and forget it till the timer rings, while cookies need your full attention and time till the whole dough is done. I lack that patience, basically speaking. 🙁 That is why there are very limited cookie recipes on the blog even though there are 1000s of recipes! I wish I could improve on that, but as long as I don’t keep my fixation towards cookies aside, I don’t think the numbers will improve! OK, let me bring back your attention to these delicious stack of cookies that you are seeing on the page right now. Don’t they look really pretty? I…
Orange Chocolate Chip Biscotti ~ Guest post for Priya’s Kitchenette
I must say that I can’t sit properly on my chair while typing this post – I am really excited! 😀 Maybe because I am on the space of somebody who has been super sweet and supportive of me for a long period of time… 🙂 Today, I am on Priya’s space. My interaction with Priya started when she went on with the posting-one-recipe-a-day as she started her little space called “Priya’s Kitchenette”. Everybody keeps asking me how I post so frequently, but if you check out my blog, I really can’t do long stretches like she did – posting every single day of a year! Not surprisingly, her hard work was discovered and recognized by the Limca Book of Records. After this year, she concentrated on growing her blog and now she has her own event firm, which makes me feel proud of having a friend like…
Ma’amoul ~ Middle Eastern Date Filled Cookies
We have a small group of enthusiastic bloggers called the Muslim Food Bloggers. Last month, we decided that we would go ahead and do a challenge every month. We will be doing various challenges over the month to avoid the monotony. I am really excited to be starting this event and hosting the event. Sincerely hoping that we will be able to make the event a regular and long running event, InShaAllah… 🙂 We will be working on a theme every month, that will be posted on the 10th of every month and will be linked in for everybody to see all the participating posts. This is just a humble beginning. May Allah bless us in this little activity and strengthen our bonding, Aameen… 🙂 To start with, the first challenge is to try a recipe from the blog of a very famous blogger, who is so well…
Coconut Pistachio Biscotti
Everything has to come to an end, right? That is the policy of life. I had joined the Secret Recipe Club in June and was really enjoying my monthly assignments, when Sara declared last month that the SRC was winding up for good and November would be the last month. The monthly participation was dwindling and according to her, the club would be better off ending on a high note rather than allowing it to die. All of us agreed to it. I have been a part of a lot of challenges previously and it is heart breaking to see how the initial interest just goes down and then it goes into a natural death stage. The SRC is a highly successful event that has been going on for a few years now, so the decision she has taken was for good. I would have started in January, had not…
Naan Berenji ~ Persian Rice Flour Cookies
A little while ago, I had an FB conversation with Lubna. I was actually frustrating at my lack of understanding of the basics of photography. How much ever I try, I feel I am not hitting what I want to or maybe I have hit a plateau. I am not able to get rid of my habit of clicking night pictures, since most of my best cooking happens at night. I know there is no point in me running behind sunshine at a time when I am just tired from work, and I try to limit my cooking over weekends not to overdo myself. Those are my shortcomings – I cannot go without it so I have to learn to live with it. She asked me just one question – what do you intend with the blog? Is it a recipe blog or is it a food photography…
Thuthukudi Macaroons ~ Thoothukudi Cashew Egg White Cookies
There were times when I had no dearth of topics to type in. But now, my mind mostly seems blank when I open to do a post. Sometimes, I feel it may be because I post five times a week but then I have been doing this all throughout the time I have been blogging. I am very notorious in going full fledged with cooking at times and overloading my drafts, and after that phase, going on a totally dry phase of not cooking much! For all those who wonder how I feed my blog almost daily despite working, the above is the secret. I take advantage of myself when I am in a mood to cook. There are times when I have cooked and clicked upto seven dishes a day. But I have not been doing that since the start of the year, thanks to a packed schedule…
Chocolate Chip Cookies – Back in the Day Bakery Style
Yes, I know… I normally don’t blog on Saturdays. But sometimes, seeing a recipe tempts you so much that you instantly decide to do a bake along and participate without delay. Normally, I am good at keeping my temptations at bay, or I make what I wished to make but seeing these cookies on Zoe’s space, I just couldn’t hold myself. And I got myself baking them yesterday morning and here, they are on the blog, in time for the closing of the link in! 🙂 Every month, Zoe along with Lena and Joyce do an event called Bake Along, which is posted towards the end of every month and they keep open a linky for those who are interested in joining in. Zoe’s blog is one that I drool upon endlessly and I am so fed up of keeping bookmarks on her blog that I have literally…
Saffron Olive Oil Cookies
Life can give you a lot of unexpected turns. Last night, we were shocked by the news of a cousin, who met with a horrific accident and is now battling for his life in the ICU at the hospital. All we can do at the moment is continuously make Du’a for him and hope that Allah has something better destined for him and his family, InShaAllah… As I am battling my inner thoughts and emotions, I see the below verse in the morning: “No calamity befalls, but with the Leave of Allah, and whosoever believes in Allah, He guides his heart. And Allah is the All-Knower of everything.” (Surah At-Taghabun:11) It keeps telling us that we are so powerless in front of the Superpower… May Allah give him shifa soon, his family strength and give us the aafiyah to serve Him in the way He likes, so that we die…
Oats Butterscotch Cookies
The Home Baker’s Challenge was pretty active for more than a year but after the bun challenge, for which I baked these delicious Iyengar Style Khaara Buns, Priya akka decided to give a break to the event and restart in September. Since she was still occupied with lot more matters, she was not thinking of restarting the challenge but a small message and the plethora of support that came by encouraged me to host this month so as to restart the event. So here I am as the host for this month, and the theme given was “Baking with Oats”. I had chosen a few interesting bakes with oats, since now it is one ingredient that has grown away from just being used as porridge. One of the recipes I had selected were these cookies, that I had baked off the wrapper of the pack of Hershey’s Butterscotch Chips…