Sometimes I open a blog post and stare at the screen for a long time, wondering how exactly I should start the post. Of late, I feel very blank. One thing that the current situation has taught is that life is never as per our plan. If it was, the girls would have travelled home on the 30th, just like they had travelled for the past couple of years. They were really excited about going home for the summers. When my parents were here in December last year, they were around only for a couple of weeks and the girls weren’t really happy about it. But then, who thought that the virus would derail plans for a long period of time? Things have become more relaxed here now – almost all public places have opened up, masjids are also open now Alhamdulillah and there is no applicable curfew….
Easy Coleslaw
When we keep gap in between participating in challenges, it feels like a long time. I was thinking that I haven’t been a part of the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge for a long time, and then realized that after participating in March for the pancake challenge, due to the current situation, there was only one month with a challenge in between, which I did skip. If you remember, I did mention that each of the participating bloggers get a chance to suggest a theme every month. For this month, Kalyani suggested that we make summer salads. Before I go further, Mayuriji has updated this challenge with a new logo from this month. It actually feels good to see a challenge thrive for a long time and get uplifts as well, such cases are a rarity now. From beginning with under Priyaakka, this challenge has traveled interesting paths and themes…
Sindhi Murg Biriyani | Sindh Style Chicken Biriyani
It’s been ages since I have done a book review. I haven’t been really in a mood for cooking for a long while now and I am constantly fighting my moods. I am actually trying to protect my drafts by doing more themes and trying new recipes, though to complete those have also been a struggle. As has been the practise for the past two years, I have been slowing down and not posting when I am really not in a mood, because then it seems to reflect on the blog as well. 🙂 This book review has been moved at least four times this year. I started off by scheduling it in January and finally, Alhamdulillah, this month it appears! I am just hoping that this start will put in forth a little push to dig in through my cookbooks and start trying something from them. I am…
Simple Chicken Broast | Fried Chicken
Some recipes take a lot of time to try, and one of them is definitely the Broast Chicken. This is going to be the third recipe in the three back-to-back comfort junk food, after the Mashed Potatoes and Mushroom Sauce. A broast chicken is nothing but a fried chicken which has an additional layer of coating on it, with the skin or without. Living in the UAE makes you spoiled for so much choices that is not limited to the KFC. If you ask me my favorite broast chicken here, I would say it is the Texas fried chicken. But frankly speaking, I am not a big fan of broast chicken, because it makes me feel very drowsy after the meal. So if given a chance, I would eat something else, hehe… I have been wanting to make broast chicken at home since a long time. But it…
Easy n Creamy Mushroom Sauce
I think when you say “Mashed Potatoes“, automatically some sauce has to come with it. The highest probability is always for Mushroom Sauce, isn’t it? So let it be the second recipe for the three back-to-back junk food favorites for this week. My girls can’t stand mushrooms. I have no clue why. The day we make something with mushroom, they frown. I try to tell them it is a nice meaty vegetable that won’t make you miss the meat, but somehow it doesn’t go much with them. So when I was making this sauce, I was kind of sure that my girls wouldn’t have it. Anyway, since I was craving for it, I got to making it. I wanted to make a sauce with pantry ingredients. I didn’t want the recipe to be over complicated, with spices that we may normally not stock in our store cupboard. That…
Mashed Potatoes
It is good to see the surroundings opening up. With Covid 19 cases on a downward trend and the all facilities slowly opening up, people are slowly coming back to normalcy. Over the weekend, we went for a long drive. We did see a crowd, but we could generally sense that people aren’t still comfortable with eating food from outside or being outside for too long. Even we didn’t walk around for too long. First of all it is really hot and then having the mask on is the most uncomfortable thing in this weather. With the upcoming months going to be really hot, this is something we may need to get used to. Over the weekend, I was really wanting to make some steak and sides. But I am not very knowledgeable about the steak to be used for such meals. I did get thin steaks and…
Microwave Bread Butter Pudding
There was a time when I used to do some microwave cooking. As soon as we had moved into our current flat, I was left with only an infrared induction and a microwave to manage some cooking. The infrared induction was the biggest mistake of a purchase I had done. It was really difficult to cook with its uneven heating, that I used to get frustrated and give up on it. But cooking on the microwave was a joy. True, for all wrong reasons, microwave cooking is not considered to be a healthy alternative. However, I did find it quite helpful when we used to get bored with outside meals. I do have a list of microwave friendly recipes on the blog, that were successful and just doesn’t include mug cakes. I mean it! My favorite one has to be this rice and chicken curry meal that I prepped…
Aloo Baingan | Potatoes with Brinjal
Even though I have a lot of curry recipes already on the blog, somehow my mind always rotates around my sister’s complaint that I don’t have many “serious” recipes. I still fail to understand what she means by it. Hehe… With the last couple of months teaching a lot about the management of time and resources, it has become really important to learn to cook with whatever is available in the pantry. Alhamdulillah, we never faced a situation where we were short on anything. We still could order online and recieve stocks, we could move out and get the grocery we wanted, but I do know of a lot of friends and acquaintances who stayed in complete lockdown areas and had to adjust with whatever they had with them, and with no option of getting in any deliveries. I never knew that a combination of potatoes and brinjals…
Brownie Butter Cake
This little break has actually broken off my mojo. When I thought I wouldn’t be able to rustle up much posts during last month because of Ramadan, I ended up posting almost every alternate day. I was really looking forward to continuing it, since I have overflown my drafts and have a lot to post onto the blog. But at the same time, I don’t want to pressurize myself just because there are too many drafts staring into my face… Having said that, somehow the current times and incidents are constantly pointing towards one side… I always wonder what the current situation has taught us. With Covid wrecking havoc in many ways in many lives – people losing jobs, taking salary cuts, businesses shutting down irrespective of how long they have been in the market, life to a standstill, paranoia setting into our minds in every way –…
Event Announcement | Kid’s Delight – Cookies
It has been ages since I have done any events on the blog. Valli’s Kid’s Delight has been an event that has been going on for a long time now and most of the bloggers who are a part of the Blogging Marathon take turns to host them every month. This month, it is my chance. It is always a challenge coming up with a theme that are a kids’ favorite and I thought to myself – why not cookies? My girls love cookies. I always make small batches if I am baking some and they disappear in no time. But I am really lazy to bake them, mainly because it needs a little bit of time to shape them and get it done. OK, I know it isn’t a valid reason but yes, I am plain lazy. Hehe… Now since we are almost closing in on summer holidays…
Sumac Labneh Chicken
It feels like ages since I have been on this little space of mine. It wasn’t intentional. I had placed a few posts on certain dates wanting to do the posts as and when I would be able to. I had even signed up for two weeks of the Blogging Marathon. But somehow nothing went as per my plans. I ended up getting a nasty flu that toook two weeks to totally get off me. Somehow it left me totally drained physically and mentally. I have never felt this tired in a long time in my life. The irony was that I still had to work from home, since two weeks was too long a time to take a break from work in the current situation. All I can say, is that I am feeling so much better now Alhamdulillah. Sometimes, I feel that a fever or a…
Easy Apple Crisp
Is it just me who felt Ramadan and Eid just came and went? I didn’t even realize that the 30 days of Ramadan passed by without even letting us think too much. True, it began with doubts about how the days are going to be without the masjids open, without the Tharaweeh and the Qiyamulails… And then Eid came with a doubt of how it is going to be without the Takbeers and the Eid prayers. Before we could even think too much, it just came and went. My SIL and I made breakfast the previous day, the usual ela ada and chicken cutlet. I was wondering if we could at least go and see my ammayi, but when she said a “no”, we decided against it. We then settled for a lunch of mutton biriyani and chicken fry along with the usual suspects, and then called it a…