Wanted to share this beautiful poem, just for reading and enjoying sake… 🙂 It took me two reads to get the whole gyst of it… hehe… just a beautiful way of putting the concept of love… OK, off to another lovely bread that I baked some time ago. Anything with banana, I am always game, but then if it has coconut and walnuts, then I just cannot resist. When I saw this recipe at Shema’s space, I knew I had to try it, as all the flavors mentioned are just what I would have loved. And I was definitely not mistaken. I baked this the night before for breakfast the next day morning and so guilt-lessly gulped into two large slices along with my cup of green tea at office. Shared a part with my colleagues as well, who loved it – yeah, the little bunch who sit…
Dulche De Leche Bundt Cake
It is always a pleasure to be writing guest posts to my fellow bloggers. Infact, I love the idea of guest posting as it improves virtual relationships between bloggers and makes it a place for some friendly competition and co-existence. I would like to thank Haffa for considering me to be a part of her little lovely blog! Even though Haffa’s blog is quite young, I love the variety of recipes that she has on her blog. I am a big fan of Pakistani food and love to eat them whenever we are out. I have already bookmarked some recipes to try when I get the chance to, like Sooji Ka Halwa and Chapli Kebabs. I sincerely wish Haffa many many more months and years of successful blogging ahead… After quite a thought, I decided to share this awesome cake that I had prepared as a “thank you” gesture to…
Peanut Butter Cookies
There are times when we wish that Allah would give us answers to the umpteen number of questions that we have in our mind. “Why is it like this when it could have been like that?”, “Why me every time?”… When depression seeps in, it is common for such questions to come up in our mind. What we don’t tend to understand is that – at the same time, many others are being tested in much harsher ways, some asking the same question in their mind while many others enduring it all with patience – a quality which is so beautifully denoted in the Qur’an as “Sabr“. I am not somebody, who can boast of high patience levels. In fact, my patience is something I am very ashamed of. Each time I wish I could really improve my levels. But Alhamdulillah, nowadays through diversifying my energies, I seem to…
Easy Cheesecake Cupcakes
Due to my hectic schedule, I was not intending to cook up anything for the February Home Baker’s Challenge, which is being hosted by Siri of The Brave Cook. She had given a list of Valentine bakes which were really irresistible, but all of them needed some time and patience to make that I was considering not doing it. That is when my eyes fell on this recipe in the list. One Friday, to be precise the Friday when Valentine’s Day fell, I made this as dessert for lunch. Let me do this with a disclaimer that we don’t celebrate this day at all! It just happened that I ended up baking on that day, hehe… Even though it was slightly on the more sweet side with the DDL contributing to the sweetness even more, every body enjoyed it, considering that the portions served were also quite small…
Blonde Brownies| Blondies
I love challenges that give me recipes that are on my bookmark for ages. This month’s Home Baker’s Challenge was by Shey of Just Not the Cakes and she had chosen an array of recipes related to the national cooking dates of USA. As per her list, January 22 is supposed to be National Blonde Brownie Day. Well, we are past that day, however, I don’t think blondies need a day to bake!!! The recipe she provide was this one, however the quantity was large and I was not able to halve it. I wanted to bake a normal brownie pan for my colleagues. After checking with her, I changed the recipe and tried and absolutely loved the result! If you are not very keen on brownies and are more of a white cake person, then this one is for you. I took half of the blondies to office and…
Coconut Muffins
OK, to start off the post with what I love to do – share quotes, of course! 🙂 A very thought provoking quote by a very famous artist – I guess he needs no introduction, right? Being simple is really difficult in today’s world, which has its eyes all yellowed by the “ash-posh” of the modern lifestyle. People tend to look down on those who seem to look ‘different’ from the gang. Many fail to understand that there is a beauty in keeping things simple – whether it’s your dressing, your attitude, the way you hold yourself, your food… anything! It is in being simple that your mind will find rest. I feel keeping things simple and straight forward make matters clear to you, especially when you want to move forward and tackle challenges and difficulties in life. Complications will only lead to confusions and disappointments, rather than solving…
Wholewheat Brownies
I am surprised that I am doing a post from home! Normally I refrain from sitting on my laptop, first of all, I suppose most of us have this issue of having snag ladded laptops or personal computers at home, that were meant to only irritate in first place! Hehe… On top of that, Azza loves to come and hit random keys off the keypad that sometimes I see very unusual characters spring up on my post! Since the kids are sleeping, I thought this is the best time to plug in a post quickly before they wake up – provided my little lappy cooperates! Hopefully, it should… 🙂 Today is a part of a long weekend, but we are in the colds. We had a day full of rain yesterday, which ensured that we all were inside home, full on with sweaters, socks and what not! It was really…
Pinwheel Cookies
The last weekend of 2013 vanished without much happening. A lot of guests and loads of cooking had literally exhausted umma and me, that we opted for a silent yesterday, where we had minimal cooking. As much as I enjoy cooking, days as such really temper your mood down that you do not want to do anything with the kitchen for the many many days to come! Today also I am thinking of pulling my folks at home out for dinner rather than something home made… A couple of days of no-cooking will not be of any harm, would it? 🙂 My kids love cookies, period! They love to munch on biscuits, wafers and cookies any time and our home has always stock of whatever they like. Nowadays, I am trying to push myself to bake them at home, so that I know what they are eating is home…
Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
I visited an old friend on mine in Oman a couple of weeks ago. I was going to see her after 15 years – yes, that is after school! You could wonder how excited I was. Iwanted to ensure that I would make something with my own hands and take it for her as a token of love. That was when I remembered that I was yet to complete the month’s Home Baker’s Challenge, which is hosted by the lovely Priya, who blogs at “Cook Like Priya“. The list she provided were some lovely Christmas bakes, of which I zeroed on these cookies, as they seemed easy to make yet perfect for gifting to somebody. I made the recipe into half and got quite a big quantity of cookies, which I carried completely for her children. I don’t have to say that the whole day, we chatted like school children…
Chocolate Mocha Mug Cake
I really don’t know how I missed to share with all my readers a lovely snap that I managed to take while stuck in traffic during the last weekend. Yes, I know, it’s not the best time to enjoy such a glimpse when you are frustrated and in confusion whether you would reach office on time, but then how can I just ignore when the canvas of the Almighty was splashed with beauty? I’ve always been open about my love for beauty, my love for nature and anything that looks beautiful. Beauty depends from person to person. I really believe that we should never question another person’s beauty visions because it is like questioning his own existence! “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” – so true it is… The day I clicked this, the day was quite hazy with some clouds, but the sun just refused to…
Dark Chocolate Pecan Cookies & A Review!
From the start of my blogging days, I have been very vocal about my relationship with Jehanne. I don’t think I need to elaborate so much on it again now! It started off with some “hi-bye” chats which went on to become definitely the most cherished relationship that I have developed through blogging. Despite being a busy doctor and a mother of one, I really admire her humble nature and enthusiasm to try different aspects of cooking. I really loved the fact that she had done a guest post for me when I was hardly three months into blogging and I was literally a nothing! More than that, she suggested me to do a guest post for her blog as well, which literally left a lump in my throat for many many days to come… I really must say… When her four mini-cookbooks were released, she promised me to…
Banana Coconut Crumb Cake
At time, you need a lot of push to realize what you are, who you are… With the level of competition in the whole outside world, sometimes even the best effort looks halfhearted when compared to others. I saw this quote a couple of days ago and was awed by it. The Almighty has made us with all imperfections. If we were that perfect, wouldn’t we forget our Creator? Once we realize our imperfections and its beauty, things will come quite easily. This person who is so eloquently tapping on the keyboard and writing such big words is definitely not somebody who is in peace with her imperfections! However, to make myself feel at ease at times when I feel that I am not what I wanted to be, I really look around for affirmations as these. One more thing I really love to do these days is to…