So just like that the Eid holidays are over. This year’s Hajj was very special. Unlike having millions every year, thanks to the Covid, there were only blessed selected 1000 pilgrims from various nationalities residing in KSA were selected this year. Unprecedented, in all terms… When Hajj was supposed to be cancelled, it still went ahead with all the rituals. I can’t imagine how the selected ones must have felt to be selected during this time. It has been more than six years since we had gone for Umrah and everything is very fresh in our mind despite not having any pictures with me regarding those 10 days that we spent in the journey and going towards Madinah first and then to Makkah. Umrah is nowhere near the rituals of Hajj but the whole experience of seeing the Kaabah and the Masjid Nabawi with one’s own eyes is overwhelming,…
Simple Cocoa Cookies
When the Blogging Marathon #114 was declared with the theme of “Cookies”, I had to include this one into the list. Those who read my blog regularly will understand how much I love food with memories. And there aren’t much of food with memories for me, since umma’s cooking repertoire was limited, but I guess that is what makes memories… Limited yet plenty… 🙂 Umma used to have a small OTG. She had got it at a very low price – I am sure you all agree how our parents were when it came to putting in their money on anything. They realized the value of money so much because it came hard for them. Sometimes, I do feel that we don’t appreciate it as much as they did. OK, that is a different discussion all together. Hehe… My sister and I would bake something or the other…
Nankhatai | Indian Ghee Cookies
It just feels good to be back to doing the two weeks of the Blogging Marathon, which is hosted by Valli and is going strong, with version 114 playing out in the current month. I was supposed to be doing two weeks last month, but then life had other plans and I had to back out at the last minute. So for this month, here are the first three posts. The theme chosen is “Kid’s Delights – Cookies”, which by the way is an event that I am hosting till mid of this month, so if you have posted any cookie recipe on your blog after June 15, please do not forget to link your post. 😉 The first one I am posting today are our very own shortbread called Nankhatais. The derivation of this name for the cookie is quite interesting. The name has its roots in…
Mango Tart
Mango season is slowly fading. At the moment, we aren’t getting any good Indian mangoes but the market is getting in some really nice Pakistani mangoes, especially the Sindhri variety. These mangoes are extremely sweet, that we ended up just eating whatever we bought. There was no time to juice them or nothing much remaining to think of making something with them. Hehe… B loves mango desserts and he asked me, “Why can’t you make something with the mangoes?” The idea of a tart had been playing in my head since a long time. Since I had almost all ingredients in my pantry, I asked my SIL to hide a couple of large mangoes, so that I could make this and tick them out of my list. 😉 With the weather getting a little uncomfortable these days, the mood to move out is clearly missing. All I did…
Eggless Rose Milk Cake
As this Ramadan slowly dwindles towards its end, it has taught us a lot of lessons. The main lesson is that we are capable of adjusting. Yes, we do get shocked initially and wonder how things will be, but we eventually get used to it and accept the pattern. We prayed Tharaweehs all at home, cooked with ingredients that were available in our pantries thanks to the lockdown situation in most of our vicinities, so much so that many are even giving up their purchases for Eid. This year, we were thinking of not getting new clothes, but then we felt bad for the girls, so got them one set of clothes each. They are now waiting to see how their travel plans for the next month end fares, considering that there is no visibility on the flights at the moment. Let us hope for the best… What else…
Eggless Coffee Blondies with Cinnamon Chips
If there is a recipe that I have been wanting to update before Ramadan begins, then it is this one. I have baked blondies on and off and I have really loved all the bakes. Whether it is these basic ones, or these orange walnut ones, or these Biscoff ones – super yum! – they have been amazing. Blondies are apt when you crave for brownies but you don’t want anything chocolaty or brown in color. That reminds me of these white chocolate ones that were so similar to brownies but were white for a change. 😉 All the above blondies are with eggs. I love to explore eggless options a lot and that explains from the number of eggless bakes I already have on the blog. I have been wanting to add a blondie that somebody who doesn’t use eggs could bake and here it is! I…
Eggless Baked Cheesecake with Chocolate Caramel Ganache
Usually I am used to writing long posts when some occassion is on. Like that day that is today… It is our wedding anniversary #16. Sometimes, in midst of this hectic life, I can’t believe that we have been with each other for all these years. When you are as different as chalk and cheese, getting along without any hiccups becomes a daily challenge that needs to be maintained. With the current situation, it has been even more difficult. We have been hardly seeing each other for a long time when life was the normal self, but once the slowdown and lockdown has been in place, we are seeing each other more often and sometimes it isn’t a very interesting experience. I am no one to be very mushy and cheesy when it comes to talking about HD. As much as he is an awesome human beings, his negative…
Eggless Condensed Milk Cake
Mentally, I am not in a state to do a blog post. I am sure that nobody, or majority aren’t either in an upbeat mood. When movement is restricted, children are at home with no confirmation on school reopening, daily routine takes a beat so much that even your five-times-prayers are restricted to only the call to prayer from the closeby masjid, events are cancelled, unnecessary travel is asked to be avoided, borders are closed, work gets crazy because shipments aren’t arriving on time nor is there any visibility on the shipments for the next months, sales works overtime as the population is on a frenzy and panic buying… SubhanAllah! I have already mentioned my general feeling in the last post and don’t want to ponder over it. From our side, we are doing the maximum that we can as far as hygiene is concerned, restricted our outside movements…
Eggless Banana Cake
Is it just me, or did you generally feel that January finished in a blink? I mean, it became 2020 just yesterday, isn’t it? It did take me sometime to accept the fact that time is in fact running a bit too fast to my liking and it feels overwhelming to get through the days in this quick fashion. When there is too much negative news just floating in the air, I feel like shutting myself down from that noise and concentrating on what will give my mind some peace of mind. On a brighter note, our home has become better with the gracing of B’s family. His little one is 8 month old and she fills the house with giggles and screams. The girls don’t want to go to school and if they do, they want to come back home and not study at all. HD doesn’t…
Eggless Apple Walnut Scones
Bake-a-thon is a yearly baking series headed by Valli during December and I have been a part of it for the past two years. There will be a total of 13 baking recipes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday till the month ends. Since the last post was more related to the UAE National Day, I thought I would rather move the details of the series in this post. 😀 You can find all the posts related to the previous years here. While the first year, I did random posts out of the burgeoning drafts, I focused on chocolate bakes last year, and this year, I am doing based on the theme of individual servings. Just like the Khameer I posted as the first one… As soon as I had started jotting out my posts for this series, I wanted to bake a scone, and somehow it had to…
No-Knead Pan Pizza with White Sauce
Time for the second week of the Blogging Marathon! For this week of edition #105, I chose the theme “Pizza and Pasta”. Valli has a monthly Kid’s Delight event happening and this is the theme for this month. My girls are very fond of pizza but they don’t share the same liking towards pasta. However, slowly and steadily with time, they are finding their interest towards pizza. However since they are my girls, I know that they would get bored of it fast, so I am not getting overly excited about the scene. 😀 So from today for the coming three days, you will see three recipes for this interesting theme… Pizza is something my girls really love. I really don’t consider pizza as a meal. I feel that despite paying so much to buy it, it hardly fills the stomach. Please raise your hands if you agree…
Eggless Nutella Brownie Shortbread Bars
I actually had other plans for the second post for the theme, “Bring Some Brownies” for this week of Blogging Marathon #102. I was in fact planning to make some gluten free brownies with rice flour, since I have been intrigued by it for quite some time. But then the plan was not supposed to pan out as such, I suppose…. Ever since I had baked the Brookies, I wanted to try an eggless version. I mean it always helps to have options all the time, right? 🙂 During the similar time, my head was telling me to bake some Nutella brownies for the girls. Somehow, what happened is that both my thoughts amalgamated into one bake, and that is what I am going to post today. 🙂 Last Saturday, we had a lovely time at Fajee’s house. It had been long since we had all met…
Cheesy Yeastless Foccacia
While I was deciding on the posts for the “Savory Bakes” theme for this week’s Blogging Marathon #101, foccacia was playing in my mind. My girls love Foccacia, especially the younger one. She would walk up and down the kitchen till she finishes eating majority of the bake, just the way Rasha would walk up and down to finish a chocolate cake! Each time I have baked the yeast foccacia, and then I landed up on this link which gives you a foccacia in flat 1 hour. It has no yeast and comes together so quick. Who wouldn’t like to try such a recipe? But I wasn’t without any apprehensions while making this recipe. I read through all the comments and made sure I stuck to the recipe without playing around too much with it. To my surprise, you wouldn’t miss the yeast at all. The bread rose…
Mango Mousse Cake
I do sometimes thank God for making me keep posts pending to get to an opportunity. If you see, I rarely celebrate any personal occasion of mine except the girls’ birthdays or our anniversary. And today happens to be our anniversary number 15, Alhamdulillah. I almost forgot about it, actually speaking. Every April 14, I have done a post and actually, every year, the posts reflected how exactly I felt about him. The past six years I have been blogging, our marriage has been topsy turvy of sorts. I guess that happens to every family at some stage. At times, you wonder, how stupid you were to be or stay married to the man or the woman you are now with. But then after a few hours, the thoughts just tide over and gets replaced with something else. I guess that’s how life is, we need to wait for…
Eggless Carrot Cake
There is something called “warmth”. It is not necessarily only in our own relationships, but it reflects from even pure strangers. Have you felt that? I started experiencing it when I got into blogging and got to meeting a lot of blogger friends. I experience the same while posting stories on my Instagram handle. I never expected total strangers to actually echo with whatever I share. I try to keep it as raw as possible, because life can be very undermining now especially when everybody else’s looks very rosy. I don’t share much of myself but sometimes I do, and it feels good to be instantly recognized in between the crowd. I sincerely appreciate those who come and ask about me, and give me a heads up. It happened at a masjid over the weekend and umma was caught off guard. I couldn’t explain to her how she…
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