Mother

MOTHER
I had a marvelous Mother, who loved me,

Sacrificed for me and helped me in every way possible.

In all of my growing up from childhood through School and eventually marriage,

My mother was always at my side
And when I needed help with my little ones,
She was there for me.


A few years ago, we buried this wonderful
woman.

Can you imagine how I felt when I returned home and

Found poem in her drawer written by my mom
The time is now
If you are ever going to love
Love me now while I can know
The sweet and tender feeling Which from true
affection flow
Love me now while I am living
Do not wait until I am gone
And then have it chiselled in marble
Sweet words on ice-cold stone
If you have tender thoughts of me
Please let me know now
If you wait until I am sleeping
There will be death between us
And I will not hear you then
So if you love me, even a little bit
Let me know while I am living
So that I can treasure it

Now she is gone and I am sick with guilt
Because I never told her what she meant to me.

Worse yet, I did not treat her as she deserved to be
treated.

I found time for everyone and everything else

But I never made time for her.

It would have been easy to drop in for a cup of tea

And a hug but my friends came first.

Would any of them have done for me what my mother did,

I know the answer
When I called mom on the phone,

I was always in a hurry.

I feel ashamed when I think of the times I cut her off.

I remember too, the times I could have included her and did not.

Our children loved Grandma from the times they were babies.

They often turn to her for comfort and advice.
Grandma gave them unconditional love.

She understood them.
I realize now that I was too critical,

Too short-tempered, too stingy with praise.

The world is filled with sons, daughters and a child like me.

I hope they see themselves in this letter and realize from it.

Value Sisterhood

Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem

My Dear Sweet Sister in Islam, I love you for Allah. If you ever need me, InshaAllah I will be here for you. If I ever hurt or offend you, please inform me ASAP so I can make ammends. May Allah guide us all and let us love each other for Him alone. May we be united under the Throne of Allah, under its shade, on the day that there will be no shade except His. O’ Allah, Rabbana, forgive us, help us to use our time here for that which is good and not that which is eveil. O’ Allah, Rabban, protect us from the Shaytan, for he is an open enemy to us, and we were created weak and hasty. O’ Allah, You are the Forgiver, You love to Forgive, so Forgive us, for we turn to You and repent to You and seek only from You. Keep us far away from the punishement of the grave, and from the punishement of the Hellfire. Ease our difficulties, answer our ad’eya, strengthen our eman, increase our taqwa, make us among those with sabrun jameel, and among the truthful. O’ Allah, admit us to Your garden of eternal rest, grant us from its best portions, and raise us to its highest peaks. We are Your slaves, happy to know this, content to submit, pleased to be humble.

AMEEN AMEEN THUMA AMEEN

Ten Useless Matters

There are ten useless matters:


Knowledge that is not acted on
The deed that has neither sincerity nor is based on following the righteous examples of others
Money that is hoarded, as the owner neither enjoys it during this life nor obtains any reward for it in the Hereafter
The heart that is empty of love and longing for Allah, and of seeking closeness to Him
A body that does not obey and serve Allah
Loving Allah without following His orders or seeking His pleasure
Time that is not spent in expiating sins or seizing opportunities to do good
A mind that thinks about useless matters
Serving those who do not bring you close to Allah, nor benefit you in your life
Hoping and fearing whoever is under the authority of Allah and in His hand; while he cannot bring any benefit or harm to himself, nor death, nor life; nor can he resurrect himself.
However the greater of these matters are wasting the heart and wasting time. Wasting the heart is done by preferring this worldly life over the Hereafter, and wasting time is done by having incessant hope. Destruction occurs by following one’s desires and having incessant hope, while all goodness is found in following the right path and preparing oneself to meet Allah.

How strange it is that when a servant of Allah has a [worldly] problem, he seeks help of Allah, but he never asks Allah to cure his heart before it dies of ignorance, neglect, fulfilling one’s desires and being involved in innovations. Indeed, when the heart dies, he will never feel the significance or impact of his sins.


Imam Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah

Friut Salad

mixed fruits of your choice washed and chopped small, sprinkle with a little sugar and about juice of 1 small lemon. The lemon will prevent the banana and apple turning brown and refrigerate and serve cold.

I used nectarine, apples, banana, red and green grapes, cantaloupe you can use any friuts you wish as my fruits had been in the bowl a while and will start spoiling a great way to get them eaten ASAP as its just delish.

Stuffed Peppers

Chopped mushrooms
Minced meat of your choice
Little rice
Crushed Garlic & Ginger
Sweet Peppers
salt and spices of your choice, i used curry powder, chilli powder and cummin
a splash of olive oil

Cut the tops of peppers and retain empty seeds and wash, normally you can blanch the peppers or some fry them a little to soften to be honest i forgot and they came just fine.

Mix the mince meat with rice , corriander , spices and mushrooms and fill the peppers. Replace tops of peppers that will act as a lid and splash with a little olive oil. Bake in a hot oven for 1 hr in a dish with a lid or cover tray with tin foil. serve with salad. perfect for this hot weather.

Someones memories

In a bag of craft's i recently purchased in a car boot sale, amongst the patterns were these letters. The reason I am posting them is they are so old and i was very excited about this find, this first letter is dated may 1945 a long time before i even existed subhanAllah, the letter is from a male writing to someone called A who has just departed from India while under the British Raj, he describes the boat trip that took 2 months. Here is an expert from the letter ''You can guess i was glad when we reached England, after nearly three weeks on the boat sailing . Actually it was nearly 2 months getting home with all the usual service'' I just find it amazing that i have ended up with someones history , someones memories and someones private thoughts.
Then there was this post card dated 15th March 1971 posted from Alicante the author talks about his/her arrival there from UK and how it had been lightly windy and raining and wished to be back in the UK just 1 week later. there were a few more bits in the bag some cards and some pictures i thought to share them with my fellow bloggers. Tell me what you think , i wish there was someone i could return these memories to but i have no address. I just feel they was so special to someone as she kept these things so carefully for so long, its true i did get the feeling when i purchased these items that it was the daughter selling her dead mom or grans bits , as when i asked her about the material inside , she didn't have a clue. also reminds me and makes me think of this life in this world and the possessions we gather, recently myself having my Sil pass away suddenly and how her possession will now be shared out and given away as we leave this life with nothing just our deeds, really i am not a hoarder but there are some things in life that carry so much meaning and sentimentality. I live like a travel i have very little belongings and have been this way for the last 10yrs or so. my children often critices me for not holding onto sentimental items, i have been training myself not to be to attacted to this dunniyah.

My chapati peak

Anyone who is a roti maker will know the importance of a fluffy chapati, well i had my chapati peak today with a fluffy batch masha Allah a momentous moment in my chapati making life. Some may think i am sad but its the small things in life that make me smile alhamduillah.

Curried Marrow

I made a masala base of the usual onions , ginger ,garlic and chillis, some tomatoes blended and spices salt, garm masala, cummin, tumeric. I added the chopped marrow and added a very tiny ammount of water as the marrow will realese a lot of fluid of its own. I added some meat balls but this is my own choice but normally a vegi dish. I kinda fused this one.

Boreks

Filling Mashed potatoes
Spinach
Crab Meat
Mushrooms
mozarella
salt peper and any spice to your liking

other filling
mashed potatoes salted and add any spice to your taste
Chesse
Parsely
Green pitted olives

Pastry sheets



Roll your boreks and fry in shallow oil, this side dish served well with soups these are always served in Ramandan in Algeria along sde a bowl of shorba. We had them with salad in the hot weather yesterday.

These are some i made before and i have posted for Sonya

Linzer chocolate halves cookies

A quick and tasy cookie for the kids
you will need 21/2 cups of plain flour
3/4 cup of Sugar
1/2 tea spoon of baking powder
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 large egg
Butter
Grated lemon rind
1 1/2 tsp of Vanila extract

Blitz the flour and butter first in the mixer, then add the rest of the ingredents gradually unti it forms a dough and begin your rolling & shaping and bake in a moderatly hot oven for 10-15 mins.




allow to cool and coat half with chocolate

Craft Find

I went to the Car boot in search of some crafts and i found this great bag of crafts have a look mashaAllah, all for £2 now that's my bargin of the day!




Some old fashion knitting


Aside from crafts some muslim dolls for dd2 , they are called LEYLA

Some vintage style for Ramandan , soup bowls with a 60's feel.

Tea

Tea: It Does the Body Good
Studies that support the health benefits of tea drinking keep filling the headlines. There’s simply no denying that a daily spot of tea does the body good.

Even though researchers can’t quite agree on every aspect, I’m sold on the fact that a few cups a day will do its best to protect me from heart disease, a stroke, cancer, and more.

What Makes Tea Good for the Body?
Tea contains high levels of antioxidants, some of which are called polyphenols, flavonoids, and catechins, and all of which take on the “free radicals” in the body and prevent them from harming the healthy cells on board.

In other words, sending in antioxidants is disease prevention in its finest form. Antioxidants are ready and waiting not only in teas but also in several fruits.

Are you a tea drinker if so what's your cupa?



here are a few of mine If that were not enough, tea also contains flouride which benefits your teeth and has bacteria killing properties which helps control bad breath and the formation of plaque.
Heart Benefits:
• Study finds tea drinkers have lower blood pressure (Archives of Internal Medicine, 2004).

• Tea may lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease (Journal of Nutrition, 2003).

• Black tea may lower “bad” cholesterol (United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, 2003).

• Tea consumption may help heart disease patients (Circulation: The Journal of the American Heart Association, 2001).

Cancer Prevention:
• Green tea could help stem esophageal cancer. (Harvard Medical School, 2004).

• Green and black tea can slow down the spread of prostate cancer (Center for Human Nutrition at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, 2004).

• Tea may protect against cancer caused by smoking. (Journal of Nutrition, 2003).

• Green tea and white tea fight colon cancer (Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University study, Carcinogenesis, 2003).

• Hot tea may lower risk of some skin cancers (University of Arizona study, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention (Vol. 9, No. 7), 2001).

• Green tea consumption may lower stomach cancer risk (University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health study, International Journal of Cancer (Vol. 92: 600-604), 2001).

Hypertension-Reducing Benefits:
• Green and oolong teas reduce risk of hypertension (National Cheng Kung University study, Archives of Internal Medicine, 2004).

Immunity-Boosting Benefits
• Tea believed to boost the body’s defenses (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2003)

Leukemia-Fighting Benefits:
• A green tea component helps kill leukemia cells (Mayo Clinic, 2004).

Alzheimer’s-Fighting Benefits:
• Drinking tea might delay Alzheimer's Disease (Newcastle University's Medicinal Plant Research Centre study, Phytotherapy Research, 2004).

AIDS-Fighting Benefits:
• Tea may play a role as an AIDS fighter (University of Tokyo, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2003).

China Town (London)

We (myself and son) set of late afternoon, we wanted to purchase some items, that I knew will be available in the vast array of West end shops.
Now it has been possibly 4-5 years since my last visit to this particular area and and even longer for China Town.
We got the tube to Marble Arch as I emerged from the underground, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of crowds, so many hundred of people, tourist, locals, suits you name it.
I told my son to hold on to me for dear life and not to panic (this was his first experience of the West end stores)
Now the shop I wanted for a certain item was no longer there! The stores are many of your local High St stores but 10 times bigger, some with 2-3 floors alone.
You can't do them all, it's to tiring, to much ground to cover.
The ques are very long for the tills but do more quickly.
I didn't dare take out the camera in this area, the crowds were to much, I felt disoriented.
What I like about the stores here, there is much more availability in styles, sizes that your high street, My son's size is always sold out and not enough choice on colours.
I noticed a big Clark's and a sale on, I dragged my son in, I saw 3 styles of everyday shoes I liked, I must mention it's comfort first for me. 1 out of 3 were only available in my size, I was please with my buy alhamduillah.



This is what my son opted forfrom Foot Locker

We came across a deepish lilac-ish carpet out on the pavement like the red carpet(celebrity thing), I was thinking OMG what a silly person has decided to carpet the pavement,
with the hoards of people, how will they clean it?
so I followed the carpet trail to find i leading to Selfridges, lailahi!!!!!!!!!!!
What a waste, what a waste of money, maitence and up keep that carpet alone, I am sure I could feed a needy village in West Africa.
We walked from Marble Arch, Bond St, Oxford Circus then we slipped off down Wadour St, a trip down memory lane, one of my old haunts many years ago
As we walked along there towards China Town, I saw Berwick St and it rang a bell and something in my mind was telling me to take a trip down there,
I fought the lil voice and stuck to my route alhamduillah.
I spotted Soho, one of London's red light districts, the peep show, shops and sex aids on sale.
now I understood why, Berwick St was ringing in my mind!
As we entered in to China Town, London, a strong smell of roasted duck blasted right at us, For me China Town was a little bit of a disappointment unless you are dinning there as it's full of restaurants, a few stores selling Chinese grocery's and China made food. There was a H.S.B.C bank, Chinese signs on it to can you spot it in the picture.




dont ask about this one my son was picturing all!

Fruity Snacks

In line with 5 day , the UK healthy option maybe? I made these after seeing something similar on sale at the hospital a few days ago,
so in a bowl, plain flour, yeast, little dash of oil, brown sugar, mixed fruit, and sunflower seeds. Add water to bind and kneed , leave to rise , after kneed again and shape out, place on Baking tray andbrush with milk, bake in a moderatly hot oven.

Lamajun

here is a how they should look

Armenian Pizza (LAHMAJOON)
by Azniv Charkoudian

Dough:
6 cups flour
5 tbsp. shortening
1½ tsp. salt
1 pkg. yeast
3 tbsp. sugar
2 cups warm water

2 lbs. lamb or beef, ground once
2 cups canned tomatoes
2 tsp. salt
pinch of cayenne
pinch of blk. pepper
2 med. onions, finely chopped
½ cup parsley, finely chopped
½ cup green pepper, finely chopped

Dough:
Place yeast and 1 tbsp. sugar in ½ cup water and let stand for a few minutes. Use a dutch oven type pan with cover for kneading dough. Combine 6 cups flour, 1½ tsp. salt, 2 tbsp. sugar, 3 tbsp. shortening, 1½ cups water. Add yeast preparation and knead. Use remaining 2 tbsps. shortening on hand and rub on bottom of pan as you knead dough. This procedure will clean hand and bottom of pan of sticky dough. When dough is smooth, place cover on pan and place pan in oven which has been warmed for only 1 minute. Let stand until dough is double in size (about 2-3 hours).

Meat Filling:
Place all ingredients in bowl and mix well. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Rolling out of dough:
Take raised dough and make 12 balls. Now cut each ball in half, making a total of 24 balls. Place balls on tray sprinkled with flour. Let stand 10 minutes.

Roll out each ball to 7" diameter and place on cookie sheet. Place 1½ heaping tablespoons of meat mixture on each rolled dough and spread evenly. Bake in 450o oven. Place tray on bottom shelf for 10 minutes and then move to top shelf for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove from cookie sheet and place, staggered, on a tray to cool. (do not stack) When cold, stack with meat filling facing each other and place in refrigerator. When serving, it can be warmed by placing in a 325o oven for 5 minutes. May also be served cold.

Makes 2 dozen