Paradise Wildlife Park

Today we set off early for a day out , the day was grey and looked like a down pour was on its way ultimately it did rain but we missed the worse and the sun shone out mashaAllah. We had a great day very enjoyable and exciting, i myself was in awe to Allah and just looking at his magnificent creations subhanAllah. i took loads of pic's as so much to see and the kids just loved it there , not too far out of London in Hert's, here is the link http://www.pwpark.com/ I pictured Birds, lovely colourful birds, parrots, lions, lemurs, wolves, meerkats, wolves well i only got the den as they were hiding! Zebra, tapir, reindeer, squirrel monkeys, small cats, ottors, cheetah,wallies camel and much more, my fav's have to be the lions and zebra. I really like this Park better than the Zoo as they allow you to get quite close to the animals and they have a large selection, i even got to stroke a big Snake and the alligator was cool to subhanAllah. Worth a visit, see for yourself






























































opps posted the grandfather of owls a few times too many! big aint he?

Muffins gone wrong

This was supposed to be 6 muffins but i didn't have a tin, so the cases collapsed and spread out whilst pouring and then i decided to put the mixture into a cake tin and i made this instead al-hamduilah. Happy to say none was left on the plate, went down a treat al-hamduilah.

Iced Banana Loaf

8oz self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of mixed spice
4oz margarine or butter
1lb of ripe bananas
6oz sugar
2oz roughly chopped walnuts
4oz chopped mixed peel
2 large eggs lightly beaten
FOR ICING
4oz icing sugar
About 1 tablespoons of water
Few walnut halves about 9
Quartered orange slices

Well grease a 1 1/2 loaf tin. sieve the flour, salt & spices into a bowl. rub in butter until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Peel and mash the bananas, add to bowl and remaining ingredients, mix well till all blended. Pour into pan and bake at gas mark 4 for 1hour and 10Min's, leave to cool in pan for about 5-10Min's before turning out. Leave to cool well before icing.
4oz

Bram Brack

A very satisfying bread for tea, simple ingredients and simple method, just some pre planning.
"Delicious Irish fruit cake. Serve thickly sliced with butter."
INGREDIENTS
425 ml brewed black tea, cold
220 g packed light brown sugar
180 g golden raisins
60 g chopped candied citron
155 g self-rising flour
1 egg, beaten

DIRECTIONS
Put the tea, sugar, raisins and peel into a bowl, cover and leave to soak overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch round pan.
Sift the flour into the fruit mixture, add the egg and beat well.
Pour into the cake pan and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Linguine & Veg Sauce

sweat some onions in the pan witha little oil,salt, pepper, paprika, add a tin of tomatoes, salt thyme, grate a corgettue, a carrot add some tomato puree a little water allow to simmer for about 15-20mins on a low heat
Boil up some linguine and serve sprinkled with some parmasan cheese

Cutney & Plain Pratha's

An old fav of mine mums mint & corriander cutney, you will need, a bunch of corriander, about 5 sprigs of mint, onions, fresh garlic to taste,salt, tamrind and fresh chillis to taste,
Blitz it all in the blender and serve with chapati or paratha's, I had it with samosas yesterday, i have ofen used it with fried fish too, or just as a side dip for any dish.

Flapjack

I have been wanting to make this since i saw it on http://katescrafts.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/i-was-overcome/ kate's blog, noone seems to be in apprehaition of my cooking these days, I am cooking but noone is eating, Allah Al Must'aan.




i must say at first i though i had gone wrong somewhere but once they cool , mashaAllah a very chewy delight, I added pecan nuts and cinnamon too mine otherwise followed Kate to the T.

cauliflower & carrots in a corriander & cheese sauce

A bit like cauliflower cheese but with an Asian twist,cumin. I fried some onion in a pan with a little oil as this began to cook added a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds, salt, pepper and powdered garlic. I added a small cauliflower and some sliced carrots, leveled it with boiling water and covered it and let it cook latter removing the lid to allow the juices to evaporate.

In the meantime i made a coriander sauce , just a roux with finely chopped coriander(as opposed to a parsley sauce)poured this over the cauliflower and carrots, then grated some cheese and popped it into the grill.


Serve with a green salad.

When sisterhood hurts

At the charity bazzar a sister approached me , who i met 7 years ago when she first arrived to the UK as a new bride , alone, confused and lonely. For the sake of allah i really went out of my way to befriend this sister and offer her sisterhood for the sake of Allah. Such a kind and special sister mashaAllah. She asked me at the bazzar why we were not intouch , i told her if you looked for me , you would have found me. I made every effort to ensure sisters had my contact details, so thoses that bother would have found me! The sister didn't like to hear this, i told her i was totally disamayed with the sisterhood i shared once i made hijrah. When i was in need of my sisters i found not one and this hurt me. MashaAllah the sister appoligied and asked me to forgive her. The sister wants sisterhood and we exchanged numbers. Sometimes you have to take a stance, ok as muslimahs we are encouraged to do good , forgive, and forget but Allah does not tell me lay onthe floor and let sisters trample over me, even i have standards. So i plan to be more assertie and make my feeling heard. Some may think i am wrong but i am sick of turning the other cheek and letting others mess with my emotions, when all i want is love for the sake of Allah.

A Day AT A Time

Since my return to the UK i decided , I was here to benifit my deen and use the wealth of resources the UK has for Muslims mashaAllah, namely get on top of my Quran recitation and morisation inshaAllah.. This is one of the few blessings i can still apprechaite in the UK. I decided not to fall into my old ways, benifit my family more and spend my time with them more. Not to out do my health by getting involved in a hectic socail life (as in the past). To keep it real, to take it a day at a time. Work through/towards one issue and then tackle the next. To take in hand the here and now and lay the ground for whats to come. HEALTH for all the family is on the ajenda.

forgot to mention....

Why the cooking spout ? my DS had his op today , just a day case but i was so worried for him i ended up doing a cooking frenzy in a few hours alhamduilah helped to take my mind of things a little and treat loved ones mashaAllah. the chicken soup was for him especially. He is OK being pampered by 3 women of the house, who would complain to that. He has been sleeping most of the day and eating chocolate.

Rais (rais tunis)

You will need coarse semolina,soften butter, stoned dates and small amount of chopped nuts of your choice, I used walnuts. This is a north African recipe for Rais.


500 gramm (2 cups) of semolina not the flour one
500 gramms of date paste needs to be sticky when mixed in with other ingredents so it will bind, if the dates are dry just steam them in a couscousier type steamer.
150 gramms of butter (I take 200)

Fry semolina on pan without oil untill it is golden. Make butter soft (I use microwave). Put everything together and here you go And then the most creative part - making different shapes out it

mange tout et les carrots

I used a little olive oil and sauteed some minced garlic & ginger, salt , pepper and a little sprinkle of canyne pepper. Stir fried this all with the carrots that i had previously steamed and chopped and the mange tout, a delightful side dish.


Warm Salad

New potatoes, boiled eggs, red onions, sprig of mint and some parsley, black olives dress with any dressing of your choice.

Can be eaten cold but i like mine slightly warm.


Quick Chicken Soup with homemade croutons
1 onion, carrots plenty of fresh coriander, generous cut of butter,1 small potato,1 veg stock cube.
Put it all in a pan and add boiling water and then add previously steamed boneless chicken.
Once veg is done blend it with the hand blender.
Toast some bread on a high setting in the toaster.
Remove from toaster and cut in to small squares.

Charity Bazzar

After swiming we went to see an old friend who had invited me to gain some reward for my own hereafter by part taking in sadaqah jarriyah (on going charity), well we arrived on time and i ended up helping, serving the food. Was a lovely day and nice to meet up with the sisters again mashaAllah a lovely set of sisters , may allah grant them hightest paridse ameen. i didn't buy much apart from the food, yum buriyani and spanish pasta salad. I did find this rather nice plate for 50p, i was going to use it as a tea bag plate but decided to hand it instead.


The event was held in the sisters home, her noble effort is so inspiring mashaAllah.

Swiming for Muslim Women& Girls

I took the girls swiming , as they need to learn and need sports in their lives. it was a one hour session cost £3 , its in a pool in a school hired out on a sunday to the muslims who run sessions for sisters and brothers on sunday mornings. I didn't swim but had a look and may go next week depending on how i feel as i need to learn too. They have a female life guard on hand and she is great to help you out to learn to swim. i met a sister there who was also sitting out the session and she said if i came next week with a float she will teach me to swim, so i can't complain now can I? The women wear leggins and long tee shirts, best adviced to wear a coustume under the teeshirt so that it won't cling when wet.



here are some items belonging to my dd 6yrs old, we decided to get her a ring to so that way noone needs to watch her all the time, she loves it, dd 14yrs old loved it but said it would be more fun if you can swim , she needs to get learning.

Coming back but feeling different

Yesterday I went to a community bazaar and caught up with a lot of the old circle of sisters, mash Allah lovely sisters. I did note that life has remained the same.

I was speaking to sister S about my own spiritual development after hijrah I realized soon after being in Algeria alone for so long and only depending upon my lord for my daily nourishment of faith and battling shatan every step of the way, my faith entered another level Alhamdulillah, a new spiritual high that can only be attained after hardship and dependence upon Allah. I feel looking back on my life in the UK it is a life of dependence upon society and materialism, before you all start, I am talking about my own experience and things the way I felt them. We have this net work of sisters and weekly halaqh's, events we are involved in, things that’s are good, of course they are but soon we take on more and more, the DH is out of the home almost 24/7, kids are in bed before he gets in and sometimes gone off for the day before he gets up, having to make appointments to see his own kids. The sisterhood is great in the UK mash Allah very diverse but as I came to learn a very superficial one, not all some as there are so many wonderful sisters out there and who really do care. We live in this self created Islamic bubble we create for ourselves in the UK, the choices, materialism and access hinders our real relationship with our lord, we are missing tranquility, our hearts are diseases with love for comfort. I often remind myself ''if I don't have hardships, how will I come closer to Allah?'

I was talking to a sister and she was telling me she was so stressed, with the daily grind and life. I asked her if she had food on her table, she said yes, did her roof leak water. She said no, is her health in tack? She said yes. I them told her so what is the stress that is making you so ill? She told me her job, her routine and her wealth, so basically her blessings subhan Allah. I advised her is an illusion of the word stress, put the same energy into your salat and dikr, reaffirm your faith and correct you salat and wudu. I don't know if you can relate to what I am saying but we are all caught up in this in gratitude, when was the last time we thanked our lord , do we do it as often as we moan? We need to self look within ourselves and return to the basics to have faith cost nothing, to have emaan cost nothing to maintain it cost scarifies. Allah guide us all ameen.

Destiny & choices

Therefore, the Prophet (PBUH) used to tell his Companions: "Renew your faith." He was asked, "O Messenger of Allah, how do we renew our faith?" He said, "By frequently repeating la ilaha ill-Allah."

It's been a while since I have been able to blog peacefully due to moving and PC and not to mention the kids hogging the PC, I can't even hear myself think let alone type a meaning full post. Today up early and hopefully shall be able to knock my thoughts out to share. Now going and the build up to coming didn’t want to return to the UK despite all the home sickness, the only think that influenced my decision was the fact that my DH is here so I came Alhamdulillah. Now this has been the hardest transitions back to the UK, I just hate coming here and reclaiming my old life, maybe that's the problem? I have a new life now, a new home, a new social network, a new way of living, yes it was hard at first but I got used to it now and made a life for us Alhamdulillah, mash Allah, TabbarakAllah.

Being together has been a key factor in my return, to be honest I don't want to be alone anymore and the kids without a father and the DH without a wife. So that's a common factor, I know any future decisions I make now will be about being together as a family Insha’Allah.

Thing is we plan but Allah has already planned ahead of us for He is the best of planners. Dreams, aspirations, visions and hopes we have can materialize but we need to work towards them. Living this life as a mum of 3 kids one a teen mash Allah Alhamdulillah I can tell you life does not get easier , mothering does not get easier subhan Allah how I worry about the kids and grey in the process more than when they was babies. Mothering at this stage is harder you have to exercise the mind and reasoning more subhanAllah, not like when there young, feed and clean and rock to sleep, although at the time we moaning but really theses are blissful years. I am not complaining not by far just sharing and reminding. all my life plans are now shaped around the future of my kids, so there are directions I want to go in but can not and maybe will never due to their well being. Being a mother is all about sacrifices, for her kids, her DH and family women in Islam gain lot of reward by simply being a mother.

Strawberies & Orange Blossom Water

A new way to enjoy strawberries, a little suger and a little orange blossom water mix well cool in fridge and enjoy. A pleasant refreshing treat!

Walnut Biscuits

6 1/2 oz of softened butter
1/2 cup of sugar
2 table spoons of Orange blossom water
2 cups of plain flour
Walnut filling

1/2 cup of walnuts chopped
1/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Set oven to gas mark 3 , brush a flat tray with butter. Beat sugar and butter until light and creamy. add orange water and flour, combined well. Press with your hands until the mixture comes together and them roll into small golf balls, press centres down with thumb and put into the pressed area some walnut filling and bake for 15-20mins, allow to cool before removing from tray.

Snails& Snacks

In between two rounds of shopping trips i prepared some snacks to keep the family going. first one is called 'snails' i am sure this is due to the shape, just mix up a plain flour, brown flour equal amounts, yeast, salt, sugar and warm water to mix. Leave to rise. i has some left over minced beef and spinach curry fom the previous evening. i rolled out the dough into a rectangles shape , spread it with the curry , grated some cheese rolled it all up like a Swiss roll and baked it at gas mark 5 for about 20Min's and this is what i had

I can't belive this happened to me!

I forgot it was Friday yesterday and therefore missed out on all the blessing of yaum al jummah. It dawned on me about 11pm and that was only coz i switched to the Islam Chanel and saw surah al kaf being recited, i felt grieved, felt robbed, how did this happen, how did i let this happen? My 8Th day in the UK and this, i feel gutted. I know i was pre occupied with other stuff but to let yaum al jummah slip by?

Feeling aloof

Wish i could say my mood was like this but its a much more but i am going to put it right just ajusting, re-organising myself and my life for the better inshaAllah. To be honest i am missing Algeria and my life there , can't win can I , problem is we want it all , but can't have it!

Delightful Tagine Find

I found this great tagine pot in Algeria and its way better than my Moroccan one mashaAllah and just for 1900da well after a haggle!

Reunited Again

I am back alhamduilah back again again back, after much debating and not wanting to initially return alhamduillah i am glad i did , mainly to be a family and be amongst family and loved ones. I got back Friday evening a lil early than planned but again less than 24hrs and i wanted to return to sunny Algeria hummm. Weather here is chilly but the sun is out , we have been ajusting to the drop in temperature last few days. I went food shop yesterday subhan Allah inflation has hit hard and prices are certainly up in the UK all around. I went out this morning for a drive in the Essex countryside I certainly missed all these lovely shades of greenery, due to the balance of climate in the UK mashaAllah the land is able to put out shades of green and nature of warmer climes don't have. Just taking it slow organising my home and life for the next 3 months or so inshaAllah.