Sammon and Vegetable TAGINE

It's not often i get the tagine out due to its sher size and weight really.

cooking works on the principle of layering and not stirring. Tenderly steaming the food retaining its natural flavours and splendid jucies.


A short while later and

I usually take the base of the tagine staight to the table and we all eat from it.

Snowed in

It started snowing a little last night, after the bitterly cold days of past not a surprise. so this is how it looked last night and the kids were excited.




This morning it was a different story, with a lot of snow and no public transport school are closed. Kids are at home they have been outside playing in the snow , for the younger ones its their first experience in snow.



Reminds me of my own childhood memories and now the kids can experience it to knee high snow to trug through.



so preety and clean looking the white sheet of crispness.

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Sweat some onion in a pan with a little oil, add the chicken pieces and sliced mushrooms. i added some sweetcorn too. Spice it a little to your taste. I kept it very bland just salt and pepper mind you i sneaked a little cumin in mind you i added some All spice too well not so bland after all.

In the mean time add some butter to the pan and about a table spoon of cornflour mix well , add a little milk. Dissolve a veg's stock cube into about 400mls of hot water, add this mix to the pan and allow to heat


Until it becomes a thickish mix. NOW add this mix to the chicken and mushroom.

Roll out your pastry , i used puff pastry made. Line your pre oiled dish with the pastry sheet . Fill it now with the cooled filling mix

Roll out a roof for your pie and secure well

I made a tin foil frame i don't know the proper name for it but its to prevent the pie opening during baking and the filling spilling from the sides.

Made some slits with a knife on the top.
Brush it with egg and allow to brown well in the oven.

Now once cooked allow it to cool as it will hold a firm texture and not run , as my lot were hungry mine was cut whilst still hot.

We had ours with some steamed veg ,



I must add this pie was really confort food very delish mashaAllah.

How life changes........

just under 6 months ago i was living out my destined hijjrah, emigration for the sake of my Lord. My new life of 3yrs and now well it's all change and Allah is the best of planners alhamduilah. My ambitions have changed, my realisation has changed, my perception of life as i know it has changed. Not all drastic change but a realisation , my life and self have under went some sort of cleansing of thoughts, perceptions and actions. While i was in Algeria i was blessed to experience the true essence of tawqual Allah, dependence and trust in my Master alone. This became the turning point in my life so far as a Muslimah. This was a total dependence on Allah for all, really letting go of the worldly matters and freeing my soul to stand alone and only depend on my Lord. It was a sweetness of faith a kinda high that i have only felt once in my life. That was when i became a Muslimah and took my testimony of faith. It's a spiritual feeling something you have to feel to understand. Crying out to my lord in my darkest hours healed me, His mercy was felt soothing me and strengthening me. In my past years as a Muslimah i though i was doing well and that i had cracked it as living a religious life to please my Lord now 15yrs on mashaAllah i can say i know where i am headed and its almost like Allah has shown me there is more you can do or there is stuff to be rectified.

In the solitude of my loneliness I found my purpose in a practical application of my faith and daily life, my relationships with others around me. I learnt to deal with many hardships that really effected my well being, throughout my life. i learnt not to be too bitter for for too long with one that hurts me, i have learnt to forgive quicker. I was one who was raised in a household where the silent treatment went on for months when one fell out with one another. Maybe some of my DESI fellow bloggers can tell me if this a common occurance in a desi household. Not realising that this would later have a grave impact on my life in the ability to forgive. The bitterness of not being able to forgive blackens the heart. It really can damage your character and cause you pain. Believe me i know, not to say i never forgave as i did eventually but the time lapse could be many many months or years later sadly. I have not perfected this art down to the same 24hrs span but alhamduilah i feel i have reached a milestone in this and you know what? It feels great , great where ? within my my heart and my soul feels at ease alhamduilah, all priase is truely to my Lord.
Islamic teaching presents the prophet Muhammad as an example of someone who would forgive others for their ignorance, even those who might have once considered themselves to be his enemies. One example of Muhammad’s practice of forgiveness can be found in the Hadith, the body of early Islamic literature about the life of Muhammad. This account is as follows:
The Prophet (may peace be upon him) was the most forgiving person. He was ever ready to forgive his enemies. When he went to Ta’if to preach the message of Allah, its people mistreated him, abused him and hit him with stones. He left the city humiliated and wounded. When he took shelter under a tree, the angel of Allah visited him and told him that Allah sent him to destroy the people of Ta’if because of their sin of maltreating their Prophet. Muhammad (may peace be upon him) prayed to Allah to save the people of Ta’if, because what they did was out of their ignorance.

Humbleness to and love for Allaah can only be actualised through worshipping Allaah in all aspects.

If any of you are like me , going through life and saying well its ok i will tackle learning to read qur'an one day soon and before i knew it 15yrs had lapsed and i still couldn't read. Yet i knew that my life span is not in my hands and that deaths last breaths could be upon my lips any day soon. I really needed my good deeds to be way up in balance from the bad deeds, after all its jannah paridise i am workingtowards. What will be the greatest abode of my exsitance ever. After all i am only passing by in this world and this zone, really i look back on life and remember as a young lady at a mere 17yrs old pondering on my life to come in my 30's, married with 2 kids living in the country, living a life based around materlism and worldly gain. Well i had lived half of my 30's..........time has escaped me really where did all that time go? Before i know it i will be old perhaps less able more, dependant on others why not cease today this moment and set goals to achieve to? Get ourselves some good deeds.

To the home sick desi

I am looking for the sister who left a comment but i can't find it , blogger really sucks when you can't do that after you publish a comment. She told me she is getting through her home sickness and made the tagine dish but spiced it up. Post here again so i can find you blog please. It's nice when the lurking readers come out, 1yr is a long time and to stay so quiet. Do call again , i am waiting.

Chicken Chow mein

I used some cabbage, onion, mushroons, red peppers, mange tout and carrot all thinly sliced. i thinly cut some strips of chicken breast. cooked up the chickin in the wok first and then added the veg once the noddles were boiled i added them. I sprinkled a little salt while cooking the veg and soy sauce.


I made some egg fried rice on the side.



I used a recipe online not sure if it was this one but they are similar

Murgi Palak chicken/spinach DESI style

This is a dish i saw being cooked on the BBC one night by Anjum Anand, never reallt made it this way and i had seen it in the resturants so now i knew and here is mine.







Looking for a recipe try this one I could not find Anjum's one online and just cooked it the way i remembered her doing it.

Shell Square liner

I wanted to try a different look and sticth this is worked with dtr and dc to create a shell look.

it's to line my bun basket, now my basket looks grubby and i need a new one.

Orange and Cocolate Chip Buns

These are a lovely sweet treat for tea.

I used plain flour
3 eggs
half a cup of sugar
Yeast
grated orange rind
Chocolate chips
pinch of salt and a pinch of mixed spice
although i feel i should have added some melted butter too but didn't.
water to bing or you can use milk slightly warmed.

It's a soft brioche feel i am looking for well keep trying hey.

Wholemeal Baps

Plain flour and a little wholemeal
Yeast
Water
Pinch of sugar
Salat to taste
Egg to glaze and pumpkin seeds to sprinkle.

So a cup of tea..and ahem a sneaky cake later

A Filet Book Mark

A Dimond shape Bookmark or hanging decor


The forum designs are from my own book but the work by forum members well MashaAllah very pretty stuff on there.

My first snow flake

It's a snow flake........i joined this new forum and felt inspired and i wanted to make a book mark

It felt a little big but pretty with 3D little petals..i added a stringy bit with a wee flower myself and the dear freind who got it is so pleased with it.