Ugh….Ameir was a bit fluish and allergy-ish today (surprisingly, he got allergies before I did this year) and I was just plain exhausted. We had rice and stuff in the fridge but we both wanted something soupy.

I took out chicken to defrost so I could make chicken noodle soup, but as I looked at the frozen chunk of chicken, I thought, “I can’t do this today.”

I wanted something quick, easy, and flavorful that reminded me of the yummy shrimp dumpling soup I had at Ayesha’s. This soup was born!

The best parts of this soup are the ginger and the chili sauce. These strong spices clear up your blocked sinuses and the hot broth just feels great after a long day. I mixed chicken and vegetable broth for this, but you could really use whatever kind you wanted. The key is simplicity.

By the way, this gingery-spicy-soy broth also makes for a delicious asian risotto. With the leftovers of the broth, I just mixed in some already cooked leftover white rice and let it cook together, stirring, until it turned into risotto. Not authentic, but fast.

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This is a beautiful dish with colorful layers of meat, vegetables, and rice. My mother-in-law made it for dinner a few nights ago and I was inspired to try it myself. It may look complicated, but if you can make biryani or arroz con pollo, you can make Makloobah!

“Makloobah” means “upside down” in Arabic – the dish is so named because you cook everything separately, then layer the ingredients into a large pot, then flip it upside down to serve.

Recipe after the link.
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As long as I can remember, my father will wake up early on every Saturday morning and make breakfast for the family. My mom and I get to sleep in while he goes to the grocery store to get what he needs and then whips up a simple but phenomenal meal. I’ll wake up to the smell of onions frying in a hot pan and sweet pancakes sizzling on a buttery griddle. It’s one of my favorite family traditions.

Abbu starts with an egg scramble. My grandmother in Islamabad is famous for her “Anda Aaloo” – an egg and potato scramble that she gets up early to make, dicing the potatoes into little tiny cubes that melt into the egg and tomato. Abbu has carried on the tradition. He’ll dice up onions, tomatoes, spicy chili peppers, and sometimes potatoes and fry them all in a pan before adding in eggs that he’s whipped with milk to make them fluffy. He spices the scramble with fresh chopped coriander leaves, cayenne, cumin, salt, and pepper. They’re beautifully colorful and delicious……except once, when at my eldest uncle’s house in Charleston, SC, Abbu mistook cinnamon for cumin and we had some interestingly-flavored, brownish eggs that morning. His big brother has teasingly but lovingly never let him forget it, either. (“I mean, I know you’re his daughter, Taiyyaba, but come on….those eggs were bad.”). The eggs are served with biscuits, hot from the oven.

Course two is fluffy pancakes with syrup. He puts lemon juice and baking soda into the batter, and when the acid reacts with the base, it leavens the pancakes and makes them super fluffy. Sometimes I help him out here by mushing bananas for the batter and making a cinnamon-banana maple syrup. Abbu is the expert at actually cooking the pancakes. I don’t know what he does, but they turn out crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside, every time. Abbu also makes some sort of potatoes with the eggs, usually french fries. Every kid’s dream, eh? French fries for breakfast! The meal presentation is always beautiful, too. Abbu will put a generous serving of everything on our plates, which are decorated with thin slices of apple or orange or a colorful fresh fruit salad.

With everything done, he calls everyone to the table for breakfast. We’ve got our own eating traditions, too. While we eat, we always have a discussion about why Ammi eats her french fries (or hash browns) with maple syrup instead of ketchup. She likes the savory-spicy-sweet combination. (Okay, okay….I used to think it was weird but now I like it too, and so does Abbu. We’ll convert Ameir eventually.) Abbu will always start eating and say “Oh! Best breakfast I have ever had, because we are together.” And then, at the end, he’ll lean back and pat his stomach and say “Ohh….I ate too much,” or, more often, “Taiyyaba, you let me eat too much.” (Ameir’s starting to do the same thing now, too). We top it all off with some hot tea. (The cup of tea pictured on my blog header was made by my Abbu!)

This whole experience is one of our favorite times of the week because it lets us get away from all the school and housework and just spend some real family time together!

Many Muslims have been receiving a letter by email, supposedly written by Senator Obama, entitled “Letter From Barack Obama on his Muslim Heritage.” In the letter, the writer speaks to the meaning and significance of his Muslim name, his interaction with and respect for Muslims, and a promise to interact with Muslims “from a position of familiarity and respect [at a time when] that is something sorely needed.” The general tone is one of comforting reassurance, a kind of “I don’t hate Muslims, I actually respect them, and I’d like to work with them as friends.”

Muslims were understandably excited upon receiving this letter; it caused quite a stir. Finally, someone who and respects us and understand what we’re going through! Maybe he will be the kind of President we can trust with our lives, liberties, and mutual honor. Maybe this time, we won’t feel betrayed, like strangers in our own homes. Go Obama!

Except, Obama didn’t write this letter. Umar Lee did.

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After making dulce de leche for the first time, I was entranced by its gooey caramel goodness. I needed to find something else to do with it. Behold. Beautiful deliciousness.

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Hummus in a quesadilla? Wha? But try it, it’s good. The hummus gets a little warm and creamy and melds together with the rest of the toppings. You really can put anything on it you want – this is what i did.

Click below for Recipe
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This was a “i messed up, how do i fix this?” recipe.

I had roasted some butternut squash for dinner, but the curry powder I put on it had too much cumin and too much cayenne. It wasn’t too bad, but there was a bitterness that hit you in the back of the mouth after a few seconds. I had originally planned to add some boiled/pureed potatoes to it, and then thin it down with cream and/or chicken broth until it gets soupy for a curried vegetable soup – but I saw some chickpeas in the pantry so I thought I’d try something different. Obviously if you were making this from scratch, you could just roast the squash and add it into your chickpea puree.

This recipe is approximate. Some people like more or less tahina, lemon juice, garlic, etc. I actually wish I had put a liiiitle less chickpeas so I could taste the squash more, but oh well. It was still good.

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This is so easy – I really was surprised. I let this cook in the oven while I was running around finishing dinner, getting ready, and cleaning up before some friends came over for dinner. It comes out tasting like a creamy caramel.

Dulce de Leche
Recipe from David Lebovitz’s site

Ingredients and materials
- Pie plate
- Larger roasting pan that pie plate will fit into
- Can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
- Hot water

Continue by clicking below
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Isn’t it cute?

Yes, you read correctly. This quick and easy appetizer was my husband’s idea. The man who lived on Ramen noodles for years. He can’t cook, but he knows what’s good to eat…..at least now.

We invited some friends over for tea yesterday and I was asking him what I could do with shrimp as a quick little bite. I said that usually people wrapped shrimp in bacon and grilled it, but we weren’t going to use pork, obviously. So I said – what about wrapping it in zuchinni or something?

“Ooh…ooh..” he said. “What about making it like sushi and putting pickled ginger and wasabi on it.” Wow. I was impressed.

So here we go – an incredibly easy appetizer that looks beautiful and tastes great.

Click below for recipe
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