A baby blanket for Johann

I haven’t posted in a very long time, I know. I just haven’t felt up to it. Will I be posting her and there? Sure! Regularly? Ha! Those who know me best know that I am really sporadic in things.

A lot has been going on, some things have changed, other things haven’t changed. Such is life.

Today, I just want to upload some pictures of my latest knitting project (I haven’t knitted in quite a while). It’s a baby blanket for Johann (a co-worker’s second child, first boy). I knitted up a blanket for her daughter, Zoé, a few years back and she requested a blanket for their latest child. My pleasure!

The blanket measures about 30″x40″ and is done in a “honeycomb” pattern. I had actually knitted up a blanket in the same pattern (different colours) a while back – I might post that one up too once I put the final touches on it. It knits up fairly quickly and is not as complex as it looks.

The blanket folded into 4.

One closeup of the blanket and the honeycomb pattern.

Slightly different look at the blanket and the pattern.

A Palestinian teapot cozy for Suad

Assalamu alaikum everyone,

I’ve been out for a while, busy with too many projects and too little time. I’ve been working on one post for a while (and hope to have it up soon enough) and another series of posts is in the works for our trip out to the Maritimes (in the summer of 2011!). It’s late but better late than never as my mother is planning a road trip out there soon and I figured she might appreciate it (along with others).

Today’s post is concerning my latest knitting project. The original pattern is for a Matryoshka teapot cozy by Loly Fuertes (Ravelry link). She is beyond cute and I just had to try it out!

The perfect opportunity to use the pattern presented itself, unfortunately, with the moving away of a dear friend, Suad. She has some Palestinian ancestry and I was inspired by a picture of her wearing a traditional Palestinian dress “thobe“. Here are a few examples. 1 2 3

I used the pattern as a base and added in some colourwork (or intarsia knitting) – essentially doubling the thickness of the material (offers more insulation for your teapot in the end). I also switched up the pattern a bit for even increases and decreases (to keep symmetry in colourwork) and some embroidery. All in all, it took about 1.5 weeks of furious work! But it would seem it was really worth it.

Now I’m just waiting for Suad to tell me what she has named her.

Front – Devant

Bust closeup – Le buste de plus près

Back – Dos

Side view – Vue de biais

Hair bun and embroidery – Cheveux en chignon et broderie

Front skirt embroidery – Broderie sur le devant de la jupe

Embroidery on the back of the skirt – Broderie sur le dos de la jupe

**********

Assalamu alaikum tout le monde,

Ça fait un bon bout que je n’ai rien publié sur mon blogue; j’ai trop de projets et pas assez de temps! Ça fait quelque temps que je travaille sur un article (et j’espère le publier sous peu) et j’ai aussi une autre série d’articles à vous préparer sur notre voyage aux Maritimes (en 2011!). Oui, c’est très tard pour le rajouter au site mais ma mère compte faire un voyage aux Maritimes, en voiture, cet été, et donc, je crois qu’elle apprécierait bien que je partage ce qu’on a fait et vu lors ed notre voyage… Peut-être d’autres aimeraient ça aussi!

Aujourd’hui, je vais partager mon dernier projet de tricot. La patron original est pout un cache théière Matryoshka par Loly Fuertes (Lien vers Ravelry). C’est super quétaine et je voulais absolument en faire un!

L’occasion (ou l’excuse) parfaite pour utiliser se patron s’est présenté quand, malheureusement, j’ai su qu’une de mes bonnes copines quittait Montréal pour les États. Suad a quelques ancêtres qui provenaient de la Palestine et j’ai été inspirée par une photo d’elle et d’une de ces robes traditionnelles palestiniennes « thobe ». Voici quelques exemples. 1 2 3

J’ai utilisé le patron comme base et j’ai rajouté quelques éléments : tricot avec changement de couleur (intarsia) qui a, en effet, doublé l’épaisseur du cache théière et l’a rendu encore plus isolant. J’ai aussi changé les augmentations et réductions de mailles pour qu’elles soient plus symétriques, et j’ai aussi rajouté de la broderie. Ça m’a pris environ 1.5 semaines de travail fulgurant! Mais il semblerait que ça en valait le coup!

Maintenant, j’attends juste que Suad me dise ce qu’elle l’a nommée.

Eid Mubarak! … and an Alfajores recipe

This post was a while in coming. We were all very busy for the end of Ramadan, Eid and now with life getting back to “normal” for a week, just in time to welcome some guests over to our place for nearly 2 weeks.

I at least wanted to share the recipe for the alfajores I served up when our friends came over a few weeks ago. I’m not too sure how much time I will be able to dedicate to posting when our guests will be over as we are working at our regular jobs and then coming home to entertain our guests in the evening. So, I make no promises but I will try to post a bit more often.

I’m also currently working on a “healthier” version of date squares. My mother-in-law wants to take something to my father (which it seems is customary after a surgery). He loves dates, we want to give him something healthy, and I would like to teach her a recipe for once. I was thinking of making them “raw” but decided not to push it too much. We’ll see if the recipe makes it onto the blog in the next little while. I also have to work on a post for all the food we prepped for when we had my parents over last weekend.

I’m also trying to make up a recipe for lemon-mint bars that are also healthier. My God! The amount of butter and sugar used in most recipes!!!! Holy cannoli! That’s one’s going to be tough.

Without further ado, I present to you a recipe for Alfajores!

Alfajores

Alfajores
Yield = about 15-20 cookie sandwiches
Ingredients
-1 cup corn starch
-1 1/4 cup flour
-1 tspn baking powder
-1/2 tspn baking soda
-1/4 tspn salt
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (if semi-salted or salted, omit the salt)
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 egg yolks
-1 Tsbpn water (adjust once you mix)
-1 tspn lemon zest
-1 tspn lemon juice
-1/2 tspn vanilla extract or ground (ground will not be as strong in flavour and will add specs in your cookies)
-dulce de leche (recipe posted below this one)
-coconut shavings

Putting it together:
1- In a medium bowl, sift together corn starch, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Add in water, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well.
3- On slow speed, add in dry ingredients until a dough forms. Do not overmix.
4- Take dough out of bowl, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5- Preheat stove at 350F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
6- Roll out dough to about 1/4″ thickness. Cut out cookies with a round cookie cutter (about 2 inches in diameter). Place on cookie sheets. Some advise not to roll out the dough more than twice.
7- Bake for 10-15 minutes until bottoms start to brown but the tops are still pale. Transfer gently to cooling rack – the cookies tend to crumble if you’re too rough.
8- Once completely cooled, spread dulce de leche on the bottom of one cookie, top with another. Do not overfill, the dulce de leche will ooze out the sides and make a big mess. Take a bit of extra dulce de leche and spread along the sides of the cookie. Dips this into the coconut shavings to coat.
9- Store in the fridge to prevent the dulce de leche from running. Enjoy!

Dulce de leche
Yield = enough for 2 batches of alfajores, or one batch and leftovers for ice cream or other piggy foods
Ingredients
-1 can of sweetened condensed milk (such as Eagle Brand)

Putting it together:
1- Stand unopened can in a large pot (that will go on the stove). Make sure there are a few inches of space between the top of the can and the top of the pot. Fill the pot with water until there are a few inches of water completely covering the can.
2- Bring water to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to gently simmer. For a thick caramel (good for Alfajores), let simmer for 4 hours. For a thinner caramel (for other things), simmer for 1-3 hours. The longer you simmer the can of milk, the darker and thicker the caramel will be. Make sure that there is always plenty of water covering the can. If water levels drop below the top of the can, the can could explode!!!!
3- Once done, let can cool (unopened) in the pot of water. This may take a few hours.
4- Open and try not to eat the whole can the second you open it.

Other ways to cook up the dulce de leche: open the can, pour it into a shallow oven-proof container, cover in foil and place into a larger oven-proof container. Fill 1/2 way up with water. Bake for a few hours at 425F. You can also pour the can into a microwave-safe container (such as a Pyrex measuring cup) and microwave at 30% for 3 minute increments.

Our Latin American fiesta recipes

Tags

avocado, chicken, cilantro, fajitas, lime, potato salad

Assalamu alaikum everyone! It’s Friday, we’ve gotten through another week, I hope you are all smiling because it’s the weekend!

Salem and I had some friends over for iftar on the weekend and I decided to make them eat outside of their comfort zone. While the wife is an amazing cook at all things Lebanese (and boy does she ever serve up a storm every time), I jumped at the suggestion that we make them try something different. last year, we had them come over and try out butter chicken. This year, I went with the Latin American theme.

Tout le monde à table!

Supper consisted of: a spiced bean soup for starters; slow-cooker chicken fajitas; potato salad with a South American twist, an avocado and cilantro salad; alfajores and a chocolate mousse for dessert. I am fully aware that chocolate mousse doesn’t totally conform to the theme, but I had to at least give them something safe.

I’ve written up the recipes for last Saturday’s dinner. Without further ado, here’s a little food porn and the recipes that go with it.

On the menu: slow-cooker salsa-lime chicken fajitas. Latin American inspired potato salad and an avocado-lime salad.

I must admit, I was inspired by some of the recipes on this site. I added some of my own little things and adjustments and may revise a few things again at a later date.

If you’re wondering what we served for the fajitas, here’s a quick list: sautéed peppers and onions, sliced avocado, regular salsa, salsa verde (which I LOVE), sour cream and aged cheddar. You can also opt for some lettuce and tomatoes – I skipped out on that this time because we had a side-salad and the chicken is cooked in salsa so that was enough tomato-related stuff going on.

Slow-cooker salsa-lime chicken
Yield = 4-6 servings
Ingredients
-1 jar of salsa
-juice of 1 lime
-1-2 cloves of crushed garlic
-1 Tbspn cumin
-1 tspn paprika
-1 tspn oregano
-1/2 tspn garlic powder
-1/2 tspn onion powder
-Fresh cilantro, chopped
-1-1.5 lbs chicken (we used chicken breast)

Putting it together:
1- Wash and dry chicken, trim off any nasty bits (yes, I am picky like that). Simply set aside – no cutting needed.
2- In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients except for the cilantro. Place chicken on top and spoon some of the mixture over the chicken. DO NOT ADD WATER!
3- Set your slow cooker to low for 7-8 hours.
4- Once it’s done, you can either pull the chicken apart with 2 forks (for pulled chicken), or you can take it out in small chunks. The chicken does tend to fall apart because it was slow cooked. Spoon some sauce over it and top with fresh cilantro.

Latin American inspired potato salad
Yield = 6-8 servings
Ingredients
-1 can of corn, drained
-3 large potatoes, diced and cooked (about 3 cups)
-1 head of broccoli, cut into florets (use the stem, cut it into small pieces)
-1 cup red onion, chopped
-1 pepper, chopped (this I will be adding in next time)
-3 Tbspn mayo (I used low-fat)
-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
-3 Tbspn lime juice
-2 Tbspn olive oil
-1 tspn wasabi
-1 tspn paprika
-1/4 tspn cayenne
-3 Tbspn Fresh cilantro, chopped
-Fresh cilantro, chopped
-Salt and Pepper to taste

Putting it together:
1- Mix together the corn, potatoes, broccoli, red onion and pepper.
2- In a jar, mix all other ingredients, put on the lid and shake!
3- Mix the salad and the dressing. You can let it sit together for a bit, that works just fine.

Avocado-lime salad
Yield = 4-6 servings
Ingredients
-1 head of lettuce, torn
-Baby spinach
-2-3 Tomatoes, chopped
-1/2 cup red onion, chopped
-1 avocado, cubed
-2 Tbspn fresh cilantro, chopped
-2 limes, juiced
-2 Tbspn olive oil
-Salt and pepper to taste
-Fresh cilantro, chopped

Putting it together:
1- Mix together the lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, onion and avocado (try to add the avocado last so it doesn’t turn brown).
2- In a jar, mix all other ingredients, put on the lid and shake!
3- Mix the salad and the dressing. Serve immediately.

Once every 4 years, I get a birthday

This year, I get an actual birthday. I woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning though but things started getting better as I got to work.

Many people were wishing me happy birthday through work e-mail and on Facebook. I got a few calls and some texts as well.

Mom sent me some wonderful flowers and a balloon. 🙂 Of course, she didn’t sign the card so it took me a few minutes to guess who might have sent them to me.

My co-worker, Bib, even offered to treat me to a dessert at Trattoria on the way back to work at lunch time. I had heard of Tartuffo before but never tried it. Boy was it ever yummy!!!

To top off my lunch hour, I tried out some watercolour painting. I wanted to familiarize myself wit the medium for a project (I’ve never painted with watercolour before) and so I just gave it a try while at my desk. I must admit that I quite like the results but I still have to work at it a bit more before I start up on my project.

Now lets see what the man has planned for me tonight…

Une couverte pour Zoé – A blanket for Zoé

A few months ago, a co-worker of mine had her first baby. I had decided to crochet her a baby blanket. So off to Ravelry I went to find a pattern and get started. It took me a while simply because the blanket was so large but I’m hoping it will last her for many years to come. The mother was certainly thrilled.

Bumps in the road when practicing Islam in a western society

I figured I would post on here about something I have been dealing with for years now, basically since I converted to Islam – figuring out what the fine line is between what is permissible and what is not. One of the biggest challenges in my case is Holidays practiced by people (whether they be religious or not).

Coming up next Monday is what used to be my favorite day of the year – Halloween. As a child, I loved dressing up, looking at how houses were decorated and, of course, getting candy. As an adult, the only thing I cared about was dressing up. I will admit that now, at the age of 27, the only thing I miss about not partaking in anything Halloween is the dressing up. yes, a grown woman who loves to play dress-up! Why? I don’t know. Is it a means of escapism? Is it just the clothing and the makeup? Is it something creative I can let out? I have no clue what it’s all about.

A fellow Muslim recently asked me if I was doing anything for Halloween. Enter the ever-so-present dilemma – Do I dress up or not? Halloween is the one day a year where I can dress up, go out in public and not be looked at as a complete nutter. I didn’t partake last year and I won’t be partaking this year because of my own religious beliefs. Salem and I were actually discussing this over dinner last night and I stumbled upon a post from another blogger dating back to 2007. It’s quite a lengthy post but it goes into more detail than what I will do here, which is give you the basic rundown of my reasoning.

Halloween is a Pagan holiday. Islam is a monotheistic religion (just like Judaism and Christianity – FYI) and within our own religion, we cannot participate in anything that contradicts our faith and religious teachings (ie One God vs Many Gods). By partaking in the dressing up and trick-or-treating and all that, we’re only saying that we agree with the belief – no matter how much the practice now is different from what the real Pagans practiced and still do. Let us not forget that one (if not the) biggest sins in Islam is to associate partners to Allah (ie polytheism). Also “Whoever imitates a nation is one of them.” (Abu Da’oud)

That being said, I don’t practice or observe anyone else’s religious holidays either although it does make things complicated on my end because I always hope my family understands that it’s nothing personal and that I do miss the opportunity to visit them on what is a special occasion to them. Instead, I try to spend time with them around their holidays but not on the days themselves. While Islam, Judaism and Christianity are all faiths of the book and believe in one God, we certainly don’t practice or believe the same religious holidays. If my family wants to come and visit me on any of our two Eids, then they are more than welcome, but I don’t expect it of them as they aren’t Muslims.

It’s all very hard to explain and can get complicated because holidays involve traditions and emotions. In the end, it comes down to 2 important questions: “Is this event something that I believe in? It is something that goes against my religious teachings and beliefs?”. I believe that there is no God but God, that we worship none but him and that we are accountable to him at the end of our time on this earth. When I converted, I made the decision to follow my religion as best I could and to submit to the will of Allah, therefore I cannot participate in religious observances which I do not believe in and only participate in the holidays dictated by my religion.

On a lighter note, I won’t be dressing up on the 31st but I have already put in a request with Salem that we have a costume party for my 28th birthday. Yayyyy!!!! I’ll probably be playing dress-up at home in the meantime!

My birthday yet again! And more snowwww – yet again!!!!

This weekend, I celebrated my birthday with a few friends over at Ciné Express. I’ve now decided that Ciné Express is very hit or miss. Salem and I met at this very place and we used to go to just grab some food and hang out. A few years ago, it went all downhill (only one waitress for the whole place on shift and I ended up wearing some of the beer that fell from a glass off her tray). We hadn’t returned until about a year ago – they had renovated and our usual waitress was there to serve us. We were happy! We’re returned a few times since and service was always good. Well, not so last Saturday. The waitress rarely came around and when she did, she took one person’s order only to turn and leave before anyone else got to put in their order. After getting sick of waiting, I took down everyone’s dessert order to bring it to the counter. After complaining to the guy behind the counter, he told our waitress to take care of things to which she started telling me “I went back many times and no one was ready to order”… Bah! BS! We got our orders in, half of their cakes were no longer available, etc. I was none too impressed, read even a bit embarrassed for picking this place! I don’t think we will be returning.

Next time: party at my place – BYOC (bring your own chair). Honestly! Don’t talk back to the customer when they have to go and do your job for you. Here are some pictures though, we at least got a couple of good laughs and I got to spend some time with friends. 🙂

It was a dark and stormy night…

… a pair of lovebirds were cuddling on a couch, seeking shelter from outside…

While Sabrina was busy giving physicals and Adam… well it seems he was busy using Sabrina as a back rest! 😉

Ok, I will admit, the couches are good for large groups of people..

Chris even joined us!

Lisa – post parking disaster – with Caro and Salem.

Cheeeeeeese!

Some little extra birthday tidbits i never got around to posting about!

Salem surprised me with a wonderful bouquet of flowers on my birthday! He even thought to lower the bedroom temperature so the flowers wouldn’t get hot between his lunch hour and my arrival! Honestly, I never wouldn’t thought about this.

I especially loved the irises, lillies and the frilly yellow rose!

I made some small double-chocolate birthday cookies to celebrate (no cake this time around)! They were AMAZING!!! We’re still finishing them off now. Recipe to come soon.

They may look like miniature cow patties but they sure as heck don’t taste like them!

Ahk! I know I know! I’m bad!!!

I didn’t forget you or my blog. I’ve just been REALY busy lately!

I’ll have some big news soon and more recipes (and possibly even a few projects I am working on).

I just need to have some time to breathe. I spent the whole day yesterday cleaning my apartment (re-organizing)… I was hoping to get rid of a lot of stuff but it seems I need all the crap that I have! Damn you craftiness! Damn you!

I decided to take a break and head for a coffee shop for some reading at 8:30 (I’m back to reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich). I think some guy attempted to hit on me/pick me up on the way to the shop… He was in a car, let me walk past the gas station entrance rather than run me over only to continue straight to the exit (not even stopping for gas). I saw him out of the corner of my eye looking and me and I saw his mouth move so I guess he was talking to me. I’d like to thank my iPod for offering the perfect excuse for my not hearing him. I just kept walking. Of course, part of me feels bad if he was just asking for directions… but somehow I highly doubt that was the case. Please let me know if you think I’m full of myself. ;-P

On the schedule tonight: my friend Michèle is coming over to teach me the basics of cake decorating! Woohooo!!!! I’m kinda hoping she’s craving Indian takeout!

Ok, back to work! I’m leaving early today!

On not being part of the team and birthday annoyances

Well, I often wonder if I think too much or if I read into things too much. Lately, it’s been getting to me a bit, please excuse me as I vent/complain/voice my concerns out loud.

I started a new job a month ago and I’ve only recently started making any kind of progress socially. Even at that, it’s hard! My cubicle is in the same area as 2 other girls. One barely even responds when I say hello and gives me the impression that she looks down on me. The other one responds to my hellos and we’ve had brief conversations. Yesterday, 3 girls were laughing at some sort of forward on the computer (one was almost crying from laughing so hard) so I said “something must be funny if she’s on the verge of tears”… No one even aknowledged me. I have no clue what was so funny… Am I just wasting my time?

Also, it seems I try to always please others. For my birthday dinner this weekend, I decided to go to a Moroccan restaurant because 3 people I had consulted before were quite interested. I searched all over the place and decided on a restaurant. Now it seems half the people I invited can’t come (I know, I invited people at the last minute) and people have complained about the parking (it’s on St-Denis – parking is hard there but not too bad if you don’t mind walking for 5 minutes)… So now I’m considering moving the whole event to a more parking-friendly area (and somewhere closer to the homes of the people coming) but they don’t have Moroccan restaurants! So Now I’m looking at Thai places (I like Thai food) and of course, I’m wondering “will people be happy?”…

*SIGH* Big, Freaking SIGH!

When am I just going to make up my mind and not give a crap whether people are totally happy at my expense? It’s my freaking birthday! Just one day a year where I’d like to have things 100% (or even just 90%) my way! I don’t want to hear about the parking or that the soup that came with the table d’hote didn’t have enough salt or that the proposed time is too early, etc etc etc. Seriously! It’s just one meal out of the whole year! One! Maybe 3 hours of your time! Can you please just suck it up? Do I complain when people tell me where they want to go for their birthday? No! Why? Because it’s their happiness that counts, it’s their day!

It seems it’s the same problem every year. Perhaps next year I’ll just take a vacation somewhere sunny and not have to deal with any of this. It’ll just be me, myself and I … and the sand, beach and sun!