The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 23 trips to carry that many people.
now I can blog from my i-touch! How
cool & convenient can that get!
“Jealousy is a tiger that tears not only its prey but also its own raging heart.”
i wonder what is the problem. i wonder why it is so difficult. i guess that’s how women in general work? no. i don’t think so. i have concluded it as insecurity leading to jealousy. sometimes things which doesn’t have a need to feel worked up about, gets too much of an attention and is blown over the top. people should just STOP bitching or rather to make it sound politically right, discussing their opinions and get cracking with what is really required. knowing the other language has become more of a pain than an aid. i made a mistake and that too a grave one and i am paying for it now. big time. lessons learnt cause of (some would say) inexperience, but i would say my own stupidity, believing that everyone is good. never ever am i gonna believe that someone is getting close to me cause they sincerely like me for who i was. never ever. a final full stop to all benefit of my doubts.
My food rambles blog has turned into a personal ramble blog.
The past 1 week was like an emotional roller coaster for me. Can’t tell you how many times i had tears welled up, just waiting to let go. The series of events made me ponder on the happenings around me. It made me realise how people around me took life for granted with not much appreciation for what they have. 3 deaths in a week. My brother lost his friend whom he had known for 25 years, I lost a friend whom i was close to once upon a time and attended that same friend’s girlfriend’s wake, who took her life on the very same day when he passed away.
In all the 3 deaths, i saw different kind of mums. A mum who was unable to accept the sudden death of her son, an angry mum who kind of saw her daughter’s death coming and another mum who was praying that her ill son would cheat death and come back home to her soon. Of the 3 mums, the one who took my breath away was my brother’s friend, Rafeeq’s Mum. Ever since the day i visited her, i have not stopped thinking about her and infact i cant wait for my next visit. I saw a mother’s love and how much the son loved his mum and wanted the very best for her despite knowing that the clock was ticking anytime for him. Their bond must have been extraordinary. I took an instant liking to her when i first saw her and all i could give her when i left was a big hug. I pray Allah (swt) gives her strength to get by her remaining days without her precious son.
There are 2 different types of people (at least to my knowledge). First type are the ones who have everything in Life but are never satisfied. The second type are the ones who do not have much but are thankful with whatever they have and make do with their Life. Life is short. Be happy with what we have. Give thanks to allah that we have one more day to live and repent for our sins. Cause we never know, our end may be very near. And it could be too late by the time we realise it. [Alas to dust we all return]
And i think i was so drained that after sahur on sunday, i only woke up 2:45pm. Haven’t had that sort of a hibernation in a long time.
After watching the video below, i have promised myself never to whine again for the slightest issue. Inshallah, i hope i remember and keep that promise to myself.
The day the egoist accepts and repents, it is the day love between them reaches the maximum. – sa’edah
Thats how my blog should be feeling. n.e.g.l.e.c.t.e.d.
Haven’t cooked anything new lately besides the fact that i have been just doing pasta now and than using watever ingredients i have. At times it tastes yucky, at times it’s just so heavenly. I have no idea why so.
Eating at home has become a pain. By right it shld be the most anticipated place where you’d be having all your craves satisfied, but sadly mine is otherwise. I am not a fan of rice, never have been and never will be (which was why my indo trip’s food part was a disaster. imagine eating rice for both lunch and dinner!). So my dinner is usually either bread with whatever curry which is cooked at home or maggie me, if not pasta if i have the energy to do it when i am back. But the irony is how do you even eat bread with a curry which cannot be defined as curry? Sigh. And the days when i would love to bring food to work(cause i am not so rich), thats when the pots are all emptied out. When i try to fix something for myself, i am accused for causing a racket in the kitchen. Oh my. To add on to this, with my marathon jus 3 weeks away, rice is completely out of my diet. The thought of coming back home (@8:30pm) to cook something for myself totally irks me, because eating so late is another no no and plus since i am human its just normal that i feel tired. Yeap call me a health concious freak or whatever else you would want to, cause i don’t really care. The pain is only known when you work hard to achieve something which is sooo fucking difficult but extremely satisfying when you get there. Don’t know what i mean? Than don’t bother figuring it out.
You know what’s the irony? I hate potatoes. Ask anyone close to me and they would know that when it comes to potatoes, i only eat fries & nothing else. So hence, this Potato-Bacon soup is definitely an amazement to be coming from me. But i am so glad i cooked it cause it was simply delicious and my dad loved it. He could eat it just with his rice. Here’s the recipe. Enjoy! (:
Ingredients:
– 6 slices of bacon
(oh yes! you can get halal bacon from sheng siong),
an alternative would be skinless hotdog, sliced.
– 1 big onion, diced
– 2 stalks of celery, diced
– handful of celery top(leaves) diced
– 2 potatos, diced
– 4 to 5 cups of water.
You can use chicken broth instead for added taste.
– Salt
– Black pepper
– handful of parsley, diced
– 4 1/2 tablespn cornstarch/cornflour mixed with 1/2 cup of cold water.
– 1 cup cream
– 4 cups whole milk (i used HL milk)
Method:
1. Cook bacon till crisp. Once cooked, remove it into a separate plate.
2. In the same pot with the leftover bacon fried oil, saute the onions and celery leaves until softened.
3. Once softened, in that very same pot, throw in your potatoes, celery and pour in water till it covers the potatoes nicely.
4. Simmer until potatoes are fork tender BUT NOT MUSHY. It took about at least 20 minutes for me.
5. Make a slurry by combining the corn starch with cold water and add it to the potato mixture, a little at a time.
6. Continue to cook until the potato mixture is bubbly and thickened.
7. Then add in the milk, cream and bacon.
8. Cook until mixture comes back to a simmer.
9. Serve in a bowl, garnished with parsely.
NB: You can also leave a portion of bacon aside to garnish it together with your parsely.
My beautiful potao – bacon soup. Am proud of it.. (:
After a few weeks of break, i decided that this weekend there should be no excuse that i should skip making a new dish. I had always been thinking about doing something with pasta and after looking around the net for a while, i decided on Spaghetti Carbonara with very simple ingredients.
Ingredients
• 3/4 packet of Linguine
• Olive oil
• 4 hotdogs, sliced very thinly
• 2 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan/cheese of your choice
• 1 pinch salt and black pepper to taste
• Handful of chopped fresh parsley
– It is difficult to find halal bacon, hence i used hotdogs. Trust me they gave almost the same taste like those pastas you eat out.
Method:
1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook linguine pasta until al dente (firm but not hard). Drain well. Toss with 2 tablespoon of olive oil, and set aside. Meanwhile in a separate pan (with little olive oil), fry bacon until crisp; remove and put it aside.
2. Add chopped onion, and cook over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add minced garlic, and cook.
3. Return cooked bacon to pan; add cooked and drained spaghetti. Toss to coat and heat through, adding more olive oil if it seems dry or is sticking together.
4. Add beaten eggs and cook, tossing constantly with tongs or large fork until eggs are barely set. Quickly add 1/2 cup cheese, and toss again. 
5. Add salt and pepper to taste (remember that bacon and Parmesan are very salty). There you go, tasty & healthy Spaghetti Carbonara!
I have no idea why, but suddenly i started thinking about meatballs.. Now i am craving for them.. *sigh*
3 weeks of western/non-indian food triggered my sil to suggest North Indian Food for the weekend. It was a crazy experience because me is not a fan of Indian food but she goes gaga over it. Nevertheless, the butter curry was awesome although most of the naan turned out like biscuit – hard & crunchy. Till now we don’t know why, but one advise would be, don’t buy that brand of naan!
I never knew cooking North Indian food was this easy till the attempt of trying butter chicken curry. All you need is the correct spices. For a start we decided to use the Shaan Spice Mix for Butter Chicken curry. Perhaps the next time round, we will do it from scratch 😛
Ingredients:
* Chicken Meat – cut into small cubes
* Red Tomatoes – About 5 just chop them
* Lemon Juice – 3 to 4 tblespoons
* Milk – 1/2 cup
* Fresh cream – 1/2 cup
* Melted butter – 1/2 cup
* Oil – 1/4 cup
* Shaan Butter Chicken Mix – 1/2 packet
* For great taste, wash the chicken with 2 tblespoons white vinegar in half cup of water before marinating.
Method:
1. Mix together lemon juice & SBCM in 1/2 cup of water and apply to the meat cubes. Marinate for 30 minutes. (it would be good if you leave it in the refrigerator).
2.Boil Tomatoes in 1-2 cups of water for 10 mins till soft. Sieve. Blend. This blended version is called tomato puree.
3.Before that – while your tomato is boiling, let your butter melt in the heat.
4.Separately: Heat oil and add the marinated meat. Stir fry for about 5 mins. Add the tomato puree and milk. Cover and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Stir in fresh cream and melted butter. Lift from heat.
Now the Naaaan…
The naan was a disaster. It wasn’t really that soft and tender like how you get it in the shops. But nevertheless it was still edible. Some of it turned out pretty fine, some didnt. Lesson learnt – make your own naan from scratch!
Now don’t buy this brand of naan.
This was how we tried frying the naan soft.
Some of it still turned out pretty and sane 🙂
You must be wondering what happened to the remanants of the chicken bones & other parts of it. The left over mixture was used to marinate these parts and we fried it and ate it while waiting for the tomatoes to be boiled and curry to simmer. 😛
desertroyal 
