Brrrrr!

It's cold, dark, raining, did I say cold? It is the perfect weather for eating something warm in front of the TV. But before I do so, there is something that I have been craving since the first drop of rain. Hot Chocolate.

Stuffed Basboosa

Basboosa is a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made with semolina and yogurt, then soaked in a rose water syrup. One of my all times favourite desserts to have. I love basboosa in all it forms (except the coconut version), I really do.

When I went to Egypt last month, I made sure that everywhere I went I tried thier basboosa, It was kind of my way to grading the cafe's/restaurants. I even brought some back home.

This recipe combines Basboosa and Baklava (sweet pastry made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup). I always looked at the picture in the book and thought to myself, this is good. And it really was...

I enjoy Turkish Coffee

I allow myself 1 cup of coffee a day (mostly during working hours), I can only properly function at work after my cup of caffeine.

Every Ramadan I promise myself that I won't get to attached to coffee and teach myself to live happily without it. However, between the parking lot & the office building, a Starbucks is strategically located with fresh coffee aroma tickling the brain as you try to focus on your destination but never works as you always go back for that latte.

Early last year, I tried to minimise fattening things in my diet. So my regular caramel macchiato became a latte, then a skinny latte, then espresso from the coffee machine at work (which was too light for me) and finally a Turkish Coffee.

If you haven't tried Turkish Coffee yet, I think you are missing out. I always thought Turkish Coffee was bitter, but if you order a medium or sweet, you can live. And as a mean of entertainmet, we read the coffee cups for fun after we finish. Today, it wasn't the best looking cup (but I took pictures anyways).

What Turkish Coffee cup looks like


that's a google picture - I forgot to take one before I start drinking

The Packed Lunch

To take homemade lunch to work or t order anything from anywhere? that is the question...

if you work the normal 9 to 5 (or in my case the 8:30 to 4:30 & beyond) then your choices for lunch are: the sandwich/salad from the trolley or the sandwich/salad from the place downstairs or the tasteless whatever from wherever...by time, you'd get fed up and really bored from the same orders. Lunch then becomes the 15 minutes when you have something to chew.

Once a cookie, now a cupcake

After the success of my Brownies, I thought Why not cookies? I always thought cookies were easier to buy than to make, you can then eat them right away (while walking, shopping, driving, etc...). A day before, I went and got all the ingredients (the right sugar, the right flour,...), now I was technically and mentally prepared to start the mission of making cookies.

First, which recipe to use?
Why not the Hummingbird bakery cookbook.

I followed the recipe very carefully considering that I am making this for the first time (and deep inside I wanted it to be a success), actually I felt proud that I am making a cookie dough from scratch.

on New Year's Day

On Jan 1st, 2011, the day I was supposed to begin writing about food, cooking and eating, I was busy celebrating the new year and meeting friends evey hour of the day. Towards the end of the day, we met at Cafe Ceramique, a place where you choose an item and colours and the staff there bring over the chosen colours and brushes & you just paint away!

So why is this coming up here? I felt bad about ditching my promise on day 1 and decided to make something food/kitchen related. Not sure what the real name of this thing is, I've been refering to it as cutlery holder.

3 hours of flowers drawing (and a week later aftering being baked), I share with you my cutlery holder.

So excited that on the day I went to collect this I made a matching napkin holder, will post a picture once it's ready - and I might go back to make matching salt & pepper shakers ;-)

Chicken Parmigiana

When making something new, I normally read through a number of recipes to see what are the common ingredients, cooking times, additons people introduce and reviews. And by doing so, and when making the same dish over and over again, you can begin to put you own personal touches without disturbing the original taste. Today, I went by the book. The process of making Chicken Parmigiana was very long. The preperation time is longer than cooking and eating times together.