Saturday, June 21, 2008

Shopping for curtains


I have been looking for some new curtains and I could not quite find what I liked so I searched for photos and look what I found. So Inshallah I am going to start looking for some fabric to drape across some plain white sheers, that way I can have coverage as well as let a bit of light in. I might share some before and after photos.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Heard any good jokes? I have!

Assalamu Alaykum, I was on the internet browsing to find new blogs and I found intlxpatr and this blogger found this joke that I want to share with you as well. I omitted one specific from the joke because I don't like to put bias on people and I did not want that on my blog.

A new employee calls the Help Desk to complain that there’s something wrong with her password. No, it’s not the usual caps-lock problem.

“The problem is that whenever I type the password, it just shows stars,” she says.

“Those asterisks are to protect you,” the Help Desk technician explains, “so if someone were standing behind you, they wouldn’t be able to read your password.”

“Yeah,” she says, “but they show up even when there is no one standing behind me.”

Saturday, June 14, 2008

My love of cooking and cooking shows!


I found a new cooking show. It might not be new but it is new to me. I love cooking shows, Meshallah. And yes I get pretty grossed out when they start cooking pork and I have to shut the telly off. Many times I don't cook my food exactly as they do. But I love watching people cook, Meshallah. Maybe one day I could be a chef, Inshallah. My family loves my cooking. I take a lot of pleasure preparing meals.Below is a brief summary of the show. I missed most of the show I just saw him a the Chinese restaurant eating off dumpling spoons. Is there such a thing as dumpling spoons? There looked to be ceramic and the star of the cooking show and a guest were biting into these soup dumplings. As a Muslim I don't eat pork and I am not supporting the eating of pork if that was what they were doing. Again I stress I came in at the end of the show. It would have been nice to see what the Indian samosas looked like. I like samosas as well. I have made them for my family, they were light, crisp and tasty Meshallah. I baked them instead of frying them. Excuse me for rambling the show summary is below and there is a website http://toddenglish.com/foodtrip

"New York: The Surprise Inside" (Dumplings)• Episode #104
Join Todd English as he travels from Hell's Kitchen down through the East Village in New York City in search of distinct regional takes on the ubiquitous dumpling, a dish that changes with the culture and available ingredients. Along the way, Todd samples crisp and delicate Indian samosa; Polish pierogi, served with sour cream, fried onions, or apple compote; Jewish kreplach, and everything in between. In the Olives kitchen, Todd presents his own spin on the Chinese soup dumpling: potato gnocchi filled with tomato broth, lobster, and mozzarella.


I was like wow I really need to make this. The potatoe gnocci filled with tomatoe broth, lobster and mozzarella. He froze the tomatoe soup in ice trays and put them into the dumpling with the lobster and the mozzarella. He steamed them in a bamboo steamer, Man I have to get one of those steamers. Anyway back to the show, he put in some garlic lemon and long green onions( if I forgot to and something or something is amiss please leave a comment and let me know). in the bottom of the steamer and he put the dumplings in the top.

I have gathered that when making the potatoe gnocchi they put a whole in the middle of the potatoes and other ingrediatiens and placed the eggs there. from there he said that you don't really want to over handle the mixture. They rolled it out on a floured board and they sprinkled flour on the dumpling sac when they were forming the gnocchi.

Inshallah I will make this dish and make me some apple dumplings, the kind that Wendy's sold back in the day. I don't know why they stopped selling it. I want to make my own cinnamon sauce that they pumped all over the dumpling, Man oh man it was so good. My step father would buy us these as a treat and we would pt icecream, vanilla icecream allover the dumpling it had such a great taste. You know the taste of the hot dumpling and the cold ice cream colliding and tasting warm and savory.

To recap I need to Inshallah buy a potatoe ricer, mini icetrays, a wood board to roll out my dough, a rolling pin, and the bamboo steamer and some wood spoons and I need some more tongs my son bent mines so they're pretty much useless now. The chef was Todd English and now I am Inshallah going to make some gnocchi!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Natural Hair

One of the most valuable things I learned was about shampoo. Most shampoo has a chemical in it called Laurl sulfate. Laurl sulfate is a chemical that is put into shampoos to give you that lather. I love washing my hair and the more bubbles I see the more I felt my hair was clean. However Laurl sulfate is drying to your hair and can cause breakage. Breakage is not a good thing. I found that I could clean my hair with what is called a co-wash. Which is a conditioner wash or I could wash my hair with a baking soda and water solution or do a acv rinse which is a apple cider vinegar rinse. So what I did was I started reading the ingredients stay awaying from parabens and alcohol.

Alhamdililah reverting to Islam has made me more aware and I am so happy, Meshallah that Allah has guided me!

You might think that what I am saying is strange but if you really think about it people with kinky hair such as mine need different products for their hair to grow and be healthy, Meshallah. After much research I have discovered that a lot of the products I bought were not products produced the kind of results I wanted.

Now I use shea butter in my hair, sta-sof-fro sheen spray which I plan to start using vegetable glycerin/water mixture when I run out and amla oil as a hot oil treatment. This is all I use and it is sufficient. This is also all I use in my children hair. I do two strand twists and afros with a headband but I want to try braid outs one day when my hair gets a little longer Inshallah. However there are a few hair products that I want to try and I will share that with you at another time Inshallah.

Sisters this is how Allah created me with my kinky, curly and sometimes nappy hair. I don't mean that in a bad way. I love it Meshallah. I just wanted to share my experience if you have any questions please feel free to ask them.

Inshallah, I will make hijrah and I don't want to have to rely on many of the things I use in this dunya. It is the Sunnah to try to look our best. May Allah Guide us and make us better than we are. Amin

Wa Allaykum Salaam Wa Rahman tu Allayhi Wa Barakatuhu