Dear Friends,

My family and I are in Medina Al-Munawwarah, breathing in the kindness and light of this city. Alhamdulillah. There isn’t much that can be said about the two Sacred Mosques. All you can do is be awed, humbled, and pray to your heart’s content. This evening we go to Makkah for Umrah, InshAllah.

You’re all in my duas,

Taiyyaba

(Coincidentally, also my 100 blogpost anniversary. Great way to celebrate!)

Oh dear. I’ve neglected you, my dear blogpost. I’m so sorry. It’s just that, I haven’t been cooking much and I’ve been too tired to think and philosophize and actually write it down. I’ll try harder to keep up with you, I promise.

For the next three weeks, though, I’ll be traveling, so I won’t be able to update you. (See? I’ve been busy packing too! I can’t cook when I’ll be leaving for three weeks!) Think of it as a vacation for you. When I come back, I’ll have so many stories and pictures to share with you of visiting family in Pakistan and Syria and making Umrah and visiting Medina, InshAllah. Don’t worry!

Get some rest, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Don’t miss me too much!

Love,

Taiyyaba

Okay, so it doesn’t *look* all that pretty, but it tastes great.

We go through a lot of rice at my house. I think my Irish-German-Syrian husband has a bit of Asian in him, because the man will not eat bread except at breakfast. There must always be rice, and plenty of it. Rice, however, can get old and stale….or just a bit boring if it’s plain boiled rice.

My mom and I have a “never throw out anything unless it’s gone bad” compulsion, so I have this really simple way of jazzing up a-few-days-old rice into fresh dinner. Using broth and soy sauce, I make a cross between risotto (because you can make it as creamy as you want) and fried rice (because I usually opt for Asian flavors). It’s also a great way to use up leftover anything, because already-cooked chicken, seafood, beef, vegetables can be added with some extra flavor to jazz up otherwise plain rice.

The last one I made was a Ginger Beef Rice, so that’s the recipe I’ll share. Measurements (and ingredients) are variable, because you can add more/less/none/something else to change up the flavors.

Recipe in here: Read the rest of this entry »

….. which is just a fancy term for “cook veggies. add pasta.” This is really simple, which is what makes it perfect. There’s no cream sauce or fancy-schmancy stuff. Just veggies, garlic, and pasta. The sauteed veggies give off a broth, too, so this would be great by itself with some crusty bread or scooped over couscous.

1. Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil.
2. Add all veggies except corn, peas, and tomatoes and cook over medium-high heat until halfway done (as soft as you want them - mine took about 15 min total). Add tomatoes, corn, peas, then cook all the way.
3. If you are not stopping here (this is couscous/by itself stage), move all the veggies to the outer rim of the pan and let the liquid pool in the middle, then turn to high heat to let the liquid evaporate. 4. Stir in the pasta sauce at the end.
5. Mix into cooked pasta. Top with cheese, if desired.

I love the Farmer’s Market. Have I told you this before? Well, I do. I love the Farmer’s Market. In the fall and winter, you get apples, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes. In the summer, you get everything you could ever want - berries, peaches, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, fresh herbs.

This dish isn’t fancy. It just tastes good, because it highlights the summer market’s best picks with very simple ingredients. The chicken, cooked slowly, stays soft and releases a broth that flavors the vegetables. Crusty croutons soak up all the juices. *sigh* It’s beautiful.

The trick to the flavor and moistness of the chicken is the marination. I use this trick for all kinds of chicken - for grilling, flouring or breading and pan-frying, or baking, like this.

Here you go: Read the rest of this entry »