I don’t like raw carrots. I just can’t eat them. Ameir and my mom say I should because they’re good for my eyes and stuff….but….they just taste like crunch when you eat them raw; there’s no real flavor. Sooooo I use them for other things - roasting, soups, and now - muffins!

This is a great recipe for relatively healthy, very moist and tasty muffins. I got the recipe here, a Ms. Elaine Cooley’s recipe on Allrecipes.com - it was actually pretty great the way it was; I didn’t have to make many changes other than upping the sugar and cinnamon. The “bran” part comes from Raisin Bran cereal. I was surprised when I read the recipe, but trust me, the flakes just melt into the batter and you can’t even tell they’re there! If you’re using plain bran flakes, make sure to add raisins separately - I even thought about adding more here but I didn’t have any. Definitely a great way to use up the bran cereal that you buy to be healthy but never actually eat.

Click link below for recipe
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I decided to be brave and I bought a butternut squash. I brought it home and stared at it for a while, amazed at how beautiful it was, SubhanAllah, and then promptly asked Ayesha and the Simply Recipes website what to do with it.

End decision: Butternut squash soup. Result: creamy, savory goodness that was perfect on this icky rain-snow day. The spices were subtle, but highlighted the flavor of the squash. Lesson: Don’t be afraid of butternut squash as I once was!

Click link below for recipe
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So it’s getting better - the higher-up manager of the Union sent the following email to the Director of the Women’s Center:

“On another note I was copied on an email sent to my facility manager concerning the stocking and upkeep of our feminine products vending machines. I want you to know that the stocking problem will be corrected today and I will make sure our facility staff are on top of this from now on. A number of these vending machines have been replaced many times due to theft and vandalism. I have instructed my staff to repair or replace with a sense of urgency in the future.”

Going to send them a thank you/encouraging/keep it up email.

Buttermilk Alfredo Pasta
A tangy, creamy pasta with chicken or shrimp, spinach, mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes.

I made a pumpkin cake last weekend for my sister-in-law’s birthday [Turned out great - basic pumpkin spice cake recipe and then added half a can of pumpkin into a carton of Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting. Made a pretty orange frosting.]

So anyway - made pumpkin cake, had most of a quart of buttermilk left. I’m not a fan of fried chicken, and plus I think it’s a waste to use a quart of lovely, thick, rich buttermilk just to soak some chicken in. I had baked five things in the past week and a half [2 banana breads, pumpkin cake, banana-coconut muffins, and blueberry muffins] so I wasn’t going to bake anything. What to do, what to do?

My friend Sarah suggested a buttermilk sauce for pasta or chicken. Ayesha suggested mellowing it with spinach so that the potential over-tangy-ness would be a little softer. So during class… I mean during lunch, I did some searching and found another fine service by Google - Google Books! Basic Buttermilk sauce recipe taken from New Laurel Kitchen Cookbook, for which I found a preview on Google Books. Their sauce is thickened with cornstarch instead of the Alfredo’s traditional roux, which is convenient when wanting to make a quick dinner and not stand over the stove stirring flour. I added veggies and cheese to their basic recipe. Success.

Result = a tangy, creamy, cheesy sauce mellowed a little by the veggies that lusciously hugs ever single strand of pasta. It’s stronger than Alfredo and a little less creamy - a good alternative when you want something strongly flavored but not as heavy [buttermilk is surprisingly low in fat, considering its thickness.] Chicken swims happily. Pretty colors. Just all-around yummy.

Another option: Buttermilk Alfredo Mashed Potatoes and Chicken: This sauce is excellent over pasta, here, but it’s also amazing mixed into mashed potatoes with a little chicken broth. Another option - skip the pasta and spoon some directly over grilled or pan-fried chicken.

Another option: Potato and Leek (and Spinach and Mushroom) Soup . Mix this sauce into a batch of mashed potatoes and freeze the whole thing. Keep them on hand to mix with sauteed leeks and chicken broth for a quick, hearty soup.

So many options! Excited? Well done. Onwards! Recipe here: (more…)

I’m afraid of cooking Desi food. There, I’ve said it.

It seems so easy when Mama does it - Just throws stuff into a pot and it turns out amazing every time, MashAllah. I’ll stand by and “help” as she says “stir this” or “add a little of this.” If I try to ask how many teaspoons of zeera to add, she looks at me lovingly and just pours a bit into her hand and says “this much.” Cool, but not entirely helpful.

Part of it is that I feel like my food can’t be as good as Mama’s. She’s especially known for her paper-thin parathas, crispy on the outside and filled on the inside with several soft layers of yumminess. But some of my favorite times have been learning the “tricks of the trade” from her as she teaches me what spices, stocks, meats, and vegetables make the perfect masala for the perfect saalan.

mmm….aaalooo

So this is my first experience as cooking desi food by myself, entirely - Usually it’s the recipe-based or improvising Amreeky/Italian style dinners I can think of or eating what Mama graciously makes for us, me being still a student-wife, or something that I’ve stirred while Mama’s taken the lead.

*Note* As I start blogging about cooking - one important thing. “Curry” is not a general term for Pakistani dishes. I’ve always called them “saalan” for generic dishes, “korma” for meat stew type dishes and “bhujiya” for vegetable mixes. Curry is actually a specific dish made with pakoras (little fried gram flour patties) in a turmeric-yellow yogurt sauce. I’ll use “curry” to translate for convenience and because I can’t think of any other word….but I really hate everything being called a “curry.”

A second note for cooking desi food. The base of most desi foods is softened [and then often pureed onions.] So before you make anything, you chop onions, soften them, and then put everything else in. Mama does a smart thing and keeps boxes of pureed onions in the freezer so that she can just take out spoonfulls of it to cook dinner quickly. So when I say “onions” - i mean this frozen mixture - but you can just do the whole drill.

Recipe after the link

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