Niece Number Two’s Aqeeqah
Last time we had an aqeeqah I didn’t post about it because we’d almost lost Zoë.
An aqeeqah is the muslim birth ceremony. It is usually done on the 7th day after the birth…or some calculation like that. It can also be done on the 14th, 21st, 28th…and then if you didn’t do it after that…anytime…the sooner the better.
I believe my dad’s and his siblings aqeeqah was done all at the same time and after I was already born, maybe even brother (new father).
What is it exactly?
You sacrifice an animal and share the meat out to family, friends and poor.
Some people might have a function and cook some of the meat and invite people over. Some might just have the cook-up.
In addition, you shave the baby’s hair and collect it and weigh it and pay some equivalent in charity (yes! new parents are always so very careful and exacting in the collecting…but my daddy says it’s a new baby even with a full head of hair…it’s usually always an ounce; round up).
So Sunday was my niece’s aqeeqah.
They sacrificed a mutton and my mom cooked biryani with some by the in-laws. It was good (but too much meat for me…).
It was a huge pot! It was just a touch spicy (it should be spicier but not everybody can take spicy including dad). This picture is just the little pot it was served in. You can see my second helping here.
Now, I’ve been dying to bake all week. All week. Scones. Brownies. Mostly scones…and whatever else, I’ve forgotten. But even though I’ve been awake for whole days (8:30am to 11pm/1am), I wasn’t feeling well…and the sight of the kitchen and the ingredients being taken out just either got me depressed or extremely tired. From Friday (which is the only day in weeks I slept the whole thing through, with breaks for prayer, food and personal hygiene) to Sunday morning I was plotting how to fit in the hour or two to make brownies.
Sunday morning I coughed almost non-stop on the bed for who knows what reason. When dad told me when we were leaving to go to the in-laws (in a half-hour) I almost didn’t think I would make it. 15 minutes later I propelled myself off the couch and convinced myself to bathe. I think I spent more time choosing between a bright blue scarf or an orange one to match my gown…!!! But while showering, the idea came…
I packed the cocoa and old dark chocolate and After Eight dinner mints into my huge handbag and wrote down the amounts for the brownie recipe.
On reaching my sister-in-law, I spent most of the morning convincing her little sister to help me make brownies. Reassured she wouldn’t have to make them alone and basically I needed company to make them and she didn’t want to bake alone, we eventually did them after lunch.
Interestingly enough, when I said I had to take pictures of the brownies in STACKS! she went rummaging around for a plate and quite happily stacked all the brownies. And didn’t mind the shenanigans we were going through with icing sugar to make it “pretty”.
It was kind of fun.
And, since what I was suffering from was a “baking craving” I didn’t really need to eat any of them…or a lot of them. I just *needed* to bake!!! We put the dark (71% and 85%) chocolate in the brownies (chunks!) and chopped up the After Eight to top the brownies. I like mint! :)
Here is the stacked work of art (I think I crave stacked brownies…I think I saw it on TV once and it just looked like what a child would really want and I would know because then I was a child…).
Feel free to look at the remaining aqeeqah pictures! Lots of brownies :)
