Lily’s Blog, Dragon Absconded!
Baking Until I Drop

If you remember the menu, you might wonder if we made it all. Were we successful?

This is going to be a very picture heavy post so…

Maybe we should start with the sweets. As I said we did manage to make the Basboosa on Wednesday night. Unfortunately somebody soaked it with TOO MUCH syrup so even though it tasted great it was a tad bit crumbly.

Chennette and I made the Baklava on Friday night and we had our uncle from Florida as an audience. He was so dead beat when he came to see us Friday night, we thought he’d go to sleep as soon as he ate (more on Friday night dinner later)…but he got caught in the excitement of layering sheets of phyllo upon phyllo, brushing with butter (he was wondering if we were only putting butter and nothing else for a while). Actually, it was awesome phyllo. The last time we made baklava the pastry was in so much pieces. It still made great baklava but it was very hard to work with. We didn’t even really have to keep the sheets covered and moist! We made ordinary baklava (see Chennette’s photo) with walnut filling and also rolled up ones, stuffed with almonds and covered with sesame seeds.

We didn’t make the poppy seed cookies. But I really wanted to make cookies and mom was supportive of this craving. But we made nankatai…peanut cookies. It was basically flour, ground peanuts, sugar, butter and seasoning (it could have had more butter). It was yummy! Very nutty though. Kept leaving pieces in my mouth.

We also made Sawaine (traditional here). It is cooked vermicelli in sweetened milk. Some people put raisins, almonds, fruit and such. We only allow mom to put almonds and clove for seasoning. I don’t drink it because it has too much milk. However we had a brilliant idea that she tries to make some with almond milk. It should be interesting. I didn’t take any pictures of this…so I’ll use Chennette’s…I *know* she took a picture because her friend used one of my bowls but…she hasn’t uploaded it!!!! Will add link later.

Mom didn’t make the Rasgullah. We didn’t see the point and figured she could make it later since she was craving it so much. She made it last night and that might deserve its own post.

For the savoury snacks, we baked the samosa we’d bought frozen and took it to the masjid. Mom made felafel but not baigani. It was nice. I’ve posted this picture because the angle is very weird and has been disturbing Chennette and me. I even rotated it.

The Food!
Now to talk about the food!
Yum yum yum :-)
However, I didn’t take much pictures of the food. I’ll have to use Chennette’s pictures.

We made macaroni pie on Wednesday night and baked it on Thursday for Chennette and on Saturday for ‘Id and for mom’s granddaughter.

Since Friday night after sunset was the start of ‘Id-ul-Fitr, we made food for Friday night and had leftover for Saturday :-)

Chennette did the oven barbeque and scalloped potatoes. Mom and I were both sickly and somehow managed to leave her downstairs Friday after lunch all by herself to cook. She forgot to put the mushrooms into the scalloped potatoes but we forgave her. Mom and I were just dreaming of those mushrooms non-stop.

THOSE WERE REALLY GOOD SCALLOPED POTATOES!!!

This is my food…just not my picture :-)

We only made the lamb biryani. We didn’t know if we were getting any vegetarians. Or we weren’t sure. As we left for the masjid for the ‘Id prayers, mom hysterically told us and dad over the phone that she burned the Biryani. Well, I don’t know if she did. But it was excellent.

And mom made Kibbe. She made it the night before and we baked it on Saturday. It was really good even though she suggested we not put pine nuts on it (HORROR!!!) and then didn’t want to toast it. Thankfully as I was going to toast it, hindered by mom, Chennette came and joined me in the HORROR!!! and tada! we had pine nuts. I have no pictures, but yet again…Chennette’s:

And I made salad!
I made it *after* all the food was cooked and after my uncle and father ate Saturday morning but while my aunt and mother were eating.
I planned it so it would be pretty and photogenic and it was. Chennette proved it! Me, I have to learn! It had red peppers and red onions and celery and watercress and lettuce and tomatoes and…I forget what…oh shankleesh and zatar seasoned pita chips. YUM!

And that evening, mom, dad and I went to visit the sister-in-law and her family. They made curry. I just ate my normal channa and aloo and roti (dhalpouri).

Then dad and I raced back home to meet Chennette’s friend (our friend too) and our drop-in friends who came to introduce mom to their 15-month-old baby. Oh oh! Mom almost missed her. She was such a darling! Made me miss my niece even more :-(

It was a good day. And I was very tired.