Now my brother is home for this Ramadan and as you know Chennette is in Guyana with our other sister so…there are enough people in Guyana to make the things we like too.

Chennette craves macaroni pie…posts pictures of macaroni pie. Well yesterday mom baked lamb in bbq sauce and I made macaroni pie. I also made a macaroni pie with beef that went into the freezer, a meal to be baked for another day.

She made googni (boil and fry blackeye with onions and whatever else) and next day mom makes it.

We make aloo pie and channa and cucumber chutney she says hmm maybe I want that instead of pizza.

And I think, hmm, how long has my brother been home and I haven’t made any pizza?

Last night, she chirps that

you can’t make style on us @empresslilandra WE making Aloo Pies tomorrow for #iftar! http://bit.ly/aOpPiU #Ramadan #Caribbeancooks

What else is in the lineup?

So, I guess, in a way, we are celebrating Ramadan together.

:-)

Hmm…I wonder if she’ll feel for non-stuffed but fried beef kibbe with tahini?

Fried Kibbe, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

It looks kinda like felafel, doesn’t it? :)

Well, I missed a day of posting, so now we’ve had 9 Tarawih and I started my 9th fast.

So after Tarawih, it settled. We moved the old fridge out into the porch. We moved the new fridge into position and plugged it on and I wiped the insides with hot water. Filled the ice trays and went to sleep.

(okay a bit more involved than that. We had to take out the doors from the old fridge, so empty the doors, twist around back door, fiddle with new fridge feet…let people run around and not fall asleep after).

Happily when we woke up for suhur, the ice was frozen.
Of course the old fridge said the temperature was 38F after months when it couldn’t go below 45F and I think recommended is 40F at most. Our electronics are infamous for being jealous.

Hopefully someone will buy it even knowing it needs some work. I can’t deal with two fridges again!

And for iftar yesterday…
Well mom (with my help) made aloo pies, curry channa with cucumber chutney while we waited for the fridge to arrive. That was dinner for me too. And iftar.

Aloo Pie, Channa and Cucumber Chutney, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Hmmm…

Well, I’m tired and have many pictures to go through but I will post a link to Chennette’s recipe with picture. I need to sleep so I can do more stuff tomorrow…:)

Today: 6th Ramadan.
Last night: 6th Tarawih
This morning: 6th Suhur

We’ve almost done a week of fasting. Wow time flies!

So, to makeup for this…*sob* *sob*

Dad passed, saw cassava, couldn’t resist, bought loads, mom cooked it, sent half to the masjid…and tada!

Today is the 4th of Ramadan. Last night we prayed the 4th Tarawih. This morning, we had our 4th Suhur and we are currently keeping the 4th fast.

Remember when last month the Daring Bakers made Lavash and I complained. I could’ve joined them. I actually made lavash from the same recipe that month.

Well guess what they baked this month!
See here!
Pizza.
From Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

Yeah.
We all know what I have sitting in my freezer, right?
right?

In case you don’t know, let me refresh your memory:

And I still am not a Daring Baker.
*sob*

Maahay Ramzaan, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I promised ages ago to post a last post on Eid.
And of course I didn’t.
For almost a whole month I stood silent.

Well, a couple weeks ago I went to a Ladies Eid dinner (small group) where they also invited mom and her family to wish us a good hajj. They sang a couple qaseedas and I took the opportunity to leaf through the qaseeda book to find…tada! the song I tried to share with you earlier.

This is the song my grandfather used to sing every eid at every house.
It’s in urdu and if you want the translation, it’s here.

The food from this event can be found here and here.

Now maybe some of you are wondering if we did all the things we planned.
Well mostly.
I got to make my roasted red pepper couscous salad. You can read all about it at Chennette’s blog.

She took most of the pictures.

You can also see the lovely pictures of baklava she took that we timed with the arrival of our cousin and her new groom from the airport, thus delaying their sleep even longer.

It must be stated, our new cousin-in-law seems quite nice and Insha Allah they will be very happy.

And did we make the barfi for them? Yes!
We ordered chinese food for them when they were due back from Tobago and it was waiting and they enjoyed it immensely. It’s great to be back in Trinidad and find halaal food to eat…not just vegetarian and not just run by muslims but completely halaal chinese food.

And then later, we made barfi for my cousin so she could get it nice and warm. It was delicious. She stuffed some in her husband as he lay half-asleep.

Homemade Barfi, for Eid and the Cousin’s Wedding Visit,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I took pictures of the complete process and it’s deserving of its own post eventually but you can see the set here.

And I finally uploaded the pictures of my making the Cordon Rose Cream cheese cake.

When I say early I mean the un-Godly hour of say 4am or before.
During Ramadan, when we’re fasting, 4am is *very* Godly however…not fasting…take a break please.

Thankfully, we didn’t wake up until Fajr time! (5:15am)

So, she didn’t wake up looooooooooong before me and I was able to come downstairs and help or be sous-chef.

Here follows the extremely dry, minute-by-minute account of my day. Enjoy :-p

Mom instead made accra with 1lb of flour (as opposed to the planned 2lbs). A proper recipe will follow later.

We also sliced and fried the sahina.

We sent some of these fried goodies to the neighbours. I’m not sure if all of them got any though, I heard the receivers were a tad bit selfish and didn’t share.

I opened up the cans of milk for mom to make a small batch of sawaine. You’ll notice the size of the pot relative to the 14oz can. This is probably the SMALLEST BATCH OF SAWAINE THAT MOM EVER MADE! Historic!

Around 6:30 we put the kibbe in to bake (this was prepped and in the fridge) and it was ready before we left for the oven.

And at 8:00 we left home and arrived at the masjid to pray.

The Eid prayer is what we dress up and go out for.
On the morning of Eid, we all bathe, dress up in all our finery and make it down to the masjid to pray. The imam delivers a khutbah (sermon) (during which we don’t talk but I take pictures…), after which we pray two rakaahs (units of salaah/prayer) (and some people make noise with all their bangles).

Then, hug, kiss, salaams and outside to MINGLE…

and setup the snack table (for which I’ve mentioned ad nauseum, we made cheesecake).

Afterwards, we visited mom’s uncle and aunt. Since I hadn’t had ladoo (the little round dark balls) in ages, I had some of that.

Now, as I’ve stated many times before, our Eid this year was very low-key.
Because mom was sick (and mom can’t stay out of the kitchen if I try to cook some stuff), the neighbours invited us for lunch and dinner…so there we went and limed for a while.

After which we went home, limed with mom’s sister until she went and then WE ALL CRASHED!

Yeah, we slept.
Until around 5pm when mom dragged herself awake and me too.
Did we wake dad? Maybe dad woke mom.

And then, because I was STARVING, I had some of the kibbe we baked.

After which, the parents, who didn’t have dinner, and I went back next door and had…dinner.
Well the parents had dinner.
I watched them eat and refused everything.
Except.
Two hours later I was STARVING again.
I was very worried.
But starving isn’t good.
And there was some mention of HOT HOT HOT dhal so I had rice and dhal and yes it was HOT and it was Good. And no pictures.
Did I mention I was starving?

It was not a bad day.
I liked it.
Not so tiring.
However, dad (and I and mom?) did miss our homemade sweets.
Mom is the best…and people can’t compare. But it’s okay.
We manage ;-)

(more to come…Chennette’s visit and such!)

If you missed any of the Ramadan and Eid pictures, and for some reason want to see them, they’re all here in a set! :)

Psst! I think I’m all blogged out! Burnt out! Etc etc etc!

Earl Grey Tea,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I’m sure I’ve said this many times but I’ll repeat it.
Since , this meant Ramadan ended at sunset on Tuesday.
So, we break the last fast of Ramadan in Shawwal, that is, on ‘Id-ul-Fitr.

For these reasons, we try, as we did last year, we made Chicken Biryani for the night. After all, why not celebrate at the start of ‘Id.

Chicken Biryani,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Oh my! You should’ve been there. To wake up to break fast to that smell. It was…heaven.

So, summarizing for the last day of Ramadan:

Tuesday 30 September 2008, Ramadan 29

Suhur: Hops Bread and butter and cheese

Iftar: Earl Grey Tea

Dinner: Chicken Biryani

Edit: When dad came from work, not only did he ignore mom’s directives and pass and pick up lamb, but he also bought a flower arrangement for her ;-)

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheese Cake,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Traditionally, ‘Id-ul-Fitr is a many-day celebration as we, muslims (strict), have only two celebrations¹ and in muslim countries, this is honoured. Thus this will be the second of many posts commemorating ‘Id especially since Chennette won’t be arriving until Friday when we shall do some extra special cooking and thus have our ‘Id lunch on Saturday, as close to our whole family as we’ve been able to get any time the last four years, as my other sister, usually in Guyana with her offspring and spouse is now in the UK and my brother and his new family is in Saudi Arabia².

When I was a child, we used to go house to house (muslim), following the Imam and at every house there would be a table set with sweets and savouries and other things. And we’d eat. Can you imagine? Every house? Or every “muslim” house? But it was fun. When we arrived at a house, we would gather around and he would lead us in the qaseeda:

Ma hay ramzan chaldiya
Eida kadin nagaya
Eida ho subako mubarak
Eida kadin nagaya

The above is from memory. I don’t know how accurate it is or even any more than those four lines. But it was and still is my favourite (only?) qaseeda. I wish someone could tell me how it goes…and sing it like he did.

After awhile, this was discontinued. I mean we’d spend all day going and stuffing and somebody would have to be at the house waiting for the rounds and thus missing out on the rounds and some people we would probably never even see at the masjid. It wasn’t very fair all around.

Then, at some point, we started having people bring something to the masjid. You know, you fry some aloo pie, make some barfi, bring some. If everybody would bring a little of what they made, then we could all lime and celebrate a bit at the masjid before going back home.

I like this idea…except some times it seems people only bring sweet stuff, and then to compensate, the next year/next ‘Id they only bring savoury :-)

Our contribution this year was cheesecake. I made Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake. I doubled the recipe and cut it into little squares to share. It was so rich that…even for me, that was a decent serving. I loved it…I think others did too.

Here’s a plate of what some people brought. Somebody put it together for my dad, and seeing as I’d been taking pictures all month, told me okay, Lilandra, take a picture and give it to him ;-)

‘Id Mubarak: Sweet and Savoury Potluck at my Masjid,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

1. The two celebrations in Islam are ‘Id-ul-Fitr (at the end of Ramadan) and ‘Id-ul-Adha (the sacrifice). Some muslims may celebrate other events for example Meeladun Nabi (the birth of the Prophet) or Meerajun Nabi (the ascension of the Prophet) but the Prophet did not celebrate these, just the two ‘Ids.
2. And I, am in Trinidad, and also *from* Trinidad and Tobago, just in case you followed an old link ;-)

24th Iftar,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Wednesday 24th September, Ramadan 23 (also Republic Day)

I made corn muffins from our bread machine cookbook. It was supposed to be a bread but I made it in muffin tins. It was supposed to be corn meal and chick pea flour. I used corn meal and split pea flour. It was supposed to be hard cheese, finely grated like parmesan. I used cheddar, coarsely grated.

Despite all this it was fine.

Except.

I kept wanting it to be sweet. It wasn’t. There was no sugar…and I didn’t think about adding any.

There are still some left. I intend to brush them with a honey glaze and reheat them in the oven or toaster.

Suhur: Bread and butter.

Iftar: Pholourie from over de road, kachorie from down de road and corn muffins.

Dinner: Parents had curry fish and rice. I forced and had the last of the macaroni pie (from last week when Chennette was here) with stewed red beans.

24th Fast: Our Iftar Table,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Thursday 25th September, Ramadan 24

Suhur: Chocolate pudding, toasted dhalpuri and avocado.

Iftar: Leftover tuna croquettes

Dinner: Parents had lots of freezer leftovers, I had rice and stewed red beans.

Friday 26th September, Ramadan 25

Hmm, we bought fried chicken. We broke fast with…???

26th Iftar: Mom’s Dinner,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Saturday 27th September, Ramadan 26

According to the second draft of the Eid menu, mom was supposed to make sahina and me cheesecake. Well mom made the sahina before I woke up…and I woke up at around 9am as we were going…Eid grocery shopping!

I went to Tarawih in the masjid on Saturday. You can read about the night of power and when it is and about the last ten nights of Ramadan anywhere else. I’ll try to find some links. I only stayed for 12 of the 20. I was getting rather dizzy.

Also, some people from the Jamaat (sort of…they used to live here but migrated…and then presto…met again there and got married…) gave an iftar.

Suhur: bread and butter?

Iftar: I didn’t take pictures. Too tired. Half-asleep. We had…GULGULLAH! (it’s like a sweet fried fritter with raisins) and accra (a bit tough, mom says batter/dough too stiff, needs more egg…but I still managed to eat a bit of it!!!).

Dinner: CURRY! I took a picture of mom’s plate and mine as she had more variety. I had my curry spread staples (roti, channa and aloo, stew chicken and salad).

There was, paratha roti, channa and aloo, stew chicken, curry mango, vegetarian biryani…and not sure if there was anything else. I can check mom’s plate.

27th iftar: Starfuit and what no,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Sunday 28th September, Ramadan 27

Soooo dead beat.
Today, with excellent preparation, I made Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake. It looks very nice thank you very much. This needs to go in the fridge now, and tomorrow it will be unmolded and cut into squares and will wait to go to the masjid on Eid day to share. Um. Shouldn’t I taste it to make sure it’s good? That I’m not giving people…garbage???

Mom fried pholourie from a mix. Oh sooo very addictive with a nice fresh tamarind chutney.

Suhur: Honey Wheat Dark Rolls and Egg paste (salad). Parents had…I dunno bread? and boiled egg.

Iftar: Dates, grapes, addictive pholourie and chutney, starfruit (mom), raspberry and cream cheese pastry…anything else? It’s in the picture.

Dinner: Haven’t had any yet. Current just went.

Parents are having black-eye beans and rice plus fridge lamb. Mom was going to make a black-eye pelau…when she came down while I was making the cheesecake, she told me she forgot to take out the chicken, is rice and beans okay? I’m like yeah…

PS Our dryer is kaput and not here. We’ve run out of clothespins.

Tuna Croquettes, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

The problem with delaying posts is I take no notes and forget…so if I don’t take any pictures, there is almost no hope.

Monday 22 September, Ramadan 21
suhur: unknown

iftar: Since I wasn’t fasting, I made tuna croquettes from this recipe. I doubled the recipe and used two cans of tuna (6oz each). I also used low fat milk (that’s what I had).

Aunty from next door dropped sahina.

dinner: leftovers from the weekend iftars.

Tuesday 23 September, Ramadan 22
Suhur: can’t recall, maybe bread and butter unless that was wednesday

iftar: leftover sahina and tuna croquettes

dinner: leftovers from iftars

Our old fridge finally was given up on Saturday.
When mom bought a new fridge and stove some years aback…instead of disposing of the old ones, she moved them into the back (where the washing machine and dryer are) and thus caused one of the greatest contentions/controversies in our family. A second kitchen. Outside.

Let it be stated right here, we understand her cooking her roti on the back on a ring stove (because the inside stove would get too messy…hmm and cuz it doesn’t have as much power…hmm) or even frying…heat outside…

You know what it’s like to be cooking (especially late at night) and realize you don’t have an ingredient because it’s stored in the back fridge??? Like apple cider vinegar? corn meal? minced garlic? I could go on…my sisters would probably be better. You know what that’s like when you don’t bring your hijab downstairs at midnight…because really why would you need your hijab at midnight, locked inside your house?

Everything was stored in that fridge.
Noodles galore.
Potatoes.
Granted I stored my flour in it and breads in the process of being made, but it was there. It annoyed me too.

We finally convinced mom to give it up (hard because I hate the inside fridge).
We were looking forward to a lower electricity bill and de-cluttering.
Three and a half people don’t need two fridges.

And the door fell off.

Now the deep freeze is still in the back … we can deal with that.

What this means is that the tiny fridge inside is packed. The freezer is packed. And I don’t really have fridge space to retard my bread dough à la Peter Reinhart.

The fridge is a french door side-by-side fridge, one side is freezer (9″ wide) and the other fridge (13″ wide). I’m not saying more. Really. But when I can’t fit my huge cookie tray in it…I wish it was a regular old style fridge. *sigh*
Also, we have one shelf for water and other drinks.
One shelf for butter, eggs, jam etc.
One shelf for tahini, pickles, milo, sweets and random stuff.
And one shelf for food.
We can’t store lots of leftovers.
So I said new rule. No cooking unless there are no leftovers. Maybe we can sometimes cook when it’s half filled. But there must be room to store stuff before we cook.

So that’ll solve two problems.
What’s the other problem?
Mom insisting on cooking every day because daddy will want hot food.
*groans*

Dinner Buffet, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

This weekend we were oh so lucky to have two iftars at the masjid, ie both on Saturday night and Sunday night.

Since the menus were remarkably similar, I decided to do them in one go. However I would’ve decided this anyway as it’s so late already ;-)

Chennette was here on Saturday and took some of the pictures (mostly because I wasn’t feeling well and I think she took pity on me or something).

Saturday 20th September, Ramadan 19 and Sunday 21st September, Ramadan 20

Suhur: I think mom had water upstairs and I had some macaroni pie and leftover fried shrimp. Who remembers Sunday??

Iftar: See Saturday pictures here and Sunday pictures here.

Saturday Iftar, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

To break fast on Saturday, we had sahinas, peas pakoras, fruit salad (dates, grapes, apples, pears, peaches, plums), grate mango chutney and tamarind chutney.

On Sunday, we had sahinas, dates, apples and watermelon.

Saturday dinner, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Then for dinner, Saturday had a bigger spread or both curry and stew but I wasn’t silly enough to take part in both sides. As you can see, my plate was kinda scanty.

From the first picture, you can see they had paratha roti (or buss-up-shut), avocado, fresh salad, curry channa and aloo, curry mango, stew chicken, fried rice, chowmein. I only had chicken, rice and noodles…

On Sunday, there was stew chicken, fried rice, macaroni and potato salad (yum!) and green salad. I’m not sure if there was anything else but that’s what I ate.

Both days had dessert, box cake and ice-cream. First day was yellow cake and strawberry ripple ice-cream. I ate so little and had no room so I just had a mouthful from generous sister. Second day, chocolate cake and yellow cake and chocolate ripple ice-cream.

Sunday cake and ice-cream, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Oh, and we’re clear into the last ten days now, which is deserving of its own post.

Three Shrimp and a Fish Pie, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

There are many reasons to not fast during Ramadan, you could be sick (either a passing thing or chronically), travelling (this doesn’t have to be only during the actual travel, changing climates and time zones can affect you also), pregnant or menstruating. I’ve known people with Diabetes who fast…but deciding on whether you fast or not is between you, God and your doctor. Some say, well, the non-muslim doctors will always tell you don’t fast! don’t fast (at least, when I was unwell that’s what people told me…but then four years later and I’m much better than I was then, and my GP is a female muslim doctor…and she herself told me…well watch how you fasting. She didn’t come out right and say don’t fast because she knew I was going to try but she did tell me it’s okay you know, if I decide not to. So whatever!

However, not waking up for suhur is not an excuse not to fast. If you’re making sunnah (voluntary fasts, outside of Ramadan) then if you don’t wake up for Suhur you don’t usually fast. In Ramadan however, if you are healthy you must fast. The commandment isn’t “wake up for Suhur” but it is “fast”.

You may think not fasting in Ramadan is nice. Like when the days come that you don’t have to fast, “wooohooo”. This isn’t really the case. For example, in your household, suppose one person isn’t fasting and everybody else is…you might feel a bit strange eating while other people aren’t. (Actually, growing up, people in school and such always apologized or wanted to hide their eating in front of me. It’s not necessary. I’m fasting, you’re not. Please … eat. The physical manifestation of fasting is abstaining from food and drink but if that’s all you get from it then you’re not working for the true benefit).

Aside from feeling strange eating while others aren’t, there’s the whole remembering to eat issue. You may not be fasting for very good reasons (like you need to eat every two hours!) but your brain/mind/whatever knows it’s in Ramadan and is already geared up to not eat and withstand some deprivations…so you’re already trained to ignore food calls…and well…you forget to eat. This always happens to me. I go hours without eating and then realize, I’m not fasting, I am supposed to eat…I must eat…go…eat…!

To me, the real dangers of Ramadan is actually not fasting. It’s not that you’re tempted to go along and eat less…it’s just you’re sooo conditioned not to eat than you negate the purpose of not fasting and don’t take care of yourself when you should.

Now, back to Friday.

Chennette came in Thursday night and stayed until Saturday night. After Friday congregational prayers mom and I went grocery to pick up some essentials. Now, sitting down in the masjid for jumah, I started craving salty corn chips and shrimp. We haven’t had shrimp for a good while because the fish vans that pass don’t seem to have it. Now, I didn’t see any acceptable corn chips but mom did find shrimp. The cashier shook her head over the price and announced she can’t have shrimp cus it too expensive. We told her we’re treating ourselves for Ramadan. Now, this was big (1inch, curled) shrimp. 340g (about 20-25) for about TT$42 (US$6.66). That’s a lot! Especially compared to the smaller shrimp mom bought to curry, same weight but TT$15 (US$2.38) (It was on special but still). This was our *treat* and we were craving.

Seasoned Shrimp for Iftar, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Friday 19th September, Ramadan 18

Suhur: I can’t quite remember. Thinking. There was a doubles but nobody told me about it. Bread?

Iftar: Aunty next door sent fish pies and we fried those big shrimp. Yum yum yum! Oh soooo good. We were frying it before dad went to masjid and he came and stood longingly over the wok. Hehe. Tasted very good.

We may have warmed up some pie, doubles, pizza etc for us to eat and thence to pray. I think that was my dinner.

Double-decker Cheese Paste Sandwich, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I have returned, dear gentle readers…;-)
(Whether you missed me or not)

When I started this escapade, I blogged after suhur and after iftar.
Soon, those two posts per day started merging into one post for the day.
Then they started getting delayed into after the suhur the next day.
To catch up, two days became one post!
Now, I have three days worth missed.

But with good reason?

On Monday, mom and I prepped and topped the pizzas for my sister, my sister who was on her way to England for a year with her husband, daughter (2 years 8 months) and son (10 months) came home to overnight Tuesday.

Mom and I also made coloured cheese paste (pink and green) so as to pack sandwiches for them on the plane, coloured to entertain a small child. See recipe. We just added food colouring until we were happy.

On Tuesday we all (mom, dad and I) trekked up to the airport to collect the brood plus Chennette (surprise surprise she was flying through) and came home. These Guyanese all promptly went to sleep.

And current went.

*sigh*

SOoo hot.
About half hour later it came back and mom and I, dead beat, decided to bake the pizzas, cook the rice, fry the sahina one time, no interruptions.

And we did.

Whole wheat beef pizza, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Couple hours later, we wake up my sister to pray.

At the second call, “<Sister>, are you up?”
Sister: Yes mom, I’m up.
Niece: Mom, I’m up too.

So they exit the room, niece in front, all awake and alive, sister a bit more groggy. A few minutes later mom greets somebody and I had to look down. Nephew was crawling out. It seems he answered mom’s call too but with a grunt and so got put down on the floor to crawl out.

We fed them (niece and nephew) while niece was frantically looking for Zoë and then carried them next door to get their hair cut. It was time. It grows.

Wednesday, after suhur, we made the cheesepaste sandwiches to pack and wrapped up pizza. Then, we went to repack (redistribute) their 8 suitcases. Which took all the time it seemed and thence to the airport.

Much sadness. No tears yet.

BUT THEY’RE GONNA BE GONE FOR A YEAR!
I mean yeah I could fly but it’s like US$1500 and either I have no job so no frequent flying (that’s like 5 trips to Guyana) or I get a job and can pay for it but then time off?
They’re going to grow up without us.
*sniffle*
Nephew will be walking and talking without us there.
And niece…what if she doesn’t love us anymore.
*sniffle*
And, no, I don’t want my own. I want theirs…close by :-p

So, after coming back from the airport sleep sleep sleep. That was me. Coming to the last half of Ramadan I (a person) gets tired…well even more tired. It is draining.

Ad in the morning, the frantic waiting to hear if they made it alright and through immigration and how are the children etc etc. They’re there. Everything’s fine. So far, the niece likes the “cold”.

I tried cooking but got stuck at the lamb…so I had my *dulce de leche* ice cream and persevered.

Chennette came in after 8 pm.

And thus ends a busy three days where we lost another set of our family.
*sob*

Tuesday 16th September, Ramadan 15
Suhur: Pink and/or green cheese paste sandwiches.
Iftar: sahina and Pizza ;-) There was also fry rice and stew beef.

Wednesday 17th September, Ramadan 16
Suhur: pizza?
Iftar: I had to break my fast else it would’ve been like the last one when my brother left. Hmmm correlation?
Don’t know what anybody had for iftar or for dinner. I was asleep.

Thursday 18th September, Ramadan 17
Suhur: unknown
Iftar: mom had dates, aloo pie with channa (bought from school) and a slice of pizza. For dinner, there was rotini macaroni pie (due to lack of other noodles except farfalle, fettucine, orzo), baked lamb slices and cole slaw. Yum!

Remember, the Ramadan set has more pictures…and the start of the dulce de leche ones.

Mango Chutney at My Masjid’s Iftar, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Saturday 13 September:

After I couldn’t sleep the day before, I decided to peruse my cookbooks. If you remember the last time I tried to make pancakes for my family for suhur, NOBODY FASTED!

Now, I did see a recipe for Feathery Banana Pancakes in Lisa Yockelson’s Baking by Flavour, but Chennette was at home. And there were some suspicions about whether she can eat bananas or not. Also, I can’t remember if there were any bananas.

Also, since I was thinking of making this for Suhur, I didn’t want this oh sooo complicated.

But I couldn’t sleep and it was 2 am when I started looking at cookbooks and I was to get up at 4 am so did it matter?
Hmm
I could go downstairs *now* and collect all the ingredients and just pre-prep them. So down I went with Alton Brown’s baking book in hand to make buttermilk.

And *measured* out flour and such (yes measure not weigh because Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible said it didn’t matter too much for pancakes; you didn’t need to be uber precise). I also melted the butter. It’s so hard to cut frozen butter. Wish we’d stop keeping it in the freezer. I put it in the fridge and it magically appears in the freezer. *sigh*

And then I had prepped the ingredients…and it was 2:40 am…hmmm…maybe I better mix the batter and start frying them.

So I did.

We really need a gridle.
Really badly.
My 10″ fry pan isn’t so very good. And it was awesome when I took out another one…it was like they started finishing in no time at all. But of course, they were more oval than round and harder to get out without marring it or its neighbour (because I squeezed two in a pan to finish quickly).

And then at 4 am nobody was stirring. I set the table and called to dad…who finally came down.

I went up to wake up Chennette who said water water is all I need. I told her fine! There are pancakes. You can get your own water.

So when she eventually appeared she demanded if we were all under my thumb, or whim or something about whatever I feel like making, people just have to eat.

INGRATE!

Thankfully my parents were happy to eat pancakes.

Regardless. They were very nice. I added a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg. Coming down to the end the batter started “melting” so they weren’t as thick as the first pancakes but I prefer thinner pancakes than those thick ones the other sister likes.

So then, promptly back to sleep for many hours…no wait…rudely awakened at 11 because we have to leave at 11:30 to go pick up “my” (Chennette’s) glasses at a store … that is closed for the weekend for stock taking!

Grrr.

Well, we bought sneakers for the niece and … stuff.

And then back…oh sooo tired.

Wait…did you think we slept? Because there was an iftar in *our* jamaat? *our* masjid? And so we didn’t have to cook dinner?

You must be silly.

Chennette found a recipe for brownies that she absolutely *had* to try (but did she know where any ingredients were? no not really). Which she also put in too big a pan. I didn’t stop her. It was her baby. And she didn’t want to overbake. Which meant…they kinda fell apart but are so soft you can smoosh them back together.

The recipe makes me wonder if we took our regular cocoa brownie recipe (sigh! I have pictures of these to post) and cooked it in the same way, what would be the result?

Oh, rest now? No. Dad doesn’t eat chocolate.

So, we made butter crescents from Yockelson’s above mentioned book.
These were very buttery.

Also, I think she has a sweet tooth. I mean an overly sweet tooth. This is only the second recipe I’ve made from her book, before I made a cinnamon sour cream coffee cake, which although very good was tooo sweet. I think it hurt my mouth. Well, okay, cold water and hot tea have been hurting my mouth the last month.

In this butter crescent recipe, she said after the cookies have cooled for 3 minutes, roll them in powdered sugar. Then after 30 minutes, roll them again.

Yeah. Well, I conveniently couldn’t find the icing sugar (seriously I shorted on where it was but maybe it was subconscious? and I didn’t want to look). I didn’t want them to be ruined by too much sugar. And as long as Chennette was willing…well fine.

We tasted them in the airport (oh do you remember Chennette was overnighting? so yeah after iftar we went to the airport) and they were good. Sweet but like a lovely hint of sweetness. We couldn’t imagine rolling them in sugar TWICE!

And I left Chennette alone for a bit when I went to meet mom, and when I came back it seems left alone with the brownies and the crescents she’d worked something else out in her head.

The recipe called for superfine sugar.
The recipe had no weights.
For various reasons, (Alton Brown), we used the food processor to “sift” the flour and such and the food processor to process our granulated sugar. I didn’t have the energy to look for anything else. I didn’t want to.

Chennette: You measured the sugar?
Me: You did.
Chennette: No, you gave me the sugar to put in the food processor..
…
After a little talk we remembered, I gave her the big tub of sugar and the 1/3-cup and 1/8-cup to measure sugar.
And we worked this out.
Granulated sugar should be coarser than superfine sugar.
The same volume of superfine sugar should be heavier (more densely packed?) (and more sugar) than the same volume of granulated sugar. And we, measured the granulated sugar before processing it.
So, our cookies would’ve been even *sweeter*.
Maybe by not a lot but when you consider rolling them twice in icing sugar…!!

HORROR dawned on us.

You know, I like her recipes but I clearly don’t have her uber-sweet tooth.
Next time I make anything of hers, I’m going to have to blindly adjust the sweetness … or maybe I should try a third sweet recipe and see if I just got lucky. Reread the intros and see if she says this is very sweet. And then try a savoury. And then start adjusting.

Regardless of the issues, the resulting baked goods were a hit.
If only we had ice-cream for the brownie, it would’ve been perfect.

There are pictures. Chennette took lots. They will eventually reach the internet…really. She used my camera. And they’re still on my camera. Either I’ll shrink ‘em and watermark them and e-mail them to her or I will upload them myself.

I *told* her, just download the pictures directly to your computer.
So in the time between baking and going to the masjid, she appeared in my room asking for my camera.

Me: It’s downstairs.
Chennette: What’s it doing downstairs?
Me: I came up before you and left it down…
Chennette: Why?
Me: Because I left you to come pray and you were taking pictures with it at the time. Why didn’t you bring it up???

So, yeah, I have them.

After this baking extravaganza we had less than an hour to get ready to go down to the masjid to break fast.

We went and broke fast with other members of our Jamaat (yay!) and had dates, grapes, sahina, pholourie and a mango chutney (picture at the top). Lots of water and juice. Note the non-individual plates.

Ramadan 12/13: My Dinner at My masjid, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

For dinner, there was rice and dhaal and curry aloo and stew chicken and mango and curry goat and green salad and paratha roti and who knows what else. I took a picture of my plate (above) and Chennette’s.

And then, quickly, we raced off to the airport where we limed for about 20 minutes until her flight was called and we went home.

And because I’m trying to get rid of backlog, on the following day:

Sunday 14 September, Ramadan 13: Suhur:

I bought a spinach and feta croissant at the airport the night before for suhur so I warmed that up and yummy.

THen…hungry so avocado and toast.

And lots of water.

Sunday 14 September, Ramadan 14: Iftar

Um, at home, as is normal (haha! such a relief), we had tea, water, dates (mom) and food. Mom and I felt we needed to eat. So, I had some leftover curry-stew chicken and rice and tuna pasta salad from…err Thursday.

And some…brownies and crescents later.

Disclaimer: All conversations heavily paraphrased.

I feel like I’m coobook-author-name dropping. *sigh*

Bamboo Masjid, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Yesterday, Chennette came in about 7:30 pm to overnight. So after ruminating on many plans, as follows

1. Mom and I drive up after we break fast and eat something (maybe), at around 6:30 to pick her up and she drives back.
2. Mom and I drive up and break fast at the airport and wait leisurely for her to arrive.
3. Mom and I drive up in time to pray and break fast at Bamboo Masjid. If we’re so lucky and they have dinner ooo! Otherwise, proceed to the airport and wait for her.

Dad ended up going with us. We packed dates and four bottles of water and drove up to reach Bamboo to break fast and pray.

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have much experience as to how other masjids do their business, especially for the normal every day Iftar (non-sponsored, no dinner). We were early and there were brothers in the masjid, brothers at a table and a sister in the masjid. So mom and I went in the masjid with our dates and water and let dad investigate after he parked the car in the back and walked through the hall. So, dad came and said he thinks they have dates and stuff. So, we said we’d just break fast with our dates and water here and dad would go back out.

Well, while waiting, I went to make wudu (ablutions) to pray and there I smelled pholourie! I did! And I think I saw it! Or at least something yellow.

I came back and waited for the pause in mom’s qur’an recitation and told her “mom! pholourie!”

Around this time a brother signaled to the sister in the masjid and she went outside.

We summoned dad and said that I smelled pholourie. Dad was happy. Since it was getting close to the time, we went out.

And since we have to walk around to inside the hall, dad was already there by the time we reached. I saw a brother putting a couple plates on a table, but it was for him and the other sister. Some brothers were sitting together. Mom and I tried to figure out where to sit. Now, there was no lack of tables, especially as there were few people. But, when you’re not accustomed to how things are done in a place, and you don’t want to misstep…well.

Dad appeared with plates for us and the three of us sat at a table.

I really liked this by the way, the brothers serving the sisters :-D

It was an un-sponsored iftar so I think it was whatever people brought to share, like how we do it.

I really wish they had brothers tables and sisters tables (as opposed to what it looked like ie brothers tables and mixed family tables). There might’ve been people to say hi to. I also wish there were people I knew there…but maybe they all got invited to a big fancy iftar ;-) But you know us, we live at the airport. We should just make stuff and carry it to the airport every night and find the muslim workers and have iftar with them. I’m sure they’re our “real” Jamaat…hehe…still waiting to have suhur in the airport, by the way.

Or, maybe it was that there weren’t a lot of people there and most of the sisters and their family were passing through, just like us, and so, didn’t know about the “sisters” table or didn’t know what they were supposed to do either

Regardless…I was happy…we had pholourie and stuff and I took pictures of the masjid. I even got a great picture of a moving truck. Well…a blur of a moving truck. Look! I think it’s pretty. I didn’t plan it. How could I? I mean if I decided to take a picture of the truck moving in front of me it would’ve been gone already. I was just focusing on the intersection and it appeared out of nowhere!

And then we went on to the airport to pick up Chennette.

Down to business.

Ramadan 11, Friday 12 September, Suhur

We kept some of the macaroni salad we made for the Iftar the day before and added two cans of spicy tuna to it. So, I had some of that and avocado (mmm) and lots of water.

Mom and dad had avocado and…bread? I don’t know!

Ramadan 12, Friday 12 September, Iftar

Iftar at Bamboo Masjid, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

We broke fast at Bamboo masjid with our dates and their yummy stuff. Pholourie (round and yellow), fish pie (long) and curried channa and chutney. We also had dates and water.

Conspiracy Theory: Dad’s plate mysteriously had a samosa on it and ours didn’t! If you click on the link the notes will show you. Compare with my plate, posted above. It’s kinda blurry because I was looking at the tables!

Then we went to the airport…and tada! Had Church’s.

Well, mom and I had chicken sandwiches from Church’s, dad had fish and chips from Royal Castle and Chennette had a Zinger from KFC.

Home again. Home again. And I couldn’t sleep. But that’s today’s story, not yesterday’s.

Masjid at Night, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Oooo
I fasted today!
And.
I went out.
Yes.
Recluse that I am…went out to socialize.
After muttering about not knowing anybody etc etc (silly me! it’s an event…you come whatever).
Bump into one undergrad friend who I haven’t seen in aeons and two more appear behind her/me who I’ve seen in about a year.

*sigh*

Being the daughter of an Imam has some…negatives, shall we say.

In Ramadan, there is a special night prayer. It’s optional but very beneficial. After Isha (the last prayer of the night), but before Witr (an optional but strongly strongly strongly encouraged prayer that’s done after Isha), one prays Tarawih. The prophet used to pray eight rakaat (it’s how we count how much times we go up/down etc) in twos. I think it might have been Umar who started praying 20 in twos (I can’t recall. I could search. I’m dead beat and have another search lined up).

There is a hadith that says whoever prays Isha, Tarawih and Witr all with the Imam it is as if they prayed all night long. So, Ramadan is more than just not eating. There’s a lot of blessings and forgiveness and prayers to be had if you make the time. I’m trying my best this year to pray all I can.

Here are a couple hadith on Tarawih that include the above. I NEED TO CHECK THEIR AUTHENTICITY or the VERACITY OF THE WEBSITE but the one my brother has mentioned a lot (above) is there and so for now it will suffice (I’m tired! But I did my search)

Back to your dad being Imam (or your spouse or some close relation):

Because of this, we never went anywhere else for Eid prayers. You might wonder why would we go somewhere else? Isn’t it nice and more fun to go with the people you grow up with and lime and enjoy the day? Well yes and…but…you have other friends. And also, there are the Eid-gas, the big open air Eids where lots and lots and lots of people assemble for Eid salaah and to eat and celebrate. Well, there was at least one when growing up, couple last year? I always wanted to go. How many muslim people would we meet, people we might not have seen in ages. I always think it would be *awesome*.

But, we never went. Why? Well, I guess there were no Eid-gas before my dad was Imam (I don’t know) and we were very young. But being Imam means that someone has to do Eid at the masjid here. It’s a celebration. Whether we want to or not, some of us wouldn’t go for Eid one place while the rest of us are at the other place. What’s the point! The only way we could go to Eid-ga is if somehow we could arrange for the whole jamaat to go…hire buses, or if we joined with the central masjids for a central Eid-ga.

Similarly for Tarawih, dad as the Imam, is in charge of arranging it. Some masjids import a reciter or a qari (perfect reciter) or a hafiz (knows the qur’an by heart) and that person leads the Tarawih salaah every night. There are 29 or 30 nights of Tarawih and the Qur’an is divided into 30 juz (sections, parts; this is different from the surahs or chapters) and so they try to recite the whole Qur’an in the month, one Juz a night. Very long Tarawih. Some can’t afford this and the Imam (who might be a qari or a hafiz or very good) will do this or close. Some might alternate from community members.

Which do you think ours is?

Well, if you think ours is the one where the Imam does it all, you’re wrong…sort of.

Growing up, the boys in the village would prep their surahs (the last ten, twice because we, of course, do TWENTY!) to lead Tarawih. And they’d take their turns. On the same list which we wrote who was doing Iftar that night, we would record who was going to lead or led the Tarawih on a night and we’d keep count of the number of people who came. I think we also recorded who called the adhaan (call to prayer). It was all part of the fun, checking the list etc.

I think, once, we finished all 20 in under half hour…maybe 22 minutes? Boy they would race. But they were involved. It was great.

Now, well, it’s mostly dad. When my brother was here, he did it. Dad always takes advantage of his son and son-in-law and any capable visitor coming and offers or *lets* them do Friday sermons or lead prayers. There are a few others in the Jamaat (muslim congregation) that will also take a few nights.

Basically, regardless of who was leading dad would be around, for backup or so they’d know.

What this means is, I am not sure if I’ve ever prayed Tarawih in a masjid that’s not this one in the village. I’ve prayed it by myself lots of places, but…in a masjid?

So going into another masjid and praying Tarawih with them always makes me self-concious. For that matter, I went to a muslim primary school (heh! I wonder where I was tonight) and so I’d always go to Friday prayers on the compound and thus, whenever I was on holiday and went for Jumah here at home, I always was self-concious and sure I was doing something wrong too. Yeah. I think too much. Or, I worry too much.

Why all this backstory?

Well, we went out of the village for an Iftar tonight. And because neither mom nor I wanted to be rushed rushed rushed to make it back for Tarawih, dad arranged for someone else in the Jamaah to lead tonight.

So, we made it to the Iftar at about 5:35 pm. We didn’t want to be running late. We break fast at 6:13 pm. Ooo! Chennette! guess who we sat with. *sigh*

Anywayz, it was like *everybody* hasn’t seen mom and me in ages. And it’s probably true. Oh well. I’m reclusive. I’m a recluse who wants to go to Eid-ga.

I even wore a skirt.

*shock*

When we realized it was like 7:20 pm and nobody was sure when they would pray Isha here (it’s not a masjid. We went to the university’s islamic society’s iftar so…a university hall/area and they were going to pray right there too) or we got differing answers…we figured we could go to another masjid. And meet more people we haven’t seen in ages. And we did. But of the three nominees, we of course went to the one without air conditioning. Aw man. Yet again did I meet at least one school friend who I’ve not seen in ages. I got asked if I remembered here. Very barely. I only went to primary school there for oh how much years? And been in and out of it for…argh…so I’m on a break.

Anywayz, we enter the masjid and yes, I feeling ahow. I already feeling strange because I socializing with people I eh see in ages. Now I’m going to pray Tarawih outside of my masjid. Oh noes!

So, we went to a masjid that prays eight rakaahs. Now, we used to pray it in twos and after every four (two sets of twos), we’d recite tasbih (kinda like when you repeat a “hail mary” some number of times? we have different tasbihs for different things) and then a dua (a little prayer/supplication where you put your hands together and recite set duas plus whatever you want). Our masjid doesn’t any more because our…let’s say we’ve learned it’s not done. This masjid still does. No big deal. We just don’t say these tasbihs and duas.

However, it almost seemed like the tasbih was waaaay longer than the four rakaat. Seriously. At least when our speed racers led our Tarawih (and this guy prayed about 4 rakaat in 5 or 6 minutes) the tasbih was equally fast. Okay, it felt like the tasbih was longer than the four rakaat. It might not have been. But he did elongate it. What do you call it, the beat? Like if he said “la” while praying he would say “la-a-a-a-a” while reciting the tasbih. So weird.

Anywayz. I’m not dissing anybody. I’m just saying.

Especially as I’m wondering if this post makes me recognizable. Ooo poor Chennette.

Now, back to the most important matter.

Ramadan 10: Suhur 10

Um, yeah. This is a funny (not!) story.
Someone woke me up.
I went and sat on the couch until I woke up properly.
I think I thought they were waking me up to pray.
Then clicked it was for suhur.
So, I asked dad if Chennette was downstairs.
I think he’s still laughing at me, if he remembers.
And when I reached downstairs, it was 4:33 am! We stop eating at about 4:45 am!
And of course, when I’m panicking, I can’t think about what to eat. I can’t make choices under pressure.
Okay…water…yes…pita okay…no mom! no macaroni salad…too spicy…banana…ooo hungry…get macaroni salad.
Water water water is it time yet?

*sigh*

Ramadan 11: Iftar 10

Iftar	Dinner

We went to the university’s Islamic Society iftar last night.
Some of us were craving outside and dad always wants to go.
He must’ve gotten the shock of his life when mom told him to arrange Tarawih and also that we were making something. And that we…his wife and daughter were going…not just we were going…we *wanted* to go.
Yeah, somehow we got roped into making something. Don’t blame me. I’m not saying it’s not my fault. I’m just saying don’t blame me. Here. Please.

So for Iftar, we broke fast with aloo pie, channa, chutney and a date.

And for dinner, we had stew chicken, fry rice, macaroni salad and green salad.

There was also cake.

I’m not reviewing the food.

It was fun, going out. But man…I hate living so far. That’s another reason to not go masjid shopping for Tarawih. Why? When you can be home so quickly and sleep or rest from fasting.

I took pictures of stuff. You can see.
In fact, my whole Ramadan set on flickr is here.

Peter Reinhart’s Lavash, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Surprise surprise.
I didn’t fast today.

It was decided that yesterday I wasn’t well so I’d better take the day off.

But tomorrow (in 3.5 hrs), I shall be fasting, Insha Allah.

I’m not sure what they had for Suhur.

However, I made Lavash from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. It was very nice dough with a tablespoon of honey. Smelled really good baking. He said it also makes good dough for pita. Well, I had some leftover that didn’t fit on the tray that I tried to make as pita but I didn’t roll it out enough so it looks almost like a non-fried bake. But it tastes good. I think I prefer it as thick and not thin for lavash. I’ll try it again, as pita :-)

Of course, mom came home and only saw the *one* pita on a rack cooling out and was like, “You put on the oven just to bake that????”

We also made some grocery today because somehow or the other we got asked to make something for an Iftar tomorrow. I hoped mom would say no (because after I made the lavash you should’ve been me. I felt like I was swaying and weak. And it wasn’t even hard. Just dump ingredients, knead, leave, roll out, tray, bake..simple!). The day before, when we were sorta RSVP’ing, I told mom to ask if we should make something (you have to understand the addiction, *any* excuse to bake…) and they were like no, everything’s okay. Mom was gonna send money. Phone call this morning. *sigh* Hey, I’m happy to have done it; we feel good about making food for people to break fast with but we get tired easily…even without the fasting.

Anywayz, what does that mean?

tada!
I go out tomorrow :-)

Yummy Store bought Cupcake , originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Okay, so for Iftar, mom had lavash, half a pita, dates, water and vanilla caramel tea.
I ate with her but instead of pita and dates, I had cupcakes! Yes, store bought but good. Wow. Just over TT$4.00 for a cupcake. Good to make note of these things.

I think I’m going to do this by theme, except to note that current came back at about 12:20 am this morning and also inform you about the excitement that was going to be yesterday’s post: Iftar at the Airport!.

Very sorry to disappoint…but such excitement and…disappointment.

Water:

We have three big water tanks directly connected to the road water and a smaller tank. These are connected to our house. We also have a pump so that we can get water upstairs, or when there is hardly any pressure yet the tanks are filled, we can get running water. Growing up, we didn’t always get water. So tanks were necessary. Now we usually have even just a trickle. When water goes for long enough, we order it from some trucking place and they fill up two of our tanks for us and we buy drinking water because the bought water hasn’t settled.

Before the start of Ramadan, our pump never stopped pumping. Usually, it’ll just make it’s noise when it’s plugged on and someone opens a tap. But it wasn’t clicking off. Finally the pump man came (hmm into Ramadan, few days after promised) and he said it’s in the pipes. The pump is fine.

I’m not sure what we did then. Use water downstairs. Put on the pump to bathe. Sometimes to wash wares. I really love running water. I think it’s the best modern convenience. I feel like a fish out of water without it.

A week later, we got in contact with the plumber whose son was coming on Saturday.
And didn’t.

So basically, the pump isn’t working and we don’t always have water upstairs and usually a very fine trickle in the taps downstairs. Some days the road water pressure is high and we actually get upstairs. I think, happily, our tanks are filled so the clothes washing addicts can…wash.

Rains and Electricity:

Around 2 pm yesterday, I went upstairs to pray. It was raining but we already closed the windows on the eastern side of the house and that’s where the rain was coming in earlier.

I went into my room, and it looked like someone was *pushing* water under the external door. Just sloshing it in. Either that or the outside steps were deluged. I called dad as I had already closed the TV room windows while he was dealing with the back room.

In the time that I called dad to when he came (not much!), it was going through the upper balusters, pushing through the windows (they’re not sealed to the casing…there’s space). Water is pooling all over my floor. The fiber glass ceiling tiles on some kind of railing system are blowing out and all the collected dust and stinkyness is falling. I move my bed out of the way so we can dry up stuff. I shut down my laptop and move it and all my cookbooks and other precious electronics into the tv room. It’s storming so much that I figure I better shut down the imac in the next room. When I walk back into my room, I ask dad if he took off the lights?

Current went.

So we battle the storm upstairs with mom and my brother coming up to check and see if we need help and then realizing if my room is flooding out then maybe they better check their rooms downstairs. Now, my bed is dusty. All my books have this wet/lint/dust/spots on it. I need to clean clean clean. I’m so distraught. But at least we didn’t lose a roof. The water is pooling so much, dad sticks newspaper in all the cracks and lays newspaper down on the floor (hence my black feet).

But my flooded room didn’t flood out downstairs. Oh no, just the same way the rain came straight in, like vertical, through the porches and into the rooms. Oh my. Our house needs help.

And all this in the dark. It’s not 3 pm. Sunset is after 6 pm. And it’s sooooo dark. And we’re supposed to leave at 5 pm to go to the airport.

Sleeping arrangements that night, brother and family sleep in the big room in which Chennette was sleeping in. I was sleeping in the little bed in the tv room.

Because of all this, my sister-in-law sent clothes she was washing by her parents. She was supposed to go too with the niece and all the things she needed to pack (remember they were leaving the next day i.e. today). But she didn’t go. Finally some time after we left for the airport her mother and my mother strongarmed her into leaving. Shoved everything, bags, suitcases, laundry baskets into the car and went.

Pizza Making:

Well, if you remember, the night before we baked half the pizzas. We wanted them to have fresh pizza for travelling so we were baking four. After suhur, I woke up say just before 12 noon. I was very tired.

Chennette wanted me to take out the dough so it could relax for its 2 hours. I told her HA! I tired. None of that dilly-dallying. We taking it out *now* and we rolling it out and topping and baking.

So, pizza two was in the oven when I went upstairs to pray. I made wudu and then…you know what happened.

When current went, I wondered about the pizzas as there were 2 more to go plus a little one. But we have a gas oven so…I didn’t worry too much. I figured it was hot and as long as it was on the pizzas would bake.

Silly me. I guess our gas oven has an electric regulator thingy. A few minutes after current went, the fire went out and the oven cooled rapidly. So two pizzas baked.

We covered the unbaked pizzas with plastic wrap and put them in the back fridge. Even if there was no electricity, it would still be chilled. Chennette took a couple slices from the beef pizza, gave me a couple slices and we packed up the rest of the freshly baked pizzas for my brother to travel tomorrow. Now, Chennette was going to Grenada to spend a whole week and wanted some pizza. So in addition to the fresh pizza, she took some of last night’s pizzas. And I separated the rest of the old pizza into two, one container to leave home and one container to take to the airport.

Well, as I said current came back after midnight. Almost as soon as we got up for Suhur, before anybody else was up, I put on the preheat and took out the pizzas. We baked those millstones and by the time we were done cleaning up for suhur so were the pizzas and we sliced them up, packed them away and went upstairs. I decided not to sleep as we were leaving on the second airport trip at 1 pm.

Instead I read flood reports in the express (Four families lose four roofs and Killer Rain).

Ramadan 6, suhur 6:

Well, we had the disaster pizza from the night before. As Chennette said, we were so tired and it was so easy and satisfying to chomp chomp on something already there.

Ramadan 7, iftar 6:

Halwa (for dad and sis), dates (dad and sis), Assorted pizza (all of us), leftover chicken and linguini from two nights ago (Chennette and dad), water and juice. We had rituals (two house brew coffees and one hot chocolate – me; forgot to tell Chennette no whipped cream). And I bought Chennete an apple walnut muffin, us two dark kit kat and me a twix and a sugar cake (which the parents split).

Dad and I reached the airport with Chennette at about 6 pm. Dad went to park the car, I left Chennette in line with dates and I went to secure a table. I even took pictures. They’re on my camera. I’m trying not to stress myself out. Eventually dad met me after passing by Chennette and it was time. Guy who works there asked us if we broke fast and we were like not yet! So we did.

And then decided what to do. I had a water bag, a food bag and Chennette’s carry-on. So dad took a bottle of water for her and went upstairs to the prayer room. Soon after Chennette joined me and tried to eat my beef pizza for which I chastized her as she put it there for me and she had in her container and if dad wanted that slice then he could have it.

Eventually dad came. He caught someone else praying. So, I went upstairs, took pictures of the Republic/Welcome home Silver boys display and came down to find one slice of pizza left, it wasn’t beef and dad eating the remaining chicken and paste. And there was my hot chocolate. After buying some snacks we left and I slept on the car drive home and we returned to a dark house and an aching, limping mommy. Sister-in-law was by her parents and brother at the masjid, prepared to lead the last Tarawih even though he didn’t want to (packing, tired, beat).

Ramadan 7, suhur 7:

Mom and Dad: Toasted dhalpuri and avocado
Brother: BBQ lamb and fries
Me: Sahina and some BBQ lamb and fries and banana.

Well, all the pizza was done as mom, sister-in-law and niece at some point in time had it. Brother brought his family back at about quarter to midnight to no current. My sister-in-law covered me up (and I offered to take niece of her hands. Hmm. Was I lucid? I remember this. But what was I going to do with her when she wanted to go on the floor and play…and discovers all my electronics, hmm???). Half hour or so later current came. Sister-in-law came out…did you move the fan from your room on to you? Me: Yes. Her: Okay. I don’t remember much after that.

I put up the pizza to bake but I wasn’t feeling hungry. I was feeling kinda sick and stuffed. This isn’t a good sign. I didn’t know what to eat. So, I took out the sahina. And my brother was having lamb so I had some of that. Sigh.

Miscellany:

Before 10 am, mom was feeling queasy, upset and wanted to throw up so she broke her fast.

Before 12 noon, so was I. But, I guess I’m stubborn. You see, a few years ago, I got sick. Not hospitalized or anything but it was horrible. And it was a month or two before the start of Ramadan. I fasted one day in 2004, five in 2005, fifteen in 2006 and 2007. Each of those years we paid fidiya for me and this one too. I do intend to make them up but I am unsure when. I hoped this would be the year I fast them all (you know what I mean). So for many reasons I was reluctant to break the fast.

• I was fasting. Nobody who is ever fasting wants to break the fast. Which isn’t smart healthwise. Sometimes you have to.
• Two, I didn’t want to break my fast just because I was eating badly.
• Three, I was scared that if I were sick and broke the fast it would mean I wouldn’t be able to fast again. I was scared that I’d be forever scared of fasting. I never used to be but since 2004…it has been hard. But I always try. In 2004, I fasted the first day and then couldn’t make it. In 2005, I fasted maybe once or twice a week. In 2006, it must have been 2 fasts, 2 no fasts. In 2007, I thought I was doing better, I fasted 3-4 days but then woud have to take the same 2-4 days off and so ended up with the same number as in 2006.

So, after almost curling up in a ball in the shower and crying I broke my fast (with my niece sitting on my lap! oh lord I’m smart!) with some hot banana soft drink. And then was at a loss. What to eat.

And still I felt sicker and sicker and sicker. I left the breaking of my fast tooo long.

I was thankfully bathed and changed already to go to the airport to drop off brother, sister-in-law and niece but wasn’t sure how I would make it as I was in such pain. I didn’t even know how mom would make it. I didn’t want them worrying. Leaving me behind and worrying that I wasn’t okay. The torment my mom would go through (mentally) ie leaving sick daughter at home or not saying goodbye to baby boy. I mean I knew which she would pick (HA! I woulda picked it if I could).

So I lay down on the couch, resting and mom came and checked on me and…in response, I lifted my head up, bent over and…well…do I have to spell it out? There went suhur. And I still hurt.

*sigh*

I slept from 1:30 pm until 4:00 pm and felt *slightly* better but not really.

I just woke up from a sleep from 7 pm until 9 pm and feel almost infinitely better. I’m very positive. At 4 pm even the thought of cleaning out my room after the storm made me sick. Now, I can think about it rationally. It won’t be too hard.

Still, after throwing up, it’s kinda hard to figure out what to eat. Everything seems kinda…doubtful.

I have to take care of myself better.
Mom and I might have been eating okay foods for other people, maybe even okay foods for us The food might not have either been a problem. But our various sicknesses combined with the stress of my brother’s family packing and leaving can be an almost lethal combination. That plus all events detailed above. We have to know our own limits. Like, I have to stop waking myself up and deciding to bake EVERY SINGLE DAY. I almost went down for suhur this morning to make feathery banana pancakes. Well, most likely I’ll not be fasting tomorrow so maybe I’ll spend some time telling you how my ideal day of Ramadan should go.

Ramadan 6: Iftar 5: Barfi, Pholourie and Saheena by Lilandra, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

First things first, my brother, his wife and daughter have been home from school for the holidays. They’re leaving on Monday. Chennette came in yesterday to see them off. I’m telling you this *now* because a lot of the reasonings in this post revolve around that first very important point.

For Iftar, we had saheena, tamarind chutney, pholourie (supplied by our neighbour, yet again) and barfi.

All the fried food…oh my!
And barfi?
“My son here sooo long and I haven’t made barfi for him yet!”

There was also some maleeda (travel-special, coconut cooked so it won’t spoil the maleeda) and I left you last time with a “I have to go make pizza”.

Well…who fool me?

I went downstairs and Chennette was frying saheena. She says when she went in the back to help mom make the paratha roti (which you process/mash up finely to make maleeda), mom asked her if she’s frying inside or out? Chennette went, “what?”

Now, I’m already feeling sick because we just came back from a quick trip to the grocery where somebody was walking around in their work overalls and the smell was high (like petrol? gas? a plant?) and started to make me upset. I wanted to throw up.

So, I listlessly start making pico de gallo, cutting up onions, mushrooms, olives, realizing that tin of pineapples I *thought* we had was really fruit cocktail. All the while mom and Chennette are all making requests…hello! pizza! do you remember the pizza we were supposed to make?? Do you? The pizza for your travelling children so they’ll have food on the plane? And I slowly but surely get into will this never end? Will there be pizza? Where is brother who promised, after last time to help next time I make pizza.

Ooo brother appears and announces I’m going to the masjid to pray ‘Asr (middle prayer) and then going straight to get the barbeque. What’s everybody’s orders?
.
.
.
I know we’d discussed this.
But.
WHY AM I MAKING PIZZA IF THEY GOING TO GET BARBEQUE???

See, I was going to make pizza for people to carry on the plane (Chennette included as she’s going to Grenada for a week). But to make pizza just for the plane? What will we eat? So, my plan was to prep all the pizzas and bake some today and some tomorrow. Friday brother says he’s feeling like barbeque…you know, one last time before he goes and Chennette, when’s the last time you had?

*mutters*

I told him go then…Friday.

I wish they’d told me just don’t make pizza for us to eat. Argh.

So anywayz, all the while I’m chopping this, we have to pack up some saheena to send to the masjid and to send over the road and to send next door. Mom comes and says, “Did you slice the saheena and spread chutney in it?” Well of course we didn’t. We just poured chutney in a container to send (thank goodness for a nursing sister-in-law who could taste the chutney for us because oh my tamarind is soooo sour and needs so much sugar for chutney).

Mom dropped off the packages to the neighbours and collected the pholourie…and a tin of pineapples.

Eventually, Chennette and I clear up and try to decide what to do with the pizzas.

We’ll make them after we break fast…some time after. It’s not like we have a choice. It’s about quarter to 6 and we break fast about quarter past.

Then we decide…hmm…maybe we should toss/roll the dough out for four of the pizzas so we can just top em and bake em whenever we’re ready.

So, mom comes down to find us doing that and is like what? Why allyuh not getting ready to break fast?

But mom, we already have the kettlel boiling for tea…and brother comes home with the barbeque and rushes back to the masjid.

Ramadan 6: Iftar 5: Pholourie and Saheena by Lilandra, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

flash forward a bit, we break fast, we bathe and…yippeee! I make it to Tarawih salaah. I’ve been praying at home. I was trying to make it to the masjid to pray at least once this week because my brother has been leading Tarawih and I can’t remember the last time he did when I was around…hmmm…when they used to compete for 20 rakats of Tarawih in under 30 minutes? (but that’s another story). He’s leaving Monday. Theoretically I could go tomorrow but mom and I are dropping off a certain somebody to the airport so doubt we’ll get that.

Thankfully the masjid is air-conditioned and I had all the fans on to help it along. Lovely niece is very noisy. I could swear every time her dad went “Allahu Akbar” in salaat, she goes “Akbar”. She’s 10 months old. We won’t get into why, during the salaah, she had to change her pants. Oh no, we won’t.

Chennette didn’t go to the masjid as she’s not feeling well at all.

So, we reach back, open the door and there is Chennette in the kitchen, looking like she’s making the pizzas.

And the kitchen…smells funny.

Well, you know, we preheat the oven to 550 F for the pizzas…and the other 4 crusts that weren’t rolled out…were resting in the oven.

Yeah.
You get the idea.
On a plate, a large plastic cutting board and a small wooded cutting board.
They were our best and newest cutting boards.
Now? Now?

*sigh*

Chennette eventually burns her hand. Thank God it wasn’t me. It’s always me. Except today.

For that of course, I had loads of washing to do. Such a mess. I told her, that when I’m not feeling well, I don’t bake. I know enough when not to do anything because then EVERYTHING GOES WRONG. And I do mean everything.

She’s lucky that despite my aching feet, I felt much better than how I felt at the end of the fast and was able to contemplate washing up and the mess without fretting too much. You know me, I hate clean up.

And I haven’t even touched my lamb yet.

Pizzas made: Cheese pizza, Veggie pizza (olives, mushrooms, onions, pineapples), Meat pizza (beef, pimento, pineapples) and Quesadilla pizza (I didn’t defrost the sour cream and the yoghurt was bad so…avocado, nachos, pico de gallo, cheese).

Decision about the next four? Tomorrow. Or today. I can’t contemplate this again. I think we’re just going to roll them out. No waiting for rising or room temperature. Just roll them out and top them and bake them simply.

Chennette says at least we have something for suhur.

I say, never again for my siblings. Except next weekend when Big Sis and family pass through on their way to England and we make for them to carry.
But, I shall be better prepared. Really.

Oh I also say Alhamdullilah Chennette did the baking cuz I don’t know if I was up to it.

I’m so tired. I’m going to sleep a couple hours….happy that so far I made it to the masjid for tarawih once at least (note to self, don’t eat until after Tarawih and then only if you really want to) and have prayed all and fasted all since the month started. So far, I’m on par with the second year of fasting after I got sick. Insha Allah this will be the year I keep all (more on that later).

It seems Ramadan has set in early.
After our iftar (left-over kibbe, the frozen chocolate chip cookies that we’d left for chennette baked, dates and…tada! same nice neighbour sent us fish pies), I didn’t eat dinner.

I just couldn’t.
Or didn’t feel up to it.
I had m&m’s but no dinner.

I was all eager to try what Chennette cooked for us (Alton Brown’s not braised chicken and fettucine in mild tomato sauce) but didn’t need it. So weird.

And I conked out at 10pm and didn’t wake up until 3:30am…and wasn’t even starving.
I’m perplexed.

So, when I woke up for Suhur, guess what I warmed up.

It was good. Soooo soft was the chicken.
I just want you to know, I’m not really one of those people who needs a real meal for Suhur. Usually something light. But I guess no dinner produces these moods for food.

Oh well…I’m rushing…pizza to make…will try to post promptly…