the newest member of the crew plus more FOOD!!! :D

as-salaam aleikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

so I was thinking about what I could post next while massaging my husband's back and neck--poor guy has had a kink in his neck from sleeping the wrong way--anyhow, so I was thinking about the blog because, you know... I'm addicted to blogging and every chance I get I think about what I can blog about LOL

... and I realized.... wow I've been lazy lately... I have a few cartoon rough drafts drawn out but I haven't felt like uploading them to edit and color... inshallah I'll start doing them this week.

I then remembered I took photos of dinner I made tonight so here we will go with a foodie post!!

But first, I'd like y'all to meet the newest member of our crew: a Sun Conure that my SIL's uncle found roaming around where they keep their chickens :)  he/she is now at our home and we looked info up on the lil' guy and turns out their feathers are olive green when they are babies--then at 6 months of age they start turning more yellow and orange hued... so this lil' guy is young.. looks like some yellowing is going on so probably right around 6 months. Its good he is young... inshallah he will get used to us real quick :) I think tomorrow we will let my MIL give him a name inshallah :)

and now onto the food part!! Here are pictures of some foods I've made recently and some are pictures of stuff I've made a while ago... yummy yummmy!!

first... here are some Texas Tortillas I made from this recipe -thank you Homesick Texan!! they were definitely YUMMY Mashallah!!

























And with these tortillas, I made this recipe of Tacos Al Carbon--the photo doesn't show any of the steak pieces LOL and before I realized I should take another picture it was allll gone. Mashallah!  Once again, thank you to Homesick Texan for this!!  I will definitely be trying out more of your recipes inshallah :)                            

This is a pic of Chile Rellenos I made from this recipe

And this is a Korean beef dish named Bulgogi, with this recipe--you have to scroll down just bit on the page to see it- I forgot I posted it on my old, now abandoned blog  :)


These are some Veggie Enchiladas with brown rice... I just threw it all together randomly so I don't have a recipe written out for it yet...


This is a Smoked Salmon, Avocado and Quinoa salad...another thing I just throw together so don't have a recipe written out...


Here is a Kofta Bademjan recipe I got from a sister on the Muslim Sister's Unite forum... again, I will post the recipe if anyone asks inshallah :) its thinly sliced eggplant wrapped around kofta, and baked in a tomato sauce--yummm Mashallah oh, and my homemade Hummous which is this recipe

Here is whole wheat Penne with my homemade Bolognaise sauce.. again, another recipe I just make by throwing things together...


Here are Blueberry Muffins from Texan in UAE's recipe

This is a miniature version of Monkey Bread from this recipe

and last but not least, Flan, or Creme Caramel...another recipe I just throw together so don't have anything written down... :)

I ok, here is the creme caramel/flan recipe:
for the caramel:

1 Cup sugar
1/2 C water

for the flan

3 Cups heavy whipping cream
2 Cups milk
5 eggs
3/4 C sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

when baking

you need some boiling water (to pour into baking pan for a waterbath)

directions

heat oven to 325F, about 163C

grease or lightly butter your baking dish/es (I use spray oil)

first prepare caramel:

on high heat, add sugar and water to a medium saucepan (it may seem to big of a pan but the sugar water bubbles up kind of far as it is cooking and it won't be a pretty mess to clean if it gets onto the stovetop!!).

let it start to boil and you can stir it for probably a minute or so... stop stirring and let it continue to boil until it is a nice med-dark to dark golden brown color.

**with the caramel, the color starts changing rather quickly and if you are not watching it careful it will easily turn dark dark dark and burn. so when you see it start turning color make sure you are standing there watching it.

**do not stir anymore from the time I wrote to stop stirring. If you do keep stirring it will not turn into caramel...


immediately poor into baking dish or evenly into ramekins. it will cool and harden as you are making the flan mixture..

now for the flan:

add all the cream and milk and then the sugar and pinch of salt and mix well.

add eggs, one at a time and mix well until all eggs are all broken and incorporated in (you will still see flecks of yolk but just as long as it is broken up its ok).

add vanilla and mix that in well. strain for a smooth texture.

pour into baking dish or evenly into ramekins. Place in bigger deep pan (a roasting pan works well for this) and pour boiling water in until it reaches just about halfway up the baking dish/ramekins.

bake for 1 hour (when the top starts to brown slightly, loosely cover it with foil), raise temp to 350F (176C) and bake another 30 minutes. (it will still be a little "liquidy" but it will set when refrigerated. let cool on counter for 15 minutes then refrigerate for 6 hours to overnight.

run a knife all around the egdes to loosen the flan and then place a dish that is bigger than the rim of the baking dish/ramekin on top and flip over and the flan should slike out and you will have a nice caramel top and caramel sauce that will run over the sides of you flan.

have more photos but this post has gotten long so it'll have to be another future post inshallah :)