INDEPENDENT LEARNERS

'O Allah increase me in knowledge,
amin.'


Tuesday 15 July 2008

A little help'er' in the kitchen!

Assalamu alaykum,

now that I am not so talented in kitchen and that I am not so passionate about cooking is not a secret! In fact all the sisters that knows me would tell you. I know one dish or two hamdulillah but I am not too driven by the cooking side and so I prefer more cleaning!
But today I had a little help'er'!

I wanted to cook for a dear sister that hasn't been well for a while, may Allah make it easy for her,amin. Also a brother that he is at the hospital, my dh friend, may Allah help him with a speedy recovery, amin.
So after homeschooling the kids, I set off for the kitchen.
But I was not alone. Older one joined too. I was happy to have some time to spent with him in the kitchen as lately we have been ever so busy with exams and various other tests. So time is a pure blessing around here and it is something we don't have much.

So A and I decided to cook two dishes. Some would go to the brother and some to the dear sister.
A has been ever so helpful and this time, was in the kitchen till the end. He likes to cook and often asks to stay with me in the kitchen to help around. He would even stand on a chair to do the washing! Mash'Allah tabar'Allah. You see I don't have girls, only boys, but hey who needs girls when boys can do same jobs!!! ;)
A asked so many interesting questions such as why egg's shell is so full of calcium? Where cheese came from? And if the Hell fire (audhu billahi) is hotter than the new oven??? At this point I wanted to be serious but I had a grin in my face. But great questions and specially the last one.
Today is so hot in London, I just remind him about the hadith that says when it is hot in summer is because Hellfire breath out, audhu billahi.
We made 2 margherita pizzas and a fish pie with salmon and cod. While boil some potatoes, I cooked both fish in milk and a bay leaf. I then transfer the liquid in a measuring jug and put the fish in a plate to be cleaned from their bones and skins.
Then I made a white sauce with some butter, about a spoon, a spoon or more of flour and the left milk (remove the bay leaf before using the milk). When the white sauce is nice and tick (not too tick, thou!) I added the cleaned fish.
I then mashed the potatoes and added some milk.
I then put the sauce and fish in a ovenproof dish and I covered with the mashed. I cooked until brown on top, maybe about 15 min on oven 130 degree centigrade.
So here are some pics i took while we were cooking.

wa alaykum assalam






4 comments:

Latifah said...

Assalamu alaikum sister:

yazakallah to share with us all your information about homeschooling and how you use the hadith at the specific time, im goint to copy your tips..

My child has 4 years old too...

was salamu alaikum

latifah umm hassan

A Muslimah - Another Stranger said...

Assalamu alaykum sister Umm Hassan, Welcome to my blog! Your comment is much appreciated. I am happy you found it useful I like to integrated all we learn in everything we do, this way kids retain much more.
Jazakillah.wa alaykum assalam

Unknown said...

Assalamu alaikum dear sister

Yazakallah to answer me. Now tell me sister, how can i begin to teach more about the arabic alfabeth to my baby, you know he has 4 years old, and, when i pray he repeat after me the suras he knows the last 3 suras and the AL fatihah, but i want to teach about the hadithes, etc.

Im work out, so i dont have to much time to teach him, but everything i tell him is abouth Allah swa and he knows that, and he knows abouth shaytan…

Please give more tips…

wa salam

latifah

A Muslimah - Another Stranger said...

Assalamu alaykum sister latifah,
my kids attend an evening madrassa where they learn above all Arabic.
Whe they were smaller I taught them the Alphabet first and then how to read the harakat. Just easy steps to make sure when they start madrassa they would understand better. You could try to google some website in Arabic for kids.
I am not Arab and although I can read Arabic my pronounciation is not good. So i remember searching for all those websites to help me out. Also I bought the books Gateway to Arabic (level 1,2,3 etc) You can buy them in most good Islamic shops.
Anothet things we still using is the abjad system. We have a matching game in Arabic from abjad.com and falshcards. My older one can read Arabic properly. The 5 years old is learning the harakat and he is using a normal qaida book (basic alphabet book)
insh'Allah hope this helps, let me know how you get on.wa alaykum assalam