Earringss

So I went to Aldo's on Tuesday and bought these earrings!!

More food pics

So for those of you don't know, according to the Islamic Calendar, it is the holy month of ramadan now. It started August 22nd, and will end on September 20th or 21st, I am not too sure. I have been trying my hands at something new almost everyday, depending on my level of energy after coming back from work. Yesterday, I whipped up a pizza and some sticky buns. I used the same dough for both lol. They turned out pretty good, except I like my pizza toppings a little more undercooked.

Soft cheesy garlic buns

So this blog is turning more and more into a food blog. Well, I will definitely write updates about my life but I am a foodies, so all things food tend to dominate.
Okay..so I once attempted to make buns maybe 3 years ago. It turned out harder than hockey pucks and just was wrong wrong wrong.
However, since the last 3 years...my interest to delve into culinary escapades coupled with copious amounts of watching Food Network, has heightened my ability to cook. However, I seriously lack baking skills...its all about luck when it comes to baking for me. Sometimes its good, sometimes its bad. So yesterday, I stumbled upon this blog which had this recipe for pull-apart garlic bread. I was instantly attracted to how soft and buttery the buns looked. I followed the exact same recipe except I added a generous amount of grated mozarella cheese atop of mine along with a sprinkle of oregano and pepper and voila! I have buns! I took pics after everyone finished eating half of it. It looks like a big piece of bread but its actually little buns tightly placed next to each other. Seee....


The taste and texture reminded me a lot of Domino's cheesy bread (this picture can be found at Dan Bruno's photostream on Flickr!)

A fun tuesday :)

Yesterday mommy drove me to work. Yes, I don't have a license (yet) and my mommy and daddy drive me around...still. It's a shame and its a disgrace but trust me, I have this fear of being behind the wheel. I feel like I won't have control. I know those are petty excuses...I will get on the bandwagon soon. I won't say that I've never 'driven' before. I did drive Atanu's car one time from the a grocery alley parking lot (Wegmans)to the school gym (Alumni Arena). I did pretty well. Atanu was and I am sure still is one of those few people who will probably throw a grand pary the day I get my license! Let Ramadan pass, then I'll take my road test. So okay, I totally got sidetracked. Mommy drove me to work yesterday and I kinda finished early so after that we went to the mall where they have Marks and Spencer. I bought a whole bunch of goodies:

1) All Butter Shortbread cookies. See the ingredients

Moving on, a little packet of buttery macadamia nuts. I love these gems. I might save some to put in a cake I bake one of these days.

And then mommy was intrigued by this organic new zealand honey. It has natural looking bubbles at the brim. Organicy.

To end the spulrge, I got this pepper mill. We had one of those mcormick ones that I got from Buffalo but it wasn't refillable, hence this monster.

Total spulrge: $30 (12 Rials).

Discoveries

8/11 was my dear sister, Naima's birthday. Daddy bought cake from our favorite cake shop (since we were 4), the Intercontinental hotel delicatessen. They make the most fabulous cakes and after having tasted a lot of cakes from different countries, I can safely say that, none of them come close to this place. They use the freshest whipped cream and crispy golden roasted almonds to decorate their cakes, not to mention fresh marzipan, hazelnut creme, edible flowers, etc. It's all too good. Why the two cakes? Because this year, we didn't have cake for my bday so my dad wanted to make up for that lol. Like I am 5!! Anyhoo, we had a quiet family dinner at home (we got take out from a continental place!).
So I discovered that some very special people read this blog *blushes*. I have been slacking in updating this blog because I have been so bogged down with work. I am trying very hard to get out the monotonous humdrum of work-eat-sleep-work schedule. And now with Ramadan coming up, I hope to channelize my inner karma and bring it all together well and good. Summer session just ended at the university (where I work) so the campus is all quiet again. Speaking of quiet, the sudden outbreak of H1N1 flu in Oman has struck everyone with severe panic. I read in today's newspaper that it has triggered what health officials have referred to as 'panic absenteeism' among students (and parents of students I am guessing)--- which essentially means they are afraid to to go to school in fear of contracting the flu. My thoughts on this: if you are going to get, you are going to get it...there's nothing you can do about it. Its not going to be pretty but you have to take it in stride. Recently, I've been thanking God so much for things such as a long streak of good health, continuous electricity, abundant supply of water and food and other things that sometimes we start taking for granted. Moving on, Hanifa returned from Zanzibar 2 weeks ago and brought me some lemon pickle and chilli pickle (zanzibari style). They are both delicious, with rice, bread or even biryani. Here's pic:

Stir-fried Mung Bean Noodles

So last night, mom and dad went out for dinner with two friends and as much as I wanted to go, I had a lot of work to do, so instead stayed home! I made a quick stir-fried mung bean noodles. You know the cellophane noodles I talked about once, sometime ago. They just need a little prior soaking in warm water and you're good to go. This time, I flash steamed all my veggies to keep them crisp and crunchy and then sauteed some of the other veggies as a base.


On another note, check out the kitchen counter (or tea counter) in our kitchen, there's enough types of herbal teas to make a Teavana. There's Cardamom green tea (I lurveee this now!), Lavender green tea (thank you Julie!), Jasmine green tea, Green tea with mint, Green tea with lemon, Morocco tea, etc. I have one particular Strawberry Chocolate tea (Its black tea infused with strawberry dipped chocolate flavor). I am not a big fan just because its weird...I mean you want strawberry dipped chocolate instead, right when you get a whiff of it.

In other news, not much has been happening. Work, food, sleep, tv...etc. I have become this crazy sleep lover. I just want to doze off all the time. I dont know it is because I started drinking a bottle of water mixed with one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in it, which I learnt about here. It's supposed to be a body cleanser/detoxifier/metabolism rever-upper/ph balancing wonder food. So far...nothing much has happened other than me feeling reallyyyy sleep right after drinking a lot of it.

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