What do one need to be happy?
Not much, I believe, subhanallah.
Sometimes it is as simple as:
a short break and blue sky,
a sweet berry picked, some pebbles thrown,
a lovely word, a good book, a cup of tea,
children’s laughter, naked feet in the grass,
enjoying the first goods of harvesting …
and plum cake. Bliss!
Autumn, we love you, Alhamdulillah!
Thank you so much for all the interesting thoughts and comments concerning the compost toilet. I think it is a tough subject and a lot to discuss about; I will definitely keep you informed about its use on the long run, inchaallah.
But today it is time for something more edible: bread and cookies.
This weekend I finally had some time to sew some new bags for the school.
The pupils of ours are divided in several groups and every school day another group has to bring bread for the common breakfast-break. Every day, during our end-circle, we give to everyone of the group a cotton bag in which they will bring the homemade flat bread for the next morning. Using those bags, they are reminded to bring the bread and they use that bag instead of using plastic – that’s simple educational green living in action, you see.
These bags are very simple and easy to sew; made of old fabric or sheets, squares sewn together with one short sling on the top, nothing special but very nice and useful (even for other things).
And after having finished the bags, I made some cookies, rolled oat cookies, to be precise. Again something very quick and easy, nothing special, but really yummy:
Rolled Oat Cookies
350 g flour
250 g rolled oats (Haferflocken)
6 table spoons of brown sugar
200ml milk
200 g melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix all together until you have firm dough. Roll little balls of the size of a walnut and press them flat on the baking sheet. Bake on 200°C for about 5 minutes. Done.
Bismillah! And have a blessed week!
Every year during Ramadan it seems to me as if the blessings of Allah directly go into the udder of the cows. Subhanallah, they seem to give more milk than ever during this sacred month. Whereas they slightly serve a family’s needs along the year, they now serve he whole community and people come and offer us milk every evening as a gift, alhamdulillah.
So with lots of milk in the fridge, we drink huge amounts, make juices, pancakes and sometimes also homemade yoghurt, which is delicious and so easy to do:
Heat up 1l of fresh cow milk, bring it to boil.
Let cool down until you can put your finger in without getting burned.
Then add 2 tablespoons of yoghurt (from the shop) and stir until well mixed.
Put the milk-yoghurt-mixture into glasses or a big bowl, cover it and pack it into a thick warm blanket in a warm place.
Let it rest without touching or moving for at least 8 hours.
Then it should be thick and you can put it now into the fridge to cool and to enjoy later with honey, fruits or plain.
Yummy!
Jumuah moubarak! May Allah bless these last holy nights of Ramadan for all of you!
Today I wanna talk about my re-discovered love and sense for a healthier and more balanced diet, especially concerning snacks.
Our last year was loaded with lots of work, with things to do and: my oven didn’t work.
So sometimes I didn’t take enough time to choose carefully what food I would provide for the kids and myself. When hunger came between the meals, the quickest and easiest thing was to eat chocolate-bars, factory-made-cookies or other sweets. Mashaallah, our sugar-consume raised immensely and I didn’t even notice it very much.
Sometimes an awakening comes slowly, but one day I sat there, unpacking some bars out of their foil, asking myself what processed stuff I am eating here and why we should produce all that extra-rubbish… I thought about self-sufficiency, about my eco-organic-living-aims, about the healthy lifestyle of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who gave a perfect example of a green living.
I immediately felt the urge to take again more care about our bodies, our health and about what we eat. I felt the rush to take back control about ingredients, sugar and vitamins and about what we are feeding us with. I reached the decision to go back as much to the basics as possible, to reach out for more local food, to make again homemade sweets and to use the most natural ingredients possible.
Luckily the poor and frugal life circumstances here offer maybe the best bases for an inventive living and the lack of modern supermarkets make it easier to remember resourceful ideas, alhamdulillah.
So beside the main meals which I always cook freshly and mostly without processed helpers, here are the new snack-ideas I recently added to our meal plan:
Instead of expensive cereals we make our own grind whole meal muesli for breakfast or the wonderful sourdough-bread I’ve already written about.
Instead of processed cookies we eat dates, prunes, dry fruits and nuts, freshly baked cakes and sometimes even homemade bars (there are lovely recipes to be found on the net).
If I can get enough fresh milk from the farmers around, we make our own yoghurt and curd cheese (without a lot of work and measuring, only by boiling the milk, letting it cool down a bit, adding some spoon of yoghurt and then leaving it under warm blankets for at least 5 hours).
Instead of poor waxy sausages we make our own home-smoked-beef-ham and liver sausage for sandwiches.
Yummy!
I feel more energized that way and I am sure our teeth, bodies and minds do so as well, subhanallah.
How much better it often is to go back to the basics, to follow the example of our ancestors, to let us guide by the sunnah of Islam and by the lifestyle our prophet (sws) led and how much more reward there is in overcoming some laziness, inchaallah.
I wish you well, I wish you health, joy, love and peace and a wonderful Sunday, and I would love to hear about your favorite back-to-basic-recipes.
Not a lot to tell about here: we are all a bit sick with a cold (even though we still do not have any snow around here!) and I am also in the midst of half-term-evaluation for the school.
With this perfect comforting sourdough-bread-recipe I wish you a beautiful weekend and a wonderful week – hope you and yours are well, inchaallah!
Today is the day of Ashura over here. It’s the 10th day of the first month in the Muslim’s lunar calendar. It’s a day of remembrance of several Prophets whom Allah granted mercy on this day, such as Prophet Noah (Nuh) and Prophet Moses (Musa).
It is recommended to fast on this day just as our beloved last Prophet Muhammad (sas) did. (note: this has nothing to do with the Shi’a traditions of martyrdom)
So we will abstain from food today, inchaallah, but this evening we will make Moroccan Tea just as everyone everyday around here.
Tea is essential in Morocco.
It is a meaning of comfort, peace and tranquillity.
It is a sign of hospitality and having time together.
And with its bittersweet taste it is a refreshener and booster of energy.
Here’s my recipe for Berber Moroccan Tea (a’tey)
A metal teapot (for 1 litre)
Little tea glasses
1,5 l boiling water
3-4 tablespoons of Chinese green tea (gunpowder or chunmee)
5 (or more!!!) tablespoons of white sugar (we use broken sugar loaf pieces)
Herbs as you like and according to the season, such as: mint, peppermint, verbena in summer and lavender, thyme, vermouth in winter.
Throw the green tea into the teapot and cover with some boiling water; don’t fill the whole pot, just about a quarter of it. Then swing it a bit and rinse the tea.
Now pour this first tea-water away; it is dirty, dark and very bitter.
Then pour again fresh boiling water into the pot over the tea. Fill it now to three quarters. Then put the teapot onto the stove (we have a gas-cooker) and let it boil until it bubbles up.
Remove it from the fire and slowly put now the herbs and the sugar in.
Take a glass and pour some tea in, re-fill it into the pot and pour again into the glass – repeat this a several times until the sugar is melted and the tea makes a good mousse on its top (just as good beer for non-Muslims).
Now taste a little, maybe you need to add more (!!!) sugar?
Once it looks lovely golden brown and tastes good, I mean bitter, but very lovely sweet, then serve – maybe with some nuts or cookies.
That’s the taste of Morocco – Bismillah friends!
…enjoying homemade iced coffee, planning our school and having good readings about education and pedagogy… and wishing you a happy week!
(very inspirational book about alternative education and a school project in Ecuador: Rebeca Wild „Erziehung zum Sein”)
… I think it is time for another peaceful moment after all that exhaustion.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and personal suffering. It helps to see that one is not alone with her feelings, so I pray for you and for me, for all mothers out there.
You know, even if it is so very difficult sometimes, I wouldn’t like to change my life, not for the worlds, even in spite of long “down”-phases. And alhamdulillah, at the moment I feel already a bit more “up” …
My husband brought Moroccan pastries. Have you ever tried “cornes de gazelles” or all these beautiful little sweets made of almonds, rose water and orange flavour? (Here are some recipes) – Heavenly!
- And just the right thing for a quiet mommy-alone-afternoon with a cup of tea, a book and some poppy flowers from the garden when hubby and the children are off for a trip… Leaving the dishes unwashed, the laundries unfold and the steps unbrushed, forgetting about all the duties and simply enjoying the moment… such an hour of calm and peace makes really a difference. Subhanallah, it’s the little things that make me happy.
I hope you also have a happy end of that week. Love and Peace friends!
“Look towards those who rank below you, so that you may get used to being thankful, and do not look at those who rank above you, lest you should despise the favours of Allah upon you” ( Ibn Hibban)
Do you remember my series “Simply breakfast and a quote”? It’s been a long time I haven’t posted one… so here you see today’s breakfast: Roibush tea with milk, Berber-bread with butter and “Aisha crème Ipomée”.
Have you ever tasted sweet potato spread? I’ve talked about it already once on my old blog. The best Moroccan jam brand “Aisha” distributes it and it tastes great!
A little bit like a mixture of chestnut-spread and caramel, but more fruity.
If you would like to do it at home, you find a recipe here (in French language).
Another thing that makes me really happy is the design of that delicious roibosch-tea. Have you seen the lovely picture of mother and daughter drinking tea together? Very old-school and very kitschy, but I simply love it…
After my breakfast I am reading at the moment once again Elma Ruth Harder’s book “Concentric Circles”, a great Muslim book on homeschooling and early learning. And here is some reflection out of it for today:
“Do I take time to reflect?
How did I use my time today?
Did I lose or waste any time?
Do I think of my time as a test?
If I am held accountable for how I have spent my minutes today, am I happy with my day?
If the worthwhile moments were collected onto one side of a balance scale, and the unworthwhile moments were placed on the other, which side of the balance would be heavier?
Do I think of my time as a gift?
Do I begin my day with a sense of true celebration, considering it a time for gratitude and joyous expression?
Am I thankful for each new day?”
Wishing you a joyful Sunday with lots of moments to be thankful for! Assalamou alaikoum.
Itto’s Sfenjj (Moroccan Donuts, without eggs)
These cold days, when we spend most of the time inside, thinking and planning the projects ahead, there is always a big need for something sweet and warming in between meals. We stay nearly the whole day in our living- kitchen (in front of the chimney) because it is the most comfortable and the only warm and heated place in our house.
Always a good thing to do then is some bakery, especially these easy and lovely Moroccan donuts, called “sfenjj”.
Together with the kids it is fun and learning in the same time: some maths by counting the ingredients, some geometry by cutting the circles, some arts by decorating with different things… and a lot of housewifery- and baking-ABC as well…
If you wanna make them, you’ll need (for about 25 pieces):
500 g white flour
40 g dry yeast
¼ l warm milk
100 g white sugar
100 g melted butter
Pinch of Salt
Oil to fry
Things to decorate (powder sugar, cinnamon, sweet pearls…)
Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl and add warm (not hot!) milk and the melted butter. Work this mixture well with your hands until you get a soft and firm dough that does not stick on your hands anymore. Then cover it and let rest until it became double-sized.
Now take the dough, knead once again and then roll it out flat (about ½ cm high).
Take a glass or something round and cut out circles (about 7cm diameter) and then take a smaller circle (about 2cm wide – I took the opening of a water-bottle) to cut out the middle hole. Keep this little middle-piece of dough to fry as a little ball as well.
Work the whole dough like this.
Now heat up some oil (about 5cm high) in a big frying pan, wait until it is really, really hot and then put the circles and the little pieces of dough in to fry.
That takes about 3 minutes – turn sometimes until both sides are golden.
Take out the donuts, sprinkle them with powder sugar and let cool on a paper.
Work all dough like this.
Now they are ready to enjoy or to decorate with some icing, chocolate or else… yummy, alhamdulillah!!!
Happy February, friends!
