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Showing posts with the label ramadan

The Holy Month Of Ramadan

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First of all, thank you for all comments about the basement.This is what it looks like now. It's a work in progress but atleast progress is being made. On Sunday we celebrated the first day of Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar. Islam follows a lunar calendar meaning it changes every year. It is the month of fasting, prayer and charity.  We start the roza (fasting) just before dawn, there is an actual time when the roza starts so all eating must be done before then. We wake up and have sehri (breakfast) which can be as simple as a bowl of cereal to an elaborate multi dished meal. M and I try to open our eyes as little as possible so we stick with simple. We mix it up a bit with eggs and toast, cereal with fruit. In my opinion this is the hardest part of the fast. Forcing yourself to eat a meal in the middle of the night. Once the roza starts there is no intake of any food or fluids. No sips of water, no medication, no lip balm, toothpaste (we still brush o

Eid Mubarak

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Hello everyone! I know I have been MIA the last couple of weeks, we have been celebrating the month of Ramadan and not much happened during the month.   I did host an iftar party and we did meet up with friends once or twice but most of the month was spent in hibernation mode.  On Friday we celebrated Eid. I did a most detailed post on Eid and it's traditions a couple of years ago which you can check out here . We start Eid morning pre dawn at the mosque for Eid prayers. Afterwards the mosque hosts a large breakfast but our family tradition is to duck out, come home, freshen up and go out for a restaurant breakfast. M and the kids all take the day off. So what we did this Eid We started with a BIG breakfast at Brownstone Pancake Factory.. this might be our new favorite place. Next stop the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.  I had been here many years ago with D for his Kindergarten field trip and had wanted to return ever since.  D then D now It's such a beautiful

Holy Month of Ramadan

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Last week we started the holy month of Ramadan. I posted a detailed post about Ramadan last year.. feel free to check it out here .  Today instead I wanted to share with you what I have been doing to prepare for Ramadan. The few days leading up to the month I made some snacks to eat during sehori (pre dawn meal) or after dinner when you get those late night munchies would don't want to end up eating a bag of chips. T hese are not official desi/muslim recipes it just what I made. The first thing I..well actually H did about 90% of the work so I should give him the credit, made was Banana Oatmeal Muffins . They tasted too healthy according to M. Will probably omit the oatmeal next time. I added peanut butter chip to them as well.    Next I made malai which is like a thick sweetened cream to be eaten with toast. There is a story to this one. Back in Pakistan you get raw cow's milk (pasteurized is also available and now more common) The milk needs to be boiled to make it drinkable.

Holy Month of Ramadan

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I don't know.. well I do know how but I accidentally ended up changing my blog layout again. My original banner is gone. I will have to make a new one. I got a Google alert saying my blog was not mobile friendly and while I was trouble shooting I changed the layout. This was not not my first time doing it this year.. so just face slap! Anyway..  Today is the 3rd day of Ramadan. While some of you may be familiar with Ramadan I know many may not be. So I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about it. And if you have any additional questions.. ask away.  We start the roza (fasting) just before dawn, there is an actual time when the roza starts so all eating must be done before then. We wake up and have sehri (breakfast) which can be as simple as a bowl of cereal to an elaborate multi dished meal. M and I try to open our eyes as little as possible so we stick with simple. We mix it up a bit with eggs and toast, cereal with fruit, I am going to try some overnight oats this

Eid ul Fitr

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Last week we celebrated Eid. M took the day off.. the kids skipped school.. it was all well and good but it got me thinking about how we would have been celebrating if we were in Pakistan and of course pre covid. Something my kids will most likely never experience.  A couple of nights before Eid the markets would be open past midnight.. a hustle and bustle.. most people buy new clothes to wear for the day of. Matching glass bangles.. oh I used to have so many glass bangles. Not a fan personally but most apply henna to their hands. The night before Eid is especially festive.  The morning of Eid we wake up at the crack of dawn to pray and then the celebrating begins, which mainly includes a lot of eating. We generally celebrate for 3 days. It involves visiting the homes of all of our uncles and aunts, other close family members as well as friends. Usually it's a 20 minute stop at each home where they ply you with food and the elders gift the kids money known as an Eidi. Most create

The Food of Ramadan

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There we have it, Ramadan has come and gone and it almost flew right by with the exception of a few days when we though it would never end. (Most of us have been fasting even before we hit puberty.. our first fast being around the age of 6 or 7, some even younger) The first day was difficult.. as in I think I might die of starvation. After those first two days things got much better and I was in the mood to cook. M felt that after a long day of fasting dinner should be something special, like a reward. So we feasted. We added a glass of juice and finished the night with fruit or ice cream. But as days went on my enthusiasm started to falter. It wasn't the hunger that was my problem is was mainly the lack of caffeine.. so I cooked some days and then days came were I went back to simpler meals and even leftovers camouflaged as new. By the time we were into week three and especially week four, the finish line was within reach but the lack of sleep was catching up with us and we