Book Recommendation #3

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

السلام عليكم 

 I hope a full 2 weeks have passed hehe! 

Book #2

*couldn't find a picture for some reason

Alex Rider


This one's definitely for teens. I have read the entire series, but beware in each book there are some bad words. You can easily skip them, by blacking those bits out.

Age Group: 12-15

Why I dislike this book: Bad words. And it's not for people who dream and scare easily. In some age ratings they do say 10+ but I assume it depends on the child. And obviously their guardian should moderate their books.
What I would change in the book: I would make it kid-friendly, so that younger kids can enjoy it too. The bad language would be removed. Maybe the character would be younger. And what I really like about these books? Their plots. They are somewhat original and they are FASCINATING. I read them usually in one sitting and they're easy to read (for me).


Book #3



They were not railway children to begin with. I don't suppose they had ever thought about railways except as a means of getting to Maskelyne and cook's, the Pantomime, Zoological Gardens and Madame Tussaud's. They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bathroom with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and 'every modern convenience', as the house-agents say.

There were three of them. Roberta was the eldest. Of course, Mothers never have favourites, but if their Mother had a favourite, it might have been Roberta. Next came Peter, who wished to be an Engineer when he grew up; and the youngest was Phyllis, who meant extremely well.

Mother did not spend all her time in paying dull calls to dull ladies, and sitting dully at home waiting for dull ladies to pay calls to her. She was almost always there, ready to play with the children, and read to them, and help them to do their home-lessons. Besides this she used to write stories for them while they were at school, and read them aloud after tea, and she always made up funny pieces of poetry for their birthdays  and for other great occasions, such as the christening of new kittens, or the furnishing of the dolls house, or the time when they were getting over the mumps.

These three lucky children always had everything they needed: pretty clothes, good fires, a lovely nursery with heaps of toys, and a Mother Goose wallpaper. They had a kind and merry nursemaid, and a dog who was called James and who was their very own. They also had a Father who was just perfect - never cross, never unjust, and always ready for a game - at least, if at any time he was not ready, he always had an excellent reason for it, and explained the reason to the children so interestingly and funnily that they felt sure he couldn't help himself.

You will think that they ought to have been very happy. And so they were, but they did not know how happy till the pretty life in Edgecombe Villa was over and done with, and they had to live a very different life indeed...

I'm sorry, I couldn't find a good back summary so I went with Amazon's.

Age Group: 8-13
Why I dislike this book: There is a train that goes to London (I think it does) and the children call it the Green Dragon. And they said If it's a magic dragon it will take our love to Father. So they waved. You can skip that part if you are reading aloud.
What I would change in the book: I wouldn't change anything. I think that is the way it should be. Except the part about the magic dragon.

Book #4



I didn't know about these books until I saw one of Crafty Muslimah's posts. I have scrambled the Web to find the free books of Ruby Redfort and sadly I have read only the first and the second. I really really like the second book, Ruby Redfort, take your last breath.

Age Group: 10-14
Why I dislike these books: Well, the language isn't great. Some offensive *not too offensive words etc buster, then it's pretty unbelievable. I mean, who on earth can be THAT genius? I know, some people are, but to me it's crazy.
What I would change in the books: I would make the WHEN more clearer. It's set in 1973 but I only found it out when I googled it. ......I am curious.



That is the last book for today inshaa Allaah see you soon!

Before I go, I wanted to tell you all due to popular queries, I have added a gadget on the sidebar for a chat. Just ignore the very first messages haha that were by me - like maimoonah is nice etc because I couldn't think of anything else to put as a test...... at that time. You have an option to chat with me privately. The chat is for suggestions questions etc and anything else. Ummi is also getting a lot of questions asking her what fabric is this in cross stitch - on Instagram because.. well, I'm halfway (quarter-way to be more precise) through a cross stitch pattern which is pretty difficult. I want to get it finished and framed before Eid inshaa Allaah.

Cross stitch comes naturally to me, I was taught a new method of doing cross stitch (unlike my old method when I was smaller) by @sewing.camp. You can find her here.


Maimoonah

A Day With Ramlah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

 السلام عليكم

 Well, I haven't talked about Ramlah in quite a while. Oh, when was the last post? Hmm.... Monday, 6 November 2017..........

.......................................................

She is almost three years old, and the sweetest yet naughtiest sister ever!

 Last year I got some supplies from Rainbow Resources, and two of the things I bought for Ramlah were these on the right.

The food groups survived, the cans were made of THICK cardboard, subhanallaah I DID NOT read the description haha. 

The paper labels on them were kind of half torn - blame Ramlah....

Other than that they were quite good and they are very durable Alhamdulillaah.

Link 1

Link 2

 So she has her own little kitchen, arranged almost everyday by me (15+ minutes), and that kitchen is VERY small. Well, not VERY, but pretty small.

I took some pictures of it.

It's a kind of a coffee table haha. We almost never use it. That blue notebook is a scrapbook - it lives up to it's name - it's torn into scraps! It's Ramlah's. You should have guessed haha!
Those two phones don't work: they need chargers. That water bottle (the green one) is Ramlah's, and the blue one is empty. There are some cupcake liners that got glitter onto them accidentally so I am not sure if they are food safe. It doesn't matter anyway, they are crushed into cupcake plates.

That keyboard is for um... I'm not sure what but I guess it's to type up the orders. It's Ramlah's choice!

Behind the table is a sofa which is our restaurant (the dining part) - I forgot to take a picture of it.
 Um... to the side of the table is another table. It's pretty small but here it is. It's the... um... part fridge part.... I don't know haha.

Sorry it's rotated the wrong way.

Next to that is the cupboard which I made myself with an old cardboard box.

I save up almost all the plastic cans we have. Well, so far only two...

I also sewed a lot of felt food.

For this post we both agreed to make... CUPCAKES! Our own recipe, some alteration from Ramlah and PLEASE PLEASE don't try this with real ingredients. I'm pretty sure you'll end up with a terrible taste.

Well, since we didn't have the Hot Cocoa tin, we went by hot chocolate. The pot with the red lid is um... sugar, the handmade (obviously) strange reddish pot is flour, that carton is milk, and that lemon's a lemon (can you guess it?), the banana is a ripe banana, that white thingy is an egg... well, a half egg. That's a pitted-cherry-tin on the far right. The mixing bowl... well... uh, it's a pot which has holes in it a drainer I guess. But um, never mind let's just pretend the holes aren't there.

By the way that's Ramlah's hands! So she put the butter in as above.

Next,

The sugar. I had to hold it for her so that um, the sugar wouldn't spill. You can't blame me, sugar makes a mess. *No real sugar in the pot*

Yes, she put the egg,

And the flour.

Almost like she's squeezing a lemon, huh?

OH HOW STRANGE that I said that! She imitated me and Ummi squeezing a lemon, oh yes some years (1 year) cooking with me in the kitchen, actually baking.

And she told me she was 'squeeeeeezing lemon'!!

Almost forgot the hot chocolate. And yes, it's Cadbury!

Yes this is the cherries. We pre-cut them up.

Breaking the banana

The milk,

Time to stir all of them together! *sugar, flour, milk and lemon all dissolved

We put the cupcake liners on an old torn foam book, our baking tray and lined it with three cupcake liners. In each one, she put in the different ingredients.

We carefully put it in the oven without spilling anything.

It's under the table! haha!! This was taken halfway through!

Out of the oven all nicely risen. I don't know if you can smell the DELICIOUS smell!

SURPRISE! She LOVES the cupcakes recipe and makes them again and again, only with different ingredients like chicken, meat, cheese etc.




Was this a bit of a boring post? When Ramlah wakes up she will love to see this post haha!

This was the most difficult photo shoot so far but pretty entertaining.

It was Ramlah who came up with the idea to put the ingredients ACTUALLY into the cupcake liners.




Now, I'll have to do a bit of work too. As well as that, I'll be working on gift ideas - that will or won't last a long time. Ramadhaan is just around the corner, and Eid is very near.

Inshaa Allaah see you soon.

ميمونة بنت عبدالله

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with some alteration)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

السلام عليكم    

Wednesday, 2/6/2019.

I made.... COOKIES!

Not just any cookies. Betty Crocker's CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

Finished cookies.

Sorry of the bad focus of the shots, I'm using my Abi's Nikon D500 which is very heavy (equipped with LARGE flash, even heavier) and I have no idea how to focus it.

First, I'm using Betty Crocker's recipe - Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies - not very chewy if you're thinking about that. It's kinda crumbly but chewy cookies give me the feeling I'm eating cookie dough which is very unhealthy for you (I mean the dough) if you're thinking about it.

Here is the recipe so you can confirm my measurements:

Link.

I started by getting my ingredients - as a good cook/baker does, well, I am not so good a baker.

Wait, where's the flour?
Oh here.

And the egg?

See what I mean - not prepared.

I measured out the white sugar, then looked for a bowl... whoops!
So they do say 'in a large bowl', but I don't have a large bowl - pretty sure I don't. I have a medium. I put the white granulated sugar in, which is 3/4 cup if you're wondering.
Then measuring the brown sugar - you're supposed to put 3/4 cup, but I have 1/2 cup brown sugar. Alhamdulillaah I was expecting this and managed to substitute it - I'll come to that later inshaa Allaah.

I filled the rest with caster sugar - didn't want the granulated sugar not melting in the oven. Then poured it in:

Time for the butter. I use the brand Lurpak - very expensive, if you're thinking - and it's from... wait let me go check the label.
Back. Ok, it says: 'Packed in Denmark in the dairy' so I assume it's made in Denmark. Um, which dairy? Never mind. I don't live in Denmark.

Oh, where was I? The butter.

If you can read it - 400g. We need to put 1 cup. And... Here comes the problem.

I'm sure you've searched on google: 'gramms to cups' or 'floz to grams' often making spelling mistakes as you're desperate!

Okay - I'm always stuck in this situation.





Then:



And:


Yes, I know the last one is for muscov whatever. But they say:

Not specific hehe!

But what I did was- 100 grams per cup of butter.

Do not do what I did unless you have lots of hand-eye coordination!  REPEAT DO NOT DO THIS.

I cut it into half carefully then each half into half making quarters. Then I took one of the quarters and added it to the mixture.

Okay. Substitute for our brown sugar? and also for our vanilla essence which I finished... last month.
Honey. Pure, acacia honey. It's about maybe one or two tablespoons but you can use any honey. I poured the whole jar in, well not the whole thing. I wanted a fingerful myself too!

All poured in:

Then I mixed it.

The egg,

Stir until well blended - I did it by hand but you can use an electric mixer. I didn't want to wake my little sister!
Then I added the flour, baking soda** and salt.

Stir. At first it will look like this but please please don't panic! Dough will be 'stiff', they say. Pretty stiff.

To get that fine mix, I mixed it carefully with my hand:

And, let me tell you something - By the time I added the flour, it should have been kind of at the top of the bowl. and look at their picture please.




It's TO THE BRIM.

I'm using a medium sized bowl, wait maybe a large, but still, my mixture is barely halfway!? I mean even after I added the chips (not the nuts because it was optional) it WAS NOT MORE THAN HALFWAY.

Let's leave that. I added a whole 11 oz packet of chocolate chips and saved about 10 chips for Ramlah to eat.

Then you DO NOT need a cookie tray. I lay down a piece of very badly torn aluminum foil first.

And then professionally cut non stick parchment paper. (With the scissors)

And 16 or 12 cookies at a time with a rounded table spoon or roll into evenly sized small balls with your hand. Wait. They don't stick to each other. With the help of a teaspoon at a time of milk, make them stick to each other. Time consuming but it's worth it haha!!

Bake for 8-10 minutes - I baked mine for almost 13 minutes. My fault, I didn't preheat the oven till now.

Finished product - very very slightly burnt but OH so delish!

Cool for no longer than one minute - pick up by hand and toss in an airtight container. Even if you do burn your hand. Immediately seal - you don't want them turning hard as rocks.

And Ramlah woke up - was annoyed with me for baking without her, and calmed down when I gave her the packet of chocolate chips.

Look at her laughing now!

Sidenote on the chocolate chips:I got milk chocolate but I really really wanted semi sweet - I'm the only one in the house who loves dark chocolate better than white or milk. The price had dropped to 12.50 - before it was 16.50.

Not a lot of dishes to wash - I really hate washing dishes after standing 3 hours without sitting.

Yes, I said 3 hours. I'm A BAD BAKER. I took 10 minutes to double check the ingredients, take pictures, and another 10 minutes figuring out how to use the flash.

Okay. Let's review this product.

Pros:

• The TIPS. It encouraged you to be creative - choose which chips you could use.

• The video. I'm a visual and I don't understand most things without watching AND reading. And pictures as well.

Not a lot of pros, haha.

Cons:

• Their bowl is full to the brim. Mine is barely halfway???
• The dough in the picture is STICKING together. Mine IS NOT - without the help of milk.
• Some reviews not positive.

 These cookies are absolute garbage. First of all, this recipe calls for too much flour. Saying that the dough will be "stiff" is an understatement. It literally crumbles as I'm mixing and the chocolate chips/walnuts won't stick to it. I had to make another batch but this next batch had problems too. Instead of 2 1/2 cups of flour, I added about 1 3/4 which worked much better. However, when I added the two cups of chocolate chips, it was WAY too much. They literally fell off of the dough when they should have been all mixed in. I even thought to myself as I added them "huh this seems like a lot of chocolate chips" but stupidly I figured Betty Crocker must know what she's doing. I was horribly wrong. There wasn't even enough cookie dough for all the chocolate chips to stick to. I spent about ten minutes picking out chocolate chips from this dough because it was unusable. Finally, I put it in the oven to bake, but when the timer went off, they weren't even close to done. Eventually, I got them on cooling racks and cooled them for 2 minutes but when I took them off, they were hard as rocks!! Betty Crocker has failed me for the last time and you won't catch me using any more of her recipes. These were, by far, the worst cookies I have ever made and I would advise you against making them as well.

And not so negative:

pretty dang good, could do with eit)(er more eggs or maybe some milk? it was a bit dry, so i added some milk in. e)( i kinda did stuff up (my fault) but yeah. good in everyt)(ing else though!

 pretty good, could do with eit)(er more eggs or maybe some milk? it was a bit dry, so i added some milk in. e)( i kinda did stuff up (my fault) but yeah. good in everyt)(ing else though!

  Okay - spent over one hour typing this. My hands hurt!

See you next time inshaa Allaah
Hope I didn't bore you!

Assalaamu Alaikum

ميمونة

These cookies are absolute garbage. First of all, this recipe calls for too much flour. Saying that the dough will be "stiff" is an understatement. It literally crumbles as I'm mixing and the chocolate chips/walnuts won't stick to it. I had to make another batch but this next batch had problems too. Instead of 2 1/2 cups of flour, I added about 1 3/4 which worked much better. However, when I added the two cups of chocolate chips, it was WAY too much. They literally fell off of the dough when they should have been all mixed in. I even thought to myself as I added them "huh this seems like a lot of chocolate chips" but stupidly I figured Betty Crocker must know what she's doing. I was horribly wrong. There wasn't even enough cookie dough for all the chocolate chips to stick to. I spent about ten minutes picking out chocolate chips from this dough because it was unusable. Finally, I put it in the oven to bake, but when the timer went off, they weren't even close to done. Eventually, I got them on cooling racks and cooled them for 2 minutes but when I took them off, they were hard as rocks!! Betty Crocker has failed me for the last time and you won't catch me using any more of her recipes. These were, by far, the worst cookies I have ever made and I would advise you against making them as well.

These cookies are absolute garbage. First of all, this recipe calls for too much flour. Saying that the dough will be "stiff" is an understatement. It literally crumbles as I'm mixing and the chocolate chips/walnuts won't stick to it. I had to make another batch but this next batch had problems too. Instead of 2 1/2 cups of flour, I added about 1 3/4 which worked much better. However, when I added the two cups of chocolate chips, it was WAY too much. They literally fell off of the dough when they should have been all mixed in. I even thought to myself as I added them "huh this seems like a lot of chocolate chips" but stupidly I figured Betty Crocker must know what she's doing. I was horribly wrong. There wasn't even enough cookie dough for all the chocolate chips to stick to. I spent about ten minutes picking out chocolate chips from this dough because it was unusable. Finally, I put it in the oven to bake, but when the timer went off, they weren't even close to done. Eventually, I got them on cooling racks and cooled them for 2 minutes but when I took them off, they were hard as rocks!! Betty Crocker has failed me for the last time and you won't catch me using any more of her recipes. These were, by far, the worst cookies I have ever made and I would advise you against making them as well.