The after party

Even after Saturday's wedding party our festivities continued well into the next week..















Here is a recipe for the Blueberry Chocolate Chip cookies below.

The variation I did was remove the nuts, and replace the hot water with 1/4 cup blueberry puree which is just fresh blueberries cooked down into a concentrated syrup with sugar and a bit of water. Then it's strained so the peels get left behind and as it cools it turns into a gelatinous mass (maybe from the pectin in the fruit)

Any sugar added into the blueberry puree should be removed from the recipe below so they're not overly sweet.

I mixed this puree with the baking soda and then added it into the cookie batter. The cookies came out blue-ish with a soft middle and crispy chewy edges, really quite good!
Watch them as they bake and don't make them too small or they will burn.
Everyone loved them!

Chocolate Chip cookie recipe

Yields 4 dozen cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Summer grilled tikka kebobs

Now that summer is here it means one thing - BBQ season!

My favourite way to prep kebobs are marinating the sirloin cubes in some lemon, greek oregano, salt and olive oil.

Another variation is arabic 7 spice with a sprinkling of sumac for that tang and olive oil. So good.
My mother likes to marinade her meat overnight with lots of chopped onion and black pepper (salt later to prevent all the moisture from coming out of the meat)

These tender bits get skewered onto wooded or metal skewers (wooden should be soaked prior to prevent burning) then they get grilled up quickly and served with fresh bread and lots of chopped vegetables or a salad.

Easy and delicious! Feel free to share your favourite kebob marinades!

Eid Al Adha!

As usual when it comes to our family Eid traditions having starbucks after the Eid prayer, two frappachinos here
And a hot mocha espresso with whip for my second youngest sister


Headed over to pick up grandma and to a new Afghani restaurant we tried out this year:

Mango Yogurt drink (lassi, dough) my youngest sister orders every single time!

Delicious beef afghan curry !
Grilled meat platter
More meat!

Salad, and bread, we had rice too of course!

At the very top is a quail south african style biryani we whipped up last weekend after Eid, thanks to my youngest sister Munch n' Crunch for all the great photos covering the holiday.