No recipe today?!
Unfortunately that is correct!

But you know what’s special about this post today? It’s my first semi-review post.

I never imagined myself writing reviews on restaurants, products etc but there’s a first for everything and of course only when it’s something exceptional.

Dubai as I’m sure you know, is a very competitive market. You must have that special thing about you or your business pick up pace real fast. Oh and believe me word of mouth and social media are the fastest ways to market your business.

You’ll read more about that below!

That aside, Hamad celebrated his 4th birthday last week on the 10th of March but we threw him a party yesterday.

Not any party, a construction themed party. I didn’t want a big party like last year so I did most of the planning.

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I usually am the kind who plans ahead. Not so far ahead but I like to have a somewhat clear vision of where I’m going.

This changes when you have a husband who’s work is unpredictable, two children, a house being built and not going as per scheduled and of course you juggling all that along with the days you want to relax in the kitchen… oh and of course planning all the cookie orders.

Speaking of which, I wanted to take some time off from taking cookie orders. That isn’t working successfully!
A lot of people keep emailing, bbming or sending text asking to order and sometimes, just sometimes… I feel bad for saying no!
This time I was taking off was because I wanted to spend more time with my family and also to work on new recipe ideas I had in mind. Still getting there…I hope.

Back to the unpredictable days…

I believe there should be some kind of balance… between the present and the future… sometimes we plan for the future and forget to live our present… enjoy it a little… one day it will be very late…

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I was extremely glad that we decided to spend the weekend in the farm. Although our bags were like we were going away for a month but when you have children they have so many needs so this leaves you packing what you need, what you might need and what you most probably won’t need!
The boys loved playing with the sand, interacting with the animals and just spending time with their father.

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It’s inspiring and heart warming when I receive a compliment from a complete stranger…
This happened to me last week… and now… this stranger is a new friend!
We have lots in common and it’s very interesting how our chats are go on and on as if we’ve known each other for years!

Fatma Bin Shabib blogs at Figs & Saffron and her writing style is just very natural!

She agreed to become a contributor at La Mère Culinaire but since my Contributors page isn’t set up she proposed to share a blog post!

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A new friend of mine asked me to guest post on her blog, this got me super excited and honored at the same time. She’s a fellow food blooger, an emirati, and a super Hero (i.e.full time mom) like me! She blogs at LaMereCulinaire. I totally relate to her life, juggling a toddler around is hard, and she does it with an infant on the other hand! I’m freaking out thinking about how I’m going to manage my life around 2 babies!!! I bow to you Arwa…

I’m writing this post right now while my daughter is lying on the couch next to me watching TV in a big mess of cracker crumbs around her, screaming “mommy one!” indicating she’s done with her cracker and wants one more! She’s full, now lets move to feeding mommy and making a bigger mess…. anyways back to the recipe.

Ramadan is knocking our doors and we are getting super excited! Ramadan is a holly month that we get to clean our bodies and souls in. 29-30 days of fasting, praying and asking God for forgiveness,health, safety and anything we want. Its a time where you feel peace and serenity all around you through out the day, its truly a magical time.

Unfortunately it has been mistranslated recently into staying up late till dusk in “arabesque” tents smoking shisha, gossiping, and watching the so called arabic belly dancers. So to all you looking at us from the outside, this is not how we live it, and most certainly the purpose behind fasting and having shorter working days is not sleeping all day and being awake all night.

I ask God to bless us all and bring this month to us in health and prosperity.

I wanted to create something that had an arabic essence, a feel of Ramad about it. I was googling for inspiration and thought about tanini, a favorite ingredient of mine, especially in desserts. I love to have dates drizzled with tahini or some freshly baked pita bread dipped in Tahini then in date molasses for breakfast… yumm!

I immediately imagined the flavor in a cake and started searching for a recipe. I found a greek tahini cake “tahinopita” which seemed very appealing. I tweaked the recipe a bit and came up with this amazing cake that is delicious warm, bursting with orange, tahini and molasses flavors, and even better sliced and baked in a warm oven to give you the most delicious biscottis you have ever tasted.

Tahini Cake (my own recipe)

Ingredients:
2 cups whole meal spelt flour
3/4 cup tahini
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
juice and zest of one large navel orange
1 tablespoon orange blossom water (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 cup yoghurt or butter milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 175C, brush your baking pan with tahini, I used a rectangular loaf pan, it really works as an amazing non stick agent.

Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix wet ingredients together, add the sugar, orange zest and whisk till well combined. Fold in the dry ingredients gently till its incorporated in the dough.

Pour into your prepared baking pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until skewer inserted comes out clean. let it cool for few minutes and serve warm drizzled with date molasses, the cake is not sweet enough to have as dessert on its own, it needs the extra molasses and it complements the flavor of tahini well.

you can also slice it thinly into biscoties and lay on a baking rack and bake in hot oven for 15 minutes till crisp. store in airtight container.

enjoy!

Fatma

So finally La Mère Culinaire’s new look is ready!
I hope this eases your navigation through my posts!

my eight month old is on my arm as I try to put him to sleep and I’m typing with the other hand.
At the same time I’m rocking him and my eyes are making sure my two year old isn’t up to no good!

Then I take my two year old to pee, undress him, put him on the seat still using one arm!

Mothers are all about multi tasking but sometimes it just gets too much!
The only “Me” time is when you finally have a few hours of sleep in a row at night!!

Every single day I wonder how our mothers did it all back then!
Was it the simplicity of life or were the children easier to handle?!
Whatever it was, I wish I had half of it…

Irresistible!

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He that can have patience can have what he will
Benjamin Franklin

I’m not a patient person everyone who knows me certainly does know that. My lack of patience also adds to me being short-tempered which is the worst thing especially when you’re married and have children!

It’s not an easy thing to do in a very fast paced world and especially now with everything being “instant”! I try to be patient but it doesn’t always work and I try to control my temper but it usually succeeds and I lose! Such a battle I have with my self-discipline!

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Summer fruits are awesome and berries are the yummiest but raspberries are my utmost favorite!

Amidst my daily crazy/hectic/calm-for-a-minute day, and mother going to the fruit and vegetables market the day before bringing back raspberries among other yummy seasonal fruits, I had to make something with the raspberries but didn’t want to do the usual. Nothing came to mind… at least for that moment!

As a kid, I used to love going with my mother to the fruit and vegetables market and back then it was two streets away from our house! The smells of freshness, different languages traveling through my ears, people bargaining on prices…utter nostalgia!

That moment ended and there popped an idea in my head!
A new recipe… the thought made me feel proud! Just the thought that I felt daring enough to come up with a recipe from scratch and didn’t even know how it will turn out!

The Final Outcome!

“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction”
Winston Churchill

The last time I blogged was back in 2005! That was quite a long time back.

Back then my blog was about my artwork, creative non-fiction writing and poetry.

Here I am, six years later with a totally new life!

Surrealist is still in me but has been reined for a little while and is waiting to be unleashed sometime soon in the body of the partially-new-me La Mère Culinaire!

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Since 2005 I had a few blank years, then in 2008 got married to an extremely awesome man, 2009 gave me my first baby boy and 2010 gave my second boy and 2011 gave me the courage to write and start blogging again! A lot to absorb when you’ve never imagined your life to take this turn so fast! Yes yes… it is fast for me the Surrealist but not for me the Mère Culinaire!

Here I am now, a wife, a mother of two boys. Still loving art but now applying it differently. Now, it’s all about applying the art of parenting and the culinary arts in my daily life. Two things which have become very important aspects of my life.

You’ll soon see me blogging about recipes, parenting, interesting gadgets, and of course Art and Design.

In the meantime, enjoy a flashback of the metamorphosis …