“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

This sums it up! I don’t want to stay on page 1 or even chapter 1!
It has been a long while since we hopped on a plane and took off!

Sometimes the stresses in ones life just brings you to a situation where you wish you could pack your bags and just go… ok… pack your bag, your husbands bag and your children’s bags and then go!
Where to?! Wherever really! well, maybe Paris, London, Spain, Portugal, Seychelles, Mauritius, Turkey, Japan, Hong Kong… I’ll stop here…. or else I would be in trouble!

I even have a list in my head of the people I would love to travel with! (insert rofl emoji here)

Today started with one of the hardest moments I ever had in my life.
I actually was dreading to face this day for the passed two weeks!

My husband was sent off to one the countries where the UAE is part of the Peace Program there.

I used to feel for families with someone defending countries not their own but never did I realize how hard it is until this morning.

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Summer slapped us in the face so hard this year and then apologized and gave us two breezy and immensely humid days… but then slapped us again even harder!

The only things I look forward to in the summer are dates, mangoes and of course berries! (I used to look forward to traveling but we haven’t traveled in a few years)

Berries Berries and more berries… but most importantly raspberries… my all-time favorite!

Raspberries remind me of the summers we spent in France growing up.
Going to the Farmer’s Friday Market and buying punnets of plump juicy raspberries!

That’s what I really miss about traveling to Europe.

ok I also enjoy going to the beach house during the summer and have been enjoying it even more since my boys started overcoming the fear they have from the waves! I admit!

We were there last weekend and that was the first time they actually played in the sand. There were occasional screams from some big waves but then they just made peace!

Maha Al M is a great friend but what’s even greater is her self-discipline. Mashallah!

She changed her lifestyle since 2006 and she’s still at it. I know you can’t eat my cake Maha but I’m proud of you!
I on the other hand, am the worst to stick to a routine!
I salute you Maha and really need to learn from you.
I keep saying I’ll post a new entry every Sunday which turns to a Monday and drags a Thursday which then becomes a whole new Sunday!
The problem is that so many things happen in these days and then when I end up posting I shove too many things in one entry! This makes matters worse!

So I decided, I’ll keep some events for myself and I’ll share others.

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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