Monday, March 24, 2008

Trying to get mummsie

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I haven't been on the internet so much lately, partly because I have been finding it so slow and frustrating and partly because I have been enjoying getting more mummsie around the house and with my kids! OK, so even after 15 years of marriage and 5 kids this doesn't always come naturally so I am happy with progress!

Have turned into a baking queen what with cakes and bread and trying to make healthy snacks. These Focaccia plaits filled with tinned tuna, hard boiled eggs and cheese were among yesterday's offerings:


Today I thought the kids would enjoy trying to make microwave meringues; something I remember doing when I was kid (yuh... many years ago! ha ha!). They didn't turn out quite as superb as I hoped, however there really was instant gratification for the kids. They crowded around the microwave, excitedly watching the tiny balls of mixture puff and rise into comparatively huge meringues! The next fun part was melting chocolate, chopping strawberries and whisking cream with which to decorate the pink, sugary mounds we had created. We served the meringues with a healthy strawberry and banana smoothie. Yummm!



Now with all this mummsie-ness going on, it can be a bit difficult having a 4 year old and 1 year around my feet wanting to 'help'. A few days ago, I got creative once again and made playdough -whoo hoo! Simple recipe, wonderful results.

All you need is:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
few drops of food colouring of your choice
*Even add glitter to make some really fun playdough

Throw all ingredients into a pan and heat gently and stir until you have a dough starting to come together. When you can stir no more, turn out onto a floured board and tentatively (so as not to burn your hands) begin to kneed into a soft malleable dough. When it has sufficiently cooled, hand over to the kids!

They start off rolling...

Cutting out shapes and making cute patterns... (This is 7 year old daughter's effort)



After a while 4 year old son started investigating the drawers for more 'tools' and discovered the garlic press.... yum, worms! (Or was is spaghetti?!)


8 comments:

Susie of Arabia said...

The tuna foccacia looks scrumptious! Could you please give more recipe details about the meringues? I used to make meringue when I was a kid (BEFORE microwaves!), but this way sounds like so much fun. Thanks!

Umm Ibrahim said...

It was fun for the kids, like I said, instant gratification but good old fashioned meringues taste so much better! This method was too sweet even for someone like me! I just googled 'microwave meringues' and the results suggested 250-300g icing sugar per egg white. You just mix the two together to form a sticky dough and then place teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet on a plate and microwave for one minute on high. No need to whisk the egg white. Oh and I put only 2 blobs onto the plate at a time as they do spread out somewhat!

Anonymous said...

Salam from the UK,
I din't get ur email. U can email me at firstname_secondname@btinternet.com The stores are nearby so its no problem. Hope u r all well.

Umm Ibrahim said...

Hee hee, I have been lazy... will get onto it right away! Hope you are having a great time and the weather is not too bad!

Aafke said...

Yummie! I'm getting hungry again in the middle of the night!
You can make merengues in the microwave? never done that!

Your children have a lovely mother!

Laila Hussein said...

Thank you so much. I will try out this recipe!

Umm Ibrahim said...

So sweet Aafke, thanks!

Thanks for your comments Laila. :-)

Rainbow In The Grey Sky said...

Aslamu alakum sister
nice to see you back , yes you was away for a fair bit!!! Lovely foccacia and sweet treats tooo mashaAllah. I got my dd2 a little play dough and cutters set she made great biscuits today, i just love the worms great idea kids !!!