Some food pics

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. February 14th (Valentine's Day for those who celebrate it) is also the anniversary of my husband's arrival in the US as a UN refugee. Subhanallah. Their 10th anniversary as a matter of fact.

However when I decided to make kharoof (lamb) for my honey, it wasn't with either of those things in mind! lol He's only eaten lamb once or twice in the year we've been married; sisters, I try but I just can't eat it. Something about the taste, like wet, funky wool oil, I don't know, but I gag. :-( Since my kidney disease started, I've always been kinda weird with meat. Ah well...

Anyway last time hubby went to the halal butcher (we go to Boston to get the best quality) I encouraged him to buy lamb for himself, I would make it for him but fully intended to eat something else myself. So I made him these lovelies:

So I marinated the lamb chunks in a mix of oil, lemon juice, pepper and a 3 spice mix we grind of cumin, coriander, and fennel seed? Wow can't remember the last one in that mix... it's kinda a sweet spice used in Hungarian cooking alot, but not paprika. Sorry I'll update it if I can think of it. Anyway marinated it for 24 hours and then chopped large button mushrooms, cubanelle and thinner green chilis (medium heat), small round tomatoes, and little pearl onions.

I super under estimated the time to prepare the kabobs. Each tiny cute onion had to be peeled first, mushrooms carefully cleaned, chillis chopped and I also soaked my wooden skewers for 30 minutes prior to grilling so they wouldn't burn.

Didn't work, some of my skewers burnt through but alhamdulillah we could still pull them out. I love the aesthetics of mixing all components on one skewer but it makes no culinary sense. I put all the lamb on separate skewers, then put peppers and onions on the same and tomatoes and mushrooms on others. My goal was for a colorful skewer where all the components would cook at the same pace. I put the onions skewers on first; who wants a crunchy grilled onion? Then I placed the lamb about 5 minutes later and the tomatoes I put on the top "warmer" grill and put them on the bottom for the last 5 minutes.

It took about 20 minutes to cook, I had to turn frequently, I also had a huge flare up from lamb grease dripping down and catching other debris on fire. Wow, I tossed on a little water and a HUGE flame shot I. I knew it would but I had to save my kabobs and didn't have a sprayer with me.

Anyway it was pretty tasty. I ate some veggies and had salad; no meat passed my lips that night. I had also made a cake for that day; Abdulmajid had fasted and I wanted to make him a treat. I make a yellow cake mix but add 1/3 cup of lemon juice (more or less to taste) plus lemon zest. I forgot to reduce my water so the cake didn't rise as high and was really moist and really yummy!

I wanted to top it with a little something and decided on sweetened condensed milk with lemon juice mixed it. It was GREAT. Easy glaze for when you dont have powdered sugar for a traditional glaze.

Love my clay bakeware; perfectly seasoned and makes great cakes!

I usually take photos that are staged, you know out on a plate, etc but I just snapped this quickly. I was inspired by my dear sister HijabiMommy over at her blog My Life Under the Veil  She made a decadently delicious cake by Miss Paula Deen (say yum ya'll) but it was a little heavy for her so I just decided to make a yellow cake. :-)

Anyway enjoy insha'Allah and it seems I am already getting some of that predisone energy so I might be posting after all. Just depends on if I get in a manic mood and throw the computer at some stage LOL Just teasing, masha'Allah I am a pretty even person but wow, does prednisone make me a *bit* different!

ma salaama ya'll...