Sweet teeth can't get more spoiled than this

Dressing up a Turkish dessert in Pakistani colors: Mahallebeli Kadayif, garnished with powdered Antep Pistachio and shredded coconut.

Trail mix musings

The best trail mix I'd ever had had to be Sherri's bowl of insanity at Karma Kids NYC while training for teaching yoga to kids. It might have been effected slightly by the amazing mind set I was in in those times...all healthy and om and centered and whatnot.

The second best trail mix might be the one I mixed tonight in my Turkish kitchen. All full of delights that I collected over the course of one night and two..count 'em...TWO shops! Malatya Pazaar and Koylu Peynircilik, both found in my amazing neighborhood within walking distance of my apartment.

I started out small...

...but ran short of space and I had only added about half the goodness.
So I enlisted the otherwise rarely used soup bowl.
Yum. Now it's all in there.

Dried bananas, pineapples, papaya, apricots (Wizard's dad's own), cranberries (yaban mersin in Turkish FYI), and kiwi. Hazelnuts, cashews and peanuts cover the nutty department while shelled sunflower seeds add a band or at least a pretty heavy pattering of vitamin E.

What yummy goodness would be in your dream trail mix?

Grilling saves dinner

I don't need to rub it in my own face, yeah, dinner is not my favorite activity. Eating? Yes. Cooking? Uh, not so much.

I try to get out of long cooking sessions as much as I can. I've even mastered the fine art of cooking intricate Pakistani dishes in batches done in morning, noon and night instead of all at once. Oh hell, I'll admit more: I skip at least 10-15 minutes of sauteing, frying and "Bhoon-ofying" of masalas at every step, so I can finish cooking quicker. So there really isn't any surprise that my dishes come out only half-assed lolz.

The one thing I love doing however, is grilling. Not the outdoorsy kind, just the electric kind. If we were to stay in US longer than mid-next-year as is in the cards right now, I'd go buy myself a fancier electric grill pronto.

Among grillable foods, my favorite and by far the yummiest is grilled chicken breast. I don't use any premade spices. All I use are freshly grated garlic cloves, a bit of salt and lemon juice. I oil the meat as it sits on the grill and recycle the drippings that collect in the grill tray.

I did this time though, use a bit of chicken tikka masala I got from Patel Brothers, and I think it might have come out better if I had used a lot more than I did. Monster ate the ones grilled without masala, mixed with white rice (her staple, of course), while Wizard and I made mini tacos with corn tortillas.

Is it my turn now?

Among Wizard's frequent urging for me to speak with Monster in Urdu more, and requesting certain Pakistani dishes, I think we are slowly bringing about a change in our family dynamics.

For the last 5 years, we've been mostly Turkish in all we did. Hung out at Turkish restaurants, with Turkish friends, ate Turkish breakfasts, most food I made was Turkish, even the way I dressed was predominantely in the Turkish trends.

Could it be that it's my turn to revert to my Pakistani roots, and Wizard is actually egging me on?

For example, a few instances of what has been cooking in our home recently:

Fruit Chaat

Dahi Phulkiyan!

Chicken curry with naan (that Wizard ACTUALLY ate!!!)

For those of you who don't know him personally, he's a wheat bulgur guy...through and through. Doesn't eat white rice, brown rice, pita bread, or naan of any kind.

I'd say that this Ramadan, we had parathas 98% of the time for sahoor! And tonight instead of Turkish tea, he ASKED for Rooh Afza... and had two glasses!

I have no idea what's going on in this man's head currently. I'm just riding it out and enjoying the now frequent trips to Patel Brothers =)