Days of Our Lives

Well, so much for kids making pizza. I decided to start preparing for Ramadan. I don’t know it didn’t occur to me before, when I have been struggling with the problem of cooking every week, due to my classes. Since the Taleem classes run through dinner time, it has been quite difficult for me, as dinner is quite  hectic time. On top of that, Tuesdays, we go to El Paso before Maghrib, so hubby likes me to get the kids ready, dinner done, dishes done before we go, and even though it sounds very straightforward, it is quite something to do.

So I usually cook on Tuesdays enough to last till Thursday’s dinner. I have to say it makes it a little easier, but there were times when we run out of food and I find myself cooking on one of those class days and then rushing to set myself up for class while making sure everything is cleaned up.

Three trays of Cheesy-Yum

So I decided to make Cheesyum, and freeze it, kind of like a frozen dinner. I have done this before, but what I did was to bake it and then cut it into serving pieces, wrap them individually, and freeze them. This time, I didn’t prebake them, but rather, froze them with the cheese scattered on top. My plan is, when it’s time to eat it, we’d pop it in the oven and voila! It’d be fresh. Inshaallah.

I ended up making three trays of it, and in the end, I had some left over pasta and ground beef. Just a few days ago, the kids and I watched Food Network’s Sandra Lee making calzones from leftover spaghetti meatballs. I thought I’d give it a try with that leftover pasta ground beef, and so I told the kids to make the pizza dough while I hunt around for roti canai recipes. And so they did.

Calzones

I told them to double the recipe, and they did. To be honest, I have never realy read Tammy’s Pizza recipe before. Each time the kids made it, it always turned out great, so I never bothered. This time though, the dough was tough, and I could see yeast granules clearly. Some were even on Baby Z’s head !*chuckle* I figured it must have been because I told them to double it, so I told them to make it again, not doubled. They did. It was the same thing.

S was almost in tears when I did a post mortem on the pizza dough, and was on the verge of telling her to make it one more time. Bad mother. bad mother. I still don;t know why it didn’t turn out okay because the kids followed the recipe to the letter. So I proceeded to make my own pizza dough recipe, one from Joy of Cooking. And so we made calzones, using the pasta ground beef as the filling. I made quite a few, in front of the kids, and two kids who came over for Quran lesson. The calzones don’t look too perfect, but, then again, I have always had problems with making such things as karipap. it was no surprise.

We managed to freeze about 18 calzones last night. This morning, we still had some leftover filling, so I made another batch of pizza dough (Joy’s recipe) and while I had ago at the balls of dough for my roti canai, S made the calzones. H peeled the carrots and potatoes for carrot milk juice and french fries. N watched Baby Z. We had fun. Mostly because my attempt at making roti canai was quite successful alhamdulillah. I managed to make roti telur. The first time it was really thick. The second time, it was too thin strip like, but the third time’s a charm alhamdulillah.

S crimping her calzone

H became the roti canai flipper, as I was still stretching and pulling the thin dough of roti canai on the table (which by the way we had elongated by adding the extra leaf, upon S’s insistence). H multi tasked in the kitchen, flipping the roti canai, making the carrot milk juice under my intermittent orders, and called me each time it was time to put a roti canai in the pan. It was a very productive morning alhamdulillah. I also managed to blend ayam panggang rica rica spice and freeze one jar of it and use the remaining on two small whole chickens for lunch and dinners all through Thursday. While we were doing all this, the chickens were baking in the oven. Alhamdulilah Baby Z fell asleep. By the time he woke up, we were pretty much done.

Next up, inshaalah, frozen pizza. The kids kept laughing at me when I suggested this with enthusiasm. In my mind, I was thinking of cook-free days, but there they were, making fun of my excitement. At any rate, we had run out of cheese, and because our broken van is still in the shop, we’re not going anywhere until hubby comes back and gets it back.

The third attempt at roti telur

S rolling out her calzone dough.

My attempt at stretching the dough..it was very enjoyable

H the photographer..nice snap!

The turban. Ready for flattening...

And this is where I failed...they don't look too uniform, but they'll do, for now.

And in the freezer they go! For ‘lazy/hectic cooking days’, inshaallah.