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Our Mother's Day was great and I hope yours was as good as ours. Mom and I went to the Plaza of Carolina to take some photos and later went to Letty's home. She cook a delicious lunch of "Carne Mechada" and rice with coconut. Mom made strawberry jello with cream cheese and fruit salad for desert. After that we went to Piñones to eat a late afternoon snack of Puerto Rican fritters. Going home we were stuck in the famous "Piñones' Traffic Jam" and we decided to go back to Carolina and eat on an Italian restaurant. I added a photo album with the ones I took. Tomorrow I'll post some that Letty took with her camera and also the photos of mom's new babies.
It's 1:17 am and I'm so tire and full of delicious food that I think I'll hit the sack and fall asleep really fast!
Eid al-Adha is a religious festival celebrated worldwide, lasts for three days and commemorates Ibraham's (Abraham) willingness to obey Allah by sacrificing his son. Muslims believe the son to be Ishmael rather than Isaac as told in the Old Testament. Ishmael is considered the forefather of the Arabs. According to the Koran, Ibrahim was about to sacrifice his son when a voice from heaven stopped him and allowed him to sacrifice a sheep instead.
The feast re-enacts Ibrahim's obedience by sacrificing a sheep, cow or goat. The meat from the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha is mostly given away to others. One-third is eaten by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor.
The act symbolizes our willingness to give up things that are of benefit to us or close to our hearts, in order to follow Allah's commands. It also symbolizes our willingness to give up some of our own bounties, in order to strengthen ties of friendship and help those who are in need. We recognize that all blessings come from Allah, and we should open our hearts and share with others.
"It is not their meat nor their blood that reaches Allah; it is your piety that reaches Him." (Qur'an 22:37)
I don't celebrate Xmas but I got this on the e-mail and couldn't resist sharing this. If you ever had a cat you know this can be true! lol
HOW TO WRAP A CHRISTMAS PRESENT WITH A CAT
1. Clear large space on table for wrapping present.
2. Go to closet and collect bag in which present is contained and shut door.
3. Open door and remove cat from closet.
4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.
5. Go back and remove cat from cupboard.
6. Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors,labels, etc.
7. Lay out present and wrapping materials on table to enable wrapping strategy to be formed.
8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove cat that has been in the drawer since last visit and collect string.
9. Remove present from bag.
10. Remove cat from bag.
11. Open box to check present, remove cat from box, replace present.
12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.
13. Try to smooth out paper, realize cat is underneath and remove cat.
14. Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.
15. Throw away first sheet as cat chased the scissors and tore the paper.
16. Cut second sheet of paper to size - by putting cat in the bag the presents came in.
17. Place present on paper.
18. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don't reach. Realize cat is between present and paper. Remove cat.
19. Place object on paper to hold in place while tearing transparent sticky tape.
20. Spend 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from cat with pair of nail scissors.
21. Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.
22. Look for roll of ribbon. Chase cat down hall in order to retrieve ribbon.
23. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.
24. Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to cat's enthusiastic ribbon chase.
25. Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.
26. Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right size for sheet of paper.
27. Put present in box, and tie down with string.
28. Remove string, open box and remove cat.
29. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for locked room.
30. Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to re-lay out paper and materials.
31. Remove cat from box, unlock door, put cat outside door, close and re-lock.
32. Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear cat from outside door).
33. Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small area of the toilet, but do your best).
34. Discover cat has already torn paper. Unlock door, go out and hunt through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year's paper. Remember that you haven't got any left because cat helped with this last year as well.
35. Return to lockable room, lock door, and sit on toilet and try to make torn sheet of paper look presentable.
36. Seal box, wrap with paper and repair by very carefully sealing with sticky tape. Tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst areas.
37. Label. Sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulating yourself on completing a difficult job.
38. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to make a drink and feed cat.
39. Spend 15 minutes looking for cat until coming to obvious conclusion.
This have been around Multiply and 360. Every year we make a list of things we're thankful for. Here is mine:
I give thanks to God because...
I'm alive.
Have a wonderful husband.
Have a sometimes silly but great family
Superb friends!!!
Even if not a lot, there's is enough money to live with, without debts!
I'm living in a place I never imagine I would visit!
I have some talents and can express myself through them.
I can hear, see and talk.
There's Internet at home! (when you're agoraphobic, you understand how precious this is!!!)
I have Faith!
Have a good weekend. Don't forget to really give thanks, meditate or pray. It's good to have the family dinner but it's better when we can spare some time to thank God from the deep of our hearts.
This week's theme was provided by Blessed Rain . . . click here for her Multiply page and here for her Yahoo 360 page . . .
Thanksgiving, one of America's favorite holidays is right around the corner . . . let's explore the cultural exchange of FOOD AND THE HOLIDAYS. Since we are an international collection of friends, rather than focus on Thanksgiving, discuss your favorite holiday.
Share your recipes as an added bonus . . .
1. What is your favorite holiday . . . and why, if you care to elaborate, especially those holidays not widely known . . .
Been Puerto Rican, we love to celebrate EVERYTHING!!! But my favorite while growing up was Xmas and Thanks Giving. I still like to celebrate Thanks Giving with my family. It's one of the rare days that we spent ALL day together without fighting. lol Well, we have a good dynamic... It's just that we have a way of loving each other that is a little strange... Anyway, the traditional Thanks Giving dinner in PR is turkey stuffed in different ways, rice with green pigeon peas (gandules), potato salad and for dessert anything sweet. At home usually we prepare Puerto Rican desserts like a coconut pudding we call "Tembleque" or "Majarete" which is made with coarse rice flour, coconut milk and decorated with a lemon leaf (add a light flavor to the majarete). My maternal grandmother used to cook the family dinner on those 2 holidays. She pass away almost 15 years, but mom, sis Letty and I still try to preserve her way of cooking.
Now that I'm here in Egypt and I'm Muslim I'm learning to celebrate the Muslim holidays and recently we had Ramadan and with that comes a holiday of 3 days. People make a lot of foods and specially roasted lamb. I like a lot the lamb, prepared in anyway. So now hubby is learning to love Thanks Giving and here in Egypt I make roasted turkey stuffed with sweet potatoes and veggies, rice with chick peas (I haven't seen pigeon peas) and this year I think I'll make tembleque or majarete. Last year I made PR rice pudding.
Your four favorite foods or drinks associated with this holiday . . . appetizer, main course, side dish, dessert . . . your choice . . .
2. Turkey Stuffed Puerto Rican way - stuffed with "mofongo", that's mashed green plantains, tons of garlic and toasted pork skin bits. Or stuffed with cassava, onions and garlic.
3. Tembleque - made of coconut milk, sugar, cornstarch, and sprinkled with cinnamon.
4. Rice with green pigeon peas (gandules).
5. Coquito - it's a drink made with condense milk, coconut milk, cinnamon and rum. Very similar to the eggnog.
If you are sharing recipes . . . why not join Deb's Recipe Friday Tour . . . on Multiply and here is the link to her 360 page, although I'm not sure if she is still posting the Recipe Friday Tour there . . . and if you are sharing chicken or herb-related recipes, participate on Seanymph's Multiply page for Chicken Tuesday or Herb Thursday . . . a great way to make new friends!
If you would like to participate in the Friday 5:
Copy the questions and post your answers to your blog,
I think I need to learn how to tat slowly....... I already finished the clover and it took me just a few minutes. Hmm... Now what? I still have a full shuttle. May be I can design a small clover-ish doily. That would be cute. I haven't design in awhile and I have never design a doily, so here is my new challenge!
St. Patty's Day is near and tho I'm not Irish I find it an excuse to tat something. I haven 't tat in a few days and this is a cute little motif that I can finish in an hour or so. So I just finished filling a shuttle and here I come!...
If you like it, here is where you can find the pattern:
I really wanted to send out some sort of holiday greeting but it is so difficult in today's world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on his advice I want to say to all of you:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Scotland great (not to imply that Scotland is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "Scotland" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
Modest wishes to you all, Ms. Anonymous (I wish not to offend anyone by disclosing the ethnicity and history of my name.)
P.S. Next time, I will send my greetings on slate so the environmentalists are not offended. HAPPY WHATEVER!!!
Wanna know what I received as gifts? Clothes and more clothes! LOL But it's fine. I was in need of clothes. I'm a person that doesn't buy clothes frecuently. I preffer to use my money to buy guess what? A silly questions, eh? What else! Threads, shuttles and books! LOL
I will dress up all pretty and take pics with the new clothes during the week and post them here so you can see how pretty I look!
Well, here I am... At 9 am awake! Who can sleep with the smell of the roasted pork leg that mom is making. That will be part of the family fest that we will have at night. In Puerto Rico the Xmas traditions are still strong. Families get together to share together, eat and even dance and sing. My family is Christian, so no dance with them but they still reunite to share, eat and sing. And boy, how we eat! LOL The traditional fest includes roated pork leg (or to those who can afford it a whole pig is roasted in a stick over fire outside), pasteles (a small rectangular "pie" filled with meat [chicken or pork] made with platains and other roots or yucca), rice with "gandures" (pigeon peas) and traditional desserts. That's my favorite part!!! I love the traditional Puerto Rican desserts which include rice pudding with coconut milk and raisins, or "tembleque" (kinda like a coconut custard sprinkled with cinnamon). The traditional drink is "coquito", that is milk and cream of coconut with at least 2 kind of cow milk, sugar, cinnamon and rum. It's like an eggnog but with coconut. As you can see, in Puerto Rico we use a lot of coconut.
Singing... Well we love to sing in Puerto Rico and there are tons of traditional songs and modern songs too that are sing during the holidays, but the most that I remember are the ones sang at church when my grandmother was a minister of a pentecostal church. She was also a chorus director and during the night and early morning we (the family) and most of the chorus members visit several houses to sing. That's another tradition. Go to the houses after midnight when every one is sleeping and awake the house with songs. People sing usually the traditional songs or the modern ones but to wake up to a hymn was much better. My mom, uncle, grandmother and me we used to play the accordion when we went out with the chorus. Now that is a huge show at night!
Things have change, specially since my grandmother died... But we still try to keep the traditions alive. I'm not a Christian anymore so I don't celebrate Xmas, but more than to celebrate is the opportunity to share with the family. Spend time with all of them is very special and have more meaning now that I don't live near any of them (it's a very LONG way from Egypt to USA or PR).
Now... New Year's Eve. That's a special celebration that I still like to celebrate. But I'll tell you about it later.
The photo used in this entry is a crochet Xmas tree from Free Patterns and I decorated it with tatted flowers (1 ring with 6 picots) and 2 buterflies glued together at the top. I used a little of glitter glue to stick everything to the tree. Mom has it on the "Honor" table in her living room.
Yes, you can say I have nothing better to do. 
At home usually we prepare Puerto Rican desserts like a coconut pudding we call "Tembleque" or "Majarete" which is made with coarse rice flour, coconut milk and decorated with a lemon leaf (add a light flavor to the majarete). My maternal grandmother used to cook the family dinner on those 2 holidays. She pass away almost 15 years, but mom, sis Letty and I still try to preserve her way of cooking.
I haven 't tat in a few days and this is a cute little motif that I can finish in an hour or so. So I just finished filling a shuttle and here I come!...
Wanna know what I received as gifts? Clothes and more clothes! LOL But it's fine. I was in need of clothes. I'm a person that doesn't buy clothes frecuently. I preffer to use my money to buy guess what? A silly questions, eh? What else! Threads, shuttles and books! LOL
Happy Holidays 
And boy, how we eat! LOL The traditional fest includes roated pork leg (or to those who can afford it a whole pig is roasted in a stick over fire outside), pasteles (a small rectangular "pie" filled with meat [chicken or pork] made with platains and other roots or yucca), rice with "gandures" (pigeon peas) and traditional desserts. That's my favorite part!!! I love the traditional Puerto Rican desserts which include rice pudding with coconut milk and raisins, or "tembleque" (kinda like a coconut custard sprinkled with cinnamon). The traditional drink is "coquito", that is milk and cream of coconut with at least 2 kind of cow milk, sugar, cinnamon and rum. It's like an eggnog but with coconut. As you can see, in Puerto Rico we use a lot of coconut. 