~ seeking peace spice by spice by spice
Looks like I’m not closing this website after all! 😂
Very close to terminating this, I felt a wave of nostalgia… plus, WordPress sent an offer too good to miss up on! So I’ve decided to keep this site.
And to make this a better user experience, I will engage the help of my beautiful and talented Sister to make this website exactly how I envision it should be.
So stay tuned!!!
Times are hard and will get harder next year. Belt tightening has to be done.
With quite a heavy heart, I cancelled my domain and subscription plan. I don’t know what’s going to happen after May 2023 when it ends. Will all my previous posts be available or will it disappear? Perhaps the domain will disappear but the posts remain? Maybe the words will remain but the pictures disappear?
However the future holds for this blog which I started in 2010, I’ve had a good run and an enjoyable time. What started as a project to keep recipes for my children will now have to be just a databank of memories and one day I might just delete the entire blog. The children are not interested in cooking at all 😂
Thank you to those who have subscribed and who have accessed this blog site. I bid all of you adieu. I can be found on Instagram : shasha_cooks
Happy holidays and have a great 2023 ahead! ☺️
Much love
The Occasional Cook
PS:// if you can’t access shashacooks.com anymore (it’ll end May 2023), i suspect the blog can still be accessed using shashacooks.wordpress.com
One day while watching YouTube, I saw an episode of Gordon Ramsay in Texas I think. He was making a breakfast steak.
And then one day as I was browsing through the website of a meat supplier, I saw that this particular one was selling the same type of beef cut. So I bought one and made Gordon’s recipe.
And yesterday as we had a movie lunch day with my sister’s family, I decided to make a full blown Texan inspired meal.
I must say the outcome was amazing!
The menu yesterday was:
Cowboy steak, coleslaw, baked potatoes, air fried corn, Texan rice, chimichurri sauce, baked chicken wings
Let’s start with his rub recipe. I took a picture of the recipe from someone who posted
it on his website.
But let’s see what I had to substitute and remove. There was no way I could get ancho chilli here nor Aleppo so I used Kashmiri powder and removed the ancho powder. The result was still amazing.
Ah, ‘‘twas a good meal. Thanks Mr Ramsay for this recipe idea. It really is an amazing rub.
After fasting for a month, Muslims around the world celebrate this victory of the physical, spiritual and mental self with a few days of celebration called Eid. Or in this part of the world I’m from, Hari Raya – literally Day of Celebration.
However, the mood is sombre with what’s happening over in Gaza and here in our tiny island. We entered a phase of Heightened Alert so on Hari Raya we were only allowed 5 visitors to the home, but could visit two other homes. Naturally for me, it was a visit to the mothers’ but for some of my friends who have more than 5 people in their household, they stayed home. 😦
Let me share how Hari Raya is celebrated in my family. Which is pretty much how many Malays here would celebrate it.
In Singapore and Malaysia, cookies is a must and a staple on the table. When we receive guests, they sit around the table and are served cookies. Mind you, these cookies are never huge Subway kinds! Many times, they are dainty bite-sized pieces and they come in a variety of colours and flavours. I’ve shared a couple I think on this blog site, the latest being the Dahlia cookies. Slowly, when I roll into semi-retirement mode, I’ll make more cookie types and share them. 🙂
Growing up, a staple Raya cookie is the Kuih Tart or Pineapple Tarts which my mom would make yearly. My family’s version is an open faced tart instead of the balled versions. I have shared the recipe here.
Another family staple is Biskut Gajus (cashewnuts cookies), Macaroons (not the French type) and chocolate chip cookies. Alas, my mother is getting too old to be making Raya cookies so I usually buy them from others or try making one or two types if time permits.
These cookies are placed in pretty canisters of choice. Pyrex is the classic but lately, Pyrex does not make pretty canisters anymore so I have been using these pink ones I have since more than a decade ago.
Let me show how it’s like in pictures.
I must say I really do miss my celebrations not only pre-COVID but also pre-marriage days! Or rather pre-teen kids as now they feel theyare too old to celebrate with us days! 😂 It’s fun when you’re a kid, playing with cousins and eating tons of cookies without gaining a pound but that’s life. Maybe one day it’ll be fun again with grandkids? Oh my goodness! Hopefully that’ll be another 15 years from now! 🤣
So tonight I had the pleasure of hosting some very dear friends I got to know since uni days and what’s more fun is planning a vegetarian menu!
I served:
1. Spinach feta cheese phyllo rolls
2. Focaccia two kinds – one with Marion Grasby’s fried onion and chilli flakes topping and the other dukkah topping
3. Hazelnuts with dukkah
4. Hummus
5. Store bought artichoke dip
6. Shakshuka
7. Tiramisu
And one of my friends brought bread and butter pudding she purchased from a home based baker.
I’m pretty pleased to have come up with a vegetarian menu but more to spend a lovely and safe night in with friends. ☺️
The Occasional Cook 