Ramadan Cookies © - Day 6

Since I had spent the entire night awake working on work and typing the previous journal, suhoor time arrived 'just like that'. I had that plum jam on toast! Masha'Allah. And English tea, and cold milk, and water. Kinda like a milkshake in my belly. Nothing else though otherwise I'd feel like a stuffed bird all day. Not funny...

Reading fajr* actually felt better today too. It was 'smoother', more thought out and instead of translating the words in my head and finishing with 'ameen', I actually listened to each word and truly appreciated Allah's messages of Judgement Day, The Siratul'Mustaqeem and the compassion in creation.

After dhuhr* salah, I went about making cookies. It was much fun. A cousin came over for babysitting, although aged 10, we didn't do much sitting, if you catch my drift. He joined in saying 'Awh, I've NEVER had homemade cookies before, EVER!' Little cheeky monkey always eats the homemade delights I make. He was fasting too so with every ingredient I poured in he would inhale really deep, but avoiding licking the gooey mixture. I told him the fast can become "mak'ruh" - invalid, by taking in things that you'd normally have when not fasting. Sniffing the raw cookie dough is just like eating the thing! He stopped, reluctantly.

We didn't just make ordinary plain cookies either. Oh no, we made what I like to call 'Fantastical Ramadan Awesomeness Cookies' - FRAC © for short. Ha! I followed a Nigella Lawson recipe months ago for a really intensely chocolate cookie recipe. The woman used like 1kg of chocolate chips to make SIX cookies! It was disgustingly beautiful. Today's baking was inspired by our non Muslim brother James Martin. I have his brand whisk and utensils and what not. That makes me all posh and a clever chef. In case you are interested, which I seriously doubt, the recipe for Double Chocolate Chip & Nut Ramadan Cookies© is:

-120g unsalted butter, 70g caster sugar, 70g demerera (or brown) sugar, 1 egg, 140g plain flour, pinch of salt, 80g chopped dark chocolate, 80g chopped white chocolate and 80g chopped nuts.

What we did, this monkey cousin and I, is use a whole packet of white chocolate nuggets and chop up mixed brazil-macadamian-pecan-walnut-almond nuts. Oh, note to self and others - never, I repeat, NEVER let a ten year old boy loose with a sharp 10" pointy kitchen knife. Never. Ever. Enough said.

The first batch came out like grilled pancakes. Stupid James Martin's instructions left out the part where the cookie mixture explodes, spreads out and burns at the edges. The second batch came out much better after I added more flour to thicken the mixture. It was very tempting to nibble on the fallen crumb from one cookie 'just' to make sure it was um, chocolatey enough. -smirk- But no! Taste we did not! Alhamdulillah, the boy was giddy but I smacked his hand.

A trip to the airport was made today to pick up a family member. My mother and brother read asr* salah in the prayer rooms there. That was cool. Many a year ago when you wanted to pray you pulled out a plastic sheet, stood on the pavement or behind the plant pots and prayed to God nobody would stand in front and say "Mate? Whatcha doin'?" Now there are Multi-faith prayer rooms with holy scriptures, shoe racks AND ablution areas. Ablution areas, la di dah.

At iftari time it was just I, the babysat cousin and my sister. Oh, I also made chicken today! yayy! People heed my warning should you ever visit me for snacks. I cannot cook to save my life. I bake however. I can bake for England. But 'cooking', nope. Anyway, I made chicken and threw in a garden courgette (another killer veggie we grow) and it tasted FEN'TESTIC! (I said that in a Welsh accent, you can't tell, but I did). We ate said chicken, cookies, and took three mega slices from the half frozen cake that was some-special-one else's. This special someone else received their final A-Level results today and did pretty well alhamdulillah. Therefore, this special someone was given a bunch of flowers from another special someone and that gorgeous cake. It was a chocolate gateaux. One can never have too much chocolate in one's life. Less would be considered sacrilegious.

I must bid you adieu now for I have a gajillion things and people to kill. When I say 'kill' I mean meet or complete... Don't take me that seriously.

I hope your 6th fast was scrummalicious! Tell me, where are you and how did your fast go? -smile-

Zaufishan ★ a tad "ick" after high cocoa content in bloodstream...