rain rain, go away.....

it's been raining for over a week now, incessant and dismal and very, very heavy.
I've said it before I'm sure, but there is nothing like Algerian rain.. it's relentless. I spent the majority of last week wet.. and muddy. and sleeping with my family in our living room to get away from the leaky upper level of our house. But we haven't flooded yet so this I tell myself is a bonus. We needed the rain.. in fact about half an hour before it started a couple of our local mosques prayed Salat-al-Istisqah.. which is basically a plea for rain.. it worked.. I was standing outside the school when the heavens opened and the rain came down, and it's hardly stopped since.

It's at times like this that I have to remind myself why I came here. Why I put up with the sub standard housing, the mud, dust and bugs...This time last year I was almost booking tickets to go back to the UK, so I guess there's been some kind of an improvement because it hasn't got that bad for me yet this year...

Hijrah does get easier for people. I see the evidence in how other people are living, but then maybe I'm only seeing the surface... who knows how hard it is for people really and how much they divulge about the difficulties of living here. I have yet to see it in my own life.. but we march on regardless... getting through the day and making the best of what we have, and don't have.

Lately I've begun to supplement the 8yr olds schooling ...  trying to weave into this life of ours some of the homeschooling lifestyle we left behind. So we've been reading ALOT... Roald Dahl is what she's loving at the moment and me, doing the grand high Witch complete with German accent is making her super giggly. She's also doing some Math drills online to try and get to grips with the speed at which lessons move in this country. And slowly, very slowly she's recognizing words in English and reading them on her own.

It's been a strange learning curve for her. Her first spoken language is English, but she's so fluent in Algerian derdja that English has become a language she only uses if she has to... She can't read English yet, she learnt to read Arabic first and is learning to read French before attempting to read English in any determined way. So the pace is slow, sometimes too slow for Algerian teachers and she's fallen behind her classmates a little. But this happens in the life of the multi-lingual child. And while I patiently sit by waiting for her brain to filter all the languages and make sense of it all, knowing that eventually it will all settle and make sense to her, the teachers here are not so forward thinking. I console myself with the fact that school will be out by the end of May most probably this year and that we can settle down in the summer to some home-ed unschooling style and do what comes most naturally to us all.

And we're embracing simplicity. Sometimes due to neccesity, but also from choice.
We live a pretty frugal, simple life anyway... we're minimalist from habit and don't have alot of the "stuff" that other folk have. But this year I was determined to set myself a challenge and make this my year of living sunnah. embracing from it what I could and living my Islam more holistically.

Which is why I started the New Year quietly... keeping myself slightly at arms length. Putting it all into perspective and taking slow, purposeful steps. I have hermit tendencies, and I'm standing slightly further back all the time,  no longer trying to find the place where I'll fit but content at last with the fact  that I never will and feeling comfortable with it.

And the rest of the day ahead?
Well the rain is falling... upstairs is leaking and out of bounds. Outside my window the mountains have disappeared into a grey cloudy haze and are no longer visible and I have all of the children in the sitting room trying to stay warm and not get on each other nerves. We were supposed to go to the doctors today for a routine visit for more meds but we're not brave enough to face the rain today. I'm off to cook, and get some laundry done. Figure out my spending plan for February, decide whether I'm going to plan my menu's next month or not. Get some more knitting done, a chunky scrapbusting scarf for the 3yr old and some of the Shalom Cardi that's coming along so nicely despite a couple of very minor imperfections that I can live with and the 8yr old won't notice. And if you've really been taking notice since my last post you'll have notice that the cardi is no longer destined for the 12yr old... we have a bit of a yarn, needle problem here in Algeria .. not enough different sized needles to suit the yarn weights... and I'm not going to even bother discussing my relationship with Math & Dyscalculia  here and my innability to veer even slightly from the pattern... so the cardi is slightly smaller than it should be but will fit the 8yr old nicely thank you...

Pictures will come eventually, when the rain stops and the Internet connection can take the pace of multi-tasking...

We've come to the end of the two week spring break, fairly unscathed and ready to tackle the last six or so weeks of the school year. There's been some dispute {naturally, it being Algeria}as to when school would finish this year, some saying the beginning of May {yikes!} and some saying the beginning of June. We have elections happening in Algeria in May which means schools will be used as polling stations .. though judging by what Joe Public is saying on the news there's not likely to be much of a turnout! And to mix things up just a little, some teachers called la Grève yesterday, which means some or all or possibly no schools will be out on strike at some point or possibly no point during the term... it's all very organised here you know... 

We also have preparations going on for April 16th which is Yowm-al-Ilm, or Day of Knowledge... unfortunately in dd13's case this means an accapella version of "We Are The World" sung to the rest of the school.... and a play she can't take part in because she's the only girl in her class who wears hijab and "it doesn't look right!"... this meant a kindly discussion on why some people aren't prepared to accept other people differences and be more amenable... I don't think she was convinced by anything I said... being the fragile 13yr old that she is, and I'm pretty sure it's going to continue to be a source of upset till it's over and done with but I guess these are the things that toughen us up and help us grow emotionally. 

As usual our house has been a busy happy mix of things over the holidays, and although we didn't get to go anywhere there were a few catch ups with friends... old and new, settling into a new spring routine... longer daytime hours with Fajr prayers coming in before 5am!! and a more relaxed non-menu planning month for me....

I had slipped back into menu planning over the last two and a bit months, as a way of getting back on track with my budget, and while it worked... for the most part... it has been a relief to let it go again. As a tool it does help me to regain my footing now and again, but I'm happier not having to do it long term if I'm honest. I think it goes too much against my free-flowing ways... it sounds a bit stupid to say my menu plan makes me feel trapped, but it does... I've been a much happier and more spontaneously creative bunny this first week of April.

Budget wise.. I'm thinking up ways of not spending any money.. which isn't easy but I am trying...

Potatoes continue to be a source of annoyance here... still far too overpriced for most people to be able to afford. I'm only buying a Kilo at a time and only feeding them to the dh... the rest of us are exploring carby alternatives and patiently waiting for the price to drop. I have been a good girl though and for the most part have stopped buying bread and have been making my own, and also baking the children school-break snack... which needs some forward planning... not my strong point ... and has meant a few midnight baking sessions but we're getting there. 

And finally... as if I haven't chewed your ears enough with my garbled witterings already.. the crafting is coming along nicely thank you... I very happily had my bag pinned  the other day and have since started a yoga mat bag for the 20yr old....and a doily... I'm thinking of turning them into a table runner type thing. And I'm feeling very kindly towards my sewing pile these days... I haven't actually finished any of it... but there are yummy half finished girly dresses lurking ...

And on that note, there is soup to blitz, pies to make and breakfast to bake... and a very scary laundry pile to tame.

:: TWELVE ::

Want an easy cake recipe?

It doesn't get any easier than this one...

• 3 Eggs
• 1 Cup of oil
• 2 Cups of flour
• 2/3 Cup of sugar
• 2 sachets of baking powder
• 3 tbsp of milk

whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil.

add the flour and baking powder... loosen the batter slightly with the milk and pour into a lightly greased & floured cake pan....

Bake for 20-25 minutes on a moderate heat, and then dress her up

 Often we'll add choc chips, fruit or dried fruit to the batter before cooking...

sometimes we leave her plain and smear the top with strawberry jam and coconut...

It's not the most glam of cakes, but she's steadfast and frugal... and above all quick!

:: SIX ::

I should have got here earlier to post pics of bread and biscotti...

At times though, life conspires against me... and it seems that 11-ish pm is the earliest I can get here these days...

Our evenings end late, after the younger children go to bed there is bread dough to throw about and whack in the oven.... and this evening I made up a couple of batches of vanilla biscotti before putting the wee man down to sleep..

I also started working on this today... the  work on the yarn basket yesterday paid off! Hopefully by the weekend dd8 should have a nifty little dress bodice to look forward to inshallah... 

It's menu planning day tomorrow... I slipped back into it quietly & made a few changes to the way I used to do things.... and, it seems to be working for the most part mashallah.

Taping my menu to the fridge helped keep me on the straight and narrow.. it was harder for me to back out and take easier but more expensive options once the children were aware of the plans I had in store for their bellies... but more about that tomorrow inshallah...

It's late, and I did today on three hours sleep and not enough coffee

I am working on bringing you pics, but with my camera out of action the only chance I get to snap at anything ( other than the children) is when the dh is home....

Try the bread and biscotti... they were both really easy to prep and bake, and have become firm favourites in our house... 

:: ONE ::

The first day of a new month. And typically, for me, a chance to sit and reflect over what I'd like to achieve during the next few weeks insha'allah. Winter is drawing to a close and I'm already feeling more productive and ready to tackle all those tasks I've been neglecting for so long. 

I've stepped in to March with more focus on being frugal and with that in mind I've organised my menu for the week ahead and even done the grown up thing and written a well thought out shopping list to go along with it... I can already see how much money I'll be saving myself in the long run... it smarts a little though to have to go back to menu planning, but prices here have gone crazy lately. Even basic staples like potatoes have risen in price by at least 20da where I live.. there is no time now to be complacent. The price hikes took me by surprise last month... usually after the two eids are out of the way and people have done with celebrating muloud we enjoy a bit of respite. Prices generally start to slacken a little and things become a little more affordable.This hasn't happened yet... at least not in Algiers. 

Which is why I'm not taking any chance this month insha'allah 

I thought I'd try blogging everyday for March... I had attempted it in December but other things were clearly planned for us that were out of our control. To be honest I think it's to keep me on the straight and narrow as much as anything else. I have a tendency to veer away from the path of good sense and go rogue sometimes and it ultimately ends in chaos and me annoying the heck out of myself for being thoughtless and random. 

So there you are, I'm battle ready and willing to document my foray into the world of the organised and focused. It might not be pretty!

back to super-frugal

Running a household budget is pants!
Plain and simple it's a pain in the neck from start to finish and almost anything can throw it off track.
Can you tell I overspent? Well actually it's not so much a case of over spending, it's doing daily battle with see-sawing prices that seem to have gone mad this month.
Of course the weather has alot to do with that.. we've had so much rain that it's affected our local market, and pushed the price of veggies up to a miserable level.
A couple of months of ill heath and eating out of my stockpile also didn't help matters... and I'm trying to build it up from scratch again, mainly because it helps to free up some cash in the long run and also because it's just so much easier to have things on hand.

So I'm back in super-frugal mode, and am cooking the dishes that I always fall back on when I need something tasty  but kind on the pocket...

The quantities are all relative to how much you feel like cooking, but it's more or less equal amounts of onion; tomato and green peppers gentle sautéed with as much garlic as you can comfortably handle. I also add some paprika for colour and season generously with salt ans coarse black pepper. Once it's looking relaxed and mellowed out break some eggs into the pan and put a lid on top so that they poach in the liquid. Only poach them till just cooked though, what your looking for is a yolk that will ooze out into your saucy goodness when broken. We eat this as is, with crusty bread from a communal plate, even better cook it in something you can take straight from stovetop to table. Delicious...

:: TWO ::

You know it's so hard negotitating computer time when there are offspring lurking. I could swear they conspire to create diversions to make it easier for each other to whip the laptop away from me when I'm least suspecting it.

Yesterday I just gave up... there's no point fighting a losing battle is there?

We were out for most of the day anyway, and had a lovely time catching up with a special friend. Which of course means I didn't actually do any cooking.
I redeemed myself today.I have no pictures to prove it, which is a shame but I know you trust me, right?

Want a recipe anyway?
This is one of my favourite warm salads. I always have salad on the table. It's an easy and effective way to pad out a meal, is relatively inexpensive (depending of course on what you use!) and of course veggies are full of goodness. Ticks all those groovy boxes kids!

Warm Green Bean Salad


Boil some green beans until just tender. (I used about a quarter of a kilo)
Once they're cooked, finely chop a good handful of fresh parsley, and put it into a frying pan with a couple of generous slugs of good olive oil and saute gently without colouring the parsley.
Add some grated garlic (three for me) to the pan and saute for a further few minutes (without browning the garlic) before adding the beans and a little salt.
The beans will only need about five minutes to warm through and take on the flavours of the garlic and parsley.
Serve dressed with the oil.

The recipe was given to me by my husbands aunty. Green beans are relatively inexpensive most of the time here so it's a good tasty and economical side dish.
We had this tonight with a simple beetroot salad. And some oven roasted chicken with new potatoes.

Meat is still pretty expensive here at the moment, so a good option is chicken. It's still not cheap for the average Algerian pocket, but still alot more affordable than red meat.
I try to be as thrifty with a chicken as I can. We certainly wouldn't use a whole chicken in one sitting.

Today I threw the wings in the freezer, I'll save them up bit by bit till I have enough to make some hot wings.
The offal also went in the freezer. I use it up when I have enough to make a decent sized meal. Usually in a spiced sauce, but sometimes, if I have enough it gets roasted with turmeric, lime and corriander. I know for some, cicken offal might have a bit of yuck factor, but I really reccomend trying it.
The cat got the neck today, and the skin... although chicken necks can also be made into a really tasty dish aswell, so the cat doesn't always get the benefit of my generosity.
I saved most of the breast for tomorrows lunch which left me with  the drumsticks, thighs, back and a small bit of breast.

Baked Chicken

Put your cicken, cut into pices into an ovenproof dish along with one lime cut into quarters, a whole head of garlic (split into cloves but not peeled) and sprinkle over, a good heaped teaspoon of cumin, and also turmeric, some salt and freshly chopped corriander. A few good slugs of olive oil are all you need now before mixing everything into the chicken with your hands. I often add potatoes at this stage and roast them along with the chicken in the pan.
It's good to leave it for as long as you can before cooking, but I've also been in a rush and cooked it right away, and it's still delicious.

Cook until the chicken is just cooked through, and the potatoes are tender. You can cover with foil, it'll help create a wonderfully rich gravy.

Serve with a fresh handful of corriander leaves thrown over if you like.

For me the most delicious parts of this dish are the lime, which becomes so lush and soft that you can eat the whole thing, skin and all. And the garlic cloves  which wil have burst out of their skins, and which taste so mellow it's imossible to resist them. We fight for the garlic cloves in my house.. and I regularly use two bulbs to account for the theivery that goes on under my nose at the table!

And that's me for the day. I'm tired and have to be up with the larks. The boys have lessons in the masjid at subh, and it takes forever to get a boy out of bed even at a reasonable hour, never mind at 6am!
It's the start of a new school week and we had some lovely brothers come over this evening to fix our dreadful terrace so that it won't leak anymore insha'allah.
After hardship does indeed come ease, May Allah ta'ala bless each one of you who made dua for us. Ameen

xxx

:: ONE ::

I had already written this post and was about a sentence and a click away from posting. Then my bubba boy disconected me from the mains.... lovely boy with some seriously male traits way too early


I'll start this time with the WIPS... yarn will make me feel good

it's mostly utility makes at this time of year... apart from my shonky stitchery.

Do  you have something you're bad at but love doing anyway?
I couldn't handsew a straight, even stitch to save my life, but it calms my jagged nerves. 

 

I don't mind that its not the tidiest stiching in the world. It's therapeutic. I need it!

 

The poncho is for DD7. An unheated schoolroom is a grim place to be, and as the children have to wear pink aprons over their everyday clothes for school, our personal compromise is to throw on a poncho.

I'm considering ripping this back and doing a partial restart. I have a pattern forming in my head... and you know what? I think a seven year old has the right to feel special in what they're wearing, and it's just too plain as it is. It's slightly too pink for my liking too but there's nothing I can do about that. 

 

The blanket belongs too DD13. He's a chelsea supporter and I'm a weak willed mother eager to please.

Works for him, doesn't always work for me.

And my happy blanket, which only grows as fast as scrap accmulation allows. I love scrap blankets. they remind me of my mother who always had one growing in her crochet bag. We had them draped over all our beds and furniture to hide the wear and tear long before the days when shabby became chic.

We had a gentle start to the day this morning. Chocolate, tea, the decision to read Jane Austen together and not alot else. I'm declaring December a "be good to ME" month. I'm going to nuture my needs this month, which means nourishing my mind, body and soul insha'allah. It's long overdue.
I'm going to be gentle on myself (and hopefully others) and do things that either uplift my soul, bring me closer to Allah, educate my mind, or nourish my body. It felt good to say those things to myself this morning and I think we need to give ourselves permission to honour our ourselves and our wellbeing.


On the housekeeping front, well... it's day one of a new budget. I've already mentioned in another post that I used to menu plan a week or sometimes a month ahead but found it didn't really suit either the needs of my family or the frequent culinary curve balls my dh likes to throw my way. These days I tend to do a stock up of basic staples and work with whatever I have to hand or with whats leftover. 


I did a big veggie shop yesterday. I already have rice stored and some pulses leftover from a big batch buy I did the month before last. I stocked up on 2ltr of oil and a tray of 30 eggs and I have cheese dh brough back from the UK stored in the freezer. We're meat feee till Saturday, and I'll be using what I have to hand or leftover, menu planning daily (we're in Algeria, which means two cooked meals and an afternoon tea!).


I normally take time over breakfast to prepare my meal plan. Having a quiet think at the start of the day about what I want to make. It works for me like this in a way that advance menu planning never did.

I'll share my menu's and recipes from tomorrow insha'allah.

And my gift to myself today? I'm going to have some quiet time. A space in the day to reflect, and believe me...in a house this big and chaotic it will be no easy thing to achieve.

it took a while...

two days solid in fact. Negotiating my shonky connection to make a few changes around here was a true test of my sanity, but I did it and the place looks a bit brighter don't you think?

today, ALL of my schooly children have a full day of learning... well, I say learning which strictly speaking isn't what goes on in the Algerian school system but never mind. We've had two weeks of exams with some of the children only having school in the morning and some in the afternoon. I can't believe I home-schooled them all for so long without going completely and uttterly demented. They would have tested the patience of the most pious, and I'm not kidding you. Algerian children are wild. And my children are becoming seriously Algerian

I have nothing much planned today, beyond some mild menu planning....a tight-ish month lies ahead. Our shop has been closed for a month (most butchers close for at least that long after Eid) so I'm going right back to basics with my budget and cooking insha'allah.

I'm thinking of doing a post a day for December.... a budget and menu plan special.
It might keep me on track.. it could drive me madder, quicker!
Who knows?

Other than that, there's nothing much doing except some crochet catch up. DD7 needs to have the poncho I started sometime before the cold weather ends so I need to crack on with it insha'allah.

I have things to share later, so I might yet be back at the other end of this fine and sunny Algiers day....
yeah sunny!  We're almost dried out now mash'allah. Two rooms have stopped leaking and are now forming some decorative water bubbles that look like they want to burst.
Our store room is the one room that refuses to stop soaking up all available water and raining indoors. Which is a problem as fas as food storage goes, but there's nowt to be done if the room is insisting on being a sponge.

Me, I'm just getting on with it. Homesickness is behind me. Seven months of careful saving and a moderate amount of planning are ahead of me. There will be frustrations, and no doubt more bouts of longing for "home" but that's life, innit!

That was some week!

But we got to the other side of it. Not completely unscathed, but a few battlescars add to the character in my opinion. We've been easy on ourselves over the past few days. Been to see a good friend, had a couple of walks out to the market and local shops, done plenty of tea drinking and soul searching. And a fair amount of gentle crafting to stop the brain from oozing out of the skull.

In short we have attempted nothing we had any chance of failing at this week. We all needed gentle passtimes to serve as a balm. & dh went away for a couple of days which meant even more lounging about being restful so all in all, I do feel alot better. Not 100%, not by a long shot. But better.

 

We've been discussing moving on from this rented accomodation to another. we have seven months left on our lease.  And it can be hellish finding decent rentals here. We don't want to stay in ths house for a third year if we can help it. My landlady and her daughters are wonderfully warm and genuinely caring people. But the house has been a bit of a disaster. Alot of Algerian houses are unfortunately. And I'm ready for pastures new to be honest. 

It might not be far, having said that... it could be. It might just even be a new house in the same-ish area. But a change is as good as a rest right?

In the meantime, well dh has phoned and said he's on his way home. Children have gone off to tutors and will be home at 11-ish. It's Friday, so I need to get a crack on with lunch, which on a Friday should be cous-cous but I like to go against the grain whenever I can so that's NOT what we'll be having here.

Friday lunchtime in Algieria is about equal to a Sunday afternoon dinner in the UK.  It's a day when alot of families make the effort to get together. Some people will eat early beofr going to Jumuah, but with my men leaving the house at 12.30-ish and my propensity to lose all track of time, that's  never likely to happen in my home. Instead I fall into the second camp, which means Lunch at 2.30pm, followed by a siesta.

One of my favourite meals (and I make the exception of serving meat on a Friday lunchtime) is a chicken djouez (stovetop casserole) and croquettes. 

I always serve my croquettes Algerian style, in my casserole. but these would be just as nice with a salad, or with a cut of meat and some veggies. Today I'll tell you how to do the croquettes, and then when my dh finally opens up shop again and we have access to chicken once more, we'll do the whole thing, djouez and all insha'allah.

Right, so take a quantity of nice floury potatoes, how ever much you think you'll be able to eat! You'll be mashing them once they're cooked so boil till nice and tender.

Mash them, or put them through a food mill while still warm.To the mashed potato you'll want to add some salt, and I use some stoned cut olives mixed into my mash. (My neighbour uses parsley and tuna which is also nice). Mix in the olives and then roll the mash into golf ball sized balls.

 Make an Indent with your  thumb and put a small nugget of cheese inside the hole before closing it up and re-rolling. The cheese we use is La Vache qui Rit ( basically laughing cow) because apart from President, Camembert and Edam it's what Algeria has. But you could go wild and use something else more to your tatse.

What you need now are dishes of flour, eggs and breadcrumbs. Just enough for the amount of croquettes you've made.

Dip each croquette into the flour, then the eggs and the breadcrumbs before shallow frying the croquettes untill crisp and golden. Ideally I would have loved to show you some finished, but they don't last long enough on the plate for me to click the capture button.

These keep well in the fridge, and would probably freeze well too.
They're easy on the purse too which is always a bonus in my book.

 

And now off to tackle the ever present chores and cooking. Athough, if I might get back later to show you some wips, if I can get hold of the dh's phone for long enought to take any decent pics.

Today needs to be a doing day.
Unfortunately doing is not my strong point!
I am a creature built for comfort, and I get distracted, EASILY!.

Today I need to find some spare tarpaulin to fashion a makeshift pane for my glassless window. It was cold last night, and not alot warmer this morning. I could manage for a while longer but because my bubby boy sleeps with us in the room it needs to be tad warmer. His pathalogical aversion to any kind of bedcover isn't showing any sign of abating so I'll have to go another route!

I also need to brave the fridge today, it needs cleaning and looting for semi-useful grub to cook ahead of my new month of housekeeping. My children tend to graze from the fridge without mercy or inteligence, consuming all things useful and leaving me with oddments that are difficult to find any sensible use for.

The sewing machine needs some loving attention today, my poor dd11 needs some new clothes and the only way that's going to happen is if I actually make them. I hate sewing and I'm not sure why. I'm fairly competent, can work without a pattern, and as long as there are no zippers in sight my finished garments are fairly decent. My 7 year old is wearing dresses my 19 year old was wearing at her age, so they even last longer than shop bought. I really can't fathom my aversion to it. Beats me completely, so I'm just going to knuckle down and get on with it without thinking too much.
I hope I have some kind of camera soon to take WIP pics with...
  I have to put some thought into where November's allowance needs to be spent most. I had a poorly month this month. Unexpected expenses do not make for a happy healthy purse. And I have three people in line for the dentist, two kids waiting for new school bags, and some winter wooly making that needs to be financed from somewhere because it's just so much more cost effective than buying ready made. I have two days left and yet again there has been more month than money, so at some point todatay insha'allah I will be sitting myself down with a pot of tea and my notebook and trying to make sense of my finances.

We've just about decided what cakes to make for Eid, and what bits of sheep we'd like to keep.  And it looks like we might have a new sheep taking residence upstairs on the terrace til summer, which will please bubby boy!

The rain is still falling in fits and starts, our store-room ceiling which is directly under the untiled and fairly water-logged terrace has started to bubble... it wont be long before the rain finds it's way in. I may have to find a new home for my dry goods. And if our sheep is indeed coming home we'll have to spruce up his living space, and rescue the rug thats been up there for the best part of the year, which will go to the Lavage (car wash) for a steam clean some time this week insha'allah

And just to mix things up a bit, sons 14 & 13 have just arrived back home in the rain. Sport was cancelled so no school till 1:30pm. The joys of motherhood in Algeria!

Love and peace people
xxx

We're  finally waving a fond farewell to the heat, here in Algeria. It's been a long hot summer with little  to cool us down, and so the change in temperature is more than welcome, and so is the rain
The children however will be sad to see the end of their leisurely summer days. During the holidays and even after school, children (mine included) tend to camp out on my doorstep, playing, chatting, eating...you name it it all takes place out there.

We're gearing up for winter in my house, looking forward to the seasons vegetables and fruit, trying to plan some winter crafting, and generally loking forward to cosying up a bit insha'allah.

And what better way to cosy up, than with a nice hot cup of something and a cookie....
I know I've been promising recipes for a while, and it's been hard to find a slot in my day to blog with a clear mind and without feeling as if I should be doing something more important. But this small patch of time, after they've all left for school and before the day's chores begin seems to be just right.

Unfortunately for us, this morning is all about waiting to see if the children get sent back home from school.

We are being hit with the threat  of a fresh wave of school strikes, my chidren came back home on Thursday evening proclaiming La Grève! with more relish that I care to admit... they've only had three weeks back!

So I'm off to have some tea before the innevitable happens, and peace is shattered for the day...

Okay I said cookies right?

 

 Peanut Cookies

300g flour

100g ground peanuts

200g soft butter

200g icing sugar

pinch of salt

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2tsp vanilla

Place all of the ingredients into a large bowl.

Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolks.

Mix well to form a soft dough.

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thickness.

You can cut thoe dough with cookie cutters or into fingers, whichever is your preference.

If you're in frugal mode, use the leftover egg white to lightly brush over the cookies before baking, adding a sprinkling of ground peanuts before putting them in the oven on a moderate heat for about 15 minutes.

My egg whites got thrown in the freezer, and we went for the "dredged with icing sugar" look, but have fun dressing these up in whatever way takes your fancy. I did a batch of  these dipped in chocolate and they were fab!

Your cookies should be lightly golden coloured on the bottom and pale on top when done.

Nothing much left to do after that than make yourself something nice to drink and settle back and enjoy the fruits of.

 your labour.

Eid and beyond...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food, dressmaking and cakes seem to have been at the forefront of everything we've done or thought about doing for the past month and a bit.

I don't usually enjoy sewing these days, most of my sewing is functional and not too inspiring, but I enjoyed making these masha'allah and the girls love wearing them too which always helps to boost the seamstresses ego.

We're concentrating now on getting the children ready for the start of a new school semester on Sunday. And praying that dh's long journey to the UK is a safe and fruitful one insha'allah. Our pace of life (and eating habits) change when he's not here and we consoled ourselves with his going away with some good old fashioned bangers and mash!

Tomorrow we're off on an early morning jaunt to the market to stock up on school supplies, and then home to bake for some guests we're hopefully having in the evening. We have days to fill.

xxx

to plan or not to plan.....

I should start by admitting that planning is not an innate part of my character.
I am, without a shadow of a doubt the most slapdash person I know, which means I have to fight myself every single step of the way.

Menu planning for my family has always been one of my best defences against myself and in the past really kept me on an even keel and helped balance my spending.


After my post on why menu planning doesn't work for me here in DZ, I've forced myself to take a closer look at why. And my most consistant answer has been me!

So for September I'm back on the menu planning bandwagon insha'allah. I used to plan a whole month at a time (which is no doubt another reason I was having a hard time sticking to it!), but think, I'll just stick to a weekly menu for now. I'll post up my menu plan at the start of each week... which for me is Sunday. And of course share any recipes with you, because I'm nice like that.

I would have started this week, but we still have five or six days of fasting left and I'd hate to bore you with the monotony of an Algerian iftar... which basically consists of not much else other than Shorba and bourek for 30 days... well alright that's a slight exaggeration I know but it's what it feels like.

In the meantime, lets have that chat about meal planning.
Here, as with the budgeting it's bestr to work with whatever is easiest for you.

Consider the lifestyle of your family when you work your menu. Do you have to provide packed lunches?
 Do you have children home from school at lunch time? Will you be eating out or having friends over for a meal?


Once you've considered your needs you can start filling up your menu. Which can be as low tech as scrawling it out on paper..or if you're geeky like me in table format on a word doc...
And again, if it's easier for you to plan a whole month... do that. If you'd prefer to only plan a week at a time then go ahead and do that. I've also done a two week menu and rotated weeks one and two.
The key is to find what works for you and, as with budgeting it might take a while to find a method that suits you and works well.

When I plan my meals I have a few basic rules that I try my best to stick to.  I feed eight peole twice each day and ten every day for dinner, so I need a fair idea of what I'm going to feed everyone.
These days I've been more likely to scootch around the kitchen seeing what I have to hand already before planning whay my days menu will be.

We don't have convenience food here, everything is made from scratch everyday, which amounts to a fairly sizeable workload and a truckload of food!
 Sometimes dh will throw a curve ball and ask for extra plate or two to send out to somone needy, which means a bit of extra portion shuffling...but we get there masha'allah.

As far as shopping is concerned I buy enough for the week, and if I'm in Super frugalista Queen of the penny pinchers mode, I can sometimes manage to eke out a weeks worth of groceries into a second week with some creative cooking.

My menu has four columns...Living in Algeria and having children who come home from school at lunchtime means bowing to schedules and customs. So my menu is broken up into four sections... breakfast, lunch afternoon tea and supper.

I try not to repeat a meal during the course of a week, with the exception of breakfast.
I try to keep it as balanced as possible, but this is Algeria and I can't even begin to describe what everyone feels like at the tail end of a veg season. There is only so much you can do with an aubergine or broad bean!

Lunches are always vegetarian.
Breakfasts need to be quick during the week so we pre-bake as much as we can. A couple of times a week we do a big bake and freeze what we can (with limited freezer space) and pull out what we need when it's needed.  In winer our staple breakfast along with anything baked is semolina (in place of my beloved porridge which we can't readily get here).

Afternoon teas I try to keep savoury during the week, things like peanut butter sandwhiches, bread and cheese or toast. Sweet teas are at the weekend, or if we have afterschool guests.
Afternoon tea might seem like a bit of an old fashioned extravagance for someone on a budget, but it's an important meal for the children, who have after school comittments and need something to tide them over till supper time. As long as it's all accounted for it's completely do-able.

I try to keep meals as simple as possible, and I'm not above a bit of creative recycling either.

Dinner is for carnivores.. dh is home by then and it's always something meaty with a veggie side for those who don't like to eat much meat. And I try to keep it frugal by asking dh for cheaper cuts of meat and then stretching it as far as I can.

I also use whatever freezer space I have to store leftovers which then get pulled out in random acts of desperation when I need something extra on the table or when stores are running a bit low. Either way leftovers have been a lifesaver on more than one occasion.

If you're a patient child friendly kind of parent you could involve the children in your menu planning or even the spousey type person in your life.

Do what comes easiest for you and whatever you have the most time for.
Budgeting and menu planning are never the same for everyone and you have to work with whatever feels right for you. Having said that I still scour the internet for ways I could improve and do it better. It's a never ending learning curve.

You can find loads of funky resources online to help you menu plan... you can even find other people's ready made, tried and tested, eaten and digested menus to simple shop and cook for.

And with that I'm off to plan my eid cake making insha'allah. if you've got anymore questions about budgeting or menu planning or even ideas for topics you'd like to see me cover, let me know.

xxx

Living well on less...

After my last post I was asked to share my thoughts on budgeting and meal planning..
I'm not an expert and I make mistakes...sometimes big ones!
My budget isn't foolproof, but if I stick to some basic principles I can keep my family well fed and happy without having to worry too much.

So let me get one thing straight before we start. Budgeting and living a life even remotely bordering on frugality
doesn't automatically mean you're going to have to live a life of dismal deprivation, eating the boxes other peoples food came in and going completely freegan in a last ditch attempt to keep your head above water on the money front.

Keeping within your budget and being frugal means you're going to be living more conciously... this is a good thing. It means you're thinking about the wider picture and keeping within budget means you're more likely to be able to eat as well at the end of the month as you did at the beginning, which is never bad, especially when you have children.... things can get ugly when children are hungry!

I've  always tried to live a conciously frugal lifestyle, but in the UK I didn't run my budget from my own purse. I wrote a bi-monthly list of everything we needed and then worked with whatever I had to hand. I had a moderate stockpile and things on the grocery front at least, were pretty peachy.

My journey into the word of proper grown up budgeting was born out of neccessity after we made the move to Algeria in the spring of 2008. We had no choice but to tighten our belts and take a cold hard look at our finances. We had no desire to end up back in the UK, but staying in Algeria meant being financially stable, and at the time we were very far from that.

Now for the lovely sister that asked, I can give you the lowdown on my budget but remember its all relative. What works for my family won't work for anyone else. However I'm all for taking the gist of an idea and moulding it to shape my own needs...alot of my budgeting strategy has been picked up along the way after seeing what worked for other people and then adapting it to fit my own familiy's needs

My first top tip is that you make sure that you and spousey are on the same page. Which means you need to sit down together and take an honest look at your finances and what you can and can't do with them. You won't be able to work magic but you can draw up some kind of a plan to make it easier to spend your money wisely, reduce debts and stay afloat.

This is the boring grown up bit... list all your expenses..'  ALL of them!
Everything from the utility bills to the children's pocket money. Include every single expense you can think of. And then start the weeding out process. Some of what's on your list will be an immovabe part of your monthly budget, but take a good look at everything and see if there are things you can reduce spending on or even stop spending on completely.

What you're attempting to do is live within a financial framework, which can be quite daunting at first..especially if like me, you have an aversion bordering on insane to anything remotely grown up and responsible. Which is a somewhat shocking admission from a mother with seven children, but there you are.

To give you some idea of how a budget can work I'll give you a quick glimpse at mine insha'allah

My "payday" is the first of every month. Although sometimes life conspires to make me go ever so slighty over budget and then I may have to start my new month a few days earlier.

We put aside each month what we think we might need to cover utility bills, tutors fees, medical bills, etc. More often than not we're pleasanly surprised to have money leftover, which then gets carried forward to next month.  My household allowance then covers everything else, groceries, school equipment, drinking water, internet. basically everything household including clothing.

The first thing I do when I start my new month is to pay for my next months worth of internet. It's a bit pricey at 2500da a month, but I'm in Africa..I need the contact with the outside world and quite frankly the children need me sane!

Next comes water, my other big budget buster. It's not that I don't trust the tap water here... ah heckers who am I kidding.. I don't trust the tap water here and if it's a choice between the raging runs and putting my hand in my pocket for bottled water, then guess what? I bulk buy 10-15 cases in the winter, more in the summer of course..and have it delivered, which mean I score low on being eco friendly on the transport & packaging. But sometimes a compromise, no matter how ugly it is  has to be made somewhere.

I also buy my milk in bulk at the start of the month, one day I hope I live somewhere where I can easily get hold of fresh unpasturied mik on a daily basis... in the meantime it's Candia.

After that the only other bulk buy I do is flour and semolina. I buy a 25kg sack of flour for 700da on a good day..and seeing as a 1kg bag of flour currently retails at 55da where I live it's a saving audacious enough to blow your socks off.

Once that's taken care of I do the veggies. I write up a list based on what I know is in season and send my boys off to my regular veggie man.. who will quite often let me have any poorer quality veg he has on my list for free. My veg will normally cost me anything between 1500 - 1700da a week..sometimes I have enough to carry me through to the following week although I constantly have to top on potatoes...but I blame that on Irish genes.

As far as fruit is concerned I'm a total opportunist and willl buy whatever I can whenever it's cheap enough.
Dried goods I buy as I need them. If I can sort my storage issues I'd be happy for this to change but at the moment I can't bear to think of laying out money for dried goods only to have them get infested with moths and other wildlife and being useless.

Eggs are bought by the tray at the start of each week for roughly 300da..and depending on how much baking we do wil normally last us a week perhaps less.

Twice a month I buy about 250da worth of peanuts and make peanut butter...  I've also just started making my own applesauce and easy pickles.

Meat, I score lucky on, dh is a butcher, so meat these days comes to me for free. When I was having to buy meat out of my budget we hardly ate any meat at all , and ALWAYS the cheaper cuts... It's amazing how tasty turkey neck is!

Oil I buy in 5ltr bottles, though if it's not Ramadhan I try not to use too much and normally a 5ltr bottle if kept out of the hands of those who cook with gay abandon will last me the whole month.
I also buy a large tub of ghee at the start of the month and a couple of large bottls of olive oil.

Everything else I buy (apart from rice and pasta) is by mizan (weight) which means I can buy as much or as little as I need or my purse can cope with.

Anything else like clothes, unless it's an emergency buy has to be saved for...which is no bad thing, certainly in terms of teaching you to seperate your wants from your needs. 

Of course the biggest hurdle you may have in your new endeavour to save money and stick to a budget are teenagers! If you have one at home it's a good idea to bring them on board and explain to them why you're jumping the good ship spontanious and suddenly changing tactics... after all your decision to spend less or at least spend more wisely will no doubt have a knock on effect on the teens lifestyle somewhere.

Once you've decided to keep a budget, try and keep track of where your money is really being spent. For the first few months of my budgeting life I kept a tally of everything I bought during each budget month...and I mean everything. It was soon easy to see where my money was going and to spot any wastage. I was then able to weed out any budget busters and save some money.

At the end of your month it's always useful to review your spending. Are there things you need to change or things you could have done better?
It might take a while for you to get used to budgeting and fine tuning it the needs of your family. Mine is constantly evolving to take into account the needs of my children or price hikes. I've got used to it. But even I have to go back to the drawing board occassionlly and take a really good look at how I'm spending my cash.

My goal for September is to start having some no-spend days. it's been on my list of goals for ages and it's complete laziness tempered with a dash of disorganisation that's stopped me till now. But I'm hoping it will change next month.

In my next post I'll give you the lowdown on menu planning insha'allah. And saving time and money in the kitchen.

·         

Why menu planning doesn't work......

 at least not for me in Algeria at any rate!

I was once a huge advocate of menu planning, in the UK and here too when I first started running my DZ home.

It took me a long while to admit that planning menus in a country where I have next to no freezer space, a moderately unreliable electricity supply, and prices that rise and fall like nobodies business just wasn't working.

Menu planning used to make my life easier, when I was able to buy my groceries bulk,

I knew what I was cooking and when, and it took the hassle out of having to think about what I was going to feed everyone.

Here in Algeria, it's a whole different ball game.

I no longer bulk buy my dried goods because they become so  easily infiltrated by beasties...

I do have an extra room in my house to use for storage but it's humid most of the time and not ideal for storing things that would be affected by it.

These days the only things I buy in bulk are water and milk, flour and semolina.

The rest is bought as is needed.

 

 Menu  planning also doesn't take account of my leftovers, and whatever I find in the market that's too much of a bargain to pass up. 

I shop differently these days and it's had a knock on effect, I used to be able to plan a month in advance..now I have to think on my feet.

And lets face facts.. we're in North Africa.... food prices are erratic at best and when I plan a menu I look for things to cook.

I'm an avid reader of cooking books and blogs, and I'm always easily seduced by a new recipe.

which of course takes it's toll on my budget!

So, I have been dragged kicking and screaming to the conclusion that menu planning is no longer for me,

for the past three months I've still written out my menu, but have barely followed it.

We eat well, I cook healthy, nutritious meals and masha'allah my kids can pack food away like you wouldn't believe!

I've learnt to be more flexible, I've asked questions of the Algerian women around me, I seek out what works from people who have been running homes here far longer than I have. 

I sometimes miss the ease with which I ran my home and fed my family in the UK..

but would I swap it for what I have now?

I dont thnk so.. I think we can cope without a menu plan.

But what do you do? 

Are you a menu planner... if you're living in Algeria do you plan your meals?

Have you adapted your cooking to suit your life in here.

With  a large brood to feed it's important to be able to put down a meal that's filling nutritious and yet frugal.

If a recipe manages to tick all those boxes then I know I'm on to a winner.

I still normally have to double or sometimes even have to treble a recipe to feed 10 hungry mouths

but I'm so used to it now that on the rare occasion that I have to cook for less I still end up cooking a truckload.

Living a frugal lifestyle means of course that everything we cook is made from scratch..which can admittedly be exhaustingly time consuming, especially living in Algeria where meals happen four times a day, by the clock, and yes afternoon coffee is an obligation dahlink, not a voluntary act of kindness for an impromtu guest.

I sometimes hanker after the days in the UK when feeding my family didn't seem quite so labour intensive as it does now... I often feel like running screaming from the kitchen at mealtimes. 

There is however no alternative.

The family has to be fed, and if I have any hope of coming in under budget at the end of a housekeeping month , then care and dilligence in the kitchen has to be a priority.

Food prices are not always stable in Algeria, and what is affordabe this week may very well be unaffordable next. 

It's just part and parcel of life here, and you learn to roll with the punches your purse takes.

Of course the payoff is seeing my children, and Husband happy with what's put in front of them..even if it is wolfed down without touching the sides.

the reality...

of trying to feed a family in a third world country on a frugal budget means shopping carefully, cooking from scratch and taking good advantage of what the market has to offer when prices are relatively low.

We're reaping the rewards of good weather with an abundance of summer fruits.

Apricots, nectarines, Strawberries and peaches are all affordable enough at the moment for most people to be able to indulge in at least some...

The trick here is to wait it out a bit and resist the temptation to buy fruits when they first make their way into the market.  The price of fruit at the end of May and beginning of June was so high in my area that it meant fruit was beyond alot of pockets. 

However as we've moved into summer, prices have come down and people are busy buying fruits not only to enjoy now but  also for preserving  (mostly as Jam) for later on in the year.

Vegetables too will be preserved before ramadhan comes in, to try and avoid as many of the price increases as possible.

It becomes essential for people to stock up on what they use most before the innevitable happens and the prices are hiked up enough to break even the hardiest budget.

We're mostly enjoying our fruits as they come, chilled a little in the fridge but eaten fresh and healthily... sometimes though when the craving calls for it...  a summer crumble hits the spot nicely.

 

For me the math is simple..it's just as much fruit as you want in an oven dish big enough, perhaps with a little sugar tossed in if the fruit is too tart, perhaps also some sultanas and chopped nuts...though not always... and then crumble topping and for me,  it's a no nonsense half fat to flour combo with a fistful of sugar thrown in for good measure. I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to crumble, the more freeform and rustic the better, It's not meant to look pretty but to soothe the soul and comfort...

and on a good day I would have been able to upload the photo of peach crumble that goes with all this waffle, unfortunately my connection isn't playing ball and obviously has me on a one picture per post quota!

So you'll just have to go out and make one of your own to drool over... we had ours with ice-cream....

xxx