Armed and Fabulous! Jasmine Lux Bags are now available in Kuwait

 

 

 

Don’t miss out!

Armed and Fabulous! Jasmine Lux, the trendiest and most sought after handbags are here in Kuwait. Bold, daring, stylish and unique, Moroccan designer Nour Atassi has pushed the boundaries of fashion by combining classic designs with edgy details.

Gallery La Blanche

Today and Tomorrow

10:30 – 1:00

5:30 – 9:00

Mishref Block 4 Street 2 House 6

 

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I’m going to get either the blue or orange metallica tomorrow and try out the mini black metallica :) ooh and did you see the cute clutch grip? thought they were rings! I want one as well ;)

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Basma.

 

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Candied orange peel حلوى قشور البرتقال

 

 

I had 2 oranges for breakfast yesterday and instead of eating them, I took my zester/peeler and stripped the two oranges from their skin and made this delicious treat.

امس ريوقي كان برتقالتين. و بدال لا اكلهم طلعت مبشارتي و قشرت البرتقال كله و سويت منه هالحلو :)

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الصراحة طعمة واايد حلو بس خذا مني وقت وايد حول ٨ ساعات! بما اني عرفت الطريقة ماله داعي اعيدها. واايد اسرع اذا شريتهم زاهبين من غالير اللي بمجمع الافنيوز. بس طعم الفرش احلى

 

It tastes great but it’s time consuming. It took me 8 hours to finish! Now that I know that I can in fact make candied orange peel, I’ll get mine from galler – the avenues mall. Takes less time ;p but i gotta admit. Fresh candied peel tastes way better :)

 

Here’s how you do it:

  1. peel some oranges. Make sure the cuts are of the same length (as much as you can)
  2. place the peel in cold water in a pot and bring it to a boil, once it starts boiling, count 1-2 minutes then strain them. Repeat the process 3 times, then 3 more times, each time put them for 3 minutes. This will remove any unpleasant bitterness from the peel
  3. place the peel in a wrack and let them dry. Meanwhile, boil 1 1/4 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water together, along with a pinch of saffron. Once the peels have dried a bit, place them in the syrup and let them boil for about 40 minutes. Remove them and let them dry again in a wrack.
  4. have a plate of caster sugar ready, and cover the peel with the sugar and place them on wax paper and wait till they are no longer sticky.
  5. melt some semi sweet choco chips over a water bath and dip half of each peel in chocolate and let it dry over wax paper.

 

That’s it! Make sure you allow enough time for them to dry after each step.

Don’t throw away the syrup. It tastes soo gooooood. You can drizzle it over cakes :)

 

الطريقة:

  1.  اول شي قصصوا قشور البرتقال باستخدام اللي يقشر البرتقال تلقونه بهون سليكشن بالراية فوق او استخدموا سكين بس تاكدوا ان القشور نفس الحجم.
  2. حطوا القشور بجدر و وياه ماي بارد و خلوا لين يغلي و بعدين نطروا دقيقتين و صفوه من الماي و عيدوا الطريقة مرتين و بعدين ٣ مرات كل مرة خلوا الماي ٥ دقايق اول اكثر بشوي. هالطريقة تشيل مرورة القشور
  3. خلوا القشور يا داخل مشهالة عشان يزل نايه او فردوه على رف الحديد ما اعرف اسمه بالعربي (موجود بالصورة) على ما تنشف القشور اغلوا كوب و ربع سكر مع كول ماي و شوي زعفران و اول ما القشور تنشف قطوهم بالشيرة و خلوهم هلى نار هادية لمدة ٤٠ دقيقة او لي لمى يصيرون شفافين و فردوهم على الرف الحديد عشان ينشف
  4.  اول ما ينشف، غطوا القشور بسكر بودر و خلوه على ورق شمع لي لمى يصير مو دبق.
  5. ذوبوا كاكاو شوكليت شيبس بحمام ماي و غطوا نص القشر بالكاكاو و خلوه ينشف على روق شمع.

 

و بالعافية :) تاكدوا ان تعطون كل نقطة وقت كافي عشان يجف القشر بين مرحلة و مرحلة

لا تقطون القطر طعمه عجيب! تقدرون تصبونه فوق اي كيكة اسفنجية :)

 

 

Bon appetit!
Basma :)

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Because I’m awesome like that :p

I made teeny tiny poached quail eggs today. One of my readers suggested that I make bite size eggs benedict and i think i’ll definitely try that this week when i’m allowed to have carbs :)

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Just look at them! Aren’t they just adorable?

I had 7 of them; 98-100 calories.

I used a technique i saw yesterday at the food network channel. Instead of dropping the eggs in the simmering water + vinegar, put it in a soup ladel and gently lower it in the water.

I won’t translate this post because i have absolutely no idea how to translate poached eggs :)

Enjoy!
Basma :)

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Coming Soon @Pick_Yo

Guess what’s the new flavor that Pick Yo is launching very soon? :D

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I’ll be revealing it tomorrow :)

Take a wild guess

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Spicy Edamame Sauce

 

 

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We have a movie night today and I made edamame with spicy sauce along with my couscous taboula and other dishes. Since everyone is asking me about it, i thought i’d post its recipe. It is not diet friendly at all :)

اليوم عندنا يمعة بنات بالبيت و سويت لهم اكثر من طبق منهم اديمامي مع صلصة المايونيز

First you need to take a short trip to Singarea, the korean grocery store to get the following ingredients:

1- Korean Mayonnaise
2- Their spice blend which consists of black and white sesame, dried orange peel, and cayenne pepper.

 

اول شي لازم تسوونه انكم تروحون سنغاريا و تشترون المايونيز مالهم مع خلطة فلفل يبيعونها فيها فلفل احمر و سمسم اسود و ابيض و قشور برتقال

 

Ingredients:

  1. 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
  2. 3/4 TBS chili (the korean spice blent) but if you’re using regular chili powder then use way less
  3. 5 drops of hot sauce
  4. 1 1/2 TBS soy sauce
  5. 1/2 TSP worcestershire sauce

 

Mix them all together then taste. If the taste is overwhelming, then add more mayo until it tastes the way you like :)

المقادير:

  1. نص كوب مايونيز
  2. ٣/٤ ملعقة كبيرة فلفل
  3. ٥ نقط شطة حارة
  4. ملعقة و نص كبيرة صلصلة صويا
  5. نص ملعقة صلصلة ووركشير
خلطوهم مع بعض و ذوقوهم. اذا حسيتوا ان الطعم قوي خففوه بالمايونيز

The secret is in the mayonnaise. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of going there, just use regular mayo and regular chili but use less chili. It won’t taste the same, but it will be close :)

 

السر بالمايونيز بس اذا مو متوفر استخدموا مايونيز عادي و فلفل بودر عادي بس مو كثر اللي كتبته. راح يصير طعمه مو نفسه بس قريب منه.

بالعافية :)

 

Bon Appetit!
Basma.

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Guess What I’m Cooking This week

These are the main components of four dishes i’m planning to cook/bake this week. Guess what the dishes are :)

اللي بالصورة هي مكونات اساسية لاربع اطباق راح اطبخهم هذا الاسبوع ان شاء الله. شنو تتوقعون هالاطباق الاربع؟ :)

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a clearer picture صورة اوضح

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Let me see your guesses :)

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13Cups Turns 2

 

 

 

It’s been 2 years and a day since the first post I’ve ever written at 13Cups. When I first started this blog, my goal was to have a pure cooking blog for 6 months, but plans have changed and all of a sudden, I’ve completed 2 years! Time flies!

 

Just wanted to say thank you for all the support I got from the day I launched this blog. I cannot believe the amount of visitors I’m getting everyday, even when I stopped posting regularly.

 

To make things more interesting, I’m adding two new categories:

  1. Health: To track the diet I’ve started on Feb, 2011.. everyone is asking me about it so there will be a post every other week to track progress and let you know couple of little secrets I discovered (dumb ones believe me)
  2. Beauty: Random posts here and there about products I’m obsessed about :) – I’m obsessed with beauty products so I’ll start writing about those as well :)

 

و الشي اليديد اللي راح ينضاف هو العربي. لاحظت ان اكثر اللي يدخلون الموقع يترجمونه بمواقع خارجية و الترجمة عادة ما تكون صحيحة فراح أضيف ترجمة :)

 

اليوم المدونة كملت سنتين و يوم. و بهذي المناسبة راح أضيف قسمين يدد. قسم للصحة و اللي راح اتكلم فيه عن رجيمي اللي بديته من شهر فبرابر 2011 و لي الحين و ثاني قسم يختص بمنتجات التجميل

 

 

 

Enjoy!

بسمة

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Shirataki Noodles : zero calorie, zero carbs, high in fiber!

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The last time I went to Singarea; the Korean grocery store, I got so many things that I didn’t get a chance to explore all of them. Today, I discovered that the noodle pack I have in the fridge is the zero calorie noodles that all the american health magazines are talking about. It basically has zero energy! And it’s packed with fiber!!!

Why didn’t I know about it sooner!

Anyways, I followed Fahad’s instructions in soaking the noodles in water before using them which eliminated any fishy flavor it has.

I tried one but didn’t like the texture a lot so i decided to roast them in a pan for a bit before tossing them in the vegetable stock which made a difference in the textures.

For the vegetable stock, i used all the vegetables i could find in the fridge along with 2 tsp of soy sauce, spices, seaweed and lemon juice.

I downed the whole thing in a sec :p

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where can you get them?
Singarea, the same korean place i talked about earlier this month

And now if you excuse me, i’m going to finish whatever is left from my bowl of noodles yum!

Basma.

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Coming Soon @ Pick Yo

Please give me a moment to breathe and come back from my dream land to tell you all about it. OMG

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@KhanfaroOsh_kw

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I burnt my hand the other day while baking cookies and the doctor told me that i should stay away from any source of heat including cooking which needless to say drove me nuts!

The sweet ladies from khanfarosh sent me a box of their sweets to keep my mind away from cooking which was very sweet of them :)

The box came with 2 different types covered in chocolate: basbosa and gers 3gaili. Both are nice but i loved the basbosa one a lot.

Here’s a piece of info I learned from dad:
Back in the old days, whenever a kuwaiti house makes sab elgafsha or any sweet fried dough and they run out of sugared syrup, they fry the dough and eat it as is, which is how khanfarosh was invented! Kinda smart don’t you think?

Thank you @KhanfaroOsh_kw for the lovely mouth watering surprise :)

Enjoy!
Basma.

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