Ramadan's Twilight

Seeds manifesting the cycle of life..

Another soul passed on the 23rd of Ramadan, this time the dear mother of a friend. I met this wonderful lady for the first and only time during a tahlil at her daughter's house a week before Ramadan. She was a gentle, smiling, laughing lady and had many stories to tell. Her positive vibe was infectious indeed and I left the house with a happy heart and a spring in my step. Little did I know that the next time I crossed the threshold of that house would be to attend a tahlil for her yesterday. May Allah accept her deeds, fill her grave with light and grant a place in Jannah with our Master, Rasul Allah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wa sallam.

Just before Ramadan, a friend of ours in his early thirties, passed away due to a sudden heart attack, leaving behind a wife and 4 young children. He was a young man with his future ahead of him, having just completed his studies abroad and had taken up a lecturing post. While I pray that Allah will lighten the burden of the family he left behind, I know that he is fortunate indeed to have forged many friendships with so many people, all of whom have nothing but good things to say about him. Fortunate indeed he is who has children to pray for him, a good wife to raise his children to remember him, and parents who are content and whom have forgiven him.

And yet there is also joy. A gardening friend had a baby recently, and another relative also welcomed a baby into this world on the night of the 27th of Ramadan. Alhamdulillah. May these children be the light of their parents' eyes, amiin!

And so does the cycle of life continue, even in our humble little garden, where plants are seeded, poke their heads out to bask in the sunlight, grow, bear fruit and pass on, leaving a legacy of seed to continue on the same path.

I did manage to muck about in the garden a bit before leaving to do errands. I moved some purple kohlrabi seedlings onto a bed, total of 8 little seedlings. By afternoon some of them looked a bit burnt by the sun, so I watered them and they seemed fine.

Purple Vienna Kohlrabi babies. About 2 weeks old? I tend to move my seedlings a bit late.

Then I uprooted the Clemson Spineless Okra from their sowing pot, and put them at the other end of the same bed:

2 of the 5 okra babies. I hope they are happy here,

Then I remembered I had 2 roselle seedlings, grown from seed originating from Pun Pun, a kind gift from doyouthinkitspossible:

Roselle seedling by the chain-link fence, flanked by some tiny neglected hedges.

I wonder if you can see the Red Romaine Lettuce seedlings in the picture below? This was the same pot that previously housed the Clemson Spineless Okra seedlings.

Grow well, baby lettuces!

I then left the home to do some errands, and managed to drop by a hardware store on my way back. I wanted green wire, but they didn't have any so I settled for these PVC chains instead as a support for my Purple King Climbing Bean plants:

Climb, O King, Climbst Thee upon these Pure Ivory Chains!
(I wonder if they are called Purple King because purple is the colour of royalty?)

After securing the chains for both of my beans, I had a quick look around my garden and noticed that my hybrid carrots had flowered. Whoopsy I didn't plan for this, but maybe the seeds (if I get any!) might be worth germinating as a long-term experiment. We'll see.

There were 2 flower heads from the same carrot. Maybe they bolted because of the unpredictable weather, blazing hot one moment and pouring rain the next.

And the first banana capsicum is out! :-)

So here are some greens I harvested for iftar the other day, a motley collection of rainbow chard, mustard greens and kailan with some basil thrown in for good measure. I didn't eat these, rather, I drank these as a juice.

I was in a hurry so I didn't pick much. Close to iftar time! I ended up with only 1/4 cup of juice in my first juicing attempt.

I thought I'd try giving this juicing thingy a go. I heard about the blades in blenders inactivating enzymes, so I got this little manual juicer baby which grinds and crushes instead of chops. There is definitely some work involved during grinding, but it works just fine for leafy greens, celery, peaches, ginger. But juicing beetroot has given me the workout my upper arms sorely (pun intended!) needed. Haha! Assembly/disassembly was straightforward. It is also quite easy to clean, just needing a quick rinse under the tap.

The manual juicer I got using coupons and RM30.90 from Cosway. That's my cat Chunkey checking out the juicer box. The real juicer is on my kitchen counter air-drying after I used it for iftar this morning.

Ramadan Mubarak & A Meal Plan

I hope it’s not too late to say Ramadan Mubarak to all dear readers :-)

I went blog-hopping today, and was inspired by Shafirul Suffian’s post in her blog "Tangan Panas-Panas Sejuk", where she shared her excellent Ramadan menu plan. Why menu plan for Ramadan? Because despite not eating from sunrise to sunset, Ramadan is traditionally one of the busiest times for wives/husbands/mummies/daddies everywhere because the family usually eats together to break fast (iftar), and again when eating the pre-dawn meal, (sahur). There are always easy ways out of preparing home-cooked meals:

1. Buy some of the many delicacies sold at Pasar Ramadan, or Ramadan Food Market. The array of food available is mind-boggling! Only thing is, we have stopped going to PaRams for the last 4 years. Main reason is that usually we are not satisfied with the quality of the food (taste, hygiene, MSG) and it can also be expensive. Plus when you shop for food while you are hungry, you'll usually end up with more food than you can possibly finish.
2. Go for one of the many Ramadan buffets, available in restaurants and hotels nationwide. The downside is again, cost, although quality-wise you generally get what you pay for. Problem is that Ramadan is supposed to be the Fasting month, and gorging ourselves silly at the time of breaking fast seems against the spirit of Ramadan. Plus, we have been trying to eat healthier for the past year and found that we could no longer pack in a decent amount of food in a single sitting. We are often satisfied with much less.

So we made a Ramadan meal plan, which is simpler than last year’s. Last year I had 14 items in my Ramadan meal plan. This year, only 7. Because we are creatures of habit (like our cats!) who don’t mind eating the same thing over and over and over again. This also makes grocery shopping a lot easier and reduces impulse buying as we shop according to the meal plan. All dishes will be eaten during iftar and the leftovers are eaten for sahur the following morning.

Mama Pongkey’s Ramadan Menu Plan:

1. Tomyum

2. Karahi chicken 

3. Soup (chicken, fish, beef or bone) 

4. Egg + tuna + salad wrap 

5. Tandoori chicken 

6. Stew (chicken, beef or lamb) 

7. Shepherd's/Cottage pie

Insha Allah, we normally break fast this way:

• Break the fast with a date and a glass of milk.

• Pray Maghrib.

• Eat the main meal.

• No other sweets, cakes or sugary drinks are allowed, only plain water. And perhaps some unsweetened tea or coffee.

Tip: Drinking the glass of milk takes away the hunger pangs and the date gives instant energy for prayer. Then we find we don't need to eat so much during the meal.

This way we hope we can adhere better to the spirit of Ramadan, while keeping grocery costs down and eating healthily at the same time. Insha Allah.