Story of Dutch Princess and Canadian Tulip Festival

Posted by on May 18, 2012 No comments

Have you ever visited Ottawa’s Annual Tulip Festival held in May? If you have, chances are you already know the fairy-like story behind it. If not, I strongly urge you to visit if you’re around, and meanwhile I am going to brief you on the story anyway:)

During WW II, when The Netherland  was occupied by Nazis, Princess Juliana and her family fled to great Britain. One month later, the Princess and her two daughters sought exile in Ottawa, Canada, while her husband Prince Bernhard stayed behind to join resistance forces.  On January 19, 1943, Princess Juliana gave birth to a girl in Ottawa Civic Hospital, who was named Margriet after a type of daisy that was worn by the members of the Dutch resistance at the time. Read more »

Jeweled yogurt mix

Posted by on May 15, 2012 No comments

A few years ago, sometime in June-July, I was hosting my oldest buddy girlfriend for a month, seeing her after some ten years!  That was the happiest reunion ever as we both felt we still had SO much in common! Catching up with each other’s lives, plus doing stuff together (from gardening to shopping, to driving around) would not leave us too much time to cook elaborate foods every single day, although we did constantly feel hungry and eat! This nutritious, delicious yogurt-based cold soup was my friend’s solution (and ‘invention’, mind you) for the evenings that we felt too worn out to cook and too creative and energetic to go with a canned, delivered or fast food -  a quick and refreshing fix indeed!

Ingredients (for 2):  Plain yogurt (2% fat) 400 grams. Flat water, half a cup or about 150 ml. Cucumbers, 2 medium, peeled and grated. Onion (optional), ½ small, peeled and grated. Dried seedless raisin, rinsed, 3 tbsp. Dried walnuts, rinsed and chopped, 3 tbsp.  (always good to soak walnuts, change water a few times before using them for this or any other recipe). Powdered dried mint, ½ tbsp. Fresh tarragon (or if you don’t have access to it, any scented herb of your choice), washed and coarsely chopped, a fistful. A few fresh mint and basil leaves. Dried rose flower, a pinch. Salt and black pepper, to taste.  For variations you would need: one large Pitta bread, cut in small pieces and mildly toasted. A few ice cubes.   Read more »

Take it easy; he is just expressing himself!

Posted by on May 10, 2012 No comments

This week Iranian Shahin Najafi released a rap music called Naghi from where he lives in Europe, causing an uproar within a few hours from Islamist bullies who do not hesitate for a split second to beat up a girl publicly for showing a strand of hair, but feel supersensitive about any form of socio-political criticism especially when it touches their religiosity. The song was also declared blasphemy and apostasy by a few clerics in Iran, which could easily lead to death penalty. The charge, albeit unofficial so far, is absolutely atrocious and ill founded.  That is why some of Iranian bloggers inside and outside the country have staged a campaign in solidarity with Shahin Najafi against any possible threat directed at him by the Islamic regime of Iran. Read more »

Shrimp-mixed rice (maygoo polow)

Posted by on May 8, 2012 3 comments

What can I say? I have already posted three different dishes with shrimp (ghalyeh, shrimp-onion dish, and shrimp fettuccine). This is indicative of something, isn’t it!?  And count this mixed rice as two because I have included two different methods of preparing it thanks to my friend Koroush.

 Ingredients (for 2-3):  Defrosted or fresh half-cooked shrimp, 450 gr. ( I recommend “Marbel”).  Onion, 2 small to medium, thinly sliced. Dried seedless raisin, rinsed, ½ cup. Dried walnuts, rinsed and chopped, ½ cup. (If you have time, it is a good idea to soak walnuts, change the water a few times before using them for this or any other recipe) Olive oil: 4 tbsp. Turmeric, 2 tea spoon. Saffron, ground, 1/2 teaspoon (soaked in1 tbsp of warm water for an hour). Salt and pepper as needed. And of course rice: 2 or 3 cups, depending how rich you want the mix to be. What you see in this picture is made with 2 cups of rice.  Read more »

“I Remember”: A collective art exhibition at Montreal’s Z Gallery

Posted by on May 6, 2012 No comments

Organized by the newly established Z Gallery, “I remember” is a group exhibition featuring paintings, videos,  installations and collages by 10 Montreal-based artists of various ethnic backgrounds and ages.  The theme of this exhibition is “memory” and is held from May 4 to June 16, 2012 from Tuesday to Saturday 12:00 to 18:00 at Z Gallery.

I encourage those of you who are residing in Montreal or are planning to visit in the next month or so, to certainly make time to drop by at the gallery. The Z gallery itself is a bright spacious studio located at Montreal’s downtown plateau – one of the “coolest” and most “artsy” neighborhoods.  It is established by an Iranian-Canadian artist (Shahrzad Arshadi) with the goal of providing a home for artists “from ‘here’ and ‘there’” – a multi disciplinary home for the emerging as well as established artists in our town. Well, the first exhibition lived up to its promise. On May 4th, I attended the opening of this wonderfully diverse art exhibition and prepared a photo-report of the event to share with you.

Read more »

Fennel/noodle soup

Posted by on May 4, 2012 No comments

There is this Vietnamese restaurant in or neighbourhood called “Chez Lien”. It offers a great variety of seafood, chicken, meat, vegetarian dishes, and the service is fast and hassle free.  Then it has this heavenly tasting and smelling soup they call “home-made soup”.  I love it so much that in certain cold, tired evenings I actually dream about having a nice, hot bowl brought to my door.  Well, a more practical way of course is making it at my own kitchen.  And believe me, I have tried this soup enough at Chez Lien to be able to produce a certified copy!  If you like thin tasty and extremely fast and easy soup, try this:

Ingredients: Chicken broth (homemade), 3 cups.  Instant noodle, 1 bag (less than 100 gr.), Portabella mushroom, 2, diced.  Small fennel bulb, 1. Scallions, 2, thinly cut crosswise. Salt, powdered black pepper to taste (I like it spicy hot). Lime juice, ½ tbsp. Read more »

Celery stew with saffron

Posted by on May 3, 2012 No comments

This past winter (hopefully passed!) I had my sister in law over for a week or so. One day she volunteered to make celery stew for lunch while my husband and I had a long rough day out.  I happily approved and we came home to a dizzying fragrance of steamed rice and perfectly settled hot stew with remotely detectable sent of fresh herbs and saffron.  At first I thought the thrill I felt upon sensing this welcoming food had to do with not having to cook when you are hungry, but rather coming to a homey and ready to be served meal. But when we started the meal I discovered that her method for making this particular stew was completely different than mine, and I must admit far too superior to it – to my taste anyway.   The proof to this last claim is that I followed her recipe and came up with the exact same delight.    Read more »

Helping Haitian children to the loving sound of music: A charity concert

Posted by on April 27, 2012 2 comments

About a year and half ago, I became involved with a group of people associated with two churches in our area.  The group had sponsored an Iranian refugee family and undertook to help them settle in Montreal and I was quite accidently involved as a translator. The story around the family and how it got along with the new situation did not turn quite as expected.  But for me personally what came out of that experience was absolutely priceless, as it opened the door of friendship with several incredibly dedicated, kind and caring individuals – the people I would have never even met in my life under any other circumstances.

Last week I got words about one of those two churches, the St. Mary’s Anglican Church, holding its second charity concert to help school children In Haiti. The context of this charity activity is that last year the Primate’s World Relief Development Fund initiated a project with the aim of collecting enough money to provide 3,250 Haitian Children with one daily meal in 15+ schools for one year. Since then, the Youth Group of St. Mary’s Church in Kirkland has been collaborating with Solid Haiti, pledging to support the cause by raising $1500.00 through charity concerts. The concert was to be held at the church on Sunday 22nd. .and tickets were sold at $10.

Read more »

Weekly vegetable and fruit shopping

Posted by on April 26, 2012 No comments

Here is some math, for a change, behind a typical load of our vegetable and fruit purchase and consumption.  What you see here, nicely arranged for photography purpose!, makes  14 kg of fruits and vegetables,  serving the two of us for one week  (when added to other main ingredients such as rice, potatoes, meat,  that is). It costs $33.35. How does it compare to your grocery shopping?? Good deal, is what I think!

Well, if I were to buy the same items in the same quantities from any major supermarket, first of all it is very unlikely that I could have found them all in one place.  Secondly, it would have cost me at least twice this price and easily three times if I were not paying attention to the “specials” of the week.  Read more »

For the record

Posted by on April 25, 2012 No comments

Hi folks! I am re-emerging from a week of slaving away in my blog(s), and it’s not over yet. So far so good, though! Owing to my genius and generous husband I moved to a self-hosting space and set up my own network, domains, and blogs. I am very pleased with having two separate but interconnected blogs (In English and Persian) with “plug in” capability, which I am planning to put in to a lot of exciting use in the coming weeks and months. This move however cost me dearly in that it ripped me of my 69,915 hits which I had accumulated in a short ten-month period! I would very much like to think this is just a number, as people have already connected to me and my blog and will visit again and again… Don’t you agree!? Anyhow, I had to move on towards self-hosting at some point, and the sooner I did it the smaller “number” I lost. All that said, I just felt compelled to frame this valuable 69,915 hit of mine in a post at least.

Finally, if you were following my blog through email, but you do not receive a notification for this post it means the link between us has been broken. Please! Go to any of my blogs you wish, (English, or Persian) and click right on the top of the page at the space allocated for this purpose in order to follow me again. I have lots of good stuff lined up to share with you. Thanks for your support