Norooz eggs on Easter
Posted: 7 April 2012 Filed under: Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: Easter, Norooz, Painted_eggs 2 CommentsEgg decoration is a popular craft in many cultures and traditions. Easter of course is probably the most renowned one in Christian world, but the painted eggs you see here are the ones that my husband and I have painted over the years for the Persian New Year, Norooz, which is celebrated in some 15 countries just a few days before Easter, on the first day of spring.
Each year we paint several boiled eggs, but keep only the prettiest of them. Well, that “winner egg” is usually the one painted by my husband – to the testimony of all the friends and relatives who pay us Norooz visit! Here is how it goes, I boil 5-6 eggs and let them cool and meanwhile get whatever painting tools we need. We start at the same time. I finish painting five and go about preparing dinner or something. He is still working on one. He takes a break and continues working on it after dinner until he gets off the chair with a bad back and happy face: A work of Art, if you ask me! Look at some of them below.
Vase ideas2
Posted: 7 April 2012 Filed under: Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: flower_and_object, vase_ideas Leave a comment
Black Pelican
Orzo salad
Posted: 5 April 2012 Filed under: Orzo salad, Uncategorized | Tags: blanch_snow_pea, booteh_recipes, food_photography, Orzo_salad, pine_nuts 4 Comments
You will find lots of recipes for orzo in the internet. This one with pine nuts, snow beans and soft cheese is my favourite, with modifications of my own. The long list of ingredients should not scare you! It is not hard or even time consuming at all because everything, except three items is about mincing, chopping and mixing!
Ingredients (6 serving): Orzo, 1 + ½ cup. Snow peas, half a box or about 20. Pine nuts (also called pignoils), ¼ cup. Scallions, 2, chopped. Yellow bell pepper, ½, seeded and chopped (I used orange pepper and it looked like cabbage in my salad; definitely use YELLOW one!) English cucumber, one third of a big one, skinned and chopped. Mushroom, half a box or about 7, sliced. Baladi or Feta cheese, 1/2 cup. Salt, 1tbsp. Olive oil, 1 tbsp. Fore dressing: Balsamic or white wine vinegar, 2 tbsp. Garlic, 2 cloves, minced. Fresh tarragon, 2 stems, picked. Olive oil, 1 tbsp.
Miracle soup for the cold
Posted: 4 April 2012 Filed under: Aash and Soups, Miracle soup for the cold, Uncategorized | Tags: beans, booteh_recipes, coriander, food_photography, get-well_soup, Persian_cuisine, spinach, stock 2 Comments
This is my magic recipe for common cold, flu and general malady, although I do make this soup occasionally just for the fun of it. To the testimony of a host of my friends and relatives who had passed by when they had not been feeling well, this soup does wonders knocking off the cold, especially if you take it with another anti-cold remedy of mine Hot Whisky!
Ingredients: (5 serving). Half a chicken (bone in, skinless), cleaned and washed. Onion, 1 medium, thickly sliced lengthwise. Lentil and red beans ½ cup each. Split beans and rice, ¼ cup each (All washed and drained). Turnips, and pumpkins, skinned, seeded (for pumpkin), and cubed, two cups each. Fresh coriander and spinach, chopped, 2 cups each. Turmeric ¼ tbsp. Lime juice, 1 tbsp. Salt and black pepper to taste.
Replanting spring flowers
Posted: 2 April 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized, YARD, for gardening | Tags: pot_to_garden, replanting, spring_flowers Leave a commentOkay…. Back to the gardening business!
Here in Montreal (zone 5), spring comes to the supermarkets and flower shops way before the official spring, March 21th. I personally find it so hard to resist coming back home from shopping without a pot or two of tulips, narcissus or hyacinth. I need them for my norooz sofreh anyway, and lots of people need them for their Easter or for no particular reason at all! The point is, you can easily preserve this beautiful plants and have them flower next year if you replant them in your garden by following the simple instructions below:
Mixed herb rice &smoked fish
Posted: 30 March 2012 Filed under: Mixed herb rice and smoke fish, Uncategorized | Tags: booteh_recipes, food_photography, herb_rice, Norooz, Persian_cuisine, sabzi_polow-mahi, smoked_fish Leave a commentI promised to post Iranian norooz-specific traditional dish, mixed herb rice and fish (sabzi polow mahi), since traditionally it is prepared and served on the first day of spring (often, along with kookoo sabzi). Well, better late than never! The good news is that the recipe I have here is the easiest AND the most delicious one – cross my heart! Special thanks to my sister, Atefeh the chef!
Ingredients (6 serving) Read the rest of this entry »
Moment photography21
Posted: 30 March 2012 Filed under: COZY CORNER, Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: moment_photography; whiskey Leave a comment
Afternoon nap
Kiosk – “Morteza”
Posted: 23 March 2012 Filed under: COZY CORNER, Poetry & Music, Uncategorized | Tags: Kiosk_music, Morteza_lyric, poetry_translation, youtube Leave a comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FRA1zKUPgw
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- Album: Outcome of Negotiations
- Uploaded on Youtube by kioskband on Dec. 2011
Kiosk is one of my favorite Iranian Music bands. This Album/song is not new but I just heard it and like dit a lot, so I transcribed the Persian lyric and translated it into English. “Morteza”, the song’s title, is a Persian male name.
“Kiosk’s stinging political satire is hidden within its blues and folksy sound… Their lyrics are a social commentary on the issues that affect the daily lives of Iranians all over the world” BBC World cited in Kiosk’ facebook page.
It never rains here, but streets are wet/ Optimist cows are lining up in sausage factories, Morteza… Morteza… it won’t rain here Morteza. Only the dead are alive, while the living must die/ The chess champs are condemned to play with chimps/ Morteza… Morteza, it won’t rain here. Read the rest of this entry »
Happy New Year
Posted: 19 March 2012 Filed under: Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: Norooz_1391, photography, sofre_haft_sin, Spring 2 Comments
Happy Norooz Everyone! Have a year full of peace, health, love and prosperity!
Norooz is around the corner
Posted: 14 March 2012 Filed under: Memories & Events, Uncategorized | Tags: Iranian_tradition, Montreal, Norooz, Persian_ New_Year, Spring Leave a commentThis is a rather lengthy general introduction and personal note on Norooz the deeply-cherished. Persian New Year which occurs at the exact moment of the start of spring, this year on Monday March 20th at 01:11 AM (Montreal) 08:44 AM (Iran).
My new header shows a Norooz table setting “sofreh”, which should contain certain items, as I will explain below. The contents as well as the arrangement of sofreh items vary according to individual’s taste and beliefs. I love my sister’s artistic “sofreh” shown in the header. Don’t you!? And let me confess, I am dying to share mine with you once I set it – probably sometime on Sunday evening
For now, let’s just turn this music on and listen to Simin Ghadiri, a Persian folk singer, while you’re reading my account of Norooz. You don’t really need to understand her words, her voice alone is spring on itself! (Lyric describes spring days, the mountains, and fields covered with flowers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGNLwkm5wes “Yek gol, Sad gol….” 
My Caldron 