RECIPE: Jalapeño Cheese Stuffers

This has fast become mine (and my guests!) favourite recipe. I mean who doesn't love oozing cheese, bread and jalapeños...together!! Pretzelmaker has a version of these, which inspired the recipe and an expansion in my waistline some years ago... I found a blog that contained elements of this recipe below. With a few modifications, I present to  you one of the most delicious appetizers on the planet earth.  

Dough, after an hour of rise.

• 1 tbsp Yeast
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp softened Butter
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 and 1/4 cup Flour (more if needed)
• 5-7 Jalapeño Peppers, sliced
• Cheddar Cheese, cut into 1 cm cubes
• Bit of oil 
• Bit of vinegar

Yields: 30-45 (depending on size) 

Now what?

1- If you are using the instant yeast, you will want to mix it in with salt, sugar, softened butter, two cups of flour, and about 3/4 of the water. Begin mixing!

2- You will want to slowly add the remaining dough and water, until the dough is neither sticky, nor too dry. Add more flour or water as necessary.

3- Knead until the dough is soft to the touch. 

4- Once your dough is soft, make it ball-shaped, cover with oil, along with the containing bowl. Seal the bowl with saran wrap, cover with towel, and put it in a warm place to allow rise- for 1-2 hours.

5- In the meantime, you will want to cut up your cheese cubes, and slice your jalapeño peppers. Pour some vinegar onto your peppers and allow them to soak for a bit for that extra kick!

6- Once the dough has doubled in size, you will want to make 1 inch balls and place 2-3 slices of jalapeño and 1 cheese cube inside of each of them. 

7- Bake for about 10-12 minutes, in a preheated oven of 350 degrees. 

8- You can drizzle melted butter over the cheese stuffers if you wish. 

On women & Islam

I came across this video on twitter and was just floored watching it. I had watched a bunch of videos of Habib Ali Al-Jifri, a very knowledgeable Islamic scholar speaking at various engagements in GB last week, but missed this one- the gem of them all. 

I don’t think I have shared too many of these types of videos on this blog, lord knows I watch many of them, ah. This one I thought should be viewed, widely. I very much appreciate the universality of positive, inclusive and uplifting messages, wherever they may be found and I hope my readers or anyone who comes across this can do so as well. Specifically as this video can offer some clarity about Islam’s position on women, to Muslims and others alike, I do hope you’ll have a look. If I can offer some cultural/religious context for this video and the wider discussion about women's rights, etc, I am more than happy to do so, on request :-)

The profoundness of Habib Ali’s words are simple.

It is unfortunately not as common a phenomenon  to hear learned members of the Muslim community speaking as clearly, inclusively, and decisively against the oppression, abuses, & relegation of women in the community. There are still an incredible number of scholars that are raising the prominence of this issue, to be clear.

Habib Ali lays it out very clearly for anyone who may be confused about justifying the treatment of women as second-class citizens/worshippers.

• No matter how many acts of worship you perform- you may fast all of Ramadan, pray/meditate into the night, but at the end of the day if you do not treat women as full and equal members of your communities/societies, the worship you participate in is in a word, meaningless.

• We have a communal obligation to prevent and take action to eliminate the mistreatment of women. Not doing so is tantamount to sinning. Tantamount to sinning.

• You may judge a health of a community by how it treats its female members. Read this again slowly...

• Muslims need to stop hiding behind the claim (however true it may have been), that historically when Islam came, it had liberated women, because saying this is meaningless in a world where women are so vastly oppressed- often while Islam is falsely used to justify this oppression in Muslim-majority countries. Think bans on women working, driving, leaving the house without 'permission', participating in sports, viewing sports, etc!

It is kind of ridiculous that such a simple clarification even has to occur. It is a sign of how bad things really are that what should be common-sense is widely UN-common.

#enoughsaid

RECIPE: Chipotle Mayo Sauce

Count me obsessed with sweet potato fries and chipotle sauce. It’s one of my fav restaurant appetizers. Not having had the chance to eat it in a few months, I thought I should try my hand at replicating the sauce at home. And mission accomplished. I was not able to find the Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce, so I used canned Chipotles. They worked just fine.

3/4 - 1cup of Mayonnaise

2 Chipotle peppers

A dash of black pepper

A squirt of lemon juice

All you need to do to prepare this sauce is to add all of the above ingredients into a blender and blend until the chipotles are fully broken up as you do not want any chunks of skin remaining.

Simple and delicious.

Enjoy.

Prepare to have your mind blown...

I'll admit, the title might be a bit of an overstatement, but this one you cannot miss. Harvard University offered a free online lecture series/course on justice and philosophy. They also set up a website where viewers could participate in discussions, etc. Interestingly, the very first lecture received about a million views! I say interestingly because on youtube, stupid videos are much more likely to reach this target than educational ones, easy.

Watching this video brings back fond memories from my time in university. The thoughts this first lecture provokes is precisely what I see to be the value of university, especially today. My degree wasn't my ticket to full-time employment, or a clearly delineated career for that matter. But what I do credit it with doing- was helping me to develop a critical eye. Question, question, question became one of many mottos deeply embedded into my subconcious! haha

In a culture where conformity is the norm, we need more people questioning the way things are; the systems, structures, constructs, belief systems, institutions, policies, etc. We need to awaken from our zombie slumber! To be clear, I'm not saying that a post-secondary education is the sole pathway to becoming a critical thinking individual. Indeed it would be preposterous to suggest so! I only speak to my specific experience and what I felt was one of the biggest takeaways from my degree. Some of the most analytical people I know are wondrous readers and thinkers with no 'formal' higher education. Everyone gains and gleans differently.

#readwritequestion

The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement, being in unceasing antagonism to that disposition to aim at something better than the customary, which is called, according to circumstances, the spirit of liberty, or that of progress or improvement. - John Stuart Mill