Alfredo Pasta

1) Add minced garlic and butter . add shrimps, parsley and salt and stir for 5 mins. Put the shrimps away                      
2) In separate pan...add butter , Milk and chicken broth. Add mozzarella and Parmesan. Also add all purpose flour (2 tbsp)                      
3) And after it thickens...add shrimps and add tomatoes                      
4) Add sea salt and fresh rounded black pepper                      
5) And then mix it with boiled pasta and put it in a high heat oven for 350F for 5 mins

Stuffed Chicken with Spinach and Mushroom

On lazy and snowy Sunday I decided to cook for family. The original recipe is by my mother-in-law. It is a low-carb, high-protein dish. It is Stuffed Spinach and Mushroom Chicken. Here is a quick recipe:

Ingredients:

Spinach (bowlful). one chopped onion, one chopped tomato, paste of 1 garlic and 1 ginger.

1) Melt some butter in a pan, add chopped onions. After few mins add other ingredients (tomatoes, spinach, mushroom). keep stirring it. Remove it after 15-20 mins as we don't want to completely cook the stuffing.

2) In a big skillet, heat some butter and then place 3 chicken breast (slit). Stuff 2 table spoon of stuffing inside each chicken and close it. Generously sprinkle salt and red chilli powder on top.

3) Cover the skillet and let the chicken cook in medium-low heat. 20 mins each side. Be careful not to let the stuffing fall apart. You can use skewer for added perfectionism. 

(Optional) Added by Chef Baig - Take garlic powder mix it with bread crumbs.  Dip the chicken in egg batter than coat it with garlic breadcrumbs and fry

4) After it turns brown on both sides, turn off the heat and sprinkle mozzarella cheese and cover it for few mins. 

5) Savour it. Eat it with green salad and garlic bread.

Below are the pictures I took while making it:

Wake Up Call !

This I mean a literal wake up call and not some romantic spiritual or social awakening call.

When I was young(er), I was notorious for my long sleep-ins. All alarm clocks would fail to deliver of what their sole purpose of existence be - to wake me up !

I have some interesting anecdotes about my sleep that I would like to pen down:

Bad Host

When I was in university, my (still)good friend Asif's elder brother had a baby boy and Asif wanted to drop mithai box at my place. It was during weekend, when my mom was not at home and I was sleeping. Later in the afternoon when my mom came back and woke me up, she said someone had kept a box of mithai outside our door. I was aghast - hoping it was not Asif! My mom played the voice messages on our home phone that was from Asif! He had come all the way by bus in the rain to my place, banged my door and called my home million times , left 'decent' voice messages and left with box outside while I was deep in my lala-land!

Past Fast

It was in winters when we had Ramadan which means days (i.e. fast) were short. After an all-nighter for some university work, I slept around 3 am and woke up at 8 pm next day! Satanically, passing the fast.

Dream Train

During my intern days at Pearson Airport, I used to take TTC East-West subway starting from first stop Kennedy to the last stop of Kipling. After work, I boarded the train at Kipling station that had not left the platform yet as it waits for couple of minutes to fill up. As soon as the train started moving I dozed off. Along the stops at different platforms and announcements at different stops I had my eyes shut. After a while, someone patted on my shoulders trying to wake me up. It was a woman who told me this is the last stop. I hopped off the train and saw it was the same station that I boarded the train. It was the Kipling station! I had slept all way long from Kipling to Kennedy and back. To put into perspective I had slept through 62 stops (31 stops times 2). 

Green Line below:

TGIF

During summer when my school was off, I was working graveyard shift (i.e. 12 midnight to 8 am) at Burger King. I would come home and just crash and would wake up around 5 pm when my mom would be back from work. This routine had made me miss my Friday prayers every week. I used to face my mom's wrath every week and used to promise her to go for next one. After missing 3-4 consecutive Friday afternoon prayers, I vowed to wake up for the next one. I had set multiple alarms. Lo and Behold - I woke up an hour later after the alarm! Feeling distraught and not to face my mom with another distasteful conversation, I decided to change things around. I prepared myself like how one would prepare for Friday prayers - wearing traditional shalwar kameez  and combed hair (yes, had much more hair then). When my mom came home and first thing she inquired - "Did you go for prayers?"Instead of lying, I just pointed at myself for her implying that I am all dressed up and all with my signature innocent smile. My mom reaction was blank; she passed by me and uttered in a fading voice "another miss".