We searched all over the Collin County area for a place that suited our increasingly fancy needs, and we finally went back to our first choice residence and by some miracle, we got it! Been trying to settle in ever since.

I will try to continue at least weekly posts as soon as everything isn’t in a state of utter chaos in the new place anymore. Someone want to come organize for me? Anyone? Hello? Mom???

I will leave you with the picture of my favoritest mug from this adorable little coffee house we stopped in on our way to Corpus Christi for my birthday trip. Round Rock, Texas is the home of Friar Tuck’s Pantry… and these mugs.

After searching far and wide for them online, I found an English supplier who did deliver to the United States. Success! Six of these babies are now sitting in my cabinets.

So here’s to a new chapter of cooking and baking and coffee drinking. Over and out.

So, as previously discussed, I will share our menu for the week with you, dear internet reader.

Remember, I only plan dinners since breakfast is rushed and lunch is simple. As I get better at doing this, I plan on adding other aspects of the weekly menu. What these aspects may be, I don’t know, but I know they’ll be awesome.

Alright, enough chit chat, here we go:

Monday: Hashbrown casserole
Basic ingredients: potatoes, sour cream, cheddar cheese, onion, parsley

Tuesday: Taco Night
Basic ingredients: tortillas (flour, baking powder, salt, olive oil), cheese, beans, guacamole, cilantro, sour cream, tomato

Wednesday: Portobello burgers
Basic ingredients: portobello mushrooms, buns, tomato, mayo, lettuce

Thursday: Barbeque tofu over rice
Basic ingredients: tofu, rice, green onions, parsley

Friday: Mushroom enchiladas
Basic ingredients: leftover tortillas from Tuesday night, mushroom, cheese, onion

Saturday: Go out/ Leftovers/ Parent’s house

Sunday: Cheese and walnut stuffed shells
Basic ingredients: Jumbo shells, egg, ricotta cheese, nuts, parsley, nutmeg, pasta sauce for under the shells

Here’s to a week of happy eatin’!

It’s serious business.

I, Zahra, do not love pizza. I LOVE PIZZA. In all caps. That’s how much I LOVE PIZZA.

However, no matter how awesome the toppings on your pizza, it’ll fall short of your expectations if you don’t have an equally amazing pizza crust. I once made the mistake of not taking the dough seriously. Oh what a mistake that was. The internet offered many recipes for yeast-less pizza dough (as I did not have any yeast at that moment and really wanted pizza), so I thought since so many people had tried this method, it was just as good as a regular yeast-full pizza dough. Boy was I wrong.

True, it looked just fine, but it made the list of Worst Things I Have Ever Cooked. It’s actually up in the top three.

So although other people have had these apparent successes, I beg of you, find your yeast packets and make this pizza dough. It’s delicious!

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/3 cup olive oil
Pinch of salt (about 1 teaspoon)
4 cups all-purpose flour

1. Start by measuring out your yeast and salt in a little bowl.

2. Pour in your warm water. Try not to pour as violently as I do and splatter all the yeast everywhere.

3. Stir it just a little and let it sit until nice and foamy. It’ll look something like this.

4. Pour mixture into a bigger bowl and add in olive oil and stir around.

5. Dump in your flour and stir stir stir until a well-incorporated ball forms.

6. Dump out the dough unto a lightly floured surface and knead knead knead.

Until you get a pretty dough ball.

7. Coat the outside of your dough ball lightly with olive oil.

8. Cover tightly and let it rise for about 2 hours. Then, use your pizza dough for all your pizza needs! Or calzone needs! You’ll want to bake at a fairly high heat, 400 degrees or so.

But first, HAPPY NATIONAL NUT DAY! Go eat a cashew or a peanut or a pecan. Right now.

I have a post on butternut squash almost ready to go, but it’s not quite there and I don’t have the will to finish it at this moment. So instead, I will tell you about my short list of foods I do not like. There really isn’t that much I won’t eat, promise.

1. Eggplant.
2. Okra.
3. Brussel sprouts.
4. COOKED broccoli or cauliflower.
5. Really, any type of cooked fruit either (minus tomatoes because AHEM, they’re a fruit too). So no cooked bananas, apples or pears for me.
6. Bell peppers. I feel their taste is too strong and I don’t like that.
7. Sweet Tarts. Who thought that was a good idea??

Food I do like a lot:

1. Chocolate.
2. Cheese.
3. Pastas.
4. Pastas and cheese.
5. Chocolate.
6. Ta-cheen (recipe to come at a later date)
7. And um, anything else really.

So now you know! I’ll get to that recipe sometime…

I got a new camera… finally! And I realize this is my recipe page but I”m too excited to include this is the less-used Zahra Does section… I don’t do all that much I suppose.

I’ve been chasing after the cats for the past 3 days and taking their pictures to practice.

Who knew an SLR makes you feel that much more powerful when photographing your new Baker’s shoes?

But for now, the cats tire or my endless picture-taking.

They might leave soon. Just to take a nap.

This past weekend in Austin was awesome in many ways. Here are some:

- Great view from the hotel. Awesome.
- Watching the bats come out at sundown. Awesome.
- Seeing “Wicked” live with awesome seats. AWESOME.
- Having a stuffed avocado. Awesome.

Here are the ways it was not awesome:

- 100+ degrees everyday. Not awesome.
- Not having cash for Peter Pan mini golf. Not awesome.
- Having my old but trusty Coolpix kick the bucket. Definitely not awesome.

So there you have it. My poor camera has broken and now how will I take pictures of what I make?? I plan on posting recipes and such, but as for pictures, those will have to wait until I am ready to buy another.

Oh how hard it is to wait.