My brother and his family were coming to spend a few days with us in Ramadan*,so we arranged to give them my younger son's room.I asked him to remove the rubble from the room,so it becomes liveable.

We had a real nice time as one would with relatives ,especially around "iftar" time,i.e. breakfast,we break our fast at sunset. .

You see I had a lot of helpers,remember the saying: "too many cooks spoil the broth"?

Well, our main meal consisted of soup , a rice dish, and a pastry called "sambousak".Now this pastry has to be spread by hand into a three-by-four -foot wide circle (paper-thin) on a clean sheet .Then you have to cut it into strips about two inches wide and six inches long.You put the filling(cooked mincemeat and parsely) on the corner of each strip,and fold each into a triangle,then fry the whole lot.

Imagine with my daughter(9) and two neices(2 and 8) around the table each trying to be helpful or asking for a piece of dough to play with,and this pastry is so thin,that it is very sensitive to touch..

"Auntie why is this pastry so large?"

"Auntie can I have a piece?"

"Can I use your cutter?"

"Auntie look my sister took all the dough,give me another piece."

"Mom our neighbors sent us two dishes where shall I put them?'**

"Could somebody get the juices ready?"

Of course my other daughter and her paternal cousin (20) were also helping,they were making the desserts.One was making a her special cheesescake and the other was making a traditional arabic pudding called "arabian nights" which consisted of semolina,eggs,milk and rosewater.

My soup was on the range boiling ...and my daughter who was cooking her dessert near it shouted : "Mom is your soup done yet?Don't blame me if you forget it and it burns again." . Well,I have to admit that sometimes forget things and we end up with burnt food(not always though)..

And here I am trying to save the pastry from  the little hands,and trying to finish frying everything before sunset.,when my husband's niece says: "Auntie ,where do you keep the graham biscuits ? I need more,one cheesecake isn't going to be enough."

Anyway,I don't know how we managed to  to finish on time that day.My other cousin and her family arrived at sunset just as we were breaking our fast with dates (sunnah of the prophet,sala Allahu alyhi wasallam),water,and some juice.We prayed the maghrib prayer and ran to the kitchen to set the table.

The women and the children ate on the table ,we had to set the tablecloth(sufrah) for the men in the living room.My brither and my husband insisted on having their soup real hot,(the rest of us didn't care to have out tongues scorhed)so Iput their soup in this nifty insulated hot-pot,for the rest of us it was in the everyday soupbowls..

Well to mak a long story short,we had our meal on time and evrybody enjoyed it(no burnt food either),but I'm not telling you what the kitchen looked like after all that,I'll leave that to your own imagination!!

*Ramadan,is a month in which the muslims have to fast in from dawn to sunset,no food nor water.

In Ramadan the worship is special and there is a lot of family  ties and giving to the poor..

During Ramadan is The Night of Power.

**Neighbors send food to each other for iftar in ramadan,each day they send food to a different neighbor,it is considered neighborly(as the prophet sala Allahu alhy wasallam has entruted us with neighbors.Also if you feed a fasting person you get the same good deeds as him.