Kabsa recipe

Kabsa lamb

I am going to describe kabsa which all Saudi people really like because it is traditional food and incredible tasty. Kabsa was known for more than many centuries because it was cheap and rice is easy to grow.


Nowadays, kabsa is important nutrition and an indication of generosity. If any guests come and the host does not bring this food especially with lamb all people will say he is mean man.

This picture is called mofatah this was made for 15 people to 25.and kabsa you can make it with chicken or lamb or any meat. Do you like it? Look at the bottom picture this is with chicken it is easy kind of kabsa to cook.

These dishes are mainly made from a mixture of spices, rice (usually basmati), meat and vegetables. There are many kinds of Kabsa and each kind has a uniqueness about it. Pre-mixed Kabsa spices are now available under several brand names. These reduce preparation time but may have a flavour distinct from traditional Kabsa. The spices used in Kabsa are largely responsible for its taste; these are generally Black Pepper, Cloves, Cardamom, Saffron, Cinnamon, Black lime, Bay Leaves and Nutmeg. The main ingredient that accompanies the spices is the meat, such as chicken, goat, lamb, camel, or sometimes beef, fish, and shrimp. The spices, rice and meat may be augmented with Almonds, Pine nuts, Onions and Tomatoes.

Meat for Kabsa can be cooked in various ways. A popular way of preparing meat is called Mandi. This is an ancient technique, whereby meat is barbecued in a deep hole in the ground that is covered while the meat cooks. Another way of preparing and serving meat for Kabsa is Mathbi, where seasoned meat is grilled on flat stones that are placed on top of burning embers. A third techniqueMadghoot, involves cooking the meat in a Pressure cooker.

by Bandar

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho` s story is a simple novel,an inspiration parable about the importance of pursuing one’s dreams. It was originally written in Portuguese, published in 1988 and it has become one of the best-selling books in history. The alchemist is a short about 170 pages,quick and enjoyable.
It won the Guinness World Record for most translated book by a living author.
Paulo Coelho is one of the most successful authors of all time. His books have sold over 100 million copies,have been translated into 67 languages and released in more than 150 countries.












The alchemist is a novel about a boy named Santiago who decided to abandon his shepherd life to the adventure of discoveries,he crossed from Spain into Tangiers.
In his journey,Santiago sees the greatness of the world and meets all kinds of exciting and crazy people,from kings to paupers,impersonate to genuine,and known-all to down to earth people,and eventually the Alchemist.
The ends of the novel,he discovers that treasure lies where you heart belongs and that the treasure was the journey itself, the discoveries he made and the wisdom he gained.
The Alchemist,is stimulating novel that gives with optimism,it is the kind of novel that reinfor that everything is possible as long as the person really wants it to happen.

I found Alchemist is a good novel for all ages to read,it is useful for someone who is confused point at his life and it can give you a sense of hope.
I think that the manner that the author wrote this book was absolute brilliant,he used different techniques to capture the readers`attention and bring them to another world where they experience Santiago`journey as if it were their own.





Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil. In 1970,after deciding that law school was not for him,he traveled through much of South America,North Africa,Mexico, and Europe.
He made a successful career as a popular songwriter. In 1974,he was imprisoned for a short time by the military dictatorship then ruling in Brazil.
He is an outspoken activist for peace and social justice,and also supports the free distribution of his work.

Manchester in my opinion ...

My first day in Manchester was surprising, there is a huge difference between my city and Manchester. In my country I didn't use to use public transport, I used to get up late, I'm not allow to go some places without my father or my husband, if I would like to go some where I have to find some one to drive. Here in Manchester I can do what I like, their atmosphere encourages you to get up early. There are many options, you would never get bored. There is a fantastic shopping centre, which is on Old Trafford, called Trafford centre or if you like to go shopping in small market there are many in Longsight Street. If you are starving you can find different restaurants such as Indian, Italian, Arabic , Turkish and of courses English, one of the best meal I've tried is Jacket Potato.

Public transport in Manchester is easy to use, depending on your choice. In city centre they have free buses that take you around the centre and they have other buses which take you around all Manchester for a cheap prise also they have trams and trains

Weather isn't bad as what I imagined, you can see four seasons in one day but it was strange for the first few days then I became like an English person and I enjoy the weather. Life is quiet and tidy and time flies, if you would like to be happy you would be.

by Hadil

New year in Iran

On the very first day of spring while nature is rebirthing, in Iran, Norouz is the New Year celebration ,always being on the first day of spring. Norouz means New Day and the exact moment of it is called “Saal Tahvil”.It is the most ancient celebration which has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the traditions of the Zoroastrians which was the religion of ancient Persia.

Before the new year, people start cleaning their houses which is called “Khaane Tekaani”, and they buy new clothes. But a major part of the New Year tradition is setting the "Haft Seen" with seven specific items. All the seven items start with the letter "S"; this was not the order in ancient times. These seven things usually are: Seeb (apple), Sabze (green grass), Serke (vinegar), Samanoo (a meal made out of wheat), Senjed (a special kind of berry), Sekke (coin), and Seer (garlic). Sometimes instead of Serke they put Somagh (sumak, an Iranian spice).
Wheat, which represents new growth, is grown in a flat dish a few days before the New Year and is called Sabzeh.It will keep until Sizdah beh dar, the 13th day of the New Year, and then is disposed outdoors. A few live goldfish are placed in a fish bowl. In the old days they returned to the riverbanks, but today most people will keep them. Mirrors are placed on the spread with lit candles as a symbol of fire. Some people read poem from Divan-e-Hafez (poetry book of Hefez) during "Saal Tahvil". They believe that Hafez will predict what the New year would be look like.

After new year, people kiss each other and wish a very happy year for each other and then give presents to each other usually older ones to youngsters . The first day of Norouz will be spent visiting older member of the family and friends. Traditionally, on the night before the New Year, most Iranians will have “Sabzi Polo Mahi”, a special dish of rice cooked with fresh herbs and served with fried fish. Koukou Sabzi, a mixture of fresh herbs with eggs fried or baked, is also served. on Norouz day usually rice and noodles “Reshteh Polo” is served.

The 13th day of the new year is called "Sizdah Bedar" and it should be spent outdoors. People will leave their homes to go to the parks or public places for a picnic. It is a must to spend Sizdah Bedar in nature. This is called Sizdah Bedar and is the most popular day of the holidays among children because they get to play a lot. Also in this day, people throw the Sabze away, they believe Sabze should not stay in the house after "Sizdah Bedar". Iranians consider 13th day as a bad luck and believe that by going into the fields and parks they avoid misfortunes. It is also believed that unmarried girls can wish for a husband by going into the fields and tying a knot between green shoots, symbolizing a marital bond.

PICASSO

PICASSO

Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga in the south of Spain. Picasso's family was middle-class and his father was a painter as well.

Picasso showed a passion and skill for drawing very early. His first words were “pencil, pencil!!” His father taught him very early when he was seven years old. His father taught the traditional skills .

During his life Picasso studied in the best painting school in Spain, first in Barcelona and after in Madrid. In Madrid as well Picasso knew the Prado art gallery and the works of other Spanish painters like Velazquez, Goya and El Greco. Picasso especially admired the works of El Greco, elements like the elongated, arresting colours, and mystical visages are echoed in Picasso's work.

In 1900, Picasso visited Paris for the first time where he developed his painting and ideas. Picasso wasn't only a painter, he was also a sculptor and draughtsman. He was the creator of the cubism movement. His most famous works are the proto-cubist “Les Demoiselles of Arignon” (1907) and “Guernica” (1937) the last one is a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Guernica (1937)

Here are some pictures of the first period of Picasso. When his skills were more realistic, he hadn't developed cubism yet.

A continuation Other pictures. But now these pictures are cubist.

Finally a video about the Guernica

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_uGbQanNw

A Red Nose Day Project

Red Nose Day is a day set aside to donate money to charity. The aim of the Red Nose Day is to help children who can't go to school in Africa and Britain. I saw a video about a 16year old girl called Rojalba who lives in Uganda.

She's an orphan and lives with her auntie who has seven children. Her sister was abducted by rebels when she was 8 years old and being the eldest, she has taken the responsibility of caring for her family. She does this by working in the fields and when they have no money she works in other people's fields just to raise money for her family.

She is in a school and walks one hour to school everyday, on her way to school she is always scared that there might be bombs or landmines left by the rebels. She however, enjoys being at school as she has some fun time there.

Thanks to the money from red nose day, she and many other people from Uganda can go to school. They are provided with uniforms and writing materials including pens and books all from the money realised from red nose day.

War Child Project

A project called War Child is given money raised by Red Nose Day.

This project supports 1200 children from different countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Ethiopia against the consequences of armed conflict.

Also it enables children to go to school and continue their education. Moreover, they try to build sustainable livelihoods that address children 's fundamental needs .

Since its founding children from all over the world have achieved a lot of success. Hundreds of children from different war zones around the world have been helped by War Child programmes.

In Uganda money given to War Child has helped children to produce a show for the local radio station in order to raise awareness among the public about the effects war can have on children. This project works with adults and leaders too to make sure children are protected and ensure they are supporting the community.

Indian Authors

There are more than 100 famous authors in India, who come from India or have Indian nationality. The most famous and well known author is Rabindranath Tagore he is not only author, he is a poet, philosopher, musician and educationalist. He is one of the icons of Indian culture. He was the first non-European who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

                                    Rabindranath Tagore  With Einstein, 1930

Some of authors from India are sports man, poets,musician, etc. One of the former Indian cricketers, Kapil Dev, is also an author. He has written many books, some are autobiographies in which he shares his ideas about cricket and his achievements.

                                                                      Kapil Dev


The Next author is Arundhati Roy, she is a famous woman in India and won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel "The God of Small Things." She is not only a writer she is also an novelist, essayist and activist. Her novel "The God of Small Things" is about  the childhood experiences of a pair of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who must be loved, and how, and how much".and she also written several collection of essays.

                                                                  Arundhati Roy

The Qur'an

The Qur'an is a religious sacred writing of Islam by God to the prophet Mohammed during his life.It is written in Arabic

People believe in the Qur'an because it contains many prophecies that came true. Also, the teachings in the Qur'an help people to learn about life and society.

The Qur'an is about and what it explains to us and how much we follow that in our life. The Qur'an comprehends the complete code for us Muslims to live our life with the commandments of God which is told to us through our prophet.

Muslim people often read the Qur'an when they pray and after praying. Ramadan is the holiest time of the year. Muslims have to finish reading the Qur'an in a month at this time.

the best iranian poet ever

Hafez was the best Iranian poet.

The collection of his poems is called Divan and can be found in every Iranian house. His poems are still used as proverbs today. His life and poems are the subjects of analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-fourteenth century Persian writing more than any other author. Themes of his poems include love, faith, and hypocrisy and translations are available in different languages.

In recent years his poems have been used in different Iranian songs. There is one holiday in Iran (Shabe Yalda) when traditional families read his amazing poems to their children to teach them the diffrent aspects of life. In this way not only do they learn about faith and love but also it has an effect on their emotions.

Despite his profound impact on every Iranian life there few details of his life is known.He was born either in 1315 or 1317 but there is no doubt that he was born in Shiraz and died in 1390 in the same city. His tomb is located in Shiraz and is one of the masterpieces of Iranian architecture.

The Most Famous Piece of Literature in Nigeria.

The most famous piece of literature in my country is a book titled 'Half of a Yellow Sun' written by Chimamanda Adichie. It was first published in 2006 and is about the civil war which occurred in Nigeria in the 1970's.

The setting of the novel is in a town in Nigeria and it shows the effects of the war through the relationships of four different people ranging from a professor, a British citizen and a houseboy. The main characters are Ugwu, a 13 year old boy who goes to live with Odenigbo, a university professor to live as his houseboy. Life, however changes for Ugwu when Olanna, Odenigbo's girlfriend moves in with them and he somehow forms a strong bond with the couple. Some years later, trouble starts to brew between the northern and eastern tribes and hundreds of people die in the massacres including Olanna's uncle and auntie.

As a result of the existing conflict, Odenigbo, Olanna and Ugwu are forced to flee their city to live as refugees in a small town where they suffer food shortage and constant air raids. The book is the author's first work and in 2007, won an orange prize for fiction which included a $30,000 cash prize. I have read the novel and I think it is really interesting.

My weekend (Circus)

I Like to Share my weekend experience,First on Saturday I have visited circus which take place in stoke-on-Trent trentham garden.it is really awesome,this is the first time I have seen a circus on live and really it is beautiful and people who did tricks where really talented, I thought they going do tricks using animals but they aren't any animals taken part in the show,the circus is not only for kids it is also for adult,there are stunning limbo dancers,if you're really going to enjoy yourself, you've got to fully commit to shouting, singing and cheering as loudly as you can.it also includes Flying trapeze, warm and original clowning, stylish and daring aerialists and acrobats, mystifying illusions -- together they make a magical treat for all the family.After  watching this I thought to share this video



On Sunday I didn't do any interesting activities,but I played Cricket in the awesome weather.

My weekend started on Friday night after my afternoon classes. I stayed up late watching TV till about 3:00 am then went to sleep. Woke up late on Saturday morning and went grocery shopping. During the rest of the day , i relaxed and watched a lot of TV. On Sunday morning, I went to church and when i got back, I had some nice lunch and slept.

Manchester Art Gallery

 Manchester Art Gallery

                               

I'd like to share my experience about Manchester art gallery. First of all, Manchester Art gallery is free to visit. Secondly, it is located on Mosley street, just 5 minutes walk from Berlitz Manchester school. The galleries are open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm. It's really huge art gallery with 4 floors,cafeteria,and with a art shop.

Manchester Art Gallery and The Gallery of Costume are home to the city’s world-class art collection. They hold over 25,000 objects of fine art, decorative art and costume, developed over 200 years and still growing. They have different types of arts like fine art, decorative art,costume etc... There are lots of paintings made by most famous artist in the world and different types of paintings like oil canvas painting, sculptures, medals, drawings and watercolours, prints, posters and photographs. 20th century British art is strongly represented. The collection features works by Henry Moore, Paul Nash and Ben Nicholson among others.

There also different types of statues from old periods to modern period. One of the architectural highlights of Manchester Art Gallery is metalwork, toys and textiles over 1,300 objects from ancient pottery to the latest designs in furniture and lighting. 

There are lots of exhibitions taking place all year. The next one which is going to start on March 5th is "Anish Kapoor:flash back" which ends on June the 5th. There are lots of other new exhibitions coming, so I strongly recommend you visit Manchester Art Gallery. Especially foreigners because you can learn lots about the history of Manchester and Britain.

Images from Manchester Art Gallery website

Visit To Manchester Art Gallery

On Friday, 4th of March 2011, I visited Manchester Art Gallery. The Gallery is a free-to-view public art gallery with lots of displays and exhibitions ranging from paintings to works by famous artists. The building it occupies is made up of three floors and about 20 rooms of art and design. It was an exciting experience and I would definitely love to go again. On the first floor, there's a table with a variety of objects for you to make your own still life drawing, I made a drawing of a guitar and it was really good. I also saw lots of paintings including a painting of Piccadilly Gardens as it used to be in 2003. The Gallery also holds collections of glass, silverware, pottery and some furniture. On the second floor, there's a room where you can listen to ghost stories which are supposed to be scary, I went in and I wasn't really scared by them but a group of girls who went in before me were screaming loudly and i wondered why. Generally, I think the gallery is a nice place to visit and I would recommend it for anyone who's looking for a bit of fun time away from the streets.

Welcome!

Hello Students and welcome to your blog! You can use this space to write about anything you want. Go ahead, get started!

Different cultures in the UK

I have experienced a lot of things during the seven months that I have been here in Manchester. I can remember very well the first days of my arrival here. It was very hard and unbearable for me because it was the first time that I left my family and my country as well. However, I told myself that I have to be very strong. In the passing days, I got used to living in Manchester lonely. I walked on the street in my free time and I was also very interested in learning English since my main purpose to come here was continuing my studies in Applied Linguistics. When I looked at restaurants, I noticed that they are not like my country, there are many restaurants from different countries. To be honest with you, I'm not really eager to eat different foods but I'm extremely interested in learning about different cultures. So, what I did was once a week I tried a different restaurant and I got a lot of information about their cultures. It was very interesting for me because I felt that I was living in a lot of countries at the same time. Now I am very satisfied about living here and I have made a lot of friends from different countries.