SWEET HEART

Friday Feature- Joined Family System

Asalam Alaikum,
In Pakistan and other parts of Southeast Asia, joined families are still pretty common. Many families have sometimes four or more generations living in the same house. Usually it is the sons that stay in the family house and bring their wives to live with the family, while the daughters get married and go to live with their husband and his extended family.

As the sons get married and the family grows some families may branch out and others will put an addition on the house(that's what our family did- added the second and third floors to make enough space). Generally each son(and his wife) will have their own bedroom(sometimes with attached bathroom), but then all the other rooms will be common rooms. Like in our house there is one bedroom for Tariq's father, one for his sisters, and then one for us, and one for his brother and his wife.

There are some benefits and some drawbacks to living in a joined family system.

One benefit is that it is easier to support the parents as they get older. Instead of all the responsibility falling on one child, all the sons work and contribute to the household. Another benefit is that with so many people around it is not as difficult to cope with when one person is ill. There are so many people that it is no problem to keep up the cooking, cleaning and child care as well as tending to the sick one.

For example if I get sick I don't have to worry that dinner won't get cooked, or that I'll have to chase after Saad while I'm ill. I have the comfort of knowing that Tariq's brother's wife will take care of dinner or his sisters can help take care of Saad. And when one of the others is ill I do the same.

Some of the drawbacks is that when there are so many people living together little arguments can break out over small things. Like whose turn is it to clean the common bathrooms, or to sweep/vacuum the common areas. It can also be difficult to find privacy if you just want to spend a bit of time alone.

My main problem is that brother's in law are not maahram(close relative who can see a woman without hijab). So when Tariq's brother is here in Karachi I have to wear my hijab at all times, unless I'm in our bedroom. Right now it isn't really a problem because my brother in law spends most of the year in Abu Dhabi.

So, while it has been an interesting experience living in a joined family, I am kind of looking forward to living on our own again eventually.

Whole Wheat "Pain Au Chocolat" (Chocolate Rolls)

These slightly sweet chocolate rolls are eaten in France as a breakfast treat or an after school snack. Typically the dough is a puff-pastry style dough but I recently found a recipe for a softer, dinner roll type dough and thought I'd give it my own spin. The result is a pillowy soft roll with melted chocolate inside that has become quite a hit in this house. The chocolate provides just enough sweetness to make it feel like a treat but the dough is actually 100% whole wheat so it's a treat you can feel good about.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Rolls (adapted from this King Arthur Recipe)

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
3 Tbsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. butter, softened (or Earth Balance)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
1/3 cup dried potato flakes
2 Tbsp. ground flax meal (opt.)
1 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten
1 1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. or one envelope of yeast

~1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together all ingredients except the chocolate chips. The dough should come together resembling the texture of play-doh. Use the dough hooks to knead the dough for about 4-5 minutes. This dough stays sticky so it's hard to knead by hand. If you don't have a stand mixer with dough hooks, lightly oil your counter top and hands before you try to knead it. You don't want to add more flour to keep it from sticking.

Cover the dough and let it rise for about 90 minutes or until almost doubled.

Divide dough in half. Roll half of the dough into a rectangle 9"x8". Cut the dough into 6 even rectangles.

Place some chocolate chips about 1/3 of the way down on the small rectangle. The amount of chocolate is up to you but you'll need to be able to close the dough.

Fold the top of the dough to cover the chips....

and press the seam closed.

Lay more chocolate chips in the seam....

and fold the bottom of the dough up, sealing in the chocolate chips.

It's okay if the chips show from the ends. They won't melt out during baking.

Repeat with the rest of the small rectangles and with the other half of the dough. Lay the rolls seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover lightly with a piece of greased plastic wrap. Let them rise for about an hour.

They'll look slightly puffy but shouldn't be huge.

Preheat oven to 350*

Bake at 350* for about 20 minutes. You want the edges to be just barely golden brown. Move them to a cooling rack to cool completely if you don't plan on eating them right away.

Dust with powdered sugar if you like. These are best eaten slightly warm. They reheat nicely in the microwave for about 10 seconds.

Melted chocolate inside a soft, flavorful roll... doesn't get much better then that!

Warm hands on cold days.

When you live in the cold (currently -9 degrees and dropping) northland like we do having good mittens or gloves is pretty essential.

I have been wanting to have a mitten making spree here at our house using some of the old wool clothes that were given to me. Last night I went searching for the kind of pattern that I wanted- I wanted one with a set in thumb. I finally found one here with a pattern, instructions and a video. I tried the pattern out today and made a pair for Mara. I think I want to do some adjusting of the pattern as they turned out a bit smaller that I had anticipated (they barely fit Mara and don't fit me- they are better sized for the boys) and there are some other improvements that I would like to make but overall I like the pattern.

Mittens are very satisfactory to make as they are so quick and pretty easy. I am hoping to whip out some more pairs tomorrow!

What have you been making lately?