I'M BACK & MARRIED NOW!

Hey guys,

I know its been months since I last posted but I've been so swamped preparing for my wedding with my love, Geegee which happened on the 4th of October :-) Four good months checking out decor, sampling food, looking for tents, etc. 

I missed blogging and more-so I missed cooking. I hardly did either these past months. There were days I did takeout and days I just got home and slept cause I was too exhausted. It was challenging but thankful for all the grace God provided to strengthen us during the whole process.

I've seen God move in this wedding process. From restoring my family to providing exceedingly and above all our expectations. God gave us so many amazing people to stand with us who prayed and gave of themselves so much that we can't even think of ways to repay them enough. I must say that God is the mater planner of weddings. He is faithful to the letter and He really does grant us the desires of our hearts. His will for us is beautiful and good and He can do the impossible simply because He is God. BE ENCOURAGED. Whatever you many be planning or believing God for right now, trust Him to make a way. Don't lose hope. Believe Him in spite of all the odds. 

Soooooo, its a lot different now, I'm married and now making my home. I love being a wife to Geegee. I honestly can't imagine doing life with anyone else. I love taking care of him. I keep finding myself automatically cleaning and tiding everything and whenever that happens, we usually say "wife mode!" is loading. Lol. Also I'm super excited to take this blog to the next level since I have so many recipes I'm looking to make for the hubz and to share with you guys so that we can all enjoy cooking a bit more. I also plan to make this an official blog with my own domain.

I'm excited to start new segments for all the newly wed wives/husbands looking to learn how to cook healthy, quick yet tasty meals for their spouse and to top it all off GIVEAWAYS, because who doesn't love freebies :-) So bear with me guys, it might take a couple of mths but I guarantee you cooking with Jaz is just getting started.

So before we get to all that, below I have a few pics of the BIG DAY and a few pics from our South African honeymoon and of some of the food we encountered on our adventure there. These are not the official pics from our photographer of the day but great shots taken by friends and fam who attended the wedding :-)

 Pic with my father before leaving for the service :-)

Can you tell how excited I was! No nerves or anything! Thank God!

Pic with my best maid Joy before walking down the aisle.

 

 Above: My gorgeous matrons aka my sisters, my beautiful nieces, two as my junior bridesmaids and one as my flowergirl. Yes I have that many nieces, the fourth one was one of my bridesmaids :-)

Below: Some of my bridesmaids, Sheila, Susan and Ruthy. 

The bridal party getting ready to dance down the aisle to one of my favorite tracks "make up by Pompi"

The groomsmen walked down with numbers counting down to me walking down.

Below: our handsome pageboy with the GAME ON card.

Walking down with both my parents.

 The reception decor before placing the centerpieces. Exactly how we wanted it, simple and elegant.

The wedding service area. Heavenly.

The stretch tent! Absolutely loved it.

me ;) and my gorgeous bridesmaids in the background.

US!!!! Married!

First breakfast married :-)

 At the airport ready to check in

 Geegee goofing around

The sunrise as we left Kenya.

They had the new Marymary album on the Ethiopian airlines! Shocked!

After an hrs transit in Ethiopia and a 4 1/2 hr flight we landed safely in Johannesburg South Africa!

After chilling at a guest house in Joburg and at another hotel on our first night in Durban, we discovered and settled at the most beautiful boutique hotel, the concierge and they had they had the most amazing gourmet food ever, even for breakfast. I'd recommend them any day if you're looking to visit SA.

Sweet potato fritters and poached eggs

Carrot cake any day

Dinner out at Spurs with some friends

Ushaka Marine world! the pier was beautiful.

Its only right to have rainbow cake when youre in the rainbow nation :-)

I'm in love with Eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce.

And you can't possibly leave SA without hitting Mcdonalds!

Now this was sooooo good yet so filling. Its basically bread and mutton curry they call it a bunny.

Best Mocca ever with coconut and melted white chocolate at Mugg and Bean.

 

Travelling back  home after a week of adventuring ;-)

So those were just a few pics from our amazing time there with the hubz. Think of it as a sort of summary. Its been such a beautiful season and I'm so glad to enjoy this new phase with him.
I promise that my next post will be about food, lol! For real!
Thanks for being so patient with me during my short hiatus!

As always, I'll have you know:-

-I'm up to 11,700 + pageviews-thankyou Jesus! and thank you all for following and trying out my recipes.

-I'm now on Youtube, you can subscribe and check out the video here: CookingwithJaz

-I am officially on twitter on this account (@cookingwithjaz)

-I am also on Facebook on this page "cooking with jaz"

-If you want to be featured on the "GUEST AND RECIPE OF THE WEEK" email me on "cookingwithjaz@yahoo.com"

-If you have tried any of my recipes, do tag me or send me the pics on any one of my social media pages

Have a lovely week :)

Sincerely,

Jaz.

A COLORFUL NIGHT: RED CURRY WITH YELLOW RICE & A GREEK SALAD

Happy Tuesday-ing like a friend of mine would say. * Shout out to you Angie :-) *

How about a little spice to start off your week.

I've always been a fan of the red-chicken tikka that is usually charcoal grilled, but last night I was in the mood for a stew yet I wanted that sharp red color too. So I figured I'd make my own spicy meal and created a red curry. Bought some very strong curry powder, a whole lot of veggies and some chicken thighs and made what you see below.

Never been a  fan of yellow rice yet I needed a vibrant plate and the yellow and red clashed so perfectly :-)

The meal was even more spicier than I expected, I guess I owe that to the extremely spicy curry powder I got and to think I got the mild-medium one..tsk tsk....so I figured a nice Greek salad would sooth things down since it was basically a grated cucumber and some yoghurt.

Ingredients:- serves 4

1 1/2 cup Jasmine rice

2 tablespoons turmeric spice

5-6 chicken thighs

3 tablespoons curry powder

Black pepper

1 packet tomato paste

3-4 tomatoes

1 cucumber

1 courgette

1 egg plant

1/2 cup Peas

1 green pepper/ capsicum/ hoho

1 tablespoon royco

1 tablespoon tomato red food color

3/4 cup maziwa mala/ buttermilk/ sour cream

2 onions

4 cloves garlic

Ginger

Vegetable/olive oil

Salt to taste

Start off by washing the rice. Chop 1 onion. Heat vegetable oil in a sufuria and add chopped onions to cook. Add the 2 tablespoons turmeric powder and cook for a few seconds before adding the rice and water.



















Follow by adding the rice, a bit of salt and 3 cups water and leave to cook for about 10 minutes. Once it is done, cover and put aside.

Wash the cucumber and grate into bowl. Press out all the water with your hands since the cucumbers carry a lot of water and we wouldn't want the salad to be watery.

Add natural yogurt, a bit of black pepper, a hint of lemon and some salt. This salad is very simple and slightly sour. The original recipe calls for Greek yoghurt which is a bit hard to find here in the Kenyan market. I used natural yogurt which works as well but I'm still on the hunt for a thicker yoghurt. Put aside.

 Start of by washing and chopping all the veggies except the tomatoes. Grate the tomatoes and put aside. In a sufuria heat oil with chopped onions, garlic and ginger. Follow by adding grated tomatoes and then tomato paste and curry powder.

Leave to cook while stirring continuously. After that add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes. Once the 5 minutes are up, add the chopped courgette, egg plant, peas and chopped green pepper.

Mix 1 tablespoon royco in a 1 1/2 cup water and add to the sufuria. Cover and allow to cook for 10-12 minutes.

 After that mix 1 tablespoon red color and maziwa mala and mix into the stew. Add a bit of black pepper and salt to taste.

Cover and cook for another 10 minutes for sauce to thicken. The beauty of chicken is that it cooks very fast so no need to overcook. The aim is to for all the ingredients to blend beautifully together and to release all their flavors.

Once it is ready, serve with yellow rice and the Greek salad in a small bowl separately.

ENJOY

And for those who were curious about my short two week hiatus, this is why, my bestie recently got married and I must say God is amazing!!! Here's a snippet of how it all went last Saturday.

Just look how stunning she was :)

Her and her love <3

Two of the bridesmaids :)

Me and my love with the bride and groom <3

Also I'll have you know:-

-I'm up to 7000+ pageviews-thankyou Jesus! and thankyou all for following and trying out my recipes.

-I'm now on Youtube, you can subscribe and check out the video here: CookingwithJaz

-I am officially on twitter on this account (@cookingwithjaz)

-I am also on facebook on this page "cooking with jaz"

-If you want to be featured on the "GUEST AND RECIPE OF THE WEEK" email me on "cookingwithjaz@yahoo.com"

-If you have tried any of my recipes, do tag me or send me the pics on any one of my social media pages

Have a lovely week :)

Sincerely,

Jaz.