About the Author
Asalamu Alaykum and Greetings to all. My name is Karemah Alhark and I am the mother of 5 children, and I’ve been married for close to 18 years now. (Praise be to God) I was born to Muslim parents, Akram and Jalylah Alhark, however was separated from the as a young girl and was raised by my Catholic grandmother and her husband for the majority of my life.I believe I’ve always had the desire to bake and cook. It’s something that I discovered that I liked to do early on. I can vividly remember the very first time that my mother let me in the kitchen to bake something. I made a bean pie and I couldn’t have been much older than 5 or 6 years old. I remember my mother allowing me to add whatever ingredients that I wanted to add into the pie. I mixed, stirred and added ingredients as if I were a professional. Yes, I can truly recall feeling grown up at that moment, and as I prepared the pie to go into the oven I was filled with excitement. I couldn’t help but wonder what the end result would be of all that hard work I put into making this bean pie would be.
I put the pie in the oven and I figured about 45 minutes should be enough time to bake my very first masterpiece. Of course 45 minutes seemed like forever to me and I couldn’t stand waiting so long. I glared through the tiny window of the oven, to see if I could tell what the pie was doing. How it was looking, but the tinted color made it very difficult to see exactly what was going on in there. Finally the time had arrived. It was a little longer than 45 minutes, more like 50 minutes when we decided that the pie should definitely be ready to come out of the oven. I could hardly stand the excitement. I was most certain that my pie would be wonderful, and I just couldn’t wait to have a taste of it. My mother took the pie out of the oven for me and there it was. Hmm. I looked at it. I certainly didn’t look the way I thought it would. I mean, it didn’t look like any of the desserts my mom had made for me. I analyzed it for a while. We both did. It was rather lumpy, and a drab brown. It didn’t look to appetizing to me. My mother was trying to be encouraging though. We’ll let it cool off for while and I’m sure it will taste good. After looking at it, I think I had lost the nerve for having a taste of it. My heart sunk! I wasn’t the great baker that I thought I was. I could tell that it wasn’t going to taste good and waiting for to cool off wasn’t nearly as exciting as waiting for it to come out of the oven was. “I think it should be cooled off enough for us to taste it now”, my mother said. “Okay”, I replied in a low unconfident voice. My mother cut a slice for me and one for herself. The sight of that pie made me feel horrible. Whole beans inside of a pie crust. I reluctantly took the fork and broke off a piece of the pie. I lifted the fork to my lips and tasted it. “Oh God, “ I thought to myself. This tastes horrible. I tried not to let the expression show on my face that I hated the pie. It was one of the worst things I’d ever tasted in my entire little life. It tasted like lumpy beans with honey in it. My mother tasted the pie also. She had an interesting look on her face, for sure. She didn’t say that it tasted awful though. My mother was far too considerate of my feelings. She said that it had potential and that maybe we could work on it. “Amazing!” I thought. She’d actually let me back into the kitchen after this fiasco? Quite honestly, I don’t think that I ventured back into the kitchen to do any more baking or cooking here at my mother’s house and it wasn’t until I moved in with my grandmother that I dared to try anymore baking projects.
Granny was an awesome baker and a wonder at cooking. I liked eating her food and she was well rounded making dishes from all over the world. Also my grandpa Johnny was a great cook too. They both loved to make International dishes. I was in training with my grandmother from day one. I was reluctant to bake anything myself. I think I was a little hesitant to get down in the kitchen after that first unsuccessful project I had with my mom, but I loved to just watch my grandmother work in the kitchen.
After some time, I worked up the nerve to do more than just watch. I began to pitch in and help granny do things like, add the spices, measure and sift the flour, drop the cookies on the cookie sheets and so on. My first love was baking and I never really got into cooking until I became a practicing Muslimah in college. I’d have to say when I started liking a certain young man, who I wished to impress for marriage is when I really got into cooking and baking independently of my grandmother. By then I had been in many years of culinary training with Grandma.
Well that certain young man and I didn’t quite work out. He went his way and I went mine, but I definitely was prepared to tantalize my husband’s taste buds when I did finally get married. I think I must have bought into the saying that the key to a man’s heart is through his stomach.
Aside from cooking, I have also done some independent study on diet and the affects of various foods on the body. While some of my family members have studied herbs and how they can be used for medicinal purposes, I have taken interest in the study of food and the benefits that they may have on overall health. I have had the experience of nursing a few family members to good health with my cooking and dietary regulations. Namely my husband , whom I was able to relieve of his allergy symptoms, my son Musa of his seizures, my father who I was able to control his blood sugar through low carbohydrate meals so that he was insulin independent, and I was also able to cure some of my own diet related ailments as well. I also like the study of herbs. I am familiar with some of the herbs and their benefits, however I spent more time learning about the benefits of foods. I found this to be most interesting. Of course I am not a physician or a dietician and nor do I claim to be. If you have medical problems or chronic ailments, you should always seek the advice of your physician. The recommendations and information that I give are not to be used as a replacement for sound medical advice.
I’ve only given you a brief over view of my life and interests. I’m currently a student of marketing and business. I also home school my children. Some of my hobbies are making soap and skin care product, gardening, reading and walking/hiking. I hope that I’ve given you a good view of who I am and what some of my passions are. I look forward to connecting with like minded people and offering useful information to you.
Ma’salam,
Karemah
About the Book
Halal Healthy MealsThe conception of Halal Healthy Meals is one that I stumbled upon. It was totally deliberate initially. My Sister and I were trying to come up with ways to raise funds for a business that we wanted to start. We have been writing Islamic readers for Muslim children for a long time now. On and off we would work on this project and finally we decided that we wanted to see this project come to fruition. We know of many people who have written works that were never published. Projects that just never got off the ground and this is something that we didn’t want to happen to us. We didn’t want the fact that we have children and many responsibilities to be an excuse for not getting our works published. So my sister Jamila decided that she wanted to write a book about homeschooling for Muslim families. And I decided to write a cookbook. Many people have told me that I should open up a restaurant or a bakery and well I have to admit, the thought never appealed to me much. I mean I’m not the sweat it out day and night over the oven type. I love to cook and bake, but I can imagine that working in a restaurant would definitely kill my love for the art of cooking. I do like to cook and all, but I appreciate my leftover nights, like any other mom. We are so busy and I couldn’t commit to such long and arduous days away from my family doing this sort of work. However, I could contribute my knowledge and passion for cooking and baking in a recipe book, I thought. And this is how the idea of Halal Healthy Meals came to life.
Now initially I thought that this would be an easy project. Just add your recipes and ask other sisters to contribute and then just sell the book. Well I’ll say this, this hasn’t been the easiest project to put together. I’ve done lots of typing, picture taking and research. Mainly because I decided not to just put in some recipes and call it a day. I decided that I really wanted to add useful information to this cookbook. I believe that it’s really vital for people to be educated about the differences between good and bad foods. This book presents a wholesome way of eating that will bring blessings from Allah, improved health, as well as delicious tasting foods. So in short Ibadah, good health, good meals; we’ve got you covered. It is a collaboration between myself , my friends and family who chose to share some of their favorite recipes. I’ve also included ayyats and ahadith about various foods, eating manners, information about the importance of zabihah meat, some of the most common foods that appear in the book, and their beneficial qualities, and some foods that we should truly stay away from and the reasons why.
Here at this blog and my facebook page we can get even more in depth about important nutrition issues and share some great recipes.
