Sah Rah Bash

Oh yeah, I wrote something

sahrahbash — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:43:21 +0000

It’s a bit late, but check out my article on Malaysian indie pop star, Yuna. She is a whole lot of awesome stuffed into one person. And don’t forget to check out her music. You’ll fall in love.

Indie Star, Yuna Rocks Out
by Sara Elghobashy

Yunalis Zarai AKA Yuna, 24, is a Malaysian independent singer-songwriter. The Indie music scene is growing worldwide and Malaysia has discovered an artist that is strong enough to bring her own voice, and rock her own style. With the release of her album last July, Yuna is already taking the music world by storm. Her sweet sound captures raw emotion that leaves the listener addicted. A talented artist and a young business owner, running her own clothing boutique, Yuna is a shining example for Muslim youth.

You can read the rest here.

Filed under: Music Tagged: elan

I Love Fake News

sahrahbash — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:40:48 +0000

I love satire. And sarcasm. And funny people. And funny people who write funny things. So read these.

Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Muslims [The Onion]

Outrage Over Plans to Build Library Next to Sarah Palin [The Daily Mash]

Will Barack Obama Love America Enough on 9/11? [Gawker]

Poll: One out of Five Americans Do Not Believe Obama Exists [The Borowitz Report]

Filed under: Comedy, In the News, Islam

Too Tired to Title This

sahrahbash — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:55:06 +0000

Bits of random thoughts and a few links. And I’m tired (as evident by this title), but I still wanted to share these.

1. The book, “I Want to Get Married” is almost out. I’ve read about the blog, seen the TV show and heard my cousins talk about how funny and insightful Ghada Abdel Aal is. I think it would be really interesting to read her book and I’m looking forward to its release. You can pre-order it now.

There was an NPR article written about the book and the “marriage crisis” in the Middle East. In it, Ghada Barsoum, a Cairo-based psychologist, discusses the pressure behind marriage, stating, “It’s this whole issue of completeness. You’re not a complete person unless you’re married. It’s so different from the West.” I have to disagree. It’s not different than the West. In America, we have phrases like “my better half” and “(s)he completes me.” I don’t know about the rest of “the West,” but I imagine there isn’t much difference. No? Also, plenty of young women feel the pressure to get married before they turn 30, even in “the West” (shock face!). In fact, I was just watching a show the other day in which a 20-something-year-old explained a pact she made with a male friend that they would marry each other if not married by the age of 30. And that wasn’t the first time I’ve heard something like that.

2. “Eat, Pray, Love” was not a good book. In other words, it was a bad book. If I wasn’t a crazy person that had to finish every book I started, I would have quit a third of the way through “Eat.” But no, apparently my OCD outweighs my desire to be happy. Now that the book has been made into a movie, I can only imagine the level of awful. And on top of that…Julia Roberts. Now, please read this.

3. This guy is awesome. Read more about his project.

4. You all know how much I love Jon Stewart. Well, now I love him even more.

5. And Keith Olbermann.

6. You need to check out Yulia Brodskaya’s PAPERgraphics. These may be old, but they’re still awesome.

Filed under: Book, Comedy, In the News, Middle East, Television, Women

Things I Love: Ramadan Cards

sahrahbash — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:27:29 +0000

Growing up, it seemed that the Hallmark store had a card for every occasion—except for the occasions that my family celebrated, like Ramadan, Eid, Katb El Kitabs/Nikkahs, Aqeeqahs, etc. In college, I discovered the wonderful world of etsy and finally had a place to buy cards that were relevant to events in my life. My latest find is Muslamb Paper Goods’ Ramadan Card Set. It’s really cute, no?

Muslamb Paper Goods also makes an adorable “mash’allah” card that I love. Check it out.

Filed under: Things I Love Tagged: Cards, Etsy, Ramadan

Cake Pop Update

sahrahbash — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:54:33 +0000

I made the cake pops last weekend. Like a genius, I didn’t take pictures of the process or the finished products so I can’t really show you how they were made or what they looked like in the end, but let’s use our imaginations together. They were pink and round. The end.

I learned a lot from this run so I’ll share with you what I’ll be doing differently next time. The recipe calls for 12 ounces of frosting to be added to the cake before forming the cake balls. Next time, I think I’ll use about half of that. The cake pops were too sweet for my liking. Don’t get me wrong, they were edible but I prefer my sweets to have the least amount of sweetness possible. I know I write (and tweet) about desserts a lot so one might get the impression that I have a sweet tooth (and I do), but my taste buds really can’t handle desserts that are too sweet. Most of my sweets are vegan, sugar free, or are made with sweeteners rather than sugar. The sweetness factor is also the reason I rarely enjoy traditional Arab desserts like baklava or konafa. Yeah, yeah. Another reason I’d use less frosting, it’ll make the actual cake balls less heavy and therefore, they won’t slide of the popsicle stick as much. Or at least I think that’s what would happen. I’m not a physics major.

Another lesson: Instead of refrigerating the pops, I’d freeze them. It makes coating them much easier. When the fridge-ing wasn’t working, I froze the rest and it made applying the candy coating a more pleasant experience because the cake balls weren’t sliding down the popsicle every two seconds. Also, pieces of cake didn’t fall off when they were frozen. And you don’t want cake falling into your candy coating.

That’s all. Next time, I’ll try to get fancier with the pops and maybe attempt an animal pop like the ones I showed you. Hopefully, I’ll remember to take pictures this time. I mean, it would be great to have a functioning memory.

Filed under: Food Tagged: Baking, Cake Pops

Hanger Tea

sahrahbash — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:02:13 +0000

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of tea. I keep at least eight varieties in my cabinet at any given moment and I’m totally a snob about the type of tea I’m drinking. (Yes, I really am that crazy.)

Unless you’re a tea super fan, you never really think about tea packaging. However, someone out there has given it a lot of thought and the results are adorable!

I learned about Hanger Tea on the Yanko Design blog. Created by Soon Mo Kang, the hanger tea-shirts (eeee!) were designed to hang on the rim of a cup. Not exactly sure how functional the tea bags are since those handles look kind of flimsy, but the design is brilliant. If they ever came to a store near me, I’d definitely buy a package (or three) just for the smile factor.

Filed under: Food Tagged: Design, Hanger Tea, Soon Mo Kang

Things I Love: Oh Joy! Notebooks

sahrahbash — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:26:23 +0000

I have a thing for notebooks and these are adorable. I want them.

"Things to Note" Notebook

"I Love..." Copper Notebook

Pinwheel Notebook

Floral Buds Notebook

You can find more of Oh Joy! designs here.

Filed under: Things I Love Tagged: Notebooks, Oh Joy!

Goal: Learn to Make Cake Pops Like These

sahrahbash — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:36:39 +0000

How adorable are these animal cake pops by Bakerella? I’m attempting to make them this weekend. Will let you know how it goes. (Don’t expect greatness because I am far less talented than Bakerella.)

SO cute!

Filed under: Food Tagged: Bakerella, Baking, Cake Pops

The Greatest Thing to Happen to Today

sahrahbash — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:11:49 +0000

So this morning I was watching a marathon of Monk on Sleuth TV (don’t judge) and reading MadeByGirl‘s blog, when I came across the greatest site in the world: Ming Makes Cupcakes. This site is a cupcake lover’s dream! I immediately had to share it with my friend at RubyRaving and a colleague that is as cupcake obsessed as I am. Eeeee! Can’t wait to try these recipes!

Filed under: Food Tagged: Cupcakes, Made by Ming

Things I Love: Fruit Totes

sahrahbash — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 01:08:02 +0000

How cute are these? I love the Arabic transliteration on them. So original and adorable. You can find them at Kimball Prints’ etsy shop. Enjoy!

Filed under: Things I Love Tagged: Arabic, Fruit Totes, Tote Bags