Yummy!!! Chili Con Carne!!!

Can you guess what did I have for dinner last night? CHILI CON CARNE! And how I love the taste and the aroma of Chili Con Carne eaten with French loaf and butter… especially when it was about a month since mum last cooked Chili Con Carne.

Mum's scrumptious original Texan chili (Too tasty for words!) 😉

Chili Con Carne is a Texan-Mexican food and it is very popular among the Texan as well as the Mexican. In fact both the Texan and Mexican claim that this scrumptious food originated from their native lands!

Chili Con Carne can be eaten with French loaf, tortilla, plain crackers or add it to your hot dog and it’ll turn your plain hot dog to a Chili dog! Anyway, the Chili in the Malaysian A&W Chili dog does not taste like Texan Chili at all.

We ate our chili with French loaf and unsalted Lurpak butter (Mmmm....)

Chili Con Carne is also delicious with baked potato but one of the most popular ways of eating Chili Con Carne is to eat it with tortilla chips, melted cheese, sour cream and jalapeño peppers. The Mexican named this ‘finger licking good’ recipe nachos! The Mexicans also eat Chili Con Carne with corn bread or steam rice.

Chili Con Carne is also delicious that we can enjoy it in so many ways. My mom tried dipping some left over banana fritters (or in Malay we can eat ‘pisang goreng’) in her Chili Con Carne and she said that it tasted good! In fact maybe we can even enjoy Chili Con Carne with naan, prata or even chapatti ;).

Ahmad Ali (and everyone else too) loooooooooooooves Chili Con Carne!

As our late American friend Professor Muhammad Al-Mahdi (the founder of Khalifah Institute) said it is almost impossible t buy the original Texan or Mexican Chili Con Carne in Malaysia. In fact my mum learnt how to cook Chili Con Carne after learning how much Professor Muhammad Al- Mahdi missed his favourite food; something that he had not eaten for more than twenty years since he became a Muslim. Used to live in Texas, Professor Muhammad Al-Mahdi used to tell us that the only thing he missed about America is the taste of original Texan Chili Con Carne. How good is mum’s Chili Con Carne? Well, Professor Muhammad Al Mahdi rated my mum’s Chili Con Carne as the second or third best in Texas and the best outside America! And when somebody else him Chili Con Carne he always knows that it was not cooked my mum! 🙂

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A Smart Boy Learning To Count

My little brother Ahmad Ali loves watching advertisements on television. Well, not only did he watched them but he also tried to understand them.

One day he told us that he was puzzled over one advertisement. The advertisement shows a boy (who was supposed to be smart) came home from school and when asked by his mum about what did he learnt in school he started counting from 1 – 8.

My little brother argued that it is very funny that a smart ‘big’ boy had just learnt counting from 1 – 8 in school when he should have learnt them when he was two years old.

The other day our father’s friend Pak Cik Saidi offered him some cookies (that he knew Ahmad Ali loves). So Pak Cik Saidi was puzzled when my brother refused the cookies. When asked, Ahmad Ali said that he still loves the cookies but he do not want to eat them because they are ‘not good’.

He then explained that in the advertisement a pair of siblings who wanted more cookies stole their father’s cookies. They even replaced the cookies (that they stole) with play dough cookies! He stressed that those are bad values and he won’t want to be like them (by eating those cookies).

There are a number of other advertisements that he used to complain about. These included advertisements featuring kids fighting over the advertised items and also an advertisement showing a pair of siblings fighting over a game of Play Station. Fighting is bad value and Play Station is empty fun (which is also bad).

It makes me wonder that if a little boy could be able to value things; why did the adults who ‘create’ the advertisements can’t? My little brother once said that it is okay for him because he knows that junk food and lollipops are bad but what about the other kids who had not known about it? And what about the ‘cheating’, ‘stealing’ and practical jokes (by kids on adults) that been featured freely in advertisements? I’m really proud of my little brother; he may has his ‘angin’ sometimes but he is a wonderful boy!

Note: Allahyarham Prof Muhammad Al-Mahdi (the founder of Khalifah Institute) really loved and was very close to my brother and until the last day of his life, Prof Muhammad kept on reminding him about the good values, Khalifah responsibilities and on being a good Muslim. Ahmad Ali who was 3 when Prof passed away really miss him until today.

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day! My Father is one of the greatest people in my life. He is hardworking, very strict; but most of the time he is fun to be with. He took us on trips. We even went to the USA twice! We went there for more than two weeks on the first trip and for the second time for almost a month. He took us to all kinds of interesting places. He also took us to Indonesia and Singapore. He also took us to restaurants, parks, bike rides and all kinds of interesting activities.

He is also funny. He would tickle us and play with us. He also taught us computer… all kinds of computer software like the Microsoft office. He would always make sure that we perform our prayers, read the Qur’an and also remind us to be good Khalifahs of Allah. But unfortunately he is not a good cook. He can only cook maggi. 🙂

Abah, WE LOVE YOU VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY MUCH.

My Article: Our Solution To A Better Future

Today, the world is facing a very big problem. People hurt each other for no reason. For example, a boy who was walking down the street got killed by a stranger. The boy did not do his killer any harm. All of this must be stopped. We cannot let it happen anymore. But how can we solve the problem?

This problem can be easily solved if everyone in this world is a good Muslim; but that will be almost impossible. However the world will be a better place if we can all learn to respect each other and live in harmony regardless of our races and religion. We can do all these by learning how to be good Khalifah of Allah. The most wonderful thing is, one does not have to be a Muslim to learn all these important things.

Allah told us in the Qur’an that we are his Khalifah. As a Khalifah of Allah, we need to make ourselves good, help others become good, and make the world clean and beautiful, pleasing to Allah.

Our first responsibility as a Khalifah of Allah is to make ourselves good. This means we need to perfect ourselves first. We have to do only good things. Never do the things that Allah doesn’t like. We cannot hurt other people’s feelings. If somebody treats us badly, just ignore them if possible. We must not always fight back or say bad words in return. We must lead a life as a good Muslim so that others can follow our steps. We must always forgive others and also ask for forgiveness both from Allah and also people around us. The world would then realize that Muslims are the most wonderful people on Earth.

Our second responsibility is to help others become good. We should command the right and forbid the wrong. We have to advise others to do good things. If we see some teenagers loafing we should advise them to do good things and spend time wisely.

Our third responsibility as a Khalifah of Allah is to make the physical world good, clean and beautiful pleasing to Allah. We have to recycle, plant new trees, make things from material that can be recycled and avoid polluting the world. We must not throw rubbish anywhere we like. Imagine, living in a very dirty place where there is rubbish everywhere. People will start blaming each other for throwing rubbish at their compound. Another example is a factory that throws toxic waste that can kill people, trees and animals. Cutting down trees can cause serious flood and landslides that could kill many lives. People around the area will get upset and angry; and it can cause a fight. If it gets serious it can cause a war.

If we really can learn to cooperate and be good to one another the world will be more peaceful and beautiful. People would not easily commit crime, even bad people would think twice before doing bad things to others because they will be caught and punished. Muslims must be wise and if we are good Khalifah of Allah, we can even lead the world. Allah gives us the Qur’an so that we can learn everything that we need to know. Let us stop hurting each other, instead let us work for a better future.

Written on February 2006.

My mother

My mother ‘s name is Asmahan Ahmad. She is a wonderful cook. One of my English teachers, Prof Muhammad Al-Mahdi, said that my mother cooks the best chili con carne outside Texas, second or third best in the world. He is an American who used to live in Texas and also the founder of Khalifah Institute. She can cook lots of kinds of food: spaghetti, soto, chicken rice, briyani rice, pasta and a lot more. I will say that she could be one of the best cook in the world.

She is also kind and always help my siblings and me with our school work. We scored good marks because of her. She always have interesting projects for me and my siblings. We did glass-paintings, craftworks and lots more. She is a really wonderful mother.