Marble in a Bundt

Tags

baking, bundt cake, bundt tin, cake, Friday Feast, marble cake, recipe

I have been wanting to get  a Bundt Tin like forever in my life… But when I would go to a shop and ask for it half of the people would look at me with a face which is a mix of shock, ignorance and disgust sigh, some will be polite to ask what it is and then I would have to have the task to explain them how does it look while they give me a what are u talking about look…….. and the few very few who will know what it is just wont have it… and inspite of this I would insist that they take down my name and number and call me back when they get it…

So imagine my state when last week I got a call from a store saying that they have got it… I couldn’t believe my luck, really couldn’t 🙂 and without wasting any time rushed for the shop zest someone take away soon to be mine Bundt Tin 😀

And day before yesterday I baked my first bundt cake… there is something ceremonious about them isnt it 🙂 I baked a simple marble cake… I personally thought the marble didnt come out very well inspite of the fact that I have made the marble cake with this recipe like umpteen number of times but the softness and the texture of the cake was brilliant… I will have to master the art of getting the marble right in the Bundt…

Anyways here is the recipe…

Ingredients

• 300 gms flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 300 gms sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 200 ml fresh cream
• 6 eggs
• 4 tbsp coca powder
• 2 tbsp butter and a handful of powdered sugar for dusting the cake

Method

• Divide the flour in two equal parts, to one part add 1.5 tsp baking powder and sift them together thrice and keep aside.
• to the other flour add the coca powder, baking powder and sift thrice again… u can also add coffee to it… i usually skip it because ojas loves to eat cakes
• Beat the eggs, sugar till fluffy and then slowly add cream to the mixture and beat some more
• Divide the above mixture into two
• And add one part to the above created and sieved flour mixtures… Add vanilla essence to the one which doesnt have the coca powder
• mix both well to have a smooth batter… so now u have two batters for the marble to be created
• Pour both the batters alternatively to achieve the marble effect….
• Bake at 200 deg C for about 35 mins or till the knife comes out clean
• when the cake is hot brush it with butter and sprinkle the powdered sugar on it

how about some tea and cake 🙂

7th is ojas’s second birthday and this time I am thinking of being brave and making the cake for the party myself, only problem is that I am not too good with the icings… if any of u have a fool proof icing recipe, pls send to me… pretty urgent please as I want to give it one trail run before deciding on whether to order or make at home

Who do we want to keep alive?

Tags

26/11, india, justice

I am raging with anger now… wanting to slap anyone who comes in front of me, as it is I had restless night… the visuals and impact of 26/11 kept flashing through my mind all night and when in the morning about 6 I just gave up on sleep and picked up the newspaper with tea…

I think that was the biggest mistake I did… the news I read was the most disgusting piece of news one could wake up on – Rs 31 crores spent on keeping Kasab alive!

Why???? I am really so angry that the only words my fingers are wanting to type are F$%^ and other such….

We know from day 1 that he is the one behind it, Pakistan has disowned him from day 1… then what exactly are we waiting for? spending 31 crore on him? When there are actually that many poor and hungry people which could be helped by that…. when that money could have actually gone for the development of the police force, for the education… god dammit every part of our country needs money and we know it…and we still spend 31 crore on keeping kasab alive…

And when I am raging in anger, I am just thinking about the fact that what will the families who have lost a member feel when they read this news this morning… Gosh the only thing I can hope is that they dont get the paper today…

When we learn to deliver Justice…. when will be realize that justice delayed is justice denied…

First Step towards my dream

Tags

backyard, garden, gardening, kitchen garden, kitchen gardening, organic vegetables, vegetables

In this world which is fast becoming a concrete jungle I consider myself very very lucky that I have a place where I can manage a garden… some flowers that I showed u here (I have some more snaps of them, coming up soon) and to top it all my all time dream to experiment with organic farming ok well no farming… making a organic backyard is coming true…

Lately I have been growing a lot of stuff in my small kitchen garden and now I am going to do what comes best to a blogger… he he show off the pics here… 😀 so let me take you for a virtual tour of my backyard…

karela aka bitter gourd

anar… i also had a papaya tree which died 😦

chillies… and these ones are really fiery ones… N had gone to a friends house in kerala and bought the seeds from there, apparently these are kerala special chillies… little tangy very hot

the normal chillies

ginger…. i love the smell of the leaves and ofcourse the end product

and this is some fresh ginger… plucked minutes ago 🙂

methi….

my plants in a row!!!

dhaniya………….

ajwain plant……..

care for some lady finger…

and what makes me most happy is the fact that I grow them organically… I make compost at home using kitchen waste and Daily Dump, a very easy home composting unit… and for insects I use neem, haldi and u know even cucumber peel help….

Its not a easy job but when after all this hardwork u eat what u grow the taste is out of the world……..

PS: coming up soon are my tomatoes, brinjals, brinjal, cucumber and pumpkin 😀

and yes if u are wondering about the title this is my first step towards my ultimate dream in life… step up a organic farm………..

Eat Pray Love : A review

Tags

book, eat pray love, review

I finally finished reading Eat Pray Love, I was initially wary of picking up this book simply because I hate books that are preachy…

But then D recommend this one to me and I thought ok let me give it a try and frankly I happy that I did because the book has some brilliant moments…

I love the Italy part and kept dreaming about the pastas and the pizzas and the gelatos all through 🙂 and the way she has described the pizza she eats in Naples I could almost taste it…

For me the the most difficult and the boring part in the book was the India part, the philosophy way too heavy and I kind of skipped through quite a lot of it… It might be appealing to someone who is intersted in spirituality of that kind but was not for me.. I believe in being spiritual in the very world you are living in… and I guess that is why the balance in Bali appealed to me so much

The best part of the book according to me was the final part in Bali…how truly beautiful… My craving to go visit Bali has increased even more…

My final verdict on the book : a good one time read

Rating 3/5

Book Eat Pray Love

Authors Elizabeth Gilbert

Price Rs 350/-

PS: and did I tell u that this post of mine has been picked up by Blogadda in their Spicy Saturdays 🙂 yippe time to celebrate!!!

Kadhi Chawal

Tags

food, Friday Feast, kadhi, kadhi chawal, pakoras, paniyaram pan, recipe

Now that I have come back from home I have yet another mom’s special with me… and this time its kadhi chawal…

I have already told you guys how much just how much I love the kadhi that mom makes and now here is the recipe… but I can bet you cant make it as well as she does 😀 😀

so drool first and then read he he

Ingredients

for the kadhi

• Sour Curd – 3 cups
• Gram flour/besan – 1 cup
• 2-3 cloves
• 3-4 peppercons
• 1 badi elaichi
• 1 tsp methi seeds
• 1 tsp mustard seeds (sarsoon not rai)
• 2-3 green chillies
• 1 tsp turmeric
• salt and chilli powder to taste
• 2 tsp oil
• handful of coriander leaves to garnish

for the pakoras

• 1 cup gram flour
• 1 chopped onion
• 1/ cup chopped mix vegies (optional, traditionally they are made of just onions but me and mom both like to add a little bit of veggies to it)
• 1/2 tsp dhaniya powder
• 1 /2 tsp garam masala
• salt and chilli powder to taste
• oil for frying

Method

for the kadhi

• beat the sour curd and the besan together, u can use a blender or mix them using the whipper
• heat the oil and add mustard seeds
• when they start to crackle add methi seeds and the rest of the sabut masalas
• fry for about 2 minutes and when they start to brown add chilli powder and turmeric
• add the sour curd and besan mixture and keep stirring for 5 mins
• Let it simmer for about 30- 45 minutes stirring in between till it leaves a nice aroma
• in the meanwhile get ur pakoras ready

for the pakoras

• mix all the ingredients together and deep fry in hot oil

interestingly this is where I have found a way to keep this healthier and avoid the deep frying (that is all I can thing of these days, N is so scared that I will change the way all his favorite food look and taste 😛 ) coming back to point… I make the batter a little thicker than normal and instead of deep frying them I fry them using a non stick paniyaram pan… uses much less oil…

• Now add the pakoras to the kadhi simmer for about 2 mins
• garnish with corriander leaves and serve with steamy hot rice

and did I tell u guys that one day old kadhi tastes absolutely yummilicous with hot paranthas… try it if u havent….

So what do u buy for your child?

This weekend being Children’s Day we wanted to buy a small gift for Ojas. We took him to lifestyle and let him pick the toy he wanted

I personally think that if u are going to buy a toy for the child its best that you buy what he likes… Now when I write this statement I know a lot of heads nodding saying yes but ever thought of happens next….

What if your male child wants to pick up a doll? or your daughter wants to pick up a gun? So how do u react in such situations?

Because this is what exactly happened on Sunday… in the whole store the only thing that Ojas was attracted to and could hold his attention for more than 2 mins was the Barbie cooking set 😀 and when I asked him what he wants to buy he told me cooking toys… So I bought it for him without even thinking once that I shouldnt have.

The problem started later when whoever I told this to reacted in a way that I found very surprising…. they laughed on it… ha ha ha boy will play with kitchen set???? my own mom even went to the extent of telling me that  you should have not bought it…

I have also observed that this problem is more  common when u have a son… (atleast in some area they are less partial to girls)… more eyebrows are raised when a boy buys a kitchen set or a doll than when a girl boys a gun or a car…

I have a huge problem with this kind of conditioning… this is what makes them grow up with a huge gender bias… If we tell them when they are kids that girls should play with dolls and kitchen sets and the boys with guns and cars and tools isnt it natural that they grow up with that bias? Why do we cringe some much if our child wants to be a different than what is conventionally right? This is what I always talk about as conditioning…

The conditioning of a child’s mind begins right when he/she is an infant and when they grow up we label them as MCP’ etc etc…

When they are young and what to make chapathis for you in their kitchen set we tell them that no boys dont do it and then when they grow up and ask for hot hot chapathis we complain

When they are young and they want to dress up their doll, we tell them that no let you sister do this and then when they grow up and dont pamper their wives we call them unloving and uncaring husbands

Me for one has decided that I am going to enjoy the tea that Ojas is making for me these days in his new toy cooking set and enjoy it as long as it lasts…

Its high time we changed with the modern times isnt it?

Random Update

Tags

bloggers block, personal, taj, vivanta, vivanta by taj, weight, Weight loss update, writers block, zuri

A lot has been going on in life but the will to blog seems to be missing offlate.. I think I have hit the biggest writer naah I am no writer the biggest blogger’s block.

I just dont feel like writing anything infact I dont even feel like reading the blogs, havent opened my reader in daaaays… So till the urge to say comes back strongly I am going to sit back and hope it returns soon… may be this post is the starting for that

weight loss effort are going nowhere at all… Its been 2 weeks I am back from vacation home and I have been doing nothing at all… no workouts… no diets… gosh how difficult it is to leave the inertia and come back to it… I have put a kg but I am sure that is not a big deal if I get back to it but I am not doing anything about it… High I do something… I just keep postponing it… from tmrw ok day after.. after this event or the other 😦 But I think its high time I am going to get back to it from tmrw for sure 🙂

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday and went to the Zuri for dinner… and the food there was awesome, the service great but I think the decor could have been a tad better…Now that we are talking of 5-stars we went to Vivanta by Taj some days back for a quick late night meal and what a pleasure that was… ofcourse it was expensive as it is expected to be… but the food..the ambiance.. the service.. brilliant… N ordered a prawn biryani and it was the yummiest I have ever had….

So whats been happening in your life? Will be back soon hopefully with a real post 🙂

Mom’s Special

Tags

blog meet, Delhi, food, Friday Feast, friends, mom, recipe

So I am back from a wonderful break at home… 15 days spent getting pampered by mom.. enjoying the food, Delhi shopping and Delhi in general… I tell u the city is a boon for shoppers and foodies and considering I am both its actually a heaven for me 😀

I also met some amazing bloggers there and that was the sone pe suhaga… and what an afternoon that was… Met Meira, nm, How do we know, SMM, Neera at the gracious host nm’s house… great talks were had with some awesome pav bhaji , pasta and kachoris and dhoklas which Neera got… this delicious food was followed by some amazing pastries that Meira bought… the kids behaved themselves, played with each other and the mom chit chatted over food as long last friends… Can it get better and then with a heavy heart at around 4:30pm we parted ways…  Yay guys I do too many blogger meets and would be happy to see too many J J comments 😀 👿

(Read what Meira wrote about the meet here 🙂 )

And now that I am back from home, let me put a Friday Feast recipe (coming on a Sunday… but just couldn’t manage to post it before even when the post was almost complete) which is my mom’s special…Bread Rolls…  I am sure a lot of people make it but this somehow remains mom’s specialty for us specially for N… When mom came to our house first time after my wedding she made it for breakfast and N instantly loved it… and now when everyone mom is visiting here or we are gone home that has become a must make breakfast… and the funny thing is that N calls it bread pakora and the first time he asked us to make bread pakora we were like really surprised because I didnt know he likes them but nonetheless we made it and when it reached the table…N was what have u made and then we realised that he is actually asking for brad roll 🙂

So here is the recpie of Mom’s Special Bread Roll

Ingredients

for the filling

• 1 big potato boiled and mashed
• 1/2 cup peas boiled and mashed lightly
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1-2 green chillies chopped
• handful of corrainder leaves chopped
• 1 tsp dhaniya powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp aamchur powder (dry mango)
• salt and chilli powder to taste

For the rolls

• Bread slices 6
• Oil to fry
• Some water

Method

• Mix all filling ingredients and divide it into 6 equal parts
• Take a slice of bread, dip it in cold water and then squeeze out the water
• Take a ball of the filling, place it in the bread and the fold the bread to make it look like a roll
• Repeat for all slices
• Deep fry in oil

Serve hot absolute sinful but delicious bread rolls with green chutney or sauce

I also make a little healthier variation of this which I stuff with mix veggies and mozzarella, bake it instead of frying… that turns out yum too… will post that soon after I make it next time, I need a pic to upload

till then enjoy the sinful treat

PS: I haven’t been able to come and read your blogs and reply to the comments… from past some time its happening so often that I am feeling bad saying sorry too now… but I promise to be more regular now… promise promise promise dont leave me and go haan 😀

Dumb and Dumber

Tags

fun, tag

Pixie did it and then Swati did too… So I thought let me check how dumb am I 😀

[] Gum has fallen out of your mouth when you were talking

[] Gum has fallen out of your mouth when you were NOT talking

[x] You have run into a glass/screen door

[] You have jumped out of a moving vehicle

[x] You have thought of something funny while walking by yourself

[x] Laughed, then watched people give you weird looks

[x] You have run into a tree/bush.

[ ] You know that it IS possible to lick your elbow

[ ] You have tried to lick your elbow… a few times

[x] You never knew that the Alphabet and Twinkle Twinkle Little star have the same rhythm.

[x] You just tried to sing them.

[ x] You have tripped on your shoelace and fallen.

[ ] You have choked on your own spit .

[ ] You have seen the Matrix and still don’t get it.

[ ] You’ve never seen the Matrix.

[ ] You type only with two fingers.

[ x] You have accidentally caught something on fire

[ ] You tried to drink out of a straw, but it went into your nose/eyes.

[] You have caught yourself drooling.

[ ] You have fallen asleep in class and fell outta your chair

[x] Sometimes you just stop thinking

[x] You are telling a story and forget what you were talking about

[ ] People often shake their heads and walk away from you

[ ] You are often told to use your “inside voice”.

[x] You use your fingers to do simple math

[ ] You have eaten a bug ***YUCK!!!***

[x] You are taking this test when you should be doing something more important ..

[x] You have put your clothes on backwards or inside out, and didn’t realize it

[x] You’ve looked all over for something and realized it was in your hand

[x] You have run around naked in your house.

[ ] You repost bulletins because you are scared that what they say will happen to you if you don’t.

[x] You break a lot of things.

[ ] Your friends know not to use big words around you.

[x] You tilt your head when you’re confused

[ x] You have fallen out of your chair before

[x] When you’re lying in bed, you try to find pictures in the texture of the ceiling or wall

[x] The word “ummmmm” is used many times a day.

TOTAL: 19

I am (19/37)*100 = 51.35% DUMB !

More than 50% !!! and same as swati 😀 So come on tell me how dumb are u