The Year that went by

Tags

new year eve, personal, recap

So its that time of the year when we look back and see what happened in the last year, the things we did wrong and the things we did right….

Last year January started with a news that shook us up… someone close was in trouble and all of us were shaken (thankfully everything is sorted now)… not certainly a good start we thought but being the optimist that I am I thought and believed that the worst is behind us and all that I will see next in the year is good news 🙂 and started in the mundane routine tasks of life along with enjoying my son growing up…

This was also an year when one more illness got added to my never ending list… I was diagnosed with Gall Stones and the doctor scared me off his room with a suggestion for another surgery… sense prevailed in my head and I shifted to Homeo which is doing well for me…

But we were hell bent not to let January pass by with only bad news and hence ended it with a fabulous trip to the Heaven in South… Coorg and came back ready to take life headon and to help that loads of filter coffee powder

February is a month which always brings along with love, love is all in the air everywhere and this time in Feb I decided to focus my energies in shooing Mutalik away by the help of PPC 🙂 what great month it was the enthu and the love quotient the highest

March passed in counting my blessings, working really hard in office.. fighting a little with N and then making up with lots of love… Life was bliss

But life is not really fair, sometime God plays these ugly jokes and when u are happy it think its the right time to test you… April brought along with it the worst of the news that could be possible… my company decided to cut down on jobs and I was laid off, went into depression for while fought with everyone around…. and then I realized that what am I doing? Touched by so much love from the blogsphere and the people around me in real life… I decided enough is enough and made up my mind to make most out of the time I am getting at home and take a break for a spend time with Ojas…which has turned out to be an excellent decision….

May was when I thought that probably this b log can be my biggest stressbuster (which has turned out true BTW) and started the Blog-a-thon aks NaBloPoMo and posted 30 posts in 30 days in a month without missing a day… the sense of achievement at the end of it was something really nice and yeah in May I also did my move from blogger to WP, so May indeed was the month for blogging

June started with my pledge to attack baking and cooking with a vengeance… I started baking and fell in love with it all over again, we also took a lovely vacation in the tea heaven Munnar in June and its now topping my list of most beautiful places in South India no make that India and yeah that was also the month when me and N saw the great driving challenge and decided to take up the challenge 🙂 a challenge which required something we both love blogging (atleast I do) and driving, though we didnt make it but we had fun and thats all that matters isnt it?

July marked the most important month of the year with me taking a pledge to get my health back… to lose 20 kgs out of which I proudly say that I have lost 10, not too fast but I am good with the pace… and I am happy that I have been able to do it!! This month will surely go down in my long term history as a golden month

August my birthday month, I am still a girl when it comes to birthdays… start planning it days in advance.. tell it to everyone who wants to hear and who doesnt want to hear but somehow I wasnt too excited about my birthday this year but N and a dear friend V made it up by planning that wonderful surprise birthday party…. Thanks for everyone who made my day

It was also a month when I completed 300 posts and got showered with love from all the blog pals which declared me as a HONEST person and thats something that matters a lot… I was flying in the air for quite sometime post that 😀

This was also the month Friday Feast saw the light of the day and my recipes started becoming more regular on the blog

Phew lots happened in this month, didnt it?

September gave me my first celebrity moment 🙂 I was recognized as a blogger, I was elated and terrified… and it has surely reflected in the way I write now… but a moment I will cherish for a long time

And October became my favorite month of the year with a 2 week vacation to my most favorite city in the world Delhi and my hometown 🙂 followed by the series of parties I threw for Diwali 🙂 I love being a hostess and I love festivals and I love dressing up and this was all rolled up into one what else do we need?

November was the month I started focusing again a little bit on my lost diet and excersice regime and also showcased my pride my backyard, my kitchen garden 🙂 a month in which N and me completed 5 years of marriage… phew isnt it long?

And with December came the end of the year again… which made me realise that my little boy is not little anymore he is become a 2 yr old now and I celebrated that with making a train cake for my little prince… something I will always fondly remember………

Its not been a easy year by any means but its been a year that made me proud of myself… A year in which I decided to make a house out of the stones that God threw at me… A year in which I took advantage of the time at my disposal and did some of the most important things in my life…

• GET MY HEALTH BACK
• SPEND TIME WITH OJAS
• FOCUS ON MY HOBBIES LIKE COOKING, BAKING AND GARDENING

Hope u guys had a good year too… and wishing u a even better one ahead….

I will be welcoming the new year at a farm house with Born Fire, Bar-be-que, music, good friends & Vodka 😀 dressed up as moll in a mafia theme party… Hope u guys enjoy the new year eve too… See u next year which is just about 6 hours away

HAPPY NEW YEAR TWENTYTEN

Plum Cake

Tags

baking, Friday Feast, plum cake, recpie

Note : I had scheduled this post for 25th Dec Xmas before leaving for Pune… as I thought that would be a perfect day to post a plum cake recipe… Only thing I think I had scheduled it only in my head 😦 anyways here it is with the title changed from Merry Xmas to Plum Cake and the various wishes 🙂

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup demera sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 tbsp rum
• juice and zest of one orange
• 3/4 cup ground almonds
• 1 cup mix of walnuts and cashew chopped
• 650 gm gms of dried fruits (I used raisins, dates, prunes)
• 2 cups maida
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method

• Heat the over to 160 degrees
• Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy
• Add eggs and beat some more
• Add the rum, orange juice and zest
• Fold the almonds, cashew, walnut and the rest of the dry fruits in it
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder and fold this into the cake batter
• Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) and continue to bake the cake for another 1 hour 30 minutes or until a long skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs. enjoy!!! It was so yummy that it got over in a day and ojas digged in it too much too… I made one more for him with very very less rum

PS: original recipe from here which BTW is an excellent site for baking recipes… somethings I changed in the recipe are I used rum instead of brandy… I dont like brandy and neither does N… I also used demera sugar instead of light brown and dark which is mentioned

Yippe

Tags

driving, pune, wedding

I am off to Pune today for a friends wedding and we are driving!!

Couldnt get better right…

See u soon folks 🙂

Moth Beans and Methi

I love all beans or dal in normal terms 🙂 🙂 and moth aka matki is a favorite… And I love greens and topping the list of greens I love is methi…. I can eat it in any form…

I am always looking & trying to make some innovative recipes with methi

This recpie happened last week when I was in such a mood… to have methi differently… I had sprouted Moth with me and I think sprouts can be the healthiest way to eat any dal, protein content the highest…. and digestion the easiest.

So I mixed them both up… and here is what I made… and it was the yummiest… got over in a jiffy 🙂

Ingredients

• 1 cup spouted moth/matki
• 1 cup chopped methi leaves
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 tomatoes chopped
• 1 tsp jeera seeds
• 1 green chilli
• 1/2 tsp dhaniya powder
• 1/2 garam masala powder
• salt & chilli powder to taste
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp oil

Method

• Heat oil and add jeera and fry for about a minute till they turn a little brown
• Add onions & green chilli and fry till they turn golden brown
• Add tomatoes and fry for another 3-4 mins
• Add the dry masalas (dhaniya powder, turmeric, salt, chilli powder)
• Add the sprouted beans and cook for 5 mins… dont overcook them
• Add the methi leaves and cook for another 3-4 mins
• Add garam masala and serve with hot chapathis

Can we have an Amol Arte please?

Tags

dynasty, india, Paa, politics, young politician

PS: spoiler ahead, if u havent see Paa yet u might want to skip the post, it does divulge a lot of info 🙂

Just one, just one would do… Ideally one in every state but its ok to start with one in he whole country will do…

U guys do know who I am talking about right? I am talking about the dynamic young aspiring politician ready to take the world of corruption and dirty politics head on potrayed by Abhishek Bachan in Paa

What a character… A character in a hindi movie I fell in love with, A character I am desperately wanting to see become real, A character that our nation desperately needs

A character who has the means to go study Political Science in swanky foreign university but wants to come back to India to change the political system

A character who doesnt hesitate to tell his girl friend that we BOTH need to focus on our career right now and the baby can come later & no I didnt find anything wrong in that.

A character who when becomes a MP ACTUALLY works hard for the people

An MP who thinks out of the box and gives the award for the vision of India to a white globe 🙂

A MP who has the guts to do sting operation live on TV initially calling it his confession, he could have been written off even before the program began

A MP who finds time to actually fulfill the wish of a child suffering from a very very rare illness

A MP who when comes face to face with his child he didnt know comes boldly on the TV and says “I should have used a condom”

A MP who goes further and admits publicly that its his child…

I was blown away by the character, one such politician can probably help change the face of nation… atleast start the change

Also Paa helped me look at the dyansty issue in politics from a very different angle…

Amol Arte in the movie was the son of a well known and established politician, now think of any normal person who has no connection in the political world but has the same zest, same will power, same strength… infact for a moment lets forger Arte in Anmol Arte… how many of you think he did have the chances of becoming an MP at the age that is shown in the movie?

May be 10 years later he would have… but think about whaat would have happened in those 10 years… his josh, his youth would have died, he would probably have at some point have to succumb to the corruption to rise as he doesnt have the backing to do otherwise.

Does anyone of you remember Lok Paritran… a political part formed my ex-IITians… a brilliant idea which didnt really take off, now imagine one of them having some political lineage, do u think it would have made a difference?

I do agree that lineage gives an undue advantage but if we have someone like Amol Arte coming out of it do we mind? I dont what about you?

So here is my xmas wish to God… Give us on Amol Arte please….

The List

Tags

avant garde bloggies award, award, bloggin, nominations

And finally my list is ready, after days of digging into archives of the blog, sometimes even forgetting that its for nominating a post and just reading to my delight 😀 what a activity this has been…. loved it to the core

so here is the list

Best Short Story Post

The homecoming by Pixie – http://mytakeoneverything9.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/the-homecoming/

The house of the SUNK by Pal – http://writerzblock.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/the-house-of-the-sunk-fiction/

A week of life by Prats – http://prats.co.in/a-week-of-life/

I am a ghost by Shail http://shailsnest.com/wp/fiction/i-am-a-ghost/

Best Off-Beat Post

Bimbo and other sports by ritu http://www.phoenixritu.com/2009/11/19/of-bimbo-bashing-and-other-sports/

Pangi a true story by Sols http://mesoliloquy.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/professional-mourner-rudaali/

Free Hugs by Crafty http://craftyshines.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/free-hugs/

Best Book Review

Pallace of Illusions by Mad Momma – http://themadmomma.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/the-palace-of-illusions/

Multiple book reviews in one by Smitha – http://books-life-n-more.blogspot.com/2009/11/time-to-justify-name-of-my-blog.html

Best Movie Review Post

Kurbaan by Rakesh http://rakeshzone.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/kurbaan-movie-review/

Kaminey by Ritu http://www.phoenixritu.com/2009/08/18/signs-that-we-are-finally-coming-of-age/

Most Interesting Personal Rant Post

We wake up late here by Mandy http://churningthewordmill.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/we-wake-up-late-here/

Most Humorous Post

Sach Ka Samana by Don Soli http://mesoliloquy.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/bloggers-in-sachai-ka-saamna/

Times of Fatherhood by Hitchy http://hitchwriter.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/the-times-of-fatherhood/

Best Travel Post

Travel to Munnar as told by N http://highwaytravels.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/tea-heaven-munnar-the-journey-from-bangalore/

Best Visual Post (Photos, Cartoons, etc.)

Munnar thru swaram’s eyes – http://thesongoflife.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/straight-from-gods-own-country/

We are same but different by Mama Mia http://amateurabe.blogspot.com/2009/10/we-are-same-same-but-different.html

Best Culinery Post

at mandy’s baking buddies http://bakingbuddies.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/beans-cauliflower-casserole/

Best Poetry Post

An amorous antithesis by Prats – http://prats.co.in/an-amorous-antithesis/

Ode to my once slim waist http://www.phoenixritu.com/2009/05/25/ode-to-my-once-slim-waist/

Best Public Interest Post

A commendable post by Ra on alternative education in india – http://www.likhati.com/2009/09/27/alternative-schools-in-india-some-advantages-and-disadvantages/

Best evocative Post on Parenting

A post that still gives me shivers by Goofy http://impassionedchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/10/can-we-hear-sobs-of-tiny-voices.html

I want I want I want by Kiran http://karmickids.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-want-i-want-i-want.html

Blog Awards

Most Beautiful Header

Life of our Darling Prince http://ourprinceojas.wordpress.com/

Color Me Sunshine http://colormesunshine.wordpress.com/

Indyeah http://indyeahforever.wordpress.com/

Best Blog Design

Weaving a Web http://www.phoenixritu.com/

The Self love project http://www.theselfloveproject.com/

Most Disciplined Bloggers

IHM

Most Networking Blogger

Without any doubts this has to be Hitchy

Most Responsive Blogger

Solilo

So time is running out have u nominated yet? if not then head here NOW

My Moment of Glory

Tags

blogging, fame, interview

Who doesn’t like a bit of fame 🙂

So guys time to say congratulations…. I have been interviewed… About 2 months back I had got a mail from them saying they would like to interview me and I really couldn’t believe it, was mighty excited about it but was traveling and totally forgot about it till I got a reminder from then…. Go read it here

And yes go ahead and say the kind words I am all ears today 😀

Weight Update

Tags

Weight loss, Weight loss update

Pratically the last weight loss update I did was on Oct 13 and is Dec 11 today… sigh thats almost 2 months 😦

I feel ashamed of myself  but its so damn difficult to get into the groove after you come back from a vacation that too a long one…. Every day I would think that I will start today and everyday something or the other will hold me down… basically its nothing but the will and the damn laziness but last week I decided that enough is enough and started back…

I feel so good to have got back in the routine that I cant tell u, I think there is a great amount of satisfaction u get when you do what u want to do and when u see results even better… hope to stick to the routine now

and as for the numbers 🙂 here they are

Initial Weight : 94.3 kgs

weight before the break : 84.2 kgs

weight after the break : 85.8 kgs :(all this is due to mom’s food I tell ya

Current weight : 84.6 kgs

The good thing about this is that I put only around 1.5 kgs after doing no workout at all and binging on the food like crazy for about 7 weeks or so and out of which I was able to shed almost all in a week… So in the long run I dont think I will put back all the weight I lost immediately after I stop like people are scaring me

Where I secure my place in mommy heaven

Tags

., baking, birthday, cake, icing, mommy heaven, Ojas, recpie, train

Isn’t there is this rule that you if you bake a fancy cake for your son you go straight to mommy heaven 😀 well then I have secured my place there he he

I made a train cake for Ojas this time…  and here I present it to u….

Last time when I asked you guys for some icing recipes in my mind I was wanting to make a car cake but when I searched the internet for some pictures and TMM sent me this link, I got really scared of the shaping involved. This being the first time I was going to try anything so elaborate I was just not getting confidence on looking at those cakes

Then I remembered that she had made a lovely train cake for the munchkin’s first birthday and I told her I might just pick up her idea and generous soul that she is smiled and said go ahead 🙂 thanks avanti  (its a different story that my cake is not half as pretty looking as her’s but I am happy with mine too 😀 )

So with that lead and the icing recpies you lovely guys had sent me… I started out to bake the cake for Ojas….

The bogies and the engine are actually all baked in rectangular break tin’s or tea cake moulds. I bake in total of 5 such cakes and assembled them together.

The engine is Chocolate Temptation (for those of you who asked I have updated the post with the rec) in which I have layered half of the second cake on top of the first to give it the engine look.  There is a ginger bread man sitting as the driver of the bogie on the side and the chimney is half cut ice cream cone filled with gummy bears and on top of that I put the 2 year candle

The three bogies are plain pound cakes with this butter cream icing (which I modified to replace shortening with white butter as the shortening was not really available anywhere near my house and later when A sent me her frosting recipe I realized its the same :D) flavored with Green Apple essence and green color

On the first bogie I put some chocolate rolls as logs, the next one I lined up with gems and wrote Happy Birthday, the next one had Ojas written on it…

The last one the guard box is the left over half of the chocolate part of what I put over the engine… again there is a ginger bread man sitting there as a guard and the icing is the same as above but an orange flavor.

All the bogies and the engine are joined together with chocolate wafers and the wheels are the coin chocolates.

I would be kidding if I say that oh it was very easy there was a lot of effort that went into it, I baked all the cakes and made the icing ready on Sunday evening and then put together the cake on Sunday afternoon but the end result gave me an amazing amount of satisfaction and ofcourse the place in mommy heaven 🙂 may be next time I will really be brave enough to try the car cake.

My Sister’s Keeper : Book Review

Tags

book, My Sister's Keeper, review

I finished reading My sisters Keeper quite sometime back and have been wanting to do this review forever but somehow was not able to get to it. I was not able to put my thoughts together for this one.

Its surely a book that was very good but not sure that I can say it was a book I loved… A book that dealt with a very sensitive subject in a very sensitive way…A very very strong book, infact I think its one of the strongest book I have read in a very long time. It moves you from within…. Its a very sad book probably that is the reason I am not able to say its a book I love 😦 there were times when I just kept the book in the side to cry or to think

Its a book about a family who is torn between death and reality… What happens when a happy couple Sara and Brain with two lovely children suddenly comes to know that their younger one “Kate” has a very rare form of leukemia, apart from being devastated they decide to bring in another life in this world to save the existing one. A designer baby people ask but for them its just about saving their daughter… And this brings in “Anna” to the world…

A child brought into the world to be her sister’s keeper… how does she feel all through… The book deals with multiple dimensions of the issue – Anna’s side who keeps doing whatever she is told to till she gives up one day and walks into a lawyer’s office to file a law suit against her parents…. Kate’s Side who doesnt know how long will she live and when she’ll have to rush to the hospital again and ofcourse the parents side who really only want the best for all their children… how the eldest one becomes hostile and the destroyer because he cant be the keeper.

Being a parent myself today I shudder ( infact I cant even imagine to think and pray to God that no one ever comes in this situation) at the thought… What would I have done? Would I have let go of the child? Its not a easy situation I know as a parent we want to do everything that we can to prevent our child from the smallest damage and then this is death but would one put another child in danger to save one? I really dont know… Probably Sara was the only character I really couldnt identify with in the book

But on the whole a very strong, brilliant but a heartwrenching book, I think a must read for everyone

Rating 4/5 *

Book My sister’s Keeper

Authors Judi Picoult

Price Rs 295/-

*interestingly when I finished this book I gave it a rating of 5 at goodreads but now I really dont feel like giving more than 4, may be I have anlaysed the  book too much