Baked my cake & ate it too !!

Well, this was a special cake and so had it all getting started real early (2 weeks)! like I soaked raisins, nuts of all types and orange peel in 2 cups of RUM. Should have mentioned, its not for the light hearted....

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups butter
2 cups brown sugar
A pinch of salt
1 Tsp baking soda
2-4 eggs (upto you)
4 Tbsp fresh orange juice
4 Tbsp strong coffee
Few drops of vanilla essence
All the soaked goodness
A 9" cake tin lined with baking paper

* Get the butter to room temprature
* Beat the eggs until fluffy
* Add butter and sugar to the eggs and beat
* Sift the flour and add baking soda & salt
* Beat all of the above together with the coffee & juice
* Fold the nuts into the batter and empty onto the tin

Bake for an hour at 375F ( Pre-heated oven ) or until a skewer comes out clean.
The colour will probable say it all, all dark brown on top, the crust well baked all around.

I dont recommend frosting for a fruit cake, but this was spl...how often do married couples share their B'day?

"MERRY CHRISTMAS"

Santa baby, slip a sable under the tree, for me
Been an awful good girl
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, a ´54 convertible too, light blue
I'll wait up for you dear
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the fun I've missed
Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed
Next year I could be o' so good
If you'd check off my Christmas list
-Bee Doo Bee Doo

Santa honey, I wanna yacht and really that's
Not a lot
Been an angel all year
Santa honey, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa cutie, theres one thing I really do need, the deed
To a platinum mine
Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, fill my stocking with a duplex, and checks
Sign your 'X' on the line Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations bought at Tiffany's
I really do believe in you
Let's see if you believe in me
Boo doo bee doo

Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing, a ring
I don't mean on the phone
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Hurry down the chimney tonight
Hurry down the chimney tonight...

Eartha Kitt

Whats in a cake?

Bangalore has more bakeries on any given road than grocery stores and the unique dishes made here are seldom seen elsewhere...Ive relished "Apple cakes" and feasted on them like theres no tommorow! What are they btw?

I, with a hope of recreating them here googled apple cakes and realising none matched namma bakery style, added Bangalore to the search.......
Blogs, blogs and more blogs of my generation ppl who have apparently grown up eating this appleless wonder!

It is difficult to generalize the way they are presented in the glass cases! some bakers give it a nice coloured icing ( not my type ) while others care a little less and callously dust some coconut to make them look intresting ( might be I pity these less cared for cakes )I miss that cheap little delicacy!

How do I describe it?
Every sweet tooth's fantasy, every school over-home returning kid's budget matcher, every baker's leftover cake da amalgam, every savoury veg puff's best companion......

Post bridal blues

Exactly 1 year ago...I was the so called 'blushing' bride! well, today when I see the wedding snaps, how I wish I'd smiled more...how I wish I hadnt had that stupid migraine....

The snaps dont have much to say, though the fact that it was definitely an elaborate, traditional and extravagant wedding is well potrayed!

All I want to do now is attend a wedding again and sit through the whole thing, feast on the spread, wear all my wedding sarees which apparently is gathering dust!

I'd love to meet all my relatives (distant agony aunts) who were once (For God knows what reason) always waiting for my wedding feast! I'll ask them if it was worth the wait!

I secretly miss the buzz that was around me, but now the whole holiday season means a lot more than cookies and vacations...its time for anniversaries, birthdays and hence...gifts and surprises!

ps: Almost forgot...HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY to my beloved hubby,
Bala/Balu/Pondy/Skandy

My Mecca in Portland

The name is "Powell's books", location - Portland downtown, no matter what I say, how well I might describe, you will have to see it, experience it to believe it! It should have a tag to it like the hindi cinemas, the board should read...

"POWELL'S BOOKS" - Book lover's Mecca

It is a 36,000 sft block.....as in, the building covers the entire block!pretty overwhelming for a non chain book store.

The entrance has a huge help desk with people ready to help, always smiling. Am sure the questions asked are so repetitive and yet the reactions so patient. The rooms, rather halls are named after colours...red, blue, orange, gold, etc...and each colour has about 2-3 categories of books.

If I could in a span of 3 days in Portland visit this store twice, I wonder how many times book lovers of Portland visit it!

More than the collection, its having used books as well which got me fascinated. Old books have a distinctive odour of their own, something that reminds me of my days of 'Enid Blyton' reading.

Powell's was one of the highlights of our Portland trip and glad we made it twice!
I would gladly suggest it to anyone anyone visiting portland, who is even remotely intrested in books to visit this amazing place.


PS: The annex, a coffee shop just adds more charm to it!

Click to listen.....

One amazing song by "Dean Martin". Listened to it in so many movies, so many ads and TV shows that Ive fallen in love with it, even have been thinking of taking some dance lessons...salsa might be!

I listened to this last in the movie - SEXY BEAST the song was yes amazing, but the acting job by Ben kingsley, yes the 'Gandhi' guy is so good that the movie though a wee bit drab tends to get hilarious!

Sweet tragedy

Balu is a foodie and surprising him with special dishes is something I love to do. A little difficult considering his ever vivacious intrest in exploring every kitchen cabinet, every evening!

This is our first Diwali together and I planned on spicing it up with suprises and infact tried real hard in succesfully hiding an instant jamun packet from his exploring eyes for 2 weeks. Today morning after confirming the final tips from my mom, I started making the jamuns & everything went on fine ;

Perfect sugar syrup...TICK
Proportionate dough...TICK
Golden fried balls....TICK
And to add to perfection, a dash of saffron and cardomom to the syrum...TICK

It really looked so good, a little too much for my first attempt, I anyway patted my back and let them cool patiently (Pretty difficult task for someone who considers jamun as a fav sweet)

Remember it all was meant to be a surprise! so I managed to drown the unmistakable heavy smell that engulfed the whole house by spraying FEBREZE all over. I then picked a neat box to stash away the jamuns, this is when my heart stopped...the jamuns were breaking, I picked one and realised they were gooey inside! hadnt cooked a bit and was now tasting bitter...they were repulsive and I, heart broken!

Dejected and all sorrowful, I called my mom and lamented. She then asked if I had fried them on a low flame...well, how was I to know? Medium here is pretty much fine for frying and I took that for granted! Such a disaster.

Bah, so much for my surprise, This afternoon Balu gets to eat with a dose of the saying..."Dont judge a book by its cover" Feel like the wicked witch from fairy tales now!!

Hopefully I cook something good tomorrow and make it a happy Diwali indeed.....

Twisted pasta

One yummy, healthy dinner, with a ton of inspiration from "Food channel".

2 cups of Rotini
Fire roasted pepper
Bread crumbs
Roasted almonds
Cilantro
Olive oil

Cook the rotini until pretty tender and have it drained. Chop the roasted peppers, grind the crumbs with the almonds and have them coarse. In a large mixing bowl, toss the pasta, crumbs, peppers& olive oil. Add salt & pepper to your specification and garnish with cilantro and grated parmesan.

The colours seen in your platter are so amazing, the crumbs and nuts stick to the curves in the pasta and make them all the more intresting! Giada did say so and she was so true.....

Ayn Rand

" We the living ", an impressionable novel by Ayn Rand is just the 2nd one that has had quite an impact on me. " Atlas Shrugged " being the first, also an Ayn Rand creation. She really has her special way of letting each reader imagine the whole setting, the characters though are so vividly described that she leaves no room, absolutely nothing at all for our imagination. So I believe John Galt in everybody's vision would be so akin that if I get into someone's head, I can say hello to him!(Please assume this person knows who John Galt is)
Getting back to "We the living", I would love to suggest it as a read for any person who needs to be motivated in a, well.....strange way!I also decided that this would be the perfect gift for someone special, for any occasion until it bombed. It was Raji's B'day and I thought Id suprise her with the novel, assuming she wouldnt have read it. I was so wrong, not only had she read it, but also had bought her own copy!!well, that was the last time I gifted a novel without checking if they already had one!

Our Fridays

There is this cozy bakery with a cafe on 25th street in our town Ogden ( a historic avenue with beautiful family owned bistros and boutiques).
They offer a wide variety of oven fresh breads besides various other muffins and cookies. We hit this place every friday, pick coffee and atleast two varieties of bread samplers.....Pumpkin chocolate spice, cinnamon raisin etc....and add on a cookie or two as we play chess for hours! They have this novel idea, provide a variety of intresting board games, intresting coffee table books and lure in customers and keep them coming for good..:-D well, it did work with us. We love the time we spend there, our constant coffee refills and we even talk of opening one such place ourselves. We fancy starting a little restaurant which serves pizzas on weekdays and authentic Indian dishes over the weekend .....sigh wonder when!

A platter of emotions

I have always wondered what to answer when Im asked " Do you miss home? " of course I do, what do they expect me to say ? ' I love this place so much, every street reminds me of Bangalore, every person reminds me of my friends, every new made to order dish ( after repeating NO MEAT, NO FISH ) reminds me of bhel puri!!! who am I kidding? I miss home every single day, who doesnt? Actually its the independence I had and felt cognizant of that I fail to invoke here that makes me feel alien.
The other day while on a local bus, there was this annoying co-passenger who persistently picked all the calls he got and was needlessly loud. People didnt seem to be bothered or irritated, which seriously made me wonder! That was when I missed being in a BMTC, Id yell my head off or frown furiously at any such geek!
There were times when the guy filling petrol into my Kine never seemed to make it to 100, he somehow managed to stop the metre at 99.78 or some odd number. Not that the money bothered me, it was the attitude those guys showed that pushed me to ask them to complete a 100! Then they would make a face, grin and make it 100.some odd again, I didnt ask for extra, just do what I ask for please!
All these old memories that flooded me on that bus surely had some impact. The same day I was happily walking down a street in SLC and at a crossing, pressed the button that would later flash the green light for the pedestrian. It was a busy afternoon and the traffic was pretty heavy and so the lights didnt come on for a long time. This is when a bespectacled lady behind me grew impatient and yelled..." Press the button DUM DUM " was she talking to me? I looked around and realised yes as we were the only two souls there! That was it, couldnt let some moron call me that, did she say that just because I am coloured? wow, this was when the tigress in me pounced and irately yelled back "You DUM DUM a pity your glasses didnt tell you Id pressed it already"
oops!! was that me? I was red with anger, frustration and yes relief!!! must have been a spectacle coz she just backed out, walked away and well, I didnt care anymore it was a new me, a happier and more confident me! Odd that it felt so after such an episode. Nevertheless, life has been great after that and all thanks to that scum bag!

Cricket mania

Every Indian has something to do with cricket; we either love it or hate it but just dont ignore it! not even in a country where all it means is a noisy insect!
Getting the cable connection that has channels telecasting cricket matches is pretty expensive especially considering the fact that we seldom get to watch it live, given the timezone constraints. Nevertheless, getting the scores online, updating it every few seconds with just the refresh button shows how deep the cricketing nerve is rooted.
The lighter side of decisive matches lies in reading the constant streamline of comments & views & whatnot, getting updated faster than the scoreboard. We have die hard fans abusively cursing ill performing players, foul mouthing countries they hate & an occassional inapropriate call from a desperate lover who brazenly writes in......'Sonia I love you'.
Well, drama or masala to an already successful epic...CRICKET

Between siblings

Everytime my sister calls,we discuss almost everything under the earth that happened the last 3 days (we speak atleast twice a week)and a lot of the conversation revolves around our respective culinary experiments,precedence to baking.
It so happens that neither of us inherited my mom's skills when it comes to baking,Id rather say we like to get away from the banal recipes and sneak in our own ingredients even though they are uncalled for...like adding in chocolate chips into a banana walnut cake or coffee into all cookies!unlike mom who is a conventionalist. No doubt our cakes and other bakes arent worth praises. Nevertheless,we enjoy our experiments and always manage to surprise our hubbies ;-)

Musings

The little things we take for granted are the ones we miss a lot down the line.Our friendly neighbourhood grocers aka Balaji provisions/Shetty angadi/Kaka angadi have that single item you forgot for that particular recipe saving a long trip to the chain of food marts.I miss being a part of Bangalore which still boasts of upteen number of bakers , yelling vegetable vendors and even the little florists who manage to make a very very decent bouquet for any desired price......sigh,will they all be there 5 years down the line?

Ps:All this started after I forgot buying tea from the Indian stores and realised Id have to wait for a week to drink tea again :-(

Eclipsed!

Total eclipses are a big deal right!The Lunar eclipse on August 27th was supposedly best in the West coast skies.I decided to be up and watch the whole thing no matter what time it happened.Fortunately for Balu,the time was not as unearthly as he'd dreaded and agreed to play game with me.We set the alarm for 4 and the coffee machine for 4:15 ( that unmistakable aroma would definetly get us up ) Mr.Coffee won the bet and we walked to our patio with the heady hot coffee and desperately looked for the moon.
Crazy as it might sound, we really did all this and the patio didnt help.We were up and had had coffee so there was no point in going back to bed right!Right so we walked down our deserted apartment complex and finally got a glimpse of a yellow speck on the dark sky.....'The moon'.
It was nothing like what I anticipated , on the contrary, there have been better noneclipsed moon sightings and yet we clicked a few snaps just to make this bizarre experience memorable ;-)

Madonna....A Diva

I remember I was so hung up on this song,kept singing it all through my pre-wedding days!My cousin Deepika was so bugged that she decided she would hate this song,all because of my relentless humming.......Time goes by so slowly.
Deepi heres to you, please listen to this again and hope for a comment that you consider listening to this sometime again.May be I'll hum it while doing your wedding shopping?

Ps:Clicking on the title will navigate you to my recommended website

Coffee time

Being a South Indian and moreover coming from a coffee addicted family , my morning starts with a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee.This beautiful tradition of mine took a set back after marriage until Mr Coffee came into our home.Its not that I name every appliance I get, it so happens that the coffee maker is called so and hence the attribution!Now gone are the days of instant coffee,my coffee now is freshly brewed at any time I set it for,making me a wee bit lazier.But well,the 8 months of being deprived of this beverage had to be made up for and what better than a little pampering?
So heres to Mr Coffee and all his counterparts who makes our everymorning a special one and also to the 9th century Ethiopian who brought this cup of life to us!

Piano.com???

Once in an interview I was asked which architect's work has impressed me.Well, Im a Charles correa fan and have always loved his work,but people here would relate better to architects with a better international standing and it was only Santiago Calatrava who came to my rescue for God knows what reasons!
While in school,we had had a subject called 'Contemporary architecture' where we got to study works of renowned architects of the modern era.There was a very impressive structure which for its stark nakedness and being able to blend in a classic atmosphere with ease caught our eye!This is the Pompidou centre in Paris,designed by Renzo Piano ( Rogers and Piano initially) The whole theme,the basis of giving colours to different services baffles the eye.
The other project 'Kansai international airport terminal' needs no introduction.Would be best to let the images to give the picture!we are talking about an artificial island built on the bay of Osaka!Who ever thought one could concieve in reality...... such stupendously mindblowing ideas??(this strong adjective was needed)

Well one thing decided....I need a brushup of my school work and yes,remember that my fav is Renzo Piano!!!!

Pink Monday!

A very unfortunate event on a would have been wonderful week!

Realised the importance of not being stingy or resourceful when it comes to WHITE clothes!After a wonderful dinner at a friend's place I bore traces of paneer and halwa on my favourite white capri.Balu did repeatedly remind me to wash it carefully!I did try my best at being careful and decided to try the setting 'Extra small load' on the machine.Well, but a teeny little more white additions would still make the load small right so went in and added a few more white delicates and a white cotton pajama which had some red frills to it!
Come on, Im not that bad, I smelt that red frill so fishy that I tried washing it in the sink to see if it would run, it didnt! so with all worries aside, I started the machine, added soap meant for delicate clothes and went on with my chores!
Little did I expect that red frill to play mean and turn my WHITE clothes to PINK!!!!


Lesson learnt-Please dont be stingy with white clothes pleaaase ,well unless you want a pink version of the same!

Cooking up wonders!

Onion Pakodas

Want to make some amazing pakodas?Im here to help...
A very easy recipie created by my sister got my guests licking their fingers and asking for more!a very simple way of making yummy onion pakodas with no twists!and to be honest I didnt have all of the ingredients and yet managed to get so many accolades...

2c Besan(Gram flour)
1.5 c Rice flour
Few green chillies,finely chopped
Lots of curry leaves
A pinch of red chilli powder
Salt to taste
1 med Onion cut to thin flakes
Oil to fry

In a large mouth container,mix the flours,salt and chilli powder.Add the chopped chillies and onions and absolutely no water(a very imp hint)
When the oil is hot( try dropping a very smll piece of the mixture and if the oil cooks it asap, its ready for more) just grab a handful of the mixture with wet hands and make a profile thats remotely round /ellepical and doesnt fall apart .Slowly drop it into the oil and wait till its done.Toss it around and get both the sides a nice golden brown;To get the proportion of salt try the first one and correct the deficiency if any!Now you are ready to fry them all!!!
Serve them with Pudina(mint) chutney or some tomato ketchup.

*Wet your hands often to get them sit together but see to it the mixture is dry.
*Adding grated carrot and cabbage is a great alternative.

I started off with no besan and no curry leaves the first attempt.Atleast I had some channa dal which I put into the blender and managed to get decent besan!

Hypocrisy

Everytime I came across the word 'Hypocrite' Id have to look into the dictionary just to get a better understanding of the term,wrt. different contexts it always got different!It always has been easy to relate to hippocrism when it is attributed to someone someone whose behaviour & character is easily distinguishable as someone showing 'Double standards'.
The Oxford dictionary states 'Hypocrisy' ; Behaviour in which a person pretends to have higher standards than in the case!
Well,this was why I never felt right to use the term in any conversation!It really would be easy to read & understand when it is some mean ,vain character who is the accused.
To accuse someone of being a hypocrite would my dear watson be a little too hypocritic itself!
As per me,everybody is a hypocrite is some way!Atleast a confident,succesful person would be.Its just overlooking their flaws,undermining them and walking on smooth ground until-----someone shows up with misattributes that youve been pretending you have no posession of!
Im sure you have grimaced and smirked your dainty nose when someone has indecently belched aloud in your presence,but I just cant imagine there exists a single healthy human being who hasnt belched even a single time, after a sumptuous meal!
Now if that is not being a little hypocritic.....then what is?

First ever!

Never knew I'd end up blogging,wouldnt say 'End up' especially given the fact that none of my projects have seen a long life.All my life Ive managed to atleast get a taste of everything Ive fancied...be it dance class to singing to guitar and even swimming!the last one was a total disaster!My engineering college ( Malnad Collg of enginnering) did have a facilitated pool, with a fairly facilitated coach (who managed to have a few nasty drinks just before the girls session began) and needless to say,my first year did see a lot of evenings spent trying to swim.Just to add intrest, I believe this is a routine amongst all the beginners or freshers to try almost everything provided,including this little pool (badminton and a stadium for running being the others).Sadly this little endeavor had a short life and ended no sooner than it started,for no specific reasons.
Within two years of finishing college,I realised that I was not the only one who had chances of drowning in a ship/boat or any water related accidents and once again decided to hit the water,only this time determined to come out swimming like a fish!Let me remind you that this was way after my college days and I had not only earned myself a bachelor's degree, but also a full fledged membership into the "Aunty's getting me a groom" club!So when I mentioned swimming to my aunts(any bride/groom hunter), they freaked out, literally eyes popping out and yelling...'Are you nuts? U'll tan,grow dark and who will marry you?' come on God, dont let this get to my mom...But litle does it go as per ur wishes and especially when uve given the responsibility of getting yourself a guy to everybody else!so within three weeks of my really refreshing lessons, within which I had managed to dive a couple of times, float easily and almost perfected the strokes...I was dragged out, talked out of it and thought to myself that its an after marriage thing!!
Well, if you feel that wasnt bad...listen to this one! when I got back to Bangalore after 5 years in Hassan ( yes its a B.Arch) I looked around for a guitar coaching class ( Guitar for dummies) and was initially asked to wait;apparently...I was of age and if I were to get married soon, Id have to move from my parents place and then again would have to find another place to learn guitar right! so ok I waited ...for two whole years!!That was when I decided that may be I was destined to remain a spinster ,playing guitar to her dogs!and if I could start learning now, may be in a couple of years my dog would sit beside and listen, may be sing along!!(I know cats sound better but I hate them) and believe it or not,I did find a guitar coach...he had a bunch of kids and a few college kids for his students,I bought my own guitar,started off and went on fine for a year!that was when my boredom got on me...I refused to practise and eventually lost intrest and dropped out of class!My poor guitar lies in my room, collecting dust.
Everytime my mom enters my room and looks at it, she gives me that 'I told you so' look...she had had warned me about my capacity or the lack of it to complete any task I take up...Now Im trying to get my non swimming husband to get the hang of swimming....thankfully for me, he doesnt take up anything if he thinks he cant commit to...so, though he doesnt blantly refuse, he's been postponing our joint swimming expeditions.....By the way,Ive been eyeing the piano shop which is just a few blocks away from our apartment.Should talk to Balu about it!Fancy having a nice black piano in the living room....
Grand arent we?