Microwave Cinnamon Crisps

If you conduct a poll among Indian mothers at this time of the year for the most frequently heard phrases at home, I bet these will be among the top 5.

Number 1 - I am hungry, give me something to eat - NOW!!!.
Number 2 - Can I watch TV for some(more)time...Ple..asee?
Number 3 - You have watched too much TV, switch it off - THIS MINUTE!!(This from Mom of course!)
Number 4 - Lower the volume!!!!(Mom again)
Number 5 - I am soooo...bored!!(kids of course, ONE long minute after the TV is switched off)

Other Mom phrases would be 'Please stop yelling and fighting with each other'', "You are both going into one bathroom each for the next 15 minutes''(this never works I tell u!) "I wish school never closed even on Sundays''.  Other kid phrases "AMMA...he changed the channel...''(followed by screaming lungs out), "You are a very bad Amma, wait till Appa comes home'', ''Let me tell your Mom what you are doing to me (my daughter threatening me if I don't give in).

Well... what do you do when you have to face this on a daily basis for 60 plus days? Let me tell you what I do. I chant the Alcoholics Anonymous prayer - " God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference'' And sigh...life goes on...Well, one of the things I certainly can change is a hungry tummy to a  full one...temporarily at least. One of my favorite quick snacks for times like this - Cinnamon Crisps. Nothing really fancy, but certainly tasty and quick. Butter, sugar and cinnamon applied on bread slices and microwaved to get crispy, buttery cinnamon flavored bites. If you do not like cinnamon, try cardamom. Or even a savory version sans the sugar and suitable spices...

Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake

   Its birthdays and birthdays in the family from January to May, April being the month of three birthdays and one wedding anniversary, July the month of 3 wedding anniversaries within 10 days! The kids' birthdays, more often than not, are celebrated at home. We normally keep it to a small group of their 'best-friends' at that point of time. The group was pretty much the same for the past 5 years and has changed only recently with my son's new all boys group. He had wanted all of them invited for his 9th birthday along with the old friends. He loves to have people over and we had to temper his enthusiasm.

He cried loud enough to scare the pediatrician in the hospital when he was born (turned out he was just very hungry!!!). He made me cry when as a 4-year-old, he never asked me to pick him up as Amma had a baby in her tummy. He is my staunch supporter most of the times when he senses me and hubby having a difference of opinion. He is a big foodie and loves to serve even water in style. His bed time reading - my recipe books a good number of times. Loves to draw sketches of cars and has plans to sell them to the Tatas no less - the first model to be sold to him. The little entrepreneur put up a lemonade stall, replete with a board which read "Rowjee's Lemonade Stall'' of front of our house last summer.

He has taken to reading detective stories and the outcome was this on our front door...Notice the logo and Bond.'A' Bond on the right:-)

Father-in-law has a home appliances store. Anirudh often accompanies him to the store. A customer had once asked if there were any 'offers' if he bought a television. Son seriously replied "If you buy a television at our store, you get the remote control free''. The then 6-year-old was kidnapped in his dream. He told the kidnapper that if he let him free, he would sell an air-cooler at a discount of 50% to him!  He had once told me with tears in his eyes that he would keep on collecting my pictures. The moment I die, he would paste them all over his room! Well, I did not know if I had to laugh or cry!!!

Back to the cake - it is a very important part of the birthday and we discuss ahead what cake it should be. I try to make it in line with whatever is his current fad. It was once a  Racing Track Cake , a Helicopter Cake the other year and this year a Beyblade cake (surprise, surprise!!). I tried to make one with a small beyblade drawing on it as. It turned out quite sloppy looking (me artistically challenged) but still the boys thought it was cool to have a beyblade cake and a home-made one at that! Notice (hard!) the 'L' in the middle which stands for a Lightning L Drago. I made this cake a vanilla sponge with almond, chocolate and whipped cream filling. 

I normally bake 2 cakes for the kids' birthdays. A chocolate cake doesn't fail to please most kids, so played safe and baked a Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake too. 

Cashew And Coconut Payasam

Entertaining is a pleasure. Entertaining foodies is even more of a pleasure. I love to cook, call people over and feed them. I like it when I see people relishing food. We are a foodie family. My father is an enthusiastic eater, but doesn't cook beyond the occasional sambhar or upma when my Mom is away. He keeps joking that its a good thing that my place is quite a distance from their place - dreads what would happen to his weight if I kept feeding him my experiments. When we were kids, he would make sure he got us snacks to eat even on short journeys . He would make sure my picnic lunch during my school days ended with a bar of milk chocolate. Brother loves to eat and does cook rarely, sometimes giving my Mom a day off from the kitchen on a weekend. My brother-in-law loves, loves food and is quite easy to please, whatever my busy doctor kid sis dishes up is happily demolished. Sis likes to eat, but would rather not spend any time in the kitchen on a daily basis if she could help it. My older sister is a very good cook, enthusiastic about cooking, but nothing that will be a three hour process puhleez, no thanks. No, am not going to bore you with more talk about my foodie uncles, aunts, cousins and the rest of the clan...promise! I bet I heard that sigh of relief:-)

Sis and family were to come over for lunch the next noon. The biggest budding foodie in the family is my son, I wouldn't have it any other way! He took a few of my recipe books to bed to help me decide what I could dish up. By morning, he was ready with the menu written on a piece of paper and put it on the fridge door. He even decided that the names of the dishes would be written on paper and placed in front of each dish (now whatever this is called, enlighten me!).

Foodie bonding also saw me give my brother-in-law a 'demo' of the Instant Microwave Brownie for those emergency sugar craving situations. The lunch was at short notice but there was no way I could not prepare at least two desserts for my  brother-in-law's sweet tooth. The other one was a creamy and tasty Cashew And Coconut Payasam.

Virgin Pina Colada

Its been super hectic the past few days, with the days just zooming past. Kid sis and family have come down for a few days, the entire extended family got together, we celebrated my father's birthday, shopped till the sis dropped. Saw all the stores in Bangalore I haven't been to earlier. I am not much of a shopper and normally all the marathon shopping expeditions are only sis-in-law comes down from the US. Very important part of the itinerary, the typical and much needed eat outs for the visitors, who are starved of the restaurant food in India, the true value of which only the desi living abroad knows. So lots more eating out, more shopping lined up before sis boards her flight. And again, as its a busy time at work too, blogging has taken a temporary back seat.  There are so many things we want to do in a day, spend time with kids and family, entertain (and be entertained;-) work, meet up friends, cook, bake , blog... sigh! But then, I would hate to neglect the blog baby for long (u can identify with this feeling I know!) and I have to say a quick hello and then rush back to my mile long to-do list.

The rising mercury levels has had all of us guzzling down gallons of water and nothing is more welcome than a refreshing cool drink. Here comes one of my favorites, a Virgin Pina Colada.  Pina Colada is a sweet drink with pineapple juice, rum and cream of coconut as its basic ingredients. A search for virgin pina colada gave me pineapple juice, coconut cream or coconut milk, whipped cream or ice cream as the ingredients. The result, a very pleasing drink with a hint of coconut and vanilla... a must try this summer.

Thyme And Garlic Bread Sticks

A week ago - I am debating if I must post these sticks here or not ...I am not very sure if I got these bread sticks right...am not sure if these are meant to be this way, texture-wise. I replaced some APF with some whole wheat, added some extra flour to make the dough smooth as the recipe says. But the dough must also be sticky. I added a bit of water to make it sticky. Baked some till a light golden brown, baked some a little longer as I thought a little bit more color would be nice. Refrigerated some dough as I can't fit the entire dough in one go in two of my ovens. All the while thinking I have done a mistake too many. Wasted effort...


But wait! They taste good!! In spite of me doing all that playing around! My kids have been eating these since the time they came out of the oven. My son just had 2 of these for 'dessert' after his meal. And I am already planning to bake these again very soon...variations, other similar recipes...you got it?

A week later-  I baked these sticks again today. I had baked these with part whole wheat previously and was left wondering if I had done it right. Halved the recipe and baked with only APF today. The outcome - Tasty bread sticks again. The conclusion- A forgiving recipe which will give you good taste. Don't we love recipes like these? Specially those with low fat and taste?


Am aiming at spacing out my bakes, particularly those with more sugar in them. So savory it has to be more often than sweet...sigh!! did not hear it? Double sigh!!! Dragging my mind away from the sweeter pleasures and moving on to the savory, the best thing that happened to me lately - yeast - is my savior. I now can't imagine my baking life without yeast. And if you know me, you know - if I think yeast, I think Champa... yes, I absolutely love her breads.

Her Cumin Onion Bread Sticks are one the many bookmarked recipes on her blog. Am hoping, if I can like these a lot after possible not-to-be-dones, you can surely try these too. As Champa says, you cant really go wrong with these - soft or chewy or crisp, doesn't really matter. A nice snack to munch on, a lovely tea -time treat. Add flavors of your choice to suit your taste, keeping the basic recipe the same. Champa made with cumin and pepper, I made with thyme and garlic. You could try mint, fenugreek, coriander, grated cheese, mixed herbs and red chilli flakes...

Olive Oil Walnut Brownies

OK. I admit. Again. I was living under a rock all these years! Because I discovered brownies only recently. Am discovering that I LOVE brownies - big time. Oh, why did I not try these all these years? I am discovering I am partial to the fudgy, moist ones. Those made with melted chocolate tempt the die-hard chocolate lover in me. Add some toasted nuts and make them less sinful with the addition of olive oil - I am at a very serious risk of gorging on these every now and then. Someone stop me! Help!! The decadent looking Olive Oil Walnut Brownies on Deeba's PAB have been haunting me since the time I saw them. I finally made them and so very glad I did. Made with melted chocolate and olive oil, they are moist, chocolaty and so delicious! Crispy top, moist and chewy inside. The walnuts add the nuttiness and crunch which goes so very well with chocolate anytime. They take a third of cup of olive oil for a tray of brownies, a big plus for those counting calories or not wanting to use butter.   Beware- since these brownies are not as rich as those made with butter and tend to be high on taste, you may realize that the entire batch is over even before you know it!

I have made the recipe as is on Deeba's blog, except for the reduction of sugar as she mentions that lesser sugar should be just fine. I found the brownies just about sweet, which is perfect for me. I think half a cup of chocolate chips should make these brownies extra decadent. That's a note am not going to forget the next time I make these bites - truly darned good bites Deeba, thanks a ton for yet another keeper of a recipe!

Crispy Cottage Cheese Fingers - Uber Yumm!!

Kids can sometimes embarrass you like anything! A familiar, not-so-pleasant-situation for most parents. They say the most innocuous things at the most inappropriate of times. Innocent words which will have all the 5 liters of blood rushing to your face at that instant and in retrospect send you into peals of laughter. A mother of two, I have had many many such moments. Once, we were at a friend's place for lunch and the meal included pooris. My then 3-year-old son had asked me ''Amma, what is this?'' I sheepishly told my amused friend that deep-frying is something I rarely do. . I had once made pooris at home, my parents had called and hubby gleefully told them the highlight of the day. My Mom was shocked, brother wanted to know if the pooris were ahem, actually 'real' pooris or microwaved or baked ones. Oh yes, they had fun at my expense! My daughter had once wanted to know if Gulab Jamoons can also really be made at home!

Seriously - I really have a reputation for not making deep fried stuff. And no, am not proud of it.  Not that I don't use fat or I would not be writing a baking blog. I have a huge mind block against deep frying. Even now. I like to eat deep fried things, but not enough to make them now and then at home. They do not figure first on my can't-do-without food and I won't crave for them if I don't eat them for months, err..lets make that a month. Yes, desserts are my can't live without food. Put me off desserts for a week and they will start multi-starring in the blockbusters of my dreams. I am a complete die-hard dessert person.

A friend of mine had got some special paneer from Amritsar for me. I was wondering what I must do with it. A wicked idea, a sinful treat, a recipe I have been drooling over since aa...ges. Cottage Cheese Fingers! Throw caution to the winds. Make it double sinful. Full fat super soft paneer (nothing less from Amritsar!), marinated in tomato and chilli sauce, encased in crispy, crispy covering. Mind-blowing! It was so so good, I could not stop eating at a couple of pieces, kids loved them to the hilt, hubby ate them with his eyes closed. No exaggeration this! I made these again as I wanted to put these on the blog;-) called son's cycling friends to help finish them, and they were a very happy bunch!

Well, all I want to tell you is - please, please do try this out! And don't blame me if you get very seriously addicted!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

 

Vanilla... one of the most irresistible smells ever. Imagine baking without vanilla! That wonderful smell wafting in your kitchen and home, can there be a more welcoming aroma which can make your house smell like home? I love vanilla and whenever I see the little black bottle in my fridge, I feel like baking. Agreed, we have grown up seeing and eating goods baked only with synthetic essence, but vanilla is vanilla.

Vanilla extract in stores in India, is one of the many many baking ingredients unheard of. Except in very rare specialty stores. I have been using synthetic vanilla essence since the time I have been baking. I have used a couple of bottles of pure vanilla extract a few years ago, when I was not yet obsessed with baking and did not even know that there is something called as pure vanilla extract. Oh boy! I did not realize that what sis-in-law has sent from the US was pure vanilla extract! I used it freely in my cakes, but not without realizing that it was indeed imparting a very different taste to the one and only sponge I used to bake rarely. And then I realized that vanilla extract is indeed special.

Vanilla is supposed to the most expensive among spices, next only to saffron. The reason being extensive labor needed to cultivate the pods. Dark, shiny, plump and moist are the kind of beans which are of good quality - as opposed to the thin, shriveled and dry ones. They are sometimes coated with a white substance, they are vanilla crystals. Vanilla is available as pure extract, pods and vanilla powder. The bean is split into two and the tiny seeds are scraped out and added to cake batter, ice creams, custards etc. The beans can be dunked into milk, custard etc to infuse the flavor. Then the beans can be rinsed, dried and buried in sugar to gradually infuse the flavor into sugar, giving you vanilla sugar. The best beans come from Tahiti, Madagascar and Mexico. Tahitian beans are supposed to be the most aromatic ones and larger in size too, hence less of it needed in a recipe. Source - Rose Levy's Cake Bible & Wikipedia.

And it was a discovery to see home-made vanilla extract on Deeba's and then on Shaheen's blog. Fabulous! Sounds so very easy! Split vanilla beans and dunk them in vodka for 6-8 weeks and your extract is ready for use! Yes, I made my Vanilla Extract at home!

Orange Rice Pudding

 
Like a lot of us, I love to read food and baking books. I buy some, borrow some from the library and some  from friends. Oh yes, am quite greedy here! I own a handful of books, out of which more are about desserts or about baking.  In my opinion, most baking , however healthy, is only relatively so, hence can't obviously eat these on a daily basis. I confess that my everyday food more or less revolves around a very familiar, boring menu. I love to spend time on new bakes, desserts and snacks for the kids, but when it comes to everyday food, I treat it as something to get over and done with as early as possible in the morning. It fails to pump that adrenalin in my blood like baking does.

My growing boredom with the food I cook (sounds familiar?) leads me to think I must introduce more variety in our everyday meals, without that overload of calories and fat. And I recently realized that I must get more books on healthy everyday food too, rather than more and more baking books.  Of course there is the internet always, but books are books. Period! Can you imagine anything better than curling up on the couch with a good food book for dessert? One of the most blissful things in life...Even better when the book can give you interesting, doable and easy low calorie recipes for everyday food. Makes cooking your everyday meal less monotonous. I like this book by Sanjeev Kapoor titled 'Low Calorie Vegetarian Cookbook'. Which is your favorite book in this genre?

Tried out 'Orange Rice Pudding' from this book. A zesty, unconventional dessert - rice cooked in milk, baked with dates, raisins, orange juice sweetened with a little honey. A simple and refreshing, low fat sweet ending after a summer meal...

Garlic And Herb Potatoes

 Heaving a sigh of relief as my son's exams see the last! Whew! No assignments or tests for the next couple of months and I am so pleased about that. The kids have to go to school for a few days post exams as they will have a project show on the last day of school. Isn't that an even better thought?  - them going to school (half a day though) and me not having to worry about any homework ;-). They are so excited that they get to showcase to parents all that they have learnt during the year. My four-year-old daughter's big aim is now to go to the next class, Lower Kindergarten. I shamelessly blackmail her sometimes as the last resort at times - going to LKG undoubtedly the carrot I dangle in front of her cute little nose. It works most of times and I quickly have to find a new thing to blackmail her with once she is gets to her current dream destination. Yes, yes am a wicked Mom! Son's an easier nut to crack, thankfully, a game of bey-blading and cycling with his peers takes care of most his woes in the 9th year of his life. Innocent childhood...it touches me so much at times...

I remember watching the movie Masoom all those years ago when the kids were still not in the scene. I dare not watch that movie now, as I am very sure, Jugal Hansraj will leave me more than a tad misty eyed ... being a parent makes you relate to the innocence of childhood and that over-whelming parental love. If you are already a parent and you have watched Taare Zameen Par- you have heard the joke- you will not yell at your kids for one full day after watching the movie:-) When the kids are ready to do anything to make you smile at the sight of your crest fallen face, it makes you cry. When you are ready to throw anything at them just for a moment of much wanted peace, that makes you cry too, albeit in a different sort of way:-).

Well, when life throws lemons at you, you make lemon pie, when all you have is a bag of baby potatoes at snack time, you dish up some hearty, filling and easy Garlic And Herb Potatoes...

Batter White Bread - One Easy Loaf!

    Do you like what you see here? Please tell me that you do, and it looks like I have put in a lot of effort, it looks like its been baked by someone who's been baking breads for years! Because I did not! I mean I am new to baking breads and haven't baked scores of them, well, not just yet! And I definitely did not need to knead it with a stop-watch beside me. Yes, this is another no-knead bread or a batter bread.  No-Knead Spicy Buns were a revelation, getting great bread with almost no effort. That bread made me lazy...and then I came across this recipe on Allrecipes.com and decided to see how laziness would look in a loaf. And I must say, the bread came out pretty good!

All you need is a hand mixer or strong arms( In the latter case, you would want to post a blaster-comment here - when you recover from achy arms) So let me rephrase and say, you need a hand mixer and good yeast to make this bread. And then you can serve this to innocent folks and just pretend that you have slogged over the bread. Nice thought? You bet! And now let me share this recipe which will give you a light and flavorful loaf and confidence in baking breads if you have not baked bread yet...

Fudgy Chocolate Chip Brownies

                                       ''Too much of chocolate is just about right!''

Its kind of funny... people usually start baking with brownies first and then go on to bake cakes, cookies, gateaux, breads etc. But yours truly did it the other way round. I may have baked brownies only twice or thrice and that too after I started to blog. Sounds weird right? In case you blinked and missed the only other brownie recipes on my blog, here they are - Seriously Low Fat Brownies - kind of cakey brownies, but healthy and tasty. And Instant Microwave Brownies - warm and fudgy.

Yesterday, something really terrible happened. My system crashed! And so did my virtual world! The system was taken away to office for repairs (yes, I work from home) and I was jobless for the noon. Its amazing how dependent we are on the internet for so many things! I wanted to bake desperately, but completely lost without my bursting folder of recipes.  I went leafing through my books for a suitable recipe.( I can be really indecisive) I have a 'book' made of some baking pages from a baking book. Ah! I must tell you how I got this book. There was a garage sale nearby and I had bought some baking paraphernalia from the lady. I had left my number with her to contact me in case she had more things of interest to me. Apparently (and very surprisingly) I was the only person to buy baking things form her and she later gave me some pages from an old baking book she found. I had the old, but colorful and glossy pages hard bound. You are right - this brownie recipe is from that 'book'...

The brownies turned out fudgy, very chocolaty and tasty - just the kind of brownie recipe I was looking for..

Coffee And Roasted Almond Biscotti

Of course I have been baking! I mean I know bakes have been conspicuous by their absence on the blog for some time…Wait let me check the date… gosh! Has it been only a week since I put some muffins here? I was pretty sure it had been ages! Whew! Tell you what, I feel like baking every single day and I am sometimes very sure I must be crazy to feel this way. And it really does come as a relief to know that there are more folks like me out there. Thank God! But then I am definitely not thanking God for making too much carbs not good for health, for making me crave for dessert after every meal, for not making cakes, ice-creams and cookies health food. Aaaw God, be fair!! Am not thanking you for making me gain pounds by just looking at cakes, for making butter and oil very much part of baking, baking for the sweet tooth to be precise. Admit it !- You can almost picture me kicking my legs and going on like a brat, but then some things in a baking-obsessed foodie’s life are just not fair!!

But then like all things in life that must go on, I must bake everyday (well, almost!). Even if it means eating just a piece of the tray of decadent brownies and sending it off for others.(Hubby and kids sometimes don't even realize that the tray was full just before they came home;-) Even if it means finding low-fat, no butter treats which can satiate the sweet tooth and help me scratch the itch to bake. Half a recipe of Coffee and Roasted Almond Biscotti did just that to me. Crunchy, rich with the aroma of coffee and just about sweet – a perfect low fat treat!