My little heaven – CLICK “Liquid Comfort”

When Jai and Bee announced the most awaited theme for the photo event CLICK I was really excited. Yes. It brought back so many comforting memories. The word comfort when flavored with “liquid” is always wonderful as everybody has there own little heaven in their lives.

For some its spending time with dear ones with a piping cup of coffee, for some its gazing the clouds at the backyard with a cold lemonade and the list is endless. Again thinking about these little heavenly moments on earth is really really comforting as spending them. 

Before marriage, when I had the freedom of having those heavens whenever I wanted for one, was so easy. I was staying away from home in a hostel. And when our group of friends wanted to move out of the hostel due to the bad quality of the food its total happiness. We four girls took a house and set up our own “home”. Those were the golden days in my life. We used to make hot piping cup of coffee (of course instant coffee) and will gather up in the terrace in the early mornings during weekends. Endless chatting, laughing till we feel hunger for breakfast were moments when we recharged ourselves for the next week. 

For me the theme “Liquid comfort” reminded off this. I used to make a mug of hot coffee, pick up my favorite writer’s book, head over to the terrace and lean to the wall in a shady corner. Thats my simple heaven. 

After appa got retired he took up the job of making coffee to the entire family in the mornings. In all these years he has mastered this very well. And now my small heaven is a few minutes in the mornings when appa wakes me up with a “just exact hot” coffee (this is a perfect filter coffe). This picture I clicked with appa’s coffee under a shady place in our terrace. To create a “under the tree” effect I threw some flowers here and there. I love this picture more for the wonderful memories it brought me back. I am really thankful to you Jai and Bee ! 

Weekend Baking – a Pizza and a Muffin

Home made PizzaThis is yet another long pending recipe which I was longing to. In the recent past Angel yeast is very kind towards me and that gave me the courage for this. I prepared a thin crust for 2 medium pizzas with this recipe.

 

For the topping :

1 small potato sliced into 1 inch thin strips

1 Onion sliced

1 tomato sliced

1 medium bell pepper – thinly sliced

Peanut oil – 2 T

 In a kadai heated the oil and stir fried all the listed veggies for 2 minutes.In the prepared crust spreaded 1 T Maggi tomato-chilli sauce. Sprinkled some mozzeralla cheese. Topped with half of the above veggie mix. Again sprinkled some grated cheese. Baked in the oven for 15 minutes. We wanted a cripy crust and hence kept the pizza in the oven in toast mode for 5 more minutes. Repeated the same for the next crust. The result was absolutely delicious. I missed the mushrooms as it was out of stock here in the nearby super market. Else its better than store bought ones and so less expensive. Everybody at home loved it. 

I recently found this web page to which I have become a regular reader. All her instructions were so detailed with simple straight forward photographs. This is my first try with her recipes and they turned to be lovely. I was beholding to bake cup cakes as I do not have a muffin tray. The ones I found in the stores would not fit my basic model OTG. I read in one of the blogs that we can bake muffins in paper cups and voila I made these muffins with them. I filled the dough ¾ of the cup size which spoiled the dome effect but next time would correct it. Made two batches (one dipped in melted butter and cinnamon sugar and the reserved the second batch for my father skipping that step).

They were really lovely when warm out of the oven.

After the melted butter and cinnamon sugar bath… 

Worth a try.

Homemade Baby Food

This is yet another tested recipe for 3 kids at home. One of Amma’s lovely creations. This is far better than the super market readymade baby food stuff without any preservatives. Its more nutritious and filling and cost effective too. 

Ingredients:

Good quality Basmati rice – ½ KG (We use Lal Quila brand)

Whole milk – ½ Ltr

Cardamom powder – 1 T 

How to make?

Wash the rice twice in drinking water. Bring the milk to a boil in a thick bottomed vessel and add the rice to it. Keep stirring until all the milk is absorbed by the rice and all the grains are separate. Take the vessel off the stove and immediately spread the rice in a big plate. Let it cool to room temperature. Keep spreading the rice in the plate (if needed spread it in 2-3 plates) till it cools down.Now let this try under the sun for 1 or 2 days until it is completely dry. Once you are sure that there is no moisture in the rice heating a thick bottom wide vessel dry roast it in handfuls at a time till they turn pinkish. Let the entire batch come down to room temperature. Now grind it in a flour mill to a coarse or fine powder. Add the cardamom powder to the flour. The flour should be cooled down after it comes from the flour mill. Grinding it in mixie does not give a fine powder. Store it in airtight container. This can keep for a month. Do not use it after that. 

How to prepare the kanji ?

Mix 2 teaspoons of the powder in 1 cup of milk until no lumps are found. Add sugar as per taste. Take this mix to the stove top and keep stirring till the mixture comes to a thick porridge. Serve warm to your loving baby.

Dry Roasting the dried rice…

Roasted rice…

Ground powder…

Kanji for the baby

A healthy chocolate cake for JFI Chocolate

Chocolate….Its the most loved item at home. Right from the kids to the oldest one whenever I make anything with chocolates it dissappears fast. When Deepz announced this month’s ingredient as Chocolate I had so many recipes (of course execuses to try them all) but not all came to my expectation. My sister who is a Siddha doctor would always keep ranting about the ingredients I use to bake and is totoally opposing me for using the AP flour. She is pestering me to find alternates and I am not daring enough to experiment. This time I picked up little courage. I finally decided to make a chocolate cake from here one of my favorite baking blogs,  but with few changes.

The original recipe calls for graham crackers powdered but I decided to substitute with flour as my kids won’t like a crumbly cake. For 2 cups of AP flour I substituted 3/4 cup of corn flour, 3/4 cup of quick cooking rolled oats ground to a powder and cannot totally ignore AP and hence added 1/2 cup of that. The combination turned to be perfectly good and cake is moist, soft and when drenched in the chocolate sauce it was absolutely delicious. This is my contribution for JFI Chocolate hosted by lovely Deepz.

Chocolate Graham Cracker Cake 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup shortening (used butter)

3 eggs, seperated

2 cups graham cracker crumbs (3/4 cup of corn flour, 3/4 cup of quick cooking rolled oats ground to a powder, 1/2 cup AP flour)

2 TBSP baking powder

3 TBSP cocoa

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped nuts (skipped)

Preheat oven to 375F. Cream butter and add sugar and egg yolks, mixing until well combined. Add graham craker crumbs, baking powder, cocoa, salt, milk, vanilla extract, and nuts; mix well. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture. pour batter into two greased and floured 9 inch round pans. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool slightly. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Sauce

1 cup Whipping cream

2 tablespoons Sugar

4 ounces Bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 tablespoon Unsalted butter

Combine the cream and sugar in a small saucepan and heat to a boil. Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl. Stir until completely melted and smooth. Strain through a fine wire mesh strainer into a serving bowl. Pour it over the cake before serving.