Fun with Cake Decorating!

Every time, I would see a beautifully decorated cake or eat on of those cupcakes with roses on top, I would be like I wish I could do that. Last month, I went to a cake decorating class. I have been planning to go to one for a while and finally did. My classes were taught by instructors at  "Make It Sweet" located in Austin. I My class was based onWilton's cake decorating course 1. You learn how to make the butter cream, ice the cake and various basic designs for decoration. I learnt how to make drop flowers, shells, leaves, rosettes, roses, stars, zig-zag curvy lines, and write on the cake. At the end of my course, I also got a certificate too which was very cute. The course was fun and a learning experience. I highly recommend going to one of these class. You can have fun learning how to decorate cakes and then later you can eat the yummy and  beautiful cake you made :D. Its a win-win!

Here are few pics from my class on what  I made and decorated.

Class 1 - Cupcake Design

Class 2 - Cupcake Decoration

Class 3 - Create your own cake and design

Jus another day(s)!

Its been ages since I wrote a blog post. I am still overdue with my promise of posting spice recipes but it just feels like my days are going like a super fast train. I have one recipe due but it need a lil bit of editing and I am having no enthu to get that done. I keep thinking what the hell I have been doing the past couple of months. Well, I am not sure but time has definitely flown really fast for me. Right from my trip to Cal (Yeah), I have jus been doing one thing after the other. Joining work again full time has been a challenge in some ways. I love that I am working again and I definitely like what I am doing now, but it jus seems I dont hav  much time for anything else. The first couple of weeks were me jus going to work, coming back home to watch some mindless tv and sleep. For a person who had a lot of free time last year, had the freedom to get up late (and I loved that), watched a LOT of  tv shows, did some experiment in cooking - I suddenly find myself doing absolutely nothing. I still have a lot of shows in my DVR which needs to be watched. My list of new tv shows which needs to be checked keeps growing longer. Then there is summer movie releases which I am an ardent fan of and yet haven't had a chance to make a list of which ones to watch. I have not really been doing any cooking (well, thanks to my dearest mom). May be the only good thing I have been doing is a LOT of reading.  It feels good! And finally there is shopping. I am hoping I get some of that done. I dont feel like going out to the stores and my patience seems to be running low. I am surprised myself at this. I used to LOVE shopping. I am hoping that bug bites me again soon! Now that I have done recapping my last couple of months, here is a list of things to do/see/read etc:

1. The Hunger Games series (have finished reading 2 of them, going to start the 3rd one tomorrow) - Even though, the series was aimed for teenagers, I think any age group can read it and find it interesting.
2. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Remember the controversial book on parenting difference between chinese parents and american parents which made the news couple of years ago - this is the same one. I had read a lot about it but never got around to reading the book until recently. And it was a very interesting read. I dont agree with most of the book but I do agree with the fact that as parents, we need to set high expectations for our children and push them higher. When you read the book, it definitely makes an interesting discussion with others. It is one of those reads which get you thinking. So yeah, a definite read.
3. Sherlock (TV show) If you loved reading the books, you would love this show even more. The show is set in today's world but the powers of deduction of Sherlock remains the same.
4. The Avengers (Movie) - I am not a big comic books fan. May be coz I never read these while growing up. But I loved the movie and found that I wanted to learn more about each character. So yeah, if you have not yet seen it, definitely do it.
5. San Francisco, CA - I am in love with that city. It is my second favorite after NYC. I love the narrow streets, the architecture, the busy neighborhoods, the trams and the overall feeling. I know that is one place I would never get bored of visiting.  So yeah, visit that city if you loved NYC :D
6. Travel to work by public transportation - If you have access to public transportation and can travel to/from work in a reasonable amount time, I would recommend this. Trust me, you wont miss driving in the morning traffic and also would love some 'me' time which you would get.

Aah.. finally feels good to write. I think I should do this more often. Hope you had fun reading this. Until next time then!

What I am blogging about next ?

This question has been bugging me for a while... I have been looking for inspirations, blog marathons, blogging themes, general ideas and trying to figure what would keep me interested long enough to blog about it ... And finally I think I have found an idea ...

I was going through this huge book on veggie cooking (996 pages) which M had given in 2010 as a graduation present since I liked cooking very much and was enthusiastic about it.. Now when you are given such a huge book, you are given a lot of choices on recipes to cook and that makes ur decisions even difficult ... thus I never got around to look at it ... In addition, I had been religiously following online recipes and trusted google as my no.1 source of information for my recipes, it took me a while(1.5 yrs or so) to look through this book to find inspiration.... And finally I am here ...

I have decided to blog about something which is an essential part of any cooking, i.e. SPICE ... Now for indians,  these would be garam masala, sambhar powederl etc ... for chinese - five spice, for the mexicans - taco-chile powder and for others, there is the well known curry powder .. So I am going to attempt making these powders with recipes from the book, from my mom, from my mom-in-law and other people who are willing to share their secret ingredient for these recipes with me ....

Now that I have a project to do, I need to give myself a timeline ... Say a recipe posting every 2 weeks, give or take.... I will list the source of my recipe, pictures wherever necessary and any other information I should be adding .. I would love it if people would try it out themselves some time and let me know how it turned out ...

Looking forward to some good aroma in my kitchen!!  

If you would like to send me your recipe about any spice, do shoot me an email.

Food(ography) by me :D

Banana Bread

Tiramisu

Kozhukattai

Marble Cake

Carrot Halwa

Carrot Soup

Gobi Manchurian

Taco (Stuffing)

Baked Sabudana

Veggie Pizza

Blueberry Boybait

Baked Sabudana Vada

Inspiration: My dear husband M, a calories conscious person who still wants the taste of fried food. :D

Inspite of being told to write a food blog or atleast post the recipes for some of the things I make, I have always shied away from writing one (may be coz there are loads of them on the internet) ... But this one I guess, was an exception to the rule ... Sabudana is something a lot of people love but usually cant get the dish right or it is jus too much work or too many calories ...

So here is the recipe of my sabudana vada which I baked to avoid the many calories from deep frying .. It was crispy and yummy. I followed a recipe I found online (find that here) but modified it a lil bit for reasons explained below : 

Ingredients 

1. Sabudana - 2 cups 
2. Potato - 4 small ones or 2 medium sized 
3. Onion (red) - 1/2 cup chopped
4. Corriander - 3 tsp (and more if you like it)
5. Green chillies - 4 chopped finely
6. Lemon Juice - 2-3 tsp
7. Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Ginger - 1 tsp chopped 
9. Peanuts - 1/2 cup 
10. Cumin - 1 1/2 tsp 
11. Salt - according to taste 

Steps to follow

• Soak sabudana for 3 hrs min - jus add enough water to cover the sabudana entirely. Once soaked, drain excessive water. 
• Boil potatoes and then mash it - Add to sabudana 
• Roast peanuts without oil. Remove skin and grind it into a rough mixture. Or you can rough chop it too. Add to above. 
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. 
• Preheat Oven to 400F
• On a baking sheet, put an aluminium foil. Spray oil on the entire foil 
• Take about 1 tbsp of mixture, flatten it out between your palms and then put it on the baking sheet. You can do upto 12-15 pieces at one time. Make sure you leave a little space between each piece. 
• Spray a little oil on each piece or use a brush to coat it with oil. 
• Bake it in the oven for about 20-22 mins.Could be a little longer if you want it more cooked.   
• Flip them in between. Spray oil again if desired.  

They should be golden brown - with crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. 

Note 1: Add curry leaves to the mixture. I didnt have any but I always love them in my vada

Note 2: I am not a fan of garam masala in vadas, so didn't add it. 

Fast Forward (to) 2012!

Title - Song by A Day To Remember


This is post is long over due but here it is anyways .... Every new year we come up with new list of resolutions for the year ... some of the things are carried over from previous year such as eat healthy, exercise regularly... And then there are others  which are year specific - graduate this year, drink less, etc .. One of the things on my list this year is to read as many books as I can from the BBC Top 100 Reads list.. you can find the list here ... I have known about this list for a while and felt really guilty for not having read most of the books in the list ... that doesnt mean I don't read .. In last few years, my reading habit has dropped drastically, at one point it didnt even exist .. Reading research papers and news kept me busy .. But now things have changed and I hav decided to rekindle (Bday gift hint :D ) it again .. I had tried it at the end of last year but pushed it to 2012 .... So here to a new beginning and a good start !!


P.S. - Doing good so far in the reading, more on that in a later post!




My 2nd resolution is to write more blogs (atleast beat the number of postings from last year)... I think I need to find a theme or project and start working on it. That way, I am more sincere and motivated! Suggestions are welcome :)


My 3rd resolution is to lose weight ... Finally, I have decided to admit it aloud. I would like to say tho I am happy the way I look and never feel pressured about it, but I do think that losing a few more pounds is not doing any harm to me. I have a goal on what I want to lose and a wonderful husband who is happy to help in this more than anything .. So that's that!


My 4th one is to learn something new by going to a class. Def not a career based one but more towards developing a hobby or some new fun idea ... something like cake decorating class or dance class or pottery class or glass making/blowing class ... I am open here and looking for some fun time !


My 5th one is to go California (or Florida) ... These r two states I have been trying to go but something or the other happens and my plans always get postponed ... And I want to go to Cal so I can argue that East coast is better than Cal ;).. So folks in Cal, get ready to host and party with me :D




My 6th one is to do more volunteer.. I am proud that I did that in 2011 and had so much fun .. I am looking forward to it again in 2012.


So here is to fastforwarding 2012 so I can say I have completed all my resolutions :D

On My Mind.....

On Books 
I plan to read a book a month, so about 12 in one year .. I am happy that I am already done with 2. I kinda came up this to revive me reading habit .... I used to love reading at some point, would pick up a book and wont stop until I am finished.. have even failed an exam due to this :D but nowadays, I hardly do any reading ... keep spending (or wasting) time on the comp doing nuthing important. So I decided that I should take some time everyday to read for atleast 1 hr without looking at the comp or TV .... So am trying to find new interesting book to read ..suggestions are welcome :)

On Food 
I recently realized this irony in our tam-brahm cooking ... Some of the dishes taste better the next day (e.g. mor kozhambu, vengayam sambhar) but I am not sure out paatis and thathas would eat day old food .. it has to be made fresh every day .. so y woulld we did they come up with such food recipes but cant really eat it wen its at its best

On a different note, I made this blueberry boy bait (I know, its a weird name) ... it is a basically a very buttery cake with blueberry, and since I made an eggless version of it, it was butter personified ! But I should say, it turned out to be amazing ..I guess sometimes, the weirder the food's name, the more awesome they taste!

On Halloween 
I carved my very first pumpkin, a upside-down bat design with my 7 yr old neighbor .. it was so much fun ... I let her teach me the basics and I could see how happy it made her to be put in charge ... She was really excited to show me the ropes of pumpkin carving and I was having fun listening to her chatter away !!!
I lit a candle inside and it looked beautifully haunting !

On TV 
I am always excited about Fall TV shows ..All my fav tv shows begin their fall premieres and the long summer break is over where there is not much on tv (for me) ... And there are all these news shows to look forward to and see if any of those would come to become my favs and tat I would look forward to their news seasons after that ... There are the regulars that I watch - House, HIMYM, Gossip Girl, NCIS, Big Bang Theory, Vampire Diaries, Nikita, etc Currently the new shows I am watching are Revenge, Pan Am, Once upon a time, Next Iron Chef,  Top Chef Texas, Secret Circle. For some reason, I find the much hyped Ringer not very interesting. There are some more I follow on hulu such as last man standing, whitney, new girl etc.  And there are these other shows I need to catch up with - Breaking Bad, Mad Men.. And how I could forget college football on saturdays and NFL on sundays .. so yeah, this fall, I am very busy, thanks to my TV !! I can't anymore imagine a life without my TV shows !!

On Clothes 
I have a lot of clothes and I know it but I always that there isnt enuf  and that I dnt have anything to wear ... But when I look carefully, I see this clothes which I hav not worn in a long time (a year or so) .. So I think may be I should get rid of them ... which is wen I am filled with the 'anticipation' feeling that may be I will wear them soon ! But alas, that soon never comes !! I have come to realize that this is a universal problem and I have realized that I am hoarder :D I have realized that I need a bigger closet space :D

The love for clothes has also made me realize one more thing. I want to a costume designer for tamil movies. I think the heros could wear better smarter clothes and not just  blues and more blues. I would like to scour the nation and bring out designs from small unknown designers and make it a retail phenomena through the movies. This may not happen today or tomorrow but I am hoping it happens some day :)

On Snow
I miss you!!

On Texas Summer
 I DON'T miss you at all!
             
On Long trips/vacations
Looking forward to them (always) !!

On tiny adventures
I love discovering cool new places to eat, hang out, things to do. While volunteering for Texas Book Festival, I met Alton Brown and tat was amazing. I got hooked in to the Cow Parade and taking pics of cows that are placed around the city. I found this lil grocery store which serves amazing cafe au lait and another one with even more amazing pastries. And the best part about these adventures is that I get to do it with M !!

On Life 
Life is great. Days seem to fly by at a speed which I am not able to keep up with. Routines are in place with some surprise elements here and there. I have definitely grown personally :) Some thing have changed and other remain the same. I am more clear about what I want to and where I want to be. But yes, I definitely miss my carefree days !!!