Am Back!!

Hello!! I'm back.......after a loooooooooooooooong gap of 2 YEARS!!! OMG!! Where had I been? Well, no I wasnt bundled up in a rocket and shipped off to the International Space Station. I was right here, amongst everyone......but caught up with the tide of life and forgetting about this forum. My due Apologies!!

Now that I'm back, I'll try to keep posting frequently. Not a promise....promises are made to break eh!!

A lot of water has flown under the bridge in these last 2 years. My lil one is now a fiesty lass gearing to go into the big wide world wearing her first school bag!! Yes she's gonna be all of 3 years soon.....how time flies by!! It seems like just yesterday when I squealed with delight 'Its a Girl!!, Its a Girl!!' while still being stitched on the operation table with the just-born her on spread across my chest!! And now, she's the ruler of our house!!

Ah, Nostalgia!!

It feels great to pour out my feelings and musings onto this blank screen which take the shape of my memories!!

Until I see you again with a post soon, Ciao!! (Fingers crossed about the 'soon' thing     ;-p    )  

The Noise

I looove reading!!! Its a kind of relaxation for me to be transported to another world witnessing the life of the protagonist of the novel. I have a good enough imagination which gets fired the moment i lose myself in the pages between my hands!! My personal preference are definitely the mystery and suspense novels which go through so many entertaining twists and turns!!! But be warned, too many of these type make you immune to the plots that the author cooks up to throw us off the track and i usually correctly guess the antagonist after 2/3rds of the book!!



I had my share of books while growing up with The Famous Five, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton's.....in my early teens. These titles were then replaced by The Fear Street, The Fear Street Sagas......by the time i reached XII. My mom used to call me cynical coz of my interest in these not-so-ordinary novels which explored into the realm of the supernatural and the unnatural!!! Well, eventually i out-grew my Fear Street addiction, to the great relief of my mom, and started getting hooked to Sidney Sheldon!! After reading all the novels by Sidney Sheldon, i explored other authors like Robin Cook, John Grisham...et all. I have a good collection of reads like the sidney sheldon's fast paced suspense thrillers, the laid-back witty Chetan Bhagat's true-to-life experiences, Agatha Christie's Poirot and Miss Marple, Sir Arther Conan Doyle's ever green Sherlock Holmes, the magical Harry Potter series...and the list goes on!! Unfortunately, most of these books are now lost in the process of lending them to frenz and relatives. But, on the brighter side,that leaves room in my book shelf to fill with newer reads that i keep splurging on. After falling off the reading habit for a while, i am now back again and you can find me with a good read in the bus/auto on the way to work or at the end of the day comfortable in my bed with my lil one beside me.


Some of these books come with excerpts (towards the end of the book) of stories by the same author or reads of the same genre. One such excerpt caught my eye and imagination. This was some time in my teens and i somehow missed the author's name and the title of the novel from which the excerpt was printed. But the small story was so captivating and so nail-biting that even to this day i cannot forget it. Of course it belongs to the suspense/mystery/supernatural genre. When i was 16yrs i tried to reproduce the excerpt as a poem which i am sharing with you all today.


Read on......

The Noise

Right in the middle of the night

She woke up with a fright

She had just heard a noise

which didnt sound like a human voice

She put her hand under the bed

and let her dog lick it when she was afraid

There it was---the sound again

which was now eating her brain

She was all alone in the house

with only a pet dog and a stray mouse

She gave her hand to her dog once more

comforted by his lick, decided to go and explore

The Noise---it sounded so unnatural

becoming more and more unbearable

Picking up all her courage

She managed to reach the passage

Looking cautiously into the kitchen

she shivered with fear like a chicken!

The Noise-- it was coming from the bathroom

she proceeded towards with with a broom

Oh My God!!! What was that???

She felt she was loosing her gut

There in her bathroom sink

was her dog as dead as a mink!!!

On the mirror in front of her

was a message about her Welsh Terrier

It said-”Who's been licking your hand?”

She felt like sinking into quick sand

As for the terrible, eerie noise....

it was her dying dog's cries!!!

 

Eerie na...? It was too good to forget and this is how i saved it in my memory and my Poe(m)-Tree.

Signing off like Priyanka Chopra's style in Khatron ke Khiladi-3......next time you hear something from your bathroom.....be careful.....coz U Never Knooooooooow!!!

Image picked from http://www.hamsheregallery.co.uk

Basic Pound Cake--Love at First Bite!!!

Ever since the baking bug bit me, i have been going gaga about it, especially about cake moulds. Recently dropped by at Jamal's on MG Road to check out for any new Silicone cake moulds. A great collection awaited me at Jamal's!!!The entire wall was stacked up with different sizes and shapes and colours of silicone moulds!! A Silicone mould heaven....especially in Bangalore.Super excited is all that i got and infected the same to the hubby darling. Quickly depositing the baby princess into the baby sitters arms, me and the husband started filling our hands with the colourful moulds. And as a result i ended up with a beautiful creamy deep savarin cake mould...a type of bundt!! Getting home and admiring the days loot, i was getting impatient to put my brand new bundt to use. I had seen more than many pound cakes in a bundt and so that was exactly what i decided to adorn by new mould. Promptly started surfing the net for the perfect recipe of a Pound Cake and landed upon the Joy Of Baking link.



A Pound cake screams BUTTER!!! It got its name beacuse of the measurement of 'a pound each' of its main ingreduents. From 'Joy of Baking' site, "The name 'pound' was given to this cake because the original recipes contained one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, one pound of eggs, and one pound of flour. While the pound cakes we make today often have different proportions from the original, they are still wonderfully rich, moist, and buttery with a lovely golden brown crust. "


I was initially wary about using so much butter.....but the promise of a rich buttery flavour took me over and fascinated me and eventually i gave in to using a full 200gms of butter. The recipe demanded of having all ingredients at room temperature and so my cake baking session had to get pushed to the next day as my butter was freezing rock solid in my freezer box.


Come next day and after packing the husband's lunch and waving him a bye-bye (just like an obedient and ideal wifey) i found myself rushing to the oven and pre-heating it!! With the stage(oven) set and the actors(ingredients) ready, all that was left was for me to direct the play!!!


The end result was beeuuutiful. Absolutely divine....the aroma of butter and vanilla wafted around temptingly. The previous day's purchase, my deep savarin mould gave my pound cake the perfect shape and colour......a beautiful sunset golden hue.

The cake was fluffy and soft to the touch. And the taste....as promised was rich and moist and beautifully buttery.


The husband fell in love with this buttery joy in the first bite and has ever been insisting to bake it frequently!!


A definite recommendation for all beginners as the cake comes out perfect and gives a good shot of confidence.


Pure indulgence ...........is what a Pound cake offers!! And why not...its not everyday that we treat ourselves with a slab of rich Pound Cake over a cup of hot coffee!!


Bon Appetit!!

Basic Pound Cake Recipe

Ingredients:
1 and a ½ cup Maida (All Purpose Flour)
¾ cup granulated Sugar
3 eggs
200gms unsalted cooking butter
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
¼ tsp salt


Important: All ingredients have to be at room temperature

Procedure:


Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs one after the other. Add the milk and essence.
Have all the dry ingredients mixed well in an electric mixer. To this add the egg mixture in 3 additions. Beat well for at least 30-45 seconds after each addition. Beat for 1 full minute after the last addition to aerate the mixture. This will help trap air bubbles inside the batter which is essential for to get a fluffy cake. Grease the desired shape cake tin/mould. Pour the batter directly, with out disturbing, into the mould. Disturbing the batter while pouring will burst the air bubbles inside the batter and the cake may not turn out to be very fluffy.


Bake the cake for approx 45-50 mins at 200 degrees or until a cake tester comes out clean.


Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the mould for 15-20 mins. Reverse the cake from the mould only after cooled so that the cake does'nt break when warm.


Serve the cake with a warm cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

Come out and Play

(This post was posted on Sept 16th 2010. Due to some change of settings, it is appearing as posted on Oct 5th.)


A lot of things have kept me busy and away from my Blog baby.


Please bear with me as i justify(for my own satisfaction) my long absence. Firstly my princess fell ill with the viral fever which is doing its rounds here in B'lore. Then work has started a bit at office- keeping me busy with not enough time to look this way. And over the weekends is another story....somebody once said..'We are living our lives over the weekends.....' How true!! Come weekend...start cleaning the week long accumulated dust...run errands, buy groceries to last the whole week, shop till we drop!!!.........phew....and so no time to connect to the net!!!


Anyways, a few days back Saina Nehwal was in the news....for her statement on the Delhi-Commom Wealth Games. She had stated that...."Looking at the stadiums and progress I don't really think we are capable of holding such big tournaments. I have seen many Games like Melbourne Commonwealth Games and Olympics in China. Compared to that, it is not up to the mark......" But being the brand ambassador of the Delhi- CWG, she was quick to apologize for her 'shocking statement' and went to say "I am sorry for whatever I said. I did not mean it. The Commonwealth Games will be a huge success. I want to do well in front of my home crowd. I am very proud that the Commonwealth Games are being held in India. I am a little disappointed after making these comments. It is not right on my part to say it as lots of people follow me....."


Well, Saina, being in the limelight didnt want to be at the center of a storm abt her comments and so quickly politically corrected herself !! But in retrospection I completely agree with Saina's original and true statement. Our arrangements for the Delhi CWG is no way near to previous/other international sporting events hosted by other countries and India is definitely not capable to conduct such international events--at least not until it rids itself of all corruption, which, sorry to say.......is near impossible!!


The Delhi-CWG has been tossing around on the wave of corruption. So many names had come out regarding the huge corruption scandal around these games!!! And few of these people have been sacked---and what use is it now??? After such a disgrace to the country on the international platform!!


Delhi CWG is the height of corruption (till date...who knows we Indians are very capable to setting higher standards in this field...if not in anything else). Just imagine; 10 lakhs for hiring a thread mill, 8000 for hiring a chair, 42,000 for hiring a refrigerator..and the list goes on!!! OMG!!! Even a middle class family nowadays is buying a decent thread mill for Rs. 20K.....!! And these people in the organizing panel of the Delhi-CWG have just HIRED these items!!


And whose money is it that they have hidden in their Swiss accounts et al??? The money comes from the taxpayers i.e. people like you and me. The money is a percentage of our hard-earned salary.....a percentage of our time which we spend in the office working......our blood and sweat which we pay to the country as taxes for its development and progress........!! And where does it go....into the pockets of the politicians---who dont give a crap about the development or progress about our country. All they care about is to replenish their loot. As they have spent a considerable amount during the elections to buy the vote bank to get them elected...they deem their ministerial berth/ assembly seat as their right to multiply their assets. If its Mr.X who got elected this term...then it will be Mr. Y's turn next term. And this Mr.Y who had to silently lick his money wounds (money spent for the election campaign which he unfortunately lost) when reelected will start his business of accumulating wealth with full josh...making up for the lost 5 years!!


Fine...we have been growing up with such politicians in our country (literally). But what beats me is- didn't the politicians responsible for the Delhi CWG even for one fleeting second think about the loss their actions would bring to their country? About the international disgrace for their country? About the CWG standards (set by other deserving countries) which they would be unable to meet? Couldn't they think about their country, their mother land at least once? How selfish!!!


Well, at the end, the Delhi Common Wealth Games has actually lived to its name. They will remain in our memories and in our countries history as the mega event where the democratically elected elite politicians of India played Games with the Common Wealth of the public!!!

---The news excerpts quoted above (Saina's comments) were taken from the Sept 4th web article of The Economics Times.

Poetry and The Wind Chime

Let me make known to you another aspect of me. I write poems. I am no professional....but i have my own way of expressing through the rhytmic ripples of poetry. The last time i wrote a poem was 8 years back!!! I have a decent collection that i call 'My Poe(m)-Tree'!!!


Most of my compositions (oh wow....such a strong and professional word for my amateurish rhymes!!!) were conceived by me when i was betwen 16/17 yrs---the most poetic phase of my life so far. When i read those poems now, I get nostalgic about those good ol carefree days, and yearn to scribble more of those artistic expressions!!


Recently the itch to write another poem took over me and i let myself rekindle the dormant poet in me and scribbled a few lines (not exactly...this time i typed!!). And the chosen topic?? what else but the title i selected for my blog baby!!


Twigs and branches of my 'Poe(m)-Tree' will be coming up soon but i'd like to share the newest leaf for now.....So here goes....my latest creation for my 'Poe(m)-Tree'!!

The Wind Chime

Have you ever ever heard

The wind laugh and giggle

Hang a chime in your home

together they tinkle and wiggle

But now my chime hangs still

waiting for its knight of yore

a delicate dangle on my sill

looking yonder the sea and shore

Lo! The knight in shining armor arrives

rolling, tumbling gliding along

past the hills, the valleys and the skies

reaching his darling erelong

He greets her with a touch

She trembles and tinkles

He has missed her too much

She dances to his jingles

She calls out to him softly

He breezes her all around

My home is echoing deftly

with their laughter and their song

These are the tales

of happiness and springtime

when these lovers come together

the Wind and my Chime!!!

I know there are many of you out there who are much more talented poets and all your constructive feedback is gracefully welcome. Please feel free to correct/suggest me so that i can polish this artistic expression of mine and hence build a stronger 'Poe(m)-Tree'!!

Pennies and Promises

Hi again....hope you are doing well!!!


I have been thinking of starting a blog from quite a long time........but then i am at times a lazy person and was afraid i wouldnt be able to devote enough time to my blog baby (as i have two babies at home; hubby baby and my lil princess baby!) and hence was apprehensive about leaving it unattended and neglected. 


But u see, in this head of mine, in addition to all the nerves and neurons and grey matter, many thoughts go whizzing by.....some happen to linger in the crevices a little longer while others get lost in the folds of thoughts. (I could be a rich person u know...if someone were to give me a penny for each of my thoughts!!!) And the lingering thoughts started forming into ideas and kept whispering to me to spill them out, to share them........to give form to them with letters and spaces and characters and words....so that this time they dont get lost but live on, be it as minute as possible, in this great world wide web!!
And so the urge to share and share alike all the pennies in my head overtook my apprehensions and so here I am...blogging away....
I am not expecting myself to be a regular to this space as i have a family to look after at home and a project to build in office!! But i promise that as when i find myself free i shall definetly add something here.
So till then......Cheerio!!

Shubh Aarambh---Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye

It is in our Indian tradition to having something sweet before starting anything so that the results of our venture are favourable!!


Keeping in mind the same notion, I start my blog with a 'sweet' entry!!


Few days back I happened to make a coffee cake inspired by Sailu of Sailu’s Kitchen.


So for my Shubh Aarambh, I share with you all my Coffee Cake with Coffee Butter Cream frosting recipe!!
(With negligible variation to Sailu's recipe)


Ingredients:


For the Cake-
1 cup Maida
3/4 cup Brown Sugar or granulated Sugar
3/4 cup Oil/Butter  ( if using oil, make sure you dont use groundnut oil coz it will lend its nutty smell to the cake too....)
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
2 tbsp Instant Coffee Powder (dissolved in 1tbsp boiling hot water)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 cup Milk


For the coffee butter cream frosting-
1/3 cup Butter
1 cup Icing Sugar
1 tbsp Instant Coffee Powder mixed in 1 tbsp boiling hot water
1 or 2 drops of Rose essence (rose essence is very strong, so limit it to just a few drops)


Procedure:


Start with blending together the sugar and the oil/butter till well combined. To this mixture add the eggs one after the other and beat to get a creamy flowing consistency.


Rain the baking powder into the flour and mix the two well. You can also sieve the two for better results as it is important for the baking powder to blend into the flour.


Fold in the wet mixture into the flour and add the coffee mixture and the vanilla essence. Combine the batter well.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. In the mean time grease your baking pan. Also, dust the pan with flour and pour the cake batter into it.


Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cake on the rack before reversing it from the pan.

While the warm cake fills your home with the aroma of coffee and vanilla and tempts you to dig into it, prepare the frosting by beating the butter and the icing sugar till smooth and creamy. Add the coffee mixture and the rose essence to the frosting. Pour the creamy coffee butter cream frosting onto the cake and sides. Garnish as per your choice. Chill the cake for 30-35 mins or till the frosting sets. Slice and serve!!!

The butter needs to be soft to get the frosting to a pouring consistency. Mine was not soft enough and so I had to add a wee bit of water to get the right pouring texture. But then my 'wee bit of water' became a tab too much and I ended up with a butter cream frosting a little on the watery side. So when i poured the frosting onto my cake, most of it settled at the bottom and around the cake. However, after chilling the cake, i was able to scoop the frosting from around the cake and cream it onto the top. But then my runny frosting didnt do much damage and actually added more flavour to the cake in its own way. Since most of the frosting settled around the base of the cake, some of it was absorbed by the bottom. So when we bit into our cake, we were treated with a creamy frosting on the top and a moist base........yummmmmmmmy!!