Aatta Almond Cookies

By far the easiest cookie that I have come across on the web or anywhere else for that matter. So I had to catalog it for me to refer whenever I am in need of it. I got this recipe from Spicy Chilly who has in turn sourced it from Manjula's kitchen. My sincere thanks to these great bloggers and the wonderful cooks that they are. Over to my own keepsake of the recipe.

Ingredients:

Aatta / Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Salted Butter - 1/2 cup (or) 1/4lb
Sugar - 1 cup
Almonds (chopped) - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup

Way to Go..

Mix the dry ingredients - Flour, Sugar and Almonds - together. To this mix, add softened butter and knead together. Add enough milk to this mixture to make a soft dough. Make small balls from the dough and press between your palms to make flat cookie shapes. Place the pressed cookie dough on a greased cookie sheet spacing them well.

Preheat the oven at 360 degrees F. Bake the cookies for 20 mins or until lightly browned.

I did add some chocolate chips for an added twist or should I say for my extra sweet tooth. :) Make some and enjoy it for yourself.

Farm City

The Education of an Urban Farmer - That completes the title. But that surely does'nt complete all the education this book gave me. Education about the good old American Thrift while I always thought that thrift was an Indian virtue and spending was American. How ill-informed have I been!! This book has left me wondering, whoever can match the spirit of the American thrift and living life with a certain vigor, the way one dreams of living.

I guess I picked the book precisely because I did'nt do what the author, Novella Carpenter did, to the weed -choked, garbage-strewn abandoned plot next to her house in inner-city Oakland. When I moved to my house in sub-urban Chennai in late 2010, 'squatting' did not exist in my vocabulary. Still, I did dream about veggies, fruits and even chicken in the vacant plot next door much to the shock of my hubby who was wondering aloud if I still had my brains intact. The difference was that I did'nt bring the guts to realise my dream to reality. Alternately, I limited myself to planting herbs and greens in pots within my territory. This book has inspired me to take my gardening to the next level whenever I go back, with or without the adjacent plot being vacant. Think I will go hunting for whatever plot lies vacant in the area. :) The difference of course will be that I will have to hunt the owner before I did do anything, else I may well be doing the gardening in confinement :D

This book not only shares the charms of growing ones own food and enjoying it, but also the trials and challenges involved. Sometimes it makes me wonder, if I, calling myself green, having a similar ambition as the author, will endure similar hardships. But as the author upgrades from the Turkey to Rabbit to Pig, I as a reader also enjoyed the fruits of labor from the different mouth watering delicacies described, though I have'nt tasted one single dish mentioned in the book. The book did remind me of my childhood days when we raised chickens at home by feeding them with veg and non-veg scraps, cleaning after them every morning, protecting them from birds of prey (sometimes losing them too) and finally seeing them being killed for feeding us. I still remember being shocked the first time of seeing the act being done in front of my eyes but the questions related to it came much later in life. One of the endearing aspects of the book was the sharing of the food grown and the friendships that grew from the food. Sometimes losing the food was too heart-breaking but I guess, like in other aspects of life, we just move on.

Reserving the best of what I have taken from this book - The Bees. In all my farming dreams (which is almost everyday) till I read this book, I have'nt thought of these small wonders. Yes, I am still such a novice. I owe it completely to this book for giving me such a close look into the bee hive. Like the author says, there are some things we don't know about bees, but this book has told me a lot about bees with the exception of the 'Bee Movie'. There is a lot of action in this book, but to me, the most thrilling one was the immigration of the new hive to Novella's garden in Chapter Twenty Three. No doubt, the sweetest product from Farm City is the Honey.

Check out the author's blog Ghost Town Farm for the latest Farm Produce.

Banana Bread

I think it is called Bread simply because it rhymes well with the Banana. Otherwise to my knowledge it is just a cake devoid of icing. The same ingredients, proportions slightly different but nonetheless tastes perfectly like a cake with the added advantage being, that it can be baked in a jiffy without bothering much about folding the flour and all. Just mix them all up, pop it in the oven and get ready to enjoy after the stipulated half hour. :)

I got this recipe in one of my browsing spree to do some last minute baking for a get together at a friend's place. I ended up finding exactly what I wanted here which has in turn led me to this post. So, at any point of time, when you have a set of very ripe bananas which you dont feel like eating, you can end up making this very yummy, easy, Banana Bread..Well, I still wanted the rhyme..

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour - 1 and 1/4cup
Salted Butter - 1/2 cup (or) 1/4lb
Sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 2 Nos
Ripe Yellow Bananas - 2 Nos
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Almonds (chopped) - 1/4 cup
Chocolate chips - 1/8 cup

Way to Go..

Cream the butter and sugar together until it has combined well. Add the ripe bananas and mix well. Break eggs into the mixture and blend nicely. To this add the flour and baking powder and mix well until all the ingredients come together. Add in the almonds and chocolate chips and mix. Pour the mixture into the baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees FH for about 30 to 35 mins. Post which you can sit back and enjoy the delicious banana goodness!!

Traditional Art in Pencil

I am a huge fan of all things artistic. Specially if they have tradition attached to it. I havent learned any form of it till date, but I do dream of learning some before it is not too late. But to draw something traditional, I thought I need not wait till I get the formal education. So I set forward to do some traditional art in the form I best know - Pencils. So thats how the picture below was born out of my hand.

The original has been beautifully done in Kalamkari by a very talented fellow blogger. You can find this wonderful artist and her fabulous works of traditional Indian art at http://mathu-art-adventure.blogspot.com/

Sketching my way

Of late, I have been into some amount of sketching. So here I go to record it to check on later if I am making any progress at all in this department. :)

The first of it is a very English house that had filled my imagination as a kid when I used to read all those very English novels. Looking at this house in the latest book I read drew me to sketch this one for a keepsake.

The Dream English / American House

Art in the Cooking List

The second on the list is a list itself. Looking at it for the first time delighted me at the creativity of the artist. Yes, I am only a copy-ist. Well, I added some ingredients to the list but a look at it will say for the original artist. I dont know who the original artist is but I found it on the web with a googling for the grocery list art image. The original image can be found here. Truly creative. My thanks to the original creator if whoever it is, is hearing. Thank You very much.

 This boogie needs a special mention. Yes, this is the original one from which the below sketch was born. Not that I can pride about it in any way. But this original does need a mention, that it was created by a 93 year old. What say?? Isnt it inspiring to find such people who can create such wonderful pieces of art with what might be a lot of energy for them.

This is my humble dedication to the young mind of the creator of this masterpiece in wood.

Without Reservations

This is the second time I am here in the United States. My relationship with this country is not all love love. Yes, I do love it for some reasons while I actually dont for many other reasons including the one that I am so far away from the souls that are close to me. The first time around, I missed everything about me and my life as I knew it, before coming to this country of abundance. This time around, I did sufficiently prepare myself to all that awaits me, both good and bad, in this foreign land. Even beyond it all, I think I was'nt prepared for a situation, without the presence of my dearest friend, Ap. A situation that is magnified in distance by geography and hours. It is not such an easy task to fill in such a huge gap. And that is precisely what this wonderful book, "Without Reservations" by Alice Steinbach managed to do by building a beautiful bridge across this huge distance with the utmost ease. When reading this book, it felt like reading or rather talking to Ap, all along. I did'nt call her or talk to her anytime when I was reading this book, lest I call her at the wrong time and end up disappointed.
 
This is not the first book that I am reading of this author, but surely the best of the three written by her and the two read by me. (The story of the first book I read back in 2008 is for another day) This being a travel book, it takes us through the alleys and side streets of some of the beautiful cities and small towns of France, Italy, London and Cambridge. Beyond the places visited through this book, the varied experiences of the author and the people she meets along the way is what is so endearing about this book. In the process, it took me through my own life experiences, the people who have been part of it and gave a fresh perspective to these experiences.

I have had some great takeaways from this book, but I worry if I can share it all here, since it might become a copyright issue. :) Felt like I was rewriting half the book to myself again.

"As I set out each day, I felt like a young child again, one who had'nt yet learned the rules of manmade time: the rules of clocks and calendars, of weekdays and weekends. Except for the primitive markers of day and night, time lay ahead of me in a continuous, undefined mass. I began picturing it as some kind of strange but friendly beast whose appetites and desires were unknown to me."

"Is belonging that simple? A matter of attitude? Or is attitude just another form of self deception?"

"I do not believe in regret, Regret is an illusion. It depends on what might have been. And that is a waste of time"

"At home I had friends like this, women with whom I could exchange in bold shorthand strokes whole parts of our shared history. It was what I missed most on this trip: my women friends. I could always count on them to boost me up or take me down a peg when I needed it."

"She found the life that suited her, I thought, closing the book. Work that interested her, a house she loved, good friends who came for tea and of course, the company of her cats. It was a simple life but by no means an unsophisticated one."

"It is your time, not your money that you should spend wisely."

"Real friendships, are as rare as happy childhoods." :)



"Fugit hora, memento mori - Latin phrase translated means, 'Time flies, Remember you must die' Why do they say that on tombstones? Would it not be more useful to say that 'Time Flies, Remember you must live'?"




Footnote: As the world goes round and round, think it high time, each one of us realises, Time Flies, Remember we must live. Incidentally, Alice, remembered to live until March 13th, 2012.

Baking my own Cake

Cakes and Cookies are the specials I do when I come to the United States. Nothing elaborate. Just the basic ones. I understand that it is no big deal to do the same in India. All one has to do is get a decent oven which is exactly what I have not done so far. So when I did think of baking as soon as I came here, I was lost because I did not have a recipie. And as they say for Baking, you just follow the recipie. While I started my hunt, I was provided results of all exotic cakes from the regular blogs I visited.

Finally I did end up with a video which provided an easy way of baking the basic sponge cake, but to add to my agony, did not provide the measurements. So I ended up making my own cake with my own measurements except the number of eggs. By recording this, I will not be wondering the next time I decided to bake a cake. This cake came out fine and so this will be the way I bake this cake henceforth.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Cane Sugar - 1 cup
Baking Powder - a pinch
Salted/Unsalted Butter - 20 gms
Eggs - 4 Nos.
Vanilla Extract - A few drops

Method:

In a large bowl, (Place this bowl into a bigger bowl/tub with hot water. Warm water enhances the air bubbles created due to the beating process) beat eggs using an electric beater at speed 2 for less than a minute. Add sugar and beat at speed 1 till the mixture becomes a nice soft fluffy mixture. The batter should not sink when lifted. It should leave a ribbon like line when lifted and made lines by the beater.

Once this stage is reached, add the vanilla extract and mix lightly. Sift in the flour and baking powder mix and fold it in the beaten mixture. Care should be taken to do this process gently. Once the flour has blended well with the mixture, add melted butter and fold the batter with the butter. At the end of this 'Oh so gentle process', the final batter should be light and fluffy. Pour the batter into a greased pan.

Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Pop the batter pan into the oven and bake it for 20-25 minutes or check for the cake to rise.(Mine got a wee bit overdone since I was'nt too sure of the bake time. Will keep doing it till I get it right. :) Also open to advice) Check for the done stage and enjoy it with your family tea time. Else layer it with frosting and make it into a delicious cake for any special occasion.

M3 - The Macaroni Mushroom Masala

Ooooh!! I am full.. Hmmm.. Of course I will be, if I decide to cook something and slurp it in a jiffy.

Fact is, I am a person who goes to dig the well when I am really thirsty. This time around it was hunger. Since I didn't have to cook lunch for my hubby today, I lazed around till about 1.30 in the afternoon not doing anything about lunch. Thought I could just about manage with something, when my stomach decided something else and my mind set me in motion, albeit late. Cooking rice was out of question for one person and my mind was in no mood for wheat. So I jumped on Macaroni, though it isn't one of my favourite items until now, that is, when it is mixed up with some yummy Mushroom Masala which was inspired by this recipe by Spicy Chilly. It did turn out to be an easy and delicious gravy (in this case sauce) that can accompany just about any main course. So here I go to record it, in case I end up with another day like this with a hungry stomach and a stubborn mind. When I say this, it may not be just mine.. :)

Ingredients:

Macaroni -1 cup
Olive oil - 1 tsp
Sliced Button Mushroom - 250 gms
Red Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp

Saute and Grind 
Sliced Onion (Big) - 1 Nos
Cut Tomato - 2 Nos
Garlic Cloves - 4 Nos
Ginger Garlic Paste - Half tsp

Way to Go..

In a pan, heat oil, sufficient to saute the onions and garlic cloves (I added them for an additional flavour for the macaroni. You can just do with the ginger garlic paste alone if you wish to). Once the onions have softened, add little ginger garlic paste and saute till cooked. Add tomato and saute till soft. Let it cool and grind it to a smooth paste.

Bring water to a boil in a pan and cook macaroni with enough salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Once cooked, drain water and keep it aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan and saute sliced mushrooms till it starts leaving water. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and a little salt until all of it blends with the mushrooms. This should take just few mins. I read somewhere about a renowned chef saying that mushrooms have to be sauted until they release all their moisture and are slightly crispy. But I'nt too sure I like it that way. So I let it be a little soft. Be free to choose your way.

Coming back to where we were, add in the ground paste and sufficient salt to taste. Mix it with the mushrooms and let it cook covered for sometime. Sift in a little pepper powder, mix well and let it cook for 2 more mins.

To serve, layer macaroni and mushroom sauce on a plate or mix it in a bowl and enjoy the slurpy goodness of Italian pasta, the Indian way.







Footnote: As a side dish for Indian breads or rice, add two green chillies when mushrooms are sauted for added spice and garnish with finely chopped coriander while serving.

Disclaimer

Well.. This is something that I have decided to do before I start posting big time on food. (Thats what I hope to do to help myself in the process)

Okay. I have not been made a great cook or with the ability to dish out different items out of my head. Well, I doubt what I can dish out of my head. Anyway.. But I have to cook on a daily basis and with regular, albeit forced training for the last few years since my marriage, I have been able to manage the survival of a minimum of two human beings at any given point of time. And to also note is that, one of the two is quite demanding on the perfection of taste. :) I leave it to you to decide who.. This, I have been able to do, primarily with the existence of the huge blogging community and the numerous videos posted online. I grab it from here and there and tweek it to our family tastes and have survived my tests.

So far so good. But the problem arises when I try to redo the same dish again and my painful memory fails. Of course I keep a record of what I took from where but at the end of the day, when I do decide to cook a particular dish, I see myself exploring all the recipies once again. This has become more complicating with the increasing number of choices. So I have decided to create a catalog of my own so that I can refer to it immediately as and when I need it.

While doing this catalog, I promise to refer back to the website from which I have taken the original recipie or to my friends or family from whom I have learned to cook the particular dish. I am not aware of any particular procedure that I have to follow for this process, but my guess is that when I credit the person from whom I have sourced the recipie, I am doing good, for both of us.

Knitting Adventures of the Past

This post is to inspire myself from my long hiatus in knitting. And to create a library of sorts for the projects I have done so far.

The first project that I knitted was the Calorimetry from Knitty.com which was done under the able guidance of my knitting teacher Ms. Heather of the Denver Public Library. Worn around the head to suit heads with long hair, this is one project that was made easy even for a beginner.

The second project was for knitting in the round. I have no idea where this project came from, but the end product suited the cold Denver weather very much. I still have one more skein of this yarn and currently working on a matching head gear but taking a hell lot of time in deciding what to do. Even after deciding on something, I am unknitting more that actually knitting. Phew!!

My first glove project and till date the only one and truly the most useful thing I have knitted for myself, having worn it even in Chennai.. Hold on.. Of course in the office under the ice cold air conditioning that my colleagues loved and I despised. This one introduced me to double pointed needles and I am sure that is the scariest things I have handled in knitting till date. If I am any less scared today, credit goes to Heather.





My first test scarf which had a combination of basic patterns that I got from the net. Was one cool project but am sure would have looked better in a brighter colour. So that was the lesson learnt from this one.








This beanie cap went in doubles for the Knitting for our Troops which was organised by the Denver Public Library. Happy to think that it should have helped in keeping somebody warm, though I might have my own opinion on wars that has become a part of daily life in many parts of the world.

Finally.. The one hat I had knitted all by myself without any pattern in hand. Having made the mistake of not writing it down, I now have only a vague idea of how I did this in 2008. But I am informed by my friend that it serves the purpose well for the junior for whom I had knit it then. So that makes up for the forgotten pattern. As long as the product is put to good use. :)

Rules of the Road

Sometimes I wish I could be able to read every written word in the world. With the advent to the internet and the flourishing blogging community and even without it, I am sure any of you reading this should be saying to yourself that this could be the most atrocious thing anybody could think of. But reading something that you have picked out of nowhere and then enjoying it thoroughly, in itself is such a joy. The first time I experienced that was when I read a book by Alice Steinbach which uplifted me from whatever morbid mood I was in then.

This time around, I read "Rules of the Road" by Joan Bauer which made me feel nice. A simple tale of a teenager girl's escape from her current situation to travel on road from Chicago to Dallas along with an elderly lady and how it impacts her and the way she looks at things after that. Not a travel book, but the thought of sitting behind the wheel and traveling with the character transports you places. Some of those brief instances when you feel that there are some things the author is saying instead of you (think that happens in every book I read) gives a sense of belonging. Like we are part of the book and the journey.

My takeaways from the Book:

"If you set your mind and heart towards a healthy way of living and thinking, you'll find a way to climb out of the biggest pit life throws your way"
"God made libraries so that people didn't have any excuse to be stupid. Close to everything a human being needed to know was somewhere in the library" A human being only has to have the need to know...

Garden N Greens

Continuing on my gardening bug, I wanted to record here the little piece of greenery that I nurture. The importance of going organic and growing ones own food has led me to take this little green initiative.

Mint flavour to me is so intoxicating that it gives me a high everytime I pluck a fresh bunch of them and invariably smell them. Even otherwise, they spread their aroma all around you everytime you hold them in your hands. The easiest thing to grow by just pushing their stems into soil gave me a rich harvest of mint leaves which my neighbours and I enjoyed a lot many times. The lemon plant which found its birthplace right in midst of the minty aroma has been handed over to my neighbour who has found some good ground for it to grow as a nice big lemon tree. The 'Kapooravalli' plant in the background has soothed many a cold for people young and old in the neighbourhood. Felt reaalll good.. :)

As of the 'Manathakaali' keerai (greens) that I harvested, I have never seen or tasted such fresh greens in all my life straight from the plant to the keerai satti (pot) to the plate. It felt even better when the second harvest provided the same taste for my neighbour and her guests. It tasted even better (because she was a great cook) when the third harvest went to one other neighbour and she returned that afternoon with one brimming cup of yummy keerai. A great way for the greens and the joy to keep spreading...

P.S: This post was drafted way back when I was in India but got to see the light of the day today when I am so far removed from my little piece of greenery