JABBED!!

Number of cases are on the rise in many states in India too now. While some states have already started imposing another phase of lockdown, there is talk that our state is not very behind one too. 

Vaccination drive has started in earnest and since last week, a few hospitals have also started giving the jabs for people over 45.  

We took the first chance that we got to get our first jab. 

Cooking:

Chakka Varatti is a childhood favorite of mine, probably everyone who has a link to Kerala will love it. This is basically a preserve made out of jackfruit

Some dishes have a story/incident/memory associated with them. For me chakka varatti is one such dish, that I always associate with my athais.

We had gone to Coimbatore to my athai’s house for a summer vacation. Athai was going to make chakka varatti and peeling the jackfruit is a task on its own. We were all part of the army who were assigned the task. Then athai got down to the making which was a laborious task. Even more laborious than the making was waiting for the dish, while the whole house was filled with the aroma of chakka, Vellam and ghee. The end result was very well worth the wait

Knowing how much I love it, another athai would always make sure to buy some for me every time she went to palakkad.

I have been wanting to try this for years and finally got down to it

We are a foodie family and love trying various cuisines. I suddenly realized that I have never cooked any Chinese dish till now. I quickly listed down the ingredients I needed to buy and ordered them online

Veg fried rice and Veg manchurian - my first ever Chinese dishes. It was a satisfactory meal, yet not to heavy in the tummy

Stitchy Update:

Here's a picture of my WIP - a gingerbread cookie pattern

I am working on perforated paper and the skeins are a mix of DMC and Anchor, from my stash. 

The lose ORTs are from this month and the ones in the jar are YTD

So, that's about it from me today friends. Till next time.. take care.. stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Lockdown.. Cooking.. Stitching

Hope all my dear blogging friends are safe and healthy

As almost everybody, we have been cooking quite a lot during the lock-down.

Cooking
Normally, we would only order things like burger, pizza, falafel etc. from a restaurant, as we think these are difficult to prepare. But only when we actually make them at home do we know how simple they actually are. In addition to a hygienic home-made meal, we also get the satisfaction of learning something new

Here are some of the dishes that we tried

Falafel sandwiches

Veggie Burger - the buns were store bought. We do want to try making the bun at home too once 

Banana chocochip cake with peanut butter frosting. Originally, we did not want to do the frosting. Then, V wanted to go the full length and decided to make that too. Wow, were we glad that we made the frosting too. What a divine combination it was. Here's the recipe link - https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/banana-chocolate-chip-cake-with-peanut-butter-frosting. 

We used flaxseed powder instead of egg and yoghurt instead of sour cream. We did not powder the sugar for the frosting, but that added a lovely crunch 

Stitchy Update

I started stitching Snowy day by Lizzie Kate

Though the progress is much slower than the earlier finishes this year, I am totally loving working on this. I picked up all floss from my stash, with shades as close as possible to the one in the picture

ORTS - the lose ORTS on the right are from progress for the month and the jar is year-to-date

So, that's from me today dear friends. Till next time.. stay safe.. stay healthy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Dear friends, hope all of you and your families are safe and healthy. This pandemic has turned our lives upside down. None of us even dreamt that we would be facing a lockdown. I stepped out exactly twice in the last 40 days! V did not step out even that many times. Stores (only essentials) are open from 6am - 1pm country wide. We can order food from a few select outlets, but we are skeptical. 

We have been using this time for some spring cleaning. I have accumulated a whole lot of recipes from magazines and newspapers. Also, my aunt passed on a huge bunch of clippings when she moved away to another city. There were paper cuttings, hand written note books and some books too. This was the first I cleaned out - kept only those recipes which I am sure of trying atleast once and threw out those clippings which involved lot of effort, but I fancied trying at some point

To keep up our spirits, V and I are trying out new recipes - things we love but always thought were complicated. Sharing just a few highlights from the cooking expeditions

Cooking

Hummus - I had bought Tahini, a few months back, hoping to make hummus soon. It took a lock-down to make me take the leap finally 

Pizza from scratch - this is a no yeast pizza base. Yeast is a big demon that I am yet to conquer, but hope to tackle that too during this period. Here's the super simple base and pizza sauce recipe link. Pizza base recipe - https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/no-yeast-pizza-dough-recipe/

Tomato sauce recipe - https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/5-minute-pizza-sauce/

Stitching
Here's where Rose book mark stands now

I have finished the main stitching, only the blue background is left. The lose ORTS you see are from the past month's progress. ORTS in the jar are year-to-date. Am really happy with the progress in one month

I feel this might be slightly big for a book mark. Am looking for ideas to finish this 

That's all today from me friends. Stay home, stay safe. Till next time.. Keep stitching.. be happy.. Au Revoir

More Cooking.. err OPOSing!!

I tell you OPOS  method of cooking is totally addictive!! Though I have not started using this method for my daily cooking, I follow this during weekends. Once I am more confident, I plan to start implementing this daily as well. This is not only quick, but also healthy as there is very little or no oil used. I am now on the lookout to buy that 'perfect' pressure pan(s). Now each new skill requires the necessary tools right ;)

Here are the new trials from the OPOS card
Semiya (Vermicelli) Dum Biryani

Here's the method:

Mix 1/4C Ch (carrot, beans, paneer), 1/4C yogurt.
Wash & drain 2C roasted vermicelli (100g).
Mix vermicelli with 1/2 tsp biriyani masala, 1tsp (ghee, salt, chili pwdr). In a PC, layer 3tsp (oil, water), 1/2C Ch onion, 1 bay leaf, veggies, vermicelli & 1/4C Ch (mint, cilantro). Cook on high for 1Wh (5min).
Cook layered & sealed, spiced vermicelli

REPLACE/ SUPPLEMENT Vermicelli noodles/ pasta Biriyani masala with your favourite spice mix Carrot/ beans with your favourite vegetables Paneer with soaked soya chunks/ marinated minced meat/ mushrooms Yogurt with coconut milk.

TIPS
Ensure vermicelli is soft nut non clumpy after washing & draining. Sprinkle 1/4C water if you fear burning. Release pressure if overcooked.

Pav Bhaji

Mix 1C Ch potato, 1/2tsp (GM, cumin, chili pwdrs),
1/4C Ch (capsicum, fresh peas). In a PC, layer 6tsp
butter, 1/2C Ch onion, 1C Ch tomato, mixed veggies.
Cook on high for 3Wh (5 Min). Mash all.
Cook spiced vegetables to a mush

REPLACE/ SUPPLEMENT
GM with your fav spice mix
Capsicum with your fav veggies

TIPS:
Skip mashing & serve as Kada Pav Bhaji
Stir fry with rice to make Tava pulao.

The academic year is coming to an end. This means that other than exams, kids want to celebrate finishing of a year. V wanted to bake something for her classmates and the obvious choice was - brownies of course!! Picture is in the collage above

As you know, I only bake eggless. Gayathri's cookspot has a whole lot of eggless recipes and the instructions are very simple and ingredients very easily available too. Here's the link to her recipe. I did a slight tweak - cut down 1/2 cup flour and replaced that with cocoa to make it brownies. V was in a big hurry to cut the pieces, hence the mis-shapen ones :) But her friends, and of course me, just loved it

Another recipe we tried was banana nut choco chip muffins. I have tried this several times and it is totally fail proof and very simple. Unfortunately I do not have a picture to share. The recipe is from here. We added roasted pine nuts and chocolate chips

Whooa, that's a whole lot of cooking and baking :) With this I will sign off today

Till next time..Take Care.. Be happy.. Happy crafting.. Au Revoir

It's OPOS all the way

OPOS.. This is the new word and technique I have learnt the last month. OPOS - read as One Pot One Shot, is a new cooking methodology that I learnt in the last 10 days. It might not be a totally new concept, but the idea of one pot cooking has been extended to almost all recipes

I was introduced to this facebook group called Unified by Food, where the basic idea is OPOS cooking, flash cooking etc. Though they do have other regular recipes, the main theme is one shot cooking. As it is evident from the name, we layer all the ingredients in the pressure cooker and cook for the recommended time. The time depends on the type of ingredients we use. Lentils and legumes for example need longer to cook, whereas spinach and other greens take hardly 5 minutes. 

The only thing that is time consuming in this method is chopping the vegetables. After that it's only minutes before the meal is ready. The main problem with this is, it's extremely addictive. Once we have OPOS'd a dish, we think of OPOS'ng all!! 

What we need for OPOS is pressure cooker, that's it!! Of course other than our ingredients. In the last 10 days I tried 4 dishes using this method - Ram Khichdi, Sambhar, Palak paneer and beetroot Halwa. Yesterday being sunday, we had palak paneer with Phulkas and beetroot halwa for dessert.

Here's the method to make palak paneer

In a pressure cooker (PC), layer 3tsp (butter, water) 1tsp GG (Ginger garlic) paste, 1/2C Ch onions, 1Ch tomato, 1/2tsp (salt, chili pwdr, GM, cumin pwdr), 2tsp dry kasuri methi, 1Ch chili, 250g Ch spinach (4C) & 1C paneer cubes. Cook on high for 2Wh (6min). Release pressure. Mash all except paneer.

And for Beetroot halwa:

Peel & grate 500g beetroots. Squeeze out moisture. Mix In 1C sugar, 1/4C crumbled paneer, 1/2tsp cardamom pwdr. In a PC, layer 1/4C ghee, carrots. Cook on high for 10Wh (8 min). Release pressure. Mix in 1/2C (nuts, dry fruits)

I made a mistake by not squeezing out the water from beetroot and it let out a lot of water. I had to drain out the excess

Another advantage in this method is, the vegetables retain their original color unlike other methods of cooking

Well, I have OPOS'd all through this post!! Hope you catch the OPOS fever too

Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

TUSAL and Gaming!!

Yes, that's precisely what has been keeping me away. Thanks to Fruit Ninja, Tetris, Subway surf and my new jigsaw apps, I have hardly made any progress with my stitching.

Let me show you my orts for the months first

All orts are from december cottage, just a few from seashells

We just removed the training wheels from V's cycle and she just can't stay away from it.

I tried this new recipe - corn pudding.

I found this recipe in one of the women's magazines, while I was enjoying a mint pedicure at the parlor. Here it is:
Boil a cup of corn in a cup of milk till it is well cooked and soft. Cool this and grind to a smooth paste. Pass this through a sieve. I skipped this step (out of sheer laziness). Pour this corn mixture into a heavy bottomed vessel, add more milk, 1 cup sugar, 1tbsp butter and cook till the mixture is thick. It should look like custard. The original recipe called for cinnamon for additional flavor, but I used cardamom and saffron. This gave a real nice touch. Chill and serve.
This is a very quick and easy dessert.

As the months fly, it's time to display the "finished" September cottage.

Just 3 more to "finish" and they will be done for good. I have gathered all the materials required to finish them all and hope to get that done by this week.

Though I have not made much progress with seashells, here's where I am with it.

I have not been baking the last few weeks at all.

I promise to make more progress and put down my games from now. Till my next post, hopefully with more progress.. Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir