A finish, some baking, some progress and Tusal

Has been quite a while since I posted last. So, there's been quite a bit of activity happening at my end.

First the Tusal for the month

All Orts here are from December of course. 



Here's the August cottage in all its glory.

Am really proud of the Indian flag, has turned out really well too. Not bad at a first attempt at changing a pattern to suit my need

Do you remember I posted a recipe for Choco-nana crinkle cookies a few weeks back. I tweaked the recipe to make lemon-choco chip cookies.

It was a suuuper hit. The change I made was skipped the cocoa and used flour, lemon juice instead of vanilla extract. For some extra spice, added half tsp of nutmeg powder

Another new trial was a potato bread

It tasted real yumm. Only it was not fluffy :( Am planning to bake this again for sure.

Guess what arrived by mail. My order from 123.

How could I just order spinach?? It's not fair right, hehe

Finally, some progress in December

After  I took this picture, I've made a lot of progress and now just have the border at the bottom left

So, that's allll the updates from me today :)
Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Some more desserts

I really seem to be on a dessert roll, thanks to all the inspiration from the FB group Home Baker's Guild. I tried a new dessert and an old tried and tested recipe.

The already tried is carrot cupcake.

I was going to make them into a cake, but V preferred cupcake. The idea is to prepare something every week for V's school snack. Something interesting.

I tried a no-bake chocolate tart.

I have been wanting to try chocolate tart for years. This dessert makes me extremely nostalgic, as it goes way back to my college days. There used to be this bakery near my college called Baker's Inn, which sold the best ever chocolate tarts. Ever since we moved to Chennai in 1996, I have been on the look out for tarts that taste atleast close to this, but have only faced disappointment every time I buy one. Having gained so much confidence in desserts now, I decided to try making these myself. Pardon me if I sound conceited, but I am happy that I tried. Finally I think I have (almost) matched the taste of my favorite dessert.

I was too lazy to bake the tart shells, so used the digestive biscuit+butter as base. For the filling, made chocolate ganache using the recipe from Martha stewart. It was an instant hit with the family as well. And so simple to make.

And guess what my new toy is

Isn't it a beauty?! V says "Amma this is too much, you have not put your phone down ever since you got it". I am addicted to it. Have been fidgeting with it non-stop. And I have not even started downloading any apps or music!!

Having said so much, you would have guessed that I have made zero progress in december cottage. I have picked it up again, and am making slow and steady progress.

Well, that's all from me today. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Lots of baking and Tusal

Whooo am reallly on a baking spree now. Last week I tried 2 new recipes - a cookie and a pudding.

The cookie is part of a challenge hosted by the Homebaker's guild - a group of bakers on FB. The challenge is called the choco-nana crinkle cookie challenge

It's an absolute yumm recipe and a must-try. The recipe is from here

The pudding was something that I've been wanting to try for a very long time. So finally I put this together, literally on Friday night for dessert.

This is what I did:
Line the baking dish with bread slices, pour cooked custard covering the bread layer completely, top with raisins and nuts of your choice and bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. I sprinkled some cinnamon and also added a few strands of saffron to the custard. Server warm. The hubby and V totally loved it.

Now for the Tusal

There's not much progress since my last Tusal. I have just managed to put in a few stitches on December cottage.

Here's where I stand with it now

I am taking it really slow for a few reasons - this is the last of the cottages and am cherishing it and also, am waiting for the arrival of Spinach 

And here's my July in all its glory

 That's all from me for today dear friends. Till next time with more baking and stitching.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

The Vegan kitchen and a few other books

Oops, it's already July 1st and I do not have the cottage of the month all done up :( And this time even V forgot to remind me!!!

While I put July together, I thought I'd write about this new recipe book I borrowed from the library. It's called My Vegan Kitchen by Anuradha Sawhney.

I was looking for a book that suggests quick lunch box recipes and found this one.

The cover was quite interesting, unlike the usual which made me pick this up.

And also I liked the different desserts under the dessert/sweets category. On going through it though, I was slightly disappointed in that, most of the dishes are the ones we are already familiar with in the kitchens of India. There was nothing different, nothing that I HAD to try from the book.

Apart from this I also borrowed a few other books - The baker's dozen (which is a collection of short stories written by Indian authors), US edition of good housekeeping (I love that magazine) and Pure sequence.

I liked Pure sequence - this is a very different novel about how 4 ladies in their twilight years accept their current situations and how they make the best of them. I really enjoyed reading it. For once, this was not yet another love story.

Thanks to all this reading, I guess the crafting has taken back stage. I tried my hands at baking cinnamon rolls again last weekend

and the family loved it. Though they did not specifically say so, I did not have any left to bring to work the following monday. I guess that's a good sign?! ;) For better effect, I tried to show the pictures from my first trial and the one I made last weekend. The recipe I used was a no-yeast one from Joy of baking. The recipe can be found here.

That's it from me today friends. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

Disney and some baking lessons

We did some mall-ing on saturday. It's the one closest to our place and also the newest one in town. As it's quite close to where we live (about 10 minutes by vehicle during off-peak hours), we decided to take our motor-bike. I think that was a very bad decision, as it took us about 45 minutes to reach the place!! We were totally dead by the time we even reached there.

Disney channel had a lot of activities planned the whole of last week at the mall starting on the 7th. We just decided to visit and see if we could take a few pictures. V was quite put off by the queue and did not want to take a picture with them. I managed to take a picture of them anyway

Disney's brings out the kid in each of us, doesn't it? There were a few stalls where the girls could be dressed up as their favorite princess. Again the build up of queue was quite long. So, just took a picture of V along one of the "walls"

By the end of it all we were famished and wanted something to eat. Again the coffee shops were full and no place to sit!! Finally managed to get a few seats in one of them. After being refreshed it was time to go grocery shopping at the new hyper market in the mall. Auchan (a hypermarket chain from Europe) has opened a branch here, and obviously we have to check that out, don't we. I was expecting a few imported brands, but was disappointed there. I am happy with the freezer section though, as I got some varieties of cheese and Khoa there.

V and I are back to our baking days, and no more cold desserts, as school has started. V wanted to bake something completely on her own. So we picked up a recipe from Rachel Allen's bake series - peanut butter and white chocolate blondies

V worked on it completely, with me only helping with checking if it was done. It came out quite well, except that I think it could have been baked just a little longer to be completely done and be firmer.

The recipe for these can be found here

I have put in the first few stitches on December cottage, but not enough to post a picture yet.

Well, that's all I have this week. Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir

TUSAL and a finish

It's once of those few months when I post the Tusal on time!!

All orts this month are from November cottage.

Speaking of which, I managed to finally finish November :)

Isn't it a beauty? I am all set to start December. When I was kitting for December, I realized that I miss one of the shades - a crescent Spinach!! Yikes!!!! I have to figure out a way of getting that.

Last night I baked these "emergency brownies", which is a blessing for sudden chocolate cravings and for people like me who are constantly craving for chocolates

Here's the recipe

That's the latest from me

Mid-year post

We are in the 6th month of the year already!!! And so, time for me to put up the next month all done up

I almost forgot that May was over and I had to finish up June. I had just enough card board for the finish, phew.
I am not very happy with the red cord finish. By the time I could stick the cord to the piece, it losened up a bit :(



I tried another mango dessert over the weekend - Mango mousse

The recipe source was an old newspaper cutting.

I have cut down on my gaming time and have made a little progress with November. I now have only the border at the bottom left. Will post a finish soon.

That's about it from me today friends. Till next time.. Take care. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir