Tag Archives: Food

Mexican Pasta Salad

A cloudy and windy Saturday (Sadly, no rains though)

A walk to the theatre to see Man of Steel (which I enjoyed watching)

A lazy Sunday spent meal planning and grocery shopping (my first time doing a meal plan for the week)

And, eating this mexican pasta salad for lunch today. All of this and more made it a weekend well spent. :)

The first time I made this easy pasta salad was for my coffee group friends and everyone enjoyed it. In fact it got my friends’ kids’ approval as well, and one of them is only 15 months old. And I think anything that gets a kid’s approval is a recipe to keep. Just make sure you reduce the spice to make the recipe more kid friendly.

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A while back (and I am sorry to the person who asked this because it’s been quite a while back), someone asked me for a good recipe for pancakes. The simple kinds. Easy to make, and great to taste.

Since V is not that crazy about pancakes, they are never made in our house. In fact, during the first month or so of our marriage I remember bringing one of the boxed mixes home. I made them once, but realized later that V is not a fan of pancakes, and that box sat in our kitchen pantry cupboard till it expired, never to be used again and finally thrown after a year of passing its expiry date.

I, on the other hand do like pancakes.

I have grown up on pancakes.

Almost every weekend, my brother and I would request my mom to make pancakes for us. She generally used box mix, but sometimes made them from scratch too. Along with the pancakes, on the table would be maple syrup that my grandmother would get from Canada every time she came to visit us in India, but I always preferred the lemon syrup that my mom made from scratch.

And that’s how I remember pancakes. My mom serving them hot with a good serving of butter and the lemon syrup drizzled on top. Oh sooooo good.

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I have never understood the hype behind red velvet cupcakes/cakes. So much food coloring in a baked good. Just does not seem right. And since I do not understand the hype, I have neither attempted making one or ordering it in a bakery, except for one very unfortunate dry and unflavorful experience at a bakery once. So when my friend asked to make a red velvet cake for one of our coffee friends’ farewell party, I was in a fix. Being such a popular cupcake/cake choice I thought I should see what the hoopla is actually about and agreed to baking some.

I searched and bookmarked many red velvet recipes. But finally went with the one that I am sharing today after reading the reviews on allrecipes.com. I ended up making cupcakes instead of a cake because I feel they are so much more fun sometimes, plus I had more fun decoration ideas for cupcakes than a cake.

What drew me to the recipe was actually the frosting. It called for cooking flour and milk together and then adding to the cooked mixture creamed butter and sugar. Its something I had never done or heard of before. It’s also how traditionally red velvet cakes were iced- with a french-style butter roux icing. And after reading the reviews, and how good the frosting and the cupcakes were I decided its worth trying. I was sure my friends would forgive me if they turned out bad.

Well, honestly, since the only experience I have had with a red velvet has been a dry, too-fake-red red velvet cupcake , these turned out to be very good. They were fluffy, moist, with a hint of chocolate too. The frosting, though, I was not sold. It wasn’t particularly bad, quite decent actually, but I think I am biased towards cream cheese frosting on top of a red velvet cupcake or any cupcake for that matter. So I missed the cream cheese flavor.

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A week back V had to go out of town and I was left home alone for three days and two nights.

Two very painful and scary nights.

With V gone all those scary movies, CSI , criminal mind episodes flashed in front of me and I just couldn’t sleep the whole night.

See, I love watching scary movies, and all those crime, murder mystery shows. But then later, I imagine all the different scenarios that they show in horror movies or the crime serials happening with me and every tiny little noise is made out to be a serial killer trying to get in the house and murdering V and me in our sleep.

And because of these fears I take many precautions. Like, if I get up in the middle of the night to pee, I let V know by repeatedly saying his name and as a result waking him up, so that if anything happens to me while on my way to the bathroom, he knows and comes for my rescue. Of course, now he is so used to it, most of the time he sleeps through it, so now I make sure I am little louder while saying his name. Yep, he is really lucky to have me in his life.  :)

I also lock our bedroom door, because I believe if someone does break into the house and we don’t hear it, we will for sure hear him trying to unlock our bedroom door. I also have been playing with the idea of putting a heavy piece of furniture in front of the bedroom door, just in case the killers do manage to open our door and we do not hear it. V thinks its a little bit too much because we do live in a very safe town. But one can never be too sure, can one?!

And athough I have a terrible time later, I never learn and continue to watch scary movies. I do try to reduce the chill factor by covering my eyes with my fingers, just enough to watch, sbut enough to not get that scared. I remember Rich Hall made a sniglet (snig’ lit: any word that doesn’t appear in the dictionary, but should) for watching a scary movie like that- SNARGLE. And to V’s and others’ amusement, and to my embarrassment I snargle a lot!

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In our small mining town, we are a total of eight people from India; three couples and two bachelors, one of whom is actually a forced bachelor, since his wife is in California doing a one year course.

Its nice to have people from your country in the same city, especially in a place like this. And more so when it means you get to eat home cooked Indian food that is not cooked by your own hands. So every time we get a dinner invitation from our Indian friends I get super excited. And the joy is double since both the couples belong to states in the south of India, and since I am a complete novice with cooking south Indian food, I revel in their dosa, biryani, sambhar, and curd rice.

Its not that I have not tried my hand at South Indian cooking. During the first few months of our marriage, I tried making dosa, but it was a complete disaster that ended with me throwing the dosa batter away. After that misadventure, I have kept my distance from cooking anything that is south Indian totally relying on my South Indian friends here to satisfy my idli-dosa cravings. And it doesn’t hurt that my friend makes amazing food.

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Its only befitting to follow the last post that was on Mother’s Day with a recipe from my mom’s repertoire. In my last post, I did not mention how great a cook she is. I did not forget, but I did not for once want it to be about her cooking. But there is no doubt that she is an amazing cook.

My mom never cooked before marriage, and all that she learnt was after marriage. With a foodie for a husband and a few trusted Indian Tarla Dala books, and a willingness to always experiment new dishes, she became famous for her cooking. As a result my dad grew a truck tyre for a stomach and her children became gourmands (or well more aptly gluttons).

I have in the past shared her famous date cake recipe. Believe me when I say, this is one recipe you should always have with you. My sister-in-law made it recently for her friends and she said out of all the things she made, the date cake was the star. And she and I both get that every time we make it.

My mom’s homemade chocolate balls that she sent to my hostel are the reason why I was always in the good books of my hostel seniors. It’s only half true when they say a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I think it holds for everyone.

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I started the Garam Masala Tuesdays series in April of 2011, and finally after 2 years, I am posting a recipe for homemade Garam Masala! If I wasn’t embarrassed enough, I would be laughing at the irony of it. But in all fairness when I started the series I did mention that I hardly ever use garam masala in my cooking. So why the name Garam Masala tuesdays? You can read about that here.

If I hardly use garam masala, why the recipe then. Well, ever since I have started making my own garam masala, I do use it more than I previously did, because it just adds that touch of flavor which makes my dishes come together perfectly.

Garam Masala literally translates to warm/hot spice mix. Garam In Hindi means Hot, and Masala means blended spices.

But when I say hot it doesn’t mean that the spices are spicy hot. It means that the spices raise the heat of the body by raising the metabolism and hence the name garam masala. And that is why you should always use garam masala sparingly in your cooking. Too much of it and your stomach will bear the brunt of it.

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I know I have mentioned this enough on the blog, but I’ll say it again for the ones who are here for the first time – V is not a sweet tooth kind of guy. I have managed to turn him a bit but still the dessert devotee in me doesn’t think it’s enough. He is quite the health freak and the kinds who doesn’t need dessert to conclude a meal. I, on the other hand, have been known to actually eat a meal so that I do not feel guilty for having just desserts on my plate. Probably that’s why I am constantly struggling with my weight, while V actually exercises to gain weight! Some guys do have all the luck!

But, V does have a weakness. Its strawberry ice cream. That he will buy even when I am not there. Something he will eat without me having to emotionally blackmail him to eat it so that I dont feel guilty of taking a bite myself.

So, it was only obvious that I had to learn how to make at home a dessert that he enjoys so much. It also gave me a chance to inaugurate the ice cream maker for this season.

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I have finally come to admit to myself that I suck at throwing. I don’t play cricket for the same reason because I literally throw like a girl. I would rather walk the distance and hand you the ball then embarrass myself by throwing it and having it land 100 feet away from you. Yes, I speak from experience.

This realisation strengthened yesterday when we played darts at my friend’s place. It was painstakingly embarrassing, but luckily I had enough drinks in me to not be too bothered about making a fool out of myself. V, on the other hand, was perfect. Maybe it has something to do with all the yoga he does. *Mental note to self- practice yoga to get better at darts.*

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My friend’s daughter got very sick last week. She had to be admitted to the hospital and after four traumatizing days for my friend and her family she was finally released to come back home. She is still under observation but she is a trooper and fighting her way through her sickness with a smile.

Since the poor little girl went through so much, I decided to welcome her back home with cupcakes. I remember when I used to get sick as a child, I would crave for something sweet- anything to get rid of that bitter taste that medicines leave in your mouth.

I knew she loves funfetti, well which kid doesn’t? And, I had recently stumbled upon this recipe by Sally’s Baking Addiction. They seemed the perfect amount of fun to greet a child with.

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Sally uses a vanilla buttercream for the frosting and while I am sure that tasted absolute heaven, these days my latest frosting craze is the chocolate malt frosting (originally by Sweetapolita) I used for the five layer cake. And since I love the combination of vanilla with chocolate, you do get the best of both worlds, I paired these fun funfetti cupcakes with the chocolate malt frosting.

The cupcakes are great on their own, and fun to look at with colorful speckles all over the cupcake. So if you do not want the extra calories, skip the frosting and just make the cupcakes.

But, I’d rather you not.

Instead, I would suggest you have only one, or even half but make sure you have it with the frosting since it is so darn good. Since that’s how it is supposed to be. Because that’s what makes these divine. I can not say it enough, but treat yourself with this frosting now!

And, since these were being made for a kid in mind I made sure I topped each cupcake with a LOOOOT of frosting. <3

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