Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Scavenger Hunt Sunday is another event on photography. This is started by the great photographer Asley Sisk. Visit her blog to know more about Photography and Events on Photography. I have become a big fan of her Photography and the way she sees the world behind the lenses. This Scavenger Hunt Sunday event has some rules:

1. Anyone can participate.

2.You're encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge.

3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I'm not too strict about it - I do my best to take fresh shots).

4. Link up here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) - you can use the button below.  

This week's themes are:
1. Wish or Dream
2. Clean
3. Currency
4. Pair
5. Square
Here are my interpretations:

1. Wish or Dream

I wish to get back my childhood again.

2. Clean

I hate vacuum cleaners as they make a very annoying sound. But cleaning is also an inevitable part of life.

3. Currency

Do I have to give any interpretation at all..

4. Pair

This is one of my favourite snaps. The best pair to me is the reflection or the shadow of an individual. While photographing on my daughter, this snap caught a beautiful glory and perfect example of a pair.

5. Square

I was searching each square object of my house to shoot. Suddenly I got the best squares of my life with which I spent most of the time apart from my family.

Hope you enjoyed the photographs. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Macro Monday

Photography is always a passion for me, but I always have taken snaps aimlessly. But now I am getting focused to know the tiny little things about Photography. So this is my first entry to an event on photography. You have to take a macro or a close up shot and to link it to the Macro Monday Event. Hope you will all love the clicks.  

If you want to see more Photographs then click here:

The Fumbling Little Chocolate Pie

The late afternoon hours are the guilt hours that haunt Rim to succumb herself in the world of junk foods. Everyday, walking & jogging for 2 miles, shedding 300 calories a day, becomes futile for this irrepressible habit. She calls it the ghostly hours which bewitch her to do the guilt. Her tongue starts to tickle, her belly starts to rumble and her limbs hypnotically draw her to the sneak picks to collect the chocolates or the chips which are hidden in some secret chambers away from her daughter's eyes. Her mind never supports this act, rather it will keep on counseling showing all the negative approaches with a long speech about' loosing weight is not a simple job'. But none can stop this gaga moment when she feels like tasting the heaven and enjoying the most serene hours of her life. Each bite to a chip, the munching sound, start to play the rhythm of happiness in her heart. She feels the childhood again, the stealthy attitude to steal something from her mother's kitchen. Now she is playing this kind of hide and seek with her daughter. She never makes any sound to wake her daughter up and destroy this happy hour when she gets only a chance to delve in the world of obstinacy, doing something totally unacceptable to some savvy culture who believe in beauty of a woman lies in her perfect chassis.

This was one in those ghostly hours she gave birth of the gooey creamy chocolate pie. When at the prime time no chips or chocolates were found, the chocolate pie from the movie Julie and Julia suddenly came in her mind and tried to strangle her. The delirium made her all most mad unless and until she made a so called chocolate pie to aplomb the crazy hours. She dug up her refrigerator and treasured a half pint of cream, a left over crumble cream cheese, from the shelf she rescued the chocolate morsels to ultimately free them. She made the chocolate filling and pour it in a pie crust. Proud she was quite in a transition when she first tasted the umber filling. It’s the best chocolaty chocolate repletion that she ever tasted in her life. The moment got frozen, the world stopped moving. It's only she and the pie who were propelled in smacking. She never thought that she would ever fall in love with this moment, with this taste. She never thought that the chocolate pie will give her the amorous feeling to feel the youth again.

She closed her eyes and she became Julie Powell of Julie & Julia suddenly, who was busy in making a chocolate Pie and searching for the pacification in it to get rid of the tension of a dissatisfied job. Then Her husband would come and give a pat for her creative culinary creation. Rim doesn't have a job. For the last couple of months she got tired in search of a job. So she can't grumble on that rather she has an excuse to show her discontentment for the unemployed state.

But she didn't want to spoil this rattling moment when the chocolate pie was working as a psychoactive drug and giving her the intense pleasure of reaching the utopia. She giggled in her mind as she thought that she had become a chocoholic and going to the doctor to get treated.

She suddenly heard a sound. And her heart started to beat fast.

Was her daughter woke up from her noon time siesta?

Her heart sank down for a moment. She wanted to enjoy this moment more for sometime. Her disheartened soul stalked to her daughter's room. She jumped with joy. No her daughter was still in a deep sleep. Her heart melted down in love seeing the innocent face, a face in peace and totally unaware of what was happening around. She showered a bucket of kisses from a distance to her daughter and then tiptoed back to the kitchen.

Now it was the time to give a final look to the chocolate pie. The filling she made that only covered half of the crust. Rim got baffled in thought how to fill the empty space of the crust. She started to search her kitchen to find an accompaniment for her chocolate pie. Her hand suddenly bumped with a packet of Britannia Thin Arrowroot biscuit. She hated this biscuit through out her life, till now Rim hated that 'dry', 'less sweet', 'no taste' biscuits form the bottom of her heart.

Then why were the packet hanging around her pantry??

In her first visit to the Indian store in this extraneous land she collected all the Indian labeled food as a souvenir. This packet also came along with those. She bought it, pushed it in a suffocating dark corner to decompose. But every time whom we neglect too much they rescue us in our most low time.

'Ting'-The thin arrowroot biscuit packet lighted an idea in her mind. She grinded half of the packet of the biscuits and spread a bed of biscuit crumbs on the empty space of the pie. Her favorite bottle of chocolate syrup also didn't hesitate to empty itself in designing a clunky topping on the pie. An enchanted smile started to spread in her face and a jolted sensation started to run in her vein, in her blood. She put it in the Refrigerator to set.

Her greedy soul was not in a mood to wait for any more so she cut a small piece of the chocolate pie and relaxed herself on the chair. She took the first bite . She felt a luscious commingled taste of a tangy-sweetness of the chocolate filling, the crispy crust and a tasteless powdery puff of the biscuit crumb. Rim closed her eyes. She saw her mother, 10 years back, requesting Rim to have thin arrowroot  biscuits as the grocery was pending and only the biscuits were there to calm the hungry tide. And Rim in full of rejection showing her mother to get tortured by finding some other way to feed her. She felt her throat was choking and tears started to well up in her eyes. She took the second bite. She felt like she was at home with her parents. She was cuddling in her mother's arms. An intense happiness fluxed through her body. She never knew that the fumbling little chocolate pie would turned those ghostly hours in an enlivened flavor. She never knew that a silly little crazy desire would show her the spirits of life.

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This is off to Of Chalks And Chopsticks event hosted by Padmaja and started by Aqua,
and
Spotlight : baking without oven, hosted by Indrani.

Dear readers, please do let me know how you like the story. Honest opinions are very much welcome. I really need your frank and true feedbacks. All characters mentioned in the story are fictitious, unless and until mentioned. And of course don't forget to let me know how you like the Chocolate pie too. This is very easy to make and the taste is too good.  Now enjoy the recipe below:

 

 

Ingredients:  Instant Pie Crust- 1 Chocolate Morsels- 1 cup Light Cream- ½ cup Cream Cheese- 2 table spoon full (room temperature) Sugar- as per taste Thin Arrowroot Biscuit- 12-14 Chocolate Syrup (optional)- For topping Method:- 1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 1mnt. Pls keep on checking in between so that it should not get burnt. You can also use a double boiler instead. 2. Add the cream and fold nicely. 3. In a separate bowl beat the cream cheese in a smooth paste and then add the chocolate mixture in it. Taste the mixture, if you want to add more sweetness to it, then add a couple of spoons of sugar more. 4. Pour the mixture to the pie crust. 5. Grind the biscuits in crumbs and then pour on the pie. Spread the crumbs evenly to make soft puffy bed on the top of the creamy chocolate layer. 6. You can add some chocolate syrup on the top to add more chocolaty flavour and make it more attractive. 7. Set in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Then cut it and enjoy as a tea time snack or a perfect dessert at the dinner table.

Flower Collection- Part III

Wayside Flowers

Pluck not the wayside flower,

It is the traveller's dower;

A thousand passers-by

Its beauties may espy,

May win a touch of blessing

From Nature's mild caressing.

The sad of heart perceives

A violet under leaves

Like sonic fresh-budding hope;

The primrose on the slope

A spot of sunshine dwells,

And cheerful message tells

Of kind renewing power;

The nodding bluebell's dye

Is drawn from happy sky.

Then spare the wayside flower!

It is the traveller's dower.

                    -by William Allingham

Fettuccine with Cream Chicken Sauce

That day, as the time approached to cook something for dinner I found my pantry almost out of stock with the minimal ingredients. It's the end of the week and the daily grocery was due. But never knew that my food stock was in an awry. Some celery stalks, a tomato, a carton of cream, a cup of chicken stock were laying neglected in the refrigerator. Few thinly sliced chicken breast in the freezer and a packet of fettuccine in the shelf. So I thought of making stir fried chicken served in the bed of boiled fettuccine. So I boiled the Fettuccine with little bit of salt and kept the chicken out in the room temperature to deice. The day before I prepared Dry Chili fish so I changed my mind to follow the same shadow of frying and sautéing. So I thought of making a sauce out of chicken and served hot with Fettuccine. I did so, served the dish to my husband and my daughter. I ought to mention that my daughter is a voracious pasta eater only if it is cooked in cheese sauce otherwise it is totally refused. This time with a pounding heart I served her the dish and preparing myself what tricks to apply to feed her after her obvious denial. My husband was also hesitating to taste the dish, might be the appearance was not attracting him. By appearance the dish looks too pale to get attracted mainly who were habituated with the Xanthus colored foods . I tried to keep my self busy in the kitchen with ' a no kind of work' to avoid their dimmed face. The daughter took the responsibility and ushered in the first bite. And she kept on eating!!! My husband, saying, 'if she likes the food then it must be tasty', took his first bite. Then a big wave of applause from my hubby washed me with a great relief and I danced two steps in Daler Mahendi style in joy. I just felt that I had passed some big Examination. All the confidence lies on the reaction of the in takers when you are cooking something out of imagination. But one thing is clear when you have the minimum ingredients at hand your are on the verge of creating something great and proving yourself a culinary expert too.

Ingredients:-
Thinly sliced Chicken Breast- 4-5 pieces
Celery -4 Stalks
Tomato- 1 big
Onion-1 small
Ginger-garlic paste-2 table spoon
Chicken Stock- 1/2 cup
Low Fat Cream- 1/2 cup
Salt, Sugar, Black Pepper- As per Taste
Italian herbs for seasoning.
Oil- 1 table spoon


 

Method:-

1. Grind all the ingredients together in to a smooth paste except the cream and the stock.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add the mixture. Pour the chicken stock, give a good stir then cover with lid and cook in low flame for 8-10 mnts.

3. Open the lid taste it and add if salt and sugar is required. High the flame and cook till the mixture turns dry and the chicken gets cooked well. Add the cream. Cook for 2-3mnts.

4. Spread the boiled Fettuccine in a serving plate and pour the Cream Chicken Sauce on it. Season the top with Italian herbs and serve hot.

 

Verdict:-

This dish takes very less time to cook and the preparation time is also just less than 5-7mnts. Very healthy and light. The taste is too good and perfect for a low diet food. Other vegetables and mince chicken instead of chicken breast can be used .

Celebrating Birthday with Strawberry Ice Cream

~"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”~

-Abraham Lincoln

....and another year added to this short span of life and I grew a year older today....Happy Birthday to me.

I never thought that I would ever hate to grow old, but now I am. I am in fear of growing old in each passing years and I am in fear to face the mirror to see that I am growing old indeed. I truly believe that each phase of life has its own charm and beauty. So do I enjoy this phase of life where my days are exploring the childhood once again with my little one. But still, sometimes a hidden aspiration raps my mind, making me totally dunned. In my first twenty years I wished to god, might be every day, to grow old soon. But as I stationed to the Thirty I wished to travel back to the early tracks to enjoy my childhood, student life, college days again and again. Am I the only one to think like this or you are also on the same boat wishing to sail back to the realm of innocence once again!!!

This is the eternal philosophical humdrum, cycles in the human minds in the anticipating fear of getting old. I am no exception nor you or anybody. Today is my birthday and I don’t want to make my mind melancholic any way with this perpetual truth.

In my every birthday, I gift myself something special. I consider my birthday, especially a day of mine, when I am not only special for everybody but very very special for me too. The day of stepping in the world, I love to share specially with my mom, dad and sister. But now it’s not possible as they live on the other part of the world and I am on the other. Thanks to the tele-communication that still made the distance shorter to at least by sharing the voices or watching each other through the webcam. I specially miss my mom, dad and sister on this day too much. Today early in the morning my mom, dad and sister called me and sang the Happy Birthday song and my day became brighter than ever. And when my little daughter gifted me a beautiful card which she made by her own hand with the help of her dad, I got the best gift I owned ever.

So now I have two more special people in my world. The birthday celebrating responsibility now is taken by my husband and our little daughter (who thinks each birthday, whether it’s her mom’s or dad’s birthday, as her birthday) assists him in full of vigour and she will keep on saying –“It’s my birthday party today”. That is the most innocent phase of life, which makes our days brighter and brighter even the dark days too. They gave me a beautiful lunch and dinner outside and a bunch of sweet gifts, include chocolates, tiny little model cars etc.

This time I made Strawberry Ice Cream as a birthday present to me. I wanted to make a cake for me. But all the Ice cream recipes in my favourite blogs made me esurient to take a challenge to delve in the world of frozen afters. This is for the first time I am making Ice cream at home. I was restricted to the fact that Ice cream can’t be made without an Ice Cream Maker. But when few of my fellow bloggers posted mouth-watering Ice Cream recipes on their blogs, I was not able to resist myself to try it out in my kitchen. Luckily I got two boxes of strawberry, in a bargain price of each $.99, where the regular market price here is $ 2.99. I wanted to use them before they start to get pale and rotten. So I decided to make Strawberry Ice Cream. I gone through a bunch of Ice Cream recipes and finally I turned up with a combination recipe of my own taking ideas from there. I bought some colourful mini cones from the market and served the ice cream on them to make more appealing and attractive to my lil one. After making the ice cream, I never thought that Ice cream could be made so easily. So I am too proud to get such a lovely and delectable gift from me, a challenging successful creation which tastes so heavenly and melts down to the mouth leaving a tart sweet creamy savour to grab for the next bite. Here is the recipe....

Ingredients:-
Strawberries- Chopped 3 cups (approx 24-25 medium size )
Condense Milk- 1 can

Yogurt- 2 table spoons

 

 

Method-

1. Blend all the ingredients in to a smooth puree.

2. Freeze for two hours. Then again blend the frozen puree in the mixer. Do the same in every two hours for 3-4 times.

3. Then keep in the freezer over night. You will never believe then that ice cream can be made so easy.

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Now the time is to share few awards with you all. I am too honoured to receive a bunch of lovely awards from Nivedita, Gouridi and Umm. I would love to thank them for sharing these awards with me. I would also like to share these awards with all of you who love and enjoy my blog and encourage me with your inspiring feedbacks on my each post. Please collect the awards from the Award page. Thanks again...Happy Blogging.

Bhapa Sandesh In New Attire

Nowadays my daughter decides the menu what I have to cook for her. She has her breakfast and lunch at school. But the evening snack and the dinner should be after her choice. No need to say, in the holidays, she will start her choice, right from the scratch, deciding her breakfast. And I would always respect her choice, unless and until it’s not OKAY with me, to avoid the hassling situation. So a few days ago suddenly her sweet craving forced me to make the Bhapa Sandesh.

You can get the recipe from here, which I posted earlier too. This time I made a  bit of variation by adding 1 tea spoon of Cocoa powder in the ricotta cheese and condense milk mixture. After baking the dish I shaped each in small balls, rolling few in cocoa powder and the left in confectioners’ sugar. Placed them on a serving plate and drizzled few drops of chocolate syrup which made them more attractive and tempting, like truffles. Do I have to mention that the little one gobbled it in no time!!!! Enjoy the snaps and the recipe HERE.

Little bit info on Bhapa Sandesh:-

Bhapa Sandesh is one of the famous Bengali sweets which is available in all the sweet stores in Bengal at any time. Bhapa, a Bengali word, means Steamed and Sandesh is a dry sweet, mainly made out of Chhana or Khowa in Bengal. I am not sure from where it originated and how originally it gets cooked. But as the name denotes it’s made using the steaming mode. And we the new generation always love to take the advantage to give anything an easy option and a short time taking version. So here is our version how we make Bhapa Sandesh with the minimum ingredients and shedding less energy at the same time.

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A No Name Dish

I earnestly requested him to name the dish, but the reluctant husband lazily stated to let the dish without a name. I didn’t want to take the honour to name the dish and on the contrary, my philosophical mind grabbed the pride to invite a no name dish in the world of flaunt where name comes first then the body. So this dish became famous in our menu as a “ no name ” dish. Whenever my taste bud needs a change, I would request him -“ machher oita banao na.”(Make that dish with fish). So It will be worthy to say that the dish got commonly noted as “Machher oita” (That one by fish) in our menu. Today I am going to share this special dish, which doesn’t own a name officially, from my Husband, Mr.P’s virtual kitchen book, which is entirely written in his mind and tried and tasted in our kitchen. Spilling of the outcome- it’s totally an outstanding dish which made me survived on, during the pick time of my pregnancy.

No need to tell, all the proud moms have a different story about their pregnancy, mainly when we limited our discussion on the ‘switching taste buds’. The moms only know how the nine months passed in facing the changes of moods and tastes. The first annoying part starts when you go through the morning sickness in the early few weeks. You will never know which smell is going to make you sick and purge. I feel lucky as I had a very limited period of morning sickness and very less things were there in my list which used to make me barf. During that period, I used to hate green peas, corn, cheese and Mexican food, which I was always, lusted for. I became too much prone towards spicy fried food. I still remember, I used to spent days after days only on white rice, plain lentil soup and besan coated capsicum fry. Plain fish curry or chicken curry used to make my face changed as if some vapid dish was served to me. In the foreign land we had to devour whatever food was cooked in the kitchen by two of us. So each day was then, an experimental day to cook a dish, which would be very nutritious, healthy and also delighted the mom’s taste. One day when I became totally exhausted of experimenting the verities of recipes on fish the husband saved me and took the charge of the kitchen by making this delectable dish.

After we got married and shifted to this foreign land, Mr.P made a rule that the weekends would be my rest day and he would cook. So usually in the weekends my husband rarely used to visit the kitchen and took me out for meals, trying out the different flavours of the world in the restaurants around the city. But this gaiety time, devouring outside food, constricted to more homemade healthy foods when we were getting ready to welcome the new guest of our life. Then the would-be dad became more responsible and started visiting the kitchen more often to help the would-be mom.

This no name dish is one of my favourite dishes cooked by him, which I enjoyed too much during my pregnancy and still now I would devour it whenever it is served in front of me, only the condition is, it would be made by my husband. The dish will give a commingled tangy, spicy and fried taste, which will make you wish for more and more to eat. This dish proved to us a very healthy nutritious pack for both the mom and the child. A few days back, the day before his birthday he cooked the dish as a return gift to me. We relished the dish as the same, in reminiscence of those golden days when we two were weaving the dreams, how to welcome the little bundle of joy of our life. And the little listener, recently turned 3, heeding the recollections like a fairy tale, savoured her daddy’s delicious cook.

Ingredients:-

Fish – 5- 6 blocks of less bony side/ from the belly side (Here the Rohu/Rui fish is used)
Potato- 2 small size
Tomato - 1 big
Onion- 1 medium
Ginger paste- 1 tea spoon
Garlic paste- ½ tea spoon
Turmeric Powder- ½ tea spoon
Cumin Powder- ½ tea spoon
Coriander Powder- ½ tea spoon
Red Chilli Powder- According to taste/optional
Green Chilli- According to taste/optional
Coriander Leaves- 1 cup chopped
Garam Masala whole- 2 of each
Cumin seeds- ½ tea spoon
Salt- According to taste
Oil- 3 + 2 table spoons (It may be increased or decreased)

 

Method:-

1. Tip the fish blocks in a pinch of salt and turmeric powder.

2. In a deep dense pan /non stick pan heat 3 table spoon oil. Fry the fish blocks and reserve.

3. Cut the potatoes in to medium pieces length wise. Roughly chop the onion. Chop the tomato.

4. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan (you can use a different if you wish). Temper with the cumin seeds and garam masala. Add the onion when they start to splutter. Fry the onion till it turns brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and the potato. Fry for few minutes more. Add tomato and fry till the tomato melts well.

5. Now add all the other ingredients along with the fish, except the coriander leaves. Break the fish blocks in to small pieces and mix altogether in a nice mixture. Cover with lid. Keep them cook in a low flame till the potato gets cooked. Keep on stirring in intervals to avoid the burn.

6. When the potato is fully cooked and the juice is dried up, high the flame and cook for few minutes more. Add the coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice and dal. You will surely enjoy it.