THE KITCHEN AFFAIRE

There are days when you want to eat something new but not put in a lot of work to it. :P  Yeah.. The fact is, I was lazy but in a mood to eat something other than the regular stuff. And so, here I was blog hopping, as usual, and there I go.. I land on this awesome recipe for Tomato dosa by Sharmis Passion. Thanks to her for this lovely recipe. :) Yummy red colored dosas! Bliss :) We loved it.. Here is the recipe for you guys .. Ingredients Dosa Batter - 2 C Tomato - 2 chopped Garlic - 4 chopped minced Coconut - 1 T Red Chillies - 2 Jeera - 1 t Curry leaves - few chopped Red chilli powder - 1/2 t Oil - as needed Method Saute the tomatoes in a tsp of oil until mushy and the raw smell goes. Once it cools, grind to a fine paste by adding coconut, garlic and red chillies and little water. Add jeera, curry leaves , red chilli powder and the tomato coconut paste to the dosa batter and mix well. Heat a dosa pan, keeping in low medium flame take a...

Some days the mood to bake comes at odd times. Yesterday was one such day. I was done with cooking and cleaning up. It was almost 11 PM when I felt like baking something quick. That was when I thought of these yummy coconut macaroons.  They came out so yummy too :D We loved em.. Source - Taste of Home Ingredients 1-1/3 cups  flaked coconut 1/3 cup  sugar 2 tablespoons  all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon  salt 2 egg whites 1/2 teaspoon  vanilla extract Method In a small bowl, combine the coconut, sugar, flour and salt.  Stir in egg whites and vanilla; mix well. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets.  I used the heart- shaped cookie cutter ;) Bake at 325° for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.   Yield:  about 1-1/2 dozen.

This is one yummy and perfect Lemon Cake recipe I found in the Food Network website. The recipe comes from none other than Food Network's famous program, Barefoot Contessa, hosted by  Ina Garten . One bite into this cake and you will forget all about your diet ;) And I thought why not bake such a yummy cake for our friends 25th wedding anniversary. And thats what I did.. :) What do you think? :) Courtesy :  Food Network For the cake 1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 1/2 cupsgranulated sugar 4 extra-largeeggs, at room temperature 1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons) 3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoonbaking powder 1/2 teaspoonbaking soda 1 teaspoonkosher salt 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature 1 teaspoonpure vanilla extract Method  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch) loaf pans. You may also ...

We love Gulab Jamun. Even better if its home-made. :D  I wanted to make it from scratch. Not using the ready-made mix. And thats when I came across a couple of great recipes online. And finally ended up mixing and matching the recipes. Anyhow the GJs came out awesome. I took some to my workplace too. They loved it and so did we :D Check out the recipes guys! Ingredients 1 C dry milk powder 3 T all-purpose flour 2 T ghee (clarified butter), melted 1/2 t baking powder 1/2 C warm milk 1 pinch ground cardamom 1 quart vegetable oil for deep frying 1 1/4 C white sugar 7 fluid ounces water 1 pinch ground cardamom Method In a large bowl, stir together the milk powder, flour, baking powder, and cardamom.  Mix in the melted ghee, then pour in the milk, and continue to mix until well blended.  Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. In a large skillet, stir together the sugar, water, rose water and a pinch of cardamom.  Bring to a b...

This is something I had wanted to try since long. Thanks to a pot-luck party the other day, I got to try this.. And we all loved it :) Check it out.. Ingredients 6 hard-cooked eggs 2 T mayonnaise 1 t Sugar 1 t white vinegar 1 t prepared mustard 1/2 t salt Paprika Method Slice eggs in half lengthwise; remove yolks and set whites aside.  In a small bowl, mash yolks with a fork.  Add the mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, mustard and salt; mix well.  Stuff or pipe into egg whites.  Sprinkle with paprika.  Refrigerate until serving.

I found my passion for cooking after I got married.. :)  And it was only then that I came to know how much I loved baking too ... So much that I was always yearning to go for baking lessons.  It was early feb when this idea got to me. I was thinking what to do for hubby's bday. I wanted to bake him a beautiful cake for sure. Thats when I thought why not join for cake decoration lessons and bake a  nice lil' cake for him. And tada. Thats what I did. I enrolled for the Wilton Cake Decorating basic course and baked this lil' cake for him.. I baked a chocolate cake first and covered it with buttercream icing. Mixed colors and used piping to decorate :)  He totally loved it :) So did I.. 

This was the first cake I decorated during the Wilton cake decoration course. A simple pound cake. Used piping to decorate it. I was a lil' short of the buttercream icing, hence the cake is peeping out at the corners. :D Still, not pretty bad for a first timer. Right? ;) I loved the color combo. I was just trying to make it look as cute as possible. ;)