From bread to brownie

Today evening I tried making a lot of new stuff in the kitchen. One was peanut butter from scratch. The other was a bread rava sandwich and the other a microwave chocolate brownie. All recipes taken from various food blogs.

The peanut butter came out fine, the end mixture was a lil coarse but since I like coarse peanut butter i'll think of it as a success! ;-)

The rava bread thingy was the simplest of all. (I was unable to get the proper link or the blog ot which it belonged. Sorry! :( ) Make a rava batter (like you make for rava rotti). Make it a little watery so that you can spread a layer of it on the bread. Then toast the bread as usual, rava side facing the tava so that it gets cooked properly. It tasted good.

The brownie recipe said its a 2 minute microwave version and I took 30 minutes!!! They never mention the preparation time do they!?!?! :-| Well, anywaz the recipe was good and the result was ok. It had a little more essence which the others didn't like that much, but a good start nevertheless. Now to progress to making brownies in the OTG and see how it goes!

Beautiful songs

I usually look into the friends section of some blogs I follow, so that I get more material and posts to read. Today I chanced upon 1 such blog which has some hindi songs and their translations. I checked the first song and thought 'hmm..i like this one too'. Then I checked the second one, and thought 'oh wow, i had forgotten about this song!! its so lovely' and then I checked the third one and thought ' Its been ages since I listened to this one and ohh i love this one too!!!' And this continued for almost all the songs and I was amazed by that person's choice and how it matches mine.! :) It was really refreshing to revisit those songs and I totally got lost in the lyrics all over again.! Although I just skimmed through the titles of the post (which mentions the songs) after 2-3 songs!)

I also silently made a resolution. To post the songs I like in this space so that there might be others who pass through this blog and think as I thought above!

So let me start it off with this song. I just selected the first song I saw on my current playlist.
This is from last year's phenomenal block-buster 'Dabanng' or was it 2 'b's or 2 'g's!!

The song - Chori kiya re Jiya. (click on the song to go to raaga.com's listing)
What I liked - Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal combination, simple lyrics and music. Very soothing.

Lyrics:
(got from http://www.top10bollywood.com/)

Saachi saachi teri nazrein ek darpan
Dede mann ki yeh khabrein ek pal chin
Adharon ne kuch na kaha re
Naino ne keh diya
Tune toh pal bhar mein chori kiya re jiya mora jiya
Tune bhi pal bhar mein chori kiya re jiya more piya

Gummsumm gummsumm rehne wali humri ek guzareya re
Kal-kal kal-kal behne lagi jaise prem ki nadiya re
Tujhe sang preet humne lagai hai
Tab jaage yeh rutt aayi hai
Tune toh pal bhar mein chori kiya re jiya mora jiya
Tune bhi pal bhar mein chori kiya re jiya more piya

Gupchup gupchup dil mein aaya sajna swaang rachaiya re
Pal pal har pal jiski chaya apna paar lagiya re
Ho tujh par jaan humne lutayi hai
Tab jaake tu sang aayi hai
Tune toh pal bhar mein chori kiya re jiya more piya

Saachi saachi teri nazrein ek darpan
Dede mann ki yeh khabrein ek pal chin
Adharon ne kuch na kaha re
Naino ne keh diya
Tune toh pal bhar mein chori kiya re jiya more piya
Tune bhi pal bhar mein chori kiya re jiya mora jiya


P.S: It is actually amazing that I can now post what comes to my mind in less than 10 min! :-D

Clothes

Am amused by the fact that infant clothes are made for the sole purpose of entertaining everyone other than the infants! :)

Will the infants really care whether there is a cute fish or a big car on their t-shirt or a cool slogan? But they do amuse the parents and relatives for sure. No wonder you'll only find such shirts in stores. I think its only after they are 1 or 1.5 yrs, that they'll truly start appreciating the cute drawings/colors on their shirts/shorts.

Yes, I will only talk about shirts and shorts and pants for kids from now on and not even mention how remorseful I become when I see cute jeri langas, frocks and colorful skirts for girl babies in shops!! (Why God, why did you do this to me!! ;-) )

Bhoole bisre geet

While giving bath to Siddhu (yeah, that's one of his nicknames, sounds earthy na? :-D), Josh and I usually start singing any song/rhyme that pops up in our head. Now that he can lift his head and has started reaching out to grab things, oiling him and giving him bath has been challenging and fun. His fav is 'hickory-dickory doc..tic toc..the mouse ran up the clock..tic toc...) He usually gives a lovely toothless smile and stares at me when I start singing this. But this holds his attention for at most 3 renditions, so we start singing all kind of songs and in all languages (hindi, kannada, english that is).

Its amazing how suddenly we remember old, forgotten hindi tracks! Just yesterday I suddenly remembered this beautiful track of Sonu Nigam's - Kuch tum socho kuch hum soche. This is from his private album (Deewana I think). I still remember the video - Gul Panag and that Himanshu guy waltzing! I had forgotten the lyrics, and Josh quickly joined in and sang 1 whole antara!! (I was amazed that he remembered it!!)

Whether Sid is occupied or not with these songs, we sure have a great start of the day!!!

Tic tic tic..ting!

That's the sound of my new OTG ringing to tell me that the pre-heating is done! :-D Oh yes, I now have a new hobby - baking! With Sid occupying my every thought, I needed a diversion. Not that I mind having him fill my entire world, but I started to worry about him to an annoying level - annoying, that is, to others.! :) So I started to think what I could do with the 'spare' time I had. I narrowed down to 2 options - gardening and baking. Ultimately, baking won as I don't think I could do due justice to pots and plants.

So I bought a small Oven-toaster-griller and started my experiments with cookie baking. First, I tried the benne biscuit. FIL and Josh were reluctant guinea pigs. :) Got some positive feedback too. The taste of ghee was overwhelming and I decided never to use it again, instead, should try out recipes using butter/oil.

Fresh out of the oven!

Then I decided to go to the opposite end of the spectrum and decided on making masala crackers. (Took the recipe from here.There are some very nice recipes in that site, take a look if you are interested) I replaced the sesame seeds in the recipe with cumin seeds though. They came out nice, to my great surprise! :) It tasted almost like nippattu and they were an instant hit! :-D

Crackers!

So taking some courage, I again tried my hands at sweet cookies. This time I tried almond cookies (recipe from Manjula's kitchen - google it) as this recipe used wheat and not maida.

I did hit problems with the temperature and heat control, as there were 2 heating elements, one up and one down, and no recipe mentions what level they need to be. WIth both elements turned on, the bottom of the cookie turned black, where as the top didn't even cook.! So Josh suggested I reduce the temperature (from 180C as mentioned in the recipe to 150C) and chose only the top heating element.This worked like a charm! The cookies baked perfectly in 10 minutes and it was such a relief! :)

Now, I need to try out other recipes, and will def keep this blog posted, success or not!! But that can happen only when Sid is sleeping or playing with his grandparents/father, which gives me roughly 1.5-2 hrs in all!!! That is also the main reason I just have lousy photos taken from my phone.

And now its back to Sid. Cheerio!

Jhoom barabar jhoom!!

About the kiddo, what else!

It just feels like yesterday when I logged out of my office nw completing the few remaining tasks at hand, gearing up to go through childbirth. And now, nearly 4 months have passed and I look back in wonder. Wow! Where did all the time go?

All I remember is feeding the kid, putting him to sleep, changing his nappy and feeding him again, starting the cycle all over! And pulling my mom out of her daily chores, a hundred times a day. "Amma, why is he sleeping so much? Why is he NOT sleeping? Why is his poop like that? (really!!!) He just sneezed! He just vomited, is it normal? He looks like he is catching a cold. He feels warm doesn't he?" And then volley the same questions to my sister as soon as she is back from work!
Phew! Never ending volley of questions and never satisfied at the answers I get! But then what's the internet for? :-) To this, my annoyed mom reacts - 'Internet mele oddhiddhu jaasthi aaythu!! Bere kelsa ilva ninge'. :-)

How can I not write about the sleepless nights that my baby gave us! We struggled a lot in the second month, when his sleeping pattern was so hopeless!! It is only from the third month, that it became normal (sleeping through the night, that is) and there is a feeling of some method in the madness!! All this effort seems exhausting, but vanishes the instant the kiddo gives a big smile when he sees me or responds to my voice with his 'ooh's. Feels so rewarding!

The rate at which he is growing is alarming. He now rolls over and lifts his head to look around when is he is lying on his tummy. He reaches out and grabs toys put in front of him. All this in a matter of a week!! Every day we discover something new about him.

It feels as if I will miss out on things if I am not with him every single minute he is awake!! Now that I have to start working in a week or so, I wonder how I will find the time or inclination to do so? This is the real work-life balance that I must strive to achieve. It will not be easy, but hopefully not extremely difficult!

good or bad??

"Remember nobody is good or bad. They are either strong or weak. Strong people stick to their morals, no matter what the trials and tribulations. Weak people, many a times, do not even realise how low they have fallen. "
Excerpt from Amish's "The secret of the nagas".
Nice take on good and evil. In fact the whole book contemplates a lot in this direction. Add to this a good plot and a nice mix of mythology and fiction, makes it a good reading. Compared to the first book of this trilogy, the language is also so much better with reduced usage of slangs!!
Am yet to finish reading it, but I am already waiting for the last book.!

Similarities

So I watch this daily soap on Sony called 'Bade Acche Lagte hain' which has the Ekta Kapoor stamp all over it. It has Ram Kapoor as the lead protagonist, and so, since I liked him once upon a time, I watch it every afternoon.

Today, while watching the serial, mom suddenly says 'Your kid looks like Ram Kapoor!' :-|
I console myself thinking that it is because of the round fat face, that she thinks so. As if reading my mind, she quickly justifies. 'He always has a single sulky expression on his face!' :-| :-|

Mind your language

(From the TV show - Castle)
Beckett: Against who?
Castle: (corrects her) whom?

Hmm..I know someone who does that too! ;-)