mayurisjikoni

The year is ending  Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year. Hope 2015 is filled with joy, happiness and magical moments. The year is nearly ending and everyone is in a happy festive mood. Hubby and I are off to Dubai today to spend Christmas with my son, my daughter in law, her parents and brother. Hubby's first visit to Dubai and my second time. Looking forward to seeing a bit more of Dubai.Double celebration for us... our first Christmas with our daughter in law and her family and my hubby's birthday is on 25th Dec. Today our house help Julius is travelling to his village, to celebrate Christmas with his family. He has been with us for over 15 years.Don't know who the boss of the house is.... him or me??? More like he is as he always gets his way. I baked some muffins for him to take home for his sons and wife. The eggless cherry chocolate muffins turned out really soft and spongy. Sorry, I had left 2 and they got gobbled up before I could take another photo. Am I ...

Disasters in the kitchen!          Many recipes that food lovers come across on other blogs, the internet, recipe books, magazines, television, etc tempt them to save it and try it out some fine day. I too have saved, bookmarked, copied recipes and try them out as and when I can. Many have turned out to be disastrous. While some can be saved or consumed, others have had to be binned and I hate that. I've had nankhatais where the photos portray lovely dome shaped cookies and when I baked them they were flatter than a pancake! Caramel custard that sank as soon as it come out of the oven as the recipe called for whipped eggs and high temperature! Dhoklas which refused to rise.However the photos depict a perfect preparation looking smooth as silk, delicious, spongy, well risen, beautiful colour etc etc. Now and then such disasters occur. Now I actually research different recipes of that particular dish and check out for the similarities. Many times I have posted com...

Leave the innocent children alone        Time and again we are facing with news and reports of cruelty towards innocent children. Forced labour, ill treatment, child trafficking, children soldiers and now the shootout at Peshawar. A few days ago a video went viral online showing a Ugandan maid force feeding a toddler, and when the poor child vomited, the maid kicked the child like a football, stepped on the fragile being and basically just went mad. The child is fine and the maid has got a jail sentence. All this was caught on camera which the maid probably had no idea that the parents had installed in their house. Today the world faces the news of innocent children shot at an army run school in Peshawar. How are those who carry out these heinous tasks able to sleep? I guess, not only do they lack feelings, hearts but also a conscious. Surely God does not forgive people who harm these little angels. How many times have we heard that God's angels are the little childr...

dainty and delightful  When Niloufer Riyas, a fellow member of the Home Bakers Challenge Group , gave us exciting Malaysian bake recipes, I got excited seeing the first recipe itself. I browsed through the others and my mind kept on going back to the first one which is pineapple tarts. The picture posted on rasa malaysia looked so cute, dainty and tempting. As I read through the recipe, I thought 'oh no do I really have the time to make the jam?' I was looking for easier options... that is at the other recipes. I liked the suji cookies, but didn't want to add artificial colours, thought of the bread but was not too keen on the caramel kaya. So went back to the original idea. As they say trust your instinct. I am so glad I did. As the tarts came out of the oven, and cooled down a bit, a couple went into my mouth. A few are just not enough and I was getting tempted to go to the tin for one more and one more. They are not overly sweet, and the tangy and sweet jam plays musica...

Blogging block???        All writers, bloggers experience a block occasionally. Whenever I have a bloggers block, I just find it difficult to even write one meaningful sentence. Yet I know I need to get the recipe on the blog to keep my followers interested. You may say but there are so many things or topics one can write about. True, but sometimes the idea is in the head but the hand will not assist in typing out the words. Many have suggestions like keeping a paper and pencil nearby to jot down any ideas or thoughts you may have. But that may not be convenient especially when you are busy.The other advise is to follow a theme so writing becomes easier. Making posts more interesting becomes like a full time job, hunting for quotes or opinions, taking photos, doing research, etc. When blogging, especially when you have great ideas flowing, its best to pick a quiet spot to work. Distractions may hinder your flow of thoughts. However, with family, hubby and chores to t...