mayurisjikoni

Celebration      As I mentioned in my previous post, April is full of birthdays and anniversaries. Last weekend we celebrated my hubby's mama's 77th birthday. I baked a cake for his birthday. It had to be eggless as mamaji is a total vegetarian, no eggs or meat or fish. I had loads of over ripe bananas and thought of using them up. Hot weather means bananas do not stay good for too long. I though of using butter icing and then changed my mind as I thought a 77 year old man deserves a more classy cake. He wanted to serve ice cream as dessert so mamiji requested for a cake that could be served with ice cream. I decided to drizzle the cake with some chocolate ganache. I am so glad I did that. My butter icing would have melted in the heat. That day was just too humid even in the evening. Mamaji at 77 is still full of energy. He loves his food, and he thoroughly enjoyed all the old hindi songs that were selected and some of the guests sang for him. Both mamaji and mamiji love ...

Why is it so difficult to get certain basic ingredients?      Now that the wedding is over, its time to invite friends and relatives home to have a look at the photos and dinner. The first family was entertained on Friday. I made  mashed avocado and tomato bruschetta,   sesame honey chilli potatoes , for starters, salad and pizza. I wanted to make some mousse for dessert. Went to the famous Nakumatt to buy some fresh whipping cream. Came home with the packet, opened it and the cream had turned sour. I went back with the packet, receipt and all. The store policy is that if you return any goods, you must buy another one of the same. That means I had to buy another packet of whipping cream. The catch 22 is that the whipping cream and double cream whichever brand name you use, is made by the same company, Brookside. Hoping that the other packet will be fresh, I got it exchanged and went home. Opened it, tasted it and this too was spoilt. So went back... there was no...

naturally red  Yesterday was our 31st wedding anniversary and since both of us like sweet things, I decided to make red velvet muffins. I have had this recipe for nearly 2 years in the 'to try list'. Yes, that list is not getting shorter as so many food bloggers come up with wonderful recipes. I came across this recipe on My Diverse Kitchen  2 years ago. I too had never heard of a red velvet cake or muffins till I came across her recipe. After that, I have come across so many recipes but most use artificial red colouring which was a big put off. During my visit to Bangalore, I finally tasted a red velvet muffin and liked it. Initially the thought always was that how would a red cake taste or one with beetroots in it. Well, let me tell you the beetroot makes the cake softer but in no way hampers the taste. I made a cream cheese topping to go with it and it was a perfect balance of sweetness and a bit of tanginess.   31 years of marriage has had its shares of ups and downs ...

Mother and daughter in the kitchen I celebrated my birthday yesterday and the first thing I did was thank God for such a wonderful life. I remembered my mum a lot and of course missed having my family here. My daughter however made the day very special for me. We baked a cake together, she created a lovely ecard and gifted me a miniature painting done by her.Wishes and blessings from friends and family brought a huge smile on my face. It is so great to feel wanted and loved by so many. My dear hubby gifted me with an airline ticket to Dubai. I am excited as I  get to spend another week with my daughter and also get to spend time with my older son and his girlfriend. I have been a transit passenger thrice at the Dubai airport and now finally I will actually get out to explore the   maya nagri as its called.... fantasy city.  A lot has happened since the time I decided last year to make my 50th special. Happy and sad events occurred during the year but life has to carry on....

30th Anniversary Ajay and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary yesterday. 30 years..... the number seems big but the years short. In spite of all our differences, we have worked to reach this far and are hoping for many more years of togetherness. When we got married, love was the important word for me, does he love me or not etc. As I went along, I realised that trust is more important than love. If you trust your partner 100% the rest just follows.  To make our anniversary more memorable, my daughter Nami decided to bake a cake. Well let's put it this way, I had to do all the washing and chopping under the pretext of supervising the whole thing! It was worth the effort. She made an eggless chocolate cake and topped it with fresh mango and cream. Mangoes and chocolate together taste heavenly. Lovely idea for a dessert, since mangoes are in abundance at the moment. All you lucky people in Mombasa, use apple mango if you can. Also check out the really cute card she made for us....

A few days ago Verity my niece, celebrated her 21st birthday. If 21st is out of your teens celebration then why not 20th? 21st means freedom which I have really never understood. Freedom from what? Freedom from parents some might say but isn't it good to have parents looking over you all the time whether you are 21 or 50? I feel that 21st signifies to one that hey time to become independent, grow up, take more responsibilities etc. Its like one day you are still a kid and bang on your 21st there are a lot of expectations from you. Well, Verity deserved a special treat on her birthday. I made this eggless pineapple cake with fresh cream. This is an original eggless cake recipe from Tarla Dalal book, I just added the pineapple in the cake too.    EGGLESS PINEAPPLE CAKE Serve 6 to 8 people 1¼ cup plain flour (all purpose flour) ½ can sweetened condensed milk (full can is 7oz) 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp soda bicarbonate (baking soda) ¼ tsp salt ½ cup melted butter 432g can of pinea...

too many events to celebrate   August is a very busy... too many birthdays and anniversaries. Nimesh, Arti, Shruti, Chetan, Shreena and Nikhil's anniversaries. The birthday list is endless... starting with Prina, Sanil, Ricky, Dillan, Atulkumar and Kamaleshkumar. Phew, that's like a proper sugar high if I had decided to make something sweet on all those days. And then in between Rakshabandhan, Janmashtami and Eid. Did make a lot of sweet dishes this month and have ended it with an eggless marble banana cake. Enjoyed it with a glass of milk. Have it on its own or serve it with hot custard, ice cream or fresh cream. I found this recipe on treat and trick blog and have made slight changes.  EGGLESS MARBLE BANANA CAKE 1¼ cups plain flour 1 cup mashed banana (2 big bananas) ½ cup brown sugar 1 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt ¼ cup oil 2 tbsps cocoa powder 1 tsp grated orange rind  2 tbsps milk Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line or dust a baking loaf tin(small) or a pan 6X...

 Happy birthday Prina dear!            I know Prina's birthday was on 11th of August and I also know she doesn't like cakes. Its amazing how she will always insist on having a cake for her birthday but she wouldn't eat any. However there a still a lot of things she is finicky about eating or even trying and some of her favourite things neither will I taste or make them.... chicken being one of them. Where vegetarian meals are concerned her favourite is suva or palak bhaji nu shaak and rotli. Perhaps at some stage will even blog her favourite shaak so that all her young cousins and aunts will learn how to make it. So as I had mentioned earlier, we still celebrate important occasions with something sweet so on Prina's birthday I tried out an eggless brownie recipe which had actually been collecting cobwebs! I did find it on the internet but unfortunately didn't write down from which blog or whose recipe it is. It is so simple to make and it is not sickly...