Home-made Strawberry jam

Recently, we visited our local pick your own farm. We had a fantastic time spending the whole day at the farm, enjoyed a picnic together and we got to pick fresh fruits. It was a fantastic opportunity for Anjalie to see how fruits grow and also for us to enjoy fresh fruits from the farm. Among our haul was gooseberries, strawberries and raspberries. We immediately decided to make our own jam over the weekend and we turned the gooseberries into the most yummiest pickle (recipe to follow soon).

Home-made doughnuts (kids can help!)

Last weekend we had a lovely Mother's day here. This week things are again back to normal and I had a request to make doughnuts/donuts for snack today. With the April showers lashing us, it did seem like a great idea to eat warm doughnuts with a good cup of hot chocolate while watching the rain through the windows. Anjalie as usual was very helpful and with the use of bread machine, we had more time to play together while the dough had time to rise. Anjalie helped cut the doughnut shapes and we were soon sinking our teeth into soft, melt in your mouth and yummy doughnuts with a cuppa. So here is the recipe...


You will need:
For the Doughnuts
1 packet (7 g) rapid rise yeast
220 ml whole milk
55 g sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 eggs
40 g unsalted butter (skip the salt if using salted butter)
315 g plain/all-purpose flour + more for dusting
oil for frying

Butter-cream milk-chocolate frosting for cakes

First of all, a very Happy Mothering Sunday to all you fabulous ladies! I got to enjoy some baking time with my family here as a Mother's day present. I am over the moon to have this quality time as opposed to some commercial off the shelf gift. We had a fantastic time making a chocolate cake and chocolate frosting (buttercream, is there any other?!) and putting them together and in the process eating at least half the frosting! All three of us do not care for the commercial frosting. We find them too sweet. Both Anjalie & I are not fans of dark/bitter-sweet chocolate. So we girls out voted Naz to have a milk-chocolate frosting instead. Since Naz finds the cream-cheese frosting a bit overwhelming due to the tangy taste, we decided on the milder butter-cream frosting and, yes, we did make it less sweet. Here is our recipe (which we have always loved) but feel free to add more sugar if you want it sweeter. To match the sweetness you get in the commercial product you might have to double the amount of icing sugar used in this recipe.

You will need (for the frosting):

225 grams butter (1 Cup) at room temperature -not melted

210 grams (1.5 cups) icing sugar

1-2 tsp milk/cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup milk chocolate powder (any hot chocolate will do) - I used cadburys

100 g milk chocolate - melted & cooled

Quick and easy chocolate cake in Microwave (egg free)

Today being Valentine's day, Anjalie said she "felt" for chocolate pudding. So we decided to make a quick and easy chocolate cake in a mug for dessert tonight. We had tried this at our Vegan friend's house, two years ago, and had really enjoyed it and the recipe is so simple that I was able to recall it tonight. Anjalie made this all by herself with me around to assist with some of the measurements and also to take the hot cup from the microwave. So, of course, by all means feel free to recruit children to make this with you. Have fun making this together!

You will need:
3 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp oil
3 tablespoons milk/soya milk 
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Christmas cup cakes/ fairy cakes

Christmas, although a busy time of the year, is absolutely the most wonderful time for us all to spend some quality time together. Since, Anjalie & I love our cooking-time together, we usually have a whole lot of baking to do. This year, Anjalie wanted to give her friends some cupcakes/fairy cakes at her nursery. Today was the last day at the nursery, so, we did some baking last evening and, although Anjalie did not stay at the nursery, we just dropped the cakes off and wished everyone Happy Holidays. We did have a busy day preparing for Christmas Eve dinner. But it was fun too. These cupcakes were decorated by Anjalie with some help from me and can be great fun to do with children.

You will need:

cupcakes/fairy cakes (you can use store bought mix or follow the recipe here)

You will need frosting/icing (I used Betty crocker chocolate icing. For recipe to make from scratch see here)

Royal icing/fondant/ready to roll icing - various colours like green, red, yellow, pink, white etc

coloured sugar (optional)

water

small pastry brush

Bake your cakes following the recipe. Allow to cool down completely.

One nice thing for me is that Anjalie loves every bit of the cake making - even the cleaning :)





Roll out the fondant/royal icing, cut out circles in various colours and cut out the shapes (like Christmas tree, holly leaves, snow flakes etc) needed to put together.

You can use cookie cutters or sugar craft kits.

Frost the cake with chocolate icing/frosting. Next add on the layer of fondant circles and using water (with a pastry brush), stick the rest of the shapes together. Here is one with holly.

Here we have made a few - Christmas trees, angels, snow flakes, holly and Santa. Anjalie needed a lot of help for Santa (naturally). But the rest she did them mostly on her own. If anything, you can simply sprinkle with coloured sugar too.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas cookies/biscuits - Stained glass and chocolate-vanilla

Last year, for Christmas, Anjalie & I made Spritz cookies. This year we both wanted to try out her new baking set that she got as a birthday present. It includes a whisk, baking sheet, rolling pin and cookie cutters (shaped like tea pot, flower and a heart) - all in perfect sizes for her. She was really looking forward to rolling out and cutting the cookies. So I decided to go with simple sugar cookies and slightly modify them to make it festive for Christmas. I used to regularly make sugar cookies using Wilton sugar cookie recipe while we lived in the USA. Once we moved to the UK, I had trouble making these cookies following the same recipe. This was due to the difference in the flour. The flour in the UK is finer and cannot take the amount of butter asked for in the Wilton cookie recipe. This led to the cookies expanding a lot while baking (despite chilling and/or freezing)- leading to a blob! After trying to increase the amount of flour, a couple of times with disastrous results, I eventually found a recipe that works perfectly here in the UK- by reducing the amount of butter. I have simply jazzed up this basic recipe for Christmas using candies and milk chocolates. I am really pleased with the results. It wowed our friends and family who said it looked and tasted great and Anjalie & I had a fantastic time baking the cookies together! So, without further ado, here is the recipe...

Christmas alphabet cookies

With Christmas break nearing, my now 4 yr old, Anjalie is really excited about making cookies and cakes with me. Last week during our morning walk to her nursery we had a conversation which started about her discussing her starting school in the new year. She, naturally, was excited about it and said she wanted to practice her alphabets. Somehow, it soon turned to Christmas and she wanted to make cookies and cupcakes with me. So this weekend, we made cookies and practised writing alphabets all in in one go! We wrote Christmas with our batter and made Christmas ornaments cookies with sprinkled coloured sugar for a festive touch. You can experiment with your favourite shapes too. Children will especially have a great time with this. Depending on the flour, the piping out of the dough is quite easy for a child to do. But if you find that it is harder then add a tbsp or two of melted butter to make it easier.

Birthday cake (Peppa pig)

Tomorrow is Anjalie's fourth birthday party. Part of me is still amazed thinking "has it been that long?!" This year she asked for a Peppa Pig cake. Well, you can never have too much Peppa Pig (at least in our home). Last year, she was totally engrossed in Thomas Tank Engine and asked for "Choo-choo train". At least, she keeps me busy, lol! Along with Peppa Pig her next favourite TV show is number jacks. So I thought to combine the two together for her cake. I really do enjoy making these for her. This time around I actually managed to take a few pictures of the making process. So here they are..

You will need:
one round 9 inch cake (of your favourite flavour)
Chocolate frosting/buttercream icing or any of your favourite icing.
Fondant/royal icing:
Grass green  - 1 kg
Lincoln green/bottle green - 200 gm
Red - 200 gm
Chocolate - 100 gm
Yellow - 200 gm
Blue - 100 gm
white - 100 gm
Black - 25 gm
Pale pink/Flesh - 100 gm
Edible glue/water - as needed
Edible Tylose powder - 2 tbsp

Moist Chocolate cake with Milk chocolate frosting - Fathers Day special

We three of us here at home do not have much of a sweet tooth except for chocolates. We enjoy them in any form or fashion. Moist chocolate cakes are both Naz and Anjalie's absolute favourites. So what other best way is there to say "Happy Fathers day" to Naz other than to bake one for him along with Anjalie? So I did just that! We totally enjoyed it, so, let me share the recipe with you. But before I go to the recipe, let me wish all dads and grand-dads a very Happy Fathers day! Hope you had a wonderful time with your families.

For the cake:
225g butter at room temperature
350g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
350-400 ml milk
300g plain flour
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

For the frosting:
60g butter, softened to room temperature
60g unsweetened cocoa
75ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g icing sugar
decorations like M&Ms, thousands and hundreds, sugar stars etc.

Buckwheat Puttu (Tamil Nadu sweet version)

Puttu is a typical South Indian dish that can be savoury or sweet. It is usually eaten as dessert or as part of breakfast. It is a healthy dish that requires little to no oil and is actually steamed flour flavoured with delicious coconut. Puttu is my dad's favourite sweet dish and, unfortunately, he has type 2 diabetes. So I came up with this recipe with buckwheat, which has low glycemic index, especially for him to be able to enjoy. "Puttu" in tamil means "to make a portion". There is a mythological story in Tamil that claims that Lord Shiva himself worked as a labourer in return for a portion of this Puttu dish :) I love this dish very much as well and I am willing to labour in the kitchen to make this any time too :) Usually Puttu is made with rice flour or wheat flour or ragi flour in the south of India. But as part of the healthy life style change I decided to make it this time with buckwheat flour instead.

This is one of the ancient dishes that grand-mums and great grand-mums took pride in making. But I do cheat and use food processor to make this. You can make this without using food processor or blender as well. Another change from the traditional recipe, I have made, is the use of buckwheat flour. Buckwheat is one of the food that has low glycemic index and is one of the healthy alternatives to rice and wheat. It is perfect for diabetics and can be made with sweeteners instead of sugar/jagerry for them. Traditional puttu calls for sesame oil, but, I use butter/ghee since Anjalie is allergic to sesame seeds. Also you can add roasted nuts along with raisins to the puttu, but, avoid this totally if making this dish for young children due to chocking hazard.

You will need:
1 cup buckwheat flour
scant 1/2 cup coconut milk/water (I used reduced fat coconut milk)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (fresh or dried or frozen)
1 tsp sesame oil/butter/ghee
3 tbsp brown sugar/jaggery/white sugar/any other sweetener (adjust to taste)
1 tbsp cane molasses (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cardamom powder
raisins to garnish

Chocolate-Cheesecake Brownies

This post is dedicated to my dear friend, LNG, who had requested that Anjalie & I try out this recipe and post the results. The name itself was quite catchy that put together two of my favourites, Cheesecake and chocolate! We have been planning to do this for a long time. But, unfortunately, we had to keep putting it off. Until now that is! Anjalie & I had a fantastic time making these brownies together. Anjalie, in particular, enjoyed as she called it "scribbling" on the cake to get the characteristic swirls/decorations on the top. All three of us enjoyed the chocolate-y cheesecake taste of the fudge-y, chewy and perfect brownies. It was quite hard to stop eating them after we have each had four, so, beware! :) I did cheat a little- I used extra light cream cheese for the cheesecake part and added 1 tbsp flour to give it some body instead of the full-fat cheese cake. This was my way of cutting down on the calories to feel less guilty about it. But feel free to use and enjoy full fat cream cheese. It will taste great, I am sure! So here is the recipe...

You will need:
For chocolate part:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour



For cheesecake part:
8 ounces full-fat cream cheese, softened or Extra light cream cheese + 1 tbsp flour (for low-calorie option)
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Madeleine Tea-cakes for Mothers Day

The rest of the world (except UK and few other countries in Europe) celebrate Mothers day in May. Today being the special day Anjalie & I (the women of the house - well, technically, girl and woman of the house) treated ourselves and Naz to sweet Madeleine Tea cakes. These yummy little things are absolutely melt in the mouth, buttery and sweet, aka, perfect for serving warm with a cuppa on Mothers day. Since it was the first time we tried, we only made 12 (for the 3 of us) and they were gone like hot cakes! (pun intended) :)

These little French butter-sponge cakes are perfect for any afternoon but they do make special days extra special :) Traditionally, these are baked in special Madeleine pans (which we did too) that give a scallop shaped sponge cakes that are soft in the centre and crispy on the edges. They are not too sweet and do not usually have icing. But do not let the "pan", or the lack of it, put you off. Try baking them in a muffin pan with foil lining (made into scallop shape if you want) instead. Anjalie loved them so much that she has requested these for her birthday in December :) Ahh...one has to be a 3 year old  to look forward to the next birthday with such enthusiasm.

I found the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-butter-cakes-madeleines/?scale=6&ismetric=0. I followed with some modifications. I changed the oven temperature to 180 instead of 190 degrees Celsius. Naz does not like sponge cakes that are too crispy. So change according to your preference. Also, I think UK cup size is slightly bigger since I ended up with more batter than needed for 12 cakes. But since I hate waste, I just poured them in anyway. If I had more time, and if Anjalie was not so very impatient to try them, I would have made baker's dozen instead of over filling them. But we did not mind eating larger cakes :) Also I used icing sugar to decorate instead of granulated sugar asked for in the recipe. I like the frosted look. I also added 1/4 tsp baking powder to give it a better raise and softness. So here is the recipe...




You will need:
2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup white sugar (remember US cup measurement!)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup icing sugar for decoration

Vegetable steamed Dumplings (Mantis/Baozi/momo/bao)

The first time I tried these lovely dumplings were when my lovely Sis-in-law who is originally from Kazakhstan made them for us when Anjalie was born. We fell in love with these right away. I have been making these regularly ever since for the past 3 years. We all enjoy them and it has become a family favourite for dinner and lunch. Recently, I found out that like many old recipes this one too transcends countries and languages. The very same dumplings or slight variation of it is called by various names in many parts of the world such as Mantis in Russian/Turkish/Persian/Pukhtoon, Baozi in Chinese, Momo in Nepalese or Bao in Vietnamese. I am sure I am missing out a lot of other cuisines and their names for this dish and will be thankful for anyone who could let me know. Regardless of the name this recipe is very simple and involves making a filled bun made from leavened dough. The filling could be savoury or sweet and vegetarian or meat.   According to legend they were invented by the scholar and military strategist Zhuge Liang during the 3rd century AD. For more info on the legend see here. Legend or not, these dumplings are absolutely scrumptious with soft and fluffy outsides with moist filling that bursts out with full flavour into our mouth. I find that it is a great way to get children to eat veggies as well. Anjalie loves these dumplings especially the savoury ones (she is usually not big on sweets anyway). The recipe below is for vegetarian dumplings. But you can include your favourite minced meat to this recipe as well. I even got a chance to make sweet dumplings with apple and spices filling, yumm! I do not have one of those Chinese bamboo steamers. So I used my pressure cooker instead. A rice cooker can also be used for this or even a stock pot with a steamer that can fit over it. Additionally these dumplings can be frozen for later use before steam-cooking them. To make around 12 dumplings...

Savoury Dumpling

You will need:
For the wrap:
2 cups white bread flour/ all purpose/plain flour
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp active dried yeast
1/2 tbsp butter (melted)
approx 200 ml warm water (adjust according to need)

Dessert- Apple Dumplings

For savoury filling (enough to stuff 10 dumplings):
1 pak choi - chopped fine
1/2 onion or 2 shallots - chopped fine
2 green/salad onion- chopped fine
1 red sweet pepper - chopped fine
1 carrot - jullienned
4 med. mushrooms - chopped fine
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste (or 1 inch ginger + 3 cloves of garlic chopped fine)
2 fresh chillies chopped (only for adults)
salt and black pepper to taste
2 tsp oil

Home-made Egg-less ice-creams: Rose-water Ice-cream

In an attempt to experiment more with home-made ice-creams we tried out rose-water ice-cream at home. The biggest challenge in using rose-water is that it is a very delicate flavour that will loose it's potency if cooked and can be easily overpowered by the use of corn flour or custard powder. So we tried to make our Rose-water ice-cream without the use of corn flour, eggs or custard powder. While, it was not as smooth and creamy as the coconut ice-cream, it still turned out great with the flavour of rose-water intact and is totally refreshing. Can't wait for summer to roll on soon so that we can make more of these...



You will need (to make around 1 ltr):
500 ml evaporated milk
250 ml whole milk
284 ml double/whipping cream
100 g caster sugar
1/8 tsp salt
4-5 tbsps rose water (use more or less depending on how strong you like the flavour to be)
few drops of pink food colouring

Home-made Egg-less ice-creams: Coconut ice-cream

Today is the second day of blue skies and sunny weather, albeit, with cold temperatures around 1 degrees Celsius. Just seeing the lovely blue skies made us all think of warm summer weather. Hopefully, we will have it soon. Along with thoughts of summer came thoughts of ice-creams: rich, creamy and freezing cold. Since, we now are proud owners of a simple electric ice-cream maker (nothing fancy), we thought "why not make our own ice-cream". My all-time favourite, when it comes to ice-cream, is Coconut ice-cream. So we decided to try that one first. Most ice-cream recipes use egg-based custard to give the creamy body to the ice-creams. But none of us care for the egg-y flavour creeping in our ice-creams. Another way to give the texture and body to the ice-cream is by using packaged custard powder which is mainly made of corn flour, other flavourings and colourings. We thought that we will ditch the artificial flavourings and colourings and simply use the corn flour like they do in Italian Gelato. Luckily, for us amateurs, our first ice-cream turned out great.


You will need (makes 1.5 ltr) :
2 cans of coconut milk (total 800 ml)
150 g condensed milk
1/4 cup dessicated coconuts
100 g granulated white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp corn flour
284 ml double/whipping cream

Hot-Cross Buns (just in time for Easter) with water roux

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!

One a penny, two a penny

Hot cross buns!

With Easter almost upon us, I had a few requests to make my hot-cross buns.  This time around, I had decided to try out the water roux method to make these soft melt in your mouth sweet buns even more soft! These traditional buns are very popular here in UK during the Easter time. The traditional cross on these Easter buns probably symbolized the four the seasons and were made during the spring time to point out the end of winter time and the cycle of seasons. But later the cross was associated with Good Friday and the Crucifixion. Regardless, they taste great and are perfect for this time of the year with the smell of spices and mild sweet taste of the dried fruits.

There are many superstitions surrounding hot cross buns. One of them says that buns baked and served on Good Friday will not spoil or mold during the subsequent year (probably due to the spices in them). Sharing a hot cross bun with another is supposed to ensure friendship throughout the coming year, particularly if "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be" is said at the time. If hung in the kitchen, they are said to protect against fires and ensure that all breads turn out perfectly. The hanging bun is replaced each year. For more info on these look in wikipedia here.

Like many traditional recipes hot-cross buns have many variations. Traditionally the crosses were made with shortcrust pastry. There are recipes that use plain flour and margarine and/or water to make the crosses. I make mine with royal icing (egg whites and icing sugar). If you do not want a sweet tasting crosses, you can use either shortcrust pastry or plain flour and margarine method. Also for the getting the shiny sticky look the hot-cross buns are usually glazed using one of these options: 3 tbsp of apricot jam + 3 tbsp of water- heated up to dissolve completely and sieved or 3 tbsp of sugar + 3 tbsp of milk- heated up to dissolve completely or 3 tbsp of sugar + 3 tbsp of water- heated up to dissolve completely. Again, I use a different glaze here with condensed milk instead. Here is the recipe I have used...

You will need:
water roux prepared as given here
1 - 1 and 1/4 cup warm milk
1 egg/ egg substitute (optional)
4 cups unbleached white bread flour
1 and 1/2 tsp apple pie spice or
1/2 tsp each of ground ginger, nutmeg and all spice
1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 and 1/2 tsp of rapid-raise active dry yeast
1/2 cup currants
3 tbsp golden raisins
3 tbsp mixed candied fruit peel
egg wash (optional): 1 egg + 3 tbsp milk

For Glaze:
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

For the crosses: (choose other methods if you want to avoid using eggs)
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 medium egg white

Mixed fruit and coconut swirls

This evening after I returned from work I was in the mood for celebrating. No particular reason, but. just because...On the way back I was talking with Naz about some of our childhood favorite treats that we used to enjoy. In both our cases, we both had enjoyed coconuts and fruits in sweet things! When I got home, while preparing dinner, I came across some ready to roll pastry. So I decided to make a dessert with the pastry with coconut and fruit fillings. This was really easy and quick to put together, thanks to the ready to roll pastry available in supermarkets, and all of it was done within 30 mins.


You will need:
Ready to roll pastry sheets (preferable puff pastry) -1 (you can use short crust pastry as well for a variety)
1 cup desiccated coconut (I used unsweetened)*
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 generous cup of mixed fruits (you can use tutti fruti or any of your favorite candied/dried fruits mixture)
1 tsp apple spice (or) any spice/s of your choice
1/2 tsp cardamon (optional)
4 tbsps of water**

Rose water cupcakes/ fairy cakes

Today is Mothering Sunday/Mother's day here in the UK. Anjalie is learning all about it and has made me a card. When I thought about what I really would like, as a treat, for my Mother's day I realized that I enjoy baking things with Anjalie. It combines two of my favorite activities: cooking and enjoying my time with her :)  But the question was "What to bake?" It has to be something special for Mother's day. But something easy for Anjalie to help as well. So I decided to do cupcakes/fairy cakes. But I am truly fed up of vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavors. Every time I buy a cupcake these are the usual choices (well, sometimes I get mint ones too). So I decided to try using the rose water that I have and make a  rose-flavored cupcakes. Unlike vanilla, rose-water will lose it's flavor at high temperatures and so cannot be cooked. So I came up with the idea of using sugar syrup to flavor the cupcakes after I bake them. Butter-cream is my favorite frosting. So I stuck to it but added rose water to flavor that too instead of vanilla.

The cupcakes came out moist, bursting with rose-water flavor all the way through. The cupcakes turned out a little on the sweeter side like the cupcakes we used to get in New York while we lived there. Even the icing was a bit towards the rich and sweet side. So, the only thing I will change in this for the next time is reduce the amount of sugar a little bit in the cupcakes and reduce the amount of cream cheese in the frosting. But you can adjust the sugar amount according to your taste.

You will need:
For the cupcake:
110 grams all purpose flour (sifted)
110 grams sugar
110 grams butter (softened to room temperature)
2 large free range eggs/ 1/2 cup egg substitute
1 tsp pink food coloring (optional)
1 and 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2-4 tbsp milk
For the syrup:
50 grams sugar
50 grams water
2 tsp rose water

For the butter-cream icing/frosting:
50 grams butter
100 grams cream cheese ( I used Philadelphia light cream cheese)
150 grams icing sugar
1 tsp rose water
1/2 tsp pink food coloring (optional)

Trinidadian Kurma (Sweet delicacy)

All three of us here in our family do not have much of a sweet tooth. The only time we ever crave anything sweet is when it has been a really long time since we visited our home town. Once we have exhausted our craving for all the savories that our native places have to offer we turn our attention to sweet delicacies. On one such day, last week, Naz asked me to make some Trinidadian kurma. Trinidadian kurma is deep fried dough covered in sugar and not to be confused with the mildly-spicy Indian curry or the second avatar of Lord Vishnu. The only thing they all have in common is the name "kurma". There are at least 3 kinds of sweet made of deep fried dough covered in sugar attributed to Trinidadian cuisine: thin kurma, soft kurma and gulab jamoon. All three are made from fried dough and covered in sugar syrup except they vary in the ratios of flour, butter & milk and also in their shaping. During the time I spent in Trinidad, with my in-laws, I have learnt that soft kurmas are served during weddings, the thin kurmas are more or less made for everyday snacking and gulab jamoons (not the Indian syrupy kind) are made for special occasions. If this is wrong please feel free to correct me!

Easy Chocolate Cornflakes crispy flowers

Toddlers and Preschoolers love to help grown-ups. Kitchen, to them, is often a fascinating place where the grown ups are busy working briskly and there is steam coming from the pots followed by irresistible aroma of yummy food. Most of my pleasant memories of my childhood are about the times I spent in both my paatti's (grand-mum) and Amma's (Mum) kitchen. Little did I know that the little tasks I did to help them was helping me become self-reliant and independent and came in very handy when I left home for further studies. Years later, while talking with my Amma casually, I was told that the very same days were wonderful memories for her of quality time with me! I did not appreciate the depth of that feeling until I had Anjalie. Seeing  how much we enjoy each other's company while cooking and baking I totally understand how much those days mean to my Amma.