Mista Pasta

Pasta, is a comfort food for me to cook for my 1yo when I am out of options. This is because I always will have some vegetable in fridge/freezer, pasta is always in stock, as also milk, tomatoes, and some italian seasonings. This is one of my favorite dinner meals for my lil one. I do not like the marinara as I come from South India and if it is not hot - hot enough for you to sniffle and have a few tears down your cheeks, then the food is not really worthwhile ;) However, cheese is an acquired taste for us desis who grew up without it in India and so can eat it bland. This is why I would easily make a white sauce instead of marinara for my ds. Here is my usual routine for him for pasta.

1. Cook pasta, al dente. Strain and keep aside.
2.  Microwave, steam, stir-fry, or grill vegetables
3. Make white sauce, and stir everything in it.

This takes utmost 8-10 minutes especially when you can do each in different stoves. 

For white sauce, I don't follow any particular recipe. I just put a pat of butter on a pan in medium high and once the butter melts add about a teaspoon of flour and just fry the flour for a minute or two and before it browns, add milk to it. I usually add the whole milk as that is what I give my 1yo. I probably would add around 1/4 or 1/3 cup of milk and then simmer till the sauce thickens. Once it is to my desired consistency, I add salt, a few dashes of pepper, mix well and then put the strained pasta as well as the veggies and voila I have a one dish wonder for my 1yo. Of course, I make enough so me and my DH can eat a few teaspoons! Non-guilty pleasures :)

Pasta with bechamel sauce

Pasta with white sauce and zucchini

Verdict: My 1 yo absolutely loves this pasta and so does DH!

Valentine's Day Special - chocolate cake and cupcake

I was to have the company of my nephew and niece on V-day but it turned out they couldn't make it until Saturday and I had already thought of making them yummy cakes/cupcakes to enjoy their time with their aunt and I also wanted to do some pastry puffs for savory. As you already know, I am no baker and so bought the "Betty Crocker super-moist chocolate cake" mix and set up to work on it. I just followed the instructions down to the 't' and the cake couldn't have been better. The recipe called for a 9X13 pan. All I had was a 7X11 pan so added some in it and made 6 extra cup-cakes also for the little ones aged 9,7,and 1. And, what is a cupcake without icing?? I actually checked the internet to get a chocolate icing recipe and whisked it to finish as I do not have any of the electric beaters. Not a bad deal, is what I think. I took the recipe for chocolate icing from here. The recipe is as follows:

Chocolate buttercream frosting

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened ( Do not melt in microwave. Keep it outside the refrigerator and smash it down with your beater once it is soft ;))
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract(optional)
• 4 tablespoons milk or cream

Method

1. Prepare the dry and wet ingredients separately until ready to mix.
2. Sift together the sugar, cocoa powder. Add salt and keep it separate.
3. In a separate big bowl, add the butter and mash till it is creamy. I use a whisk and so mashed it up to a softer butter. If using electric mixer, probably use a low to medium setting to mash it up. 
4. Add all the dry ingredients to the bowl. If using a stand mixer, I will assume that you have the mixer off, unless you want your dry ingredients all over you and all around ;) If using an electric mixer, turn to lowest setting and slowly incorporate the dry ingredients with butter. With a whisk I had to do slowly to first mix and then start mixing up vigorously to incorporate the two. It will look a lot like crumbs but that is right.
5. Add the vanilla extract, and the milk/cream and incorporate. Now as you mix, you will begin to see that you get the proper frosting. Once whisked well and you take the whisk, you will find the icing sticking out. For a stickier icing, add more sugar. For a thinner icing, add more milk. Do this till you are satisfied with the icing consistency. 

 Verdict: The icing I did not realize then, was thin and so you can see how the cupcake icing kind of sagged, fell, and did not hold shape while I was able to clearly write well with it on my cake . This was my first time at making a cake, and icing so I am not unhappy. It was a successful effort and who cares about the decor when the cake, cupcake and frosting was yummelicious ;) The kids and adults all had a good treat!

Banana Blueberry muffin trial attempt!

Okay here I had a DS - 18 months old-who just loves bananas, two beyond recognizable over-ripened bananas with almost a black skin exterior dangling on their hooks and him wailing for them. My immediate reaction was to toss them out in the trashcan as I always used to do but somehow in the past one week saw too many people mushing up bananas into bread and muffins that i thought, hmmm, time for me to start baking as well! So i search online for some recipes as I have never baked myself (of course, i tried my hand at an easy brownie some 2 years ago and my DH made me promise that I will quit baking!) and after an extensive search found this one link from cooks.com that will just use 2 bananas, exactly two as that is all I have.
        I wanted to make chocolate cupcake for Valentine's day and so had armed myself with a big mixing bowl, two big packages of baking and icing essentials boxes that I had got from a discount store (mind you, I was not planning to shell out hard earned $$$ at state of the art equipment to bake, when I wasn't sure I would love it and continue doing it.) and left it safely in the garage to bring it when and if I baked. I had also got the usual baking powder, baking soda, all purpose flour from a grocery store so that I can bake when I need to. I ended by though, having to go back to the grocery store as I had ended up buying not the usual baking soda but something you keep in the fridge and throw away and I was not planning to puncture holes in this one to use the soda.So went and got myself the baking soda, and some buttermilk in case the recipes called for something of that sort.
        The recipe made 12 muffins and I thought I could live with that. I could eat it, if it came out good, and would trash it if it was horrible. So went ahead and took one 7-cup round pyrex and started mashing up my bananas and when trying to add sugar found that I had only a 1/4" less of sugar than the desired amount. The recipe called for brown sugar and since I had only white sugar substituted that but had only about 3/4th cup and so used that as I reasoned with myself that white sugar was more sugary and hence a 3/4 cup is enough. Then on to butter and I find myself staring at one 1/4 stick of butter and around 2T of butter. I told myself that I dint want to experiment with half butter when I already had done enough with the sugar and decided to take another trip to the grocery store. Did so and came back with confectioners sugar, regular sugar, 2 butter blocks, and another big bag of flour.
        So mashed up the 2 bananas, 2 eggs, 3/4th cup of sugar and got a nice gooey stuff that I was scared to lick. I was supposed to add melted butter. I had left one stick of butter out as I went to grocery store to get it at room temperature but ended up adding that another stick onto the microwave for 30secs to melt. Adding that to the gooey mixture got me into some not-so-good-looking mess(I was sure of that!)as the butter did not blend well and looked like curdled milk that stands out on top of the milk. I just closed my eyes at this point and added some vanilla and very little fresh blueberries - around 10 of them as I dint want to end up wasting blueberries in case the muffin turned out bad. I then found out that the recipe called for a bigger bowl to mix all dry ingredients and realized I had taken the big 7-cup round pyrex for the bananas when according to the recipe it called only for a medium bowl to mix them. Hating myself, I took another 7-cup round pyrex(We need to thank God, don't we for he had foreseen this day and made me get two 7-cup rounds?) bowl and whisked the baking powder, flour and salt (I had no cinnamon powder and so just left it.) Now added the banana mixture onto the baking powder mixture and realized that the contents filled up and I wasn't able to whisk. At this time, I was ready to dump the whole mixture out so just left it around and went ahead and fed my DS with his dinner and played with him and made dinner for all of us and then I had this lightbulb moment when I remembered that not just the icing and baking essentials but I had also bought a big bowl for mixing and there out in a flash I was to the garage with the most prized possession of the day- a VERY large bowl indeed. I transferred all the contents onto this bowl (after I washed it with hot soapy water and towel dried it as it was new.) and whisked them away. Now they all seemed to blend well and I got courageous enough to take a bit and lick it! Yum. Yum it was and I was so happy, and thrilled. Thanked God, that I did not pour the mixture down the drain and so took the muffin tray and lined them up with cupcake liners and added a scoop onto each of the liners using a ice cream scoop. Of course, I wasted one liner and scoop when the scoop managed to fall down a little on the liner and more on the tray! Trashed them both!
        So off went the tray to the preheated oven and I turned on the light and set the timer for 25 minutes. At the 25th minute mark, I put a wooden skewer and found that it came out clean, but the top wasn't browned and I kept it another 5 minutes to brown the top. Also, I dumped the remainder of the mixture onto a small loaf pan because I did not want to waste the oven's heat for another 25 minutes by doing more muffins as I had only that one six-muffin tray. I saw the muffins and the loaf split a bit, but that was okay I re-assured. And after 5 more minutes of browning after the 30 min mark took them out.

Verdict: First the pictures, then the verdict.

 As you can see that I did get the brown effect, though, along with it a taste as if it was a biscuit not a muffin. Although, I am not sure how muffins taste, as I have not tasted that many in my life. My foray into baking is also only because I started eating eggs which is around three years back but the muffin was sweet and good on the inside. Not much sweet perhaps because I ended up with 1/4 cup less sugar than the recipe, but all in all was pleased by the result. Nothing was sticking on the pan or the liner or causing trouble when we ate and neither were there any repercussions in the morning! So i can say it was a successful attempt.

However, on an ending note, I would like to add this: Do not, let me underline to emphasize. Do not take up this task of using up old bananas unless you have ever hungry kids, or you love to bake, or you have all the time in the world! It took me another half an hour to hand-wash(yes! the labels said do not dish wash the pans) the trays and the bowls as my dishwasher was already too full to accommodate another 3 bowls. In the end, it got me into thinking how nice it would have been if I had just tossed them in the trash before another thought had killed that thought as I stretched myself and went to bed!
P.S. Me, DH, and DS all three had a banana muffin/bread breakfast this morning and I am happy I baked. Guess I will continue to bake, after all :)

Rising and shining

True to my own words, I have decided to rise and shine myself! To start off, I have always loved the artistic people who seem to do so much with their hands and have always envied them and wondered how I have never been given that one talent (as if I have every other talent in the world :o) by God! I loved how a close relative painted her own dresses, decorated her home with her hand made stuffs, a friend of mine decorated her son's nursery with her own paintings, how another decorated her different rooms in themes and how there seemed to be a big gap or a hole in artistic skills where I was concerned. I had even got myself a set of fabric paints to paint my son's tee to celebrate his first birthday but never got around to doing it at all!!!

  Then I remembered that I had always begged and cajoled my mom into finishing my school art projects - drawing, sewing, cutting, trimming, gluing and all the rest. Wondered if it was because I was incapable of doing any of it or if I did not care enough about it, or whether I did not have enough patience for it, or was too bored about it. I still am not able to figure out what it was exactly. But I keep wondering how all of a sudden I have this huge urge to do something artistic. I want to sew, to paint, to cut, to glue, to make something out of my hands that for some reason or other have never done so far.

       So I go on a trip to Walmart- our find it all store- and try to go to the art and supplies section and load my cart with all things I want to do. I took some fashion jewellery making supplies, took some paint supplies, and some DIY projects that were half completed and half left to us to complete and marched home. And then, they sat at our home for a long time, being the procrastinator(Oh my God! did i just declare it online to the whole world!) that I am!  I decided at one point this year that enough was enough and scheduled the best time I could squeeze between my work, and my other commitments to commit to doing something with all the projects that I had ended up buying. I must say that looking back, in the one month since the new year, I have accomplished something..No, no coming from the person I am, I have accomplished a lot. So here goes, I am going to first show a couple of the initial projects that I started with and then go ahead and add more along the way. BTW, did I let you in on another secret? I am an Aquarian and being the Jack of all trades --look at the spread of stuff that I started on! From painting, to sewing, to jewellery making, to baking! Here are some of it. I feel good, I feel great and I cannot believe January is not yet over and I have tried them all.. I am going to keep doing all of this until I can say that I have fallen in love with one particular line that I want to continue. Or, who knows? I may be doing them all!!!

Keys: I got a wooden unpainted block of key hanger and using 'Painter's' markers, just added color to the wooden block. Just something to see how the paint turned out to be.


















Earrings: These again I got the beads and all from a DIY kit and got myself busy doing it. As you can see from the shape and quality of the hooks, these are my first ones!

My Second earring pair

My first pair

Another new year

This past year had a lot of good things but a bunch of bad times for me from the end of the year...Yes! things I wished to change had not changed and I realize that things don't change on their own...I have to be the instrument of change...Hoping that this new year I can be the change I wish to see. So happy new year everybody! Rise and shine!!!

Gardening 101

 Bush rose..waiting for it to grow..Grows all summer, so grow up, buddy!!!

This one is a bunch of varied colours... I love the yellow in particular :) Daisies!

Tulips and others...

Geraniums

A beautiful set of blue hyacinths!

All these we bought at the start of spring this year and my DH helped me plant all of it while I sat on a chair sipping a cup of hot coffee on a lazy Saturday evening! Of course, I was the handy-man getting rid of some mulch, removing soil from one area to another, cleaning up the pathways as they got messy, and all other menial chores! All said, a very happy and contented evening after an hour of hard work!

What to expect from Atlantic City!

It has been quite some time when we went out to gamble! Oh what fun it is to gamble just a bit! I am the finance guru whenever we go to gamble simply because I somehow can restrict myself without getting too greedy or without wanting to try to win whatever we lost over and over again. So I decide to hold the purse strings which my DH reluctantly agrees J We start off with a budget for what he gets per day, and what I get for the entire trip (I love to have some fun but not too much coz I know how much I do sweat to earn that li’l paltry that I do earn!). Sometimes if the DH did end up losing it all very soon in the day and I have some winnings or if I haven’t spent it all I do share it with him. He is a poker dude as I would like to introduce…he not only loves poker but he is also good at it! I do watch poker stars on TV with him sometimes and jokingly ask when he is going to join that group! Well, all is well until of course he decides to do it for life! Keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn’t come up with such a decision….Not that I would want to restrict his interest or his way but it is just that as an Indian, we are more focused on providing for family and our extended families consisting of both our parents and our siblings and their families. Also, according to our whims and fancies somehow we Indians cannot simply go on with the flow like a river does..Neither would most Indian men raised in India. My DH though, has an ultimatum, to spend up to his 50^th year with us and I have told him if he is good until then, he can then go on to be a poker player for the rest of his life, provided his kids would let him lead that life as well!

  Usually I know the drill – we’ve been to Atlantic city a couple of times and to Las Vegas once; my DH ended up losing all his quota and also lost a bit borrowed from me – so I am bracing myself for a whole weekend, in fact two entire days and two half days of arguments, and fights and what not about how much to lose and when to call it quits at the casinos. DH had a very long, tiresome, and taxing week so I decide to let him have fun. I agree to be the designated driver throughout the trip and promise not to bother him while he is at play. Also, I do not have the holidays that he has and with my office working on Good Friday I do a remote login from the hotel on Friday as hubby ends up at the casino! Somehow, I do not envy him; I am happy he got some comp time on Thursday afternoon so he can drive up to my work place early and we start off on Thursday early afternoon, end up in AC around 7.30pm and head off to the casinos. I call it quits around 9.30pm, come back to the hotel with hubby and he leaves me at the lobby and goes back…..I try to spend some time watching TV but decide to get to bed early, wake up early, finish off work early so can start having fun at the casino…Somehow, kept tossing and turning and then ended up sleeping…Tick, tock, tick, tock….Around five’ish in the morning hubby returns with a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig smile saying he won a huge pot at the end and is so thrilled to start the next day…I am half asleep and half awake, but still end up pocketing the majority of his winnings (I know for certain that I have to hold on to some of it ‘coz he is bound to lose it all the next day!) Friday at the poker table he ends up losing so we go out for lunch at a famous Chinese cuisine near one of the casinos, take a small walk on boardwalk and then I head back to hotel to continue my work and he heads back to the casino…I finish work early and pack up our bags..I want to leave on Saturday as one of my friends has invited me over for lunch on Easter. Not sure how hubby is gonna react to starting for home the next day…I meet my DH at the casino, walk for a while again on boardwalk, and then I gamble a while. My usual play areas are slots and roulette and in both I end up losing around a total of 95 bucks. I tell myself this is more than what I should have lost and want to save the next five bucks that is also part of my budget. I go to check on my DH who is winning and doesn’t want to get up from the table. I sit with him for a while and then request that he drops me back at the hotel as I do not want to loiter alone in AC in the night. The same drill as yesterday and hubby leaves me at the lobby…returns back around 5:00am the next day and tells me that he lost whatever he had but that he is happy as he now knows that you cannot win every hand, every day at a poker table. I tell him about our friends invite and we decide to head back the next day.

                Overall, our daily budgets + our expenses for car, food, lodging = DH’s winning on Thursday night   which means- a totally happy me! One of us had the luck this time and our costs or expenses = our winnings.

This indeed ended up as one of our best gambling trips ever! So what do you expect from AC? Nothing. You may end up emptying your pockets or end up winning a little. In the end, what matters is your ability to call it quits when it is time to and when you haven't burned a large hole in your pocket!