Ladled

Today I started with this Molten Chocolate Cakes Recipe  and ended up with a magma cake. I dont where it veered off te expected course, but it must be my substitution of butterscotch for chocolate as the birthday boy is a fan of butterscotch. It then took almost like double time to get done. There must have been a sweet spot in between, where I could have caught the lava moment.

My husband had a recommendation from AZ republic for a restaurant. armed with that, he even knew the specialty of that place. Today we had chapli kabab  and afghani boti  at curry corner. They had a strong taste of green chili. what more spice does an Indian want? The naans were good too. Both the dishes are dry. We then had chicken korma . I have this luck of choosing dry items on the menu in Chinese or Vietnamese. Recently, we had dry purple cabbage curry at home with no curd to lighten rice's texture post accompaniment. In a jiffy, made rasam with garlic and tomato and now I think I should have made more. On our next visit there, we had Malai boti which wasnt different from Afghani boti in taste. Sindhi biryani with its lingering taste of mint was nostalgic. The non-vegetarian plate had a good deal of curries in it. Chicken Handi had good gravy too.

Food network star A while ago, I was reading Amy Finley's 'How to eat a small country' and in the process learnt that she had to send a tape for audition into the star competition. What I did not know that for one position, there are 99,999 other aspirants. Reading this book, I kept registering techniques like baked frittata, ingredients like baby beets,cilantro, recipes like tofu chocolate mousse pie that were unknown to me before. Many hit recipes with justifying pictures are included. There are interviews with finalists in each season. You get to know the exiting thoughts of the eliminated too. The participants are put through real life situations like catering to a wedding, sports fan at a stadium, cooking on wheels. Pochette Microplane pilot show Giardiniera Waverley Root Mark Kurlansky 10.30.11 Vegan desserts  recipe for Mexican chocolate creme caramel uses tofu. I was reminded of tofu chocolate mousse pie by Amy Finley. Looking at new vegan book ti...

This recharge wednesday, I bought apple fritters and buttermilk bars . Two people I shared the fritters with forgot what they were going to do after eating it. Well, buttermilk bars, when I asked the chef for their name, he said 'Try them! they are good'. I was almost going to make them until a colleague made me realise that I would have to fry them. Carrot cake was good too. One bit of taste turned into a vanishment of the cake piece. Once my colleague made carrot chocolate cake.

After a long time, we bought soya chunks.  soya rice  is today's lunch. The first time I had them was at a relatives marriage during my childhood. It was called mealmaker. Mealmaker and Milkmaid(condensed milk) were fancy stuff then.

I want to make ragi dosa . On the next visit to the grocery store, I should remember to get the rice flour. I have never heard of sabudana dosa . Another thing to try.

Family fare A green herb paste and a toast topped with crushed green peas are striking in pictures. The book has some statistics about the number of people who used processed foods and a time period over which cooking hasnt been done with fresh products. His  baguette and butter pudding  reminded me of double ka meeta Knickerbocker glory Eton mess Lemon Posset Custard tart Ginger chocolate chesecake I cannot imagine coriander seeds along with apricots in a sugar syrup. Passion fruit & banana souffle Recharge Wednesday icecream with baked apples, oatmeal and nuts.

This morning, my husband got a box of Betty Crocker scalloped potatoes . I thought they were only into cakes and brownies. Walking through the aisles of grocery store, I found peijnenburg cake  and jiralu

Looking at this goduma rava masala upma , I added tomatoes to mine too. But dont go with the recipes cooking time, it takes lot longer than that. In the hostel, it was prepared for a huge number of kids, I wonder how they cooked it dry.

I have never seen a menu with mexican fare like los tres magueyes  where I found many things that I wanted to try. I liked Tiras de Pollo and Pollo a la Parilla, I ended up having Tilapia Cancun. The sauce was overwhelming, wish I had asked for it on the side. Thai food at Champa  was a relief after the horrible Thai Chicken Pizza at airport CPK. We had Champa pad thai and basil fried rice and devoured every bit of it. We learnt how to make waffles.Fried Sweet potato cylinders for breakfast. Chicken Breast Pita and Rice Platter at Greek fiesta were so so. Chicken kabob served on th skewer was well done. Icecream at Crema . Peach Pecan, Mochalua Hazelnut with chocolate icecream. I liked it. Biryani at Paradise  was our goal, but unfortunately at lunch time, only buffet is available. We were happy nevertheless with Sambhar that meant business - lentils and vegetables and not a sappy colour liquid, that made all the idli, vada and pongal dive into the ...

Over a recent vacation, I had puri with aloo curry which had some soothing gravy in it. The host said that it had besan in it. So next thing to try is besan and aloo curry . This dum aloo with besan  recipe sounds very interesting. If I can make puri masala  like this, I will recreate all the times I enjoyed it in the hostel. Theres a dry/fry version of aloo that my mom makes with boiled aloo that I dream of making, never quite get there with the boiledness of potatoes - due to microwave shortcuts. All this besan mania happened when I was making brinjal curry which needed some time in cooking and my hunger led me to make the quick besan curry. I had tiny lumps in the curry. I asked my mom about premixing the besan in water, she thinks its not tasty that way. Besan curry was a favorite for the dinner, as it gets done in no time. My grandmom made the same curry very thick, not our favorite consistency. I still need to find out why the bachali pappu I made last week was gooey. If...

Last weekend, I made spinach rice . After all the effort, it didnt leave any impression on me. Today I tried quick butter capsicum rice  and realy liked the taste of the capsicum and pepper in the rice. I added peas, potatoes and carrots too. I even made mamidikaya pulusu raw mango in tamarind sauce . It turned out way too tangy for me.