Boss ka birthday cake

It was boss ka birthday at office. And anyone who knows boss, knows how much he hates chocolate cake. So on his birthday, chocolate cake was a complete NO NO. Actually he celebrates his birthday with one more colleague at office, so it was double celebration in one single cake. Birdy's is the regular outlet where we get all our celebratory cakes from. This time it was a Blueberry+Kiwi cake. Yummy. Very soft, creamy and delicious.

It's easy to know when a cake has been a good choice or no. Where there is a fight among all for a second helping, you know the cake has been a "hit" and everyone has liked it. Birthday's are so much fun at office.

Tags: Birthday , Birthday Cake , Blueberry , Kiwi

Baked a cake

This is getting dangerous. Every time I have some free time and I am not too tired, I end up in the kitchen cooking up something or the other. Ash was having pot dinner at his house and I decided to use that Saturday's holiday for some better use. So it was time to get baking.

I have no skills to make a cake, but when you have the ready-to-eat why worry. The instructions on the cake made it look like a real simple thing, so it wasn't that big a challenge. All was going well, until it was 20 minutes into the oven, when the cake started to burst it's stomach. And instead of shaping like a nice flat plateau it shaped up like a swollen volcano waiting to burst out it's lava.

But I believe, in food presentation is very important. So to cover up that big burst I whipped some fresh cream and covered it carefully to make it a very natural shape. I think it was a pretty messy finish, but I am glad Mom & sister appreciated the same and give me the thumbs-up to take it to Ash's party. Well, at the party nobody even realized it was a packet cake- I can't wait to tell them or have them read the true story here.

Tags: Betty Crocker , Cake , Baking , Fresh Cream

Free Style Salad

Three days of holiday and I had not stepped into the kitchen for even a moment. Diwali means restrictions on food - No onion, No garlic. Which basically limits my choice of food which I can experiment with. Thursday evening out of sheer boredom and a pang of hunger I finally stepped in. One look at the stuffed up refrigerator and I decided that it's going to be a nice cold salad before the dinner is served tonight.

I was in no mood to dig out any recipes or see any books for help. So it was a free-style salad that I mopped up. Lots of vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, cabbage and olives - sliced, pieced or grated as you feel. (That's the best part of free-style).

Some tips from the not-so expert chef on ways to make the salad interesting.

• Use olive oil, gives salads a very distinct taste
• Salad Dressing - I hate dry stuff (This is one of the only reasons I hate salads, at times)
• Make sure the vegetables are cut fine - large pieces can be a little irritating

So that's it for now. Saturday night could be pot-dinner at Ash's place. If I get free time, I am going to cook up something too.

Tags: Salad , Vegetables , Tomatoes , Cheese , Sliced Cheese , Olive Oil

It's thai time!

So it's Sunday again, and what happens on Sunday? Well, the master chef ;-) enters the kitchen and takes over. This time the challenge was even tougher but I was rest assured because I knew dear mother was there for supervision and guidance, if any. So I decided to dig up a recipe for Thai Green Curry and so it was. Let me admit again, this was indeed a challenge over the other dishes I have made earlier.

To begin with, I had no knowledge of some of the ingredients and some I didn't know were called with such peculiar names in English. You tend to grow up calling certain things in a way you have been taught. Like I knew what is "coriander" but what is "ground coriander"? And when mom showed me the same, I was like "Oh this."

The cooking was not so difficult except the determination of boiling points, which was manageable thanks to Mom. The dish finally landed at the table only to realize that the "Master Chef" had actually forgotten to add Salt to the dish. Don't blame me - The recipe didn't say so!

Tags: Thai Green Curry , Thai Food , Green Curry

DesiPundit says hello

After Kapil's Korner it is now time for KhanaPeena to get featured at DesiPundit. Thank you Neha.