Homemade Ginger Syrup for Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer

Had a fun weekend?For me the highlight was a lovely nostalgic movie, Manjadikuru. Kudos to Anjali menon for taking us for a ride through the colourful childhood. I am sure many Keralites can absolutely relate to this, the summer vacations in the late 80’s and 90’s, appuppan and ammuma waiting eagerly for you in front of the big ancestral house ,the pond, mango trees,lots and lots of ppl, fun fun and more fun. I personally enjoyed every second of the movie. It was like  I was reliving my childhood. Only difference was that there was no pond in our Tharavadu instead our ancestral house was on the shore of the serene Bharathapuzha and the population is slightly higherJ. Yeah I have a total of 24 cousins!

Super Moist Carrot cake with Butterscotch Icing

 Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill because they pissed me off!

I am pissed off!!Let me tell you why! Remember I joined Pilates class in our office  clubhouse during lunch time? I am happily doing Pilates , partly because I like doing stretches and partly because the teacher is totally absolutely motivating! More about my pilates teacher later. [Yeah I am keeping the best for last, you will know soon why J]So I got  changed and rushed to the studio and see the studio is locked down! My teacher and few other colleagues were waiting in front of the studio. Apparently the cleaner  misplaced the key, the teacher told us that the lady was looking for the keys. Meantime I saw the cleaner lady coming down few times and frantically looking for the keys everywhere. After 5 minuets she said , if we mind using the next room, which did not have mirrors. We said, sure why not!

Then enters the Lady Violent, let’s call her Mrs.V. She come down and ask us what is going on, teacher briefs what’s happening and suddenly she started fuming. “Why why why? Tell me your boss number? Let me call and complain right now. You people are damn careless. We paid soo much for the lass you see Blah blah #!%!” The poor lady who was new was almost in verge of tears..

I looked around and most of them were as shocked as me. We tried to calm Mrs.V.”Calm down,. It was an honest mistake. let’s use next room”. She started yelling at us as well!”Mistake? What the hell..these people must be taught a lesson “.Finally the teacher asked the cleaner to go upstairs and tried to calm the violent lady! She kept muttering for next 10 minutes.

Seriously do you have to be this harsh to a person just because we missed 5 minutes of a class? Don’t we all make mistakes? Was our 100 dollars worth a poor cleaners job?

How I wished Dexter Morgan lived in Singapore so that I could get a personnel training from himJ

Sesame Candy with a hint of Cardamom and Ginger

A girl can never have enough shoes!! Never ever! Proved that again this weekendJ

DH needed a new pair of sports shoe and we went down for the Royal sports ware house sale! Sadly , he didn’t find any for his taste  , but I found a cute pair of lactose shoes. With this black shoe, I think my shoe collection is just perfect,  almost have a matching shoe for most of my pants..Great! Picked it!

Got out of the sale, what do I see? Crocs new arrival collection! Now, I have to try that. I tried a few but DH started to bug me as we had a movie to catch.All I could think during the movie is the cute little black crocs shoe calling out for me “Buy me please..pretty please”!! My shoe collection will be totally absolutely complete if I had that one more black crocs shoe, I started to fell a  gravity pull or rather a croc-ity pull. After 1.5 hours of  dreaming of the shoe in the midst of a movie, I went straight to the shop and got that one as well and walked happily to MRT doing the happy dance. Guess what there is a shoe sale in the courtyard, I automatically started to do another round of shoe to dress mapping! Man I am a shopaholic shoe-aholic! I NEED HELP!!!I NEED HELP!!

Gooseberry Pickle /Nellikka/Amla Pickle

Happy Onam !!Hope you all had a wonderful Onam Sadya  and said hai to Maveli!

I decided to skip making sadya this year, spend my day in office and had a grant sadya in evening at a Kerala restaurant.

Moist Apple Cake topped with Pumpkin seeds

“Vegetarian is an old Indian word for bad hunter”..Yes,that is my DH’s favorite quote, who also happens to be a hard core carnivore. So you can imagine how our 6 years of marital life would have been. The omnivore me  trying to convince the meat lover about the hazards of being a red meat eater and he in turn  persuading me to try all “delicious” stuff. The other day we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner

DH: The beef tastes awesome, you should seriously try this!

Me: No way..

DH: The cow will feel bad if we don’t eat it. It’s the cows destiny to be a good steak one day. So you are not letting the poor animal fulfill its destiny!

Me: #&!!!! Huh? Ok I better don’t reply to that ..it  will be an insult to my intelligenceJ.(I will let my actions speak). Gives him one tight pinch

DH: OOO! That hurts!!

Me: So a pinch hurts so badly isn’t it? So imagine the pain the poor animal went through before it became your favorite steak!

DH: Silence ..followed by a big wideJ

13 Bean Soup

Every time I talk to my mom  she keeps reminding me that I was such a super picky eater when I was a kid, there was no way she could make me eat vegetable unless it is all mashed or juiced

I am soo tempted to say that the grown up me is not at all like that but sadly I am still  a picky eater. But of course the pickiness has changed to a different direction. I love my veggies and fruits but started to develop a dislike for hot spicy food somewhere in my late teens and that still continues. I can see some eye rolling, yes coming from India, land of curry and spices I cannot take spicy food. Correction, I can still take..but I will have to spend a pretty long time in toilet the following day.So thinking about a 30 min toilet break, I try to maintain a  safe distance from Super hot food.

Fruit and Seed Balls

After the hit of the Fig and Date balls I am on a steady hunt for no bake, no cook easy yet healthy snack.

Why waste time on whipping, mixing and baking when I can make a super easy dessert in less than 30 min which is healthy ,hearty and guilt free too!

I have been trying different combinations of dried fruit, nuts, seeds and flavorings and there is always a box of this super power balls in my refrigerator.

So here is the latest recipe I have tried with one of my fav ingredient, desiccated coconut.