Today's Rave - DIY calls ( IKEA nightstand makeover)

Continuing on the furniture painting fest, i repainted my daughters IKEA white laminate nightstand. This was a bit of a learning experience, first i learned that laminate can be painted over with the right preparation. All it needed was light overall sanding, using a primer and good quality indoor/ outdoor paint.

Today's Rave - Twisted recipes (Badam Halwa)

This recipe credit goes to my brother, i have twisted it of course adding my own spin to a classic. 

Ingredients

1 cup Badam/ Almonds soaked overnight

1/2 cup milk

4 tbsp Ghee

4 tbsp Agave or 1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp Cardamom powder

4 to 5 strands of Saffron soaked in 2tbsp warm milk

Method

Soak the almonds overnight and remove the skin. This takes most of the time. I think i am going to try with almond meal next time, i think it can save a lot of time. Coarsely grind the almonds to a paste using the milk. Heat up a non stick pan, start out with a tablespoon of ghee and fry the almond paste in the ghee. Continuosly stir this ensuring nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan adding ghee periodically. After about 10 minutes, i added Agave (instead of sugar) and continued stirring until the whole almond paste came together. At this point added the cardamom powder, saffron milk mixture and stirred until the almond halwa came together with a nice yellow hue. 

Today's Rave - DIY calls (Wooden Bench makeover)

So, i have been bit by the DIY bug. It is pretty fun actually, i spent a week refinishing an old wooden bench for my friend and pretty pleased with the results. I have run into a whole new world of painting furniture now..it is amazing what the internet has become now a true information power house. I wish i took a before/ after. This was a typical wood bench, here is the result after a bit of sanding, spray painting and using acrylic paints for the design.

Todays Rave - Twisted Recipes (Tiramisu)

One more recipe for consideration, this time it is Tiramisu a classic Italian dessert you will find in a typical Italian restaurant. I think i have seen Tiramisu more in the North American Italian restaurants vs. Italy; maybe we just missed it during our soak up the sights in 3 days we had to absorb all of Italy. My family joined me during a work trip to Italy over the weekend and we did an express self guided tour of Milan, visited the Duomo and took a train to Venice..walked all around in Venice and then took an overnight train to Rome. All this through dealing with missed baggage for my husband and daughter. She literally had nothing to wear so we were shopping on the streets, picking up random stuff..finding time to taste local food was what you can find on the street as well. So it was basically Margherita pizza slices off the street and Gelato for dessert. At the end of it, my daughter started craving chinese..and even Indian food. It was hilarious. Apart from Gelato, pizza..especially the one i had at work with the thinnest imagined zucchini slices i also remember the Italian fruit cake my work buddies got me during this trip. It was such a nice gesture and my buddies shared that it was a traditional easter fruit cake. I think we killed the cake before we got home, it was that good. I love travelling in Europe, not via a tour. It is so easy, the rail system is indeed amazing. Just imagine, we walked out of the Venice train station and lo and behold the whole Venice as we saw photographed in many pictures was in front of us. The river, bridges, people everything. Magical! Same goes for the Colosseum at Rome, we stepped out of the train station and walked up to the street and saw the grand Colosseum spread out in front of us. Just imagine Taj Mahal appeared in front of you right after you stepped into the streets after you get off a train station in Agra. I have never seen anything like that in my life!

Back to Tiramisu, it is really easy by the way. Not much twisting from my side. Basically, i bought 1 package of lady fingers, these are easily found in your grocery store just ask in the bakery  (substitute angel food cake if you dont find lady fingers). You will also need a 1/2 cup whipping cream, some strong espresso coffee(I used Bru filter coffee) and 2 tbsp chocolate liquor( I used Godiva). You will also need Mascarapone cheese, also available in grocery stores here in America. Also, 1/2 cup raw sugar. Some cocoa powder and 1 kitkat/ chocolate cips.

Make 1/2 cup strong espresso coffee. Refrigerate it so it cools down while you make whipped cream mascarapone mixture.

Take the 1/2 cup whipping cream, use a mixer and make whipped cream out of it. once the cream is whipped, add a tablespoon of Chocolate liquor, add sugar and whip till soft whipped cream is formed. Now fold in mascarapone cheese into the whipped cream.

Layer lady fingers, sprinkling espresso over the lady fingers (Italian cookies) and make sure while you pour enough coffee to cover all the lady fingers do not over soak them as they will turn soggy. Spread a layer of whipped cream and mascarapone cheese. Then place another layer of lady fingers, sprinkle coffee and then spread remaining whipped cream, mascarapone mixture. Dust cocoa powder all over the top layer, my twist is to grate a small kitkat and some chocolate chips on the dessert. Cover the dish with some plastic wrap, cover and refrigerate overnight. Standard recipe also calls for raw eggs, i omitted them as i dont like to consume raw eggs. There are a lot of twisted recipes for Tiramisu on the web, find your favorite one with a simple google search. 

Todays Rave - Twisted Recipes(Alsi Pinni)

Continuing my twisted recipes post, here is another one inspired by a very traditional punjabi recipe for Alsi Pinni (laddu made with flax seed powder, edible gum, dry fruits and jaggery). Apparently in North India, during the winter months these laddus are made and consumed to give an extra immunity boost. Alsi(Flax seed) is a very good source of Omega 3, do a quick google search on it if you are not aware. 

Arthritis to Anxiety to Alzheimer's to ADHD to anything else between, please do read up and get some Omega 3 in your diet. 

On one of these random days when i was driving back from a long day of work, i was having this wonderful conversation with a dear old friend from Canada and just like good friends we talk about anything and everything under the sun, kids, dinner tonight, Bollywood movies, general gupshup. She shared with me that she found these new really delicious laddus in her local Indo-Pak store and that they were very nutritious and delicious as well. It was called Alsi Pinni, it just sounded so funny and we started laughing for no reason. She said she did a quick google search and did not find it, i made her spell this maybe 10 times. Every time i make Alsi Pinni now i remember our conversation and it brings about a smile on my face. My sister said every time i say it sounds like Aalsi Pinni (Lazy Aunt)! ROFL! So, anyway this will always be a special recipe for me..not just for nutritional reasons 😃...here you go with my twisted version.

Dry roast approximately, 1/4 cup of Ragi(millet) flour, 4 tbsp of Alsi/ Flax seed powder, 2 tbsp of Sesame seed powder. Also coarsely powder and dry roast 10 cashews, 10 almonds, 10 walnuts and any other nuts of choice. I had no idea or desire to add Gond(edible gum) that was mentioned in the traditional recipe. So, i skipped it. I added maybe 2 teaspoons of Ghee and maybe 3 tbsp of Agave Nectar. Roasted this whole mixture together, maybe 10 minutes. After i switched the stove off, i let it cool for a few minutes, then used some milk(very little) to just bind the laddus. You can use some powdered jaggery (about 1/4 cup) instead of Agave Nectar as well. I use Agave to make my recipe a bit more South beach diet friendly. My daughter loved these laddus, she thought i made these out of Chocolate..now that would be a nice next level twist to add some unsweetened cocoa powder to this classic recipe!

Todays Rave - Twisted Recipes (Kaju Barfi)

Ok, so i love to cook..love to experiment. It is such a good time for folks like me, so much inspiration around and so many talented chefs who post their tips with much dedication all over the internet, my recipes credit goto every one of them, friends and family included. I love thai and Indian food and any related cuisine. I am a vegetarian who is also on a "diet" so this gets very interesting as my twists are usually to replace sugar or carbs or what not. I kinda like the principles of South Beach diet and have my antennas up for anything and everything on low glycemic scale. Here are some of my twisted recipes that i tried recently that turned out fairly decent and my family enjoyed!

Kaju Barfi:

I soaked 1 cup of cashews overnight, ground it up into a coarse paste in the morning. In a pan, i combined cashew(kaju) paste, 2-3 tsp of Agave nectar, pinch of cardamom powder, dash of vanilla essence, 1 tsp of clarified butter(ghee), some shredded coconut and sautéed the whole concoction for a good 20 minutes stirring continuously at medium to low heat until the whole mixture came together to form a ball. I switched off the stove, allowed it to cool a bit and then rolled the mixture out on a smooth plate and cut into random diamonds. Garnished each cashew diamond with a raw cashew. Traditional kaju katli is made with a lot more sugar and no vanilla essence. So here you go pictures of my low glycemic twisted kaju barfi..

Today's Rant - USCIS

#So bummed! We are trying to get our nieces travel to America and spend their summer holidays here, see some sights and spend time with their cousin. Sounds reasonable right? I just don't get why their request for visit visa gets rejected? I am sponsoring them, will pay for them and take them around, we submitted all the right documentation and my sister traveled quite far to attend a "so called" interview in the local USCIS office in Hyderabad, India. They ask her 4 questions and the whole interview concluded in 2 minutes.

Who is going? - She responds my two kids.

Why are they going? - She responds 

to spend summer holidays, watch their cousins annual dance performance and of course visit Disney and other tourist spots.

Why are you not going? - They will travel with grand parents, I have commitments that do not allow me to travel with them.

What is your annual income?-She responded with their income, which is substantial even by American standards.

Response, visa rejected. No explanation provided. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for why a visit visa gets rejected these days. We had so many plans, I was really looking forward to having the kids over and providing a solid experience, kids lost a good opportunity to meet new people, experience new culture and a chance to be on their own. My daughter did this last summer and stayed in India all by herself at her grand parents home. It was a great learning experience for her.

Why does America make it so hard to visit? I can understand that there maybe an issue with folks not wanting to come back, but a 8 and 10 year old children? What can they possibly do in USA after a visit? They have to get back to their school in India. 

As US rejects their visa, my folks are just going to look for another international destination like U.K to send their kids to spend their summer vacation.

This rant will go on..just so bummed! It is time for our US visitor visa process be reformed. My vote in next election is only committed to a leader who will make it easy for my family to visit me in America.