Berry Lassi/Smoothie And Hot days of Summer

Summer...
Shivers of apprehension...
Not because of the temperature...
No way...
It is so warm 41C today...
And nothing cools like yogurt and lassi(Sweetened or spiced buttermilk).

Yes,different glasses...these were try outs...
And when you add to it the beautifully tart red strawberries...
Its like manna from heaven.

Cooling ,refreshing, nutritious,tangy and yummy...

Meets all requisite food groups.
As to why the tiny red rose is sitting pretty...we ate the leftover strawberries.
The guy who runs the cafeteria in school will vouch for that...
Sworn Coffee drinkers are now hooked to Amul Masti Spiced Buttermilk...

The heat saps your energy...
Your electrolyte levels.
You really need it...
I'm teaching the transition to democracy in CHILE,South America...
And I feel the need to be chilled...
Strawberries are almost on their way out...
And one needs to sweeten the lassi...Or Smoothie...
The berries are big.soft and squishy!
And are apt to make the yogurt a pretty pink...

So pretty please with sugar on the top...
Lets make the...

Berry Lassi/Smoothie And Hot days of Summer...

you need

1 punnet /200 gms strawberries
2 tsp sugar or honey
a few leaves fresh mint
200 mils fresh yogurt

The strawberries were large...and sweet ,but a little mushy...
So hull and quarter them...remove the top and cut into 2/4 pieces...

Like so...

Into the blender,with the powdered sugar...save a few berries to add in the end...
OK ,I used a wee bit more than 2 tsp...

Ahhhh....the pure puree...
So we can sorbet it, right here, right now...

Add in the thick yogurt...

With a few leftover strawberries for the texture

A few whizzes and we are done...

3 glasses...one down and the others in a steel bowl into the freezer...

To be had like frozen yogurt...

Or drunk to kiss away the sun and its heat...

PS,the darker drink is yet to come...

Experiments in the sun...trying to create a fire with a magnifying glass...and succeeding!

Summer...
And the ways to combat it...
We are being baked...literally ,when we have to wait at the railroad crossing for the trains to cross...to or from school...
Still reeling from the sun...


So what are you baking today???

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Ignorance is Bliss WOW post for Blogadda May 10, 2013

This post was judged WOW post!

“Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.” ― Kahlil Gibran

Sweat ran down her forehead...
Trickling into her hairline...
Eerie did not even come close to defining that dream...
But then, was it???
Yeah...
What was it?
Every morning ...that feeling of same old, same old...
Close but no cigar...
She felt around her bed side,yes she did need her spectacles!
Sometimes she even wondered if it would help if she slept with her spectacles on...
Maybe then, she'd be able to see and hopefully ,remember that bone chilling -supposedly eerie dream ,that always made her sweat...
Time for class!
Was it Monday or Tuesday...white or black shoes...
Aw ,she didn't want to be a defaulter again...
Mummmmy...
Where is my uniform???
Whack!!!
"What the f@#$?"
"Mummy is at home dear...wake up and make your bed yourself.The matron will pound you into pieces first thing Monday morning!"
Ah...one problem solved...
Monday ,it is!
What was it the counsellor told her??
Diary or a journal...
And a pen,to be her appendages 24*7...
But she'd rather hold a brush...
And not be slave to the alarm clock...
Blindly she followed the other girls out of the dorm ...she did not even realise that she was on auto pilot...she'd dressed and wore the right shoes...hallelujah!
But not the mess...she followed her nose to where the still fresh smell of turpentine lingered...
The mural...
She worried ,maybe the warden would have her expelled as she had apparently defaced school wall...
But that tree was just taking shape...
Maybe today...
She donned her smock...
That was the one thing she never forgot, and began...
The smoothness of the paint...
And its music as it walked on the canvas that was the wall...
Sometimes,she forgot that her hand was supposed to lead the brush...
But the forgeting allowed her to follow the colours...
The images danced and sang before her eyes and placed themselves in tune with the story the mural was destined to tell...
Suddenly she heard the cacophony...
The torch beams and the din...
They were taking her name...
Sunaina walked to the door of the attic and pulled it open,and called out to the general source of the noise...
What happened...
Suddenly the warden was running up...
Whack!
"What the f@#$?"
That was twice in a day...
"Where have you been all day...you never reported to the mess or to class...the entire staff has been looking for you here and in the grounds adjoining the forest ,we were now looking for the mangle remains of your body...What is this?"she whispered...the warden had never seen colours or images like this before...
Were they for real??
Was Sunaina for real...
So that was why she forgot...
The mural was breathtaking...
Suddenly she wished she could forget ...
And inhabit this unreal world...
Where time and classes and food did not matter...
And live this reality of psychedelic colours...
Maybe this was actually bliss!
To forget...and inhabit the world of colours...



This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

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One Bowl Eggless Chocolate Cake And Water and some French History

Marie Antoinette...

And all the gory details of the French revolution!

School!

And Cake!

Chocolate Cake ...
Moist and wet and dreamily yummy!
And egg less!
If you have been keeping track of my bio...you will know that I am now gainfully-as in an economically viable-y employed in a high school and that I teach history to senior school boys and girls.
Boys and girls who haven't the faintest interest in their own history...let alone the french revolution.
But then...some one has to do this dirty job...
Make the French Revolution palatable!

With chocolate cake...

Well what ever history says about Marie Antoinette and her air head comments ...about letting them eat cake...it is so not true.

But that caught their attention...30 ninth graders...

And me...

I went all out telling the stories of what all I have ever read and seen on celluloid...

And what should have taken only 15 classes took more than 22!

But the cake was not for them...

They got pearls of my wisdom-sic! 

This was in honour of general happiness...

Missing friends and trying to fit into the new staff room..the staff room that has many pure no egg eaters.

So a small offering...and a display of my prowess...that water makes for a fantastic cake too...

yes!

for the 

One Bowl Egg less Chocolate Cake And Water and some French History...

you need

3 cups plain flour

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp soda bi carb

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp vinegar

For the frosting...

One recipe chocolate fudge sauce

150 gms semi sweet chocolate

50 gms butter

sprinkles

Simple...

Grease and flour a 10 inch square cake tin...

Pre heat your oven to 175C/350F.

Sift the dry stuff twice...

And keep your wire whisk ready.

Heat the water and add the sugar to dissolve...
You need tepid...warm to the touch- water.

Once the sugar dissolves ,Add in the oil, vanilla and the vinegar.

Pour the wet into the dry and whisk batter...

And pour into the tin...
pop into the oven for 35 minutes,check only when the cake comes away from the sides...If you want to poke with a metal skewer...clean out and its done.

This is for the frosting...
I could not possibly take a naked cake to school,now could I?
This was left over chocolate...Amul Zoo chocolate...

Pretty shapes...

See the cake...clean and so shiny!Run a knife around it and invert after half an hour...

Melted chocolate in the microwave...

One recipe of my famously easy Chocolate fudge sauce...find the recipe here...

Blend in while still warm...

to get this....

Into which I added the butter...

And cooled the sauce...
Next morning...cake sliced in half...
Sauce slathered on...

Covered...and drool factor on...
Yum! Yum!

Pretty Sprinkles to make you happy...

Tupperware'd for school...

And some leftovers stashed for pics and midnight chocolate cravings..

Cravings which make you lick spoons with a dreamy look in your eyes and a satisfied smirk on your face...

Things that make you go mmmm......
Don't mind Marie Antoinette and her shenanigans...

So what are you baking today???

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Laughter and Light-WOW for blogadda again

Judged a WOW post...

The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed.

Nicholas do Chamfort

Its back again...

And I missed the first one!

So ,as I aim to please ...myself...

I'm back again!

If you could have one day repeat over and over again for the rest of your life, which day would it be? Why?

Attentiveness!

Assiduity!

Grandeur!

Prepping sweet child for a spellathon!

And wondering about what to cook for dinner...

Ever wonder that the most difficult job on the surface of this earth is that of a woman?

You are called a home maker work like unpaid bonded labour...only to be repaid with abundant love...as if that ever filled some body's tummy!

So one tends to wonder...

About the delightful days of youth...not that I will ever grow old!

No sir, I do not believe in aging...

I will be 23 till I turn 50!

The delightful days of youth ,spent under the aegis of the of the PARENTS,Inc.

And a fellow linguist...sweet sister Jiya!

One evening that I could have repeat over and over,I'm sure that my partner in crime(actually,I took real advantage of the fact that I was elder ...)will agree...

Daddy dear is sometimes short tempered...

I'm sure many have faced the same situation in their respective woefully short childhoods...

Our daddy dear is certainly one with a short fuse!

At least he was once upon a time,when all men are apt to be angry young men!
As days go...that day was fairly uneventful...
Boring even...
General verbal sparring like two cats ...
Totally normal for us two kittens...
Only apparently daddy dear was simmering...
And then the giggles started...generally post midnight...
With racy novels and comics to keep us company...
One giggle and then the laughter exploded...
Sweet mom slept on,with nary a care...
But as the guffaws grew more hysterical and feet began thumping on the ground...with tears and tummy aches and stitches in our sides to keep the footwork company...
When one of us started banging on the wall while laughing...I don't remember..
Suddenly ...
Daddy dear peers from a crack in the doorway...
With his trade mark "dirty look"...
And then there was darkness...
With a threat!
"You girls don't deserve any light!"
The connection to the room had been severed...
And we still laughed...
And we laugh about it regularly...
With veiled innuendos...
That was the one day I wish remains unending...
The laughter that keeps us going...
And the memories of being carefree and happy and gay!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

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Of WaterMelon Margaritas and the trails of the Balls

Summer is here and how...

I am beginning to realise the gravity of my actions...
Gravity...
That makes your morale sag right down to your ankles at the end of the day...
School...
It should read ,School??
Why?
Because...at the end of the day,I realise that its not so easy anymore.
I went back to school because I missed the energy...
Never realised that it will take so much more to keep up..
But my favourite word now is Whatever!
And those who have had the pleasure of being part of my math classes know...how much fun they are...
Some one's got to say it!
So, at the end of the day...gravity or no...my morale is flying high!
Thanks to the ubiquitous watermelons...

But do we eat them??
No ...
We drink them...
Ball them first ...Some has to have the balls to do it??
Make the margarita...
That is!

Watermelon tastes best with another of my favourites...
Green Apple Triple Distilled from Smirnoff!
Dunked and drenched!

Without further ado...welcoming the summer and the sun kissed fruit!

Of Watermelon Margaritas and the trails of the Balls

you need (to serve 2)

500 mils fresh watermelon juice-strained
2 tsp honey
juice of 3 lemons
45 mils Green Apple Triple Distilled from Smirnoff
balls made with the melon baller
wedges of lemons
fresh mint leaves
Crushed ice
a dash of Tabasco

Ball the melon...

The rest..use!
If you are making the juice yourself,just dump roughly chopped watermelon ,seeds and all, with the mint leaves and honey into the blender jar.

Whiz,till the fruit is totally juiced.
Strain out into a cold bowl, remove the seed residue...If you get the white bits of the seeds...no worries you are only  increasing the health quotient of your drink!
Yes ,healthy seeds!

Now, add some ice, and the lemon juice to the bottom of the glass...
Pour over the watermelon juice...
Now half the vodka...
And the dash of Tabasco...
Voila..
Ready to kiss summer hello...
The remaining balls I added to the Green Apple Triple Distilled from Smirnoff in a shot glass...

And the shot!

Instant chills...
I don't like to dilute my drink...
So I don't add the ice...

Cheers!

And, this was to keep the heat at bay while I baked this fudge laden decadent,egg free low cal super soft cake for my colleagues in school!!!!!

So what are you baking today???

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