5 Things I Wish Happened Today !

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I usually depend on my pictures to inspire posts! I take random pictures of things i find interesting as a reminder to blog about !

but today, in the words of my sister-in-law and friends, is a “Blah” day! And this picture perfectly goes with it!

And so to break the ‘Blah’ -ness of the day ( is the word growing on you? ) I tell you 5 things that i wish happened today

 

1) If there would be a rainstorm in Abu – Dhabi and the parched leaves would turn green, the cracked patches of land wet and smell beautiful, and the dusty cars on the street would be washed beautiful again.

2) If there was a party i could go to : where i could then plan what to wear, how to dress, painstakingly draw my eyes and smile a lot at myself in the mirror ( this is huge for me, because i really am not a dress up person)

3) If the husband would surprise me. : it doesn’t have to be a BIG surprise, lets just say a bar of my fav candy

4) If i could have the time to make that bread recipe i have been dying to make for many weeks now

5) If someone could push me off an emotional cliff. I know this is a horrible thing to wish for, but i think i need to laugh my guts out, or cry my eyes out, these usually give me the opportunity to learn something new about myself

 

And so if you have a joke, an interesting fact, a party that you want to invite me to, call me up!

Until the ‘Blah’ ends and chatter begins !

Monthly Mingle – Oeufs en Cocotte

 

Hello People!

 

No, i haven’t been away, it is only the turning of the earth that  has given you the illusion that time has passed, when i have been right here all along :) !

To go on, after much self-motivation and a lot coaxing from the beautiful Food maestros on twitter, i have participated in the Monthly Mingle -> Link Hosted by Jamie Schler Who blogs on Life’s A Feast an created by Meeta of What’s For Lunch !

 

The Theme Is France!

When The Husband and I lived in london, we had been to Paris a few times with family, and on our own as well, one of our cousins is completely in love with the city, and said she could smell the romance in the air, Unfortunately, our romance sniffing organ must have been on holiday in paris. We loved the noise, and busy streets, the amazing food, but the city of love, was never that for us.

Because we detest shopping, our highlights are  (the same as all our holidays) Food! The rarity of french restaurants in Abu Dhabi, forget ‘good’ french restaurants has made me forget the taste of the painstakingly prepared plates of art.

When i read the Monthly Mingle my love for the small baked bundles of heaven filled with custard and topped with chocolates jumped into my head! Eclairs ! for the first two years of my university, my breakfast was an eclair and a cup of hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts. Though the time has passed, my love for eclairs has not diminished. And so i set out to make eclairs, and i tried, four times, and failed all four times.

Dejected and depressed, i scourged You Tube for an-easy french recipe, and i stumbled on to Laura Calder‘s Videos.
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I think she is beautiful dynamic and makes complicated recipes sounds so simple, And one of her recipe vidoes showed me how to make a simple breakfast dish with amazing versatility for my fussy family that involved using Le Creueset pots that i got when i was in London.

 

Oeufs en Cocotte, or eggs en cocotte is a french dish that involves baking eggs in cream. I have adopted her recipe a little bit as per my taste and availability of ingredients!

Ingredients

40gm of butter

1 Egg per ramekin

Freshly milled salt and pepper to season

1 Tsp of Crème fraiche/ ramekin

1 Slice of bread / ramekin cut into vertical slices

Flavourings :

50gm of Smoked Salmon

25gm of Blue cheese

2 sprigs Parsley

50 gm of cut up chicken franks

Dill for decoration

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

In each ramekin, put the flavourings in the bottom.

Break an egg on top of each flavouring careful not to break the yolk

Season with salt and pepper

Add a tsp of Crème fraiche on top of the egg white

Sprinkle some chopped Dill on top for more flavour

Bake the cocottes in a bain marie ( water bath) in the preheated oven for 15 min for runny and 18 min for a more firm egg.

Toast some bread in a pan or a toaster, spread some button on the bread

Serve Warm.

 

When the Crème fraiche melts, it spreads and combines with the seasonings and egg to create a beautiful picture.

It was easy and fun to do this recipe. I made the Veggie one for Adeeb because he avoids meat in the morning. The chicken for my sister in law, and smoked salmon for Ayaan and the Blue cheese for myself ofcourse :D

Until the Eggs are baked and the yolks colour your day !

International Women’s Day

 

 

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On International Women’s Day, i am going to slightly adapt a speech i gave yesterday !

For all i that i am, and for all that i have become this is my thank you :

 

Margret Thatcher said : “Being powerful is like being a lady, if you have to say it, you aren’t it” and for me being a lady is being powerful


Thankyou to my dad who gave me wings ( to dream and to soar)

Mom for giving me roots, always keeping me grounded

To my sisters for being my guidebook to life, for being my worst critics, and my best friends

Thankyou to my in laws. My father in law who has always been there for me, my sister-in-laws, the kind i know everyone wishes for, but is rarely lucky to have.


Thankyou to my teachers, for making me the woman i am today

My friends for always believing in me

The Fia for pushing me to put good food out on the table

Thankyou to everyone i work with, if i am being recognised today, its your fault


Finally to the men who work the hardest to make me a better woman :

My son, who pushes me everyday to be a better a person, a better woman and a better mother

& to My husband: nothing… nothing in my life makes sense or matters or would be possible without you.

 

Happy International Women’s Day !

Hope all you men out there do something special for all the ladies in your life !

 

Until the show is over and the fat lady sings.

 

 

Murder Mysteries – The Mentalist Review

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I am a book person. Fact Of Life.

It has to be an incredible something if it has to keep me in front of a television for more than an hour. Though not to slur tv-shows ( thought i wouldn’t mind slurring a few incredibly stupid, “insult to common-sense” hindi dramas) but i am very picky about them.

I love a good comedy, and it would keep me in my seat for a while. I also love sic-fi, and as amazing as this may sound, i actually watched the entire series of Charmed during my first two months of having Ayaan ( Call it my way of dealing with sleepless nights and post natal depression)

But the PoP ( point of my post , yup.. just thought of that one) is what has me hooked on right now. My sister and brother-in-law casually happened to mention them watching this new series they loved called The Mentalist ! Those words changed the way i spent every spare moment since then. I am truly and utterly hooked.

I love murder mystery series, and this is one of the best i have seen to date. It has a little of sherlock holmes, Poirot and Houdini all mixed up in one. It starts with a murder ( not always) and how the protagonist, the INCREDIBLY GOOD LOOKING Patrick Jane ( Simon Baker) uses his powers of observation to solve who the murderer is.

The mystery of the series is kept alive by having the perfect nemesis to Patrick Jane, the evil Red John. The stories are well told, the mysteries are real and interesting and it keeps you guessing who the killer is. Just when you think you know who it is, nop, its not him/her.

So this is now how i spend my days. Now how do i spend my nights you ask? i keep going from murder mystery series to my Agatha Christie Murder msytery books. I have always loved her work, and when i want to relax, not think, when i want to numb my mind, and just read a good story, I download an Agatha Christie on my iPad Kindle.

With watching Mentalist in the day, and reading Agatha Christie at night, i am dreaming murder mysteries at this point. But oh how i LOVE it!

Until the murderer is caught, and the mystery is solved

To Cook for Calm

Orange Cake

Cooking is very therapeutic for me. In the words from the movie Julie & Julia, “I love that after a day when nothing is sure, and when i say ‘nothing’ I mean nothing, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick”

The pertinacious and calm actions of slowly measuring the flour, adding sugar, the flavours, the smells, the soft music i play in the background, Ayaan running in to have taste and then running out again, Ayaan pressing his nose against the oven door wondering when the cake’s going to be done, having a slice with my afternoon tea, knowing fully well how that orange cake that just melts in my mouth came to be. Bliss

 

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Recipe for Orange cake from ->  All Recipes 

 

Until the oven bell rings, and the smell of fresh baked cake wafts around the house !