LCTP

Lemon Cake Top Pudding- For as long as I can remember, we've called it LCTP. My Mum said its one of the easiest and most rewarding dessert recipes. She said years ago, just after she got married, she made trays upon trays of this for over 100 people. 

Small Joys

A few years ago, I uploaded some of my poems (I think it was my Dad who told me about such sites) onto a few sites for writers and poets. Just a few of them, that I thought stood out slightly out of all my poems. I posted three that I wrote when I was in 11th and 12th- they're here on the blog too.

Today I was trying to remember which sites I had posted them onto, having not opened them since I posted the poems. I opened up my profile on PoemHunter and had comments that I never saw. Aren't these kind of sites supposed to send me emails when I get comments? 

Then I opened up my profile on VoicesNet- more comments and rates and lots of views over the past few years. 3 people even shared it on Facebook. Where? When?

Then I found something even better. The month I uploaded 'Reason for Writing', it was given 2nd place in the July 2009 Monthly VoicesNet.com Writers Contest- Read here. Yay! I am so excited, even though it's been two years since I posted it and 5 years since I wrote it.

I can't remember if I've put poems on any other site. But this is enough excitement for now. 

:) I think I am inspired to write poems again.

It spoke to me.

I was doing my routine blog jumping. I came across this from HelloJenuine and it spoke to me.


I want this printed and framed for my kitchen (when I have my own house and my own kitchen)


I just had to share this.

And I found this on Gemma Correls site and laughed and laughed. Then I opened the image again and laughed again. 

Great blogs. Great artists. :) 

Baked Vegetable Crêpes

Finally something new instead of the usual Indian and Italian.


My Mum was spending time with her favourite hobby- reading recipe books. But today, hobby became something productive, and we actually made something.


Taken from a Parragon published, 'the best ever Vegetarian' and adapted based on what veggies we had in the fridge and what seasoning we felt like using. (I can't find the chef's/authors name anywhere on the book).


So, here goes-

"It's showtime!"

"Life is the most spectacular show on Earth"- Sarah Gruen

It's been a while since I read a book; quite shameful. But I picked 'Water for Elephants' off my Mum's bookshelf, because I wanted to read it before I watched the movie. It was a pretty easy read and managed to finish it in a day. I had a cold that day and felt quite miserable, so I stayed in bed with the book and a few cups of lemon and honey tea. 


It was quite an exciting book. The functioning of a circus troop in the 1930's was definitely a fresh read. She (Sarah Gruen) used a similar concept to the Nicholas Sparks movie, The Notebook, with a alternating past and present narrative. I liked this contrast- cold, white, nursing home to the colourful energy of the circus.

Italian Omelette

My Mum made the most fabulous omelette for me today. It was a three egg one. Was so stuffed. That was my protein quota for the week.


So I made one for my brother in the evening. Similar, but not the same. Still tasted good. 


Fry half a chopped onion and 2 cloves of chopped garlic in 2 tsps of butter and a little bit of oil because butter burns easily. Add 6 chopped mushrooms. Fry well. Add salt, pepper, finely chopped rosemary. Chop about 1 tbsp worth of sun dried tomatoes and add that along with 1 tsp of oil from the sun dried tomato bottle. Beat together 2 eggs and 1tbsp of cream. Evenly spread the mixture in the pan and pour over the eggs.

Add small chunks/grated cheese to the top. Lower fire and cover pan. When there isn't much runnyness left, carefully fold in half or flip. 
Note: I tried flipping today. Didn't work. It kind of fell apart, so I folded what was left of it. Hence not a perfect picture


Cook for another minute or 2. Careful not to burn it. Serve with buttered toast and a wee bit of ketchup. 

Photo Shoot! :P

Me and my bored narcissistic self. I like this camera. :)

Of Pins and Other Things.

Most people collect at least one thing, often subconsciously. I don't know anyone who lives minimalistically with zero clutter and empty cupboards. People collect what they enjoy like collections of music, postcards, shoes, etc.


Then there are those mad mad collectors. I visited one of my Mum's friends years ago who collected stuffed animals and her house was like a still life zoo. She was a bit extreme. My piano teacher's wife collected antique plates. They were all over the house. I wonder what happened when little hyper children visited their home. I've seen numerous sites of collectors who collect absolute anything from teapots, letters,  McDonald happy meal toys, and even- this is just gross- naval fluff! And I found this blog of someone who just collects everything.


There are no shortage of collectors in my family. My mum has a huge owl collection. If you've ever visited my house, you'll see them everywhere. My aunt collects spoons and miniature tea sets. My grandmother has a collection of airlines cutlery (before they started giving out plastic ones). We have a few of her extras in our kitchen. There are others with key chains, bookmarks, pens, pencils, coins, stamps, art, etc. My other grandmother is a huge collector. She has stones, shells, feathers, stamps, bizarre newspaper cutouts, and probably other collections that I don't know of. 


Then there's me. I don't want to be a collector. I don't want to end up with 100 owls in my house or too much of anything, so when I was about 8 and my parents said its a nice hobby to collect something, I chose to collect pins/badges. It was easy and affordable. Most of the souvenir shops in the places we visited sold pins. And they are small and easy to keep. I also like cats. At one point, I liked cats more than I do now, so people gave me a lot of cat things. But thankfully no one does anymore. So, I don't count that as a collection.

Tri-colour Salad

I'm opting to name my food according to their colours. Can't think of any fancy names right now. 


Tri-colour Salad- Red, green and white- also the colours of the Italian flag :)

(I am not going to mention any quantities. I don't think I have measured anything for a salad)


Wash and pat dry lettuce. I've used an assortment of lettuce- green, darker green and purplish (bought at Namdhari's Fresh). Half cherry tomatoes and quarter bocconcini mozzarella (tiny baby mozzarella). This is bought from Metro- Comes in a tub. It's very fresh and very good quality and I think the price is totally worth it. It doesn't last too long in the fridge, so have salad every other day till it gets over. Add chopped up pecans/walnuts.

Dressing- In a small bottle- olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, grated garlic and mustard. Close bottle and shake away! Again, sorry about not being able to measure quantities. 


Add dressing and toss up the salad.

Green+White

This pasta has no particular name. Its spaghetti with green beans, potatoes in a pesto sauce. It's quite a well known combination, so I'm surprised that I couldn't find a name. But there must be some fancy Italian term for it. 

I was in charge of lunch today. It was very very last minute. Mum was busy in the hospital and we came back from church starving. So, I raided the fridge and made this. It was only after I finished cooking, that I found some pain tomato pasta sauce in the fridge, which would have shortened the cooking time if I had found it earlier. Oh well!


So. This, I think is one of my all time favourites. It was the first time I made it and turned out a bit different to my Mother's.


Boil/pressure cook 4 potatoes. If you can get new potatoes (the small ones with thin skin) even better, but they're a headache to peal if the skin is not thin enough to leave on! Chop 250g of green beans into roughly 3inch lengths. Harricot beans are best to use, but today we only had French beans- ok, but usually not as tender and tasty. Plus you have to string them. Boil for a few minutes till tender, or put into water and in the microwave for about 8 minutes. Make sure they are tender; nothing like chewy hard beans.

In a pan, add 3 tbsps of olive oil. Fry one chopped onion and 6 cloves of chopped garlic. Add 2 tsps of dried sage, 1/2 tsp of pepper and salt to taste (I keep saying 'to taste' because I am so bad at putting the right amount. Always too little or way too much!!)  Fry till nicely brown. Add 5 tbsps of pesto. I usually use homemade, but there wasn't any. Second option would be bought basil pesto, but there wasn't any. Found a bottle of rocket pesto- Good, but not as good as basil pesto. Also add half a tub (100g) of cream cheese. This is the first time we've ever bought it here- Brittania processed cream cheese. Its not cheap. I didn't expect it to be so thick. Was expecting it to be more like creme fraiche. Also add 200ml of milk, since it was a bit thick. Stir away till it's a nice creamy sauce.


Lastly add chopped up boiled potatoes and beans. Mix well and serve with spaghetti and some shavings of Parmesan.


Variation:
This is how my Mum makes it. I didn't know till after I finished.
-Add the boiled potatoes and beans and fry with the onions and garlic mixture. If at all, mine was the healthier option! 
-Use only pesto and a bit of water as the sauce. She doesn't use the cream and milk. I guess, maybe mine wasn't the healthier one.


Either way, both taste good. :)

September 2011
I went out to Toscanos a few weeks ago. (click for their menu) I was so excited when I saw that a pasta with green beans and potatoes in a pesto sauce had an Italian name. So what I made should be titled Pesto Rinforzato Spaghetti.