A New Year and some food!

Should I start by apologising for the huge gap in blogging? Maybe, maybe not. It’s been an interesting start to the much talked about 2012. I’m not sure about many of you but I for one feel like the whole of 2011 just flew by without letting me know. Would I have changed much about it? Mostly not ;)but I do wish I had gotten down to doing a lot more baking and blogging. But, I don’t like looking back and so we shall look at making the most of this year!

2012 you shall see me use social media in a lot better way, use as much public transport as possible and try to reduce my carbon print one day at a time, do more knitting and crocheting and reading more too.

I got some really interesting presents these holidays… A beautiful collection of candle stands – something my bff and I were looking at online one day… Some elegant whiteware which is soooo her and a gadget that is super fun to use. I have bookmarked  a mocha Frappuccino recipe for (R)oomie  so I can put all the good stuff to use! (R)oomie gifted me an awesome vacation and I still haven’t gotten over the hangover.

On and we got to see some new places, revisit some old places and I got to click some amazing pictures.

Before I start out on food I’d like to share a few of my favourite captures from all over the place. It’s amazing how you get to hear about places that are not on the top ten places to visit list from total strangers. And when you start exploring you ultimately end up relating with the food you get there(I speak for food bloggers)

As vegetarians or lacto-ovo vegetarians to be specific food becomes an integral part of vacation planning. We either carry food along with us or bookmark all the local vegetarian options we have. I am not a big fan of places such as Mc Donalds, Burger King though I do like the veggie omelette at Denny’s and so I like to visit the not so talked about local food places and end up getting them to make me something vegetarian saying I’ll have that but without the meat. I mostly end up getting this look because the dish is probably known for all the meat in it and they actually find it crazy to actually make something without it.

6 months ago I was part of a reunion and I extended that stay by visiting my ex-colleagues and roomie. There I was treated to pasta at a place called Noodles and Company. I was bowled over! So many many vegetarian choices and absolutely delish. All the dishes can be altered to suit the palate of a meat lover too. They also have thai, japanese, italian based dishes.

That’s Thai Curry soup, Pesto Cavatappi(my order) and Pad Thai.

I recommend this place to anyone who loves noodles, pasta , heck anyone and everyone coz they have salads and sandwiches too!

The next place that left a mark was this beautiful Buddhist temple called the Hsi Lai temple. So what really happened was that (R)oomie came over to pick me up after my parlour visit and it happened to take a bit longer so he got talking to the lady there and she mentioned that she was a Buddhist and that she visits this place. He got all the details and one fine sunday just surprised me with a trip to this place. We got lucky the 1st time we went there because there was a special prayer going on that week. We tasted some pretty interesting Buddhist cuisine which btw has stolen (R)oomie’s heart stomach! We also luckily got to see and taste this interesting ‘open baked pancake with stuffing’ kinda thing. I got some herbal tea for myself and stayed far away from the gift shop because it was super expensive. This place has a museum which you can visit for $1 (How many places can make such a claim these days) and they always have some interesting celebration going on. Buddhism classes, Chanting, yoga, Art gallery, library, Meditation. Parking is free too!

A few glimpses:

The 1st entrance…

The 2nd Entrance inside which no photography is allowed.

A shot from the bottom…

The pancake thingies I spoke of earlier

These cute stone sculptures are all over the place!!

We also went back to visit Catalina Island. We visited the place before marriage and I somehow fell in love with it… I have been pestering (R)oomie to take me back for sometime now and so we made it our 1st priority this winter. I do have to tell you though that it’s the dullest time of the year and its not tourist season but given that we wanted to have a quiet time - just the 2 of us it was perfect. Most of the tourist activities were shut down for obvious reasons. And as the day came to an end it got really cold but we ended it in a cozy place with some yummilicious pizza!

A few glimpses…

My friends told me that this reminded them of Goa…

If you have been to Kerala this would probably remind you of the place!

A 2 mile walk later and many many cacti later we reached the Wrigley’s memorial(Yes, as in the Wrigley’s chewing gum guy)

The last time we were here we went to this restaurant which served up so much cheese that we nearly drowned in it.

A deserted club

The museum, theater with one screen and just one movie per week and pretty much the only source of entertainment for the locals…

We walked a lot!

and some more…

before we landed up here for some peanut throwing and…

Pizzaaaaaa!!!

Okay… I’m going to end this post now cause I know it’s already very photo heavy and probably post some more later but I sure hope you all are having a fabulous time out there… Make sure you smile and keep enjoying life…

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Eggless Sugar Cookies:

This post might contradict the previous post about going grainfree but I did mention that we do treat ourselves to an occasional parleG or marie biscuit(lets be nice and add an odd cookie to that mix,ok?)

Needless to say when I first thought of baking cookies I did a whole lot of searching and finally settled on Amanda’s sugar cookie and icing recipes. All the decorating ideas inspiration came from various sources - some of them being Bridget of bakeat350, Amanda of iambaker and Pinterest and cookieartisan’s flickr photostream !!! Each and everyone are unique and oh so beautiful!

While I do enjoy blog hopping and recipe favoriting(it’s not even a word), pinning and repinning(that’s not a word either) what I also like doing is, baking. I like trying out those absolutely amazing recipes and sharing it with everyone around me. I love the concept of baking because of all the sometimes simple and sometimes intricate pre-baking activities involved and watching the final product evolve to perfection under high heat away from the inquisitive eye. It has also made consuming vegetables so much easier for me.

Take today for example - I made one of my previous recipe but with a new twist - I put in more and different veggies, added almond meal and grated carrots instead of all purpose flour, minus the pasta(to add the grainfree aspect) and I finally realized that I was actually combining my vegetable parmesan pasta cake with the veggie cupcake and it was pretty good!

Goal reached - grainfree.

Taste - not compromised.

Cook’s state of mind - Happy Yappy

With all the above theory what I’m trying to get at is that the ingredients in your pantry are merely tools that you can choose to create anything you like. So the last 2 times I baked the Sugar cookies I couldn’t share them with (r)oomie even for the taste session and that made me sad. So I decided that the next time I baked cookies they’d be eggless. Now all I needed to do was find the right substitute. If you google it you’ll find many many substitutes but I wanted one that wouldn’t influence the taste, flavour, structure or texture. I decided on the Buttermilk substitute. It works great as you will see when you try it and it does not affect the smell/texture in noticeable anyway. If you do happen to try it out - do let me know your thoughts and feedback. We can work on how to make it better and I’m always open for more ideas.

Eggless Sugar Cookies for the Man of the home ;)

What you will need:

Flour - 3 Cups(I used 2 initially and when I started mixing the ingredients realized that I needed 1 whole cup extra for the right dough consistency. I had an email exchange with Amanda asking her for help when my dough consistency wasn’t right the 1st time and she replied saying “Add more flour!!  Depending on the humidity, I have had to add as much a a cup and a half more flour to get the desired consistency.  Hope that helps!”)

Baking Powder - 1 Tsp

Baking Soda - 1Tsp

Salt - 1/8th Tsp

Unsalted Butter - 1 Cup(at room temperature)

Brown sugar - 1 Cup(You can use any kind of sugar you like and vary the quantity depending on how sweet you like the cookie to be. I prefer less sweet because of all the icing that’s going to be on it.)

Pure Vanilla extract - 1/2 Tsp(or maybe even less if you don’t like too much vanilla flavour.)

**Milk – 1 Cup less 1 tablespoon (I used low fat organic milk. You can use whole milk too if you like)

**White Vinegar – 1 Tbsp (btw white vinegar isn’t white - its transparent #JustMakingAnObservation)

Add the **White Vinegar to the **Milk and keep aside for about 5 minutes. You’ll notice that the milk has curdled and this is the Buttermilk Substitute which in turn is an Egg substitute.

Instruments:

Electric hand mixer

Plastic food wrap

Baking tray

Parchment paper – optional

Silpat – optional

Cookie cutters

Rolling pin

All purpose flour for dusting the cookie cutters 

Dough Prep Procedure:

·         Pre-heat your oven to 350 F at least ½ before you are ready to bake. I usually turn it on when I put the cookie dough in the fridge because my oven takes time to heat up.

·         Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a bowl.

·         In a separate glass bowl cream the butter and sugar until fluffy – I used an electric hand mixer on low and medium for about 3-4 minutes.

·         Add the Vanilla extract and beat for a minute to combine.

·         Now add the Buttermilk substitute and continue mixing on low. You will notice the mix looking all weird like crumbled cheese and separated water – Don’t worry – you didn’t do anything wrong.

·         Add the sifted flour mix in 2-3 batches and mix on low and speed to medium. The dough will be slightly sticky and so it might be a little too much for the hand mixer to handle. Be careful not to overmix.

·         Once you get the mix to a doughy consistency, I suggest that you use your hand to gently knead the mixture to form a ball. Slightly flatten it to form a disc shape and wrap it in plastic food wrap and put it in the fridge for about an hour to overnight or maybe a whole day even!

Tips:

The cooler your cookie dough when it goes into the oven the less your cookie will spread.

Also placing it in the fridge to rest will help the gluten to relax and your cookie will not be all rubbery.

Placing your dough in the fridge also makes the dough firmer – making it easy to handle and gives the dough enough time to absorb all the flavours.

On that note Rosie of Sweetapolita has some awesome cookie baking tips.

Once you are ready to start baking make sure your oven is pre heated. If not turn it on NOW! And take out the dough from the fridge and unwrap it.

Prepare your baking trap by lining it with parchment paper or silpat.

Clean up some space on your kitchen counter and dust it with some flour. Place the disc shaped dough and flatten it a bit more with your hand.

Roll it out as evenly as you can. Dust the cookie cutter and start cutting out the shapes. The cookie cutter is dusted to avoid the dough from sticking to it.

Once you have your cookies on the baking tray, put it in the oven and bake at 350 F for about 10-12 minutes. The longer you bake the harder and browner it gets.

Once done, let your cookies cool completely before you start icing them.

Icing:

I followed Amanda’s icing recipe except for the fact that I used Wilton’s gel colouring. I had a small email exchange with Bridget this morning about the taste factor and she suggested that the difference in taste could be because of the brand. I am looking at switching to Americolor next time.

You can decorate it any way you like and I have used the detailed tips from Bridget.

I usually do the outline of all the cookies first and then the flooding and finally any little detailing I can manage. Also I followed this mess free icing idea I got from Pinterest.

Catching up on Baking

That’s me cutting my 6th year birthday cake baked by my Mom(she’s in the right corner of the pic making sure I don’t hurt myself), wearing a dress she stitched for me. I still have the chair I’m sitting on though I don’t fit on it anymore :) This year I celebrated my 28th birthday away from her and I missed her terribly. This was also my 1st Bday with (r)oomie so its got that bittersweet feel to it. :)

It’s also been a while since I got back to blogging - can’t believe that the last I actually blogged about food was in August for (r)oomie’s bday!!! Life sometimes does that to  you – it flies by so fast leaving you to wonder why you didn’t catch up with it. Google+ seems to have caught on, facebook is making tons of changes, the Govt is trying to control the internet and I’ve finally gotten some time to get back to baking. And because of the long break, this post is going to be super uber long. You have been warned!

We’ve made a few changes to our eating habits. We gave up rice – 100%(Well, it’s been 3 weeks now). We almost gave up all other grains too except for the odd parle-g/marie biscuit we treat ourselves to once a day. So well, what do we eat instead? – Samo seeds/Moraiyo/Vari Tandool/ varyache tandul/ bhagar . It is quick to cook and the quantity required is very less compared to the regular rice/chapatti.

We have noticed that the craving for rice/chapatti and other grains have reduced drastically since we started on Samo. I’m not sure how long we will continue with it but as long as it doesn’t do us any harm, why not? I do get a craving for Pasta once in a while though and at such times I go with the flow - I don’t like to deny myself of anything :) An added plus is that it is Glutenfree!

On and I finally found one source that describes Samo a little more in detail here and some more here

An excerpt:

“One such food is known here in Marathi as Vari Tandul, Bhagar or Kodri. It is the seed of a grass  ( Echinochloa Colonum) which frequently grows amongst the rice paddy as it requires damp, or even waterlogged, soil. Instead of removing it with weedkiller, farmers harvest it. When cooked, it makes a tasty and filling meal. Tandul means rice and though Vari is not a grain it provides the nourishment and energy that rice does. In the west it is called ‘Samo’ or ‘jungle rice’.”

I’ve come across recipes like Khichdi, Upma, Pulav, Kheer, Kadhi, Dhokla, Dosa, Soups with Samo… The easiest way to make it is to wash it and cook it with excess water(1:4 samo:water) in the microwave for about 10-12 minutes. You can add salt and ghee for taste.

On that note I’ve been making ghee at home for sometime now. Apart from cooking I also use it to light the lamp everyday. I’d love to share the recipe with you but I honestly feel this post by Lakshmi from Purevege does it perfect justice!

A few weeks ago our friends dropped by for dinner and shared with us this unique treat called Turkish delights or Locoums/Lokums. I loved almost all the flavours they had to offer. These are perfect gifts to take home to anyone with a sweet tooth– I have them on my list. They were also suspiciously close to Kerala style Halwa - texture wise.

We also got to contribute to a wine and cheese party for the 1st time ever! I’m the wine “connoisseur”(not) of the family so I reached out to Sala and got a ton of help from her via twitter and finally got our act together. Everyone loved the cheese – can’t say the same about the wine. Since it was a day time event people preferred the white wine to the red which made me sad for some reason. After this party I totally got into the wine and cheese mood and got a pinterest board fully dedicated to it.

I also finally figured out a way to bake eggless cookies so I could share them with (r)oomie!(when we go off of being grainfree) Yay! Will put up the recipe soon. Meanwhile all my friends are having babies and so I decided to bake cookies for one of them. I’m super proud of these cookies because I managed to find a balance with the ingredients and an amazingly mess free way to do the icing. Once again thank you Pinterest! I have so much more to learn about icing though. You’ll notice the boo-boos in a bit. I also dedicated 2 cookies to Dude who celebrated his birthday on Oct 25th!

I just cannot bring myself to eat/break these! :)

It’s holiday season!!! I had to redo the red icing because of a taste issue.

 

I love how soft and white these cookies have come out though I used brown sugar.

Spot the frocks I tried to freehand for the new mommy. :)


Oh and we had a really cozy Thanksgiving this year.


And a really awesome guiltfree/caloriefree cake on my birthday!


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Christmas time has some special memories since childhood for me. We make sure we celebrate in some small way every year. Last year was extra special because I just made it back from my trip to India and (R)oomie had the home all decorated and cozy. His favourite is the fruitcake we get in India during this time and I had made sure I got him some(which you can see in here).

Some time back - almost 3 months ago Ria had put up a post about doing giveaways once a month. I found the whole idea super sweet and we had a small conversation on twitter and I wanted to be a part of it . We decided on a time closer to Christmas time!

It’s something I totally enjoyed making and I was inspired to make it, thanks to pinterest and Heidi! I’m still a little slow with the hook but I’m getting there. Please do stop by at Ria’s place to participate and maybe get lucky and win some of her home cooked goodies too!

Happy Holidays way, way in advance peepal!

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I play a grim reaper who has to keep her identity hidden on Halloween. My character is George from ‘Dead Like Me’ one of my favourite TV Series!Happy Halloween everyone! Stay Spooky!

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Khub meete meete pakwan khaye,
sehat me char chand lagaye,
log to sirf chand par gaye hai
aap us se bhi upar jaye,
Diwali par hamari yahi hai shubhkamnaye

<Source>

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Some experiences are meant to be shared and some are not. This one definitely is. For the past week or so we kept hearing a screeching kind of noise coming from the rear wheels. We assumed it needed a complete check-up and so over the weekend booked an appointment with PepBoys. We went to the Pepboys on a Saturday and booked an appointment for the next day. The guy who took a look at the car said that the tires seemed fine and also that the noise was probably the sensor going off.

I for one, dislike being late for an appointment so we were dot on time. When we walked in we were told that a Tire Rotation and Brake Inspection would take an hour and a half to start as they had other work going on. We informed them about our appointment and that we were told that we would be the first ones they would start working on. Very reluctantly he agreed to fill out the forms and start working on the car. The whole process took about 2 hours and we were finally informed that we would need to get all our tires replaced with brand new tires and also change the front rotors and brake-pads. While we were there we let them know that we felt one of the tires was losing air and were informed that there was a nail lodged in one for the front tires. They did us the ‘favour’ of moving the tire with the nail to the rear end.

The quote finally showed up a total of $853 including labour and taxes which included a change of 4 tires, change of front rotors and brake pads. We were aghast that a relatively new(2007) car which has only 26000 miles on it would need a change of tires? Also a lot of googling later we were pretty sure that the tires would start wearing out in like 10 years with a lot of miles on it! Given that the only driving this lil dude was used to was home-office-home we were sure that something was amiss. The guy at the counter was very reluctant to answer questions regarding the tire type, tire cost, alternative options etc. When we requested for a quote again he seemed to be angry at having to redo the quote(print it out) though he had our details on the system. We were also told that the job would take an entire day. All this happened on a Sunday.

I rarely complain about service providers but this just had to be noted. Also if you go on the yelp site for reviews - most of the reviews will tell you the same thing and I regrest not having checked their review in advance. Lesson learnt.

The next day the home-office-home drive was a lot more noisier than before and so we decided it needed to be repaired right away. We called up the Pepboys hot-line to re-confirm the prices and then scheduled an appointment at the Honda service center. We also spoke to them to get an estimate on the prices. Before driving down to the Honda service center we on a whim decided to give the local auto repair shop a try.

We walked into J and M Auto and were greeted by Michael who welcomed us and heard us out in detail. He asked us questions like ‘where is the sound coming from?’ ‘What does it sound like?’ ‘How many days has it been this way?’. He then took a quick ride in it to confirm the issue and he also took a look at the tires and gave us his opinion.

He said it was very rare that a car would have an issue with its rear brake pads. A car would normally run through 2 of the front brake-pads before it needs a rear brake-pad change. He also ran us through his computer where in he showed us the possible complications - How there might be a brake caliper replacement required, How there might be a rotor change required and how much each of it would cost. His labour was fixed no matter what the work involved. He was also quick to run us through what might be an issue and how he would go about replacing the new parts. A quick tour of the car and he informed us how to identify if a tire required a change and told us that the tires were perfect and required no change.

We were then told that it would take about an hour to complete the whole job. I asked Michael if I could watch him work and he readily agreed. I also asked him permission to record while he worked and he said ‘go ahead’.

The moment he looked at the brake-pads he told me that he knew what had happened. We had driven with the hand brake ON. And I knew that was true because it happened once. I was not completely convinced and asked Michael if just once was enough and he said ’ Yes’. So another lesson learnt!

He also checked all the tires and found that one tire had a nail in it BUT, wait for it, it was just stuck in one of the ridges - It was NOT IN the tire and so the tires were FINE!!! NO change of tire required and NO tire repair required and certainly NO replacement of tires at all!

If you take a look at the video the brake pad change took about 15 minutes for one and then he checked all the tires and also got rid of the stuck nail with a single pry and then he checked the air pressure in all the tires to make sure they were good and not losing any air. Fun part was, he let me do it because I wanted to.

Observe that during the video he was constantly conversing and answering all the questions I was asking and yet was focusing very well on the job at hand.

Also at the end of replacing the brake-pads he demonstrated and said ”Before you start your car make sure you sit in the drivers seat and press on the brake real hard and make sure it goes all the way. This is a must because if this is not done and if you apply the brakes for the first time later on the brakes won’t work n the car will continue to move ahead and you definitely don’t want that happening”

The attached video has me capturing Michael at work on the left rear brake pad. He uses specific tools for performing some of the tasks and

Disclaimer: This video is NOT a ‘How to replace brake-pads myself’ tutorial. I will not take any responsibility for any damage that occurs to any person or property if you follow this video. The procedure has been performed by a certified professional. I took the video for personal reasons with the permission of the person in the video and to share a great service experience.

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Tips!

How many of you freak out when you get new glassware and have to remove those uber sticky price tags off the bottom? And there’s a party the very next day!

I’ve tried many methods and this works best for me - plus it’s easy and I happened to think it up myself withOUT googling! Take warm water a bowl. Maybe a little more than warm but not hot.

This is the martini glass I got with the sticky pricetag.

Place it in water for 5-10 seconds. Now gently peel it away under water.

The easy peasy peeled price tag - sticky no more! YAY!

I’m not sure if it’s okay to make a post for a simple tip but I think I’m in love with these glasses! They’re best if used to eat.. ermm, serve some yummy dessert!

:D

Also do you like bite size desserts like they serve in PF Changs? I for one, wish Everyone did that. I’d be able to taste more varieties that way, no? :P Anyway that’s just me. But I did buy some tequila shot glasses just for that reason!

Not the best picture, I know, but it was taken at midnight.

Recipe?

Its whipped cream with sugar on the bottom, layered with vanilla cake and chocolate cake, sprinkled with sugar syrup and coffee decoction and topped with the whipped cream with sugar and some chocolate syrup. It’s very easy and fun!

P.S: ignore my messy fridge.

Have a great week!

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Ganesh Chathurthi

Hey yo’ll…

Id Mubarak and Happy Ganesh Chathurthi to all of you… August had a lot of Birthday celebrations Krishna(yea the Hindu God) and Balarama’s(His Brother) and (R)oomie! September brings along more celebrations and it continues to the end of the year and then again it’s welcoming the new year and many many more festivals… So happy festivities!!!

Abhi-Zee’s Ganesha just before Visarjan…

Lav’s Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations

I cannot imagine not having the amazing kheer that Mom’s friend and mine used to serve us on Eid and neither can I imagine not celebrating Christmas. There are tons of festivals I am not aware of and do not celebrate simply because I haven’t had the luck&pleasure of experiencing them…  You will however observe how I have come down to associating the my memories with the one thing I speak and write so much about - FOOD…

PB Aunty’s handmade Ganesha

We all have our favourites, dont we now? So does Ganesha - Modaks, Besan ke laddu,  Rawa Laddu, Puran Poli, Motichoor Laddu, Moong Dal ka Halwa, Karanji, Puliodarai and lot’s more… Given the size of his rotund belly, its really not surprising. Last year, for the first time I tried making a few of his favourites and they were Okay but not as great as I’d have liked them to be. This year we decided to focus more on quality and less on quantity.

So I went a little overboard and made a homemade mandir with drapings(handstitched) and a clay Idol with as realistic colours as I could get. Unlike last year when I worked on the clay using a video - this year I created mostly using my imagination, sitting all through the night… At the break of dawn, I read about the earthquake and the upcoming hurricane and I prayed that the effects not be catastrophic… But that’s another story altogether.

So here are my memories and also a few on my frds’ celebrations and with it I include a prayer for you - a prayer for peace, happiness and success in all the good that you do… And also for you all to find love and stay loved.

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A birthday cake and a few prayers

I wasn’t going to make a post for this because almost everything is readymade or atleast semi-readymade. But you asked for it and so, here it is…

What you need:

Sujata eggless cake mix(white) {Or any other cake mix of your choice and follow basic cake mix instructions}

The directions on the box suggests that you add 1&1/8 cups water and 2 Tbsp vegetable oil to the mix. I replaced the water with organic milk(1&1/2 cups) and I used canola oil. 

Butter - 2 Oz(melted)

Brown sugar - 2 Tbsp

Pineapple slices(drained) - 4 to 5 (I used canned pineapple in natural pineapple juice(not the heavy syrup) because I didn’t want it too sweet.)

Maraschino cherries - 4-5  (completely optional, I personally did not like the taste of the preserved cherries)

Heat your oven to 350 F

That’s about it! Surprised? well, I was too and then I went on a rampage looking for upside down cakes and found some beautiful recipes, the links which you will find below the recipe…

Now take the baking dish and pour the melted butter in it. Spread it around so that it coats the sides. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly on the bottom of the baking dish. You might not need 2 Tbsps so just trust your instinct with this one. I personally find brown sugar too sweet so I try and use it judiciously.

Place the pineapple slices on the melted butter and sugar mixture - in any shape you like. Decorate with the cherries in between. You can replace the cherries with pecans, walnuts or even fresh cherries if you like…

Pour the prepared cake batter over the pineapple pieces gently so that you dont disturb the base - unless you want pineapple in between instead of upside down if you know what I mean. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the toothpick comes clean. Please keep an eye on the cake because you don’t want it to over bake - this cake is supposed to be moist.

I made them into mini cakes, mini cupcakes and two 8” round cakes. In each case the bake time varied but the taste was satisfying… Also bite sizes make (r)oomie happy ;)

On a side note I have made Avalose Podi for (R)oomie - something I happened to “discover” when I was pointedly told “I LOVE Avalose Podi” and I assumed it was some kind of joke till I googled and researched and finally made and mastered{(r)oomie’s words - not mine}

I also finally conquered my fear of macarons - I made some lavender macarons with godiva fruit chocolate filling…

In other news, I also stocked up on pasta(except for the lasagna) from costco…

I end this post with a small prayer for those in danger of the hurricane threat - please be safe and hold on to your loved ones… Also with a lot of love for the ones I love…

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