Vanillastrawberryspringfields

A JULIA CHILD OMELETTE,GRILLED SHRIMPY PRAWNS aND AN AWARD I OUGHT TO B HAPPY ABOUT....W A FAIRY TALE...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:44:00 +0000

A VERY HAPPY FAIRY TALE........

A JULIA CHILD OMELETTE,GRILLED SHRIMPY PRAWNS aND AN AWARD I OUGHT TO B HAPPY ABOUT....
oK here's my second award of feb with a rather different twist....(first one will be posted in a bit)

And as i tell u a few stories or rather facts about the Award..u can drool over these GRILLED SHRIMPS marinated in a little bit of LITE SOY,OYSTER SAUCE,HONEY/SUGAR,VINEGAR,BALCK PEPPER CRUSHED,7 OLIVE OIL.
u CAN BRUSH A LITTLE BUTTER WHEN GRILLED TO TASTE ...

Now why diD i chose to feature grilled prawns too here....coz its A YEAR ON THE GRILL ...DAVE who besttoed this tittle upon me....
Grill grill grill...and we all love grilled....

Flattering and puts u on a tight spot too but dont worry am aiming,hopefully at making this an interesting read and i do so hope it is very much.....

Actually Dave(FROM THIS FAMOUS GRILL N DRILL BLOG) left me a note to be honoured about this award but it took me awhile to be 'happy' and thrilled about it....and there began my first lie..(jus kidding)but as i played along with happy i actually njoyed coming up with this.....really did and hope u do too...

What i felt about the award wasnt really interesting... though didn think of it as exaggeratn the truth.(as Joanne puts it-she confirmed my not being happy baout it fears:-))) )..not even slightly but took me awhile to be 'happy or honoured about this one but i skipped along being happyy and actually enjoyed writin the post on this....had fun and was giggling all the way thru.....

So after reading Dave's un truths was a little or rather totally lost in the big bad world in my tiny cocoon but regained composure soon enuf to write and all s left is a cook up for the post...hehehe

aND trying my best at that moment to be happy and thrilled this is what i replied to DAVE....

"HA Ha,Dave,ur riot ....a good riot....am sur honored to have someone with a blog as fantastic and rocking as ya to give me.....
I sure will take time to post this one and u'll soon know why realyy....hehehehehe...
and am hopping right about ur blog now looking for valentine recipes...well any that catches my fancy 'read easy" goes....into a valentine recipe....thanx a ton loads and congrats to u too...."
(actually was jus edging my self pushing to be honoured at this point)
Now that list is something else.....

SO HERE ARE THE RULES OF THE AWARD...

1.Thank the person who gave this to you.
2.Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3.Link to the person who nominated you.
4.Tell us up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
5.Allow your readers to guess which one or more are true.
5.Nominate seven "Creative Writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
6.Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7.Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

Am here to fall in love with love and fairy tales and dreamz and put 'em all together and we dance with delicious glee.

So let my imagination take over at this award where i came up with OUTRAGEOUS UNTRUTHS to entrtain and give ya a good laugh and take u along for a walk along a winding path covered with gems and precious stones and red poppys growning along either sides......

..................that over look and a gold line pool where peacocks breed
(the fish peacocok ,which are live bearers and give birth to baby peacocks and dont lay eggs....)

Beauty to watch em swim along and thats what u see on the right side of the path jus overlooking the poppys and in the pond next to that a few swans and ducks preen as they watch over their young.....

and on the left its the beauty of the animals that enthrall and excite....

as they look after their young and come to greet and welcome u with a nudge as u stroll by.....

Now have to list a few outrageous untruths and am trying to revolve 'em aroud truths ok ......]
and have fun guessing which ones are a yard stick close to a wee wee truth....

1)I LIVE ON A very scenic & BEAUTIFULL HILL.,A LONG DRIVE UPHILL...SURROUNDED BY WELL KEPT PINE AND FOREST TREES,WITH HARMLESS SWEET ANIMALS RUNNING ALL AROUND AND BIRDS CHIRPING BY MY WINDOW THE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING AS THE SUN RAYS ,AWAKEN ME WITH A SWEET LULL....AND SCENT .OF THE VANILLA PODS JUS RIPENING BELOW.........:-))))))

(farahniet,pleasures,dune ,flower and dot dot dot...cease to be my fav perfumes here...they pale in comparism to nature scents....)

pIP AND TOMMY,MY PET SQUIRRELS WHO ARE NOW DATING PIPPY AND JERRI respectively ....HOP ALL AROUND ME FIRST THING IN THE MORNING TOO...AND CHIP N DALE TOO.

ENJOYIN A GOLDEN SUNSET......

2)A SEA VIEW,A RIVER VIEW ,A VALLEY VIEW ,A HILLY VIEWAND PIC PERFECT SUNSET ENTHRALL ME EVRY EVENING WHILE I SIT AT OUR SIT OUT...
SIPPING ESPRESSO,HOT CHOCOLATE ,VANILLA MILK OR CHILLES PEPSI AND A PLATTER FULL OF ELICIOUS COOKIES.........and sometimes a good movie....

AND YEAH ALL MY PETS THAT SURROUND OUR HAVEN...CHAT WITH ME EVERY EVENING...........:-)))))

and even trail behind me when i walk down the sandy path to our private beach below..

3)MY GOLDEN HAIR ,FLOWS TO ANKLES AND BIRDS AND SQUIRRELS ADORN NATURAL 'FLOWERY BUDDY JEWELS' IN 'EM...AS IT DANCES TO THE MUSIC OF THE COOL BREEZE......as they comb thru it too :-))))

and THE BEES SOOTHE 2 PAMPER MY DEWY SKIN WITH HONEYMILK.....

4)I HAVE BEEN HOME SCHOOLED WITH A SYLLABUS FROM CAMBRIDGE,HAVARDS AND OXFORD(i know!!!!)

AND CHIIPY & DALE AND PIP & PIPPY PEEP FROM THE LAPTOP AS I SIT TO STUDY A BIT.....

AND AM SURE HOME COLLEGING TOO...the best of all worlds......

AND I WEAR MY SUNDAY GOWNS EVERY SUNRISE DAY...

WITH RUFFLED FRENCH LACES....

LAYERED ORGANDY....AND FLOWING BABY PINKS...AND BLUE'S TOOO.....

GET THE DRIFT???....while i sing portuguese love songs......

5)I HAVE MY OWN SWEET PERSONAL TRAINER AND LOOSE WEIGHT QUICKLY AND PUT ON TOO ...YET I DO MISS GYM CLASS SOMETIMES...though aerobics aint what i love to miss...

coz its all about dance and music and tangos and waltlz's and jives while jumping all over the place .....

NOR ARE BALLET CLASSES... TO BE MISSED.....

6)I PLAY THE MOZARTS AND BEETHOVENS ON OUR OLD GRAND GOLD PIANO ,SEATED BACKWARDS OR BLINDED WITH A SOFT SILK SCARF...........

ALWAYS ...and the normal way too....

7)YEAH ,U GUESSED RIGHT ...

I LIVE IN A CASTLE ,

A SPLENDID PALACE....

AND AM A PRINCESS....

WAITING FOR MY HANDSOME PRINCE CHARMING ....

TO COME GALLOPING THRU THE SUNSET ACROSS THE HORIZON ON A WHITE HORSE.......

If ur shocked(in a happy fairy fairy very way ie) after reading this please scroll a bit up and learn the 'outrageous un truths ' about this award....

and guess which one is correct here.....

if ur giggling with glee and thinking of this as a bedtime story....well i am with u too....jumping excitedly with joy....

Yeah i do live in a fairy tale world and...

.....yeah life is sure a bed of beautiful roses and yeah roses have thorns dont they?

But if somebody else gives 'em to u on a platter minus the thorns why not???

AND YEAH I DO LOVE MY FAIRY TALE LIFE...DONT U....

NOW A FEW HAPPY PALS AND MORE WHICH AM LISTING BELOW WHO I WOULD LOVE TO GET CREATIVE AND AROUND......

in whatever way ur imagination fires.....

1) SWEET CHAYA OF SWEET N SAVOURY SAYS IT ALL

The very sweet Chaya who cooks up a storm and passes us the best and most awards to...this one is for u dear ...with loads of love and am looking foward to ur post with all the wonderful cook ups et all u come up with alomost every day or more....

2)NEEL OF LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY

a most amazingly beautiful world of photography i came by...i mean there is so muc even for someone like me who has jus begun using a point and shoot camera and in plain enlish...hope u love this award....AND U deserve many more an award for ur lovely site.

3)FUJI MOM

For u Rachael ,my very wonderful new mentor,who's taken me under her expert wing for the next 3 months for a wonderful adopting programme....i mean jus hop by to her blog and u'll know how grateful im for the oppurtinity to learn loads of stuff i know not from someone as good as her....

4)RAMBLiNG TART

Long drives....delicious food recommended by locals-yeah a sure fire way to great flavours in local food-beautiful locales and the golden setting sun...could it get any better...yeah it could if u read rambling tarts travel tales.....beautiful pics and more...yeah thats so muc and more about rambling tart and do hope u enjoy this good award too....

5)PJ OF GINGER & GARLIC...

PRAJAKTa...my new happy pal has a world of real good eliciousness to share right from citrusy delites with a twist to a very very rare veggie...i love hopping by her wonderful blog....

6)RACHANA KOTHARI OF VEGGI FARE FRM HERE & THERE :-)))

Oh veggie delites and RACHANA keeps 'em splendidly elicious...her jus posted nutella cuppys have me drooling all right and so do loads of other recipes.

HAVE HANDED OVER THESE AWARDS TO MY HAPPY PALS WHO I GUESS WILL LOVE & ENJOY THIS AWARD AS I DID...ONLY WHEN BEGAN TO WRITE....HOPE AINT WRONG HERE :-)))

AND THOUGHT MY HAPPY PALS WILL ENJOY AND BE HAPPY TO WRITE THIS.....

IF ANY OF U HERE...AND SINCE UR HERE ...UR MY HAPPY PAL TOO.....WOULD ENJOY THIS AWARD....
PLEASE PLEASE TAKE THIS AWARD TOO....WOULD BE HONOURED AND DELIGHTED IF U DO(lemme know too so can hop by and read ur post...)

I did think of HANNAH SOMERVILLE. CHAYA. INGRID. ISABEL. MARI(once upon a plate).ROSA. MO DIVA. CHEF AIMEE. LISA.(think lev cookie) AND OFCOURSE JOANNE (but Dave beat me to it)

SO IF U WILL ENJOY THIS AWARD...PLEASE LEAVE ME A NOTE AND I'LL LINK U ASAP.......MAKE MY DAY IF U DO.....

and DAve...u wanted a few outrageous un truths....i hand u a story ...a script and a laugh....did i live upto even a little of ur expectations....

And as i always love a cook up of the pal who hands me the award ...here goes 2 recipes that i tweaked down to one....and thanx to Dave i jus stepped thru the threshold of the world of JULIA CHILD w my very first of her lovely recipes...if u hop by to his blog u'll see the video too.....

THis JUlia CHilds Ommey....

AND U'LL FIND THE WRITTEN RECIPE HERE

Its easy peasy..take it easy and perhaps the best french ommey....i love the way she swirls the pan right to left and round & around ......

Ingredients

    * ¤ 2 Eggs
    * ¤ 1 Pinch of salt
    * ¤ Ground Black Pepper
    * ¤ 1 Tsp of Water
    * ¤ 2 Tsp of butter

Instructions
Place a non-stick omelette pan over high heat.

Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, salt, and pepper until whites and yolks are nicely blended. Add water and whisk again briefly.

Melt butter in the hot pan, tilting to coat sides. Before the butter starts to brown, dump in the eggs.

NOW I HAD A FILLED VERSION SO HERE I SPRINKLED SOME COOKED CHICKEN CUT INTO BITS,SPINACH SHREDDED AND GRATED PARMESAN ON THE OMMMEY.

Holding the pan by its handle, move it in a swirling motion to shake the eggs loose from the sides and into a central pile. Then, as it firms up, use jerky movements to get it to sort of roll over onto itself.

nOW HONESTLY I DIDN GET IT TO ROLL SO WELL HERE SO USED A LITTLE HELP FROM LITTLE SPATULA AND YEAH HER VIDEO HELPED ME KNOW EXACLTY WHAT I WANTED...I BROWNED IT A BIT BUT IF U LIKE,U SHOULD TAKE IT OFF EARLIER.

gRATE LOADS OF PARMESAN TO COVER THE OMMEY AND SERVE WITH CILANTRO,SPINACH AND SOME MORE CHICKEN.....

OH FRUITS FOR A SUNSHINE VALENTINE....WHATS UR NAME........FRUITFULL DELITES BRING SUNSHINE FOR VALENTINES...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:50:00 +0000

DO u love to blog?????

the strawberries asked me....oh yeah i sure do,i answered as much as u all my happy pals do too.....

do u love sundays????

the purple hue'd grapes pointed at me...

ofcourse yeah i do so muc.....the waking up at the crack of dawn(honestly that aint true...its a wee bit later)....have a cafe or chocolate milk and driving to church and the lovely colorfull village market we visit later....where evrybody gives u their best smile,even if they have seen u the first time in their lives......

And the sweet little elderly lady gives u a flower or 2 and u say ur hi and good byes with gusto and love and head back with a back full of goodies to the car (oh yeah i stop at the general store to pick a few caramels too....) and drive to the highway home....

now this is exciting,yeah it sure is...we are soon gonna stop by a farmer on the highway who's really a sweet sweet man and i so enjoy greeting him too as i pop my head outa the window and then in a jiffy am right next to his basket to pick some loads of sweet potatoes and raddish ,right picked a little earlier from his farm....

u dont have to chose....he smiles and gives u his best...infact this weekend am going to carry a hamper of heart sahped cookies jus for them all.....

And then all scamper in the kitchen to fix the big brunch that extends to lunch.......

and yeah b4 we know ...siesta time or no ...its going to be a sunset soon and yeah time for the sunset drive to another winding village that leads to the most serene beach ever....

and then as we drive back ....oh that fruit stall loaded with the freshest produce....

And that dear pals brings us back to d strawberries......why do i love to blog......oh the reasons are endless and we all can write a blog am sure about why we all love blogs....and blogging....

Oh i love u all happy pals and gals who have met thru blogging...and the fact that i can talk about any sweet or sour or tangy topic under the sun and not feel silly or a little froggie in the well or palace......

and in the same note ,i shot this little fruit,ofcourse the yellow watermelons above too i met for the first time in my life...

And without beating around the bush too long and yeah thats bean a long intro ,this post is actually dedicated to this little fruit that ...that.....I DONT KNOW THE NAME OF........AND NEED UR HELP......

Maybe u saw it somewhere or its in season at ur home too....i know nothing about the origin about this cutie but when i look at it or take a shot....the first thing that pops in my mind is FLORIDA....ok no connection but jus the way it pops in my heart......

Isnt it a sunshine fruit ....i love to call this cutie a TOmCHErry....like a cross between a cherry and a cherry tomato.....

But yet the fact remains that I DONT KNOW WHAT ITS CALLED...and am sure all u happy pals will enlighten me more on this one......

Coz of the lovely rocking darling pals u are,i honestly dont feel silly or froggiev(i know!!!) about not knowing this one....

And yeah all u guys who have suc suc lovely wonderful blogs and my internet has really been snail slow from sunday......so am going to right now sit and visit suc wonderful amazing posts out here.....specially all the fantastic blogs i follow and a few more i meet along the beautiful path of bloggiingg....

And thanx a ton for all the pats on the back...oh u guys make my day....and make it frolicking rocking happy and gay......

So here's a few of my SUNSHINE FRUIT shots for valentines.......

And so hope that all u my dear happy pals will help me with loads of tidbits on this little TOMCHERRY SUNSHINE FRUIT bursting with tangy flavour galore.....

And to begin with whats ur name dear??????

aND A FEW MORE PICS GALORE.............

SURE DANG CUTE ...ARENT THEY.........

I THINK THEY MAKE FOR A CUTE PICTURE........

AND NOW SOON I'LL KNOW THEIR CUTE NAME TOO.....

DONT THEY REMIND U OF A CHEERY TOM?????????????????????

A YELLOWY CHERRY TOMMY.....

THERE IS SO MUC OF LOVE IN THE AIR...AND I WISH U SUNSHINE LOADS OF IT....

SO IS THERE SO MUCH OF ROMANCE IN THE AIR AND I DO WISH U SUNSHINE LOADS OF THAT TOO......

VALENTINE COOKIES AT A COOKIE CARNIVAL

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:50:00 +0000

Cookie carnival....does that sound familiar.................

or does it ring a bell in ur ears......

or does it make u leap for joy.....

For me its all 3 coz i awhile ago i named a batch of cookies as ,CARNIVAL COOKIES ,as i dressed em up and yeah so do ring a bell or 2 and sound familiar too and leap for joy coz its a cookie and with some more dressing up experiments and yeah my first heart shaped bake of the season and plus got to use some of my new goodies.....

It all begun when THE CLEAN PLATE CLUB happenned one brite day this (or last)december and i was a wee bit late for their last months bake....

This month here was i at the threshold of baking with them and boy they chose a chipotle cookie,wherever was i going to find chipotle now.....

But yeah i couldn miss this cookie could i?.....no way ...so when ahead rite w/o it.....

and with the excitement of valentines building up(well mommy says i always have some silly reason or the other to be excited about but that said she's excited with me too....)i feel like cookies all over.....

Our shopping differs a bit,we shop all we want and then i look for recipes(though i have a few things vaguely planned or know what am going to work around but with thousands of recipes bookmarked ...really)ofr come up with something nice in our kitchen and it always works though for awhile now,it a wee bit different coz of me blogging(oh i so love it....dont ya?)

WHy am i saying this coz its the history behind my other tweak-the chocolate called for the original recipe-read along....

KATE,@Clean Plate Club chose a Nantucket Cookie Co. recipe via the Food Network.

My other tweak is that i used Arriba Milk Origine chocolate callets coz i have a little(or quite a bit)left in my bag and am nearing the best before date(i somehow prefer the coverture milk for hot chocolate so this one takes a back sit at times).

So i subbed all the dark chocolate for these milk callets and loved the welcome change and besides i am a milk chocolate lover though i do indulge in 70% coco chocolate for a few bakes......

ANd here begins my valentine's baking with a flying start....

ADAPTED VIA FOODNETWORK by RACHEL RAY

1)~~~125 GRMAS IE 1 STICK BUTTER-softennned

Cream well till light and fluffy(if u have a stand mixer place it by while u get by with getting around with the rest.)

2)~~~~ADD 1/2 CUP BROWN SUGAR

6 tbh WHITE SUGAR

2 TBH COCO POWDER to the lovely whisked butter and beat again till fluffy.(Now if u plan to use milk chocolate u'll have to cut down a bit on the sugar here but this amount worked perfect for us)

3)Add 1 EGG(3/4 OF LARGE)

1tsp VANILLA

1 TSP WATER

beat again till well combined.

4) ADD AROUN 6O GRAMS CHOCOLATE MELTED(i weighed out 75 grams coz a little gets eaten along and the bowl gets licked too:-))) )
blend evenly well.
Boy ,its already begining to taste elicious.....(jus forget about the raw egg for a bit here...)

5)SIEVE TOGETHER-3/4 CUP FLOUR

1/4 TBH BAKING SODA.(honestly i never use my TCM flour sifter ...so muc for tools)

mix till well incorparated.

6)Now TIME TO ADD 3/4 CUP BITTERSWEET(I ADDED MILK) CHOCOLTE CHUNKS/CALLETS/BUTTONS....mix well.

7)REFRIGERATE FOR AN HOUR(the dough should be fudge like not very hard)

8)NOW HERE'S WHERE THE FUN ALL BEGAN.....

While the oven sat warming up to a good 350*,i got out my brand new silicone and non stick tart moulds and,yeah sprinkled them all with sugar and yup...thats where i baked my cookies....

And one batch wen in to the chocolate mould too...and one got rolled into cute little buttons....

considering i quartered the recipe ,i got quite a number of cookies.

9)Baked em all together for almost an hour though the original calls for 12-14 mins coz i love 'em nice and crisp and crunchy ....and yeah my oven takes a wee bit longer to fire up anyway....

Oh these delightfull crunchy bites with acrunchy layer of sugar are really fantastic.....

A great recipe ....a keeper.....

A drizzle of semisweet chocolate,milk chocolate,nutella & butter ,all microwaved in a bowl and a few sprinkles later ....i was done....

oh yeah it was fun all along...

With a few of my new sprinkles and candy cupcake papers i was having a ball with ''FAITHFULL'' playing in the back ground....

Dont know what it was that set the mood on for a love is in the air....the cookies or ''faithfull''....

Maybe both.....

Done to indulge and give in to all those sugar and chocolate cravings......

I think i would love to call these a DELIGHFULL MILKY CHOCOLATEY SWEETY CHIPPY COOKIES FOR UR VALENTINE....

DO u wanna be a part of the fantastic COOKIE CARNIVAL TOO?
Well hop in right HERE for all the details...u'll love it......

MUTTON RIBS/CUTLETS/CHOPS @ IHCC @ NIGELLA LAWSON

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:12:00 +0000

I have as many a take on happy hour as maybe i'd have for decorating cookies. . . Ok ok. . .not very sucessfull comparism there.. .

The first picture that swims across my eyes is the 7pm happy hour. . The delicious 7pm happy hour which most cake and dessert pastelaria's at most resorts here keep to, yeah 50% off on all their goodies till closing time. . .

My cookie baking and decorating hour too is happy hour to me. . .

All my blogging hours too are very happy hours even as i pop in to say hello to everyone of you happy pals, slow internet or no. . . .

And all that goes into keeping that dinner table going too and yeah tweaking recipes, which we all do yeah, also makes my happy hour and on that note i have combined 2 of nigella's recipes for a single one. . . . Double the deliciousness in one happy plate. . .so much like 2 for the price of 1 . . .A 50% discount. . .

sounds fun? It sure is not to mention really really good . . ..........

Had the previlage of watching Nigella cook up 2 gorgeous recipes in her own very kitchens. . . . Aint it a delight to watch her at work?

Sure is. . .

The 2 recipes combined are chicken nuggets which i already actually baked awhile ago and .........

SO the marinade in the butter milk comes from the ritzy chicken nuggets baked and the dipping in egg and panko crumBs with parmesan form the pork chops/cutlets/fillets...

So this is what i played with for our HAPPY HOURS this week ,at I HEART COOKING CLUBS.....

SImple and easy and quick,if u jus keep the muttom marination overnight....

1)PLACE A FEW MUTTON RIBS(ofcourse u can use pork or beef too)IN A PLASTIC BAG AND POUND EM WELL.

2)SEASON WITH LIME,SALT AND PEPPER(i sometimes use a stock powder here w a pinch of sugar-love the different resulting flavs) AND PLACE IN A GOOD BOWL OF BUTTERMILK SO THATS IT FULLY COVERED.refrigerate overnight.

3)WHEN UR READY TO FRY KEEP
A)A PLATE OF FLOUR
B)A BOWL WITH EGGS BEATEN WITH PEPPER,MUSTARD AND WEE BIT OF SALT.
C)PANKO CRUMBS MIXED WITH DRY PARMESAN CHEESE...(the green n yellow kraft bottles work good)

4)NOW DIP THE MARINATE RIBS IN FLOUR,THEN EGG ,THEN COAT WITH THE CHEESY PANKO ,PRESS LIGHTLY TO ADHERE AND WELL FRY 'EM IN A PAN OF HOT OIL.
SO ITS EASY AS A)....B)....C)........

5)SERVE WITH A SALAD OF UR CHOICE.....

A LENTIL CURRY /SIDE WITH LOADS OF GREEN-SPINACH&feNUGREEK

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:16:00 +0000

Taste and create....does that fire ur imagination?????

Well it certainly fired mine and ofcourse it revolved around food....

Yeah the whole show,a beautiful food show right up in all our kitchen every month is run by the lovely NICOLe of LOVE OF FOOD and hosted at TASTE & CREATE.

I am and would love to be a part of this wonderful monthly fun where all who register(by 8th folks) are paired up and u cook something delicious from ur partners blog as so does ur partner from urs....

How cool is that......

And cooler still were the yummiest veggie fare at my partner blog this month ie THE FANTASTIC SINGING CHEF AT WORK....THE VERY LOVELY RAAGA...

Boy she has so muc of fantastic recipes ,very nutricious too and so easy to put by and elcious ways to get ur daily quota of veggies...i had initially planned to have atleast 7 of her recipes but not possible this time round....oh yeah i fix dinner almost every day....but my camera goes into the kitchen with loads of caution and care(remember it aint even a month old),oh the laptops a frequent visitor all right.....

Oh i love photo graphy but my styling takes me bit coz aint no expert and am yet a little clueless about a few functions too...

And i do take time to photo graph and its dinner time even before i know it or lunch for that matter but i intend to not only cook up but also post a couple of her recipes-they are simply fantastic...

Thats probably the reason why our grilled fish dinners(yeah its been a lot of seafood of late)and tandoori grilled fish dinners with curd salads and afew other salads didn find their way up here.....

Well my time for excuses galore is up now but in defense they arent excuses dear...cant i share my life with my sweet happy pals ,and in an absolutely cheerful state of mind ,body and soul ,mind u........

So the first recipe i chose is -A FANTASTIC COMBO(OH The lovely RAAgA has loads of 'em)of LEntils with spinach and fenugreek leaves....delicious combi that we do have every so often at home but this was a little different in preparation but in flavour....well finger licking good and lentils usually has leftovers but this one didnt and i see myself making this ever so often again....

All her spinach recipes are fantastic and have to make 'em all truly......She's got the most amazing collection of really excellent veggie recipe and honestly i simply wanna try 'em all.......

Tweaked it a wee bit in the sense doubled the greens in the recipe so had to up the seasoning quotient a wee bit ,but not the chilly part though i did add a whole (not very spicy but flavourful)chilly.

ADAPTED FROM THE SINGING CHEF AT WORK

1)Soak 1/2 CUP ORANGE LENTILS(MASOOR DAL) & 1 TBH EACH OF YELLOW SMALL(moong dal)& YELLOW BIG (chana dal-aint sure about the names though) LENTILS the previous evening,changing the water ,when required(when that foam kinda arises)

Pressure cook the next morning ,after washing well,in 1.5 CUPS WATER.

2)HEat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan.

3)ADD THE FOLLOWING IN THIS ORDER, BROWNING EACH FOR A FEW SECONDS TO RELEASE FLAVOURS....

1.5 TSP CUMIN SEEDS
2 TSP ASAFOETIDA

when this releases a fantastic aroma...the next ingrdients now-

LOADS OF FRESH GARLIC CRUSHED(or garlic paste as per taste)
SOME FRESH GINGER CRUSHED
SMAIL PIECE OF GREEN CHILLY(i always use a wee bit of the tail for a little bite w/o upping the pungency)

u'll already begin to very much enjoy the fantastic aromas here...

2 ONIONS FINELY CHOPPED(meduim)
1 TSP TURMERIC
A WHOLE RED CHILLY DE-SEEDED OR THE MILDER VARIETY
SALT TO TASTE & A LITTLE(BIG REALLY)PINCH OF BROWN SUGAR....

4) fRY WELL FOR A MIN OR 2 AND TIP IN ONE CUP EACH OF SPINACH AND FENUGREEK LEAVES,CHOPPED.

5)cOOK A MIN OR 2 AND ADD THE COOKED LENTILS WITH THE SOME WATER IF REQUIRED(lentils really thicken as they cool)

BRING TO A QUICK BOIL AND SIMMER A FEW MINS TILL DONE....

fANTASTIC EITHER WITH STEAMED BASMATI RICE OR ROTIS....

You wanna have a peekabo of all the delicious then stop by right HERE

Am also linking this lovely lentil with greens to the lovely Chaya's blog,sweet and savoury for MEATLESS MONDAYS....if u have a recipe do link up to so we can have a delicious potluck of veggie delights........

NIGELLA LAWSON'S STIR FRIED MUSHROOMS W PASTA @I HEART COOKING CLUBS

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:26:00 +0000

Its Potluck time again at I HEART COOKING CLUBS again this time guys and though usually am all excited to get my post up as soon as possible,am lagging this time around...well my pics are done
(i usually cook up the week before)and the recipe to but havent written in a bit and thats what....ok theres absolutely no pressure here...and i so love to indulge in the delciousness of all the rest of the gang bring in so head in I HEART COOKING CLUBSto catch 'em all....

But can go on rambling some gibberish about how busy it was with college and attending classes and working on assingements,doing as muc as house work as can (my mom to me is my princess,a princess i adore and love and with our househelp not around i do it all for mom-we actually fight over doing the dishes but not the way u think...we fight to do ;em :-))) )))

And then the dinners and lunches and breakfasts and in betweens that we share...

Ok,does this sound like am cribbing...no absolutely not coz i dont usually indulge in that activity :-))))..Im sahring with u my happy pals coz aint that what blooging is about..(too,with a host of other goodies...)

And yeah am sure that all u my happy pals are far busier and come up with fantastic deliciousness and posts in a jiffy (ok ok hold ur horses gurl,i tell myself,now aint the time to 'share' about ur hanging laptop that needs a boost more often than considered desirable enough to be put up with...)

And today have been jumping around excitedly with a goody parcel i recieved....yeah right from picking it up to the drive home---oh was already unpacking it on the back seat even before we got home,even had a siscor carried in my havasack to assist in stubborn packaging material....

Now i got a few moulds and hearty tart forms and silver and goldd papers and my fav cookie cutters and yeah...sprinkles.....And u'll see 'em all in the coming weeks as i use 'em and i got this cute pink digi weighing scale and a few cup cake liners too.....

Ok it aint any wilton or amazing amazon goodies but for me the world and the best i could find in another city and my family got it down for me...so half the day in filling every nook ,corner and drawer of the kitchen which i seem to be evading with my tools,so that it looks neat and i dont clutter up and yeah am geared for another shopping trip already.....:-))))).....

Ok now back to I HEART COOKING CLUBS,which is what this is about really and this weeks potluck.....

This is a rocking group where we cook any of NIgella'a recipes evry week ,fitting to the theme chosen by the lovely trio who keep this great group going eith their wonderfull collages and posts every week.

I chose this recipe ,inspired by DEBS KAHAKAI KITCHEN,which she coincidently cooked up for last months potluck(this wasnt planned i promise.i made it awhile ago...:-))) )

This is a fantastic recipe and i tweaked it good ,in the sense i replaced the fish that go with the mushroom stir fry with PASTA...hehehehehe....and the greens(bok choy)with spinach(ok aint it green too???)

But we had these wonderful button mushrooms and have been wanting to stir fry this one evr since i saw it ...infact even Chaya @ sweet & savoury says it all had this one up....

A NIGELLA LAWSON RECIPE ADAPTED FROM DEBS KAHAKAI KITCHEN
1)BOIL A CUP OF FUISLLI PASTA AND AMERICAN CORN EACH-A CUP EACH IN V LIGHTLY SALTED WATER.

2)HEAT 1 TBH OF OLIVE OIL..
ADD 4 CLOVES OF GARLIC MINCED
(i also tipped in a few de seeded(catch the flavour not the spice)fresh red chillies,green onions and red peppers chopped fine)

3)FRY 1 POUND(450 GRAMS-BUT I USED ONLY 400 GRAMS) MUSHROOMS TILL JUST DONE( MINS)
(pre-cooked mushrooms-jus placed the mushrooms chopped in a pan and they got well pan grilled as the water released dries up)

4)NOW ADD 3 TBH SOY SAUCE + 1 TBH SESAME OIL AND STIR FRY TILL WELL BLENDED AND DONE.(Arnd 3 mins max)
5)ADD AROUND 2CUPS PALAK ROUGHLY CHOPPED(instead of bok choy in the original recipe).COVER THE PAN FOR A MIN OR 2 till they jus wilt.

6)DID ADD A PINCH OF SUGAR AS WE DO FOR MOST OF OUR COOKING OR LOCAL PALM SUGAR AT TIMES OR A SQUEEZE OF HONEY-WE LOVE HOW IT HEIGHTENS THE SWEET UNDER TONES OF A SAVOURY DELICACY.

7)SERVE ON A BED OF PASTA WITH A SQUEEZE OF LIME AND GARNISH OF RED PEPPERS ,OLIVES AND WHATEVER CATCHES UR FANCY IN THE KITCHEN.....

A Perfect hearty dinner with a tossed salad of colored peppers,steamed sweet corn & sweet potatoes,cherry toms,shallots ,parsley with a dressing of cream and lime and honey.....

STRAWBEERY DREAMZ WITH A VANILLA BEAN

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:39:00 +0000

Pink candy floss......baby dresses w teddys.....red roses...pinky promises.....oh la la la tra la la la...the strawberry season is...not round the corner but right here....

Love is in the air and its raining pink all around(red for me its still christmas till i officially enter the lovey dovey season of valentines...)and it wouldn be fair not to dedicate a post ....or 2 or.....whatever to all the strawberries and the strawberry lovers all around the globe.........

And for the sake of the cute strawberry,aint going to delete but have all the pics here...doesnt our dear sweety strawberry deserve all this from us and i do hope u guys find her cute...i've done the best i can....coz i love the STRAWBERRIES TOO....DO U?????

There's a basketfull...no truckload full...no no.....globalfull(ok thats jus made up-dont look up the dictionary :-))) )of ideas u can have with strawberries besides dipping 'em in ur fav chocolate or a chocolate butter gooey melt down and i sure am going to make the best of 'em...

And every one gorgeously cute(all of u have the most gorgeously cutey hearts) gets a expansive / extensive photo shoot once in their life so doesnt the cutie strawberry deserve one too?Ok Ok u have loads of pros who have shot the strawberry so so beautifully but here's a photo shoot and some delciousness with the WONDERFUL STRAWBERRY.....

We jus got a more than a couple of boxes(the small ones)of our first strawberries and we had a feast on 3 versions of my

BERRY STRAWBERRY DELITE.....
thats a basic strawberry shake in 3 different ways......

1)SKIMMED MILK WITH HONEY AND ALL THE STRAWBERRIES U WAN for a healthy twist.

2)SKIMMED MILK,CREAMY POWDER MILK ,STRAWBERRIES AND SUGAR or ICING SUGAR.

3)LOADS OF ICE,CREAMY MILK POWDER,ALL THE STRAWBERRIES U WANT N SOME SUGAR.

GET UR BLENDER OUT AND WHIP UP A BERRY STRAWBERRY DREAMZ DELCIOUS CREAMY STORM AND ADD SOME CREAM IF U FEEL LIKE IT..

Also another facts that (as far as i know and have experienced and even jus read it in a mag)is that strawberries dont ripen after their plucked-they live their life ...head straight to tantalize ur taste buds or spoil....yeah thats right!!

So well u store 'em rite away in ur refrigeration in a single layer(like my iced cookies outa the refrigeration)and relish 'em..well the sooner the better and if its later...well sauces and jams do great too!!!!

So even while ur getting ur storage right lets get going with a delcious home stirred jelly/jam /preserve or thick sauce as u'd like to call it or actually u can jus control whatever consistency u want...

DELCIOUS HOME STIRRED CHUNKY STRAWBERRY JAM/JELLY/ PRESERVE/ SAUCE/TOPPING WITH VANILLA BEANS.

2 CUPS STRAWBERRIES CHOPPED AS U LIKE

1/2CUP SUGAR OR ICING SUGAR(AS PER TASTE)-u can decrease this if the strawberries are really sweet or increase if sour but 1/2 cup gave a very sweet preserve.

INNARDS OF 2 WHOLE VANILLA BEANS

JUICE OF 1 LIME(AS PER TASTE)

1)pLACE ALL THE ABOVE INGREDIENTS IN A GLASS BOWL AND GIVE IT A GOOD STIR AND LET STAND FOR A FEW HOURS(I ALMOST TOUCHED 5 HOURS)

THIS HELPS THE RELEASE JUICES AND DEVELOP DELCIOUS SWEET FLAVS ALONG WITH THE SUGARS.

2)nOW KEEP THE WHOLE PINKY BEAUTIFUL MEELE ON THE FLAME ,IN A HEAVY BOTTOMED PAN AND KEEP STIRRING AND STIRRING ON A MEDIUM OR LOW FLAME TILL DONE.

3)TOOK ME ALMOST AN HOUR TO GET THE MIX REDUCED TO HALF-IT WAS QUITE SAUCY IN CONSISTENCY-U CAN STOP HERE OR CONTINUE FOR A FIRMER JELLY AND REMEMBER IT CONTINUES THICKENNING AS IT COOLS.

This recipe is based on my experiments with mangoes last year(no i didn post then)and u can flavour this with cinnamon for warmth,cloves or star anise for a hieghtenned spice sweetness or cardomon for its unmatched flavour.

And yeah would love to add some lemon zest in too-next time or maybe orange ......

Though i did recieve a nice hamper this christmas of a few jams/preserves/jellys -oh those cute tubes i will always love making those delcious home stirred jams et all(i know u do too).

And they are so so good for a season of cookie making(coming soon)

and here perfect for THE THUMBALINAS HERE or

RUGELACH (delcious buttery tender melt in ur mouth cookie) HERE.

SO HERE'S TO A WONDERFUL STRAWBERRY WORLD OF STRAWBERRY DREAMZ WITH VANILLA BEANS IN IT-DO I MANAGE TO LEAVE UP TO MY NAME ...........

STRAWBERRY DREAMZ...PINKY FLOSS....

WANNA JOIN IN MY FIRST PINKKI SATURDAYS WITH THIS POST BUT WILL FIGURE IT OUT IN A BIT AND LINK THIS POST SOON......

BABY RUGELACH-HAVE THE CAKE BAKES A BUTTERY TENDER MELT IN UR MOUTH COOKIE THIS MONTH

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:17:00 +0000

A BUTTERY TENDER MELT IN YOUR MOUTH COOKIE

Am very thrilled with this months choice of RUGELACH by MICHELE at HAVE THE CAKE though when i first read about it i was so lost with something i had never had nor heard about and there was i shooting questions evrywhere and yeah googling way.....

Thanx a ton Michelle for introducing this to my little far away world and i so love ur stori of a little girl(u)festing on these gorgeous melt in ur mouths as ur grandmom baked with all her love....

And there were 2 kinds of rugelach,as u see here,some the pinwheeled ones and some with rolling a round and cutting pie kinda wedges and rolling 'em around but all the dough crusts were almost the same give or take the addition of sugar.

The recipe at have the cake suggests a pie crust and i did wonder if i should go in for my all butter pie crust but all the pics i saw had a different story and yeah i stuck to this cream cheese dough ......

Most of the site i checked have similiar recipes ,infact of the lovely cookie or pastry crust is a ever so flakky and light (as in texture) butter & cream cheese dough

These are the site's i went thru were at INA GRATENS RECIPE HERE , DEB AT SMITTEN KITCHEN WITH HER PERFECT PINWHEELS HERE (every one of my were different ) and KAF HERE

And finally but not the least but one of the first sites PETE'S BAKES, i hopped by which really hellped me in getting a clearer pic of rugelach thats neither seen or eaten in my part of the world and Joanne(of eats well with others)too suggested the same site and gave a me a few inputs coz though most sites said it as a cookie the original recipe ,on Have d cake said pie crust which for me would be my all butter pie crust whereas most here have a cream cheese butter flour crust or cookie dough,i chose to make it the sweeter way by adding a bit of powdered sugar and there i was...

Now lets begin working with the lovely cookie dough first
8oz cream cheese
2 sticks (250 grams butter)
1/4 cup icing sugar(optional but i think i would increase this quantity the next time)
2 cups sifted flour
1tsp(or2)vanilla extract(i know it aint authentic but would love to try this some lemon zest too)

1. Set the cream cheese and butter in a bowl so that its really soft ant then cream well with extract if using till fluffy.

2.Add icing sugar and beat in well.

3.Now beat in flour to 3 to 4 batches and work to a lovely dough.

4.Roll into 2discs,wrap in butter paper and then cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour(well i did for almost a week)

Now to begin with the actual cookie making...
I just divided the dough into 2 (i halved the above recipe)-
tried pinwheels with a mix of blueberry and strawberry preserve/jelly /jam where u roll the dough into a rectangle say 1/8 th inch-i jus rolled it comfortable enough not to break and had to refrigerate it later-maybe coz its been a real warm day here today...

THESE WERE MY PINWHEELS -Oh yeah they could have been bigger but i heard someone exclaim aloud that good things come in small packages... :-)))and i overdid the jammy part but we love it this way...

The second disc i rolled into a not very perfect circle and kept it in the refrigeration awhile...cut 'em into very uneqaul wedges-like u would for a pie (yes gurls this is absolutely easy even for my kinda not too perfect baking) and a few were stuffed with CHOCOLATE /JAM/JELLY CINNAMON SUGAR...then the wedges rolled ,begining with the larger side and rolled the cookies too in CINNAMON SUGAR for a little traditional touch.(for the chocolate i used ,milk chocolate callets)

And i baked them to a GOLDEN BROWN as KAF says....took my oven around almost 45 mins(yeah it takes time to fire up-dont know why...)

The options are really endless with this one,i mean u can do so so muc..maybe a jam and ur fav nut taosted and chooped filling...an apricot preserve for a traditonal touch...and loads of chocolate chippys with sugar...and maybe lemon curd too...have to try it out all the options and wont be suprised if i bake these again before the month ends......

These are so so so so good and buttery and flaky-loved them...have had or seen them first time in my life and would love to introduce these around someday

Why did i call 'em baby rugelach...coz they are so so cute(even before going into the oven) and so tiny and delicate and come with a stamp handle with care-the pinwheels ie..specially since i overloaded the jam...

And every single one was a different shape-all very cute...even my dear non cookie lovers around loved these melt in the mouths.

The next time i surely plan to picture these step by step.

PESTO'N AN 'UN-PESTO'D' @ NIGELLA @ I HEART COOKING CLUBS...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:18:00 +0000

Exotic destinations :) greece. . .israel. . .scotland. . Spain. . .big apple(hi joanne), hawai(ola deb). .brazil(ola vinni), portugal.(isabel bejinhos). . prague......bahamas(Joanne pops in a hi w tiffany frm her cruiseliner). . . . N italy(NW NW Joanne pops again as an 8yr old doll). . .

So lets stop at italy and begin about some gorgeous italian food shall we. . .pastas and linguine. .

Olives n oilve oils . . . .garlic n herbs. . . .luscious sauces n tomato based ones. . .sun dried tomatoes e jalpenos. . .and and and. . . . .the bestest of 'em al. .pinenuts e basil w a sprinkling of sea salt n garlic. . . .n olive oil..mama mia A PESTO. .

So for this week @ I HEART COOKING CLUBS for the theme EXOTIC DESTINATIONS...I couldn look further than italian exoticness cuisine unfolded..begining with a pesto....

All that said i think something really special is equal to exotic for me would be being closer to the north pole for the winters and during holidays and yeah wouldn santa land be the best of em all. . . Where i can actually sing. . . Snow is falling. . And binge on hot chocolate with vanilla and marshmellows...

stuffed one whole fish with pesto..opened it after grilling n grilled with the filled side opened again...i love the pairing of the pomo seeds-brings about a welcome sweetness and with a squeeze of lime...perfeto...

And more often than not ,im happier where i am and for me the best holidays are loaded with being around my family ,a cold terrain(as in the weather ie)and loving every moment be it exploring the place,shopping for momemtos alike(well thats a rather long list here...),exploring the exotic cuisine....or sleeping(ofcourse there are loads of things we do on hols but more on that later...)....

(the calm seas above-and the trees swaying in delite at the warm sea breeze)

I love and enjoy where we live now though it does get warm at times but then what are the air conditioners for....and its beautiful here....(ok i cant even find a few wilton or any decent sprinkles and silicone cup cake moulds(heart shaped)and cookie cutters and those fancy icing tolls here(not even the basic disposable bags yet...but have got a lead and maybe richer with my goody bags jus in time for valentines baking...)

a flower i jus shot on sun along the highway...

And from the first time in dec i cooked up this nigella delight have had requests sice..and our sunday dinner saw us with loads of grilled fish and mussels with mushrooms...all pesto'd -pairs fantastically with a tossed salad and pasta...

and last night again for dinner we had chicken pesto'd with pasta.
The pics with the main recipe are my first hand at it and i begin with seafood & and will have the chicken inbetween with the mushrooms and below.....exotica itself-pesto'd mussels....

Only Nigella Lawson can 'unpesto' a pesto sauce-oh she's adorable with all that conjures up in her kitchen......

But here i am about to 'pesto' her 'un-pesto' ,linguinne pasta...

I love a lingine pasta-our current hot fav(the last hot were the large 'shelly' pasta as i loved to call 'em)

And combine that with a pesto and some fresh chicken and u have some yummy dinner going....

Its been awhile i wanna whip up a pesto and since we are cooking NIGELLA(oh am so gald am a part),i tend to look out more than i ever did for Nigella's dinner ideas.

And thanx to IHCC ,me will get down to replicating all of the fun that happens in nigella's kitchen...

And yeah before u begin dont forget to move ur 'music' ,as in only carols now with a tango thrown in my playlist,to the kitchen.....(WHIPPED this one up in dec)

I love to jiggle and hop around to a tune while cutting up a salad or stir frying a veggie for dinner or lunch or breakfast or a snack(d other way round...).....

Ok ok ,we are far from the high way again arent we....trust me to steer away,thank GoD aint driving at the moment...so steering back to the pesto(have absolutely fresh basil at hand),browsed around for Nigella's pesto,wanted a chicken with linguine...

and yeah found this 'UNPESTO'DD PESTO' so i turned it around and pestoed it-perfect....

and added some chicken for a complete hearty begining that ended with hot choco-cafe & brownies.....

My not very wide spectrum of knowledge of pesto is that ,though pine nuts are the main nuts traditionally used(i have some yummy mix of pinenuts soaked in a little jar in olive oil,vinegar,whole and crushed garlic,pepper,sugar & i dont know what...i fixed this mix many a weeks back and its delightfull-must sit with the jar,pic it and write an article but in next year that'll be,oh yeah new years jus a few days ago)

this is a portion of chicken,which i fried in olive oil ,instead of grilling...honestly could do w/o the extra oil...no difference both are great if (the grilled version above )not better...

ADAPTED FROM THE KITCHENS OF THE GORGEOUS NIGELLA LAWSON

FOR THE PESTO SAUCE.
2 bunches Basil leaves only
1/2 cup cashewnuts/walnuts/pinenuts or a mix
14 cloves of garlic(almst or rather a whole bulb)
1 c extra virgin olive oil.
1)bLItz the nuts,garlic and basil,in a blender,and in a stream add olive oil,like u would fo myo kinda.
Add parmesan cheese(1/4 cup)
MARINATE SOME SEASONED WITH SALT AND CRUSHED PEPPER CHICKEN WITH SOME OF THE PESTO SAUCE...

AND EITHER BAKE OR grill as i did and put all the marinade with a little in a pan and bring to a boil and simmer for awhile for a thick gravy.

the cut mushrooma marinated in the pesto,a few hours before i grilled 'em...

marinated mushrooms grilled just right.......

and few grilled crisp for the crispy lovers like me.....

2)FOR THE PASTA
---LINGUINIE COOKED AS PER DIRECTIONS
---1/4 CUP OLIVE OIL
---7 CLOVES GARLIC
---1/4 CUP PINE NUTS LIGHTLY TAOSTED
---A FEW BASIL LEAVES TORN
---LOADS OF GRATED PARMESAN

***HEat oil ,add the garlic& FRESH RED CHILLIES and toss around till the aromas fill the air and dont take too long a break to enjoy the heady aroma-----coz u need to toss in the pasta now and coat evry slippery strand w the
aromatic garlic oil....

(HERE I HAD A TWEAK COZ STIR FRIED ZUCHINNI,MUSHROOMS,PEPPERS,BABY CORN & CARROTS IN THIS OIL AND TOSSED ALL THE LINGUINE INTO THIS YUMMY FRAGRANT MEELLEE)
***tansfer to a warm bowl,sprinkle with basil,pinenuts & parmesan,leaving some for garnish..toss well

***Keep warm with a silver foil or to serve make a bed of the pasta tossed in flavoured oil w veggies(if using) and scoop in some pesto gravy IN THE MIDDLE &chicken around the middle.

garnish with the rest of the basil,pine nuts and parmesan...

and here the marinated mussels pesto'd and grilled to perfection....

.......fingerlicking good........perfect with any pasta or mashed potato or as they are....

a very lovely post with perfect pictures awaits u at I HEART COOKING CLUBS,by Natashya(i so love what u did...amazing and yeah inspiring too!!!) and if ur looking foward as muc as i am to what the rest of the gang will cook up (more drooling...more recipes)this week head over to EXOTIC DESTINATIONS ...right HERE in the comfort of ur home...and that said my home always is where my heart is and my heart is with family and i make every destination home= love,peace,joy bubbling and skipping along with a gay heart and bursting laughter on my lips.....come fall in love......

RADDISH OF THE FIELDS........

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:18:00 +0000

Riding along the long winding roads i m so enjoying this morning drive, surrounded on both sides by paddy fields that now grow fresh veggies.Each road ends only to lead to another delightfull village and the early airs is cool and fresh , and its great to drive wo having to turn on the air conditioning. . . .now i love a sunset drive or afternoon drive or moon light drive as much i love hanging out at home too. . .if i sound like am a morning person. . .well am a morning , afternoon, or evening sugar plum too. . .as the need arises. . . .i love a good under the star lit sky or the setting rising sun drive as much as i enjoy catching up on my beauty sleep. . .and actually need 10 hours of sleep that aint always 10hours. As we step up a bit and touch the highway again. . .i spot him and fall in love. . . . .

Yeah i fall in love (i fall in love everyday.....with a whole load of ....saved for another past...another time) with all the freshest of the fresh local veggies spread of a sack cloth or two or three and in the locally woven wicker basket. . . . . Green veggies still fresh with the morning dew and freshly washed root veggies. . . . . .and we picked a few bunches of everybody's fav:-):-) RADDISH. . .still very wet of the water that helped scrubing of all the mud. . . .

And tastiest when prepared simply by placing the chopped white and greens discarding the stems, in a clay pot with a few tablespoons of freshly squeezed coconut juice or grated coconut, a few onions and loads of garlic, finely chopped and a pinch or three of crushed root turmeric. . . Oh there are loads of ways there can be done with loads of additions and a base of sauteed onions too but i love it best simple. . . . Didn some one say that beauty (delicious beauty here) lies in simplicity. . . .no? Ok me am saying it now. . . . And to sum lemme use a simple word but one that speaks volumes. . . .TASTEE E. . .ok delighfully tastee!

Honestly this happenned last month when didn have the cam nor the cell i used to shoot with while on the drive so no pics of the whole episode. . . But did make up by have a photo shoot of the very inspiration didn i:-)

A MULTI COLORED CARNIVAL COOKIE & MY SECOND HAPPY 101 AWARD...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:03:00 +0000

`http://heartnsoulcooking.blogspot.com/ Has honoured me with my second award and as a big thank u and little gesture am baking THESE COOKIES from her blog with a twist...now more on that in a bit....

She's my very first follower and(meant so muc for a nobody even leaves me a little hi blog!!!) visiting her delights me -love her cookies and everything else.I have said this and i say it again -i love how she captures the whole essence of a cookie with one single cute picture what i cant with so many!!!!

And now about these lovely cookies have bookmarked on her blog along with loads of other goodies and chose this one though had to tweak it coz its difficult ot find pecans here so was shuttling between walnuts and hazlenuts and finally narrowed down on hazlenuts and am so glad i did...

Next is that i substituted both cream of tartar and lemon extract with lemon juice coz i have none of 'em...

AND i doubled the amount of choco chips in white& semisweet & milk..mixed-not intentionally but ended up doing just that...

And i used all butter and baked 'em to a golden brown for a really good crunchy crumbly buttery cookie..

I think i can call 'em THE CRUMBLY CRUNCHY ,ALL BUTTER ,GOLDEN BAKED ,ROASTED HAZLENUT,LEMON DOUBLE CHOCO CHIP COOKIES WITH A LITE COCONUT,CARAMEL GLAZE COOKIE GLAZE DRESSED WITH CUT SOFT CANDIES AND SPRINKLES....

ADAPTED FROM HEART & SOUL COOKINGS LOVELY BLOG..

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (lime juice)
1/4 teaspoon salt (no salt coz i used salted butter)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable or butter flavored shortening(i used all butter)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (lemon juice)
1 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped(hazlenuts)
1 cup mixed choco chips(the original recipe suggests 1/2)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Lightly grease baking sheet.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.

In a medium bowl, beat together butter, shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add egg, honey, lemon peel and lemon extract. Beat until smooth. Add flour mixture, stir until a soft dough forms. Stir in toasted pecans.

Drop dough by measuring tablespoons 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.

Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until a light golden color (do not overbake). Cool cookies on the baking sheet on a wire rack 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

NOTES: Because nuts are rich in oil, toasting brings out the flavor and aroma. Toast them in a 350 F. oven in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 10 minutes, stirring at least once. Smelling the aroma of toasting nuts is a signal that they are ready to use. Once at this stage, they will scorch easily. Toasting pecans extends the flavor of the pecans and makes it seem like there is more than a cupful in the recipe.

You can also add 1/2 cup of mini white chocolate chip to this recipe.(I ADDED 1)

Ok now for the HAPPY HAPPY AWARD 101,it ofcourse really made me happy thanx to Geri and wanna honour her right back officially coz what ,ade me so happy jus a bit back is making it to the THROW DOWN OF I HEART CUPPY CAKES and its thanx jus coz of all u guys....

There were 71 voters and for ur support i got 31 which is 44%,it aint over yet coz JAmieAnne ,will baKe my cupcake alongwith Catie's and the tester will decide which one wins...wish u all were the testers...well dont they say that if wishes were horse's beggars would ride but i always said that if wishes were horses there wouldn beggars....

So back to award i wrote THIS POST ,requesting u all for votes little knowing that all u sweet hearts would actually take the time to vote for me and here i am(hope that in a bit i tell u guys that yipeeeeeee i won.....)
So am passing this award very happily with a gay heart and song on my lips ,not necesarily in this order....with a cookie for each one of u....

1) NATALIE OF NAT'S BAKING IN NEW YORK CITY
Natalie said...
YOU SAID-So sweet ! I am on my way tro vote for you right now !! :) Good Luck !
and she was one of my first voters-thanx a ton Natalie-u amde me really happy and over the top so here's ur HAPPY AWARD...

2)ISABEL OF SITIO DAS DELICIAS

.YOU SAID..
Minha linda amiga, já acedi á página e votei no magnífico cake!!!
Um grande beijinho e espero que ganhes!
-mutissmo obrigado mia amigimha ajingha e bejinhos para ti tambem....e meu segundo selinho tambem...
and so for my dear pal Isabel who also made my day and was responsible too,for me reaching the finals as would love to call 'em here's ur HAPPY 101 AWARD .O queridinha isabel,esta e meu segundo selinha tambem..bejinhos grandes e abracos...

3) OF SAVEURSETGOURMANDISES...

YOU SAID J'ai voté pour toi. J'espère que tu gagneras.
A bientôt-
Yeah she voted for me and expected me to win and thats what she says in the message-so sweet and we had barely met in blogosphere and so here's the HAPPY 101 AWARD FOR U

4)VINNI OF AMELHIA DIGITAL

YOU SAID Obrigada por visitar meu blog! :D :D
Eu votei 'too'. (sweetestkitchen.com)
I wrote the blog:
========>Hello! Olá!
Meu voto: ( I voto for: )
Batica – A Gorgeous Rich Delicious Goan Portuguese Coconut Bolo
(vanillastrawberryspringfields.blogspot.com)
Kisses! (Beijos!)
Vinni/ Brasil
http://amehliadigital.blogspot.com/ <======
Kisses for you!!
Vinni
now isnt Vinni our sunshine gurl-hey yeah she'll make ur day so hop straight by...SO HERES UR HAPPY 101 AWARD TOO...
Vinni ,uma 'HAPPY101 AWARD' (SELINHA)para linda Vinni.
bejinhos

5)CHAYA OF SWEET AND SAVOURY
YOU SAID You are way in the lead. I think it is 41 percent. Good luck. It looks good now.
You bake beautifully...
Oh Chaya,our lovely domestic godess bakes so good herself and her note with the vote made my day too-thanx Chaya i made it with ur vote too.
ANd heres ur HAPPY101 AWARD TOO.

6)JAONNE OF EATS WELL WITH OTHERS
YOU SAID I still maintain that your cupcakes look fantastic. And so of COURSE I voted for you. Good luck sweetie! You're doing really well so far.
Joanne,a sweetheart...no no...evrybodys sweetheart and this is her 3rd award in a row,if somebody doesnt beat me to it ie,thanx for that pat Joanne...i needed the boost and yeah ur vote made me happy too so heres ur HAPPY 101 AWARD.

7)HEATHER OF GIRLCHEF
YOU SAID I voted for ya...good luck! Looks like you're doing great so far :D
HEather also one of the lovely gurls behind i heart cooking clubs,a doll and yeah thanx a ton for ur vote and here's ur HAPPY 101 AWARD TOO....

8)LISA OF PARSELY,SAGE,DESSERTS AND LINE DRIVES
YOU SAID You got my vote, chicky!! Now, did you say there was something else you needed an answer about regarding the cookies? :)
The genius of re working choco chip cookies and the Levian bakery one no less, and cant forget the gingerbread lighthouse surely..that pat and all ur pats meant so muc ...thanx a ton and for making me happier here's ur HAPPY 101 AWARD TOO

9)ROSA OF ROSA'S YUMMY YUMS
YOU SAID Those look so pretty, moist and delicious!
Best wishes for 2010!
cheers,Rosa
Thanx to u too Rosa,the really very sweet anglo swiis gurl whose passionate about cooking and photography and is a sweetheart.
Hers is a much loved blog...
Thanx a ton and for making me happy too here's ur HAPPY 101 AWARD...

10)ARLENE OF FOOD OF LOVE
YOU SAID Your cuppies look delicious. I voted for you. Good luck. Thanks for visiting The Food of Love.
Am a frequent flyer ,as i love to quote u,to ur blog now and thanx a ton for ur vote too and love hopping by ur blog too ...truly food cooked with loads of love aint it?
Here's ur HAPPY 101 AWARD TOO...

10)Ok it supposed to be 10 but i really cant miss out MANDY FROM MANDYS RECIPE BOX
An absolutely sweet city gurl ,now farmers wife so a true country gurl with fresh country food in a fresh country kitchen...howzattt.....
Thank u for making me happy too and here's to u a HAPPY101 AWARD...

NOW HERES WHAT U DO WITH UR AWARD-COPY IT TO UR BLOG,
TELL US 10 THINGS THAT MAKE U HAPPY-WE ARE ALL EARS....AND AWARD 'EM TO 10 OF UR FELLOW BLOGGERS WHO MAKE UR DAY A SUNSHINE DAY..(and yeah thank the pal who passed 'em on to u).
I do ,personally pick out a recipe from the blog of my pal who passed on this award to me but thats coz i chose to do it...as a little thank u and anyway have bookmarked so much so many of ur lovely blogs..jus that it gor done earlier...

AND TO BEGIN WITH 10 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY....
1.When you leave a sprinkle (comment)for me, oh i dont have to elaborate how good it feels to read what your heart says thru your sweet comment on my blog.

2.Girlie activities with mommy . .catching coffe at the coffee shop of a lazy lunch at the waterfront, shopping and marketing w her, cooking with her in the kitchen where the helper me disappears a few times, and cuddling up in bed with her for the most blissful sleep. .and her dimpled smile first thing in the morn...am so in love...

3.My colored rubberbands on my braces,specially when my dentist gives in to my color combos..red & green alternately for christmas ,now the next change will be pink(valentines u see...)

4.When i8 and opera and blogger dont bug together and hang up my poor laptop.

5.When i get the lite and angle rite for my pics, i never use a flash for pics so need that rite....

6.The fragrance of my fav pleasures or farahniet or dune or flower wafting all around after a generous spray after a warm shower.

7.The first rains after a very warm summer bring respite with cool winds and the landscapes slowly turning into lush green.

8.Christmas day,holidays,fathers and mothers day,docs day,new year day,valentines day and yippeee its my birthday..

9.Suprises..we are a suprise family here....

10.That said,the romantic in me tells me that one of the happiest days for me will be the drive from home to my where i walk down the aisle and when i have my first babies or rather babies...yeah would twins...date not known...for now any drive whether thru the villages to gape @nature or the sea side to see the waves lash by or marketing with mom...

FINGERLICKING GOOD DEEP YELLOW,PUMKIN @ CHICKEN THAI COCONUT CURRY @ NIGELLA LAWSON-@I HEART COOKING CLUBS..

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:58:00 +0000

I aint a resolution making kind . . Now now do i wanna send a not very good impression . .no but thats the truth. . . But i love to look forward to a great year and a happily gay one at that . .and yeah go to gym or aerobic class regularly and ok ok looks like am already making some resolutions aint i? And jus a bit back who was it that said. . I dont make any resolutions. . . That said lets wander a bit towards our exciting topic of interest shall we or its more like to the main point of interest is it?

And the RESOLUTION THEME is the party theme of the week at I HEART COOKING CLUBS ....(what do we do???oh we have tonns of fun cookin nigella in our kitchens every week or sometimes several times a week)this week and yeah i hop skip jump all along very happily....

And why do these little Pumpkin pics adorn all around...well coz fell in love with this little pumpkin carriage as soon as it walked in that door...cute aint it???Will it turn into a sleigh to take sowman around at midnight...lets wait and watch....

One thing i would resolute every single day is to blend eliciousness with flavour and say cut down on the fat or cal a bit. .like say maybe olive oil for butter. .(so muc for everything cant think of any more for now) every drop makes an ocean so i begin with this lovely coconut curry with an absolutely lite coconut milk that yet retains it great flav and yeah despite this change nigella rocked again.

Now where baked goods go its all butter coz i dont eat 7 or 12 cookies or cuppycakes in a day (lets forget about the days i do for now and finish off with a nice mug of hot chocolate and marshmellows for now shall we? ) does this sound any where close to a resolution post? I so hope it does. . . . Oh and im ever so determined to find a few cookie cutters , cute heart shaped and teddy bears and all those shapes that spell cute. . . . . . Candy and sprinkles this year. . . .

And try to get as much as baking goodies as possible so that these not being around limit my baking. . . I have no walmart or one of those bakery supply delightful stores that i can just wallk up the aisle with all my pocket money and mommy jus round the corner and drop all those goodies right into my basket. . . You get nothing here and at times takes me months to get my hands grabbing an ingredient or tool but of course i survive....

Now didn i just make a 100 resolutions just now. . And i think i make a few every single day and my to do list is updated all the time too. . .

So much for all said i am after all a resoluting gal aint i ?

Now for the recipe i actually cooked it up last year with this lovely pumkin and twice round and now if last year sounds like a long time. . . .was just a few days back . . .i find myself taking over lunches and dinners more often with a few cookies in between and tend to sway towards Nigella's recipes and truly wanna explore her exciting whole world before we wind up this term so truly there's no missing any week for me. . . . Hopefully. . . . . .and we have just begun our 2nd week of jan and the eager beaver me already wonders, now aloud, what the next four themes will be. . . .

Was chosing for a nice lunch curry and this one seemed apt to the t,i had a pumkin sitting pretty in the kitchen anyeah all i had to do was replace all the seafood with chicken and add some veggies...yeah we did have shrimps sitting in the freezer but its been a few days of seafood(i havent been able to post our italian grilled fish com crosto e parmesano and lemon garlic grilled fish and herby grilled fish with greens coz i couldn take pics but believe me these will all be repeats and will post em soon) and today was decided as a meaty day and here i was...

I dont usually get attracted to packaged pastes as i love to grind my own but dunno why i picked this tiny packets of thai tom yum paste & green curry paste from our supplier last week-maybe coz i found 'em cute ...and here they were actually usefull now coz i didn have galangal(though the sustitute for that is sadi to be gonger with fresh turmeric root-similiar flav,i did try this one)

And i wasnt going to buy the red or yellow curry paste so i mixed the 2 i had in stock,jus a wee bit...not to up the spiciness they lend...

ADAPTED FROM THE GORGEOUS KITCHENS OF NIGELLA LAWSON

Marinated 2.5 cups of bite sized cut chicken in a little of the following
~~~~chicken stock powder
~~~~fish sauce
~~~~dash of turmeric
~~~~dash o sugar
~~~~lime juice
~~~~1/2 tbh of green and red curry paste

So my marinade had all the flavours of the curry seepin happily into the chicken as it sat in its glass bowl,under cling wrap in the refrigeration

2)PLACE ALL OF THE FOLLOWING IN A POT AND KEEP ON THE FLAME...
~~~~400 ml coconut milk mixed with 700ml water and stock powder(chicken)-this i did coz wnted a v lite(somebody who cant eat too muc coconut stopped by n dis worked well),not creamy curry so for a creamy curry increase the coconut milk/cream and reduce the water
~~~~2 pink shallots cubed
~~~~2 stalks lemon grass cut into 1/3rd and bruised with a flat knife to release th aromatic flavours
~~~~3 kaffir lime leaves crushed(dried)
~~~~1 tbh sugar
~~~~2 tbh fish sauce
~~~~1/2 tsp turmeric
~~~~a few curry leaves bruised(optional)

As it comes to a boil whisk with a whisk until smoth and combined and add in the marinated chicken.
Simmer till chicken is almost done.
NOTE-The curry leaves get added coz little b was nostalgic about moms lovely goan chicken curry and i was cooking nigella(ofcourse mommy gave me a big fat green signal) and so in when those fresh ,garden picked curry leaves that he cycled around and picked(ofcourse the goan curry will be featured soon too)

3)Add 1 cup of pumkin cubed,green peas and robustly simmer till just done coz the pumpkin will continue cooking as it cools.

Serve with loads of cilantro/parsely/chopped spinach

A decilious curry even with a thinned out coconut milk....everybody loved it and it tasted fantasticly better the next day(always the case with a coconut curry)

THE LAST DANCE...@GLORIOUS SUNSET OF 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:04:00 +0000

A picture speaks louder than words and these pics are very special coa they are the last sunset of 2009

...i love sunsets with a good espresso & a good brownie or cookie in hand(oh a sandwhich should do too,depends on the taste buds at that moment)

A golden sunsets heralds in a beautiful moonlit sky to a glorious morning and here a morning welcoming a brand new year....

A sunset is a beautifull glow of nature-an example of Gods splendid creation galore.

Whether its simply gazing into the fading orangey glow or sipping expresso,i love a good sunset-every sunset is that!!!

Memories that are etched by a sunset are like none other and the gold lends a glow to ur face too.

Oh love to sit by the beach,as the winds are cooling,watching the beautifully gorgeous sun setting -whats in hand aint important,only the sunset with the waves lashing by the shore almost forming a background more than foreground as the golden hued rays reflect with crystal like perfection.....

And here's wishing u all a rocking ,fantaboulous new year with joy and laughter bubling thru and great sucess in all you do.....

APPETIZERS @ CHICKEN CROQUETTES @ RECIPES2 RIVAL

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:40:00 +0000

Now on 7th december my inbox read an email to me that i have been accepted at recipes to rival..... Yippeee ...i was wanting to be a part of this lovely group since october or earlier -they have these most delicious recipes.
We had 3 recipes given to us this month and if not for the want of ingredients,i'd tried am all three...
For this month of recipes to rival LORI OF LORI'S LIP SMACKING GOODNESS,was the host and she has a collection of some scrumptious recipes on her blog and these lovely ones prove that....
Now will post in some more details and the lovely recipe in a bit ...for now here are the pics...

here are the ones all ready to fry.........

and here is the batch to be grilled(without the flour & egg coating)

the same before grilling 'em

and here they are jus outa the griller w/o a drop of oil-experiment sucessfull

and here are the fried ones all dressed up to serve-they are really good....

and shaped them in 2 shapes -both are great

and they go really well with some crunchy ice berg ,pomogranate seeds & parsely

OK ..THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED IN A BIT.....

and do hop by HERE for fantastic RECIPES FROM RECIPES TO RIVAL....

MY VERY FIRST SUGAR DOLL AWARD ALONWITH A YUMMY HONEY GINGER CHICKEN STIR FRY.

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:52:00 +0000

MY FIRST EVER AWARD IS PRESENTED TO ME BY A BEAUTIFUL PERSON,CHAYA ,WRITE OF THE LOVELY BLOG,SWEET & SAVOURY SAYS IT ALL!!!!!
oH MY very first award and am so so excited and thrilled-actually got an award....OH Chaya,she a sweet heart and i love her blog and before rambling on-THANX A TON A GRATEFUL HEARTFUL POOHY HUUGGY TO YA!!!And congrats on ur award and thanx a ton for passing it on to me!!!!
You are so sweet and made d days of us so many and also gave us the oppurtinity to makes another 10 lovely bloggers days.
Another wonderfull pointer is the lovely little note she wrote about each blogger-so so sweet and cute!!!
And i'm going to do exactly the same!!!
If someone can tell me where i can find a domestic Godess award i would love to give that to CHAYA@SWEET AND SAVOURY SAYS IT ALL-coz she truly is ones-she not only bakes and cooks a lot but manages so well to put up her delicious posts for us all to share and cooks gluten free and healthy too...all thru a busy schedule and has a class whom she bakes cookies for(oh i always imagine 'em smiling at the cookies she brings)and she gives the ones no remembers too-so muc to learn!
I would have loved to put up this post earlier but didn coz i wanted to put it by alonwith a cook along from something from Chaya's post-wanted to make it a little special and though there is a lot lot(almost evrything really),i have bookmarked from her blog,she jus posted this one and there were exactly fillets to be cooked up for lunch today so i thought this would be perfect and yummy...

And it reAlly was....fantastic finger licking good-cant wait to try a few more of ur recipes Chaya.

Honey Ginger Chicken with Peppers (stir-fry)
ADAPTED FROM CHAYA'S BLOG

Ingredients:
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Canola oil(i used olive oil)
1 pound chicken cutlets, sliced into a quarter inch strips
1/2 teaspoon ginger-fresh,finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder(used fresh garlic here)
1 red pepper, sliced thinly(green pepper coz we didn have red pepper)
cooked rice (basmati rice)

NOTES-
The chicken was already defrosted and i had around 3 hours before we had this so what i did was take a little bit of evrything from the ingredients and marinated the chicken in it and there it sat in the fridge till it was time to stir fry it
this one's really quick to put together and all u need is to keep the peppers cut and garlic & ginger minced.

METHOD
In a small bowl, stir together honey, vinegar and soy sauce.
Heat a large skillet and add one tablespoon olive oil.
Add chicken and stir until opaque but not cooked through. (3 minutes)
Transfer to a plate. Put aside.
Add 1 tablespoon oil and ginger and garlic. Stir for thirty seconds.
Add peppers and stir for two minutes.
Add soy mixture and bring to a boil.
Return chicken to skillet and toss until sauce thickens and chicken is cooked thoroughly. (3 minutes)

I served over a garlic onion rice with almonds & rasins...

This is really delicious-thanx for the rcipe Chaya...its really good...

And now for this lovely SUGAR DOLL AWARD THAT I WANNA GIVE 10 WONDERFULL SUGAR DOLL BLOGGERS WHO NOW TO ME ARE MY DEAR FRIENDS...ALL SPECAIL IN THEIR OWN WAY AND THEY DO ROCK BLOGOSPHERE....
CHAYA OF SWEET&SAVOURY SAYS IT ALL-
i dont know if i can pass one of these awards to her but if i do ,maybe we'll be passing 'em on to each other till one of us stops... :-)))
So can i give u this award say unofficially or something?
The more i say about her the less it is,she's amazing and not only cooks and bakes a lot but posts 'em all too ,to share every delicious meal with us.ANd she cooks gluten free and really healthy for her dear hubby and to top it all-all with loads of love!!!
And she bakes all those lovely cookies ,for her Class-i can only imagine 'em smiling with a heartfelt joy.
And above all she's a wonderful human-yeah she tops!!!
aND NOW FOR THE 10 LOVELY BLOGGERS(am sorry if i missed any one but i have another one lined up)

1)ISABEL OF SITIO DAS DELICIAS
which really applies to her lovely blog as it means a site for deliciousness
Oh she's my portuguese friend and an absolute darling-her words are so so sweet ,like honey and her recipes are delicious.
Ola Isabel,este award de SUGAR DOLL e para uma amiginha queridinha,anginha como muitos grandes bejinhos e abracos.

2)JAONNE OF EATS WELL WITH OTHERS
Joanne has a wonderfull world @ EATS WELL WITH OTHERS and her every elicious creation,every single one of them ,begins with a very cute humourous story ,that leads to the path up her kitchen to the table with great food and she write it so well....with apt describtions...
And boy,besides studying at medical school,she runs and i dont mean running other crazy(with her cuteness)but running marathons...whew...if i took my gym classes that well!!!!
And jus a bit ago Joanne i got to know ,hey it Joanne's blog birthday and she's got cake for us all so here's my little present for her along with her lovely cake...

3)GERI OF HEART AND SOUL COOKING .
She's a doll my very first follower and(meant so muc to a, 'nobody even leaves me a little hi blog!!!') visiting her delights me -love her cookies and everything else.
Ofcourse i follow her blog as i do every single one here and i love how she captures the whole essence of a cookie with one single cute picture what i cant with so many!!!!

4)VINNI FROM AMEHLIA DIGITAL
My newer pal,oh what lovely thoughts of love and care fill her beautifull blog and we have a common love-JESUS,besides other things...and loads of delcious recipes too!!!!
Loved reading her recent article recipes of friends.And the whole write reflects what a beautiful person with a lovely heart she is....
She's a doll and u'll love her too!!!

4)THE LOVELY RENA & GANG AT HAVE THE CAKE
I dont know if i can, but i simply cant help awarding this lovely baking group i was introduced to thanx to Jaonne and i surely can pass this to 'em! Oh yes ,am a part of it too!!!!
Rena is the sweet one who let me in here and am so so glad to be baking with HAVE THE CAKE where she brings together the bakers around the globe to bake a goodie....truly a sugar doll...
Every month one of the members choses a baking delight and we all bake it and i like the way she says-no bake or cake police will come at ur door if u delay....Love 'em!!!

5)I HEART COOKING CLUBS
This really would go the lovely gurls who keep this site and yeah their individual blogs rock too....
And they are http://girlichef.blogspot.com/, http://livinginthekitchenwithpuppies.blogspot.com/ AND http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/ are the ones who plan the lovely posts for each theme and the layouts too....GREAT GALS and they hae great individual blogs too.
And yeah its not only about savoury but loads of sugar dolls popping in with dessert and in betweens too.
They work hard to keep a great spirit and come up with lovely posts ,pics and collages in line with the theme ,every single week,where we cook up nigella's recipes & yeah a great blog to find elicious nigella's creations & meet lovely people too!!!
Yeah i met a whole world of wonderful bloggers here who are fantastic gals too.

6)LISA OF PARSELY,SAGE,DESSERTS AND LINE DRIVES
U know i met Lisa thru Chaya -Chaya has been researching choco chip cookies and she mentioned Lisa's levain bakery CC cooj=kie and i hopped by and now i'm hooked-not to cookies but her blog thats filled with sweet delights.
What i love about this sweetie is that despite having loads loads of bloggers writing in to her and asking for tips,she replies to evry single one and helps us all in solving out sweet problems-a sugar doll too aint she?
Oh and dont forget to check her absolutely cute and beautifull gingerdoll lite house while u r there.
YEah every body here are jus so wonderfull persons that am loving doing this post.

7)ARLENE OF THE FOOD OF LOVE
Im a new flyer on her blog and will sure be frequent one ,not only coz her recipes are so so good and her pictures ozze deliciousness...but also coz her smile is so infectious ...jus speaks a lot...a whole lot of wonderfulness about her...
and i follow her blog too,so wont miss out on any goodies here nor her!!!

8)JAIMEANNE OF THE SWEETEST KITCHEN
This gorgeous gal is all about cuppycakes and simply the best -u'll love her to droll for cuppy cake pics-and she is also last months winner who chose the wonderfull coconut as this months ingredient.
And she's a sweetheart too-as if all her cuppycake adventures werent enough to make her a sugar doll,well she's a lovely person and has really been there for me thru this cuppy cake event when my system has been down and wonky and driving me nutty.

9)GIRLICHEF WHERE ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE KITCHEN
Heather is girlchef and girlchef is Heather and she's really cute-a suagr doll too-and love her take on food and how she landed in culinary school.
Hop on to her blog to get to know her better-she got loads of delicous stuff with super pics just for u....
I wait to droll over the nigella stuff she comes up with every week.

10)AND LASTLY BUT DEFINATELY NOT THE LEAST IS NATALIE FROM NAT'S BAKING IN NEW YORK CITY
Her blog is 'girls are made of sugar and spice'...aint that perfect for me to add sugar dolls.
Oh baked goodies flood her lovely site-from muffins to really cute cookies. Dont know her muc yet but so looking foward to the list of 10 things about her we dont know.
The joys of spring really overtake me here and also in a hurry to get this post up asap ,am sorry if have made any mistakes and point 'em out to me and will correct 'em asap.

Now what u do is,save the picture of the award and copy to ur post,write about 10 things about urself-oh we all wanna know the wonderfull u better and pass on the award to 10 wonderfull bloggers
And to begin with here are 10 sugar doll facts about me at random..
u may know a few of 'em if u read my journey of love and more about me in the right hand columns.SO here goes...

1)Im a total romantic and fall head over heels or truly madly deeply in love as u say ,every single day, with love ,life ,food,music and my family and to sum that up my days beginsand end with love, zest, zing and passion:) . Oh the things that make my world go round and gourmet does too...
And yes i am a total candy pink floss romantique,round the clock ,i am so in love all the time & i think my heart love me for that-everythings as the good side of it is!!!

2)I love love love ballroom music(alongwith with slow & all the my fav movie tracks et all) as in all the waltzing,tangos and the like so yeah that includes dancing too...

3)I love winnie the pooh and have a little of his parenphalia too which i love love love collecting.

4)My christmasy mood begins in november ans ends somewhere in feb when the valentines mood begins so dont be suprised to continue seeing all the reds in my pics.

5)The year has seen me at the recieving end of goodies galore-my 1st 160gb ipod,my first computer ever -this cute laptop, and now a camera.And yeah a hamilton beach is already brought in buts its in another state,so will have to wait.

6)I love and am so enjoying bogging though i just signed in outa curiosity in june 09 but actually began blogging in mid september when my family gifted me this laptop and i so ove the wonderful pals like u that am meeting here.

7)My journey of being a foodie began before i walked(or rather ran) into my teens and have written a bit on that in my right column in 'the journey of love'.

8)I live in a state where even to buy basic sprinkles i have to research,leave alone all those cute stuff at kaf and in my wishlist.

9)I have this inbron quality of writing really really long statements and thats why this list is sooooooo lonnnnnnnnnnnngggg.

10)And most importantly i love Jesus,and He's my reason to say yes to love...yes to life and having me enjoy life in any given situation and loving every moment of my joyous ,bubbling with laughter from within days of my life...

I REALLY wanted to get this up in dec2009 ,on the day i got the award but couldn the main reason being i wanted to cook up something from Chaya's blog and secondly my laptops being truly a bad bad girl the last few days coz of which i am behind posting-for the last 2days of dec, i have cut down on so muc sleep to get my posts up coz it not only hangs every so often but also refuses to upload pics-what a combination ....
But now have just downloaded i8(blogger doesnt work well on the opers browser i love to use-the blogger comments boxes simply refuse to open up)and have discovered i can load pics directly thru picasa so hopefully things will be so much smoother.
Also linking this post to OUR KRAZY KITCHENS to Chaya's post who hosts evry monday...
And wishing u all a fantastically great happy new year dearies...
love u all....

A PORTUGUESE COCONUT CAKE &CUPPY CAKES-QUEQUINHOS ESPICAIS DE ISABEL

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:12:00 +0000

This post is very special not only coz i bake it for a special day in my life but also the heaRtfull story it comes with....

This is how ISABEL,OF THE WONDERFULL BLOG began her post about these cakkeys that she specially baked for me-i was so so so touched and overwhelmed with my adorable virtual pal and now we r in each others heart as well.....

Para uma linda amiga virtual que me solicitou uma receita com Crunch, a Sugar Plum, autora do lindo Blog vanillastrawberryspringfields, hoje pus em prática esta receita. São bolinhos obtidos da junção do coco àquele chocolante crocante que fazem as delícias de miúdos e graúdos: o chocolate Crunch. Aconselho vivamente para quem gostar de um bolinho estaladiço com sabor a coco. Sugar, espero que gostes, assim como todos os visitantes do Sítio das Delícias que resolvam experimentar.....

Honestly Isabel had me at Queques Crunch Sugar Plum,which translates to "CAKKEYS CRUNCH SUGAR PLUM"..........

Worst parT here was coudnt comment awhile on her post coz many a time the profile box doesnt open for blogger blogs where commenting is embedded below the post -it jus gets stuck and i have to keep re loading the page till it goes thru and it could take a few days too for this....

So i darted her an email which she was sweet enough(as ever)to post.....

Her heartfelt love over whelmed me-we barely connected awhile ago thru r blogs and a few emails and me casually asked her for a specific portuguese recipe,she went all the way....

Not only emailed it to me but posted it too and specially for me and i wanna dedicate this post right back to her....her as a wonderful human,

Isabel as a woderful blogger who has all the gorgeousness that portuguese delights have to offer and its a wonderful world at her site O SITIO DAS DELICIAS-rightly named as a site for delicacies galore......

O Isabel, mia queridinho amiginha virtual-muitissmo obrigado para esta recieta delicias

Isabel tu es uma buneca-AND THIS IS THE MESSAGE I WAS SO TRYING TO LEAVE @ HER LOVELY BLOG-she's so loving & affectionate & sweet.....and really tugged hard at my heart strings and really my first portuguese blogging buddy...
tu es uma anjinha-primera te tudo i'm sorry para repondera tao tarde
mais nao posso commentara sobre pocos blogues de blogger ,nao sei
porque porciso estou escrevera email com muito muito amor para ti
amorzinho que tu mia desta.....
esto momento estou tentar Enviar um comentário sobre o blogue mais nao
posse(am trying at the moment to leave u a note with all my love on ur
blog but it just aint going thru)
podos postar mia esta message para seu blogue(can u post this message
to ur blog till i get my laptop or settings sorted)
eu adoro tudo de sitio das delicias de isabel.....

Que lindos e maravilhos esta quequinhos....gostei muito e vou fazera
para toda familia que juntna na 28th dec....
nao se commo para desser obrigado.......
tambem para palavres genti
delicia, adorei.com muistismo amor e grandes bejinhos muitos e abracos

AND MY DEAR ISABEL REPLIED SO SO SWEETLY ,I MEAN HER WORDS ARE SO FILLED WITH HONEY ,REFLECTING THE AMAZING PERSON SHE IS....
obrigada pelas plavras amáveis que me enviaste. és uma pessoa formidável! Eu peço desculpa por não escrever em inglês, escrevo pouca coisa, coisas simples e para te agradecer, não podia me limitar a palavras simples. Assim, quero dizer-te que talvez não fossem esses bolinhos que tu procuravas, pois tu és capaz de muito melhor, pois tens tantas receitas lindíssimas no teu blog, com fotos belíssimas, mas foram feitas com todo o carinho a pensar em ti!
Decidi postar o teu comentário nos comentários, pois queria deixar arquivada a tua mensagem carinhosa no meu cantinho, já que a tua amizade já está arquivada no meu coração!
beijinho muito grande!

a few of 'em all together.........

Oh her portuguese is absolutely adorably sweet and love her for that and more and i simply had to bake these adorable cakkeys and a little heart too 4a special midnight cut between jus a handfull of us @fly and though we had loads of cakes comong thru out the next day,this one was very very special...
Obrigado O mia amiginha isabel,
muitos muitos grandes bejinhos ....

ADAPTED FROM ISABEL'S BLOG FULL OF DELICIOUSNESS
3 ovos(EGGS)
150 g de manteiga amolecida(BUTTER SOFTENNED)
150 g de farinha com fermento(SELF RAISING FLOUR)
100 g de coco ralado(GRATED COCONUT)
140 g de açúcar(SUGAR)
150 g de chocolate Crunch(OR CHOCO CHIPS)

1)pRE HEAT THE oven to 180*c.
Break up the crunch chocolate into pieces if using.
2)Beat the eggs with the sugar till it pales in color.
3)Add the flour & really soft butter and fold in well.
4)TIp in the grated coconut and beat in well & lastly add the choco chippys or chocolate crunch
5)Pour into prepared cupcake tins or a small heart cake tin and bake till springs back to touch

(I got my heart as well as 4 small cuppys)
The only change i made is added a few lightly roasted hazlenuts and some vanilla extract and cardomon for flavour....

FROSTING....

Very similiar to this one i used for these cookies here ,except that i warmed up a little coconut milk with water & vanilla and added to the confectioners sugar that i ground with a few cashewnuts...

Oh this frosting born in my kitchen today was so so good ...its jus a keeper...and yeah have fun with the toppings...

Oh the coconutty flavour totally shines thru the next day....

u know i scrapped a few crumbs-ok quite a bit actually and made 3 balls ,like cup cake pops kinda and kept 'em in and believe ,they were so so good the next day that there was no time to dip 'em in chocolate and dress 'em up.....

I AM ALSO LINKING THIS LOVELY BAKE FOR 'WHAT DID U BAKE TODAY' @ KRAZY KITCHEN WHERE THERE HAVE A PARTY WITH A LITTLE THEME EVRY SINGLE DAY...HOP BY TO DROLL OVER DELICIOUS INSPIRATIONS

AND ALSO TO THE LOVELY FOODIE FRIDAY...JUST FOR FOODIES LIKE U AND ME!!!

AND TO A CARNIVAL(i love carnivals with the word food in 'em)FOOD ON FRIDAYS

AND YEAH HOW CAN WE MISS OUR LOVELY CHOCOLATE RECIPE FRIDAY.

AND FRIDAY FOODS HERE....

ANH YEAH WE HAVE THE LOVELY FRIDAY FEASTS TOO...HOP BY...

HO!!!HO!!!HO!!!I DID IT TOO.....THE TRADITIONAL ITALIAN WAY

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:12:00 +0000

Whew....i actually finally did it what with my lappy bugging and dont ask me how many times it hung and how many times i uploaded the pics and how many drafts got saved w/o the pics,with me jus trying to save one....whew!!!!

And though my i did it!!! inspiration was Chaya..i actually did it -applies to my whole situation here....

Italian biscotti has held my attention from my very first crunchy bite...its different and didn think one day i'd bake 'em some day and here today on the thresh hold...no no...have crossed the thresh hold of baking 'em...

I say this coz a few decembers back,i think it was high school,i looked in awe at the biscotti lined up at an absolutely cute chocolatey quaint hand baked stuff home bakery and in awe of the gorgeous baker too-she's really good and we have picked up her goodies many a time...

And here we get biscotti only at the resorte cake shops otherwise and then i read about this great biscotti maker in new delhi who baked for the who's who and page 3 of delhi ,even Mrs.SOnia Gandhi...need i say more....i had his number too but never did really end up ordering from him....

THere are 2 reasons am baking a biscotti,ofcourz i always wanted too but this month at this LOVELY GROUP-HAVE THE CAKE-which am so proud to be a part of -Collen picked on biscotti and i was very thrilled about this one but u know coming from a land of more chai than cafe drinkers i still haven spotted chai spice on the shelves so was on the look out for a good recipe...and am more into a bite of choco chips and jam yeah....

On my journey of baking 12 cookies i bumped into another fantastic blog-SUSANS...and she had a cookie festival on...its great and i send all my cookies in there and so did she have a great post on biscotti making......
And honestly she had me at 'traditional'.......
Loved her step by step recipe-a first timer needed it & it had me going the nutty choco way jus what i had planned in for and the tweety tweaky that am i halved the almonds to accomodate my mix of milk & semi sweet choco chips.....gorgeous truly.....

RECIPE ADAPTED FROM SUSANS BLOG
3/4 CUP ALMONDS
3/4 CUP CHOCO CHIPS(MILK & semisweet)
1/2 CUP CONFECTIONERS SUGAR
1/2 CUP LIGHT BROWN SUGAR
1/2 TSP GROUND CINNAMON
A FEW PODS OF CARDOMON SEED WHOLE(great addition of flvour)
1 TSP BAKING SODA
1 1/4 CUP AP FLOUR
1.5 JUMBO EGGS OR 2 SMALLER ONES
1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT
4 TBH MELTED BUTTER
1)Preheat oven to 350 degress f.
Place almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 10-14 mins.
2)In a small bowl whisk eggs with vanilla ,till well blended.
3)Now i a large bowl.hand mix toasted almonds(now a little cooled),choco chips,sugars,cinnamon,flour and baking powder.
Add the whisked eggs.(SAVE A WEE BIT TO BRUSH THE TOPS)
4)Work batter together with lightly floured hands and it'll be sticky here but keep going by squeezing the batter with ur hands till a dough starts to come together
(i love these little but v imp details Susan has taken care of coz for a 1st timer like me i know exactly what to expect)
5)Once the dough is nice and firm,divide into 2 equal pieces and shape into logs.-Its does stay a little sticky but lightly floured hans do the trick here.(2.5 inches wide and around
6)Now here what i did was that since my dough was already kneaded well instead of adding my choco chippys to in corporate to the dough i dug 'em in between for a chocolate layer.(didnt get the chocolate layer throughout though)
7)Brushed the tops with beaten egg(i saved a bit of the egg beaten with vanilla)
8)Now bake in a pre-heated oven for around 35mins -4o mins and cool for 20-30 mins before u begin to slice 'em.
9)Now my slicing wasnt perfect and i did have a few breakages ,though i did follow the cutting with a serrated knife in a see-saw fashion and however much id love to blame the poor knife guess it was me!
10)Bake again for 30mins and let cool in the warm oven-they were just right for our crunchy crispy palatte.

Love the word Biscotti -twice baked -coz this is what i do all the time coz i love 'em crunchy cookies so so much....
Ok the melted butter is an addition to the recipe after i read Chaya's post-infact almost had made her recipe but my next biscotti is definately from kaf,thanx to Chaya..they look good.

I substituted baking soda for powder coz the best cookie i have baked have soda in'em and then thought maybe im wrong and added a pinch of baking powder but guess my pinch wasnt really a pinch cozwhen they were warm they had this barely there after taste which vanished later,thank God!

A few things i learnt about melting chocolate ,was melting milk choco for these cookies the other day and added a few drops water instead of the butter i planned and there i had a roughly mess so added a few tsps of milk and the damage was reversed....
So though i had thought i would dip a few in chocolate i thought a simple coconut sugar frosting would go with the taste so had confectioners sugar with warmed coconut milk and a vanilla bean and loved this flavour so muc-it wen well with my biscotti...

AInt very happy with my pics this time ,though have jus been gifted a digi cam by my fly-maybe its me ,have yet to get the hang of macro shooting,i hope its me and not the camera :-(((

aND friends will u please please please take a few moments and vote for me HERE for this months I HEART CUPPY CAKKES...please dont say no and the deadlines 1st Jan...
Or head straight to SWEETEST KITCHEN and vote for me at the right hand side poll.(sugar at vanillastrawberryspringfields)yeah i do value ur time and am grateful for ur vote-thanx a ton....
AND A HAPPY BRITE LOVELY NEW YEAR!!!
And i simply am too bubbling over not to mention this one,have just recieved My VERY FIRST AWARD from Chaya @ Sweet and savoury(her lovely biscotti is jus next to mine at have the cake) and within a few hours (ok say 24)i recieve my second from Geri of Heart and soul cooking-oh i cant thank u'll enough ,both wonderfull buddies whose blogs i love but yeah will post all about it soon ,am working on it already and th little delay is for a little gesture am going to do along with the posts so u will read about it in a bit(please give me time)and yeah will pass on both the awards to my wonderful friends soonnnnnn......
And yeah am on FOODIE FRIDAY this week,i mean how can i miss this lovely foodie's day...i cant....
And then there is the lovely STOP AND SMELL THE CHOCOLATES with WOULD U LIKE CHOCOLATE WITH THAT?

AND FRIDAY FOOD that comes with loads of tip and a really looking foward to interveiw this week.

CRISPY FRIED SALT & PEPPER CALAMARI'S /SQUIDDYS/LULAS @NIGELLA LAWSON @IHCC

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Small plates,snacks or appetizers are so so welcome in the holiday season and we love to gorge on 'em even otherwise and my all time favs are rissoes de camarao and emphadinhas and croquettes and.....ok i better stop else will end up listing 'em all .....AND THIS IS THE THEME OF THIS WEEKS I HEART COOKING CLUBS WHERE WE SO LOVE AND ENJOY EVERY MOMENT IN TIME OF COOKING @ NIGELLA LAWSONS FANTASTIC RECIPES....

Nigella sure does know the how to invent in her kitchen the best of appetizers,thru any season ,be it summers, christmas or bitey moments and she shines thru 'em all....
And so do girlichef, Adventures with the Woods, BigSisLilSis & Living in the Kitchen with Puppies-the lovely members of I HEART COOKING CLUBS!!!!
Loved the small write up up ,yeah indeed SMALL IS BIGGGG
aND THAT LOVELY COLLAGE RIGHT HERE and also check in what delicious ideas the rest of the lovely gang cook up...

Well its really difficult to single one out (and i actually had another meaty one but no pics so no posting)and this one rocks too!

well managed a few pics till they were all goneeeeeeeeeee.......and am jus about getting the hang of my brand new digital camera and my very own...SMALL IS BIG RITE HERE TOO....

YEah am super joyous about this one gizmo and its really a cool camera which my dear little b chose and picked and my parents gifted to me before the clock struck 12.....
And so my first savoury shot with this cam are these sqiddys which instead of the traditional ringa rossies ,we had 'em cubed..

Ok so instead of yapping a bit more shall we head on strait to the 'making of these crunchy squiddys' and then the yummy revs...

ADAPTED FROM THE CRUNCHY MUNCHY KITCHENS OF NIGELLA LAWSONS WORLD
honestly i weighed nothing..jus went with a portion of squiddys and will try my best to portion it out...
1)MARINATE AROUND A CUP OF SQUIDDYS/CALAMARI IN THE FOLLOWING
----freshly squeezed lime/lemon juice
----a tsp or 2 of whole peppers lightly crushed
----salt to taste
2)NOW TAKE A GOOD AMOUNT OF CORNFLOUR IN A ZIPLOCK POUCH(well i took in quite a bit that my calamari/lulas were totally snow covered) AND ROLL IN AND RUB IN THE CALAMARI WELL TILL COVERED.
3)hEAT SOME OLIVE OIL IN A PAN(i shallow fried 'em and kept adding a little oil when things sizzled in a pan) and fry well on both sides to a golden brown hue.

Oh these are absolutley elicicous and crunchy and they did stay crunchy awhile and with a little dollop of sour cream dressing or ketchup or a squeeze of lime juice or on their own they rock....
And here's my request here again for all the help i need for the voting for I HEART CUPPYS CAKES....
VOTING IS HERE SO PULEEEZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ,PINKY PROMISE PLEAAASE GIVE ME UR VOTE...THANX A TON....

OLA ...HOLA...HIYA...HI....I NEED UR VOTES....PLEASEEEEEEEEE HELLLLLPPP

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Hi my dearest buddy's,pals and friends in blogosphere.TOday i so need ur help and a few moments of ur time...

I aint a high reader blog or have a high following high traffic but what i so cherish and love are the few wonderful people am just about meeting and loving u.

I love reading all u come up with in the kitchen and stopping by and leaving u a hi (though my laptop so is bugging with blogger comment boxes that are embedded below the post,including my own which i can treply on but yeah now i make it a oint to leave a reply on each of ur personal blogs when u leave me a little note of love and enjoy stopping by @ each of ur worlds too).
Now awhile ago i posted about THESE LOVELY GOAN PORTUGUESE CUPPY CAKES and have entered these for a very sweet contest I HEART CUPPY CAKES and now the votes are up http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/ @ JAimeAnnes world where she hosts this month.

I wont get even half way thru this without ur help so please do take a few moments of ur really precious time and do vote for me HERE.
(psst ...psst...last month i got no votes :-((( )

Infact i baked another portuguese coconut cake yesterday which was v special but its too late to enter that one now and i dont even have the post ready.

Batica has a lot of emotional value too to me coz i have roots in goa and yeah we have loads of goan portuguese food...

And before i take any more of ur time,i do so muc wanna thank thank thank u ,loads of tonns of cartloads for the vote....

Happy holidays and keep rocking....

A BASIC EGGLESS CHRISTMAS COOKIE GEARS UP TO CHRISTMASY...

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:43:00 +0000

FROM A BASIC EGGLESS COOKIE RECIPE TO A CHOCO CHIPPY FILLED ,THUMBS IN THUMBALINA and CHOCO DIPPED CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Your watching Rachel Allens Bake said the presenter and yeah i sure was ,coz her basic cookies with her class were sitting in the oven and i knew that if i bake 'em a little longer these would jus be the right cookies....

This was a few months back and i really dunno why i waited this long to try this one out...its lovely,tweaked it a wee bit with extra choco chippy's and my expierence with soda bi carb has always been good with cookies so added a wee bit.

i usually halve a recipe for a reason(besides i'll have to bake again real quick),i have only 2 cookie trays that aint too bigg(yeah i need to get get 2 good ones) and this works well coz i leave 'em and run along with other errands and they are done-i always leave a cookie to cool in the oven coz i love the crispiness it adds.....

ADAPTED FROM RACHEL ALLENS BAKING WONDERS 'BAKE'

110 grams butter, softenned(salted)
55 grams(1/2 cup)confectioners/icing sugar
zest of a lemon +vanilla essence
5 OZ (140 grams-1cup+2 tbh) flour
1/4 tsp soda bicarbonate
100 grams (3/4 cup)choco chips(mixed white,milk and semisweet)

1.Beat ur softenned butter and cream well till soft.
2. Add the suagr n beat in well.
3. Tip in the flour and soda bicarb and the choco chips and bring a soft dough together with light hands.

4.Rolled a few into balls and flattenned,a few rolled in cinnamon sugar and thumbs in AND red & green jam filled...

and a few with a fork (just got 17 cookies outa these)Some of the milky choco chipys melted well into the cookie forming a layer of gooey chocolate inbetween.....

These are the chocolate dippy ones with milk chocolate, i added a few drops of water instead of butter,as i did for another confectioners sugar kinda and had the milky chocolate turned into a gooey matty mass which i salvaged with some milk to get some ganache.......
Its a delicious milky choco ganache that set beautifully..........
And decorates very beautifully.........

WISHING U A TWINKLING ,ROCKING, JOY BUBBLING MERRY CHEERY CHRISTMAS

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:47:00 +0000

AND WINNIE THE POOH AND FRIENDS WISHES U DEAR PAL A VERY CHEERY DAY TOO.....
KEEP THE MUSIC PLAYING......

MY FAV SANTA ,THAT SITS TIGHT ON OUR KITCHEN COUNTER ,BAKING COOKIES WITH ME ,JOINS POOHY POOH IN WISHING YOU TOO.........

OH SURE ,ITS A TIME TO INDULGE IN ALL THE LOVE FILLED DELICIOUSNESS TOO.....

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY,ITS ABOUT JESUS,FOR WHOM WE CELEBRATE ,COZ OF WHOSE BIRTHDAY WE HAVE A WONDERFULL LIFE TO CELEBRATE.....

I WISH FOR ALL THE JOY,PEACE,LOVE FREEDOM AND ALL THE GOODIES WE ARE UN FULLFILLED IN OUR HEARTS,W/O,TO BE OURS THRU HIM FOREVER....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS.........WE LOVE UR BIRTHDAY THE WORLD OVER.....

I HEART CUPPY CAKES-BOLO DE BATICA

noreply@blogger.com (Vanillastrawberryspringfields) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Batica-to me it begins & ends with a eliciously rich goan portuguese 'bolo' as in cake,with a rich stori inbetween and thats exactly what am about to begin narrating.....

Flavour unmatched,a elicious cake dessert that fits a local goan concotion ,completely.
I was asked to make a Batica this Dec and so was more than thrilled ,truly, when ,JAIME ANNE,chose COCONUT,and yeah she sure has a lovely blog and is a well deserved winner of last months I HEART CUPPYS alongwith SAMANTHA of SWEET REMEDy for this months I HEART CUPPY CAKE HERO

I may be wrong about this,but what i have personally observed is that most traditional goan delicacies have coconut in plenty in various forms & eggs in plenty ,2 ingredients ,that even today,many a goan home have in surplus in their backyard farms.

Most of these delicacies are flavoured with the aromatic wonder-cardomon.Nutmeg & cinnamon join the rank close after!!!

This is a rich cake with loads of absolutely freshly ground coconut with egg yolks & semolina ,all mixed in a sugar syrup with the addition of whipped egg whites,left to stand awhile(traditionally overnight),and baked to perfection.

I was so so thrilled -that coconuts the hero for this months cupcake coz this cake is close to my heart & we all love to gorge on this one.

FOR THE GORGEOUS BATICA
1 largish COCONUT ,GRATED & GROUND(not v finely,more on the coarser side) IN V LITTLE water/ coconut milk(30 tbh after i ground it-roughly-around 2 cups)
150(v full 1cup) GRAMS SEMOLINA,LIGHTLY ROASTED
1-2 tsp baking powder
325 GRAMS SUGAR
100 grams butter/ghee
4 EGGS,separated
CARDAMOM(21 grnd with 4tbh )
a pinch of salt to taste(do check before adding)

1) MAke a syrup with water (1/2 cup) & sugar.Let cool while u lightly roast the semolina on a pan.
2) beat the butters/ghee with the powdered sugar& cardomons,baking powder&add in the sugar syrup.whisk away.
3)Add semolina thats been lightly roasted.
4)Add ground grated coconut,lightly whisked egg yolks to the syrup butter mixture.

5)Beat egg whites light & fluffy & fold in to the batter a little at a time.
6)Let the rich,already delicous batter stand for 4hours ,upto 7(i dont for more than 4 hours ,though traditionally its kept overnight ,coz it so so much warmer now than it ever was before)

7)Pour into prepared,lined muffin tins ,place ur cut out crusts,if using & bake in a preheated oven(@220*c for the first 15mins & then reduce to 180*c) till they lightly spring back to touch.
These do take longer then most cakes do!!!

YOU HAVE A MOIST GORGEOUS GOAN PORTUGUESE CAKE ,THE FLAV OF WHICH DEVELOP EVEN MORE THE NEXT DAY....

NOTES
-to let the semolina soak awhile in the butter sugar syrup mixture,i added the roasted semonlina & then began grinding the coconut.
-traditionally u dont grind the semolina at all & coconut quite coarsely but u could do it finer but for a traditional taste,as i mentioned,grind the coconut very coarsely.
-add or decrease the sugar to ur taste-this is one recipe u can tweak but wont loose out on flav or texture
-add vanilla(a whole bean) along with cardomoms-it rocks
-baking powder doesnt go in tradionally but i know many a family do add,i did try both-both are equally great.

FOR THE CRAFT CUT-OUTS
iI chose debs 101 pie crust & wrote this down for all butter,when i realised there is a 102 too,just what am looking for...
i reduced the liquid coz it was too much for my mix and i had to sprinkle some flour.
Also i jus made it in the dry grinder of the mixer ,to experiment(i was supposed to use my fingers coz i dont have a pastry blender but just wen with the flow)and it worked out perfect for me.
absolutely flaky pastry...perfect for cut outs that i love,though the freezer was my best friend here....
for liquid i also mixed in the water &vodaka & placed it in the refrigeration.....

1/2 cup + 2 tbh AP flour
1/2 tbh sugar
4-5 tbh butter(arnd 65 grms)-cut into cubes
1/2 tbh vodka,ice cold
1/2 tbh water,ice cold

1)Just the dry grinder (yeah no processor or pastry blender)to blend in the butter into the flour(sifted) & all the sugar(powdered) till it resembles tiny peas.(STOP RIGHT HERE)-i didn

2)When it all begins to come together ,add the chilled vodka & water.

3)Now it comes so easily together,in a mass.
4)Bring it together to a disc,cling wrap & refrigerate for a good 4-5 hours(thats the time u let the cake batter satnd too so works in perfect co-ordination here)

5)Roll out&cut as u love to....have fun.......

This is an absolutely delightfull rich coconut cake,a must try,i never have seen cuppys in these but then i heart cuppy cakkeys so much that i bake even brownies as cuppys and love 'em so so much........

I could add on some frosting surely,but i love it best with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream and the batica warmed a bit in the micro...and u can top it with caramel or golden syrup dessert topping(i'm a loyal lyle's follower)

A SIMPLY DELIGHTFUL,FLOURLESS GOAN-PORTUGUESE 'BOLO DE BATICA'!!!

RICH,LUXURIOUS & THE PRINCESS OF GOAN DESSERTS & BOLO'S TO ME!!!!!!

they taste great w/o any frosting so stuck to the traditional way adding a few cut outs.

And yeah a scoop of meting vanilla icecream and u have a rocking dessert here....

The sugar syrup makes this gorgeous cake really moist.

(my pics havent done any justice at all this time round-the lighting was bad and i had the cell phone with me jus for a short while & then the cuppys were....goneeeeee)

AND HERE'S THE SPOTLIGHT ON THE CUPCAKE HERO PRIZE SPONSORS-oh yeah they rock with their dang cuteness!!!!

And do vote for me right HERE OK...PULEEEEEZEEEEEEEEEEE