Pinku-Enchanted Life

For a long time now every story of abuse against women has boiled my blood. Four years ago becoming the mother of a girl child added a few more notches to the temperature as I became more acutely aware of the inequalities and challenges a woman faces at every step of her life. Media reports on the brutality being meted out, the growing gap in gender ratios and the total lack of empathy amongst the powers that be coupled with remarks too often heard - what can we do....and the helplessness echoed in that statement, propelled me to think of something WE COULD DO. We can go on STRIKE and force men and the society to realize our importance and the need to treat us with understanding and respect as fellow human beings. So here is what I have started and I hope you will join in, for without you it wont work. #WomenOnStrike

The partner got a box of lovely looking strawberries and demanded a whipped cream and strawberries dessert. He sliced and soaked the strawberries in sugar. I decided to better it with a Strawberry cheese cake sans the cheese (that's why the healthy tag) Here is what I did. Used a clean cloth to hang up a cup and half of curd for about 6 hours getting smooth hung curd (one cup) in the process. Once I had the hung curd in place I started assembling the rest of the ingredients. 1 packet Amul's whipping cream (200 ml) 1 packet marie biscuit (large) 125 gms butter 3 tablespoon powdered sugar coloured balls for decor 1. Crush the biscuits in a mixie jar, once finely crushed pour out into a bowl and add melted butter.  2. Mix with a spoon till its evenly mixed with no lumps 3. Spoon about 3 spoons of biscuit butter mix into individual glasses and lightly tap with the bottom of the spoon to straighten it up into a uniform base - these quantities work for about 6 portions. Put the glass...

Dear Ringorotash, yes you of the million name fame i.e. my darling badmash daughter. You turned four yesterday. You have been insisting that you want to grow big but almost immediately you let us know that though you are four now you are still a baby and therefore we shouldnt expect so much from you. At Bookaroo - your first visit to a Book fair - both dadda and me hope that you will catch the reading bug, much like us. I wonder where you have got your logical mind from. Am sure your dad or me would never have come up with such complicated thoughts at age four. You tell us complicated stuff like, "babies too have feelings" when scolded and when I ask you where your feelings are you point to your tear ducts. You also tell lies and when caught say you were just playing a prank. You dont like being second guessed at all. And you are a self proclaimed 'genius' though you frequently forget your ABC's. At Jiya baby's first birthday - with your first...

Brownies are those gooey chocolaty things that one digs into with or without reason. To have a brownie is sheer indulgence. The high chocolate content gives me the perfect kick and while I will eat only a small piece of cake, a brownie is always in the bigger is better category. So it happened that I was holding onto a cupful of rum soaked dry fruits & spices which were leftovers from the Christmas cake.  I didn't want to bake more plum cake for two reasons. One the process is lengthy and secondly I had baked quite a few in December and didn't feel like doing it again. A brownie seemed a better alternative. I replaced the usual walnuts with the soaked fruits and hoped it wouldn't be too weird a taste. Well the outcome was a finger licking good brownie with just a hint of rum to take its addictive qualities a notch higher. Ingredients: 125 gm Maida (white flour) 1 TSP Baking powder 200 gm i.e half tin condensed milk 3 TBSP Butter 2 TBSP Cocoa Powder (I used Cadbury's...

The past saturday found us excitedly heading towards Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium to attend the Street food festival being organised there by NASVI . Last year I had heard a lot of good things about this festival and also read up a two page write up in Brunch by Vir Sanghvi which left me salivating for these treats from the streets. So off we went, the hubby, kid and me to check out the fare at the JLN Stadium grounds. Post working out the parking format (essentially about getting your car to climb the pavement and sitting there) we walked up to the gate, paid the entry fee of Rs. 50/- per head and were all set to explore. We decided to take a quick round of the place before choosing the stuff we would like to eat. Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam we looked at before settling for a Chicken 65 at the Karnataka stall.  A big chicken leg wrapped in a spicy batter and deep fried till the outer layer is crisp, the inner layer is cooked and yet the juices have been left intact is what we got on our ...

Christmas for me is incomplete without some serious plum cake eating. Since for the past year or so I have been baking with a vengeance I thought this year the Plum cake too should be home baked.  Research on the hows, do's and dont's took me through various books, blog posts and videos and I finally figured out a recipe that I was reasonably sure would work for me and was close to the taste and texture I had in mind. To me a good plum cake is a dark, well baked almost over baked, moist, filled with dry fruits kind of cake which is rich in spices and has a distinct aroma. Sharing herewith the recipe. Do give it a try and let me know how it goes: Ingredients: To Soak the Fruits ( do this atleast 4 weeks before you expect to bake. Remember to stir it atleast twice every week) 2 cups - chopped dry fruits - include all that you like. and then some. Add lemon and orange peels if you can, they add a lovely fragrance 1 1/2 - cups liquor - I used dark Rum, you can choose to use red wi...

Banoffee Pie seems to be quite the favorite of my office team mates going by the main dessert order at any office get together. Since I do bake a colleague asked if I could make one and bring it to office. Now I never eat bananas and therefore have never ever tasted the pie and had no inclination to make one either especially since even the partner didnt seem to think much of this particular dish though his sweet tooth is legendary. But since the colleague asked I thought why not give it a try. I checked on a few sites for the recipe and figured that its a pretty simple one actually. A few ingredients, no baking and almost child's play in terms of putting together. Though I didn't eat it, it got polished off in office and people have demanded repeats so am feeling emboldened enough to post it here. Ingredients: 400 gms digestive biscuits - I used Britannia Nutrichoice, crushed. If using a mixer remember not to make it too fine 200 gms butter - I used unsalted butter 2 tins cond...