Burma...

I could describe this country in the warm romanticism and mysticism of a benevolent traveler, who has something important to describe about quaint places, breathtaking nature, people, their warmth, beauty and other things. But maybe because of preceding events that will not be recounted here as they would defer from the theme, and maybe precisely because I had no emotion either of excitement or foreboding about this trip, I feel the urge to be true to myself and the thought that compelled this article. Sometimes the most abstract things explain more than the gloss of articulate words that mean nothing, except make the reader happy, feel in awe and live through the writer through his selfish pleasures and inconsequential dreams

It could not be a coincidence that I lived through the soul of Howard Roark, at the same time that I reached this country, in all its beauty and glory, so innocent; that you expect all the struggles they have to face. It is peaceful and terrible in its beauty and serenity; an almost childlike and tragic wonder at change and progress. You immediately want to protect everything in this country, even the brutality of the strife, just to feel the rawness of human life frozen in one endless moment.

You want to keep experiencing the simplicity of treating everyone through how they know to live life, their poverty neither a badge of self righteous honor, nor a shameful yoke to slink from. I do not know if I love this country, most of us anyways make the mistake of defining lust and desire as love, love turned to a stamp of approval for the baser desires. But I do know that the country touches you, not in a beautiful postcard kind of way, but in a more basic impersonal understanding and grave recognition of humanity.

Red Velvet!!

I finally found the color and courage to make red velvet cupcakes!!

I used this recipe at Pinch my salt : http://pinchmysalt.com/red-velvet-cupcakes-with-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/

The only change is I added a tablespoon of yoghurt, while mixing the batter, and I also substituted some of the red with rose red coloring!

Bread...

 I've been meaning to put this recipe down for quite some time, it's been more than two months!!

Guess Im not yet done getting over my habit of procrastination....but I guess better late ....

Anyway, so I've always struggled with bread, never really got down to making awesome bread except for the pizza bread variety....so I decided to give it one more try with a lot of trepidation...But the bread gods did decide to finally smile upon me and the results(and recipe) are below...
 
 

 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour 1.5 cups

Wheat flour 1 cup

Warm water 1/4 cup

Milk(warm) 1/2 cup

Yeast 1.5-2 tbsp(crumbled)

Sugar 1.5 tbsp

Olive oil 2 tbsp

Pinch of salt

In a mixing bowl add the flours ,crumbled yeast, sugar and salt. Make a well and add the oil, and milk and start kneading , adding water as required. Knead for about 8-10 minutes until dough is warm. Leave covered with a damp thin cloth in a warm corner(I normally put mine on top of the fridge) for an hour, until dough rises to almost 2ce its size.

Punch the air out of the dough and lightly knead into the shape required(I put mine in the loaf tin), and leave covered for half an hour. Brush the top with milk/whisked egg and bake at 175 deg C for half an hour(or until base of the pan sounds hollows to tapping), in a preheated oven.

 

 

An attempt at making fondant..

I had been meaning to try making fondant for quite some time now, but due to a moody oven, and different websites telling me fondant doesn't taste good I had kept putting it off for quite some time.
However, a couple of weeks back I finally picked up a bag of marshmallows, and decided to give it a try...

To cut the taste of the fondant, I decided to make a slightly bitter cake, by adapting my "Tiramisu cupcake" recipe that was featured on "Savour the senses" here

However, in this recipe Ive added a bit of Cocoa.
(Note: I don't remember all the recipes exactly, I just generally dump stuff and end up forgetting exact measures. The following recipes are an approximation)

Back to baking....

It's been a difficult few months, to put it mildly...I am struggling with a lot of things, and at this point of time, I cant say if the stress is going to get better, or if the struggle is going to cease any time soon...

But with every such phase in life, I become stronger, and understand myself better, and I believe thats a good life's lesson learnt :)

But let's not get all deep and serious, not when there's a weekend where I finally decide to reward myself with a happy break, and indulge in my favorite activity...baking.

I made Baklawa this weekend, which was to my surprise, quite a simple thing to do! The only part I didn't really care for was the cleaning up afterwards!!

Steps for making Baklawa: