2011-06-30

Holiday's on card - Coffee orange cake

My holidays are starting tomorrow one week in summer cottage then I'm flying to Norway Bergen for next couple of days, so folks will be off for next two weeks :D Nothing much to say other than "I'm super excited". Packed, work, silly people, physics, research tightly and threw it in lake, time to relax and have fun....yay yay! Will come back with pic to share till then enjoy ur summer days all you lovely people!!






Made this cake for my friend's birthday followed this recipe, substituted orange oil with orange extract though the author asked not to do so, that was one reason why my topping (streusel) sank down but still they were good, loved the orange flavours. Sorry guys couldn't get to many of ur blogs shall get back soon after my holidays! 

2011-06-19

It's Papa's day! - Sunny side up - Breakfast idea!

My Papa best, my papa best is the only advertisement (remember dhara ad?) breezes through my mind, just with the thought of my papa!. I'm sure every son and daughters in the world would feel the same.

Right from the days as little girls (me and my sister) till the date my sis got married and I moved to Finland, we have stayed completely over protected, right under the shadow of dad, hardly did we know what the world was. Our world used to revolve around, mum, dad, school and college. We still are quite tightly knitted family. Never did we have the feeling of want nor any desire since it was already there for us when it has to be. No we weren't spoiled but they thought us where our limits should be. Moving far from them has been a challenging but a beautiful learning experience.


It was just me and sis who never learnt how to drive bi-cycle amongst all my cousin's since he feared, what if we fall. Later when I moved to Finland, bike (cycle) being only easy medium of transport I had to learn biking during late twenties, my dad was so much worried how will I manage alone since it was all uphill and down the slope. At the same time, he was SO proud when I learnt, till date he keeps checking if the gears and breaks are in good condition and did I buy helmet? No I still didn't...oh I dislike, it spoils my hair. 

He is our pillar strength to all we wanted to achieve in our lives, he never let any thorns to come across in order to make our path smooth. Just becoz I hate travelling in bus and car he takes me everywhere in his bike, is one such example. As much as today whenever I go to India, myself, dad and niece (only she wears helmet ha ha)  we go on a very long drive, talking hundred of stories, buying all the fav food from restaurants and street food, convincing mum if I fall sick he will take me to doc. 


Like I mentioned earlier, what I enjoy the most with papa is to have endless talk/discussion/argument over many things. He is a intellectual person with an excellent command over language and stunning hand writing. Now an honest confession, I'm never good with language, stood last in all dictation test and language exams. I used to make (still do) millions of spelling mistakes when I write, you might have noticed the trait in my blog. Pops has been helping me right from school days. After moving to Finland we have been exchanging quite a lot of emails where he has been correcting and polishing, I'm still learning. Having grown so much in this area is just becoz of HIM! I wish I had few percentage of command over language of what he has sigh!  The trick is that he asks me to read a lot and maintain a dairy to note down all the  new words I come across, which has helped me to improve, hopefully more  in the future.

So papa, here is our fav breakfast, sunny side up (bulls eye as we call it in India) as much as we both love it, mum and sis run away from it. Never mind, wish you were here with me over a cup of tea, fav food, loud music and endless talk I miss you!. You are our hero, our strength, our hope and THE one who we always look up in Life. We love you! Happy Pop's day! 


One thing my friend Elisabeth's dad said to me was, "no matter what, always  remember to walk on the sunny side of the life! To all the best dads in the world happy fathers day!"

And to my reader Sofie, thanks for ur comments and asking me to improve more on my writing skills, thanks a lot felt very encouraging. Will take best effort to get it done, you will see it future! :) 

Toasted bread, with sunny side (cook the egg more if you don't like runny egg yolk) have kept my yolk in medium consistency and some marmalade...And indeed glass of milk or tea, choose urs. Happy  breakfast! 

2011-06-05

Kiddos! - White chocolate apricot shortbread

Months after I stepped to Finland in 2005, I got to know three wonderful Finnish family who have adopted three Indian baby girls, two from south  India and one from north. To connect with these family has been a blessing for me, have seen them growing for past five years. First time when I met one of those babies, her parents ran to me asking if was from south of India and could I speak in Tamil? Initially she used to very well understand Tamil and smiled when I spoke with her that's when we started to connect later I got to know two other families. These days they hardly remember any Indian languages, but speak perfect Finnish!


I meet them now and then since not only I get chance to be with three lil girls but also with other blue eyed cute Finnish boys, families own kids. Most of the time, I hear their stories, though I don't understand, play toys or just run up and down! My evening with them are so relaxing and enjoyable. Last summer (yes pretty old  recipe I say which was resting in hard disk, had to come out finally) for a evening with one of those kids, made apricot white chocolate shortbread, thinking she would like it. I was wrong!
                                              

As always we went around up and down, they had two fat cats, am not cat person they freak me out, knowing that she made sure cats sits on me and I was literally running from her, letting her to laugh loud and her mum saying stop!! 


Then came cookie time, the moment she saw my cookies, she asked "Mita...?" (what is ....)  followed by "Ei..." " No...." all that was running in my mind was "Oh Ananda, you failed to impress a little girl, go jump into the lake". Beside my shortbread, there was yum strawberry fresh cream cake glowing, no wonder she hardly had a look at my shortbread. Even-though her mum tried to convince her she didn't bother much as she was licking clean her mum's cake. I wasn't sad but was smiling all the way and enjoying the cake aswell, but others were happy with my creations.


Later she was in the mission to teach me some Finnish, after hearing my poor Finnish pronunciation. We sat down and were learning, slowly her mum came and said in ears she is teaching you bad words. I was again thinking, 5 yrs in Finland, my knowledge level in this area is less than 5 yrs kids, jump again into lake. Oh don't worry guys, I'm living city of lake!


End of day, I came back home, with some cartoon tattoos and stamps on my wrist, some flowers which she picked and some gifts from their trip to India, wonderful evening it was. Another lesson learnt, to bring food into kids attention is difficult. This is not the first time, I have failed with my niece as well. Have to work more on it!


Note: this recipes makes a big batch, following day took it to office for coffee, colleagues enjoyed it, realised it was more for grown ups!!

 
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