Happy New year,

Let's welcome the New year with joy,
with lots of prayers and well wishes,
with hope, faith and love in family
with more dedication, belief and prosperity

God in our lives everyday,
Light in our paths and delight in our minds
World peace becoming everyone's wish
Freedom to innocents and needy

Love in hearts and happiness in world
Seeking God in everything we do,
May every day be filled
with happiness and peace,

May every face on earth live happily forever,
with all our needs satisfied,
May every life lives peacefully
with all our dreams come true,

Grace and kindness multiplying,
Health and wealth flourishing,
With every child getting love and care
Seeing God in happy faces,

May all our wishes come true
to make our Creator happy,
For all the wishes made in love,
May God shower His grace and love on all of us,

Happy New year!

New year cake with roses and lotus flowers icing.

Wishing all a
beautiful, Prosperous and Blessed
Happy New Year
Love,
Viki.

Carrot Pumpkin cake

I baked this carrot pumpkin cake for Thanksgiving day 2013. I enjoyed making these pink rose flower icing.  As the main theme of Thanksgiving day is to thank God, I made 12 roses to represent the 12 months of the year. I got the recipe from this website and thanking the author too for this successful recipe. Click  here for the original recipe

Pumpkin carrot cake I made for Thanksgiving  November 2013 , Thank you Jesus !

Some more pumpkin carrot cupcakes to share with hubby's friends

Before frosting.

Shredded Carrot and mashed pumpkin

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 1/2 cup
white sugar - 1 1/2 cup
dark brown sugar - 1/2 cup
butter - 1 cup (2 sticks)
egg - 4
pumpkin puree - 1 cup
shredded carrot - 1 cup
shredded coconut - 1/4 cup
walnut - 1/2 cup
raisin - 2 tbsp
baking soda - 2 tsp
baking powder - 2 tsp
cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
dry ginger powder - 1 tsp
all spice powder - 1 tbsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
Frosting:
Cream cheese frosting

Method:
Cook the pumpkin with very little water and mash it finely (or just use canned pumpkin puree).
Shred the carrots.
In a mixing bowl (or blender / mixie) add sugars , softened butter, egg, salt, all spice powder, cinnamon powder, ginger powder. Mix till fluffy.
Sift the flour , baking soda, baking powder together TWICE.
Put the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl along with wet ingredients, mashed pumpkin, shredded carrot, raisin, roasted chopped walnuts.
Mix well.
Pour batter into greased pans.
Bake at 350 deg F for 35 - 40 minutes.
Makes two 9 inch round cakes or one 6 inch cake and 18 cupcakes or nearly 2 dozen cupcakes.
I used butter cream frosting to make flowers and other colors.
Frost with cream cheese frosting or serve simply.
 

Merry Christmas,

Wishing all my friends , family and readers a  Blessed Happy Christmas,

Merry Christmas!
Love,
Viki

Updated :

Christmas wreath I made for front entrance door

Christmas wreath I made for  indoor decor.

Our Christmas tree

Christmas village and nativity scene for Christmas

Birthday cake  I made for Baby Jesus, our cute little Christmas cake.

Offering cake to Holy family as soon as I finished baking the first fruit cake (Dec 16)

Offering vadai and kesari for Holy family in nativity scene, on Christmas day early morning, a Christmas tradition in our family.

I got a lot of gifts from Santa. Finding my favorite gifts under the Christmas tree on Christmas mornings excites me very much:)

My friends Emelda and Elizabeth brought us these yummy Christmas goodies.

My friends Emelda and Elizabeth together made these yummy Christmas snacks. They worked together long hours and days to make these delicious murukku, mixture, fruit cake, milk peda, bathusha, coconut mittai.....and packed them artistically.  I admire their enthusiasm and Christmas cheer very much. Thank you friends!

Christmas goodies from my friend Esther

My friend Esther has brought us Fruit cake, ladoo, nuts sweet, spicy murukku, murukku, chandrakala and rose cake (achimurukku) on Christmas. Even before clicking, we started finishing those yummy rose cakes and now I think I should have clicked that whole platter first :) Thanks Esther !

Gifts from my sweet cousin Madhu: A pretty handmade greetings and a cute ornament.

Last year we enjoyed our Christmas with Madhu , my cousin and I love the way she cherish arts, vintage collections, making handmade greetings , brightening up the whole situation with her kindness ....lot to learn from that hard working , intelligent ,cute little girl (she is always a little girl in my eyes) :)

My neighbor aunty presented me many pretty Christmas  ornament birds.

I got many pretty birds from my neighbor aunty on Christmas eve and we put them all on our tree and village. I hosted a small party for both of our families on Christmas eve. I made it as almost vegetarian as per her choice and it was easy too. As soon as we came back from Christmas mass in church I prepared Vegetable briyani, egg curry, raitha and semiya kheer. She brought us the papad chaat items and assembled them as starter. The party went on even after midnight:)

Christmas goodies I prepared : Christmas fruit cake, murukku, ginger bread cookies

This is the Christmas goodies I made for our us all: Christmas fruit cake, murukku and ginger bread cookies. I started baking by 16 th Dec and sent that cake for hubby's  office Christmas party. Then baked all other cakes by Dec 19, made murukku on 23 rd Dec as a surprise gift to hubby (his most favorite) and cookies on 23 rd night and 24 th morning. In between we enjoyed sight seeing, meeting friends, watched my favorite movies , enjoyed the new release an animation movie ...... Totally we all enjoyed this Christmas very much and want to do like this every year. Cheers !

Cheesy vegetables with pasta

Recently I made this baked pasta with loads of green vegetables and we liked it very much. I didn't follow any basic recipe for this , as my only motto was to use all those vegetables when they were still fresh.  Just saute whatever green vegetables we have in hand like beans, kale leaf, brussel sprout, green bell pepper, Asparagus..... mix with cooked pasta , milk sauce and bake with cheese. I am sure this will make a yummy dinner or lunch pack.

Baked pasta with green vegetables

Ingredients:
Brussel sprout - 1 lb
broccoli - 2 cups
kale leaf - 2 cups
green bell pepper - 1/2
Penne pasta - a handful for each serving
shredded cheese (any variety) - 1 cup
olive oil - 2 tbsp
butter - 2 tbsp
all purpose flour - 3 tbsp
salt, pepper - as per need
dried Italian seasoning - 1 tsp
milk - 2 cups

Method:
Rinse all the vegetables.
Chop the kale leaves coarsely, bell pepper into 1 inch squares, broccoli into small florets and halve the Brussels sprouts.
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a saute pan. Saute all the vegetables till tender crisp (2 - 3 minutes) and keep aside. Add required salt, pepper.
Cook the pasta as per directions (cook with little salt and lot of water till firmly cooked and drain water). Mix the pasta with vegetables and put them all in a baking pan.
Easy Milk sauce : In a pan heat 2 tbsp butter and add 3 tbsp all purpose flour (maida) and fry till raw smell goes (but not red). Add 2 cups of milk, dried Italian seasoning and bring to a boil.
Pour this over the pasta and mix .
Put cheese over this and bake at 350 F for 5 minutes or till cheese turns bubbly. (If using pyrex glass bakeware, bake below 325 F till cheese turns bubbly).

Serving suggestion:
Serve as main course meal.

Indian Tomato soup

Tomato soup with knorr chicken bouillon cubes and homemade croutons.

Indian tomato soup with chicken stock.

Making croutons at home

Ingredients: (4 cups)
Tomato - 2
onion - 1/ cup
garlic - 5 cloves
black pepper - 5
cumin - 1 tsp
cilantro -  handful
salt - to taste
butter - 1 tbsp
chicken soup cube  - 1
water - 4 cups
pepper powder - as per need

Method:
Saute chopped garlic and shallot / red onion in 1 tbsp butter till onion gets tender.
Chop the tomato finely and saute along with the onion , garlic.
Cook it covered with 1/2 cup water (Always cook tomato completely to get complete health benefits).
After it gets cooked, add cilantro, black pepper, cumin and let it cool completely.
Keep the vessel, as we need it again.
Puree this mixture in a blender.
Return this mixture to the cooking vessel , add 3.5 cups of water and bring to a boil.
If needed add chicken soup cube (or) some broth.
Check for salt and add.
Garnish with freshly ground pepper.

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot with bread crumbs on top.
See below for home made simple bread crumb recipe.

Home made bread crumbs:
bread slice (thick variety) - 1
ghee / butter - 1 tsp

Cut the bread slice into small cubes.
Heat ghee in a pan, keep flame very low.
Fry the bread slices in low flame till it turns golden and crispy.
We can do this in oven too.

Note:
Crushed tomato in can also be substituted, but fresh tastes better as always.
Chicken cubes is optional. It is added as a flavorful thickener here. But roasted AP flour can also be added instead.
Chicken stock in liquid form can also be added instead of soup cubes.

Simple Pancake

Pancake with maple syrup.

Ingredients:
self rising flour - 1  cup
egg - 1
sugar - 1 tsp
buttermilk - 3/4 cup
(1/4 c plain curd  + water)
butter - 1/2 tbsp

Method:
Mix flour, egg, buttermilk, sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Heat a dosa tawa (griddle) and coat with little butter.
Pour 1/4 cup batter, wait to see bubbles, flip and cook both sides.
Take out.
Repeat with all the batter (4-5 pancakes).

Enjoy with maple syrup.

Note:
Self rising flour can be substituted with 1 cup All purpose flour + 1 tsp baking soda + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp salt. Sift these together to get self rising flour.
Buttermilk can be made by mixing 1 cup milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice or 1 tsp vinegar.
But I add 1/2 cup water to 1/4 cup homemade Indian yogurt.

Ragi idiyappam

Idiyappam / string hopper is a breakfast item popular in Tamilnadu, kerala and Srilanka. Usually it is made with rice flour and pure white in color. (Click to see my idiyappam with rice flour recipe). Nowadays we can easily buy them in dried form like pasta from Chinese stores (rice noodles). Also in Tamilnadu one can see vendors in cycles selling idiyappam in the early morning. Households with little kids and elders are the regular customers for these cycle-walas. Idiyappam , a steam cooked meal is easy to digest and hence it is preferred as dinner also. Recently idiyappam with ragi flour has become popular among dieticians and they recommend it to many.  So we can see readymade dried ragi idiyappam also in stores. It is very convenient for a quick meal. Making fresh idiyappam is also very easy and here is my recipe for ragi idiyappam.

Ragi idiyappam with shredded coconut.

My new screw type idiyappam maker....easier than pressing and I love this very much.

preparing idiyappam dough

Ragi idiyappam for my neighbor aunty ...food exchange Fridays :)

Ingredients:
Ragi - 1 1/2  cup
water - 2 cup (nearly)
salt - 1/2 tsp
ghee  - 1/2 tsp
cardamom powder - a pinch
for serving:
sugar - as per need
shredded coconut - as per need

Method:
Dry roast the ragi flour in a kadai (wok) , till it smells nice and a mild red. Add cardamom powder.
In a separate vessel, bring water to rolling boil with salt, ghee.
Pour little by little over the roasted flour and mix to get a soft chapati dough stage.
Divide into 3 equal portions.
From one part, take a handful and stuff inside the idiyappam press (idiyappam nazhi).
Grease an idiyappam plate or idly plate with a drop of ghee / oil.
Squeeze the strings in continuous fashion. Place inside idly cooker or idiyappam steamer.
(I use pressure cooker for both idly and idiyappam. Pour 2 cups water in the cooker.Leave the bottom-most plate empty and keep the idiyappam plate above it. This will ensure the idiyappams to get cooked without getting wet. I keep it for 10 minutes in high steam WITHOUT  the weight valve).
Take out once it is cooked and serve immediately or store in airtight containers.
Likewise steam all the idiyappams.

Serving suggestions:

Serve ragi idiyappam as dinner or breakfast.
I keep the leftover as a sweet snack or dessert.
The popular side dishes are shredded coconut with sugar, coconut milk mixed with jaggery solution and cardamom or sugar.

Tips:

Dry ragi idiyappam is commonly available in market as instant ragi semiya or idiyappam.
Dry roasting the flour and adding cardamom powder will make a flavorful idiyappam.