little home sunshine goa

While we were away on vacation, mango season was bidding a farewell here in Goa. I am however so very lucky to have my ever vigilant and hard working aunt and uncle around. They use to regularly visit our yard and collect all the wipe mangoes and Jack fruits. They made preserves of both these fruit and gave us so-many cans and bottles of them, which are safely tucked away in my freezer. Every weekend, I am all set to turn these golden preserves into something Summery during these raining days. Mango Pannacotta Makes 6 Ramekins Unmouldable Ingredients: 2 3/4 teaspoons powdered Gelatin 1 table spoon cold water  1/4 cups whole milk.(or could use light cream )  2 cups mango puree.  1 1/2 tablespoon sugar (addition of sugar for this dish solely depends on how sweet the mangoes are, since mine were very sweet and tangy mangoes, I didn't use much sugar). Ingredients for the vanilla panacotta layer on top: 1 1/4 teaspoons powdered Gelatin 1 1/2 cups whole milk.(or co

This is the feeling I am constantly going through. Praying to god, to take us through this safely.

Rose cookies table set for christmas flowers from firends new wardrobe Merry Christmas to all!

Feasting after a fast is full of joy. Joy of cooking Joy of decoration Joy of clean house. Our home is filled with joy, color, and yummy smell all over.. Thank you Jesus for blessing us and our friends. This ones is an old pic, I forgot to click one this time I washed all my curtain. They are smelling so clean and fresh Washed all bed sheets. All sofa cover and cushion were hand washed and dried out in hot sun. Water used of washing was used in the garden. This one I have been planning to do since long time (thanks to my dear friend for providing me the dried flowers), planted Marigold  at my backyard (praying that that it starts growing soon and produce some nice bunch of flowers). Removed weed in one corner of my garden. Download Easter egg pictures and used them for decorating home. Used old gift wrapper to make Fan shaped banner.  Baked an orange cake Since I am working at office full time, this was lot of work accomplished; thanks to two public holida

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ I missed out on the last two weeks of PHFR, we were all down with cold and fever. By god's grace, all are slowly recovering.  Hence in order to celebrate recovery, I thought of making something special yet simple. So these are what I made . {Pretty} & { Happy }  At my home, people are eagerly awaiting the evening tea time the most, and specially on weekends it needs to be an elaborate one. I always try to make some homemade stuff on Saturday and Sunday evenings. I had read about these American biscuits at Ria's collection and was determined to try them out and wow as they say beginner luck, they were so tasty, that entire family opted out of dinner and just wanted more of them. I must say "Thank you Ria!" I severed them with coriander leaves and coconut chutney  I made some Dhokla on the subsequent Sunday, I had tried them before, but didn't turn out very well. This time howe

I had tried making these brownies earlier from here . They however didn't look like the ones in the pictures shown. It was very hard and very bitter, though were eatable with whipped cream. Yesterday when I saw these , I couldn't delay the process of baking them again. So this time, I went through so many different recipes and finally did it this way (mine look more dark!) They looked lot better then what appears on the screen. How to make a beautiful thing look bad, is a skill to be learnt from me! I need to purchase a good camera :( Ingredients: 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup cocoa 1 egg (am not a fan of egg, else most of the recipe count for 2 eggs) handful of chocolate chunks 1/2 a cup butter 1 tsp of vanilla ext 1 tbsp of raisin or cranberry (optional) and since my batter was thick, I added in a 2 tsp of milk cream Directions: Mix butter and sugar until creamy, then add in egg and whisk till sugar melts To this mixture add cocoa and mix till well inc

Clarified butter or as we call it in India-"Ghee", has been a part of my home ever since Maple was born. When we started with solid food for her, my mother used to put in a drop of ghee made by her. The story of making ghee at home goes way back when I was studying engineering. I happen to visit my roommates home at Mangalore. Jacy's mom is such a warm person, she cooked yummy food for me, and when I left she handed me a bottle of home made ghee (they had cows at home, so milk was bountiful there) With the arrival of that bottle at my house, my mom saw to it that the bottle was never empty. Every week she would collect the cream from the ilk we used and store it to make clarified butter to add onto the bottle. However, once we introduced Maple to ghee, she became a huge fan of the flavor it imparts to food. Then she wanted in on her rice, rotis, bread etc etc.. With depleting resource from mom, i was forced to make mine at home. Here's how I do it from the scr

No I am not complaining! I had a very nice weekend. Many of my to do list things done. Above all, Sparkle is all fine and happy. Talking about weekend, I bought in my monthly supplies within my budget Made the brownies I mentioned in my last post (Maple loved it) Revived an old shoe rack. Deep Cleaned my Bathroom using idea from here   and greatest feeling of fulfillment was going to church was so refreshing. There were 5 (Sparkle included) babies just few months old last Sunday at the church. Every time I see a baby, I feel its a proof that God loves human being so much. I know I should have clicked some pics of all the cuties, :( I don't carry my phone to church).

Breakfast is one meal that I just cannot miss, and I need it to be really heavy and healthy. Do I need to say that, me being so lazy these days, I hardly look forward to cook specially the breakfast. So what I need to do is do maximum preparation previous day night itself. Thus I land up making stuffs like appam, dosa, idli, upma etc.. Today was idli's turn! These are however dishes that one thinks of as very, I wouldn't say difficult but, needs preparation and thus serves my schedule. These are very old Idli moulds used by my ma-in law, very convenient ones. Tasty Idlis with Sambhar & Chutney (I didn't get to click my Sambhar & chutney pics; was running late to work!) However cooking the same over and over again gets very monotonous, and we at home are not very used to a sweet breakfast. Since I am just not able to keep up with healthy demand of breakfast I am on hunt fro easy and fast breakfast recipes to list a few that I make: Idlis Plain dosa

I made it, and it was yum....and finished within mins! Yes carrot cake in cooker, cool na.. I didn't yet get my cell so no pics to support my results :( I baked the 1st thing in the morning yesterday. I wish I could take some for my cousin, who is recovering of her ill health . But my siblings didn't bother to save any. I shall post the recipe but only with pic of the cake!

Maternity leave did give me a chance to understand that I work a lot, as a professional. However being a full time mom is not easy either. Making kids feel that they are important all the time is the real key to become a real super MOM. Now with two kids at hand, I decided not to cry all time on how difficult it is and get into some serious task, so that I have no time to cry :) I got into cooking, more specifically baking. However, as i don't have a oven or even a microwave, it was discouraging. Solution was pressure cooker oven! How I got into pressure cooker oven i shall shell out the details later For baking in a pressure cooker, u need: A large pressure cooker, above 6 liters Remove the washer and the weight of the cooker and place in a utensil that would give u a height so that ur baking pan doesn't come in touch with the base of the cooker Now the Receipe: I made a chocolate cake (eggless) 1 1/2 cup Maida 1 cup butter 4 tbspn cocoa 1 cup sugar 3 tbs