Burnt expectatons

It happens to all of us. We try to do something new in the kitchen with loads of grand expectations. And then we fail. Something goes wrong, so wrong that we start doubting our abilities.

In  some cases you can still re-use the what you think "inedible mess". It's like resurrection. And it takes a lot of creativity. And guts. If you don't try something with it, it will anyway go into a dustbin so you might as well as try to make it edible.

So what do you do when you decide to make chocolate at home and end up burning it? You DON'T throw it. That's sacrilege. And cruel.

Chocolate does get burnt you know? You are always supposed to and I repeat always supposed to melt chocolate slabs on a double boiler. Do not ever take a short cut and put in in the microwave or even worse the stove! If you think of doing that then you should just buy yourself chocolate and not try to make it. Remember making chocolate requires patience. It's not something you do in a hurry.

You don't want this to happen to your chocolate

So back to what I was talking about-how to redeem burnt chocolate. Here are the few different ways

1. Mash it with a spoon and spread it on a biscuit. Then put another biscuit on top to make a biscuit sandwich. 

2. Mash the chocolate and mix it with a plain sponge cake crumbs. You now have a mixture of sponge and chocolate. Make sure you mix it well. Spread this mixture in a glass bowl and a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. I promise you, it will taste yum. 

3. Let it harden and then crush it into very small pieces of nougat like consistency. You can use this chocolate "nougat" to sprinkle on top of ice cream or mousse or any frozen dessert. In fact, why just frozen desserts? Try your own combinations. 

4. Whatever you do, do not re-heat the burnt chocolate. This will spoil it further and you won't be able to do anything about it. 


Were these tips useful? I guess you will only find out if you ever burn chocolate. I hope that you never do.

Anyway, I was experimenting with chocolate today and here's what I made

Quite pretty, I think

What do you think? :P

Attention everyone!

The deed is done. I have gone and nominated myself for IndiBlogger awards. More precisely The IB Indian Blogger awards.

Not that I am going to win or anything. Just saying. 

Dear whoever is reading this

I have been thinking of writing letters. Not your everyday kind. These will be special letters. To be written and sealed and opened after a long long time.

I wrote one in 2011. To myself. To the me of 2015.

I want to write some more. To the past me. To the me of 2003. My teenage self. To the me of 2006. My not so sweet sixteen. To tell them that I am fine. I am okay. 

You know, I am glad I wasn't always confident. I am glad I did experience low self esteem. For I know now how it feels to gain confidence. How it feels to give yourself worth. I have known it and I don't want to forget. But this is something you don't set reminders for. This is personal. This is you. So the next best thing is writing to yourself.

I want to write to my daughters too. To tell them they are beautiful. To teach them what I know, now. As a twenty something. 

I want to write to A. And make him read it 10 years later. 10 years is a long time. It's long enough to forget. And some things will be remembered and relived.

And I want to write another letter. To my family and friends. To be opened after I die. I don't know want I want to write in that. But I do know that I will write that letter, someday.

There are so many letters I could write and seal. Some for a purpose. Some for the sake of writing. Some to remind everyone years and years later that long ago people used to write letters. 


I will have letters for the future. I just wish someone would write me letters to read now. 


With loads of love
as Always
me

To weigh or not. That is the question

After years of body issues I looked myself at the mirror today and exclaimed "I am thin!". Not that I was fat before but I always fell under the 'slim" category  A category made by popular media to categorise  people who were not fat and  were neither thin as a stick. I always had a thin waist but because of my  heavy upper body I could never call myself 'thin'. Even if I looked at myself in the mirror and thought for a moment that maybe, just maybe I am thin I would be reminded by the media that I have curves which prevented me from being called 'thin'. 

I realise that I am thinner than most people I thought were thinner than me. I have been delusional about my weight for so many years. 

Because of street harassers and because of  the media I was subjugated to I was ashamed of my body. Ashamed of how I looked. Today I can look into the mirror and be happy about my figure.  It's true that I have somehow lost a few inches in the last year but that surely is not my biggest achievement. 

No matter how much weight I lose my body type won't change. There was a time when I wanted it to. Now I don't. I have accepted myself the way I am. I don't care if the popular social culture hasn't. Yes, I want to exercise and yes I want to avoid junk food and have a healthier lifestyle. But that has nothing to do with me losing weight. I have discovered the joys of walking and I don't want any heart problems in the future. 

Another "it's been ages since I have written" post.

I haven't blogged for a while because there has been nothing new to blog about. I have shifted back to Calcutta but that news is not what I consider blog worthy.

There has been quite a lot of stuff I have been dealing with but the problem is that I can't bitch about it here. For starters the people I want to bitch about read my blog and I certainly don't want my life to be hell. 

So much as I want to I really cant bitch about THAT stuff here. 

Shucks.

And well a word of advice. Don't add relatives on facebook. You end up offending some of them and censoring the stuff you write. And they tend to comment on your posts when all you want to do is avoid them. 

There should be a family book or atleast a different account for family where you can be all sweet and non-scandalous. I can dream, can't i?

I check fb just to share feminist media. Mainstream media has no place for feminism and show no signs of changing. Social networking sites .do help to an extent but they too have weird policies which most of the time are anti-feminist. 

Anyway. Once again, I am rambling. 

Just a small thought before I shut up and do other stuff. I want to be honest. It's sad that these days most people are shocked by honestly and less by deceit. I guess I like shocking people.