Hi friends,

     Today I am back with some photos of a bread that I baked today. My exams are over and I was relaxing and painting, then I thought I would bake a bread with the recipe I got from a masterclass from Masterchef Australia Season 4. It looks good and it doesn't taste so bad, so I thought I would share it with you. You can get the recipie for this bread from this site http://www.masterchef.com.au/recipes/walnut-and-fig-loaf-with-wheatmeal-flour.htm ,if you follow the recipie correctly you will get a much more good looking,delicious and nutty bread. Enjoy baking........

This is one of my latest paintings. Hope you like it.

           

This time I will show you the re-creations of some paintings and photographs, that I did using acrylic paint and soft pastels. Before creating this post I have never tried putting my works and the original creations side by side. Now that I see it I think I have a long long way to go.

This is the famous painting 'The Fighting Temerarie' by
J.M.W Turner*

This is the photo of Arc de triomphe, Paris*

This is the photo of the Versailles palace in Paris,France*

*These photos are Google image search results http://www.google.co.in/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi .

A "funner" way to spend your time when you travel

       Just some of my photography skills. Hey, I know it is not much, but atleast I think it is 'funner' way to spend our time and to remember the places we have seen in the past and to relive those moments in your mind. So to my friends who dose not like photography,its really nice, try it out and check out these photos. I think you need not be a trained photographer to win the 'Pulitzer prize' [Its just my theory its upto you to make it a reality]. I am not saying that it is easy, its just that we should try to find beauty in small things and try to see things the way others don't. So, we have to be different and I think being different is good.

Can you guess who is trying to run away in this photo? 

 

Something new?

Hi friends. I started this blog, as sort of a food blog. But my life is not all about cooking. Here are some of my paintings, showing you something else that I do and which makes me, me. Am I an artist? I don't know, maybe you could decide on that. These are not my best paintings but I guess this will give you some idea about me.

                                            41 x 52 cm

42 x 55 cm

This painting is not one of my own creation, I drew this painting inspired by the works of

Tim gagnon [http://www.timgagnonstudio.com/lessons/].

This are two of my paintings which I sold

                                       
                                      25 x 35cm
                                   Sold [Rs 1500]

25 x 15 cm 

Sold [Rs 1000]

      Not a big deal but it was really a great deal for me. It is so in many of our lives. You can't expect what all things you might have to do for a living. Maybe I will turn out to be a painter and I might do it for a living. Though I am planning to do my PG in Botany and later go for higher studies. I might not end up where I  think I am supposed to. That is the inevitable truth of life and as mere mortal humans we are forced to accept it. Guess it was a bit too philosophical. I will try to change the language when I feel more optimistic. Bye for now.

How I spent last sunday

On last sunday morning I decided to plan my day.But all things did not go according to my plans [hey come on its so in everybody's life-so my tip for the day is never make complicated plans in your life].I think that we should live our life as it is,if we are sincere enough we will not even get a chance to regret. So ,my not going according to my schedule is a good thing for you.I made a 'beautiful' [beauty is in the eye of the viewer but I think you will like it] chocolate cake. I thought its a "funner" way to spend my day [I am a huge fan of 'Ramona and Beezus' please do bear with me if you don't like that movie.If you haven't seen it try watching it because there is a 99% chance that you might really really like it].


My Dream Chocolate cake with Candied Strawberries



RECIPIE

For my version of candied strawberries:
[I had to do it as we don't get sweet and juicy strawberries in Kerala]
Ingredients

1) Fresh strawberries cut in half [like in the above photo ]
2) Grape or strawberry syrup.

Procedure
Place the cut strawberries on the syrup.Wait for half a day or 2 to 3 hours.Now you have the perfect juicy delicious strawberries.this process also brings out the beautiful aroma of the strawberries.

For the Chocolate cake:

Ingredients
1) Plain flour ['maida mavu'in malayalam]- 2Cup[200-250gram]
2)Cocoa powder -3/4 Cup
3)Baking powder-2tsp
4)Eggs-2
5)Vanilla essence/extract-1tsp
6)Powdered sugar-2Cup[or 1 1/2 cup based on requirement]
7)Buttermilk or Milk-1/2 cup
8)Saltless butter-125Gram
9)A pinch of salt
10)Chopped Dark chocolate -25to 50 gram[*I used Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate)
Procedure
o
1)Preheat oven -150 C
2)Sieve all dry ingredient together-choclate/cocoa powder,flour,baking powder and salt.
3)Beat butter until it become really buttery.To it add powdered sugar/castor sugar.
4)Beat egg white and yolk seperately.To the egg yolk add vanilla essence and mix well.Add the yolk and white seperately to the butter mixture.
5)Add the dry igredients to the wet, mixed ingredients.
6)Add the buttermilk/milk/milkmade as per requirement.Don't add too much.The mixture which we get now will be semifluid and viscous.
7)To this mixture add the chopped chocolate.
8)Pour the mixture on a greased/buttered container[butter paper can also be used for best result] and put it in the oven.
9) Bake for about 40-45 min.
NOTE:If you want to check the cake using a skewer only try it after 25-30min after putting the cake in the oven.Or you will lose a major amount of heat in the oven.
For icing and decoration:
Ingredients
1)Melted Dairy milk chocolate[melted in a little amount of milk]
2)My version of candied strawberries.

Procedure
Spread the melted chocolate on the cake and place the strawberries 'as you like it'.
An alternate icing recipie:
You require 1/2 cup of cocoa powder,2cup icing sugar, 250-500 gram cream cheese and 200 g butter.
Procedure:Whip butter and cream cheese.To it add icing sugar and cocoa powder.Whip it well and you icing is ready.


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Who am I and why am I cooking?

       Hi everyone, blogging is something new to me and my friend, Merin introduced it to me for the first time about three months back. I do not know where to start but I would surely share my cooking experiences with all of you .Cooking is something that I love to do in my life.It makes me happy. It kind of brings out the best in me. I have to say that watching Masterchef Australia Season 2 and 3 have been a great inspiration for me. Ever since I started watching it, I started realising my potential as a cook and I started cooking more and more [not meaning that I am soo good at what I do but my family and friends like what I create]. I believe that cooking is a creation.The chocolate cake that I bake today will never taste the same as that I had cooked yesterday [even if I use the exactly same recipie].So each time we cook, it is a new piece of work.