Tuesday, October 9, 2007

I Baked my Cookies Right




Whew, after two tiresome attempts and resultant absolute failures I finally baked my cookies right. I am an infant in the baking world. Till this August I didnt know even the basics of baking ...ssshhh...
My first attempt in baking was Brownies!! Brownies and subsequent batches of cakes came out so well that I started believing I am a natural baker.
Armed with confidence I tried baking my first batch of cookies but it was a complete washout. The reason is that I added a little milk to make the batter loose .(I thought the batter for the cookies should also be loose like the cake batter). Result: cookies in form of crunchy sheet cake. The second time when I baked I did a new mistake. I didnt put enough gap between the cookies. I put around 20 cookies in the small cookie sheet!!! I didnt expect the cookies to expand sideways. And the result , another batch of slightly burned sheet cookies.
I partially accepted my defeat until I saw the recipe of snickerdoodles in "Cooking Light". I toyed with the idea of making snickerdoodles for a week and finally decided to go for it. Voila, after 30 minutes I had 25 snickerdoodles in my snack box. Cool isnt it? Perseverance do help:D .
(PS: All the "I"s in this post is I + J. J is inevitable while I bake as he is the one who whisks the batter )

Monday, October 8, 2007

My Favorite Carrot Cake

My most favorite cake is Carrot cake. It is a combination of goodness. Goodness in various ways. First, it has carrot so it is healthy. Second it is moist and soft, without being soggy. And third the ingredients are less so preparation time is less and finally since ingredients are less and preparation time is less the dishes for cleaning is also less. The recipe was completely followed from Nic of Baking Bites, except that I added walnuts and sultanas.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

My First Dance Class - Zydeco.

This happened two days back. I enrolled for Zydeco. I proclaim this to be my first dance classes officially, though my parents insist that I was given dance lessons whilst I was 3-4 years. Well I don’t remember about learning dancing, but I do remember of scheming to avoid dance classes.

Zydeco is a form of folk dance and it is a partner dance.
As the time neared, I was in a dilemma. I had not danced after college and I felt that two years is really a long gap. My dances in college was with group where no one really cared how one dances. So long as the music is good the audiences will also be busy dancing/ boozing/ howling etc. But J was highly enthusiastic about it and I was left with no option rather accompany him.

I was in for a shock when I saw the dance class venue. I had expected a room, with doors closed. But it was in an open stage, with Cajun music blaring and fully illuminated. The time of dance was 7' PM and it was getting dark. Anyone going through the road could see the stage. I wouldn’t have dared to dance there even if I was fully drunk. I looked to J's face to detect any sign of withdrawal. Though he was a little surprised, was not abashed like me. And I walked towards the arena with my valiant J.

All my fears left when I met our "classmates" and the instructors. They welcomed us with open arms, completing deflating my fears. It was just the basics of Zydeco on the first class. It consist of 8 steps 1,2,3, Tap and 1,2,3 tap to the opposite side. And we danced for 2 hours till 9'. Zydeco opened up a new world for me. A new community, meeting new people, and most of all the realization that J dances better than me.