Kitchen Home News

Gayfeather just starting to bloom. The fierce heat that only mid July can bring, seems to be our constant companion now.  The lawn gets left to grow longer to hold the water in and I switch off watering in the morning or eve, depending on how fast the day warms up.  The other night I was out at 10pm attempting to spend some time moon-bathing, but the temps were still sky-high and the swarms of mosquitoes were deadly.   The garden time starts at about 5am to beat the heat, but this morning I noticed that it wasn't quite as bright as it had been at that time of day during the last week.  The light is waning.  Even in the midst of hot days and warm nights, thousands of tourists, abundant fruit ripening, festivals and full beaches - the light is slowly losing its hold. I love the growing season, and am happiest in the garden (during the cool hours,) but my nose would grow if I said that I wasn't a slight bit excited about cooler days and less yard work.  Today was weeding, harvesti

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा I had been wanting to try this for a while now. I made this almost two years ago for Diwali when mom dad were here. After that it just slipped out of radar so this time when Ajoy asked me to make these I was not sure if I will remember what I had done and the learning's from the last time. But thankfully I had rough notes from then that I had sent to mom. So it was pretty easy to recollect. This time it came out perfectly and I did big photo session of them :) so I cannot find any excuse to not post this. This recipe has to be easiest to make and something that will get you lot of appreciation in return. Ingredients 6 Cup Cashews 1 Cup Milk Powder 2 Cup Sugar Pinch of Cardamom Powder Silver Leaf Method Grind cashews into fine powder in the mixer Mix the cashew powder and milk powder together Heat tawa till very hot and then take off the heat Add the cashew and milk powder mixture into the tawa and keep stirring till the mixture is warm to t

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा This was one of my impromptu attempt to bake something that turned out quite great. It had been long time since I had the frosting in the fridge so thought about baking something to use that one and these cupcakes worked perfectly well with the frosting. Ingredients 2 Cup Sugar 2 Spoon Vanilla Essence 1 Egg 1/2 Cup Oil 1 Cup Milk 1.75 Cup Maida 1 Cup Coco Powder 1 Spoon Baking Powder 1 Spoon Baking Soda 1/2 Spoon Salt 2 Spoon Instant Coffee Method Preheat oven at 325F/160C Mix together egg, sugar and vanilla essence. Add in oil and milk and whisk the mixture over medium speed. Sieve maida, coco powder, baking powder and baking soda couple of times to form homogeneous mixture. Add the sieved contents and salt in the egg-oil-milk mixture and whisk on low speed till well combined about 2 minutes Warm 1 cup of water with coffee in microwave for about a minute. Add the coffee to the cake mixture and whisk on low speed for another 2 minutes. Line aroun

मराठीमध्ये वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा Almost 3 years ago I took classes from Wilton about cake decoration where they taught us lots of basic plus advance decorations along with their standard recipe for icing. I modified it a bit to get this chocolate butter cream. Ingredients 2 Cup Vegetable Shortening 1.5 Cup Coco Powder 1 Spoon Vanilla Essence 10 Spoon Milk 450g icing sugar Pinch of salt Method Mix shortening, essence and milk together till smooth Sieve together icing sugar, coco powder together. Add it to the shortening and mix well with the hand mixer till ingredients mix in properly. Add salt and blend for about two minutes till creamy. Notes Cream lasts almost half an year if stored in airtight container in the fridge.

I've heard it said that witchcraft is either an actual connection to and interaction with the "magical" current of nature, or a psychosis.  I think it might be a bit of both. Weather magic, in particular, is something that walks than fine line.  Did you actually shift the weather pattern or was it already shifting and you just caught wind of it (no pun intended.)  Creating weather out of thin air is not something I think happens - at least, not often.  That kind of energy manifestation (especially coming from one person,) would be rare.  But grabbing hold of an already forming meteorlogical event and putting a bit more "oomph" into it, or shifting it in a new direction - I've been witness to that a time or two.  Was it a fluke?  Or was the practitioner able to coerce the sky to cooperate with her?  I honestly can't say. Additionally, if you can actually change the weather, then there is a rather large responsibility to consider if things go a bit haywire

The peas grew about 7 feet tall this year - and then some. The calendar flips another page and I wonder again where the time went.  Just last week the peas were still reaching for the sky, and now they are gone and onions take their place.  The perennials that were just blooming (only yesterday, it seems,) are now bending over in their beds and waning in the heat. We've had our first 100 degree day, and it won't be our last.  Today was mercifully cooler - only slightly - and I was able to do some gardening, but there is much more to be done.  The lawn needs mowing too, but it's going to have to wait for a cooler day or I'll have to be out with a headlamp at midnight pacing the yard. The early mornings are when I spend the most time outdoors these days.  The cats birdwatch and chase bugs and I water the gardens and check the progress of the veggies and herbs.  I find myself lighting incense each morning when I go out.  It puts me in a bit of a meditative state while I pu