A Birthday Cake and Few Awards!!!

Hi friends, as many of you might have noticed my blog has been inactive for almost a month now.  Sorry for disappearing just like that without any notice, but then it was not a planned one.  It started with me being unwell and later a motivation fatigue to cook.  Few of you have been asking about my absence. Thanks for asking, I'm fine now but still have'nt started to cook anything bloggable just because of sheer laziness.  So here I'm posting a cake I made for my better half's birthday last year.

Since I did this when I was not a regular blogger, I don't have the step by step clicks.  To see a similar cake's demo please click here.

There are few awards which where long due to acknowledge.  Here goes...

Ganga of My Favourite Foods, Cool Lassie of Pan Gravy Kadai Curry and Aparna of Ladies Special Adukkala have passed on this lovely award!!! Thanks a lot dearies!!!

Rules for accepting the award:

Thank the giver, display the award and brag about it, say 10 honest new things about yourself and pass it on to 10 people.

Me Me... :)

1. Whenever I cook I think of my mom, trying to do things the way she does.  I have always wanted to be just like her.

2. Make a wish upon a fallen eyelash and I got my son and hubby into the habit.  I literally nag my hubby to do so. 

3. I am a strong believer in God and any debate or doubt about the existance of the supreme power takes me into a panicky, insecure state of mind.

4. Get uncomfortable, cautious and apprehensive about strangers who try to be very friendly/talkative. I don't warm up to strangers until I know them better.

5. I love music.  I can listen to old melodies, MJ and Lady Gaga with the same passion and enthusiasm.  Though a li'l biased towards soft melodies.

6. Always concious about what I eat, keep a count on calories and I check my weight many times a day and I get my legs pulled often by friends for doing this.

7. Easily angered, stubborn and at times rebellious but getting mellowed with each year of marriage, thanks to my cool, calm, liberal best half!!! I had a very strict orthodox upbringing and marriage was like a door opened to have all the freedom I craved for as a teenager.

8. At my worse when I have to deal with aggressive, intrusive and over inquisitive people. Their questions and ways affect my nerves and I just can't tolerate them.

9. Like everything feminine. Love laces, frills, pinks and pretty lingerie.  If I can't find what I'm looking for while shopping,  I end up buying lingerie to soothe my disappoinment.

10. I adore my friends.  They are treated very special and are pampered often with lot of attention and quality time.  I value friendship, believe in accepting a friend as he/she is and respect their likes and dislikes.  Hate possesiveness and rivalry among friends and try my level best to avoid both.

Tired of hearing about me????? :D

I'm passing this on to Tina, Dolly, Jagruthi, Sunitha(for A Pensive Adagio as well) and Namitha, Sarah, Vrinda, Fathima,Vineetha, Mythreyi Dilip, Sushma Mallya and Preethi Rajeev . Please accept this award and looking forward to hear more about you. :)

Hamaree Rasoi and Ganga has given me this lovely one.  Thanks a lot for considering me worthy of this!!!

Preethi Rajeev has passed the Kreativ Blogger Award!!! Thanks Preethi!!!

I would like to pass these awards to all my blogger friends.  I find all of you very smart and creative and that is why you all are here in blogosphere!!! So please feel free to accept these awards. :)

Cheers!!!

Beef Vindaloo

Here is the Kochi Style Vindaloo - to be frank I'm not familiar with any other Kerala cusines like Kuttanad, Malabar, Trivandrum etc.  As far as I can trace my family roots, all my Grannys and their Great Great Grannys are from Cochin and so is my better half's. A bit unlucky that way, not to have had a peek into the multitude of Kerala cusines. But now thanks to blogging, I'm getting to know many new ways!!!

I have a craving for extremely spicy dishes and Vindaloo, which needs loads of chilli, goes hand in hand with this obsession. Got the recipe from my Aunt, she makes the best vindaloo in our family!  According to her, Vindaloo has dominant garlic and mustard flavours with a red tint. Hence the red chillies are de-seeded and used - this allows employing more of them to enhance the red tint and de-seeding keeps the spice level under check.

You will need...

Beef - 1 kg diced

Mustard seeds - 1 1/2 tbsp

Whole Red Chillies - 12 - 15 deseeded

Vinegar(Distilled Malt Vinegar) - 3-4  tbsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 sliced

Curry leaves - few

Oil

Grind together:

Green Chillies - 3-4

Onions - 2

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Garlic - 1 1/2 pod

Grind all these together into a coarse paste.

Directions:

Grind mustard seeds and keep aside. Deseed chillies, grind it into a smooth paste with vinegar and keep aside.  In a thick bottomed vessel or pressure cooker heat oil, saute the sliced onions until golden.  Add the ground onion mixture and saute until oil seperates. This might take some time, so be patient. Add the garam masala powder, turmeric powder, ground chilli paste, mustard powder, curry leaves and saute for further 3-4 minutes. Add meat, salt, 1 tbsp vinegar and pressure cook as much you normally do for beef(cooking time varies depending on pressure cooker).  Once done open and saute in high flame until gravy thickens. Serve hot with rice/roti.

Note: 

-The recipe calls for beef fillets or meduim slices. I used diced beef and did'nt find much of a difference.

-To deseed the chillies, slit the chillies lengthwise and tap off the seeds.  If you do not have whole chillies you can use chilli powder instead.  Soak it in vinegar.

-You can adjust the vinegar and chilli amount to suit your liking. 
-Can substitute beef with any meat of your choice.


And now Award time again. Fathima of Thattukada has shared three lovely Awards with me!!! Wow!!! Three at one go!!! Thanks a ton Fathima!!!

I would like to share these three Awards with all my blogger friends. All of you my wonderful, inspiring, creative blogger friends please accept your Awards...

My First Award and A Cake!!!

Hi Friends, I'm so happy to receive the first feathers in  my cap from Devi(http://fresherscookbook.blogspot.com/ ). Thanks a ton Devi for your kindness and encouragement.

Rules for accepting this award

Thank the person who gave you the award.

Copy the award to your blog.

Place a link to their blog.

Name 7 things people don't know about you.

Nominate 7 bloggers.

Place a link to those bloggers.

Place a comment letting those bloggers know about the award.

7 things people might not know about me:

1. Feel like I have conquered the whole world when someone comments, "You have lost weight!", and the more I lose the greedier I get.

2. A spoilsport in extreme weathers and i hate the winter.

3. At my best while shopping for clothes - my all time obsession.

4. A nocturnal when preoccupied with something creative.

5. Bring the entire place down yelling on confronting a spider. 

6. Breakfast with bhelpuri often, can have it round the clock for any number of days and never get tired of it. 

7. My Dream impossible - Fruits and fries swap places in the calorie chart and hence I indulge sinfully 24/7.

I would like to share these awards with

Sunitha and Namitha - http://cookingpals.blogspot.com/

Tina - http://kaipunyam.com/

Jisha - http://jishaskitchen.blogspot.com/

Aparna - http://ladiesspecialadukkala.blogspot.com/

Sarah - http://www.vazhayila.com/

Adukkalavisesham - http://adukalavishesham.blogspot.com/

Fathima - http://thattukada-myblog.blogspot.com/

And to share the joy I'm posting a cake which I made for my son's Birthday.  The party theme was space and hence and a space cake.  The rockets and the astronaut are made of sugarpaste and the cake is iced with fresh cream. It is a pineapple cake, moistened with rum and sugar syrup and layered with fresh cream and cherry filling .  The yellow sugar stars are storebought.  I was in such a pathetic state of mind at that time, with a lot of things to take care of,  forgot to put a birthday message with my son's name on the cake which was later done in a haste by my hubs dear just before cutting the cake.  It was his idea to put the message on a flag.  Missed a good click of the cake as well.