Chocolate cake

This cake I made for one of my friend's surprise birthday party. This was not a planned recipe, I just experimented with the ingredients at home and to my surprise it came out very moist and a hit among the kids as well as adults. So before I forget what I did, I decided to pen it down!
Here are are ingredients

For Cake

• One box of white cake mix
• 3 whole eggs
• 1 and 1/4th cup of water
• 1/3 cup of canola oil
• 1/4th cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4th cup of sweet cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of coffee extract
• 1/2 tablespoon of instant coffee

For Icing

• 1 teaspoon of coffee extract
• 2 cups heavy of whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/4th cup of sweet cocoa powder
• Icing sugar according to the level of sweetness you want

For Decoration

• Chocolate melts
• 1 tbsp of sweet cocoa powder

Mix all the cake ingredients together and beat it with an electric mixer until the batter is smooth. Pour it equally into three 9-inch baking pans and bake for 20 minutes at 325°F. Take these out of the oven and keep them on a cooling rack for 1-2 hours.

For icing put all the ingredients into a bowl and using an electric mixer (set on medium-high speed) beat it until the mixture is stiff and frosting consistency.
To assemble the cake: Place one cake layer on a serving plate, spread one fourth of the frosting on this layer. Put the next layer of the cake and top it with frosting again, put the final cake layer on and cover the whole cake with rest of the frosting. I try to smooth it out as much as possible.

For decoration 
Sprinkle the sweet cocoa powder on the cake using a sieve and placed chocolate melts on the circumference.

And leave it in fridge overnight to set. 

Freezing food

Frozen green chilies

This is something that I learned and started doing over the past year. I used to buy cilantro from grocery store and it would go bad in 4-5 days if not used. Same thing with green chilies, they would start to turn black. Now what I do is wash cilantro and leave it on a drying towel for 2-3 hours, then chop it finely, put it in a zip-lock bag and freeze it. It is very convenient to use if you are using it in tadka or for making chutni, I don't think you would want to use this for garnishing. Just two things to keep in mind: don't overfill the zip-lock bag and flat it out before you freeze so that when you want to use it you can break a piece by hand, same idea goes for things listed below.
If you have some fresh veggies in your fridge or garden that you think you can not use right away, this is something that can work.
Following are few things that I frozen:

1. Whole green chilies
2. Cilantro
3. Chopped methi leaves
4. Basil (I had a lot of fresh basil growing in my backyard in summer which I froze and still using it in soups and pasta dishes)
5. Peeled garlic cloves
6. Chopped roccoli stems (these are leftover stems are you cut the florets, I saute florets as a side dish and freeze stems and after I have enough of these I make a dish out of these)
7. Mint ( again from my vege garden)
8. Paneer (I cut it and freeze in it individual serving size bags, when required I take it out, put it in a bowl full of water and microwave for 3-4 minutes) 
9. Chopped green onion
10. Chopped tomatoes
11. Chopped potatoes



Chopped broccoli stem 

12. Chopped bell peppers

And don't forget to put a date on the bag, so that you know how long it has been sitting in your freezer if not regularly used.

Milk Cake (Indian)

I got this recipe from a wonderful friend of mine!

This will make you 35-40 pieces

Original Milk cake

Milk powder - two cups

Heavy whipping cream  - one cup

Almond powder - one cup (I took raw almonds and powdered them in magic bullet)

Sugar - one cup

Mix everything together in a flat (not very deep) container that you can use in microwave.

Reduce the power of microwave to 60.

Put this container in the microwave for 15-20 minutes (depending on how light or dark colored milk cake you want).

Just make sure to take the container out every 1-2 minutes and stir it properly and for sure keep an eye on it all the time, otherwise it may burn or spill in there. 

Once it is done, take it out and pat it down with a spatula, and cut it right away in the shape you want. Let it cool for some time or serve it hot!

The texture of this mithai is a little chewy once it cools down, I usually microwave it for 10 seconds before serving. If yours turn out too hard then it might indicate overcooking or fast cooking. 

As a modification, you can add quarter cup of milk chocolate and make Chocolate milk cake and it tastes equally delicious.

Chocolate Milk cake

Lemon (Lime) pickle (no oil)

I made this last summer and would be making it again this summer as it is almost finished. What I like about this pickle is that there is no oil in the recipe and very few ingredients.

The ingredients are
Lime (I think lemon would work well too I used Lime as it was on sale ) 
Salt
Ajwain
Brown sugar
Black pepper powder

I will update this recipe once I make it again as I don't remember how much of everything I used.

Wash limes twice to clean its skin, and leave them to dry on a towel overnight. Take 1/6th of these and juice them. Cut rest of the limes (each into eight pieces). Take a large bowl and mix cut limes, salt, ajwain, brown sugar and black pepper powder thoroughly. Take glass jars and put in this mixture in them and pour the lime juice proportionately into these. 

Make sure nothing comes in contact with water at any stage other than the washing part.

Put this outside in the morning when there is sunshine and take it in every night. Shake it every time you put it outside. I did this for around a month everyday. You can do it longer if you feel its not done. 

This is how much I made in June 2013

This is what I have left as of Jan 2014

Sarso ka Saag (Mustard Green and Spinach)

Mustard greens 

Washed mustard leaves

Chop mustard leaves

Put around one cup water in pressure cooker

Put all chopped mustard in pressure
cooker on medium flame 

Put around half pound of
spinach,this was baby spinach
so I didn't chop it.Also
put in one tsp each of
salt and turmeric powder,
close the pressure cooker and let it
cook for about 35-40 minutes

For tadka, take 1/4 of an onion, 2-3 green
chilies and small piece of ginger.
Make a paste out of ginger and chilies
and finely chop the onion

Put 2-3 tbs of oil or ghee in a frying
pan, add ginger chili paste and saute
for few seconds. Add onion and
saute till onion is cooked. Add 3/4 tbs
of garam masala and saute for half 
a minute, then take it off the heat.

Put in half cup of corn flour in cooked
mustard and spinach leaves and mix
properly. Then add sauteed onions
and cook everything together for
two to three minutes

I used a hand blender to mix everything together for a nice consistency, serve it hot with a dollop of butter on top with roti.

Futon project

I had an old futon which I didn't have the heart to throw away, so I made large and small floor cushions out of it.



They come in very handy when I have a large number of guests over. I just throw them on floor and it creates so much extra sitting space!
Below are the pictures of the project, it is pretty easy to make if you have some free time.