Rice Krispie Treats (My daughter's first cooking ..)

Today my daughter cooked her first cooking assignment Rice Krispie Treats without taking my help. I am so impressed the way she cooked and managed alone. The best part is that she kept the kitchen so clean after the cooking. Way to go Sumana. Best of all, these treats are so yummy.

Here are the pictures of the same

Zucchini Bread with walnuts

Hi Everyone,

I have been thinking of making Zucchini bread ever since I had this at my work place.

Finally I baked it today morning. My daughter helped a lot in completing this recipe. Here is the recipe for the same.

Ingredients:

3 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tea spoons of vanilla extract
2 cups of grated zucchini
3 eggs
1 tea spoon baking soda
1/2 tea spoon baking powder
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 tea spoons of ground cinnamon
1 tea spoon nutmeg powder

Yields 2 loaf pans or 1 loaf pan and 24 muffin cups.

Preparation:

Pre heat ove 350 degrees F. Grease the loaf pan. Line 24 muffin cups with liners.

Dry Ingredients:
Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, spices(nut meg and cinnamon), walnuts together.

Wet Ingredients:
In a large bowl beat eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla extract. Now add zucchini and mix well.

Now add the dry ingredients to the creamy mixture(wet ingredients) and mix well.

Instead of two loaf pans I used one loaf pan and remaining in muffin cups.
Pour batter into pan and muffin cups.





Bake loaf pan for 50 to 60 mts or till tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Muffin cups bake quickly. Approx. baking time is 20 to 30 mts.

Cool the bread on a rack for 20 to 30 mts or till it cools completely.
Yummy and delicious bread is ready to be served.

Cut the bread in slices and serve..

Cheesecake for Thanksgiving Dinner...

Hi Everyone

Yesterday night I baked the cheesecake for today's dinner using Ina Garten recipe. Only variation I did is using Orange zest instead of lemon zest.



Here is the recipe of Cheesecake from Ina Garten ..Recipe

Here are the pictures of my cheesecake. I decorated half with berries and half with Chocolate.

Autumn Tree Cartoon

Y'day night I was brushing up my art skills, as a part of that drew this Autumn tree cartoon






My daughter Art:

Banana Bread with Walnuts

I was planning to bake this bread for a long time, finally I baked today. First time I had this bread in Starbucks, Monterey. I never thought I will be able to bake the same at home. Thanks to food network for the wonderful recipe.(FYI- There are plenty of banana bread recipes in Food network. This recipe is one of them.)

It is very simple to make (Prep time is just 30 mts . Baking time is 1 hr. )



Procedure:

1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature or 1/3 cup oil ( I use saffola or vegetable oil)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/8th tsp salt
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas
1/2 or 1/4 cup of roasted chopped walnuts( Optional)

Pre heat oven at 35o degrees F. Grease the 9*5*3 loaf pan with butter or oil.

Dry ingredients: Sift the flour, add salt and baking soda and mix it well. Keep it aside
Wet ingredients :
Mash bananas using fork.
Mix butter or oil and sugar using a mixer till it is light. With the mixture running on low speed add one egg at a time, add vanilla extract, and banana paste to the mixture and mix it well.

Now switch off the mixture add dry ingredients and mix well. Add nuts and fold it.

Pour this batter to loaf pan and bake for 1 hr or until the tooth pick/knife comes out clean when it is inserted in the center of the cake.




Cooling On rack:



Cool completely on a cooling rack . Serve it cutting thin slices... It tastes better next day..

Yummy delicious banana bread with walnuts is ready to be served...

Pizza with Roti/flat bread

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Halloween. We had a wonderful Halloween party at our friend's place. Yesterday my friend Raki made delicious Pizza for lunch. She is a great cook. I was so impressed with the pizza, I made the same for dinner today. Thanks Raki for sharing this recipe.


This recipe is very simple and delicious.





Ingredients:

Cheddar Cheese( I used Indian Amul Cheese)
Bell peppers
Tomatoes
Onions
Rotis/flat bread
Pickled Jalapenos (Optional)
Black Pepper
Salt(As per your taste)
Oregano leaves
Red crushed pepper

Procedure:

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees F
Cut all the vegetables into thin slices. Add pepper, salt to the vegetables and mix it.
Cook/toast rotis using a pan (tava). Let the rotis cool for 5 mts .
Now add the grated cheddar cheese on the roti. Top the vegetables evenly on the cheese.
Sprinkle oregano leaves and red crushed pepper (as per your spice level). You can sprinkle more cheese on top of the vegetables to make it cheesy (Optional). I didn't add to make it less cheesy.





Bake for 10 mts. Remove it from oven, cut it using pizza cutter and serve it.

Yummy, delicious and crispy pizza is ready to be served.

Once again I want to say thanks to Raki for this wonderful recipe.

Halloween Costume (iPhone) .

Today I used my creative ideas and made this costume for my daughter. Here are the pictures for the same

Besan Laddu

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Diwali celebrations. We had a blast on Diwali with lots of food and crackers. We had a potluck party with all our friends. As a part of potluck I made Dahi Vada, Mendhu Vada with Onion and Besan Laddu.
Today I would like to share Besan Laddu recipe. This is very simple and delicious sweet which no one can resist.






Potluck dishes:



Ingredients:

2 cups of Ladu besan/Gram flour(This is little coarse than besan. You can get it in any Indian store).
2 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of Ghee. (You can add more as per your taste)
1/2tsp cardamom powder
Pistachios (Crush them into coarse mixture)

Procedure:

Heat Ghee in a pan once ghee is hot (almost reaching boiling point)add besan and roast it on low heat stirring continuously till it looses the raw flavor.(hint: Besan will change the color to golden color once the rawness goes.) . Now add powdered sugar, cardamom powder and mix well. Keep mixing on low flame for 2 more mts and keep it aside.

Once the mixture becomes warm make small round shaped laddus. (If you are unable to make laddus you can add ghee even at this stage. ) You can decorate the laddus dipping one edge into pistachios powder.

Delicious yummy besan laddu is ready to be served. I can guarantee that all your guests will ask which shop did you buy these sweets.

Would like to send this sweet dish to "Sweet Series Event" hosted by Sireesha

Happy Diwali

Hi Everyone

Wish you a Happy Diwali. To all the Telugu readers, Deepavali Subhakankshalu.
May this year brings you peace, happiness in life and fulfills all your dreams.

-Sailaja


First time ever I tried to put Mehendi using cone on my daughter's hand for Diwali. Here is the picture of the same.

Plantain/Aratikaya Bajji

Right now in bay area it is pouring cats and dogsssssssssss..... In this kind of weather I can just imagine only hot hot mirchi bajji/aratikaya bajji/pakodi.. These are my favorite dishes for this season.

Started making these yummy delicious aratikaya bajji to enjoy first rain of the season..

Come and have these yummy bajjis...






Ingredients:

1 plantain
1cup of besan(Bengal Gram flour/garbanzo flour)
1tbsp of chili powder(Spice as per your taste)
pinch of baking soda
salt as per your taste
oil to deep fry


Procedure:

Mix flour,salt, chili powder ,baking soda and make it medium thick consistency batter using water.

Batter:


Cut plantains into round shaped like chips and put it in water(This helps plantains from decolorization). In a frying pan heat the oil . Once the oil is hot, dip the plantain into batter and place it in the oil. (Make sure you are familiar, how to handle the hot oil). Turn on both sides. Once they turn golden color remove them from oil strain the oil.






Tasty crispy delicious bajjis are ready to be served with ketchup or just sprinkle chat masala.

You can have these bujjis filled with onion mixture like Vizag beach style. (In vizag beaches these bajjis are famous. Especially Ramakrishna beach. I really miss vizag) Slit the bajji in the middle and fill with onion mixture..

Onion Mixture filling(Optional):

1 onion finely chopped
1tsp of lemon juice
salt
chili powder

Mix chopped onions ,salt, chili powder and lemon juice

Bobbatlu- A variation using Moong Dal

Bobbatlu, this is one delicious sweet which no one can resist. In Andhra it is called Bobbatlu, Maharashtra Puran Poli, Karnataka Obbattu. We prepare this sweet for almost all festivals and occasions/functions. This sweet tests your patience. It is very time consuming, but worth an effort. Hard works pays off....

Yesterday for Durga pooja I made these delicious bobbatlu. This time I made these with moong dal instead of Chana Dal. This is my mom's recipe.
Here is the recipe for the same.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Moong dal
1 cup of Sugar
1 cup of maida/all purpose flour
1tsp of cardamom powder
pinch of salt
oil

Preparation:

Dough preparation:

Mix all purpose flour/maida with pinch of salt, 2 table spoons of oil with water and make it like a softer dough consistency. It should be very soft and sticky softer than chapathi/puri dough.

Purnam preparation:

Cook Moong dal till it is soft and holds the shape. Do not over cook. Drain the water completely and keep it aside and let it cool.

Once dal is completely cool add sugar and cardamom powder. If the purnam is too thin then transfer into a pan and cook till it becomes thick to make round shaped. Make round shaped balls and keep it aside.

Grease your hands with oil and take a small portion of dough spread it on aluminium foil or Banana Leaf( You can even use thick plastic cover like Ziploc bag) into round shape.


Place purnam and close it as it is shown in the picture. Whole process I tried to take pictures to make it very self explanatory.

Now grease your hand with oil and start pressing till it becomes like chapathi shape.

Now transfer the bobbattu slowly on the pan and cook it on low heat using either ghee or oil.





Cook on both sides till it turns golden color.

Delicious Bobbattu ready to be served. Make sure to serve these bobbatlu with ghee.

You can make these bobbatlu with Chana dal using these ingredients.
1 cup of chana dal
1 cup of jaggery
Rest of the process is same as above.

I hope everyone will try this delicious recipe and let me know how it turned out.