Oven chronicles :)

Its been more than 1.5 years since I have come to US. In this long time, every house we've lived in has had an oven (yes, here they come with the house/apartment). And I've never once taken a proper look at it, except for using it to store potatoes in one house ;-) :-D. I was determined that I'd never be one of those who bake their own cakes, biscuits, etc. But curiosity has slowly but surely killed the cat ;-). I started thinking seriously about it some weeks ago. I even got a ready-made veggie pizza and some ready-made samosas which have to be baked, for the initial oven experimentation. Never got around to actually doing it until this weekend :).

I always thought the oven operation would be complicated, maybe the older ones were. But most of the houses here have the most recent models which are not very difficult to operate at all. This I discovered only when I sat and read through the manual :-p. It was as simple as pressing 3 buttons for some previously-wayyy-out-of-understanding-concept called "Pre-heating" :-D and just keeping what needs to be baked inside the oven next for whatever specified time :). Ok that understood, it was time for my first "experiment" :-D.

The oven came with baking pans, so there was no need to buy those. But I did need some oven mitts and aluminium foil. There was aluminium foil left over from our barbeque (vegetatian ofcourse :-D), "experiment" last summer (we enjoyed roasted corn and home-made veggie burgers on the barbeque actually :). Oh, I forgot I could have written a post on that! What a waste! Well, maybe next summer ;-) :-D), so again only thing required was the mitts. But they weren't really necessary for the first time. Any thick cloth to handle the hot baking pans was ok and so the experiment proceeded :).

The first trial was nothing complex and I decided to go with the ready-made samosas I had gotten from the Indian store. I set the oven for preheating and covered the baking pan with aluminium foil. Arranged the samosas on it and put the pan into the oven after the pre-heating was done. After about 15 mins of baking, took the pan out, turned over the samosas and put it in again for 15 more mins of baking. Everything worked fine and the first experiment results were declared successful when the samosas turned out to be delicious. My hubby declared that they could be a bit more roasted, a point which was duely noted :-D. Anyways, I can't really take the credit for making them, but sure for baking them :-D. All this happened with only one itsy-bitsy-miniscule burn on one of my fingers which happened when I was trying to turn over the samosas and mistaken scraped a part of the hot oven. And nope, its definitely not something serious.

Ok, so I was ready to go to the next level immediately. I confess to missing the Indian bakery items here in US, a lot. So yesterday, we went shopping and got a few things required for Veg puffs. I actually made aalu palya (potato curry) puffs and I took the recipe for puff making from here (I made my own potato onion peas curry and I am not going to bore you with the recipe here ;-) :-D). So we bought mitts and Puff Pastry sheets. Puff pastry sheets are actually flour rolled into a sheet in layers (thats one wonderful advantage in US, you get almost anything you want here :-D). And I did everything according to the recipe - thawed the puff pastry sheet, rolled and cut it to 9 equal pieces (not exactly equal, but who cares :-p), made and then cooled my aalu palya, put the palya in the sheet pieces, sealed them, preheated the oven, got the pan ready with the aluminium foil, arranged the puffs on the pan, baked them for 15 min, turned them over and baked again for 15 more minutes. Only one mistake happened in this whole procedure, I didn't seal the puffs properly with water (a point to be noted for next time :-D), but this only meant the palya peeked out of the puffs a little and no way spoiled the taste.

So voila here are the puffs :-D.




Shown are only 4, as the other 5 were gulumed (consumed :-D) by us as soon as they were cool enough to bite into, which was plenty hot, believe me ;-) :-D. They came out really tasty, almost as tasty as the ones available in Bangalore bakeries, little less oily and I'm quite proud of myself. Though puffs might be a very easy and most common thing baked by many people here in US or in India, I'm still happy with myself because I tried something new and it came out good.

The success of the 2nd level of baking, as defined by me :-D, has inspired me to try many further things. I'm already looking at aalu palya buns, khaara biscuits and many more repeats of different kinds of curry puffs :). Moreover baking is really easy and hardly takes any effort :). So, I'm sure that this is the beginning of a new beautiful relationship :).

Chocolate - Lime Juice - Ice Cream - Toffeeyan..

The Hum Aaapke Hain Kaun song lyrics actually continues "Pehle Jaise Ab Mere Shauk Hain Kahan". In my case, its "Pehle se aur shauk hain ab" :-D. Not for lime juice and toffees though. Only for icecreams and chocolates. Oh man!! What icecreams and what chocolates!! This blog post is dedicated to 2 of my favourite indulgences these days :).


Cold Stone Icecream:

(This image is stolen err, taken from the official site of Cold Stone icecream)

The above tag is just so that Cold Stone people don't sue me. A gal has to be careful, you see ;-) :-D.

My love of Cold Stone icecream started sometime after I came to US. In fact, the first icecream I had in US must have been the McDonald's Hot fudge Sundae. Yup nothing beats the vanilla chocolate combination according to me ;-). In Bangalore, I used to love the chocolate dipped softy they sell at Hot Chips :-D. And the scrumptuous icecream at Corner house (Death by chocolate anyone? I shared half of it with a friend once and was almost dead by the end. Its so sinful ;-) :-D). Shucks, sorry for the switch from Lexington to Bangalore, the word "icecream" brings back so many memories {waves all the memories away in an effort to stick to the topic}. Ok back to Cold Stone.

Before he married me, Sri was in US in Phoenix, Arizona and it seems there was a Cold Stone creamery store just below his office!! So thats how he came to love Cold Stone icecream. And he dislikes chocolate by the way :-p. So the first thing he did when one day after I came to US, I made a fuss and shouted "icecream" like a kid, was to find if there was a store here in Lexington. Turned out that there are 3 and one of them was very near our house :). So from then on, I became a fan just like he already was :).

So whats so special about this icecream? After all, you get icecream everywhere and most flavours are available everywhere too. The speciality of Cold Stone is not the flavour, but the flavour you can create ;-) :-D. You may be stunned to know (unless you have already tasted this) that you create your own icecream!! And just how do you do this? Let me go through it step by step.

First you choose a flavour (Banana, Sorbet, White Chocolate Mint, Cheesecake, Sinless, Chocolate, Strawberry, Coffee, Sweet Cream, French Vanilla are just a few) in 3 different sizes (Like it, Love it or Gotta Have it!! - Corny I know :-D). You can even go for a bucket if you want ;-). Then you go in for the mix-ins.

Mix-ins are stuff you can add to the icecream to make your own creation. Mix-ins maybe Candies (Butterfinger, Chocolate Chips, Crunch Bar, Gummi Bears, Heath, Kit Kat, M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Snickers, Rainbow Sprinkles, White Chocolate Chips), Nuts (Macadamias, Pecan halves, Roasted or Sliced Almonds, Walnuts), Fruits (Apple Pie Filling, Banana, Black Cherries, Blackberries, Blueberries, Cherry Pie Filling, Coconut, Pineapple, Raspberries, Strawberries), Baked Goods (Brownies, Oreo Cookies, Graham Cracker Pie Crust, Yellow Cake) and Other mix-ins (Caramel, Cinnamon, Fudge, Honey, Marshmallows, Peanut Butter, Whipped Topping, Cookie Dough). Phew!! Though I stole the combinations again from the official website, I know its tiring to read so many :-D.

You can go for any number of mix-ins, but beware! Only the first mix-in is free. The rest cost about 40 cents each :-D. And these are not already mixed and kept ready. They take a scoop (or how much ever according to the size you ask for) of the flavour you want and take each of the mix-ins you ask for and mix it in front of your eyes. They crush fresh strawberries, cakes, candies into the icecream! And the end-result is amazing. Its an icecream blended with exactly that fresh fruit or extra chocolate you always wished for :). You can opt for a normal cup, or a sugar cone or a waffle cone to eat this mixture in.

The cost is very costly. Very bland statement, but very true. You should definitely not convert the amount into rupees. Or you will probably stop eating the icecream. Nah, nothing can make you stop eating it, though you'll certainly be shocked that a Like-it size costs Rs. 150, i.e about $3.something. Well worth it, but to be honest, I probably wouldn't have paid that kind of money for an icecream, for heaven's sake, had I been in India :-p.

Cold Stone also sell Icecream cakes created with layers of moist cake and icecream and its yummy. Totally irresistible :-D. I had got a Strawberry passion cake for Sri's birthday and what do I say! Simply fabulous!! Its like no other cake/pastry you'd have ever tasted!

My only crib is that they don't have Butter Scotch flavour icecream which is my absolute favourite (I have so much, yet crib for more :-p). But right now, I am absolutely loving the Strawberry flavour + Brownie + almonds + yellow cake like-it/love-it combination :). Oh man!! You have to eat it to believe it :). (Am I making you jealous? Hurray, hurray and more hurray >:-) :-D).


Godiva Chocolates:

(This image is again stolen err, taken from the official site of Godiva Chocolates)

Ok the copyright thingy again just because the Godiva official site looks better than the Cold Stone icecream wale, so they may be on a better watch out for people who steal their photos :-p.

I have always loved chocolate. Since I've come here to US, I've heard a lot about Godiva chocos from cousins, but never really tasted it until about a month ago. I was into Snickers and Hershey's, but was kind of getting tired of them. I had seen Godiva being sold in one of the malls here and so, being the dutiful wife I am ;-), I pestered Sri into buying some for me :-D.

The first Godiva chocos I got were a dark chocolate bar and 2 milk chocolate pieces with whole almonds. As soon as I was out of the mall, one of the pieces was broken and half of it was in my mouth. Ummmmmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmmmm!!! The other piece went into Sri's mouth, though he doesn't like chocolate very much. And he can't even differentiate between dark bitter chocolate and sweet milk chocolate. Sad!! But he does like white chocolate and that was what I got for him (the rest was all for me hehehehee) when we bought Godiva the second time.

The second time I also bought a macademia nut chocolate bar whose I taste I really can't describe, its so wow!! I also have a chocolate covered macaroon which I still haven't tasted and 2 pieces of a choco called "Iconique" which has some hazelnut filling thats crispy and delicious :-D. So as you can make out, this is only my second time at Godivas. But I'm sure they are gonnu get lots more visits from me ;-) :-D.

Cannot really talk about the cost again 'cause the chocolates are all very costly. I guess you have to pay the price for indulging like this ;-). A small bar of Godiva chocolate (any flavour) containing 4 pieces is about $2.75. Thats almost more than 30 rupees per piece!! Sometimes I almost feel guilty of spending that kind of money on a choco, but I get over the guilt in no time at all ;-) :-D. Mostly I have no memory of the guilt once the choco is in my mouth ;-).

Now comes the big question. If I am eating so much of chocos and icecreams, how come I haven't bloated up? Thanks for that has to go to myself, who somehow manages to drag herself to gym 5 days a week for a heavy 1-hour workout :-D. Had it not been for a 10 min warm-up session + 25 min of brisk walking/jogging + 10 min of weights + 15 min of abdomen exercizes each and every day except for a Saturday and a Sunday, I would have been a fat cow by now :-p.

And how does Sri remain slim? God only knows!! The man doesn't exercise, but gains not even a single ounce of weight. Some people are plain lucky, whereas others poor souls have to struggle and struggle. I have been trying to fatten him up to absolutely no avail. But if you ask me to give up chocos and ice cream just to be slimmer than him, all I can say is that you'll get a big fat TENGA :-D :-D :-D.