Spanish Caramel Custard

Since I am the only "food blogger" in the family, my cousin Mnu gifted me a few cook books recently which are a beautiful compilation of exotic recipes and drool worthy pictures. Qya and I pretend to eat the scrumptious sandwiches, succulent chicken, colourful salads, luscious and indulgent desserts off its glossy pages all the time. After enduring lots of pleading, I agreed to make a Spanish Caramel Custard for him. In fact we made it together, he got a taste of the orange infused milk and approved of it, learnt how to separate egg whites and yolks (though I didn't think he was quite up to the task when he offered to help), and couldn't fully comprehend how white sugar became brown and caramelized after it melted. Though not happy that it had to go into the oven for so long and then had to cool for a few hours in the refrigerator, he declared the end product to be delicious!!!

Tweet

Roasted Pineapple Salad

If I could have my way, I would ban weighing machines and full length mirrors in all malls. There I was, having a good time, wondering what to snack upon next, when the hubby drew my attention to a weighing machine to see if his stint in the gym had any effect at all. He removed his sandals, stood on the machine, popped in a coin and waited with bated breath. I got to the piece of paper that popped out quicker than him, checked the readings quickly, had a good laugh about how the scales refused to move in his favour, and lectured to him about the kinds of exercise that could actually make some difference. He got irritated and asked me to weigh myself then. I went out like a light bulb as I looked at my reading, surely there had to be some mistake. But a careful scrutiny in the mirror, and I realized that the weighing machine might not be lying after all. I looked at the other women strolling about in their tight jeans and tees and felt a sudden urge to ban them as well.

Tweet

Ginger Lemonade

 

Rexy and I had always got along fairly well together. Atleast, she seemed sincerely pleased to see me everytime I visited her, and she is not the kind who can pretend convincingly. So when she warned me to keep away from her babies, I thought she was bluffing. Apparently, she was not, and I ended up getting nipped on my ankle. Ouch!

Tweet

Butterscotch Cream Cake

 

Do you always ooh and aah over the cakes and pastries you see in your favourite bakery? I do too, and enjoy them to very last, tiny crumb. So much that I decided to learn how to make them at home and attended a cake baking class recently!

Tweet

DON 2 - Please, Usko Koi Pakad Lo!

Qya and I are SRK fans and as part of our New Year celebrations, we went to watch Don 2. It was everything that I expected it to be.

After single handedly flattening around 20 of his enemies in Thailand, Don(SRK) hands himself over to the Malaysian police. He then breaks out of a high security Malaysian prison along with Vardhan (Bomar Irani) by inducing mass food poisoning among the prisoners, borrowing the security guard's uniform and an ambulance. As expected.

After his daring prison escape, he goes straight to party with Lara Dutta. Expected. Lara Dutta's outfit, smaller than expected.

Don and Vardhan, two of world's most wanted criminals, move from one country to another in luxury and style without any hiccups. Nothing out of the ordinary in Bollywood.

Don appears at a high profile charity event (disguised as Hritik Roshan) to get in touch with a German bank's vice president whom he intends to blackmail. Once he has the vice president's attention, he pulls off his mask and reveals himself. Guess Don likes to watch Mission Impossible during his free time. Though I can't understand how the mask is supposed to have increased Don's height by a few inches and improved his physique to give him the appearance of a healthier man.

The second half of the movie deals with the scheming to get hold of currency printing plates using the security information provided by the bank's vice president. Don hires hacker Kunal Kapoor to be part of the team, and Kunal is responsible for hacking and controlling the security system of the bank and the vault where the plates are kept. Child's play. Bomar Irani gets hold of finger prints and voice recording required to gain access into the vault. Don sets up explosives at various points inside the building. An explosive goes off, and more of Don's men, posing as fire fighters arrive at the scene and gain entry into the building. Though this reminds me of some Hollywood movie (is it Ocean's Eleven?), the movie did get interesting at this point. There is a re kindling of kuch kuch hota hai  between Don and Roma (Priyanka Chopra), the police officer whose mission in life is to get Don behind bars, and I almost expected a song, but luckily, that didn't happen.

Anyway, the scheming bit is interesting, there are a few witty dialogues (wish there were more of them), and there is plenty of style and glamour. A final twist in Don's escape plan, and I stopped wishing that the law had caught Don at the end of the first movie and put him in a gas chamber for good.

Tweet