Eggless donuts, eh eh eh eh

After many (MANY) days of pondering.... pondering...about doughnuts and which one exactly would make me the most happiest human on earth, I tried a recipe. And yeah they had to be eggless, as mum is anti-egg. She is so my weight gain preventer; I tempt her tiny body with fatty, sugar filled foods I experiment with and hope she bites. :)

So, first of all, these did not come up the texture of Dunkin doughnuts. And don't kill me for this but the one time I tried a krispy kreme, it was the opposite of "sheer heaven". These were more cake-like, and non spongy. I suppose the recipe creator could have been going for cake doughnuts?

1 c flour, 1/2 c sugar, 1 1/2 ts baking powder, 1/2 ts nutmeg, pinch nutmeg

mix those and in a seperate saucepan warm up 1.2 c milk, 1/2 ts vanilla, 1/2 ts vinegar, 1 energy egg, 4 tb butter

Mix until just combined and bake for 12 min at 350F.

Now mine must have baked for half an hour, plus not having a mini doughnut pan, I used souffle cups, 6 of them. Afterwards, for the topper, I added a mix of choco chips and heavy cream. No measurements- just jumped it. So, these thingies not being fried and having no eggs for those allergic to them, seem to be a nice breakfast or snack. They taste the best the day of, and lose moisture bit by bit the days afterwards. But don't worry you should gobble them up anyway.

P.S I shall post again when I make a yeasty doughnut I am hoping will have more crumb 'spring', than his one.

Chicki Pot Pie Chiki Pot Pie!

What's warm and gooey and spicy and flaky all over? Why it's chiki pot pie! ("No, duh." you say having read the title already.). Well anyway yesterday night I wanted something warm and gooey to ward off the bitter chill that permeated my bones, and since I do not eat meat (and yet still crave it) I realized a "meaty" substitute could be this dish. What I planned and what I ende with were a bit different. I had planned to maybe put in some mock chicken or tofu flavored with chicken. I did neither and simply used chicken soup flavor.
I de-frozified some mixed veggies in the microwave (zappity zap), then sauted them with onions and potatoes. To this I simply added celery soup or mushroom (whatever your little heart desires) added flaked peppers (yes there is more than one kind), salt, any other seasoning and herbs and spices you like. It's fine, what you add in, this ain't no gourmet kitchen. As long as you like the flavor, I'm just giving you the basic idea. I then added cold water to my betty crocker pie dough mix, rolled and layed out (cake pan, casserole dish, muffin tin!), filled, and baked at 350F. Yummy Yummy!

The Majickal show of Merlin

I've always loved knights, honor, battles, chivalry, pretty princesses, dragons, and we most certainly cannot forget, majick. (It IS spelled correctly btw). There is something so achingly beautiful about knights filled with chivalry, riding on gleaming horses, bravely facing their battle. I suppose it has to do with humanoids of now, most, not all I suppose, being selfish, mean, arrogant, prissy, in general the bringers of bad vibes. I really do long for the days of elegant princesses and valiant knights, the regality of it all. And I would be half and half, a knight and princess all in one. Not at the same time, just like in shifts or something.

Anywhoo, Merlin is a BBC show (meaning the American producers cannot ruin it with their predisposed 'rules' of how shows should be). And basically needs no explanation (ok then so why write about it). It portrays a younger Merlin, growing up, still learning his powers, or ahem his craft. His interaction with the young King Arthur are priceless good laughs. He also interacts with Morgana (who in this world is a ward of King Uthor), and Guenevere, a servant. Yeah, so the characters are a bit tossed. I might as well tell you Arthur is the Kings son, not some poor kid who pulls a sword from a rock. So, hmmm, explaining WAS necessary! The show is usually lighthearted, though, as shows pass time, most want to be taken more seriously and the end result of that is portrayed on the show as drama. But it is a good watch for fantasy lovers.

Whole Wheat Ravioli with Pesto Cream

So I have been feeling guilty about eating too much white pasta. We all know (or do we?::eyes person in front of her in a sizing up sort of way) that white pasta is just a bunch of crap. The carbs just turn to sugar, you don't get your fiber and other vital nutrients that wheat can give you just are not there.

Whole wheat just seems to have more taste to it?! The question mark is there because I wonder why most breads on the shelves are white, most breads, most pastas. After you have been feasting on wheat thingies, white just tastes plain BLAND.
Yesterday, I made whole wheat ravioli, mmmm mmmmm mmmm mmmm. Okay at first I was scared for wasting 2 hours of my life making these 'horrible wheat ravioli'. Explain:: Though I like whole wheat stuffs, homemade wheat pasta just didn't turn out for me. Until now!

2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1/4 ts salt
and as many TB of h20 as you need to form a stiff dough
Knead for a while and let rest (a 30min to an hour or more)
Then just roll (or use had cranker) until thin enough for your personal taste buds, and fill your filling.
My filling was ricotta, cheddar (a sprinkle), pepper Jack (a sprinkle), and mozzarella (sprinkle), some fresh oregano, salt, olives, black pepper and red powdered pepper

NOW THE SAUCE!!!! What made the pasta!
I made a roux (of butter and flour). Unfortunately, in my hurry (as usual), I undercooked the flour (and yes you can taste it), so I was forced to cook the sauce itself for a bit.
I added a cube of frozen pesto, added some leftover heavy cream and some milk until the consistency was good enough for me, personally. Make sure you mix constantly. Or use a hand blender, what's it called immersion nowadays? Added more pesto, salt, black pepper, basil, and whatever you want.

I froze the leftover ravioli, hope that is how you do it, raw, cause that's how I did.

Last month I had made a mushroom ravioli with mushroom sauce, aaaaaaaaa (that like when you see angels on tv and the background music goes aaaaaaa).

Chicken Paprikash---without the Chickies

So I finally drove directly into a Chinese supermarket. I was quite upset when my last one pooped out and the next closest one was, alas, not close at all. Longness made short, lo and behold, one right next to a Walmart.
Inside this beautiful place were like 5 types of bok choy, a row (a whole freaking ROW) of dried mushrooms, and more types of soy sauce than I've ever seen before. Well again longness made short, I bought me a bit of vegetarian chicken. Ever since my vegetarianism, some 20 years ago, I've craved chicken like no tommorow (amongst other things).

Chicken Paprikash, I looked up a few recipes and this is what I did.

Some oil and butter, with some garlic and tomatoes until the tomatoes were saucelike.

Added onions, cooked until soft. sprinked some flour and then veggie broth to form sauce.

Added bell peppers, faux chickies (preshredded-all I could find, no juicy legs to bite into....).

Salt, paprika, black pepper, 'chicken' soup flavor salt, basil fresh and dried.

You're supposed to add sour cream too, but I tasted it and it was okay, maybe when I use big meaty chunks of frozen tofu with this recipe, I'll try sour cream. Mock chicken is a bit softer than real.

Well made a pack of wild rice to go with it and hopefully it will all be good! Oh and "garnish" with green scallions. "Garnish"=liberal dose.

Travel in India

If you have ever wanted to experience something that's completely different from your average, "norm" kind of vacation, India would have to be it. Just stepping out of the airport, never having seen the everyday bustle, is enough of a culture shock. Now of course this depends on where you go, this country is big. Some regions are extremly modernized. While others (the fun ones) are getting there, such as Vadodara in Gujarat.
You cannot compare a European travel itinerary in even basics to one in India. For one you cannot rent a car and drive. If you even so much as think so, take a trip (it takes one) in a rikshaw. Don't try the buses (they are diminishing anyway) and do not take a car taxi, you need the tiny little bug-like rikshaws with the open air feel to get the full effect of Vadodara. The rikshaw drivers, fearless-born, will tilt and turn thru cars, bikes, cows, donkeys, motorcycles, pedestrians, trucks, buses and of course other rikshaws (with seemingly even more crazy drivers than the one you're with). At every turn you will be sure you will be crushed or crush some poor street peddler. Oh what fun!
Unfortunately, (but just for me and anyone else interested in architecture), all the beautiful old building are being torn out and redone. If you get lucky you can still see an odd old building stuck in the middle of the boring new boxes. Old carved wooden doors and balconies, rafters, windows, still stuck in time in the middle of tiny little gullies filled with homes and little shops. You have to be carfeul when ogling high up (where most of the older stories seem to be preserved), for myriads of motorcycles and rikshaws will not stop for pedestrians, and they will try to run you over (no, really). Nor are there street lights, and nor do they follow the painted lines of traffic lanes, and nor do they even follow the direction of traffic. Yeah, in case the last one slipped by you, that was one car going the opposite way in a one direction side of extremely busy road.
I don't know if I made India sound nice or not, but my writing is a bit lacking. So there you go.

The Notebook : mini rant

I HATE the Notebook. I hated sitting thru the screaming shrilly voiced girls screamy shrilly shrieks every .5 seconds. And I hated the little "young hercules" man (yeah, check it out, he did some Saturday morning show where HE the tiny little string puppet was actually playing Herc. Hahahah!). I also thought the whole story was dumb, and well really, if you're constantly cringing (from my dazy memory of that waste of a day) during a movie, a WHOLE movie, need you really watch it??

Too Many Husbands

Don't most women wish!! This movie, warn you upfront is in the two beautiful colors of black and white. This movie is based on a book, and when you find out about the movie plot and actual book you wonder why, they even pretended the movie came from the same source.

The movie, is about a woman who loses her husband in a boating accident during their honeymoon. She then remarries her husbands business partner and finds 6 months in, that her first guy is back and kicking. She then lavishes in the attention that both men most obviously give her to make her choose him. The trouble is she seems to like both equally. It is a comedy, and it is not the best black and white film comedy but it is okay as a quick watch.

I need to ask, if Hollywood wants to "use" books and plays' stories for their movies, why then do they change them so dramatically and still have the gall, the audacity to name the movie after the book? It is so different! The absolute worst on which makes my blood boil even now is one based on my favorite book, Cheaper by the dozen. The movie (if you can call it one), was NOTHING (and I do not say this because of my anger) like the movie. Not word or mention of events that happened in the book. The two similarities? One was the book and movie both had families of twelve, and the other, the freakin title!!!!

Now back to Too Many Husbands, in the play, the main woman is selfish and vain. The surprise? NEITHER husband wants her! Both try to pawn her off on the other, both try being the 'noble' one and step aside. Now that would have made a terrifically DIFFERENT movie! Does Hollywood not get that movies with the guys vying for the girl are a dime a dozen and that a movie about guys trying to pawn off the lead female (no less) is something crazy funny and fresh? I would not hope that current Hollywood would remake this film, the book would rollover in its grave. You can just imagine what they'd throw in, talking monkeys and a pack of cheerleaders (no less!).

When in Rome

This Friday, needing to watch a light fluffy romantic comedy, I ventured into "When in Rome". I had been curious about it, having Veronica Mars' Kirsten Bell. Of course, having someone as short as Kirstin Bell paired with Josh Duhammel also whetted my curiosity as to how these two would come of screen. I wondered idly, how many inches were on her boots. Well I give the movie a C+, and this taking into account that I did not expect a moving epic motion picture to begin with.



Bells character is a typical "been hurt before in love, now throwing herself in work" type thing. She takes 4 coins from the fountain of love, thereby making the four men who threw the coins in there, fall magically in love with her. One of them being Danny Devito, a sausage moghul, and horribly underused or over abused, take your pick. The rest are Will Arnett from Arrested Development, a fake artist, John Hedder from Napolean Dynamite as the magician and (the funniest character) and finally Dax Shepard, the male model and real life fiance of Kirsten Bell. Once again she is dwarfed by her life love, real or fake.

Kirsten Bells acting was very off. Her Veronica Mars stuff was great, her Heroes stuff okay. But, her hand in movie acting has to end! It was overacted and lacked any screen presence. Her Veronica Mars costar Amanda Seigfried (Mama mia), on the other hand is the one to watch. Josh Duhamel seems to be okay in the movie, and can act. I had not been sure this would be the case. you can actually, buy him as the guy who is head over heels in love.

If you are craving a romance/comedy, either rewatch something good, or find something else, geez, they could have done so much better.