Best. Brownies. Ever.

I proudly say that I don't like sweets that much, I have a 'meat' tooth if you will. :)

My urge of eating sweet can be satisfied by just a piece of cake or couple of rich Gulab Jamuns or a steamy cup of hot chocolate. Sometimes simply by baking cookies or whipping Shrikhand, I'm over my will of actually eating it. Last Wednesday was no different. I came across this Brownie recipe on Pinterest which said "most delicious brownies you will ever taste" and being a recipe nazi, I had to test it. :P And believe you me, they were the best Brownies I'd ever had.

The recipe is simple and quick and had lot of room to creativity. So here it is,

Ingredients:

Dry:

Sugar: ½ cup [I like them less sweet, you can go wild]

Flour: ½ cup [I used all purpose and whole wheat mix]

Baking powder: pinch

Salt: pinch

Cocoa powder: 1/3 cup

Wet:

Vegetable oil : ½ cup [or melted butter]

Eggs : 2 big

Vanilla extract : 4-5 drops

Optional:

Chopped walnuts or almonds [I used] or pistachios

MnMs 

White choco chips

Macadamia nuts

Line baking pan with baking sheet. I didn’t have it, so I used aluminum foil. Did not make a difference.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix oil, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs. Beat them till it forms foamy mixture.

Add in flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Mix well. Beat for a minute or two.

Stir in optional items. [you can also spread them on top of batter, your wish]

Pour into baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Let the brownies cool down. When you reach this stage when they are wearing nerd glasses, dig in!!

This time for a change, I had couple of pieces of the sweet I baked myself. Couriered rest to darling sister! Lets see how she likes them.

Vegetarian chili

My first encounter with Chili was during Superbowl 2008. Office cafe was serving Super Bowl special food; nachos, tacos, baby back ribs and chicken wings! When I bought nachos, the server asked if I wanted 'some' chili with it. In my thought bubble I said, "I learned british English in India and we say chillies, not some chili." But being a sweet person I am (:P) I replied, "Sure!" And he poured this thick soup like mixture of beans and meat and veggies and sauce on my nachos. When I tasted it, I was instantly a fan of this recipe. Its a perfect blend of meat, broth, cooked veggies, beans, tomatoes and spices! Each spoonful bursts with flavor.

Over the years I learned that you can make chicken chili [just to respect the gau mata :P] as well as vegetarian chili. I also learned that its a distant cousin of our beloved Paav-Bhaji when it comes to going creative with use of veggies. So today I made this vegeterian chilli with what all things I had in my fridge!

Ingredients:

Rajma ie. Red Kidney beans : 1/4 cup, soaked overnight, then cooked completely
Toor daal and split chana daal : 1/3 cup, soaked for 4 hours [you can use any lentils basically]
1 big onion : Finely chopped
2 big tomatoes : Finely chopped
1 cup frozen mix veggies : this is the step where you can go creative, go wild, empty your fridge
1 can veggie broth or chicken broth
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
8-10 baby carrots
1 small potato : chopped
1 spoon Ginger Garlic paste
2 Bay leaves
4-5 cloves
2 spoons chili powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Saute onions, ginger garlic paste in 2 spoons oil, add cloves and bay leaves. When onions become translucent, add tomatoes and chili powder.
Let it cook for 5 mins, then add veggies, corn kernels, carrots and potatoes.
After all vegetables are coated with spices, add broth, beans and lentils. Add some water if needed.
Add salt to taste and some more chili powder if you like. :)
Let it simmer for 30-45 minutes till it looks like the picture above! Or till all veggies are overcooked.
If you want to fasten the process, just throw everything in pressure cooker and let it whistle 4-5 times and you are done!!


It can go very well with Tortilla chips or even with rice or chapati. You can have it as soup as well OR make some Guacamole and you got yourself Taco night!

Love,
Priyanka

A girl and her heart shaped cookie cutter!

I'm not so crazy about Valentine's day. Not in a cheesy way, like, every day is a valentine's day with my darling husband; but in a calm and collected way, like, meh. :P

This time I found this awesome cookie cutter package for just $2.99 at local Christmas tree shop. And it was first-encounter-with-scissors all over again. The phrase comes from incident in my childhood. Mum got a new pair of scissors and asked me and my sis not to touch it. And as any other child would do, we did not touch it, till mum went out. It was Sunday afternoon, we had the entire house for ourselves and of course the 'forbidden' pair of scissors. Long story short, we tested that scissors on everything including newspapers, cookbooks, curtains and my little sister's hair. Lets say that mum wasn't..... so..... happy.... when she got home.

Since I'm all grown up now(!), I of course didn't do any destructive thing with the cookie cutter, but I made everything heart-shaped till my hearts content. So presenting heart shaped Sugar cookies, tea-light holders, car hanging and chapati!! [There were many other things, but not so presentable. :P]

Love,
Priyanka