Day 20 – My Princess’ Birthday

100 Happy Days – Day 20

Happiness is my Ammamma’s birthday!!!

My (Ammamma) grandmother is a very important part of my life. If someone asks me whom I love the most, I would say Ammamma. I have always thought about writing a post dedicated to her. But I did not know where to begin. I started writing a post about her once. But I couldn’t arrange my thought flow well because there were too many things to write about her. I wanted to write everything even though they were all disconnected. Finally, it became such a big mess. I realised that I loved her too much to write about her. Or maybe, I am yet to reach those heights where I could really convert those strong emotions to words.

In any case, this is my first post exclusively dedicated to her. Today is our princess’ birthday. People say that as we grow old, we return to our childhood. I have been seeing that happen. When she asks for more chocolates, when she gives that sudden toothless smile, when she cracks cute jokes and laughs, when she makes weird shrieks and sounds like little children to make us laugh, when she throws her tiny tantrums. But beyond all these, I realize how she is different when she takes a look at my face and asks why I look so dull. When she knows that we are hungry and in spite of her age, prepares food for us. She has been loving us all these years and I am awestruck when I realise that she still has so much of love left to give. 

I don’t know if I can return all that love. But I can make her happy now and then. Till today morning, we were clueless about what to do for her special day. She was super-excited. Her phone kept ringing and she was being showered with wishes from around the world. It was on the spur of the moment that my sister and I decided to prepare a four course dinner for her. As soon as wew had agreed on it, we set to work.

To sum it all up, we decided the dishes, made a list of things to buy, communicated with Amma, bought all the necessities and set to work after lunch. Since all the dishes were new to me, I was a bit tensed about how they would turn out to be. By evening, we had completed half the work. And, the bell rang.

Ammamma has been hopeful that her son, my mama (uncle) would come some time soon to see her. They – mama, mami and my cousin – decided to come today and her face bloomed like that of a rose’s. Mami had prepared Momos and payasam and brought them along. So, we had additional dishes too. She joined us for rest of the cooking, while Amma soon came in with some more ingredients. Soon, the four of us where running around the kitchen until finally, it was time.

Ammamma wore her new aqua blue saree and needless to say, she stole the show! She looked like a lone fresh lotus in a pond. All commented on how beautiful she looked in that saree. It was such a bliss to watch her smiling and looking around like a child. God! i love her!

We cut the cake, and ate them all. 😛

I aimed at those chocolate hoops first 😛

Amma gave Ammamma a bouquet made of red roses.

My uncle who is a professional guitar player, sang some songs for her while he conjured his magic with the guitar.

We clicked many pictures.

Meanwhile, my aunt from The US skype called us to talk to Ammamma and she was thrilled!

After around half an hour of skype chat, we decided to begin the dinner. Our 4 course consisted of – Tandoori Aloo, momo and mint chutney (that mami conjured) for starters, Sweet corn vegetable soup, Chappati and Paneer Tikka Masala (Phew!) and Payasam and Orange delight for dessert. 😀

Tandoori aloo and mint chutney

Paneer Tikka Masala

A while ago, Ammamma went to sleep and I asked her, “Did you enjoy the day?”

“Very much. I liked it more than my 80th birthday celebrations.”

That birthday was celebrated on a big scale. With so many relatives, programmes, games and cultural events. Today, when she said that, I understood that she did not have any other words to express her happiness. Hence, she compared this with something big. I am tired. After all the cooking, running around and post dinner clean up. But I am happily tired. I don’t even know if that makes any sense.

But as I type in these words with my eyes half closed, I have a permanent smile on my face. The bliss that comes with making Ammamma happy.

PS – I know that the images lack clarity. If you wish to see better images, please give me a writing job so that I can buy a camera with my salary.

PPS – The above PS is written by Phoebe Buffay. 😛

Easy, Eggless, Ovenless, Yummy, Inexpensive – Cake!!!

Quote for the day:

You don’t need oven or refrigerators to prepare cakes. 😛

My blog, A few handpicked things in life is hungry. So, I decided to give her some food.

*Grumble*

That was her tummy!

I have been intending to share this wonderful information for a long while. But before that, let me warn you. Since mine is not a food blog, I really don’t know the terminologies. Plus, I also can’t give you the exact quantity since I prepare this with approximations. And trust me, there is only one way this recipe could go wrong. That will be pointed out soon.

We are going to prepare a cake!!! A yummy one, certified by my sister. The highlights are –

• As I indicated initially, you don’t need an oven.
• All the Ingredients are easily available in that shop next to your house.
• Hardly takes much time.
• The entire thing costs very less.

Like all the professional foody blogs, let us get to business. 😀

*Serious face*

Ingredients

1. Hide & Seek biscuits – 2 packets

   

   Or any choco chip biscuits. I prefer this one.

2. Marie Gold or similar biscuit – Half from this ↓ long packet.

   

   Wheat biscuits of any company would do.

3. Dairy milk or any similar chocolate – 2 100 g packets

   

   I’m talking about the Rs. 10 ones.

4. Milk – In a tiny bowl. Just enough to solidify the cake.
   Probably a little more than this. ↓↓↓

Method

1. Break the biscuits (Both packets of Hide & Seek and half packet of Marie Gold) into smaller pieces. Put them all in a Mixer Grinder and make fine powder out of them.
2. Break one chocolate into smaller pieces.
3. Heat the milk in a bath, add the chocolate pieces and keep stirring until the chocolate melts in. Leave the mixture to cool. (The only thing that could go wrong in this recipe – Getting the milk & chocolate mixture burnt.)
4. Move the powdered biscuits to a bowl. Add milk little by little and knead the mixture. Keep kneading and adding the milk until you feel the mixture is thick enough to qualify for a cake. (It would feel similar to the dough for rotis).
5. Use a circular, square or any shape of mould you’d want the cake to be in.
6. Line the mould with Aluminium foil or butter. This would help if your mixture has become extra loose or extra tight.
   
7. Transfer the contents to the mould and push it in to fill it completely. Since the mixture is very thick, it will not take the shape of the mould on its own. You’ll have to help a bit. Close it & leave it. In 15 minutes, the mixture would have thickened due to the biscuits.
8. Invert the mould and set the cake on a tray.
9. If you have any leftover milk & chocolate mixture, use it to heat up & melt the other packet of chocolates. This mixture should be really thick & chocolaty.
10. Once the entire chocolate melts, pour it over the cake until it drips through all the sides. You can also pour milkmaid & chocolate syrup alternatively so that you get an alternated brown & black tempting look.
11. We used to decorate the top with Cadbury Gems. I’m sure you all know various types of decorating a cake. You may do as you please.

Whatever you do, I guarantee that the cake we make tastes lovely even without any additional toppings or icings. It is easy to make and inexpensive as you can see.

For this lovely recipe, I’d like to thank my college. This is our college legacy. I have no idea who introduced it in there. But, this was such a blessing for us. Because, we neither had cooking facilities, nor any plug points. We did not have refrigerators.

This is what we did:

-Powdered the biscuits without opening the covers with the help of a stone. 😛

-We lit a lamp using oil & wick and placed 2 bricks on either sides. We balanced a vessel on the bricks using them as a stove and then heated the milk.

So, if you’re ever in a situation where you’ve low funds, no oven, no electricity and no complicated ingredients, do try this out and LET ME KNOW. 😀

PS – I do have snaps of the cakes we made. Will post it here when I find them.

I Can’t Keep Calm Because It Was My Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to meeee…
Happy Birthday to meeee…
Happy Birthday to meee meee…
Happy Birthday to meee 🙂

It all began with the wishes at midnight. After which I finally slept, though with difficulty. There were so many thoughts passing through my mind – my previous birthdays, the surprises I got, how the next day will be, how sweet of my friends to wait until 12 AM and call etc. And the most prime thought was, ‘Yayy! It’s my Birthdayy!’ 😛

When I woke up, mom wished me with a cup of coffee, followed by the others. My baby sister gifted me a pair of earrings. And guess what!? It was made by her friend. 2 months back she gave the order, chose a color combo I would like and arranged it. Isn’t that sweet? Oh, I loved it! 😀

Here are the snaps 🙂

Dad gave me some cash & asked me to buy whatever I wanted.

My Anne Cherian Thomas 😉 did call me as usual. Yes, she is my bestie. No, there aren’t any midnight calls during birthdays between us. It was there during the initial years of our friendship. But later, it was alright without them.

Later I went to a Shiva temple nearby. Mr. Shiva looked majestic. The face made of Gold just emblazoned the Shiv-linga. It shone all the more bright and austere with all the lamps. I stood there drinking in the beauty, spoke to Mr. Shiva for a while & got back home.

Now comes the dull part of the day. Firstly, I felt sleepy because I slept late and got up early, on top of that, I had my Financial Reporting questions spread before me. For the next few hours I scratched my head, stared at the walls & doodled on my book wondering why on earth those stupid companies had to amalgamate. :O Even if they had to, why couldn’t they just add all the items in both the companies’ Balance Sheet together and form another company? Why complicate life? :O

Sorry dear non-commercialites. I got a bit carried off there. But still, I don’t get it. Why?

Then came the lunch time. My chweet Ammamma (Grandmother) had prepared many dishes to celebrate this angel’s day *blush*. She made rice, parippu, sambhar, potato curry, pachadi and pappadam. To start with something sweet, she put some sugar in my mouth. And then I had that sumptuous feast. But she was upset because she couldn’t make payasam. 😦
I know, right? She is so adorable you have no idea. The entire day went by with her telling how upset she was about the payasam not being there. *Choo cute!!!*

Courtesy: Google Images

 

Meanwhile, more calls, more texts, more whatsapp messages and facebook posts poured in. Oh! And I couldn’t attend few calls because of this & that. Sorry folks! I felt bad when I saw your missed calls. But the wishes have been accepted. Thank you. 🙂

Evening came & I had my music class. The rains, the cold & my birthday were all screaming at me not to go. But I pulled my raincoat over, rode my lavy, crossed all the puddles and went for the class. I was back by 8PM and after some loitering around, settled to study when the door bell rang.

I opened the door. But no one was to be seen. I took a step forward and people just sprang at me from both sides ‘Happy Birthdayyyyy!!!’. I first jumped, then stood there open-mouthed & gaping when my sister came with an all knowing smile.

Ashwin, Godwin & Blissen came in, unpacked the cake and placed it on the table. It took me some time to register what was happening. Slowly I came to my senses while they gifted me a bottle of wine. This was followed by a Bournville sent by another friend Varna. Both have a backstory.

The wine: I had mentioned a month back that I badly wanted wine. Earlier, we used to have it for Christmas. But it has been quiet sometime since I had. So a craving had begun for the same. I said it, forgot about it & here it was; my birthday gift. 🙂

The wine 🙂

Bournville: I love Chocolates. Like crazy! Most of my friends know that. My favorites are Dairy milk fruit & Nut and Bournville (Also any other dark chocolate). Just before I left office, many of my friends either lost a bet with me, or they had to give me a treat. Every time, I insisted on a Bournville. So, sure enough she knows I like dark chocolates.

After the gifts session, as usual, pulling each others’ legs went on. Should I mention that I was the scapegoat most of the time? I’ll skip that part 😛
Apparently, those guys were really hungry and there was nothing at home to eat. I made some delicious tea (Oh yes! They said they liked it.) and tried to keep them entertained. Soon, all sang the birthday song & clicked some snaps while I cut my cake. I hurriedly gave them some cake to appease their hunger a bit.

My Birthday Cake 🙂

Meanwhile Amma swished her wand, converted the lunch’s potato curry into masala (Guess they didn’t know that). You should have seen those faces when I announced they will be having Masala Dosa. I swear I saw someone punch the air & say a triumphant ‘Yes!’ 😀 They relished the food while repeatedly saying that the sambhar was awesome & the Dosa was superb.

From somewhere my sister appeared and smeared some icing on my face. And I was like :O.

After a few more sessions of pulling legs (mine!) and some laughters and chit-chats, they left.

When I checked my phone, I had a voice message waiting. My friend Sharu and her parents (Yes, her parents :D) sang the birthday song for me and wished me!!! 😀 Isn’t that lovely?

That was one of my special days folks. Whether it is typing that message, ringing me up and telling me how much I mean to you, appearing out of the blue and ringing the doorbell, recording a birthday wish with the entire family, singing the birthday song while handing me the coffee, ringing me up at 11.30 PM with an intention to talk until 12 AM and be the first one to wish me, cooking my favorite dishes or getting a custom-made gift for me. Love you all for this love. 🙂 :*

 

Once again, Happy Birthday to me. 😛 Love myself too for this love! 😀

PS: Next time you’re planning to come home unannounced, let me warn you in advance. All the snack items here, finish in a jiffy. So ensure that you’re sufficiently loaded. 😛