Cake from Scratch

              I've always wanted to bake a nice cake since I heard and ate Debbie's cakes. She was a friend's colleague, who baked very nice cakes. We had her make cakes for 4 of our birthday parties. Though I was successful in making a cake with cake mix, I could never make a cake from scratch. Not until the last month when my mom gave me a recipe she uses for sponge cake. (I do remember making a carrot cake for New Year 2012, which failed big time :( )
              With the help of mom I made the cake from scratch. DH wanted to take it for his colleagues. But I was very less confident about it's taste that I asked him not to mention my name. But turns out, they liked it a lot and they are asking for the recipe. How funny :)
              Then, for my LO's 3 months celebration, I decided to make a cake myself. I just made a classic white cake and decorated it with low-fat alternative to frosting - Jam lol. Strawberry Jam, Apples, Grapes and white chocolate chips are all.

Smart or Ethical?!

        It's been a while since I thought of my blog. There are some such things that life brings to us, when we forget about any other thing in the world. And it happened to me too. Yayy!! So the 'One a day' I started some time ago, was kind of successful. Not completely though. I did start doing a few things but later on other things took me away. Phew! And now, I am back here and want to be actively involved in my blog. Let's see if something can be done as opposed to history :)
        I have been thinking about how a person should be, smart in getting the work done, or ethical. Looks like being smart sometimes means - to be completely unethical. And to forget any humanity left within. For instance, during a conversation, one of my colleagues said that her manager would first inquire if the person has any kids before considering her for the job. It's just an IT job with 9-5 work hours. I do not know what it has got to do with her kids. His reason for doing that is that she might not be able to work late hours if ever it is required. I am not sure how much having kids will affect the work a person does. Should she really be deprived of the job for some late hours which she might not be able to work?
        I read an article recently about pregnant women not getting jobs. Seems like a manager herself is appalled to have recruited a woman who seemed normal in the interview but started showing the bump 3 months later. She herself has kids. I do not understand why a pregnant woman is not supposed to work when she can. She surely would take leave a little later. But who can guarantee that a non pregnant woman or a man will not take a month's leave due to some other reason? Why should she not be allowed to work when she can? The article advises any pregnant woman appearing for an interview to be true to the employer. As per the writer, she should tell them before hand, that she is expecting a baby. She says that hiding it would start a non-transparent employer-employee relationship. Would the manager have recruited her, had the lady told her before that she was expecting? May be not. It is illegal to talk about pregnancy during a job interview and denying to offer a job because someone is pregnant. But still, if an already showing woman appears for an interview, it might be hard luck for her to crack it.
        There would be no one who wouldn't accept that what a woman does when she gives birth to a child is a miracle. Doesn't she deserve a few things for the miracle?!

White Cake

Ingredients:

White Sugar        - 1 Cup
Butter                 - 1/2 Cup
Eggs                   - 2
Vanilla extract     - 2 tsp
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 Cups
Baking Powder   - 1 3/4 tsp
Milk                   - 1/2 Cup

Preparation:

* Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the pan
* Cream together sugar and butter. Then beat in the eggs and stir in Vanilla.
* Mix flour and baking powder
* Mix this with the cream mixture
* Pour the milk and stir until the batter is smooth
* Pour the batter into the pan and bake in the over for 30 - 40 mins

Hurricane Vase lamps

                  This is something I came across on Martha's blog and thought would be nice for some special occasions :) Uhmm.. It was for Valentines Day special Dinner at home this time! I made them with just a slight variation.

                   The process is quite simple. All you need are some hurricane vases and color gift tissues. Measure and cut the papers so that they fit the vase. Stack them up and stick them to the vase. Light some nice candles and there they are!! Make sure the candles don't burn the paper up :)

For more detailed 'How to' on this, here are Martha's Hurricane Lamps.

Violators will be mashed into hummus

                           Here is something interesting, that I found in front of a Mediterranean restaurant. I often go there, but noticed this only the last time. I did not understand what they actually do with violators though. Apparently, they are not going to mash them into Hummus :) :)

And.. am on a cooking spree!!

            The 'One a day' I planned seems to be going good though I didn't do all the things I planned for. Contrary to doing one a day I have been doing same thing on all the days :) Yeah I've been cooking a lot, in addition to other small things.

             I planned to try out a new recipe every week. And it turned out to be, trying only new recipes. A few posts on the way about the recipes!! Okay.. no confusion, these are not my own recipes. They are new, in the sense, I tried them for the first time. I will just post the recipes, but this is not going to be a recipe blog for sure. I also started the journal I have been procrastinating for about 5 months now. There are many trades I am a Jack of and I really love to see myself as a master in most of those. So, I think this project will really help. One more art I always wanted to try out was nail art. I am planning for this too. I will just end this post with a nail coloring pic :) The brown I really loved... Revlon Foxy.

One a Day

                 Life's been different after moving to Dallas with so many new things happening. It's been equally good and bad. After almost 3 months, after moving here, I realized how I wish I did a few things that bring me happiness. So, I decided for myself, yesterday, that I will start doing one thing a day, that makes me happy. Every day must be exciting and must add something worthy. I planned an hour at the least, if not more, each day. These days I take very little care about my blogs. I hope I can keep them organized and active too, if I can put into action, my plan :)
                Gayakapriya is making good progress. It's been very very long since I have added any content to it. But, there are enough people who make use of it. It feels really very happy when someone says that my blog is helping them learn something. That solves the purpose of my blog. I planned to put a day aside, for Gayakapriya too. I am targeting a post a week for now. I am sure I will make this happen this time, unlike all the other times when I plan to do something but put very little into action :( :( Wish me luck guys!