Pineapple Cake recipe

I have been trying to get the recipe for pineapple cake..

this version is eggless.. I am using a product called ener-G egg replacer.

I had found a basic yellow cake recipe that worked for me.. and am making modifications to it, to get pineapple flavors in as well as using egg replacements..

So here is the cake recipe... This will make one 9 inch / 2 6-inches..

2-cups plus 1 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising) (Swan's cake flour)
1-teaspoons baking powder
¾-teaspoons baking soda
1/2-teaspoon salt

3 tsp ener-G egg replacer  You should get this in any grocery store.

4-table spoons water

1-cup diced canned pineapple along with the canned juice.
1 stick (1/2- cup) unsalted butter, softened
1-cup sugar
1-teaspoons vanilla extract
1-cup buttermilk

DIRECTIONS :

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cake pan

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl

Beat in egg replacement ( mix the egg replace with the water )

Beat in vanilla.

Beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture looks curd like).

Stir flour mixture till combined.  
Pour batter into a well greased and floured pan.. line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

For Frosting

2 cups heavy cream

2 table spoons icing sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat everything in a chilled bowl and with chilled beaters.

Keep in the fridge for a few hours.

Cut up the cake, layer with frosting and pineapple pieces

Layer the cake slices

Do a last frosting with whipped cream again

Pop it back into the fridge for some time

You can take it out and decorate it as you please…

Walking for a cause..

Late March, I received an email, "Pledged for a cause" from my friend S.. I ignored it..I was too pressed for time with work, family and home, to think about my friend and her email.

A few days later, I received another email from her "I need your support" .. I shelved it to the back of my mind, promising myself that I would go back look at her cause, later and also fund her.. but time pressures and commitments came in between and that was put on a pending thought.

It took a couple of emails from her to jolt me from inaction to action, and I donated the money to her cause.. which was a walk for breast cancer. My thoughts were she is a little crazy to be doing this.. and why is she doing this?. Putting herself through a 39 mile walk to raise some money. But I didn't get a chance to pursue this thought much further.

Some time last week, we talked for over an hour,which we had never had a chance of doing ever since we left school...she was in training, walking her 5 miles to be ready for the big walk.. and I realized that this girl is commited to this cause and I was amazed..It takes a lot to be commited to a cause that does'nt affect you directly. One has to be selfless and determined to go through with this.. to be focussed on the end goal and the route to take. She was doing this walk, and she had her focus and determination in hand and in place. Distractions and other priorities had no place in this walk... S, you amaze me every single day.. I know I have told this to you before.. but when I think of you walking 39 miles in 2 days, on the 10th of July, I have to put you on a really high pedestal.

I will be thinking of you and suporting you in your walk.. don't think that you are doing this by yourself.. I am with you.. and I will be walking along with you from here.. as much as I can and if you feel the need to stop, I will goad you on..

Love
kavi..

The matrimonial bug..

This is so strange. A few years ago, I was on the other side of the coast, the single eligible and "homely and comely" girl waiting for a suitable alliance from all similar boys. The saga of my groom search started when I was a very naive 21 and looked at life through the romance novels I read hidden from my mother's eagle eyes. My suitable boy was there and he was just around the corner. I like many others before me was ready to get married to the first boy my family showed me, because that was how it was for everyone.

The first alliance that came was from a highly educated fellow who was getting his Phd from a prestigious university in Texas. I spun all the dreams of a naive girl, goaded along by my parents, who didnt know any better. Needless to say that fizzled out due to the constantly changing mind of the groom in question and my better senses that kicked in telling me, I don't need a fickle minded companion. It was only after getting to America, to another university in America, that I learned the truth of the matter being he had a girl friend hidden away. His parents wanted to tie him down to a "nice mallu warrier* girl " , as his brother had also gone the same route.. Well I was better off single and eligible and homely and comely..

Well .. not exactly. Because now my parents kicked into second gear.they were not accustomed to this scenario. usually no one looks beyond the first proposal. hmm, so next they present me with another warrier boy, whom I am supposed to go and meet someplace in Austin. Well I was still listening to my parents back then and I went there with my roomie Rash. The two of us met the boy and his parents at the South indian restaurant. The only memories I came back with is that of the food and how good it was. I put my foot down strongly against this proposal, and my parents put both their foots and hands down in favor. However this was not destined to be

Still in second gear, they managed to find a namboodiri* lad, working for a big firm in California. He seemed like my ticket to a happily married and settled and contented life. My family was ready to write down the marriage date as well. But by now, I was not a very obedient girl and had my transgressions from the laid down rules now and then. So I and the namboodiri lad decided to meet up first. I am glad we did that , for it was a case of oil and water. When we converyed the decision to our parents, it wasn't unlike the Tsunami that hit the coasts later that year.

After this, I was extremely clear that any alliances would follow only after my studies were completed and, I found a job. I was not content being dependent on any individual , emotianally and financially. This was probably the start to a new me. Following my graduation, my dad who was sitting on hot cakes started sending me proposals... one after another.. Since I had already crossed the so called marriageable age and was tainted with the "US ki chori" (girl from US) label, the field narrowed down considerably.. The choices out there were not very appealing.. from a male chauvinist, who expected me to drop everything to be at his beck and call, to the geek in bleechers, who was content looking at the animals in the safari and taking pictures of them, to the player, who was out the scope by talking to multiple girls at a time..

Finally I met my prince charming, and am living my life happily.. I was reminded of the whole situation a few months ago, when it was time to get my brother married. But needless to say, he fell right into the normal scenario.. saw and talked to one girl and she is going to be his life partner.. a very sensible lad and sensible girl! Wishing both of you a very long and prosperous life together :)

* specific castes in Kerala

The cake

I promised to post pictures of the cake..

ever since i started taking the classes, I would be skimming through the web for perfect ideas for cakes.. after a while, thats all I would be doing while surfing the net.

I knew I wanted a doll on her cake and I found the perfect one at Michaels. and then it was all about figuring out what do I do withe the doll.. well here is the final version

still at it

I never thought I would say this.. but i am cultivating my gym experience as a religion.. something I follow no matter what.. I remember the days I would make up excuses to get off my behind.. but now no sir no! even if its for 20 min, I ran on the treadmill and came back .. I did a few min of patio cleaning, which is an exercise as well.

Since I am blogging about it, I hope that I will be accountable enough to keep at it.

Summer is here, the main highlight being 1/2 day fridays.. at work.. an incentive that was started last year as compensation for things we had to let go of last year. I have to find ways to get my fridays hours utilized..

on a side note, Rohini is now 14 months old and at the brink of spewing words.. well she has started babbling already.. in baby language.. we understand each other perfectly well.. :)

she enjoys going out for a walk wearing her squeaky shoes.. everyone stops us on the road and wants to know where to get these.. Well these are made only in India :)

Come to think about it, I miss a lot of made in india products... their counterparts here are no match for the original..

My tryst with losing weight

My weight and my relatives comments about it have been a constant pain in my rear end for a while now.. Well I have decided I am going to do something about it now.. the key to it, is to get my mindset right and I am going to put in the same dedication that I did, when I was learning to decorate cakes , paint or even dance. A will power is required. The goal is to be 10 lbs lighter by the end of this month and keep that pace through the next 2 months, so I'll get in shape for kiran's wedding.

So steps I took
a. I am drinking a lot of water. I begin my day with 2 glasses of water and keep an alarm on my desktop to remind me to get more water every 2 hours.
b. I am taking multivitamins now.. something I stopped for a while.. so yay healthy...
c. trying to get a routine together to go to the gym on a regular basis.. R is helping out by motivating me enough to get there by working out with me.
d. Cutting down on vending machine snacks..
e. Increasing fruits and veggies in my diet

There is also a challenge that's about to start at CB , called live healthy. a few of us have formed a team which i think is eventually going to be called transformers :D . I am hoping to get additional motivation from my colleagues.

in the meanwhile, I tried out a new recipe .. they say Cabbage and moong dal are good for losing weight.. so I made a soup with these two .. will post the recipe soon, once I know its having the effect I would like to see.

my baby doll is growing up so fast, that sometimes, I feel I miss out on her moments.. but thankfully , I have been able to see her do everything the first time around..

Icing the cake

Rohini will turn one soon.. and i have always been bothered by the fact, that i dont do much of what mothers do.. knitting, sewing, cooking etc.. When Ranjith and i were discussing the plans to celebrate her birthday, we were initially thinking of placing an order for a character cake..Since the outside cost was going to be huge, i decided to take up cake decorating class and see if I could do this myself.

So signed up for Wilton classes at michaels. So far so good.. getting some techniques .. some are flying past.

hopefully will get good enough to decorate her birthday cake myself .

My Baby

I am blessed, for I have a beautiful babe
her lips are red and her cheeks roses
her head full of curls
and lights dancing in her eyes.

The Jai Shri Krishna Syndrome

"Jai Shri Krishna".. This is the first thing my nanny tells me every morning.
As soon as she sits in the car , she greets me and Rohini as such. She started this ritual from day one..

One day, I asked her, why do you and other gujrathi's do that?She replied, saying it makes the day go better. So it went on for days,As soon as she sat in the car, I would say good morning "x" aunty and she would reply Jai Shri Krishna.

After a few weeks and feeling more awkward with my anglicized good morning, I started responding to her with the same greeting . Just recently I realized that my day goes so well after I say that.

Glad she made me do that

Bombay people are intimidating

So many people have told me that, they find people from Bombay intimidating. People from Bombay find other Bombay nivasis intimidating.

why is that ?

I was initially surprised... and then got used to hearing it without thinking consciously about it, even when my husband said it.. I poohed the notion away. I attributed that thought to the whole Bangalore is better than Bombay ideology that some bangaloreans who left banglore in 2000 seemed to carry. This afternoon another friend of mine from Bangalore said the same thing about another bombay resident.


But now after so many years, living away from bombay, I have caught on to the fact, that yes bombay ppl can be intimidating. After all , living in a city that forces you to be rich,poor, elusive, available, panting, sweating, happy, sad , cunning and simple ..can kind of make you intimidating.

Democracy = hypocrisy

This morning while I was surfing through my daily web routine, I came across this headline

'Democracy strengthened, says CEC'

right below that headline, there was another one.

'We will not allow Valentine's Day celebrations'


No mistake, we are talking about the largest democracy in the world --India . I had a nice chuckle reading these articles.. The second announcement is a direct result of Ram Sena's activities in Mangalore. A group of political wannabe's beat up/molested women who dared to bare some in an absolutely "safe place" a pub.


To the so called moral police of the nation, I have two questions.. what were these men doing in a pub ? did they go there to attend a rally ? What were they doing in a pub at night ? Did they have a couple of drinks while waiting for their leader to announce a toast ? ( drinking is so not against Indian culture when MEN do it) . Did they make passes at some of the girls who were there ( this is also not against indian culture... where men don't respect women) , who in their right minds refused their advances . Did they get enraged in their intoxicated state by the refusal of the girls.. and took it upon themselves to teach all of them a lesson, (not for stepping out into a club...but for actually refusing the next leader of the country)

Then they have the audacity to say that their activities were to protect the Indian culture..

The six fundamental rights of an Indian as defined by the constitution:

1. Right to equality


2. Right to freedom


3. Right against exploitation


4. Right to freedom of religion


5. Cultural and educational rights


6. Right to constitutional remedies

I would like to know which right of ours was Ram Sena protecting? And I would be mistaken in isolating just Ram Sena...I would like to pose this question to every political party that changes it agenda at its whim and fancy. Shiv Sena, BJP , Samajwadi, UPA and every party in India.
What rights of ours are they protecting by banning valentine's day? I don't hear anybody opposing Mother's day or Women's day or Father's day... aren't these western concepts as well ?
What rights of ours are being protected by Shiv Sena, when they are ready to stone shops run by immigrants to Maharashtra ?

Why should we give the control of our nation and state and people to parties , to whom all this means nothing but power and money ?

What will it take for us Indians to come up with an honest party which has integrity and honor as its base values and the welfare of the citizens as its main agenda..

If we want to be the largest and the best democracy, we should not fight for differentiating people based on religion, sex,caste,language,origin ...but for the equality of all despite this variation.


---"Today I am waiting for a new dawn"

Adios
Kavita

Slumdog Millionaire

Every one I know who blogs has blogged about this movie.. and I don't know why I waited so long. I saw this movie about 3 weeks back. This is not in response to the golden globes the movie won or the Oscar nominations that the movie won..

Whats got me riled is INDIA and the frog syndrome.. A couple of days back, I saw a news article on rediff.com which says that the slum dwellers association in mumbai has sued Anil Kapoor and A.R Rehman. Anil Kapoor because not he.. but the character he portrays in the movie calls the boy a slum dog... where is the line between reality and cinema? Why pull down the one frog that managed to climb out of the well ?

Another thing that bothers me.. yes the movie is shot in India and yes its made in Mumbai and yes its got indian actors... how does that make the movie Indian? It could have been a story set anywhere..Not a single filmmaker in India would have dreamt in their wildest dreams that they could make a movie on life and innocent love and win the globes or the hearts of a million people.. because whats a movie without SRK or a few girls in skimpy clothes and a few dances?

I loved the fact that Danny Boyle gave 3 dimensions to his characters.In traditional Indian movies the good guy is always good.. the bad guy is the epitome of evil and demon...but in this movie..there is no good or bad guy essentially..the host is arrogant and bewildered by the success of the "slumdog"a s he calls the boy. The brother is practical and led astray by the glitter of wealth but still rejoices in his brother's success.. the slum dog is naive and remains so.. the beautiful girl is beautiful and good but still practical enough to know that life as she knows it cannot get better evn if she dreams of another life...

The music is another aspect of the movie I love.. its vibrant and its colorful.. No one else could have done justice to the music as Rahman did..

here is wishing Danny Boyle success at the Oscars for movie that belongs truly to him and his vision

Planet Earth

I stumbled across this series thanks to A and I fell in love with the series. The cinematography is so beautiful only because our earth is that beautiful. Discovery is planning to broadcast this series next weekend and I don't intend to miss much of it..

Time to write something

Allright, so I have been very reticent about writing on my blog this long and its high time I did ..

So here are the few highlights of the last year..

March 2008 we had a long vacation in India

April 2008 , I did some major circus and lost my front two teeth (thankfully got them replaced) else it was hands down Halloween costume winner as early as April.

July 2008: Took that long awaited trip to New York New York..It was the best so far.

Aug 2008: We found out that as eventful as our lives were so far, it was going to be to more so.. as we were going to be blessed soon with our own baby to spoil and raise as we choose too.

Sept 2008 : We heard our baby's tiny heart pumping blood as quickly as possible.. and got the first glimpse of the baby.. just 2 circles one for the head and the other for the body.. and one tiny limb poking out.

Oct 2008 : I determined that its a low maintenance baby.. gave me no nausea..only reduced my appetite considerably. I started feeling my baby move.. and the best I can do to describe it " I tiny flutter, like a small butterfly moving under my belly" . I also started giving the baby a personal concert to my favorites.. And noticed a pattern where the baby moved for Asha Bhosle's voice a lot more than it did for Lata Mangeshkar..

Nov 2008 : 5 months.. and we got a full anatomy scan done..saw the baby resist the nurse's prodding to give a full profile of the face.. and when it did.. it was wonderful... :) We moved to a new place to make room for the new addition...

Dec 2008 : I got the first taste of knowing what it is to love someone so much that it hurts. I thought I knew love.. but I threw the idea right out of the window.. Early December, I realized that my baby had not made any noticeable movements for almost 2 days. Experienced mothers told me to drink cold apple juice and that would set the baby moving again. Tried cold and hot...nothing worked. So I called the doctor's office.. The nurse said, nothing doing go directly
to the hospital. Now being the pessimistic that I am, the worst that can happen at a doctor's is an injection .. so the worst at the hospital was much much much more.. So called Ranjith and in between my sobs he heard something that probably made sense to him and asked me to meet him at home. We both drove from our respective work places to home and then from home to the hospital.. all the while I was raising the water levels in Atlanta . When we reached the hospital, I must admit the receptionist there was much more comforting than anybody I have ever met in a hospital and after some paper work, had us go upto the examination room . There I was hooked onto the baby monitor...which failed to detect any heart beat. As the doctor left the room I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that all was lost...

She returned though with a Doppler m/c.. and placed it all over the belly and finally after much searching found that tiny heart beat again. To us it was the most joyous sound that we heard...

Being a first time mother, I realized that maybe the movements change and I just didnt know what to expect and no one was around to tell me any different..

As the year drew to an end, I realized the importance of having family and friends close to me.
I grew a year older as well.. and it was the best birthday any girl could have asked for.. and for that I have to thank my husband , my brother, my friends Ashka and Satlaj.. for making it the best.

Some people are moving out of our lives while others are moving in as well..
so a lot of big changes happened... 2008 has been eventful and very eye opening for me..

Adios!

Everyone condemns

but what happens.. Bombay gets her legs broken.. she limps back to normalcy and then her legs are broken again!

and everyone just condemns .. over and over again!

Review:Fashion

It's been a while that a movie had made me want to write about it. The last one being Rang De Basanti. This time it's Fashion.. and I know that the movie has been panned by many critics as being a superficial look at the fashion world. The movie takes one through the journey of a small time model who makes it big in the fashion world and becomes a super model.
Now the premise of the movie itself doesn't excite me as much as the journey itself.

Bhandarkar could have taken any premise apart from fashion , such as the world of cinemas, cricket, politics etc...
But he being the intelligent film maker knew that his movie would then be lost amidst the million attempts by other bollywood film makers who have ventured into de mystifying these super glamorous worlds . Ramp walking and modelling clothes is a glamorous profession, that makes to page 3 of the society columns. So I can see where he got his premise from and why. It will surely draw people in.


now the reason why I liked the movie is because of the journey portrayed .. of a small town girl who moves to the big city away from the protective roof she knew all along. She makes it through the ardous path set before her towards her success. On the way she meets people who believe in her and finds friends who shares with her the same dream for her, people who genuinely want her to succeed. At the same time she meets people who tempt her for more . She decides her journey and on that path she succumbs to arrogance and derisiveness towards everyone around her. The rest is for people to watch and enjoy..

adios

Disconnected and disillusioned

For the first time in almost 6 years, that I have been in America, I felt homesick. It's quite strange , because I didn't feel homesick ( not to this degree ) when i first came here. I was in awe of the country, of the Indian community I met at school , of the friends that became a part of every day life.

This evening we went for Garba and dandiya raas organized by Maharashtra mandal of Atlanta. We came away without even dancing a step. Not a familiar face.. everyone had a small smile that danced on their lips..but never reached their eyes.. Curious eyes that followed us and people talking in a strange tongue, even though marathi was no strange language to me,

Back in Mumbai, when we went for dandiya.. we would know people we were dancing around with.. they were part of a community, be it school , colony or work that we belonged too. They would know you and genuinely acknowledge your presence as some one who had a right to be there. Even at UTA, the feeling of belonging still remained.

Back home, the malayalees from the colony would get together a month in advance. The festivities of Onam would set in then as practiced for various programs would start in full swing. At the end of the feast..we would all go back knowing that Onam couldn't have been better. This year we decided to attend an Onam program at the temple here. Malayalees from Kerala who had settled in Atlanta were the organizers. It felt strange to celebrate Onam with strangers , eat lunch next to person you had never met before. i am hoping that next year it would be better.

Now in Atlanta, when we dont belong to any community , we feel out of place at most Indian gatherings..I am still trying to find a community here that I could belong to here..despite efforts to find some comfortable common ground to be on..its a slow and deliberate process albeit a very slippery one ...


Adios.

My mother's doll

My mother never played with dolls..( she told me this) .. Her free time as a kid was spent ensuring that the younger kids fell in line. I love hearing the stories of how she got my uncles to sing .. a radio and a safety pin played a big role in the whole thing...

She grew up being the best at everything she did, was one of nine women who enrolled for engineering in REC ( her bacth) and graduated with a job in her kitty from a very male dominated industry.. she then got married to my father.. and had me .. and thats when she got her first doll..( so I say) .

This time when i went back to india, i was looking through some old albums and i began to notice a trend which i didnt recognize till now.
my mother stitched my birthday dresses.. and she would not leave it at that.. she made matching accesseries as well. All this while ensuring me and my brother did our best in school, in all the activites she enrolled us in and working. I dont remember where all the material came from, but i think dad got some from kuwait and amma would promptly make me a dress.

there was a yellow frock with black flower print on it. It had these capped sleeves and it stood out at my waist . I had a matching bow to wear on my head. It was the most beautiful dress ever.

i then grew up and she could no longer make me dresses.. instead.. somehow all the pictures had us color coordinanted.
if she wore black there was no way i was wearing anything but black... ( ma looks gorgeous in black)

So thats why i say I am her doll and she loves to dress me up ...

The long and short of it

I just realized that it has been a little over a year since i moved out of dallas to Atlanta.. It was a huge move for me, considering that I spent a big part of my adult and single life there. It was here that I got doctrined in the general unfairness of life, in the unhinging belief of long standing support of friends who till a few days back were strangers... in the fun times that i had watching movies, playing games ( who thought board games could be played after 21) , taking road trips, sipping coffee at 2:00 a.m outside the computer lab, hitching rides to get groceries... , going to the temple to eat free food.. and so much more..

i miss dallas a lot .. but i am enjoying my new role and new life just a little more... :)

Books,Dance and Pedicures

The past four or five months that I spent in hibernation was a rediscovering period for me.

First I rediscovered my long forgotten passion of reading.. My long commute to work and back was now converted to reading time as I discovered the joys of audio books.

For those of you looking to read something that was as insightful as Agatha Christie or as whimsical as PG Wodehouse, you might want to try AlexanderMcCall Smith.. his character Mma Ramotze can give Miss Marple a run for her money.

So while I went back to reading (read listening to) books , I started wondering which was the other activity that I was missing so much. Dance..I had left BharatNatyam over 7 years ago and then even though i had countless opportunities to start again, I never did.. So finally I googled for a teacher and went back to re discovering bharatnatyam.. in the process I also discovered countless muscles in my body that I didn't know ever existed. The first class completed.. and i am all agog for the next one.

With these aching muscles.. I went for a pedicure and discovered the pleasures of strong arms massaging my tired legs , applying a masque that made those aches go away..All my toes look pretty now , Red and shiny and I love showing them off in my peep toes. I vowed since then to pamper myself with a pedicure every month.. even if it left a tiny hole in my pocket.

If you were wondering where I had been and why I hadn't been writing.. now you know..


Adios...