Some challenges are really irresistible, so much that you will make time to somehow prepare it and post it. Ever since Sarah posted that this month’s theme for the Fantastical Food Fight is going to be “Ice Cream”, I have been dreaming about it. We had previously done the same theme exactly two years ago and I had posted this ice cream, which is so similar to what I am posting today! Initially, I was thinking about making butterscotch popsicles that I had bookmarked from a site. But then when I messaged Sarah, she mentioned to stick to making an ice cream. Then my mind was constantly screaming “Salted Caramel and Chocolate”. Of late, I have been obsessed with salted caramel. I really do not why. I have never liked caramel or its flavor before but now I have taken a liking towards it. I still can’t understand…
Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream
While I made the Mango Kulfi and the Jack-fruit Ice Cream to fulfill my “blogger mind desires”, this ice cream was fair and square made for the girls. Whenever we go to Baskin Robbins, I always end up taking Jamoca Almond Fudge. I just don’t look anywhere else. It is my standard choice. Now my girls have started following suite. The elder one moved her favorite flavor from Praline and Cream and the younger one has graduated from the bizarre colored ones like Bubble Gum (yikes!). They have been telling me since ages to try this flavor at home. I knew it wouldn’t be hard to replicate, but then it is more work that other ice creams. I have to roast and chop the almonds. I have to make the fudge sauce. I have to do a little bit of work in between to get it done. Oh…
Jackfruit Ice Cream
Just yesterday I mentioned my jack-fruit getting spoiled, so you must be wondering from where this ice cream post? If you have read it carefully, I have mentioned that one of the post is from my drafts. So this is the post… 😉 I don’t eat jack-fruit. I know I would get beaten up for this, but then that is the truth. I used to eat a lot of jackfruit when small. Each time we go home, my mattamma would reserve at least a couple of jack-fruits for us. She had a lot of jack-fruit trees on her plot, more than mango trees in fact, and they yielded the sweetest jack-fruits I have ever eaten. She still does have some trees, but not as much as it did before. She would patiently sit and remove the flesh from inside, and as though we were in a competition, my…
Instant Mango Kulfi
It’s been ages since I have worked on a 3B2B series for the blog. Somehow, my drafts have been dwindling and I haven’t been getting three posts that would fit into a theme, so I had thought to give the series a rest. 😉 But this month, because of the heat wave, I ended up making two back to back frozen desserts and one was staring back on me from my drafts, so bingo! I had three posts ready to be give a little life to that series. As you may have guessed, you will get to see three back to back ice-creams or frozen desserts, whatever you would like to call it, to beat the blazing summers! Last month, B traveled home for a few days and he came back with a whole lot of luggage, including mangoes and jack fruit. I am sad to declare that…
Be My Guest – Chocolate Cake Ice Cream
It’s the third Saturday of the month and here I am with a new guest on the blog. I don’t think my guest for today would need much of an introduction. She has a blog filled with simple yet drool-worthy bakes, delicious desserts to meals that you could include into your day-to-day planning. She even has a very exhaustive “how to” section on her blog, which I love. It literally holds the reader’s hand through it, especially if he or she is a beginner with baking and cooking. Her blog is a treasure of many easy recipes. I guess I stop beating around the bush, and introduce my guest for today – Beulah from Full Scoops. I had been a guest on her blog during her earlier times of blogging, and ever since we have shared a cordial relationship. I sometimes feel why did I take so much time…
Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream
I can’t believe we bid farewell to the first quarter of this year. I am glad that the year has begun well, especially on the health side. Even though I decided to work out and be watchful of what I am eating in April last year, it wasn’t seeing too much of results as I would have loved it to. Even if everybody tells you not to watch the scale to measure your weight loss, when you have oodles to loose in kilograms, you do wish your scale would become your best friend. I knew that I was working out well but my eating was screwed up, so I took a decision and I am so glad of it. I have seen some good results till now, and hoping that I get it going till I travel home July end. We all know how vacations are meant to…
Orange Yogurt Popsicles
With the season now changing, the girls always want something cold. I always have a tussle with them to avoid anything cold since Rasha always ends up with throat infection, due to her sinus issue. But then kids being kids, really aren’t bothered of how much they will suffer in case they take something cold, right? It’s the same in my home too! Most of the time, it’s easier to make simple popsicles at home. Most of the time, they just need Tang popsicles and that’s so easy to make, isn’t it? Hehe… Once while flipping through a magazine, I saw this really simple recipe. It reminded me of the vanilla pods Priya had bought for us, that I am using like gold. I decided to use them up in these really simple popsicles that has just three ingredients and no added sugar, apart from just some honey!…
Red Velvet IceCream Cake
Alhamdulillah, the blog is 5 today! I have written long posts every blog anniversary, but this time I will give it a break. 😉 I guess I am done with being emotional about the blog and look at it very practically from now on. 😀 As I go into this post, I want to share with you a little secret. I actually planned a super long post of the best recipe of each month since The BST started, yes, 60 months and 60 posts. But as I started working on the post and reached close to the end of the first year, I got so overwhelmed of selecting the posts that I decided to give it up halfway! 😀 I really couldn’t help it… So coming back to what I had originally planned for… This year, you may have noticed that the flow is broken. I am taking…
Easy Kulfi
It’s been a long time since I have done my three back-to-back series. Since I am a part of the Blogging Marathon of late and it operates on a similar idea, I refrain from doing an additional one, simply not to crowd up my feed. This month, I took a break and hence it was the best time to come over and do this series for the month. I have been wanting to do this since September but something or the other kept popping by and I kept delaying it. Finally it’s here – and it is “Instant Indian Sweets” as the theme! Indian sweets are always thought to be time consuming, so here are three back-to-back recipes, which will break off that myth. 😉 You know how much I love shortcuts. 😀 I have already made kulfi the hard way, ie. standing and stirring a pot of…
Butterscotch Ice-Cream
We are approaching the end of Q3. Where is this year flying to? It just feels like it was January 1 yesterday and all of a sudden, the end of September is staring into our face. I am not a person who likes to look into a variance analysis of resolutions vs actuals, but this time I did look into it and it is not encouraging. There were a few things I really wanted to start off this year, but I haven’t and I have no excuse for the same, other than my lethargy or taking things for granted. 😕 I am at least thankful that I decided to put a check on my increasing weight and move myself a little more that I usually would. If the first quarter of the year showed an upward trend in my weight, the movement after that has been slowly yet steadily…
Coconut Rosewater Ice-Cream
Normally, you will never see me doing more than one post a day. I have done that only once and that too in my early days of blogging. But today, I am doing it again. When the email from Sarah came with the theme of this month’s Fantastical Food Fight, I couldn’t resist not participating in it. The only post I have done for this event is this one, after which I couldn’t participate due to many varied reasons. This month’s theme is “Ice Cream”, so how could I not participate in this one? 🙂 Did you know that July happens to be the “National Ice Cream Month” in the USA? 😀 The summers are really hot and all you need is something really cold to go down into your system. Even though getting a ready made lolly or a cup of BR is so much easier,…
Qamardeen Tea Sorbet
Once Ramadan is over, most of the households in the Middle East would have a leftover pack or half pack of dried apricot sheets, after making the Qamardeen drink. At least, I do. Most of the time, I end up drinking all of the leftover juice, so I make it in small batches to avoid over indulgence. Hehe… I find Qamardeen a very addictive drink, since I love apricots, whether ripe or dry. So it was no surprise when this trial of making this Qamardeen Tea Sorbet was really loved by me and even the kids! Instead of just making it a normal sorbet, I spiked it up with some black tea, that was cooled and then blitzed along with the soaked qamardeen sheets. The tea gave it a very subtle taste. After all, I consider sorbets as a very guilt free dessert, since there is no diary…
Cassata Ice Cream Cake
As we bid farewell to this blessed month and move on to Eid-ul-Fitr, it is more like stock taking of what we have achieved in the month. Ramadan is a month where there are a lot of restrictions – whether it is food, water or relationships; when there is more emphasis on giving away a part of your wealth to charity – compulsory and otherwise; when there is the requirement of keeping a tab on our habits and characters. Eid ul Fitr marks the removal of all those restrictions, however it points out to another fact – that if we will, we can stick to a lot of self discipline in our lives. If we will, we can give up our bad habits and grow on the good habits inculcated during this month. This festival, though is marked by sadness of the disappearance of immense blessings of the…
Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream
I happened to come by this statement sometime back. And it got me thinking… do we all stay in each other’s life forever? People whom I knew in school or college are no longer in touch with me. Some people, who I thought were lost, have come back to me. Some people, who I thought were mine, have been lost. We always live in the thought of losing some or the other relationship. This world is such that nothing is stable. When the Quran tells you that even your spouse and children are our enemies (refer Surah At-Taghabun: 15 and Al Kahf: 46), I like to believe that nobody in this world is ours to say. As much as you need to love and respect all your relations, within home and outside, we have to always know at the back of our mind that anything can happen to take…
Papaya Sorbet
Coming to the second post of the series of “Vegan Desserts”, after the Dates Granola Bar – A sorbet is a perfect frozen treat! What is a sorbet? A sorbet is nothing but fruit and sugar. You can actually make sorbets without fruit too – just water, flavoring and sugar. But let me concentrate on sorbet with fruit. A sorbet is one of the easiest and guilt free frozen dessert that you can have. If made at home, you can use minimal sugar and make it almost 100% fruit pulp, like I have done with a whole papaya. A sorbet works especially if you have folks at home who may not eat fruit. My kids are not fond of papaya, but this sorbet totally clicked with them, since they felt it like an ice cream. If you look at the ingredients in a sorbet, it is very similar to…