My Awesome Summer Vacation

Woah! Now that was an awesome two months. I simply loved the tempo of those 8 weeks – hectic yet relaxed – preparing for the Purple Theory cookery classes, weekly trips to Lulu Mall, working out religiously and regularly at the gym, giving in to persistent cookie baking requests from the tiny two, going for late-night movies with the whole family every weekend, trying out new dishes, meeting friends after ages, attending cake decorating classes and so much more. 

   

It was quite a bonus getting a Thai Basil stem from an acquaintance and to see the plantlings pot well. What more. I managed to bring one pot back to Bangalore.    

A few of the things that I made this summer

Yet another highlight of this vacation was the exciting experience of making fresh pasta. Fresh pasta is really so easy to make, and it tastes so different. Don’t get me wrong; the readymade ones are good, it’s just that fresh pasta is way better. I did not take pictures of my handmade pasta (lasagne & fettucine) as we were all too busy licking our forks. 

   

As for the 75-bucks-a-piece lemons that I bought, I made lemon curd besides other lesser things. Totally worth my money. It was something that I’d wanted to taste for a long time anyway. So, I made it one early morning when the rest of the household was still in bed. Haya and I had a jolly good time making it. Haya entertained herself by whisking the custard and I was thrilled watching the slow transformation of the custard. Haya also enjoyed licking teeny tiny slices of the precious citrus fruit.

     

For the lemon curd, I followed the recipe here. Joy of Baking.com is a website that I now follow for its great instructions, clear videos, detailed explanations, and life-saving tips. The lemon curd turned out good. It tastes so tart and tangy. Yum! It goes really well with cupcakes and even plain ol’ bread. 

    

I used a bit of the lemon curd to sandwich cookies. They look like fried eggs, don’t they? Well, I had initially planned to sandwich heart-shaped cookies, but I ran out of cookie dough and time, which is clearly evident from the not-so-perfect circles. 

Cut-out cookies with Lemon Curd

The cookies are very easy to make. By the time your oven is preheated, the cookies are ready for baking. I especially liked the short baking time, which meant that I could pretty much churn out cookies to match the ceaseless demand. I believe I baked the whole thing in 3 batches. Did I forget to mention that the kids downed the first batch in minutes? I got the recipe here.

I wasn’t planning on making any changes, but I was pretty much forced to. I had been delaying the kid’s request for cookies. First, there were no star-shaped and heart-shaped cookie cutters. Once we bought those, then there were no eggs. I’m sure by now you’ve sensed my half-hearted effort to bake the cookies. I mean, what good comes out of eating loads and loads of butter and sugar. Anyway, next we ran out of vanilla essence, as if that was the most essential ingredient. Heehee. At long last, I felt bad for the kid and finally decided to bake the cookies. That’s when I realized that we did not have any unsalted butter. The original recipe calls for margarine. It would be a joke to look for margarine in a place where even unsalted butter is a rare find. So I substituted the butter with table butter and skipped the salt that the recipe called for.

Heart-shaped cookies for the two lovely girls

Easy Cut-Out Cookies

Ingredients:

Butter - 1 cup, softened (not unsalted)

Sugar - 1 cup

Eggs - 2

Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Maida - 3 cups

Baking soda - ½ tsp

Method:

1.       Cream together the butter, sugar, and eggs. Stir in the vanilla essence.

2.       In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.

3.       Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and mix well to form a dough.

4.       Roll out the dough, not too thin. Cut into different shapes using a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet.

5.       Bake at 375°F/190°C/Gas 5 for 8 minutes.

These are soft cookies that need to be stored in airtight containers. They last about a week, but I bet they'll be long gone before the expiry date.

Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces. ~Judith Viorst