French cheesy-sauced eggs baked in toast muffins | The Novice Housewife

While I do have a recipe for this french lunch time snack of a bread muffin cup with a cheesy egg filling- to share today, I also have some news. The reason for my absence after my last post.

Two weeks back I lost my grandmother. Even though she was old and had not been keeping that well for years, the news of the death was unexpected. I was to visit her on the 20th and had my travel planned and tickets booked accordingly. Now I wish I had first come to her and then gone to visit my brother, but I guess that’s how it was supposed to be.

My grandmother loved and took care of all of us the best she could, and believe me she could.

For her, feeding us was the best way to show her affection, and she thought us polishing off everything she made was the best way we could return ours. And since most of my summer vacations during my school years were spent at my grandparents place, in two months of our stay it was a norm that my brother and I would at the least gain 10 kgs; the highest for me being about 18 kgs and and an increase in jean size from a respectable 27 to a not so healthy 36 inches. No doubt my grand mother was a great cook. I had plans during this visit to learn from her her chocolate ice cream (made from bottle gourd/ giya ), her sesame seed potatoes and her lip-smacking pickles. She had given me the recipes for all on the phone, but I thought I will ask her to show me once as well. But I guess that too was not meant to be.

Her recipe for dal paranthas is my go-to recipe when I can not think of anything better to make for V and me. And it will always remind me of her now.

Although growing up, my grandmother showed a slight preference towards my elder brother, once I was in college both of us became closer. The 6 months I spent trying to set up a baking venture, living at my grandparents place before I got married, got the two of us even more close. So when I got married she did not like that I was staying so far away and would constantly be worried and checking whether I was happy in the US, telling me that I have gone too far away.

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Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Malt Frosting | The Novice Housewife

Its been exactly a month since I last posted.

Between packing, traveling, helping my father-in-law fight elections, visiting parents, power cuts and then doing a pop up show in Goa amidst other stuff, I haven’t had much time to update this space.

I am still in Goa with my niece, brother and sister-in-law but hope to be slightly more regular with blogging than what I have been the past few days.

Basket weave sugar cookies | The Novice Housewife

The weekend that went by, my sister in law and I did a pop up show in Goa. A close friend of my sister-in-laws owns an online clothing store called Brahma Karma and with the help of my sister-in-law wanted to introduce the brand to the people of Goa.

Brahma Karma is the brain child of Swati Sharma, who designs and manufactures exclusive hand block printed clothes and lifestyle products. Her products ranging from comforters, baby blankets to clothing for men, women and children, all come in very unique fun prints. You have the telephone print pyjamas and kids shirts, fish kurtas, number shorts, lollipop print kurtis and many other unconventional designs. All of BrahmaKarma’s printing is done using discharge dyes that are completely azo free and can sustain maximum number of washes.

Brahma Karma Prints | The Novice Housewife

Brahma Karma Clothes | The Novice Housewife

Along with clothes, BrahmaKarma also sells handcrafted jewellery, comforters, baby blankets and upholstery material. Do check their Facebook page for more information on their designs and how to order them.

Brahma Karma Jewellery | The Novice Housewife

Brahma Karma Print | The Novice Housewife

Since I was in town visiting my brother and sister-in-law I thought it will be fun to sell some of my baked goodies along with the clothes. So there were brownies, red velvet cupcakes, eggless death by chocolate cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes with champagne frosting, and yellow cupcakes with chocolate malt frosting at the pop up show.

I also put some homemade decorated cookies on sale- chocolate heart shape cookies, brush embroidered chocolate and vanilla cookies, basket cookies and daisy cookies.

Leaving you with a few photographs of the stuff I put up and hopefully I will be back with a recipe post soon.

Decorated Sugar cookies | The Novice Housewife

Cupcakes | The Novice Housewife

The Best seller- Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese FrostingRed Velvet Cupcakes | The Novice Housewife

The decorated cookies all packed and ready to be taken.


Wrapped Sugar Cookies | The Novice Housewife
 

Yellow cupcakes with chocolate malt frosting. 

Yellow cupcakes with chocolate malt frosting | The Novice Housewife

 Vanilla cupcakes with rose champagne frosting.

Vanilla cupcakes with rose champagne frosting | The Novice Housewife

 

Bird and Tree Themed Five Year Anniversary Cake | The Novice Housewife

A few weeks back one of my friends’ asked for my help to make her anniversary cake. Her husband and she were going to celebrate 5 years of marital bliss and she wanted to surprise him with her first ever fondant cake. Having never worked with fondant before  she asked if I could help her out. She wanted the cake to reflect her marriage invitation, which she sent me a copy of. I drew a sketch based on the pics she sent me and sent it to her. She liked the design and a day before her anniversary we set to create the cake. She baked the cake herself, and I only did the masking, and covering of the cake with fondant and decorations.

The picture below shows the invitation card my friend had for her wedding (left) and the design I sketched out based on the card photo she sent (right). I do realize I have to work on my sketching skills, but it got the idea across to my friend nonetheless and thats what I wanted.

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