After a week long blogging hiatus, I’m back. The reason for this absence was that I was busy preparing for our first house guests. V’s friends gave us the news last week that they were planning to pay us a visit over the weekend- and when I say they- I mean 6 people ( 3 couples) in total. Now, we have a 3 bedroom house, but, one of the bedrooms is converted into the study. So effectively, there are just two bedrooms. So, accommodating eight people ( six of them and two of us) was a task- more so, since we just have one bathroom. Also, since it was the first time they would be tasting my cooking, I had to make sure it had to be good- my reputation was at stake! So, the cleaning, setting the house, cooking and baking kept me busy the past week and I just couldn’t get to blogging. And, boy, I missed it!
Finally, Friday evening our friends arrived and so began the weekend roller coaster ride! :)! It was fun! A little overwhelming at places, but fun, nonetheless.
The first night we sat outside and drank- after a long time all the guys were together drinking- so they maxed out their capacities!
The second day, V showed them the mine. Later, we went bowling (it was my first time! and I beat V 🙂 !). I also learnt a new thing about V- he is a good pool player.
Once back home, we played poker, grilled some paneer tikkas, watched a horror movie, drank, chatted and ate lots. I also inaugrated our new cocktail shaker- and made a darn good mojito for myself!
The next day, after a really heavy breakfast of the best dal paranthas I have ever made, these guys left. The weekend finally came to an end. Though both of us were happy to get some rest, the house does feel awfully empty now.
Overall, it was a fun weekend. It was also the first time my trunks were going to be seen by someone besides V!
Yes! After weeks of working on them, I finally finished them a few days back. It was time well spent!
I had quite a few adventures painting them, though. While working on the first coat on the first trunk, I managed to paint my hair too. Fortunately, I was going to the salon for a hair cut, so the mishap didn’t do much damage! The first trunk was a trial run and well, even though V thinks it looks great, it could have been better. But, once you put so much of effort in something, even if its ok, you still are proud of it.
The second trunk was much better planned. Plus, I was equipped with a little experience now! Resulting in a much much better trunk. I know I did a good job on this one because our friends who came to visit just couldn’t believe I made this- one of them thought I bought it! :):) That just made my day!
I know this makes this blog sound a dedication to V, but the weekend also made me realize again what a wonderful husband I have. And, without him I wouldn’t have managed to stay so calm and relaxed. V helped me with the dishes, cleaning, and well, by just being there, he helped me a lot.
Whenever DH and I go for grocery shopping, one thing that is usually not on our list is bread. I love making bread at home–the smell of the yeast fermenting and the bread baking in the oven– gives me a high like no other!
For a while now, I had been ogling at Chef Tess’s site http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/ and how she creatively uses bread dough to produce masterpieces (well I think they are!). The pleasure of making your own bread at home is an exhilarating experience, but to paint on it and make it even more beautiful is just something that words will never be able to justify. So, today I decided I would take a shot at this too. I did not have any food color in my pantry so decided to use a mixture of coffee and egg yolk that I read gives a natural edible brown color. I was scared though, that the coffee taste might overpower the taste of the bread, but thankfully it did not. I used my recipe for light wheat bread – that uses both bread flour and whole wheat flour – as the canvas. Well the results weren’t as good as Tess’ but then again this was my first try! (The original recipe makes 3 loaves so I had to scale it down for one loaf- hence the fractioned ingredients!)