Croque Madame Muffins (or my version of it)

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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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Tinker Bell Inspired Chocolate Sugar Cookies

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Tinker bell chocolate sugar cookies | The Novice Housewife #PirateFairy #BH #ad

I have found a new love- cookie decorating. While I enjoy decorating cakes and making fondant decorations and toppers, I do not get much of an opportunity to do so, since there are only as many birthdays of friends’ kids in a year. And decorating a cake with all the shenanigans and sending it to V’s office will just be a tad bit over the top. Even for me.

Cookie decorating, on the other hand, is great. I can try different techniques, steady my hand with piping and cookies are always fun to eat. Perfect portion control. Unless you go for seconds or thirds, like I did with these cookies.

Tinker bell chocolate sugar cookies | The Novice Housewife #PirateFairy #BH #ad

Since Disney’s The Pirate Fairy (on Blu-ray™ and Digital HD) is available on April 1st, I thought it would be fun to do Tinker Bell inspired cookies. I was a big Peter Pan fan when I was a kid and it seemed a fun idea to draw a childhood favorite on a cookie.

This was my first attempt painting on a cookie. The Holi and St. Patrick’s Day cookies I made, were decorated completely with royal icing.

For these Tinker Bell cookies, I first used 10 second flood icing to coat the chocolate cookies with white royal icing, letting the icing dry overnight. Once the white icing was completely dry, I traced the design on the cookie and then painted keeping the traced outline as a guide. I do not have many edible colors but was able to manage with the colors I have.

Tinker bell chocolate sugar cookies | The Novice Housewife #PirateFairy #BH #ad

USEFUL LINKS ON COOKIE DECORATING:

Tinker bell chocolate sugar cookies | The Novice Housewife #PirateFairy #BH #ad

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Tinker Bell Inspired Chocolate Sugar Cookies
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 cup (225 gms) butter, softened
  • 1½ cup (340 gms) sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ tsp salt
Instructions
  1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed till light and fluffy. Keep scraping the bowl in between.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time beating till just combined, scraping the bowl as required. Add in vanilla and mix until thoroughly blended.
  4. Add the sifted flour cocoa mix 1 cup at a time. Scrape the bowl after adding each cup of flour. Mix until just incorporated, making sure you do not overmix or the resultant cookies will be tough.
  5. Divide the dough into two equal portions and cling wrap. refrigerate for 30 minutes, or till dough firms up. Its easier to roll cookies out that way.
  6. Once the dough is firm, roll it out to desired thickness and cut in desired shapes. After rolling the dough out I chill the dough in the freezer for 15 minutes before stamping out the shapes. I find that the cookies hold their shape better while stamping and transferring to cookie sheet this way.
  7. Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for 8-10 minutes, or until indentation is made when touched. Mine took slightly longer since I made them thicker.
  8. Decorate as you like.
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Tinker bell chocolate sugar cookies | The Novice Housewife #PirateFairy #BH #ad

Disclaimer: While this post is sponsored by the Disney’s The Pirate Fairy “Five To Follow” campaign, the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

Garam Masala Tuesdays: Vegetarian Kebabs

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Vegetarian Kebabs | The Novice Housewife

Vegetarian Kebabs | The Novice Housewife

When I was in Allahabad during my last trip to India, the cook at my parents place would make these vegetarian kebabs for us to snack on with drinks. Good times, I tell ya! Since I could not get the cook back with me to the US of A, I asked my parents’ cook to give me the recipe.

Now most of us don’t measure when we cook, so the cook gave me an approximation of the recipe. First time I tried it, I had to make quite a few changes to the recipe to get the right consistency to be able to stick together. I made them for the new year’s party at our house and they were a big hit. Luckily I had noted the changes, so it was perfect the next time I made them.

You could deep fry these, like I chose to for the party, or you could bake them basted with a little oil as well. Of course the deep fried version are always tastier, but the baked version is almost equally good as well.

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