The Anniversary Rusk

Spandana's Mug Cake

I wandered into this Blog and saw this recipe . I have never baked a cake. I do not have the equipments to bake in an oven and I am too scared to bake in the pressure cooker. I have this weird feeling that my pressure cooker will burst if I keep it on stove for more than 10 mins. By the way, I also have this weird feeling that my oven will burst if I keep it on for more than 5 mins. I have previously used the oven only to heat the leftover meals.

So this recipe gave me the chance to bake a cake using regular coffee cups, that too in 5 minutes time.. I thought of surprising Raj with this Cake on our fourth Anniversary, yesterday.

But my first baking experience didn't go well :(

My Mug Rusk

My mistakes :

1. Filled up to 3/4th of the cup,  when my cup was smaller and I should have filled only 1/2 of the cup. 

2. Baked in the oven for 5 mins exactly, going by the recipe, ignoring Spandana's advise " The baking time might differ depending on the microwave, so keep checking for every minute after first two minutes."

So poor Raj ended up eating over baked cake renamed as 'chocolate Mug rusk' .
As for Baking, I have not given it up yet. I know my mistakes and am hoping to make a perfect mug cake, the next time.

PS : I also gifted him a pair of formal shirt & trousers. Whoever says shopping for woman is nerve wracking, please try shopping for my husband. He took 2 hours to buy just 1 pair of shirt & trousers . By the time Raj’s shopping was over, Babs was so bored that he started pulling my hair and when we walked out of the shop, my hair was a khosla ka ghosla. My new hair style got many admiring glances on our way out of the mall.

Smart Birthday !!!

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July 16^th 2012  

My Nokia 3110 Classic, decided to drown in the water, not in chullu bar pani but table bar pani. No, it was not a suicide and noting that I wasn’t aware that the water dispenser kept on the table was leaking, it was neither a murder. It was an unfortunate accident. After being with me through the thick and thin, surviving at least 5 falls a week for 3 yrs and 10 months, it finally said goodbye.  

July 17^th 2012 

Raj : Lets go and buy a mobile. Anyways you needed a new mobile phone, the phone you had was an antique piece, no one carries such old models now.

Me : No.. not today, now that I have to buy a mobile, I want to buy a smartphone and this month we cant afford it. If only I could get an old phone to adjust with for this one month.

Next 2 weeks , a friend was kind enough to loan me an extra mobile set she had. 

Aug 2012

Raj : Lets go and buy a mobile.

Me  : No.. not this month, we cant afford it. If only I could get an old phone to adjust with for one more  month.

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My sister who was in Kerala enjoying a short vacation had come back and she lend me her old mobile set, Nokia 2600 Classic, which she had given her 7 yr old son to play with. My nephew was kind enough to trade his toy with chocolates, just for his beloved ‘elemma’ (mother’s younger sister ).

Sept 2012

Raj : We have waited long enough. Lets buy a new phone, I have checked the smart phones in the malls, Sony Ericcson Xperia seems to be good and in our budget.

Me : Ya.. but not yet. Lets wait and see if I get an increment this month.

Still using the Nokia 2600.

Oct 2012

Raj : My colleague has bought Nokia Lumia 900. Its good. Lets buy Nokia Lumia 800,  that would be in our budget.

Me : No. Smart phone will be a luxury. I keep dropping phones. This Nokia phone is good and can survive my rough handling. I use phone only to answer calls and rarely to make calls. And yes  as alarm also. I don’t need any extra features in the mobile. Can think of a smartphone next year. May be.

29th Oct 2012

My Birthday and guess what my Hubby gifts me : Samsung Galaxy S duos.

And my reaction : Oh my God !!. Why did you spent so much money on the phone ? It would make a big hole in our pockets. We could have bought it next year. May be I would have got an increment by then. Why did you…………

Raj : My dear please…….. What’s the use of saving money, if we can’t spent a little on such essential luxuries. ( ya, that's what he said "essential luxuries" ). 

Me : But I don’t need...

Raj : I know you wanted it . This is NOT a waste of money. This is what we earn money for, to fulfill our small desires.

Me  : Oh ok. ok.. ( by now I was impressed with the phone and giving more attention to it than my poor hubby )..it's nice, looks good..  Thank you dear…

Raj : But don’t expect any other gift on our 4th Anniversary that comes 12 days after, and “mummy Seena’s” first birthday that comes 27 days after and the 4^th anniversary of our first meeting which also happens to be today.

Me : One gift, for 4 occasions ? Oh God! You are such a miser. Mr. Kanjoos!!

Raj : Kanjoos!! but just now u were against spending ………..

( I walk away tapping on my new Samsung Smartphone) 


On another note :
Did you know Google does customized birthday Doodles for those who have Google account ? Well, I didn't. I was pleasantly surprised on seeing this when I logged in Google on 29th morning.

Babs & Elephant, Jalebi & Kappayum Meenum

Babs and Hubby Raj in front of the Elephant

My Babs is a true Mallu. Yesterday he had his first encounter with the Elephant. He was so excited to see the Elephant, he was shouting , clapping, touching it , pulling it's nettipattam  , pulling and tapping on it's trunk and was hanging on it's tusk. Fortunately (for the Elephant of course!), it was not  a real Elephant J

This happened when we went to DALA’s  (Dubai Art Lovers Association) Keralotsavam 2012, which was taking place just opposite to our villa. They had put up a life size Elephant statue, and our son’s reaction to it was really amazing.

Carricature of my 11 months old son  ' Babs'  by Artist Sadanandan

We also got his caricature done.

And we registered ourselves for blood and organ donation. And also for lucky draw contest which am sure we would never win. Am so unlucky in lucky draws that I would not win even if I am the only person participating.

And also one of my long time wishes was granted. I ate garam-garam jalebiyam for the first time ever. I ate Jalebiyam many times but somehow never got the opportunity to have ‘garamagaram jalebi’ right out of the kadai. 

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No, these are not the Jalebis I ate ( though looks exactly the same), I was too busy eating to think about clicking.  

They had put many stalls, including this Jalebi stall and tattukada  (street food stall ).
Raj ate some Kappayum Meenum (tapioca & fish curry – typical Kerala / Kannur food) from the Tattukada

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No, this is not the Kappayum Meenum he ate. I was too busy playing with a balloon, and keeping Babs attention on it, in an effort to keep him from pulling the plate off his dads hand, to click.

I too wanted to have kappayum meenum, but decided not to, after hearing Raj’s comment  “ udayathe kappayum, meeninte thalayum, mullum mathrame enik kiyttiyullu, allengillum Bharya villambi tharunna pole aavullallo  ” ( All I got is half cooked tapioca and skull & bones of fish, afterall I cant expect them to serve like my wife ) He likes only the tail part of the fish and whenever I cook fish, I select and serve him only the tail part, not that I like the head part but as they say if your loved one loves tail, you would have to start liking the head J.

I like my kappa mashed, as in the picture above. It was one of the things I craved during pregnancy. But I was advised by everyone around to avoid it since it is believed to cause gastritis. But my sweet sister finally made some for me to satisfy my craving. I devoured it and also proved that it did not cause gastritis ( at least not to me ). And then I made some myself, and once back at home for delivery, I convinced my mother to make some more.

You would be wondering, we went to DALA’s Keralotsavam and all I wrote was of food and the Elephant. Well, there were many programmes going on the stage, but Babs made sure we do not watch them, he loves moving around than sitting/standing at one place for long. And afterall the main reason we went there was to entertain him and not us, although we ended up entertaining our stomachs as well.