YUMMY Chocolate Cake for Chocolate Loverss!

Yayy! I get to post the first recipe of this year...This past year was great. Especially during Christmas, I was able to share some good time with my family and close friends. I am grateful for all the blessings in my life.. Now I am eagerly looking forward to face all the opportunities and challenges this New year has to offer..Wish you all a Happy and Blessed New Year!!

I was searching for a good brownie recipe for a while. I have tried so many brownie recipes over the past and they were all a flop. So this past week, I stumbled across a chocolate cake recipe on all recipes.com; I decided to give it a try because all the reviewers raved about it plus I had lots of free time on hand. I didn't have any unsweetened cocoa on hand so I used some hot cocoa that my mom got as a holiday gift.To my surprise..the end result was awesome!!

First, a word of WARNiNG! - All CHOCOLATE Haters and CHOCOLATE Allergicss, PLS stop reading this and go Back to your Business. Just kidding;) This is a chocolate cake meets Brownie recipe.

Recipe Link:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/black-magic-cake/detail.aspx

This time I made it in a bundt cake pan. I am planning to make some cupcakes for my coworkers soon. Also, dont forget to put your favorite Frosting on it.

Meat Ball Pasta

Its almost the end of year 2011. This year went by really fast. I am so glad that I have this last week off..... I can relax,have some 'me' time and just sit home and do nothing:) Hence, I decided to update our blog..

" Meat Ball Pasta" aka "Pasta with meat balls and Cheese (of your choice)". I know the name of this recipe sounds very generic. I did not follow any recipe for this. This is my own creation, so I took the liberty to call it with a name of my choice. This is something I make occasionally, and every one at home seems to like it a lot.

Ingredients for this recipe are the following:
1. Pasta (tubular shaped) -See the picture below
2. Mozzarella Cheese(or any cheese of your liking that we normally use for lasagna)
3. Meat balls(store bought or home made)
4. Spaghetti Sauce - 1 and half jar (I used meat flavored)
5. Garlic Cloves-2
6. Butter-1 table spoon
7. White Onion - half of 1

Preparation:
1. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package (al dente) and drain it. Be careful not to over cook your pasta.
2. While your pasta is cooking, take a large non-stick pan. Melt 1 table spoon of butter and sautee chopped garlic cloves and onion.
3. Add 1 big jar of spaghetti sauce to the sauteed onion and let it simmer on medium heat.
4. Cook the frozen meatballs in microwave(according to package instructions). Add them to the spaghetti sauce and let it cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add drained pasta to the meatball sauce and mix them well. Then add about 3/4 th cup of cheese and let it melt.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
7. Add pasta and meatball mixture to oven baking dish. Then pour about half a jar of spaghetti sauce on top of it and spread evenly.
8. Then add rest of the cheese on top of the sauce. I added a little Parmesan cheese as well on top.
9. Cover the dish with Aluminum foil, and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes.

I hope you all enjoy this. This is a quick and easy recipe.

March Madness!!!

March was Great!!!

A Tea to Remember!

So this weekend, my mother and i went to the mall for some light shopping and as we start walking down the corridors, we smell a familiar nostalgic fruity smell, Ripe jack fruit. Jack fruit is a common fruit known for its distinct smell and taste found in southern India where we grew up. So obviously we were compelled to stop and check out where this pleasant smell was originating from. To our surprise it was from a tea shop called Teavana. They had brewed tea out for sampling, so of course we couldn't pass up a free sample especially if it smelled like jack fruit. So on our way back, we stopped at the Tea Shop and sampled all 4 teas. Two of them fruity but we weren't a big fan, the one that smelled like jack fruit had a mixture of fruits including acai and blueberry that gave it its distinct smell. But the white ayurvedic tea with samurai chai matte and the jasmine green tea was awesome. So i had to get it. I didn't even know how they sold the tea, which looking back if i had known i would not have been writing this blog as i sure as hell would not have gotten the tea. I went to the cashier and said i want these 2 teas and he said a pound or two and then started talking really fast about the teas, i mean i don't know even how much a pound of tea looks like. a weeks supply? a years supply? God knows! He then said most people buy the half pound, well if most people do that then that HAS to be the right way right? so i got the most people order. As far as prices he talked really fast and just spewed off number that really didn't add up in my head. there was 10% off, per pound, 32, 48- too many damn numbers. And the guy was like would you like it in a tin and i said YEA ( oohh a free tin) and then he said its only 7 dollars and put my tea in the tin - DAMN ITT!! So all in all this was most i ever spent on Tea. $88.47.



Did i feel like a sucker when i walked out the store. YES. But as i sip my white ayurvedic tea while writing this blog I'm quite content in the purchase. One because it is damn good tea and two because it gave me material to resurrect this blog. Miss you girls!!!