Sweet Strawberry Sop, an unsuccessful attempt (A Cake A Week : # 7 )

This week I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to bake. I knew I wanted to use strawberries. wanted to bake an eggless cake. and had at disposition 'n' number of recipes to choose from. but none of them pressed that note... you know what i am talking about ? None of the recipes were exciting enough. so i sat deliberating over my choices over the whole weekend, until i chanced upon Blueberry Boy Bait(BBB). Of course thats what I wanted to bake. but with strawberries instead of blueberries. and since BBB seemed like the catch-word, I coined my own name for the Strawberry bait.... decided to call it Sweet Strawberry Sop(SSS).  Now doesn't that sound like great ? well. i thought it did. and i was really excited about sharing this cake as part of my A Cake a Week Project. but then... damn.... the cake flopped. I had tried to squeeze too much batter into a little mold... thereby not giving the poor cake enough room to breathe and grow... so even after baking the cake for twice the mentioned time... my cake turned out to be a muddy mash.

at first the mash did make me a little sad. but then one bite into it and i was a happy "girl." not girl. well. happy mom. because even in its messy form the was delicious. not fluffy as it is supposed to be. more like a brownie in form. but delicious and addictive anyhow.

since my cake did not turn out to be the cake i had dreamt of, i'll skip the recipe this time. however I promise to share it with you by the end of the month... for today just some photos of my unsuccessful attempt and  two songs i am loving these days....

this one is from Before Sunset... love the movie. love the song and waiting eagerly for the sequel Before Midnight.

this one is our family favorite. my son loves it and Mr MN and I love dancing with the little to the tune of Skidamarinka dinka dinka skidamarinka doo... I love you....

Also I finally created a facebook page for Ma Niche. I intend to get more chatty there. If you please join me in FB. I'll love to know you a little more.

Take Care.   Have a great week !

it feels like how being in love should be....

  ...floating through a dark blue sky. 

with a goat playing the violin. 

for.... happiness isn't happiness without a violin-playing goat.

 Happy Valentine's day !!

(p.s : quoting from notting hill for i cannot ever have enough of that movie :):) )

Harry Potter !!

 

last night husband and me completed our backlog of the Harry Potter movies. and we are all set to hit the theater for the grand finale ....

Harry Potter and the Deathly hallows -2 

looking back i realise that i love all the Harry Potter movies though Chamber of Secrets, Half-blood Prince and Deathly hallows-I are my favourites. i find the idea of the Horcruxes really awesome.... and isn't Tom Riddler's Diary the coolest of the  Horcruxes !! i am quite fascinated by it... anyway right now I am eagerly waiting for the ultimate destruction... the trailer of Deathly Haloows -2  definitely hold  lots of promises !!

A New Favourite...

i have a new favourite. the movie called Chocolat.  
i am in love with it and i am in love with Vianne in it.
i adore her passion, her conviction in what she believes is the purpose of her being.
i love her love to ignite the passion, the zest for life in others  through her chocolat and cocoa drinks...
and i love the way  Roux looks at her every time she hands him a chocolat,-  claiming it is his favourite...
and he turns down saying "Very good... but not my favorite." 
i love Anouk's pet Bantufh .... i simply love the movie and cannot seem to get over it....
i have been rewinding and replaying my favourite scenes which are too many to be listed here. 

Nevertheless here is a trailer of Chocolat and in case you haven't seen it already make sure that you grab a copy of the movie soon
... and in case you have seen it before you know well enough that you wouldn't mind watching it once more... 

Meanwhile- 
i think my love affair with Chocolat will last for a while 

for i cannot get over the look in Roux's eyes nor can i get over his understanding smile... 

Oh, Depp !  you do this to me every single time !

[Just in case you did not know already, in this new favourite of mine, 
Juliette Binoche plays Vianne, Johnny Depp plays Roux, Victoire Thivisol plays Anouk and Bantufh is Anouk's pet kangaroo ]

Amelie.... in you i see a figment of me...

Last night my mind wandered... it was on a run... it went wild and would not succumb.. so I settled in to watch Amelie...

Then came the seen when Nino is late and there are only two explanations Amelie can see for it...
" 1.  he didn't get the photo.
  2.  before he could assemble it, a gang of bank robbers took him hostage. The cops gave chase. They got away... but he caused a crash. When he came to, he'd lost his memory. An ex-con picked him up, mistook him for a fugitive, and shipped him to Istanbul. There he met some Afghan raiders who too him to steal some Russian warheads. But their truck hit a mine in Tajikistan. He survived, took to the hills, and became a Mujaheddin. Amelie refuses to get upset for a guy who'll eat borscht all his life in a hat like a tea cozy..."

This curious monologue  made me breathe a sigh of relief and bless the writers Guillaume Laurant and Jean-Pierre Jeunet  profusely... had it not been for them i would have never known that my twin-self lived in France by the name of Amelie...

Every once in awhile, a girl has to indulge herself.......

A sizable amount of work awaits me... but i do not feel like it. It happens to me once in awhile... when all i want to do is to indulge and work must wait.... so last night i saw a movie, Houzhe (To Live) and then again one today post-lunch, Turtles Can Fly. Both the movies are excellent and they left a deep impression on me... No. I shall not attempt a movie review of either... for i do not feel competent... but for sure i recommend to you both.. they brought me goosebumps is all i can say....

Also this blogdom has revived my interest in drawings and paintings again. and under the spell of the art-blogs that I have recently started following,  i tried a version of a Chinese painting with crayons today. I quite like the completed picture. so for the time-being... or till i  draw something that I like better, i have set my new drawing as the banner of the blog. the orange sun was an after-thought...  i added it while  editing the picture in GIMP.  right now, i quite like my blog-banner with my little birdies tweeting under the sun !

so far so much about my weekend. hope you are indulging yourselves too...   catching up with friends and hobbies that had taken a back seat to accommodate the  business of the week...  Indulge abundantly and have a lovely weekend !!

Bye, take care...
and please drop a line when you have time to spare.....

[title is a quotation by Sarah Jessica Parker]

feeling quaintly nostalgic....

This afternoon i saw it for the nth time.. the movie - wake Up Sid

its such a lovely movie..

casually stylish , simple,  flowing... a feel-good movie.. the perfect recipe for a lazy afternoon... 

The layout of the "MUMBAI BEATS" office is rad.. and so is the art designing of konkana's rather aisha's nest ... and every time i see the movie i crave for a office as fabulous, a house like aisha's and a friend like sid.....

and yes --- the queen's necklace and the rains... the mumbai rains... i miss them all... all over again...

                         i miss the city i used to call my home for a while....

                                   ... .. and  i feel quaintly nostalgic for all that which was never mine ........

[image by google search]