A guest post by Nisha Thomas from Look who is cooking too - Grilled chicken wings in a chilli garlic sauce

Since you already know the story of me running like a headless chicken, cooking only once or twice a week, spending time with my handsome 1.7 MV pelletron at work for 16-18 hrs and stay like a dead log next day, leaves me unable to generate anything decent to present here. On other hand leaving this virtual place unattended thro which, I got connected virtually with beautiful people around the world, left me pondering. There is no life when I live my days without human connections.

So what’s next? Why not start a guest post series (this was the surprise btw) and ask a helping hand from those beautiful people? Nisha Thomas of Look who is cooking too was first on the list. She kindly agreed. Her space is filled with delectable recipes and witty, transparent, lucid writings promising to leave with a smile and doping an urge to come back for any reason oh not forgetting her gorgeous picture! Honestly I keep Nisha's blog post to read in the mornings, you know start the day with a light heart. I eye all her chicken/non-veg recipes and I adore these two; especially her mom's chicken recipe ohhh LOVED it. 

Ladies and gentlemen here is Nisha Thomas, tune in to her blog for more. And bundle of thanks to you Nisha for coming over with my fav chicken! 

I stumbled upon Ananda's blog 'A pinch of Love' quite by chance and if im not mistaken she had just started her food blog. The pictures made me go back again and again and soon we were exchanging comments on each others' blogs. Then I guess it was the power of Facebook that eventually brought her into my friends circle and there was no looking back. I love the way she pens down her thoughts on her blog and the pics are to die for. If I let you in on a little secret- I sometimes head to her blog and take a peek at the gorgeous salmon soup pics taken in the beautiful snowy setting. There is something about that picture that screams out warmth and cosiness. I am so happy that Ananda asked me to do a guest post on her blog and I hope I have done justice to it with these spicy chicken wings in a chilli garlic sauce.

The recipe was the aftermath of a chicken wing obsession which I have been  am still going through. Once I discovered skinless and cleaned chicken wings, there was no looking back. I love how easy it is to cook with them- marinate, grill and if I feel like it, make a sauce and serve. Since the supermarket stocks only a couple of these at a time, when I find them, I go ballistic and stock atleast 2 packs in my freezer, scared they would suddenly stop stocking them or something. Yeah totally weird behaviour if you ask me. I have become a lunatic when it comes to storing some stuff like this (I'll leave the story of the frozen Swedish meatballs for a later time). Sadly my freezer has not much space (which Ro thinks is good, because one day he opened the middle rack to find about 10 to 15 packets of frozen chapatis and freaked out). I mean who does things like that? Well me for sure because, believe it or not, I dont know how to make chapathis. So in fear of them stopping the manufacture of these chapatis, whenever i find them i stock them to hearts content.

Anyways, we are not here to talk about my pitfalls are we?. I'm sure you'd like to know more, but let me not steal the limelight from the chicken wings. So these are so damn easy to make and taste amazing with some chilled beer or cider. The best part- you dont need to have a BBQ grill or any such fancy schmancy appliance. Just your oven grill would do. The marinade is a mixture of all sorts of sauces (from various countries that too) and like Ro says, is slightly confused as to which ethnicity it belongs to. But who cares when it tastes so darn yummilicious? So without further ado, here is the recipe for some finger licking food.

For Recipe read more >>

Irregularities - Strawberry bavarian mousse/mirror cake

Final experiment running, data to be analysed, research articles to be massaged and finally a thesis should be generated. You heard me right? yes all these final stuffs has been keeping me occupied (no complaints, I'm happy with this phase) and also in such a state of mind that I kept adding sugar instead of salt to curry and was thinking huh this summer tomatoes are too sweet, hello excuse me in which world? Before I could realise the curry was almost a dessert! Wish to note down all these kinds of incidents, which makes me go fierce at that moment but it, would be a comic book for me in the future alas it will be a endless comic book! 

So lovely people kindly bear with me, you will see the regular irregularities of my presence in APL on the brighter side you are soon going to have some surprises stay tuned! 

This recipe is from my Japanese friend, Reiko, she made it as layer cake (green tea cake+ agar agar+ strawberry mousse) it was fantastic. I replicated only mousse part with thin eggless chocolate cake and strawberry jelly/mirror on top! The mousse is very special, not too sweet with tad bit of sourness, smooth and rich. If you all are wondering what is that leaf? I have no idea except for the fact it's edible. The name was written in Finnish which obviously I forgot to note it down! Basically used them to bring some contrast. Enjoy the cake till the blogger part in me wakes up again :) 

For Recipe read more >>

Bliss! - Uurainen Summer Cottage

Have you observed little puppies getting up after sleep? bit of stretching, yawning, then getting back to sleep. It's pretty much the same here wrt to blog. After crisp holiday I was so energetic that work is like a pleasure, days of blue moon. Here are the pic's from summer cottage, didn't cook anything apart from Nigella's cookies and pancakes so don't have food pic, only nature for you to enjoy! Soon the story and pic from Bergen will follow! Missed all ur food pic's guys, on my way ta da!!
More pic's here

A house, away from hustle and bustle.

Tearing routinism, entering placid state.
Lake, still water, soothing wavering thoughts.
Blossomed white lilies, spreading fragrant of joy.

A baby with infectious smile, raw innocence.
Her twinkling eyes, a new hope for tomorrow.
Her chirpy babbling, rattling sounds of positivity.
Bestowing sunshine....lil Ms Sunshine!

Handful acquainted human connections,
Few words spoken, deep silence shared.
Home chef, served Thai food to satisfy souls.
Nothing in common, apart from care for each other.

Green the color, thunderous dark clouds.
Sky and earth dancing for the tunes of rain.
Dive in the lake, after earthen sauna.
Rejuvenating self, a must trip to remember for ever!

Holiday's on card - Coffee orange cake

My holidays are starting tomorrow one week in summer cottage then I'm flying to Norway Bergen for next couple of days, so folks will be off for next two weeks :D Nothing much to say other than "I'm super excited". Packed, work, silly people, physics, research tightly and threw it in lake, time to relax and have fun....yay yay! Will come back with pic to share till then enjoy ur summer days all you lovely people!!

Made this cake for my friend's birthday followed this recipe, substituted orange oil with orange extract though the author asked not to do so, that was one reason why my topping (streusel) sank down but still they were good, loved the orange flavours. Sorry guys couldn't get to many of ur blogs shall get back soon after my holidays! 

It's Papa's day! - Sunny side up - Breakfast idea!

My Papa best, my papa best is the only advertisement (remember dhara ad?) breezes through my mind, just with the thought of my papa!. I'm sure every son and daughters in the world would feel the same.

Right from the days as little girls (me and my sister) till the date my sis got married and I moved to Finland, we have stayed completely over protected, right under the shadow of dad, hardly did we know what the world was. Our world used to revolve around, mum, dad, school and college. We still are quite tightly knitted family. Never did we have the feeling of want nor any desire since it was already there for us when it has to be. No we weren't spoiled but they thought us where our limits should be. Moving far from them has been a challenging but a beautiful learning experience.

It was just me and sis who never learnt how to drive bi-cycle amongst all my cousin's since he feared, what if we fall. Later when I moved to Finland, bike (cycle) being only easy medium of transport I had to learn biking during late twenties, my dad was so much worried how will I manage alone since it was all uphill and down the slope. At the same time, he was SO proud when I learnt, till date he keeps checking if the gears and breaks are in good condition and did I buy helmet? No I still didn't...oh I dislike, it spoils my hair. 

He is our pillar strength to all we wanted to achieve in our lives, he never let any thorns to come across in order to make our path smooth. Just becoz I hate travelling in bus and car he takes me everywhere in his bike, is one such example. As much as today whenever I go to India, myself, dad and niece (only she wears helmet ha ha)  we go on a very long drive, talking hundred of stories, buying all the fav food from restaurants and street food, convincing mum if I fall sick he will take me to doc. 

Like I mentioned earlier, what I enjoy the most with papa is to have endless talk/discussion/argument over many things. He is a intellectual person with an excellent command over language and stunning hand writing. Now an honest confession, I'm never good with language, stood last in all dictation test and language exams. I used to make (still do) millions of spelling mistakes when I write, you might have noticed the trait in my blog. Pops has been helping me right from school days. After moving to Finland we have been exchanging quite a lot of emails where he has been correcting and polishing, I'm still learning. Having grown so much in this area is just becoz of HIM! I wish I had few percentage of command over language of what he has sigh!  The trick is that he asks me to read a lot and maintain a dairy to note down all the  new words I come across, which has helped me to improve, hopefully more  in the future.

So papa, here is our fav breakfast, sunny side up (bulls eye as we call it in India) as much as we both love it, mum and sis run away from it. Never mind, wish you were here with me over a cup of tea, fav food, loud music and endless talk I miss you!. You are our hero, our strength, our hope and THE one who we always look up in Life. We love you! Happy Pop's day! 

One thing my friend Elisabeth's dad said to me was, "no matter what, always  remember to walk on the sunny side of the life! To all the best dads in the world happy fathers day!"

And to my reader Sofie, thanks for ur comments and asking me to improve more on my writing skills, thanks a lot felt very encouraging. Will take best effort to get it done, you will see it future! :) 

Toasted bread, with sunny side (cook the egg more if you don't like runny egg yolk) have kept my yolk in medium consistency and some marmalade...And indeed glass of milk or tea, choose urs. Happy  breakfast!