Sweetening social isolation, and books we're reading

I posted lots of savory meals in my last post. Over the last couple of months, we've made some sweet treats too and I'm rounding them up here.

On Easter weekend, my British Baking Show- loving daughter was in a baking mood. We decided to make something seasonal, like carrot cake, and in order to fancy it up a little, made a carrot cake roll instead. It was an easy recipe to follow and came together nicely, and most importantly, we could do it peacefully from start to finish during little bro's afternoon nap.

V and the kids teamed up to make me a cake for my birthday. It was V's first time ever making a cake, in his memory. I could see them poring over recipes for weeks beforehand and they finally ended up choosing the tried and tested lemon bliss cake. At one point, I overheard someone say, "Baking soda and baking powder are the same, right?" and felt the need to step in (NO, no they are not), but other than that, they made the whole cake all by themselves while I lounged around and put my feet up. The lemon bundt cake was topped with a candle, the birthday song was sung with gusto and the lemon cake was perfect with a cup of tea.

(Buoyed by the success of their first bake, the three of them got together this morning and baked me a Mother's Day treat- doughnut muffins. Lucky me! I could get used to this.)

Later in the week there was more tea and citrus-flavored cake to be had as my sister mailed me a birthday box including homemade orange cake and a couple of cozy pajamas, all the better for lounging around at home. Her cake was fantastic, and this is the recipe she used, sans glaze.

While I try to emphasize meals and "proper khaana", there's certainly a big market for snacks around here. Once I made a dabba of fruit and nut ladoos as a treat. These were made in minutes by whirring the following in a food processor- pitted soft dates, cranberries, flaxseed meal, sesame seeds, cashews, almonds, walnuts, a sprinkle of salt and cardamom. Process until the crumbly mixture holds when pinched together. Form lime-sized balls. Store in the fridge.

In an effort to try other easy treats, I made these no bake chocolate nut bars. They were pretty good although the oat base was a little bland and too crumbly. This blogger has a very active Instagram account with many neat ideas for small-scale and low-sugar baking, like this apple galette for two, and these oat bars.





Here's one dessert that did not turn out right. It is a pandan custard, made in the instant pot using a recipe from a cookbook. I bought some pandan (screw-pine) extract from the Asian store specially for this. The recipe was easy enough, with eggs, coconut milk, sugar and pandan extract, but the result was too eggy and not to our taste at all.

I'll have to find other uses for the pandan extract, which does have a very unique (in a good way), hard to describe fragrance and flavor.

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I posted a picture of the stack of books that I managed to hoard before the library closed. I've read and enjoyed most of those by now.

Image: Goodreads

The Night Diary by Hiranandani is an epistolary middle grade novel. Twelve year old Nisha writes in her diary every night (the book title is a pun because the name Nisha means night) to her late mother. The diary covers the tumultuous three month period around the time of the partition of pre-Independence India. Nisha is half-Hindu and half-Muslim, and her family is fleeing from now-Pakistan to now-India. It is a fundamentally sad book because it describes a sad and scary time in a child's life, but it is a such an important story. “Sometimes the world as you know it just decides to become something else. This is our destiny now.” Also, this book has a gorgeous cover illustration.

The American Agent (Maisie Dobbs #15) by Jacqueline Winspear was a terrific read.  Maisie Dobbs is living through the London Blitz in WWII. She volunteers to drive an ambulance at night, and investigates a murder by day. The book paints a vivid picture of people trying to live their lives even as bombs falls night after night. A well-written book with lots of great historical details. And another absolutely stunning cover.

It was interesting to read these two books while we're sheltering in place during the COVID-19 emergency. Sort of puts our situation into perspective. It reminded me that the world goes through crises and upheavals on a regular basis. There is much suffering in this world and those of us with access to shelter and food are the lucky ones.

My daughter is reading the Harry Potter series- she's on book 4 at this time. We have been letting her finish a book and then watch the movie. She's also devouring her dad's collection of Calvin and Hobbes.

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A few links and recommendations-

Even experienced cooks will get some good tips from this back-to-basics article on how to read a recipe.

I was mesmerized by this 2 minute video of my friend Bala's henna-style painting.

If you're looking for a light and heartwarming show to watch, I highly recommend The Durrells on Prime. Set in Corfu, Greece, in the 1930s, it is the screen adaptation of Gerald Durrell's books, including My Family and Other Animals, which I read and loved many decades ago.

Tell me about your life- how are you doing, what are you eating, reading and watching?