Popover And Maine

No matter what season of the year it is, one place where we love to be is Acadia National park,Maine.It's one of those places where you just can't help falling in love with nature, people, beaches, lighthouses, carriage roads, stables and lakes.It is one of the most beautiful and enchanting places on the Earth.
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Acadia National Park

"The Good Old Christmas Cake"

I know it's queer to share a Christmas cake recipe at this time of year,when Christmas seems so far far away and everyone is gearing up for Spring. It will further sound  peculiar to say that I have never liked Christmas cake in my life.Either you can love it or hate it.So why is it so near and dear to me? One reason being my Mom and R adores Christmas cake.I have heard a lot of stories from R,who hails from a place where Christmas is celebrated extensively, about the custom of soaking the dry fruits in dark Rum for six months or so and making the Caramel syrup and all.Then came the ritual of receiving Christmas cakes from neighbors,friends and the entire community.For R it seemed the season of raining Christmas cakes.

Initially I was very timid to make this cake as it involved the dreadful part of making the perfect Caramel syrup. Let me say it took me at least four to five trials before I could come anywhere near to the satisfactory caramel sauce,which is still not perfect. The whole process is bit tedious but as Julia Child once said,

"Non cooks think it's silly to invest two hours work in two minutes enjoyment ;
but if cooking is evanescent ,so is the ballet".

Christmas Plum Cake

Wildest dream I ever had!

Here I am!!!! At last a official blog/space ,where I can jot down the recipes from yesterday,today and for tomorrow.I had no whatsoever interest in cooking except may be the eating part!! Around five years back I  had absolute no clue on how to boil eggs? I still remember calling my mom and asking will four cups of rice suffice two people hunger? My mom still jokes about it. There have been numerous mishaps in the kitchen like the day I made rice porridge (Kanji) with 4 cups of Rice.I started making with a medium sauce pan and by the end had to transfer the whole Kanji to the largest pot in the kitchen.The amount of Rice porridge would have easily fed Julius Caesar army! was the remark made by beloved R. For quite sometime ,I gave up my cooking learning phase after multiple disasters and we,me and life partner/husband R, started eating outside.Around same time R had to relocate to new place for career.For few months I stayed with my mom  and promised myself that I had to learn the basics of cooking,if we had any desire to survive in the new place.Being me, I never entered the kitchen nor had any inclinations to observe and learn from my mom.One day before my travel date,I grabbed a old shabby diary and from one end my mom started literally dictating basic recipes.I still have the blue diary which was life saver for a long long time.Just seeing the blue diary sitting in one of my kitchen drawer not only reminds me how far I have come but also lot of good memories.