Musings of a bored girl

Makes 20  Ingredients 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1 egg 2/3 cup oats 1tbsp milk 1 tbsp vanilla extract I cup flour /maida 1tbsp cocoa 1/2 tsp baking powder Chocochips - as per your taste Procedure Preheat the oven to 360*F or 180* C Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy, Beat in the egg, then add the oats, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat together until well blended. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together and stir the mixture. Stir in the choco chips pieces. Place desert spoon full of the mixture on the prepared tray and flatten it slightly with a fork.  Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until slightly  risen and firm. Remove from the oven and cool on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea.

Recipe  Ingredients Serves 6 70 gm butter 500 gm plain flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 70 gm sugar 1 egg 260 ml milk oil for frying Procedure Sieve flour and baking powder in a bowl and rub in the butter. Mix in the sugar. Beat egg and milk together. Make a well in the flour mixture and then pour in the egg mixture. Mix together to make a soft dough. Roll out dough on a well floured surface to about 1 cm (1/2in) thick and cut to shape of choice. You can use 2 different sized biscuit cutters for this. Fry in hot oil for 30 seconds approximately, turn over and cook for  further until golden brown. Drain on tissue paper until cool. Roll in sugar or decorate with icing as desired. Melted chocolate can be used to glaze it, as well as sugar syrup, 

Quiling is an art form that involves using paper strips that are rolled,shaped and glued together to create decorative designs. The paper is wound around a quill to create a basic coil shape. The paper is then glued at the tip and these shaped coils are arranged to form flowers, leaves and various ornamental patterns similar to ironwork.                                       Basic Quilling shapes Quiling has become an easy craft these days and many many tools are available in the market.  Pre-cut papers, needle, embossing tools, paper crimpers, quilling combs etc are easily available to create even the most complicated designs. With a little bit of patience you can create many wonderful things. I have created these without using a quilling kit but only paper strips, rolled by hand. Quilling cards Designer bottle with quilli...

I just realised some of my absolute favourite quotes are about butterfly and how it gives a sense of freedom and transformation. Sharing some of them. "The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has enough time." - Rabindranath Tagore "Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower". - Hans Christian Anderson. " Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you". Nathaniel Hawthorne  " Just like the butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time".- Deborah Chaskin " We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever". Carl Sagan " I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free." - Charles Dickens

Art Attack! Recycled Bottles Don't know what to do with old bottles lying around? You can try selling them off, but that hardly gets in any bucks! Here are some ideas to use your creativity and reuse, reduce and recycle these bottles. All the ideas are Eco-friendly and mostly made of waste material around the house. You can use them in any way, as a plant holder, pen holder, or simply as a decorative piece. Bottles decorated with Warli painting and wool Braided bottle. Bottle decorated braided wool. Lots of old wool and ribbons were used to make this which was braided together to make a band and then glued together on the bottle. Instead of making a big braids, make small ones and glue it together.                        Madhubani painted bottle Wool lined bottle

" The chief beauty about time  is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose". Arnold Bennett

Cashew Jam cookies  Ingredients  240 gms Flour 1 tsp Baking powder 1/8 tsp Salt 120gm Butter 120 gm powdered sugar 3 tbsp Milk 8-10 cashew- crushed coarsely 3-4 tsp of Strawberry jam- for decoration Procedure Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together. Cream butter and powdered sugar till light and fluffy. Add the flour and milk. Mix gently to make a stiff dough. Allow  the dough to stand in a cool place for 20-30 minutes. Once the dough is set , roll them into ball and set them into cookie shapes. Crush the cashews and spread it on a plate. Then take these cookies and roll them in the crushed cashews. Put the cookies in the baking tray and put a small dent in the middle of cookie with your thumb. This would be filled with jam. Take 3-4 tsp of jam and mix it well to make it thinner and then fill in the space created by your thumb. Bake in a moderate oven at 180 degrees C/ 350 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes. Take them out and ...

 Egg Sikim Has it ever happened that unexpected guests have decided to turn up with just a moments notice and you have absolutely nothing in your kitchen? Don't worry because here is very simple recipe that can be whipped up very quickly and used as a starter. All you need is eggs ! Yes the entire recipe is made out of egg itself and some added ingredients. This recipe would take around 30-40 minutes to make. Ingredients Boiled egg ( as many as you want, depending on how many people you are expecting) One raw egg for coating Grated Mozzarrela cheese Coriander leaf Salt to taste Red chilli powder Oil to fry. Procedure Boil the egg and carefully peel them. Cut the eggs into half. So if you have used 12 eggs you will have 24 pieces to serve. Now carefully scoop out the egg yolk and collect it in a bowl. Mash the yolk so that it can be mixed with the other ingredients easily. Grate the mozzarella cheese and add it to the mixture....

Christmas is here and the festivities have begun. Don't want to waste too much money on expensive Christmas decorations from the market? Don't have the time to make them yourself? Here are some easy to make Christmas decorations which doesn't require too much time, effort or money. All you need to do is raid your cupboard and take out anything you can lay your hands on. Paper, glue, ribbons, glitter, wool, paper cups, buttons and a little bit of imagination! These are simple tree ornaments made out of paper, ribbons and quilling. Quilling or paper filigree is a art form in which paper strips are rolled, shaped and glued together to make decorative designs. Paper is wound around a quill to create a basic coil shape.There are many quilling kits available in the market to make the perfect shape with exact precision but I have made these by hand and it hardly took 20 minutes. I have used simple round shapes and diamond shaped and glued them together to ma...