Musings of a bored girl

Shahi Tukda literally means the royal piece which has its roots in the Mughal cuisine. It is particularly prepared in the holy month of Ramzan and Eid. This dessert has variations like the hyderabadi double ka meetha served at functions and weddings. This is my simple version of the dessert.  Ingredients For the bread. 4 bread slices Oil -2tsp For the Cream sauce (Optional) Condensed milk - 1/2 cup or 4 tsp Milk -1/2 cup, ( more if you require) Corn flour 1/2 Cardamom powder a pinch For the Sugar Syrup Sugar- 1/2 cup Water enough to cover sugar. Almonds and Pistachios finely chopped for garnish Method  For the cream sauce. In a bowl, take the corn flour and add 2 rsp of milk and blend well to form lump less liquid. Keep it aside. In a pan take the condensed milk and add the rest of milk. Bring to boil. When it starts to boil, simmer and slowly add the corn flour mix . it will thicken very fast so keep stirring...

Getting bored this summer? Here is a simple DIY photo frame which can be made from things around the house.  Materials needed : Cardboard frame cutout ( Old broken frames can be recycles) Paper- Newspaper, old recycled paper from magazines Adhesive Scissors Colours- Acrylic (it is water proof and stays longer) Brush to paint Beads/ glitter/ other household things- to decorate.  I have used all recycled things lying around the house and easy to use. The first step is to start rolling the paper into rolls and then gluing it. Once it is dry, these rolls have to be rolled into coils of different sizes.  Once you have made a number of coiled rolls, lacquer it with a mixture of adhesive and water, This will strengthen the coils and the paper would never come apart. In the meanwhile, paint the photo frame base in the colour of your choice. Even though the frame would be covered but it is necessary so that tiny crevices dont look blank. ...

A Zentangle is an abstract drawing created by using repetitive patterns. This method was invented by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas.The invention of Zentangle was intended to make the art of drawing pleasurable, meditative and accessible to all. It's creation is unplanned. When you begin creating a Zentangle, we don't necessarily have a end goal in mind, the pattern reveals itself as we draw. Zentangles are not like doodle. Doodles are mostly done when someone is bored and wants to distract themselves. Unlike doodling, Zentangles needs focus and undivided attention.  This is a relatively new art form and it is based on human behaviour in which one refrains from planning and allows lines and shapes to unintentionally emerge. I tried my hand on making some Zentangles of my own. Here are some. Hope you like them and share your inputs. 

'Tis the season to be jolly.....deck the halls with bough of holly.... Hey everyone! Holidays season is here and I have been busy creating  easy DIY holiday decorations with my children. Since I teach grade 1,I had to think of simple and easy to make  decorations that 6 year old can make. Most of the things we used was either recycled or readily available. Here's a peak into what my class made for Christmas this year. Hope you guys can use some of the ideas.  Have a fabulous Christmas ! My class made this Christmas board where the jotted their wishes to Santa Claus.  Christmas tree made out of hand cuts.  Children traced their own hand prints and cut it out using safety scissors. They then decorated it with their own imagination using glitter, sequins, stickers, cotton, hand prints etc. We later attached it together and gave it the shape of a Christmas tree. It is quite easy to do and fun. I...

Running out of ideas for cards?? Here are some simple card ideas using every day items. All the cards would hardly take half and hour to make. Most of the things used to make them are found around the house. Materials used- Scraps of paper Cartage sheet for the card  Glue Scissors Sketch pens Paint and brushes Things to decorate- ribbon, glitter, coloured paper Simple Birthday cards made out paper cut outs and ribbons. Old gift wrapping papers can be used for the cut outs. Recycled CD's used to make owl cards. This can be stuck to a base or the other side of the cd can be used to write the message using marker pens. The next card is done by making simple paper coil flowers. Cut a circle from a paper and starting from outside cut out a spiral shape. Beginning from outside start coiling this to the centre. Loosen it a little and you will get a flower. Use your creativity and make a lovely card ! Easter Bunny ca...

Malpua Malpua is a type of a Indian sweer dish, very similar to pancakes. It is prepard from a batter of flour, milk and cardamom and then soaked in sugar syrup. These pancakes are usually fried till they are crisp and soaked in the syrup. It is usually served with another sweet dish called Rabri. Ingredients Plain flour- 1 cup Maida Saunf/ Fennel powder- 1/4 tsp (optional) Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp Salt- pinch Sugar- 1 tbsp Milk - 2 cups Ghee/ clarified butter or oil for frying- 1/2 cup Sugar syrup Sugar - 3/4 cup Water 1/3 cup Cardamom- 1/4 tsp Garnishing (optional) Rabri Almond Pistachios  Method Bring milk to a boil and simmer till it reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Turn off flame and allow to cool to luke warm temperature. In a bowl, add cardamom powder, sugar, salt and half of the boiled milk. Add half of the flour and mix it well till there are no lumps. Add the remaining flour and mix well. Slowly add the milk till it forms ...

N ews paper Jewelry basket  Things needed : Newspaper- lots of them Scissor Glue Brushes Acrylic colours Varnish Simple as it looks ! Take old newspapers or waste paper and start rolling it. Turn these rolls into paper coils and start gluing them together. To give a look of a box. wrap paper rolls around the coils. Stick them together and let it dry overnight to make it sturdy.  Once it is ready, paint it with acrylic colour of your choice and let it dry. Finish it off with a quick coat of varnish so that the colour stays longer and it becomes water proof. Use it to store simple knick knacks, pins, jewelery and anything you want !

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,