Creamy Avocado Alfredo



She hated being alone and yet sought loneliness. Misery is a habit and we are a creature of habit. As she opened the door of her apartment, she felt a cool whiff of air, solitude at last, she thought to herself. The quite and still air seemed to embrace her, giving her comfort and yet a dull nagging in the heart. This is my place and I can be who I am here, she thought to herself. Somewhere deep inside she wanted to join the dinner invitation she had just refused. She was fighting to justify her own decisions.

There was nothing on the television that caught her interest. she threw her soft grey scarf and tied an apron, for once she broke her own code...I'm not going to change. She was trying to rebel, only with herself. Sometimes our own rules break us down, she was a prisoner of her own self. Rules and more rules and rules for rules. Freedom boxed with strong borders...

Her hands moved fast in the kitchen.

The door bell rang.....

There he stood, not very handsome and yet there was something about him that would make you smile. He placed the bottle of wine in her hands...." sorry! did I miss something" She blurted out. " I thought you could use some company", he said. She hated his audacity as it questioned her authority. One cannot take anyone for granted, and just walk into their home. He almost read her mind, " do you always think so much, it is just dinner. I though you had a rough day and might appreciate company." She was not convinced and worried about his motive.

They had been working on the same project for the last couple of months, she hated his indolent attitude. He was always so casual, starting from his dress sense to work sense...nothing planned always spur of the moment.

He found security in her strength, she seemed to be so put together and always knew what to do. The rules that chained her, gave a sense of structure to his nomadic lifestyle. As he poured the wine and she carefully measured out the ingredients for the pasta. He knew somewhere deep inside, there was more to her than what was on the surface.


to be continued....

Mini Samosa cocktail bags

Crunchy on the outside and savory-spicy and juicy on the inside. A perfect samosa in a bite size, great as a cocktail or mock tail snack. And look so adorable. 


It all started with frozen peas. I wanted to have a quick lunch and got out some frozen peas, as I looked at the beautiful peas. I just placed them in a green bowl to take some pictures. I added my spices and made some masala peas and was thinking about samosa. I have no idea how these happened, before I knew it I was working wild in the kitchen and had quite a few of these cuties ready.

These are great cocktail or mocktail snacks, that you can prepare ahead of time and freeze it and fry them later. It’s super cute and bite size. I just fell in love with them, crunchy shell, soft insides, just like a samosa. You cannot bake them,  I tried it and it was very uneven baking all round, so I do not recommend that. For everything else let’s count calories but not for dessert or samosa. It’s really not worth it.

About the stuffing, you can add anything, potatoes, peas, carrots, paneer, cheese…bacon ! Take your pick.

Really picture heavy post again !! Someone take my camera away, I just can’t help taking pictures and then sharing it with you guys :)

Ilva & Sophia  and I planned to do a monthly post of appetizers for April. Do check out their blogs and see what an amazing treat they have in store for you. Being super busy girls, they were a few weeks late :)

Orange Pound Cake

Last weekend my teen baked an orange cake for us. I just love citrus, I have to have either an orange or grapefruit every single day and I am serious when I say everyday, I can finish a whole crate of oranges in a week and still want more. Well, you get the point. When teen asked me, if she could use 4 oranges, I was not sure If I would love the cake as much as I love the fruits that goes in it. But frankly did not want to disappoint her so agreed and played along. Am I glad I did, because this cake is the cake of the year, I just love it, it is SUPER MOIST.  Don’t go by the photographs, as I could hardly do justice to it. It was hard for me to keep my hands on the camera, all I wanted to do was eat this thing. It is a great recipe for the holidays. I am going to be baking this for Thanksgiving. It’s a no fuss recipe and you can make it ahead of time, stays very moist.

Since am literally running between ten things here today, I am going to stop writing and go straight to the recipe. But first I must thank Anjana from ‘Happy and Harried’ for the recipe.

Chipotle Mozzarella Sticks (It’s baked!)

There has been a lot of action in the Jois kitchen: crowded counter tops, dishes piled up in the sink and the aroma of freshly cooked food lingering around the household. Finally teen is often (very often) seen lurking in the kitchen trying out her culinary experiments.  In three years she will be off to college and it goes without saying I will miss her a lot. I have tons of time to clean up then, now is the time to enjoy and make messes. My friends who know me well will be quite shocked to read this. I am not only embracing the mess around me but even enjoying the hustle and bustle that goes with a messy kitchen. Well, this post is really about finally teen, and not the mess in our kitchen.   She has show her displeasure that I have not been speaking much about her on the blog. Even though she has now become an almost regular contributor to TnS.

Someone is really fond of cheese and when we are at the deli section, I see her spend a lot of time at the cheese bar. She picked up some fresh mozzarella, a few weeks ago, I had no idea about the plans and in a couple of days I saw her working with it. She made the mozzarella sticks and froze them for almost 2 days, then one weekend evening, when I had my feet up ready to watch some mindless telly, I was asked to take pictures - and it was now or never. So out came the camera, no thinking, no planning and I was given twenty minutes, 15 images later I came down to crumbs of half eaten mozzarella and a plate with hot mozzarella sticks and marinara for me. (awww moment). 

Finally teen has not only been busy in the kitchen but she and her friends have developed an app (available on google play). It is an app that monitors your calories and includes social media to motivate you, pretty cool app, here is the link if you want to download Fittastick. Version 3.0 is currently in the works.  

Almond Butter

I feel like a million bucks today, I have been playing with almond butter and trying to photography it since morning…I know a lot of you might wonder,  there is no major styling, nothing fancy, what is the fuss all about. First of all it’s a rich texture and oily…all the nasty reflections, then the whites were not  white, in simpler words the white balance was off and I was getting all kinds of color cast…finally I got it ( I hope). I really hope my better half does not read this post, I think it is karma getting back at me, remember how I ranted in my last post about ‘him’ using auto WB. (looks sheepishly at her key board) 

A little honey and this could be easily transformed into a meal ;).  I love almonds and use almond butter regularly in my smoothies, baking and even in my curries. I usually do not make a whole lot, a cup usually lasts me a fortnight. The reason why  I am doing a separate post on almond butter, it’s easier to tag in the recipes. It’s a great option for vegan baking/cooking.  

Baked Aubergine Pizza with garam masala

I have been planning to post since afternoon, but there was a bunch of things that had to be taken care of and some pending photo shoots, am so glad it’s all done and I have the weekend to myself.   There was a time when I did not understand anything about photography, it was Latin and Greek to me…Anything to do with the DSLR was my husband’s department. He liked photography, and I did not know anything about it, it was perfect. Things have changed, now I instruct my husband to stop shooting in program mode. He’s an amazing photographer and his angles and frames are very aesthetic and he uses light to his advantage, but when in a hurry, he loves and swears by the program mode and it bothers me no end. The other thing that bothers me is auto white balance. I could not have imagined  myself saying this two years ago. It really amuses me when he watches me shoot, he cannot understand why I keep staring into the frame for so long before I hit the shutter, am sure am not really cut out for action or sports photography. Lol! 

I remember about 5-6 years ago, I was searching for something that could quench my creative urges, I tried sketching and pastels, even thou I enjoyed it a lot, I did not feel passionate about it. I think I might have found it in photography,  I may not be that good, but my heart is in it. Blogging has really helped me bring together all my skills. My husband often asks me, “don’t you get bored looking at food pictures and blogs all day"…actually sometimes I wish I had an extra pair of eyes, there are so many talented people who inspire me. You will see me on my iPhone multiple times in a day, chatting, texting my photographer friends. We share jokes, that only we understand, and I catch myself chuckling away on my iPhone. I am telling you, take my phone away, someone. Jeez, I almost feel like am rambling and I don’t even drink…lol! (imagine if I did) 

Aubergine as the call the eggplant in France (I was recently told this) is one of my favorites, actually I really do not have any vegetable I dislike, well probably brussel sprouts is the last thing I will eat, but other than that.  I just dig this recipe, it’s healthy, delicious and easy to put together. 

Old Fashioned Gingerbread

Super easy and packed with flavor is written all over this bread. Actually it’s more like a cake. It is not like the conventional bread, it’s a bread disguised as a cake. Not every dessert lives up to this reputation.  I still remember my last year’s soufflé  that fell apart. My nephew was visiting and he has quite a sweet tooth to say the least and you know ‘finally teen’ can live on dessert and honey, that might have been reason enough to try a new dessert, but it was also the holidays, so there was more than one reason to indulge. We were excited anticipating a French delicacy. I don’t know what went wrong, we had such terrible soufflé, it was probably, not probably but surely the worse thing I have ever made. So much so that even the name soufflé evokes very strong emotions lol! But fear not am not going to be baking an exotic delicacy, am going to stick to SIMPLE. This old fashioned gingerbread is easy and most of the ingredients are already in your pantry…almost as good as mix and bake. If you are going to go and buy the boxed ready version of this am going to personally come over and make you bake this… ! With a cup of coffee or mulled wine it is d e v i n e.  I did not just tell you that I made a meal out of this (sheepishly)