I think this was a tag that did the rounds nearly two years back.I was wondering what to write today and remembered this..Here’s the ABC of my life-

A – A is for Aadya..that covers pretty much my life.And A is for Addicted..to blogging and chai,
B is for Books ..I have to read every night and every morning and anytime I catch in between.
C is for Crochet..Love to crochet little knick-knacks.
D is for December is the month we got married.
E is for Elephants..My favorite animal
F is for Fan..I need a fan in my bedroom.The fan has to be ON and running at full-speed,every night for 365 days..no matter how cold it is.
G is Ganesha,my favorite God and Google is my answer to everything!
H is for House-keeping is not my strong point..but home decorating is.
I is for India..Need I say more?
J is junky-I am a junky and I love hoarding my junk..be it old bills,old clothes,anything!
K is for Knits,Kitchen,Kids..My 3 fortes!!LOL!
L is for Lakheri,my home town
M is for mischief..which was one word to define me,ummm about 10 years back.
N is for-Never give up..thats my motto..No matter what I am doing,I don’t get frustrated and give up.I am not bragging..may be its a vice..
O is for O.J…Freshly squeezed orange juice,is my favorite juice.
P is forPaints..Love my paints..I dabble here and there,but I want to take professional painting classes.
Q is for Quick..which I am so Not!
R- Rum and Coke was the first alcoholic drink I ever tried.
S- DH’s name starts with S and so does my nickname.
T- My favorite letter..after all my name starts with it.
U- U.S.A-Where my darling Baby was born.
V- Variety is the spice of my life.I have to read 2 books together-I have to work on two craft projects simultaneously.
W is for weekend sleep-ins..I have to have my weekend sleep-in..If I wake up early,I end up being grumpy..grr..LOL! I am kidding..I am not grumpy..but I feel the weekend isn’t a weekend!
X is for Xmas..My earliest Xmas memories date back to when I was 5.Xmas was the festival that was added to our (DH and me) list of festival,that we celebrate ,when Aadi was born.
Y- Yoga,my new found love.
Z- Zzzzzz..I need my zzzzz and can fall asleep ANY TIME..If only I had the luxury to do that:P

5 women,across 4 continents,a lot of emails equals to a yummilicious Mud Cake..you wonder how?Let me tell you
It all started with an email from GM,asking a bunch of us,if we had any good,tried and tested mud-cake recipes.I had one in a book that I hadn’t tried yet..there is something about mudcakes that I used to find daunting.I couldn’t pin point what exactly..may be the fear of failing or the fear of getting our taste-buds all excited and then not meeting the expectation..but whatever it was,I had never attempted baking a mud-cake before.
‘A’ generously shared a mud-cake recipe that she had used to bake cupcakes.And GM tried it.It didn’t quite turn out the way,that she/we expected and a flurry of emails later,one by one all of us decided to try our hand at it.First it was ‘A’,then Smitha,then Monu and me..
A’s cake was the best looking and I am sure it tasted divine..Actually all the cakes tasted delicious…
These tonnes of emails exchanged,left me,with so many tips.And what amazed me was,how each one of us,added our own twist to the same recipe-either by choice or by necessity 🙂
The recipe called for dark chocolate and I thought I had some,stashed in the back of the chiller tray,but it turned otherwise.So,I just substituted the dark chocolate with cocoa powder-equal quantities and increased the sugar.I found Monika,online and she suggested the same thing.I love this virtual hand-holding.
I am always a little vary of adding melted chocolate to the eggs…what if it isn’t cool enough..what if the eggs curdle?I waited a little longer for the chocolate to cool and then added it to the eggs and then the rest of the recipe was like a breeze.The batter tasted divine and I poured it in the tin.Only,I wasn’t sure,how much it will rise,so,I just filled the tin,till it was half full.The rest of the batter went into a cupcake pan and the remainder into a 9 inch round.
The cakes came out beautifully..the cupcakes,slipped out perfectly.The main cake had one-two minor cracks,but nothing that couldnt be covered with frosting.
I had recently tried butter icing and whipped cream frosting,this time,I wanted to try a chocolate glaze.The glaze turned out ok..it tasted nice but wasn’t smooth enough.
I liked reaching out to the girls,if I had a doubt,or needed to substitute something.I loved the generous exchange of tips and recipes,that flowed in those emails.I loved connecting with other baking-loving bloggers.
Here are the pictures of my cakes-

Just out of the oven

DH and Aadi,had finished 3-4 even before,it could cool down and I could take pictures.

And lastly,my attempt at decorating with a icing syringe and nozzles!

This has by far been the best cooking/baking experiment,I have participated in.I really hope we can do this more often,ladies.
Do check out what Goofy,Smitha,‘A’ and Monu have to say about this.

Yesssss!I finished it!
I finished week1 of Couch25K!And at the end of it,I am 1 kg lighter and let me just tell you how much I love it!
I am more energetic..and I am loving it.On the rest days,I walked or did some yoga.
I know a lot of people do it and don’t make a big deal of this plan..but it is big deal for me,to even finish this first week,first because I don’t remember running/jogging at all in my adult life.I love walking and walk a lot..but no jogging..not even on the treadmill..so this is big step out of my comfort zone.
Second,blogging about it,just makes my commitment even stronger.
Third,I blog about it,because,I see so many changes in me..I know its only been 1 week..but a change is change.Earlier,if I was going out,which meant,I would be walking a lot,I would skip the walk/excercise,sayingthinking that,anyway,I am going to walk today.But,now,I do it even on the day that I am going out..simply because it gives my day a good start.
And last,but not least,your comments motivate me!!So,you see I have to blog!
So,Week1 is done!!and I will start week 2 in a day or two.

I stole picked up the tag from Mystic Margarita.
When I saw MM’s post about Typealyzer,I knew it would be my next post.I am trying to write a post a day and my brain has died! Aadi is still sick,I don’t see any change in her,despite the antibiotics.She is very irritated and its taking every last ounce of my patience to not get mad.So,this came at a good time.
Here’s what typealyzer,said about me:

ESFP – The Performers
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.
What does your say about you?Do you agree with what it says about me and about u??

Me- I agree with most of the things-except that I do like to plan ahead but I still exhaust myself at the last minute!!LOL!

Stealing a leaf from GM’s blog,I decided to write about our first weekend of May.
Most of the saturday morning was spent in bickering..we have hardly spent anytime together.When DH comes home,he is still preoccupied with work and we hadn’t had a decent conversation in more than a week.It made us both antsy and we were snapping at each other.To change our moods,we decided to go out,thats when Goofy Mumma called to tell me about the free books and we changed tracks and went there.Check GM’s blog for pics.
There were so many books..Imagine a huge dumpster,that was full of books and someone from the library,kept coming back with boxes full of books and dumping it in the dumpster.There were people standing around it and looking at the books,passing around what they picked and didnt want,everything was so nice and civilised-no pushing or shoving.I looked at some books,found some politics&history books for DH and was about to move away,when the Angel came back and dumped a heap of books in front of me..and guess what they were- Artsy-Craftsy Books!!As if they were dumped there just for me to pick up.I grabbed them,with both hands,carried as much as I could and walked away.
This cheered me up considerably and DH was happy to see his books too.
Oh and all over the streets were people dressed like Zombies..Their makeup was amazing..the white faces,fake blood and the works.I walked side by side a couple and they did their bit to scare me..another guy was knocking on the car windows and asking the people inside to “give me your Brains”..hehehe.
We went shopping after that and picked up some regular school stuff for Aadi,I still cant believe I am the mom of a school-going kid-so what if its just play school?
The rest of the evening,was happy and peacefully.
On Sunday,we took Aadi to the doctor and it turns out that she has an ear-infection and had to be put on antibiotics.In a way its good,because she was in pain and was having trouble sleeping and swallowing.Some more shopping was done-winter essentials.
Other than that,we watched two movies-‘HouseFull’ and ‘Jaane Kahan se Aayi hai’- Both were nice,light comedies..just right to drive the winter blues away.
And just before bed,when I checked my email,there was a message from my cousin- She’s delivered a beautiful baby girl.The picture just made me go,Awww..Another one from our group,who is now a mom of a girl-yayy girls rule.The little Angel is a miniature of her mumma,..just perfect.Another member to the next generation of cousins.I hope this brood gets to spend some quality with each other and thinks of each other fondly,as do we.
Hope the rest of the month is as happy as the first weekend:)
Edited to add link.