Bread Pizza ( Last post of the year 2013 )

Hi !!!

The countdown has started and we are just a few hours away to step into  2014.  With this thought in mind I decided to do my final blog post for the year 2013. This is a very familiar recipe which I am sure most of you have tried at home. Its called bread pizza. Even though I have made it quite a few times,but since I always forget to take pics I was unable to share it with you. This time around not only my son clicked the pics of the same but he along with my younger son made the whole dish following my instructions.So  I feel very proud sharing the same with all my readers.

Bread pizza is very simple to make and it is not only very healthy but also very delicious. To make this you need : 

• Brown bread
• Pizza Sauce 
• Finely chopped red,green, yellow bell pepper
•  Mushrooms 
• Baby corn, Spring Onion
• Mozzarella/Cheddar/Parmesan Cheese
• Any other vegetable of your choice.
• Salt, pepper,chilli flakes and Oregano for seasoning

 Method

First toast the bread in a pan. 

Apply pizza sauce on the bread and then put the vegetables on it. 

Now take the grated cheese and sprinkle it generously over the bread.

Season it with some salt, pepper, chilli flakes and oregano you can also add any other herb of your choice.

Now microwave the bread at high power for 5-10 minutes accordingly.
Or you can put the same on a lightly greased pan and cook it on the gas top for a few minutes till the cheese melts properly
Serve it with some ketchup.

And voila your yummy bread pizza is ready to eat!!!

        Your feedback motivates me so please do comment.
                         
                             

          Wishing you all a happy and a prosperous 2014!!!!

Moushumi

Granny Square

Hi !!!

Good Morning !!! Hope you are all doing good and enjoying the winter season.

This is a colourful Granny Square which I have made from the left over yarns. I got the basic design from the book Bernat's Handicrafter Cotton.

The size is approx. 11" x 11" and I have used hook size no. 1/2.75 mm (Boyce) for the body and for the edgings have used hook size no. 6(Tulip)

For the centre flower I have used puff stitch and in the rest of the square I have gone with double and single crochet stitches. The edging pattern, I have picked up from the net.

Hope you like it. Do leave your comments on the same.

Thanks for visiting and once again have a great Sunday.

Moushumi

Crochet Shawl

Hi !!!!!

Today I am going to share with you a crochet shawl which I have made in dual colours- white and mauve. I have used hook size 5 & 10. Its  a V-shaped shawl  with nice big flowers popping out in the centre.This is my shawl no 2 which I have made so far. No. 2 because earlier  when I tried my hands on it, it took me more than 2 months to complete the same. That is why I try to stay away from such lengthy piece of work, as this  involves lot of time and patience and which I believe I totally lack. In fact, I have totally surprised myself by deciding to make it in the first place and then finishing it too..........

Well maybe I liked the pattern very much. Its very simple and easy, something I like to make.For the detailed pattern instructions plz visit here.

This is the front side.

The back side.

Thanks a lot for visiting my space and do leave your comments on the above.

Take care n enjoy your evening.

MOUSHUMI

Decorative Photo frame

Hello everyone !!

Good morning ! With kids and hubby  around, my Sunday mornings are usually very busy. But since my husband is touring , I have decided to have a "take-it-easy" day. Yesterday was my niece's birthday and we had all gone to my in-laws place in Faridabad to celebrate it. We had loads of fun as it was a surprise party for the b'day girl, and the best thing was that the whole family had come together after a long time. I cooked a meaty version of Ghoogni (bengali dish made with chickpeas  combined  with minced chicken). I was a bit apprehensive, a little scared also,  as to how it will turn out, but thankfully every body  liked it . Quite rewarding for me as it was the first time I had tried it after watching it on a TV show, and it just "clicked" with their taste.I will share the detailed recipe of the same with you very soon. 

These days I am busy quite busy with relief work. Learning it has been quite challenging for me as it involves lot of cone work and which I believe is my weak area. Somehow I am not able to grasp the technique completely, which actually becomes quite frustrating for me. But still against all odds I am hoping that I would be able to master it and that is why I have decided to start with small projects to get more practice on the same.

This photo frame is one of those projects.  

The design is very simple and I have used oil colours for the same. In the end I have added a dab of golden colour to enhance it. Have added few decorative stones to give it a complete look. 

This is a very old pic of my son's b'day.

That's all for today. Do drop in with your comments on the above.

Have a happy Sunday and spend it the way you like it....

Moushumi

Relief Painting

Hello everybody !!!

Dusshera just went by followed by Lakshmi Puja which we celebrated yesterday.Festive season has arrived accompanied with just a slight touch of winter. I am feeling more energetic  and time seems to be just flying for me.  Everybody is busy cleaning and decorating their homes. I just love the hustle and the bustle in the market places, watching smiling and happy faces and the excitement among the kids for buying fire crackers and new clothes. The ambience is totally amazing and contagious. 

Even though this is the time for candles, diyas  etc., but I am going to share with you a painting which I finished recently. This is called Relief Painting. It is made by mixing marble powder and fevicol. There are different ways of making it depending upon the kind of work you are doing. 

In this particular work, I have used canvas as the base and for the  3D look we have mixed glue and powder in equal ratio to make a  dough form. So the flowers and the peacock even the hair of the lady is hand moulded. The face and the neck area has been painted. Cone work has also been done to make the feathers. The colors used are oil colors and any kind of varnish has not been used.

I have been learning this art form since August and I have very lucky to find this artiste nearby only. He is very proficient in relief and tanjore painting. You can make out from the way the face is painted. Here I would like to add that even though he has had no formal training in drawing and sketching he has learned all these on the job.   

I plan to gift this painting to my friend overseas and hopefully she will like it.

Well that's all for today. Do drop in and leave your feedback.

Till then enjoy and be happy !!!!!

Moushumi

Eggless Chocolate Cake

Hello everyone !!!

My apologies for the long silence from my end.Some unforeseen developments have kept me busy, due to which  my blogposts have taken a back seat.

I am back with this wonderful recipe of Rich Chocolate Cake (Eggless). This is again from my favourite, Nita Mehta's book on cakes. The cake came out really well , both taste wise as well as in terms of rising. 

To make this you need :

1 tin condensed milk
1 cup milk
2 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa 
1 cup oil
2 tsp bp
1 tsp soda bi-carb
2tsp vanilla essence

Pre heat the oven at 150 0 C

Method

Mix flour, baking powder,soda bi-carb and cocoa powder. Beat sugar, oil,essence together. Then add condensed milk and milk and again beat it properly. Now add the flour mixture slowly and beat till the mix becomes light and fluffy. You can also add dry fruits if you want. Transfer this mix to a 10"-11" cake tin, greased and dusted with flour. Place it in the oven and bake it for an hour or till its done. You can decorate it with cashew nuts as I have done or chocolate sauce.

Serve this cake warm with vanilla ice cream or plain chocolate sauce. This is also an appropriate choice for black forest base cake. Do try this and share this with your loved ones.

Puja has arrived and with that, has arrived joy, heaps of bengali delicacies and Rabindra Sangeet without which our celebrations are incomplete. I hope and pray that Maa Durga brings happiness and peace to everybody's life. Here's wishing  A Very Happy Durga Puja and Dusshera to all my readers and visitors.

Thanks for visitng !!!!!!

Moushumi

Crochet Pouch / Sling

Hello everybody !!!

Hope all of you are doing fine. Its been quite some time since I have shared something with you.Primarily, because  I  have not been doing  any craft projects lately. After lot of dilly -dallying I came up with this short, simple crochet pouch / sling. I  have used  purse thread to make this. When I was thru making it I felt it looked too simple. So I added  a little bit of embroidery with red colored yarn and attached some beads on it.I was happy with the outcome and I hope you will also like it too..

  

I know I should be sharing some more pics, but unfortunately, my camera is again giving me problems,  so please forgive me for the same.

Do drop by and leave your comments.:)

Have a nice day !!!!

Moushumi

Drawing/Sketching

Hello everyone !!!

June has started and my kids summer vacation is nearing to an end. Now the pressure is on to complete their holiday projects. My elder son Moksh,  is doing it on his own, but my younger son Shlok is depending entirely on me for the same. He has told me very categorically that he is very young to do this home work alone and that he needs my help to complete it. But in his case the word help has got a slight variation to it. It means I do all the research work and he will just copy it down.Consequently, now instead of completing my WIPs which I assure is adding up day by day I am reading about birds,their habitat, food,features,breeding season, etc,etc,etc. on web.

But I was adamant to do  a quick blog post this week, so I decided to do some sketching. This is a landscape that I did using oil pastels. Even though I have not taken any formal training in sketching, but I did take up a week crash course to learn the usage of various mediums like oil colors, acrylic,oil pastels etc.

So you see I am not a perfectionist and if there are any short comings in this do forgive me.

I would again like to thank you guys for dropping in with your comments which  encourages me to keep on going. 

See you next time hopefully with another completed wip .

Take care and have a nice weekend.

luv

Moushumi

Crochet cover

Hi !!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

I was finally able to finish this small crochet cover.This is a orange colored mat with dark blue edging. I have used 2 ply yarn and  hook size pony 12g . I picked up this design from one of the videos in you tube.

I think I messed up again, I should have kept something light in the background because now the edging is not clearly visible.

 A more closer look at the design.

I think this might give an idea as to how the edging looks.

Thanks for dropping by with your lovely comments.

Have a nice day .

luv

Moushumi

Crochet Book Mark

Hi!!!

Summer holidays have started and so has my busy schedule. In addition to this water and electricity crisis are  not making my life any easier. I still haven't test tried my sewing machine because of erratic power failure. My WIPs are piling up and I just hope that in coming days I get enough time to finish at least one of them.

In fact I got so engrossed in my daily routine that I forgot that I have missed my blog's b'day (May 15th 2011). Its been 2 years since I started my journey in blogging. This journey no doubt has been very exciting with being able to connect to so many craft loving people all across the globe, who have been so open in sharing their creations. In this voyage I have made friends. Friends whom I have not met  personally, but nevertheless who have been there in my  good and bad times thru their comments/ suggestions and making me feel special. God bless you guys and I hope you will continue to provide me your luv and support.

In today's blog post I am going to share a very simple crochet bookmark.  I have used dc in this.In the center, I have made cross stitch pattern with red and blue yarn.

  

I wanted to jazz it up with beads, buttons, but I couldn't find the appropriate ones in my collection and I was feeling too lazy to go to the mkt in this heat and buy some so I left it as it is short and sweet.

Do leave your comments.

Thanks for visiting my space. Have a great weekend.......

luv

Moushumi

My new sewing machine !!!!!!

Hello friends !!!

Hope you all are doing good. I wanted to share this good news with you. My much awaited anniv. gift, yeah that's right, the sewing machine has finally arrived at my doorstep. It is I tell you much more than I expected. I had asked for a simple light weight machine which I could use for minor stitching errands. But with this I can do my craft projects also like embroidery etc. Even though I got it late but is was worth waiting for. So a big thanks to my hubby.

Its a Japanese make called brother. Isn't it cute ????????

As you can see it has 27 built in stitiches with LED lighting option to make stitching easy and comfortable.

These three buttons I believe allows you to choose the gap between the stitches. 

These are the accessories, needles bobbin etc. Wow so many things. I am so excited that I can't wait to try my hands on this.


But I still need  to go thru the instructional DVD to get acquainted with all the features . While I do the same, you guys have a wonderful and crafty weekend.

Also I would like to wish all the mothers out there A VERY HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !!!!!

Bye !!!!

Moushumi

Madhubani Painting

Hello everyone!!!

Hope you all are doing well and busy with your crafty projects and WIPs. I have also few......... noooo, honestly  a lot of  incomplete projects in hand but I don't know why, somehow I am not able to finish them. Frustrated and depressed I decided to keep all my pending work aside and picked up my sketch book, to do some sketching which I haven't done for quite some time now. I had got this book on Madhubani painting, long time back and it seemed the  right time to give it a try.

If we look at the history of Madhubani paintings has its origin in the Madhubani region, in Bihar. The term Madhubani means forest of honey and this style of painting was generally practiced by the women of villages in Madhubani and Mithila region of Bihar. These are characterized by line drawings, geometric patterns, double line border,floral patterns, deities etc. Vibrant in colors these paintings usually depicts Raas Leela, social events like wedding of god goddess etc. Traditionally natural vegetable colors were used but nowadays people use acrylic/fabric colors for the same.

This is a painting of Radha and Krishna. Usually for this particular kind of art form handmade sheet or silk cloth is used, but since I didn't have any of them, I went for  A4 size parchment sheet and acrylic colors. It took me 3 days to finish this and and though I am not a prof. painter I am feeling very happy with the end result.  

They say madhubani is all about vibrant colors, hope fully I have done justice to the same.

 I know it has some flaws but still your opinion does matter. Do give me your feedback. 

Take care and thanks for visiting !!!!




Moushumi

Pepper Chicken

Hi !!!

This is a very simple recipe which I learnt from one of my friends. The best thing about this recipe is its quick and doesn't require elaborate preparation.

Ingredients

Boneless chicken : 400 gms

Curd : enough to do the marination

Pepper - 2-3 tbl spoon

Salt : according to taste

Coconut milk : little more than 1/2 cup

Bay leaf  : 1-2

Cinnamon stick -1-2

Garlic : 2-3 teaspoon (finely chopped)

Green chillies : 2-3 finely chopped

Method 

Marinate the chicken with curd, pepper and salt and keep aside for 30-40 mins. Heat oil in a pan and add little bit of butter in it. Now add bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, green chillies and garlic. Saute for a while and add the marinated chicken. Mix well and let it simmer until the chicken is cooked completely. Now add the coconut milk and cook for few more minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves. This dish goes well with lacha/plain paranthas.

Do try out this recipe and let me know. I would love to get your feedback on the same.

Till then happy cooking !!!!!!

Moushumi

Papermache Painting

Hi !!!!!

I just hope that all my blogger friends and readers have not forgotten me as I have been out of picture for quite some time now.After coming back from the last rites ceremony I got busy with my kids re- admission for the new session. New books, uniforms, bags ............... the list goes on. Then when I finally, thought O.K now I can relax and do net surfing//blogging ,  wow, just then my son informed me that there is a system failure due to some virus and that I cannot use it until it gets repaired fully . 

Very disappointing, but couldn't help it so I took this time off to learn a new art form. Clay work has   always fascinated me, so I decided to learn the art of papermache clay making. This is a very simple cheap form for clay making whereby you recycle old newspapers and create beautiful artifacts.This is the painting that I learnt. This is basically a poster which I got fixed on the board. then I used the paper mache clay to give it a 3-d effect. The white portion that you can see in the pic below is all clay work.

This is how it looks after painting and decoration.

Today, is our 17th Marriage Anniversary, so I decided to to gift it to my husband. He knew I was going for some classes but had no idea that I had planned to gift him this painting, Thankfully he loved it very much and all my hard work for 10-15 days finally paid off.

And look what he gave me on my anniv.............................

a beautiful gold Ganesha pendent. Its very cute and sweet, but you know what this was not on my wish list. For some time now I have been after him to buy me a light weight sewing machine, and I had found my answer in Usha Janome. But then he said no, he will buy me something better than this, a better machine with more options. But finally, till now no machine has arrived so I think this is my final gift. Its not that I don't like the pendant, but its just that machine would have made my day complete fulfilling.

Still I have full faith in him, he will get it for me either today or tomorrow or maybe day after...............

Till then enjoy and have a nice time!!!!!

Thanks for visiting 

Moushumi

Peacock in Embroidery

Hi ...............

I am doing this blog post with mixed emotions. Mixed emotions because i am feeling very happy as today I am finally able to share my 2 month long project in embroidery. But at the same time I have some bad news to share. My brother-in-law's month long fight with life finally came to end on this Monday ie 4th March 2013. He was like a elder brother to me and he and my father shared the same name. He was a very nice soul and I will miss him. I just hope and pray that wherever he is, he is happy and at peace.

Since last Dec I haven't been able to do much. This was the only thing that I have been busy completing. I have redone this 3-4 times.... and I hope that this has come out well finally. This is the completed version.  So what do you think ?????????????

I have used silk and metallic threads and multiple stitches in this. Like for the neck section and the upper portion of the feathers I have used chain stitch..

                                           

For the body portion I have used a combo of button hole stitch and long and short stitches.

For the feathers I wanted a 3D look, so I picked up cast on stitch from Mary Corbet's http://www.needlenthread.com. A must visit for embroidery lovers or those who wants to learn embroidery or are looking for new ideas.

                           

For the legs and crown (sorry......... the pics got hazy) I  used golden, black and green metallic colored thread and decorated it with yellow colored small stones.For the eyes also I used the same stone.

I will be going to my in-laws place for a week-10 days for the last rites so there will be no blog post for some time now. 

Till then take care and have a nice weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

luv

Moushumi