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