Soulful Creations

If I had a go-to recipe, a sort of comfort dessert, this would be it, I think. Since I discovered it a few years ago, I have lost count of how many times I actually made it. In fact, my roommate was so enamored by it that he learned to make it too! Easy-peasy date and walnut cake, source here Ingredients 12 dates, pitted and chopped 1 1/4 cup milk 3/4 cup oil 3/4 cup powdered sugar 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1/4 cup ground flax seeds 1 tsp. baking soda  1/4 cup walnuts, chopped  Method (followed it to the "T") Boil the milk in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Add the dates and let it stand until cool. When cool put into a blender or food processor and process or blend until the dates are ground.  Add the oil into blender/food processor and blend/process again until incorporated and mixture becomes thick. Add sugar to the mixture in the blender/food processor and blend until incorporated. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl. Seive

I have become a daring cook and baker ever since I started blogging- I try and incorporate different vegetables that are especially. The hardest for me was using the fall bounty-I hardly knew some of their names. But hey I am still the learner! Our last trip to the grocery store, we bought exactly one of these pretty looking fruits (this I knew the name of)- persimmon (the wise guy did not even know what it was when he picked it up!). I had it in the refrigerator for a week or so, manically googling recipes using persimmon when I hit upon this beautiful cupcake recipe from one of my favorite blogs- Cupcake Project .  The search stopped there! Recipe source here , minimally adapted Ingredients 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp baking soda ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 cups sugar 2 large eggs ¾ cup persimmon pulp (the insides of 1 over-ripe persimmon) ½ cup orange juice, freshly squeezed orange zest (from about

and I must say I have fallen in love with them... This was a lovely eggless mousse recipe that I adapted from here . Ingredients about 100gms Chestnuts (had about 20 of them) sugar to taste 1 tbs cocoa 1 tsp almond extract (this was way too much) 16 ounces heavy whipping cream   Method Peel the outer leathery layer on the chestnuts. Place them in water to cover, simmer until tender. Remove the chestnuts, let it cool and then peel the inner skin. Add sugar, cocoa and almond extract. Process in a food processor until smooth and well combined. Beat heavy cream until stiff. Fold required amount (I just eyeballed the amount) into chestnut puree. Divide among desert glasses. Chill until set-up. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Judgement Except for the fact that we did not like the overpowering flavor of almond extract, it was a perfect decadent dessert. Next time I will surely try some variations, in fact I am looking forward to using

Yet another simple dal with snake gourd and okra curry, on a cold night one can never get enough of just rightly spiced, warm dal!

The Scottish variant of " All-Hallows-Even ", better known as Halloween is celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the United States. It is linked to the Celtic festival of Samuin (pronounced as Sow-an) which roughly eludes to "summer's end". It was believed that during Samuin, the border between this world and the other world becomes thin and hence dressing up in costumes and masks, basically disguising, helped ward off the harmful spirits. To me, the resemblance of Trick-or-treating to something called "souling" is even more interesting. Apparently poor people used to dress up on Hallowmas, celebrated on Nov 1st, and go door to door getting food in return for the prayers for the dead.  Source: here at wiki, here and for some really fun Hallow-trivia check here It definitely is much more fun now- don't you think- American capitalism at its best (well one of its very best), you can dress up as anything you want- you name it, they sell it.

  This month on the Tried and Tasted series hosted by Priya , the blog being featured is "Chef in You". It features as one of my daily haunts. Now I am not too fond of mushrooms but this time I let the wise guy pick up some, thought would use it in an omlette or may be even some good fried rice. But a quick search on Chef in you and this recipe was an instant click. So I ordered the wise guy to go for it and he actually made this recipe with minimal help from me. We did not have a few ingredients on hand, so like any good cook I went with my own substitutions which are marked in red. Ingredients , original recipe can be found here 1 1/2 cups chopped button mushrooms 1 onion, chopped 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts 1/2 cup cheddar, grated 2 tbsp grated parmesan 1/4 cup milk ( or replace it with egg) 2-3 tbsp chopped parsley 1 cup panko bread crumbs ( Italina style crumbs with herbs and spices adds more taste) Method In a non stick pan, add little olive oil and saute onions an