Cream Biscuits

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cream until the dough forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a surface dusted with additional flour. Fold the dough in 1/2 and knead 5 to 7 times, adding just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your hands. Gently roll out dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter coated with flour, cut dough into biscuits. Place on baking sheet coated with cooking spray, leaving at least 1-inch between each biscuit. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

I am thankful for....

I didn't want the title of this post to be complicated in any way. Plain and simple. This is what I am thankful for. I'm not one to wait until Thanksgiving to show my gratitude but I am also one to take advantage of such holidays. Honestly, I have alot of be thankful for this year. First and foremost, I am thankful that I am still breathing and in good health and that God is with me through each moment of my life. I am thankful for my beautiful family. No matter what the situation is in life, we stand together and as a whole. I am also thankful for the wonderful friends I have. Through thick and thin, they have been with me and I appreciate your honesty and devotion to our friendship. I am also thankful for every moment of my life, good and bad. These moments have made me who I am today and I am VERY thankful that God chose me to experience them. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head and food on the table during Thanksgiving. I am thankful for everything in life. The new people that entered my life this year and the once that left, the once that never made it in and the once that will arrive... I am thankful for Life- however it may be. Thank you Lord for giving me this life and the strength to keep moving forward. 

Thanksgiving Menu (recipes linked)

Turkey from 2009 Thanksgiving

It's that time of the year again and I am once again, preparing the menu for Thanksgiving. The menu isn't changing much, but I will be adding a couple of things and trying a different turkey recipe this year. Excited and terrified at the same time as I have been using Alton Brown's Turkey Brine recipe for a while now. This year I will be trying the "homestyle turkey" on Allrecipes. Of course, I will be adding my own twist to the recipe as I do with all of them but after reviewing the recipe for a while, it looks great. This year we are having a 25 lb Butterball frozen turkey. I've never prepared a fresh turkey as I've read enough to convince me that during the S&H process, its very likely the bird gets bruised. I know there's a huge chance of me of being wrong because 1. I have never tried a fresh turkey and 2. each turkey differs. But, since I've been making using frozen turkeys for about 8 years now, I am sticking to it.

Herb-Roasted Chicken

 For my side dishes I will be making the classic Garlic Mashed Potatoes as usual but will make minor changes. Once the Thanksgiving "Guinea Pigs" aka my family give my "improved" recipes two thumbs up, I will post them on here. Side dish number two will be the Carmelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing with zero changes. Only change I will making this year to the stuffing is doubling the recipe because everyone always wants more of it.

Pumpkin Pie

I'll also be making my oh so famous Balsamic Vinegar Green Beans, Corn with Ricotta Cheese, Sweet Rolls, Homemade Cranberry Sauce for dessert, I will be adding Ina Garten's Pear, Apple and Cranberry Crisp. I also want to add a sweet potato dish but haven't decided on which one yet. I also plan on making some of these dishes ahead of time so on Thanksgiving day, I am not beat. My sisters will be helping me as well and if all goes well, my mom may join us in time for Thanksgiving. If she isn't able to make it, then I guess I'll have to repeat the turkey for Christmas Dinner. Looking forward to some great cooking this holiday season. New recipes to be posted soon. 'Til then, happy cooking and eating ya'll.

Movie Recommendation: Shades of Ray

I just finished watching this movie Shades of Ray on Netflix. I picked it over the others because it had high ratings. Honestly, before this, I hadn't heard of this movie, but that's quite typical since I am not into movies that much. However, when I do run into something that catches my attention and I end up liking it, I like to tell people about it. So, here it is, my first movie recommendation. I really hope there is more to come, but then again, who knows.

This movie is about a half Pakistani and half white American-born Ray Rehman. It involves two women, one white and one mixed just like Ray and a journey that helps Ray find his true identity. I don't want to give away too much, but I could really relate to this movie. Many time, when immigrants come to America, they feel compelled to leave their culture, their traditions behind. I'm not blaming America for this nor am I blaming the migrants, but its something that happens inevitably. Immigrants try to hard to "fit-in" that in the process they truly forget who they are and in the long run they sometimes develop this awkwardness about their own kind. This story illustrates that very well and I think for many of those American Born Confused _______ whateer it may be, its sort of eye opening. It sort of helps many figure themselves out..

Personally, I thought it was a good movie. Zachery Levi (Ray) is quite hot and so is Sarah Shahi.  I believe she has her own show on NBC and has been in many movies. She has also been a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys and won Miss Fort Worth USA pageant in 1997. There's much I didn't know about Sarah Shahi before researching her, but I do know that this women is gorgeous and has GREAT legs!

I hope you watch this movie and let me know what you think.... Hope ya'll enjoy this.

Love... & Life

Life is what you make of it. That quote is as true as it gets. The choices we make in life make our lives what they are today.... will be tomorrow and forever... Yes, ofcourse, there are many things that we don't have control over, but the things we do influence our lives more then the things we don't.

Many times we choose to fall in love so we can be happy, but as great as love is, it can become difficult. That's because there many different types of love in this world and when we pick one love over the other, we run into troubles. Love isn't easy folks. Love is sacrifice. Love is pain. Love is unfair. I say all this with much experience in the "love" department. And honestly, I don't know if I am ready for sacrifice, pain and unfairness just yet.

When we get into a relationship with someone, we, without realizing many times, combine both lives together. Even before marriage, the lives of two people in a relationship become somewhat intertwined. Our actions, words, and  decisions influence each other. The plans that we make for our future as individuals don't really have much value unless both people agree which is quite rare these days. Someone always ends up sacrificing or compromising. But what if there isn't any room for compromise? What if you have to make the choice or else you would be abandoning your responsibilities? Then what?

H and I are in the same predicament. Neither one of us is talking about it, but our lives are VERY different. Of course, we have many similarities, but our differences overshadow them. His plans for the future and my plans for the future are on different ends of the spectrum. So, what do we do now. We  both love each other. We both care about each other and we both want to be together but is our togetherness worth it at the expense of sacrificing our dreams & responsibilities. Its a tough choice but I think subconsciously, both of us have made the decision already. Sadly, our attitudes towards each other is greatly influenced by this subconscious decision. A choice that will forever make life what is will be and makes it what it is today...

Diwali Celebrations

This year Diwali falls on November 5th! We have many ideas for celebrating this wonderful festival of lights this year. I will be making a few sweets, nearly not as many as I did last year. On the list this year is Doodh burfi, doodh peda, lakdi mithai, ladoo, phirni, rasmalai and Indo-Fijian style gulaab jamun. Moms making the latter. I will be making all the rest, but may have mom make the lakdi mithai given I have classes until Thursday evening and have a couple of tests this week. I am also planning on making a rangoli with colored rice this year and making homemade diyas. Diyas have become so expensive and so hard to find nicely decorated once. Stores are asking at least 1.50 for each decorated diya now which is ridiculous given you need at least 20. As if the expenses for Diwali aren't high enough. Prices for ghee is sky rocketing this year as well. For people struggling economically such as myself, homemade DIY projects are the best way to go. I bought candles from the Asian store and they were really cheap there. This year all the women are wearing Saris for Diwali. I have mine picked out already. Planning on wearing a silk sari this year as last year I went with heavy embroidery. If I can get the style down, I might wear it Bengali style but thats only if mom can fix the sari for me. I have so much to get done. I haven't even started preparing any sweets yet, will begin Wednesday evening. The burfi and peda will be done Wednesday and the rest of the stuff Thursday night. This week is going to be super busy for me. Lots of cooking and baking involved. I have a cupcake order for a birthday party for Saturday Nov. 6th as well so I will need to squeeze in prep time for that as well. I may also have to do a baby shower cake for Saturday Nov 6th if the order is confirmed. Honestly, I will be happy if its not. Being so busy with Diwali, I have a feeling I will be very very tired. Mom leaves for Fiji Nov 9th and won't be back until Dec 21st. Makes me really sad, but she has to go for medical reasons. Novembers going to be a very busy month as is December! Time to get ready for the Holidays... :) Happy Diwali everyone!!!!