Mulled (spiced) wine

In a crabby mood (even the picture makes me wanna cry) so I'm going to be mean. It's my blog, and I'm allowed to be whatever I am. If you are going to be offended in any way, please stop reading and just scroll through the pics. I am so angry and pissed off right now, I should actually start a separate blog to just bitch and vent out my frustration and most importantly keep it private. My other blog was meant to be for that but sadly I now have a lot of relatives, including my parents, reading it...so cant be a wreck there. Circumstances are making me very unattractive...it makes me wanna pull my hair out and bitch slap every single person in my way, sometimes I wish the floor would just open and swallow me in but most of the time, I'd wish I was invisible. I would love to go on and on, but in short, men are seriously inconsiderate. period!!! If you're not married...just give yourself a tight hug, you are the lucky one. This is not just my finding btw :O

On a drunk note, here I am posting a recipe for mulled wine which I have become very fond of after being a regular at the Christmas German markets spread around England during this time. I didn't want to post anything in such a mood but if I didn't, remember the 'pulling out the hair bit'? I'm afraid I might actually end up doing that...so since I've stupidly begun to convince myself that blogging is therapeutic and it makes me calm...I thought I'll post it any way.

Scene- Winter Wonderland, Hyde Park: It would be freezing and maybe even snowing and we'd be huddled under a canopy waiting for the mulled wine....served hot and spicy that you can actually trace it all the way down to your stomach. An over dose of it the first year and an overdose of mulled cider last year has kinda made me a lil less fond this year, but I'd definitely be having a few mugs full this year as well for sure....I mean how can I not..you only live once right? (thank god for that).

Red wine- 1 cup (full bodied, semi- dry but don't waste expensive wine on this..savour that instead)

Water- 1/2 cup

Sugar- 1/4 to 1/2 cup (depending on your taste really)

Cloves- 5

1 inch cinnamon sticks- 4

Whole black peppercorns- 1 tsp

Chopped and peeled ginger- 1/2 tbsp

Lime juice- 1/2 tbsp

A lemon wedge

To a sauce pan add the water, sugar, spices, ginger and lime juice. Close with a lid and on low to medium heat simmer for about 15 minutes. 

Take it off the flame add the red wine and lemon wedge. Give a stir and place it back on fire...simmer for 10 more minutes. Make sure you don't boil it.

Pour into wine glasses/ cups and serve hot. 

Notes: Watch while pouring the 2nd round, because you might be a wee bit tipsy and you don't want hot liquid falling on parts that might be of need later ;)

If you don't want an alcoholic version, you can of course do this with apple juice and orange juice (yup have tried that as well)

Blowing my own trumpet :)

I spoke too soon about Ro taking over cooking and the house cos i was sick..well he fell sick as well and now we are both under house arrest..Blah! To add to the misery, the weather is so crappy and i haven't gone out in 4 days...that's the longest I've stayed indoors. I'm feeling a whole lot better today, but still lethargic and am just not in the mood for anything, leave alone cooking. My house is in such a mess, desperately need to go grocery shopping and the laundry pile is longingly looking at me. We've been making do with sandwiches, soups, 2-minute noodle kits and pizza for the past few days and to tell you the truth I'm totally enjoying the 'not cooking' bit. I could really get used to it :)

On another note, a recipe of mine got published in the Hindu Metroplus, Trivandrum edition yesterday and i thank a good friend of mine who gave me that opportunity. I had no clue it was out till a few friends started buzzing me on FB saying they saw the article...i had no idea what article they were talking about till i browsed online to find they had put it up. You can read it here (link) if you're interested (the pic is about 1 1/2 yrs old..my hair is not that long any more, and my arms are def not that toned now :O).

Well..so thats the most exciting thing thats happened to me in a while...my claim to fame :)

Last weekend we went out to Greenwich Park and the Cherry Blossoms, among others, were a marvelous sight which im having trouble getting outta my mind. Since i dont have anything else to post, thought I'd post a few pics.

Hope I'd be back on my feet this week...see ya

XX

A Crafty Affair

Not a food post, this is. Weekend was pretty laid back other than going shopping with Ro which i shall never in my life do again! As it is men's things are so boring, on top of that formal wear and my husband is not an easy pleaser. Did you know there are four freaking types of collars for formal wear? The Windsor collar, the Prince of Wales collar, the Duke of York collar and the Buckingham collar. Is it only here in Britain or everywhere else that they name collars and make the confused, even more perplexed and impatient? (imagine what it would be back in India...a Salman Khan collar, a Mohanlal collar...hahah)

I needed a drink after numerous visits to the changing room and 'this is not right, that is not right' sagas. There was a TGIF nearby and we hopped in there to grab a couple of cocktails and eventually ended up having dinner as well. Their cocktails were massive enough to keep us occupied for the entire 30 minutes we waited at the bar for our beeper to go off.

Came back home at around 11 and I still was in 'high' spirits. Decided to put my crafty side to work. A few weeks back I stumbled upon this blog and was very impressed with the food and craft ideas. One particular craft caught my eye and i had to do it asap. So last week I picked up some cotton yarn from John Lewis and decided to start work on a photo frame inspired by this craft by Paul. I always start something and half way through get impatient and leave it at that. I have half painted vases and glass painting kits that are stored somewhere in a corner, card boards which i bought last Christmas, saying i would personalise my greeting cards and fabric paints that have ruined quite a few of my tees. Ro said i would leave this also half way through and dared me to finish it. I had to prove him wrong and so I started work on the frames. I was all done in a matter of 2 hours and was so so proud of myself. Since the first one worked out well, I made a couple more for my two best friends and I'm gonna send it out to them. I followed Paul's instructions, more or less, but here is what i did:

What you need:

Yarn- 4, in any colour of your choice. I liked Paul's colour combination and so i decided to follow the same. I used four cotton yarns in baby blue, baby pink, pista green and lemon yellow colours.

Strong cardboard- 1 cut in any size you prefer ( I used my greeting card boards- size 26 x 18)

Size 0 paint brush, Glue, Scissors, Utility knife, ruler

Patience :)

How to go about it:

I wanted to put in a 4x6 small print picture and so cut out the centre of the cardboard in that size.

Starting from the top, using the paint brush, spread the glue from one end to the other, horizontally..this would be the the front part.

Starting from one end, carefully stick the yarn (any colour you choose) across the entire length, take it around the back and continue till you get the required number of rows. I divided my frame into about 8 equal parts, so it was easier to figure out the rows required.

Continue gluing and sticking, till you finish the entire board.

I did an easy job of just sticking the photo from the back and then using a thinner cardboard to make a stand. It served the purpose.

The colours are so pastel and very warm, its a perfect bridal shower, baby shower or new born gift. Of course you can change the colour combos and patterns, I'm just illiterate about it. Pro's like Sunitha are so good at crochets and weaving, I am ashamed to say i used up beautiful yarn for crafts...but at least i finished what i started..so here's cheers to myself:)

Thanks a lot Paul, for inspiring me with your crafts.

This now holds a perfect place in our living area:)

Wine Tasting at Roberson

When i was working in Chennai for a magazine, i had been to cover a Wine tasting event at the Alliance Francaise. A wine expert from France was taking a class on the types of wine, what each taste signifies, how to distinguish tastes, the glasses used, what kind of food goes with what etc. They were even giving out samples of wine to taste, which was a big thing, as you don't get to buy wine in grocery/dept stores and the availability was restricted to the star hotels, where the wines were way too expensive. This i suppose was the reason why the entire studio at AF was packed mostly with college goers, who had absolutely no idea why they were there, except to have free wine. I however, religiously took down notes and pictures and Ro thoroughly enjoyed the whole wine experience. I even remember the expert telling us that the only food he could think of that would go well with wine was Biriyani:)

The session at Roberson was nothing like the one in Chennai. It was a very sophisticated event with well-dressed people walking around, taking notes, talking to the experts and placing orders. From Champagne to Port, there were 50 different wines on display along with the platters of cheese and crackers. This was our first experience at a formal tasting event and had no clue how to go about it. So what you actually do is take some wine in your mouth, swirl it to get the exact taste and then spit it out because of the alcohol content in it and so that your judgement is not affected. This was seriously gross for me and so i kept drinking it all and by the time we got to the Ports (mostly served as dessert wine because of its sweetness), we were pretty much drunk.

I'm no expert in selecting wines and had absolutely no clue if one tasted different from the other, but now after being abroad for a while, and being able to buy and taste various varieties of wine (bottles of wine are as cheap as 3 quid), i now have a faint idea and can distinguish varieties, dryness, aroma and the like. So here is how i have figured it all out. Feel free to correct me if i am wrong, but this is just how i prefer it.

My favourites are the sweet wines and the White Zinfandel is a top priority, although they are considered the most unfashionable of wines by experts (who cares!). Then the whites and last the reds, one because they are usually very dry and two, because they are not served chilled. They however are a great accompaniment to the red meats. So when i made a beef fry the other day, I picked up a bottle of Chilean red wine called Maipo and it was actually good. I should broaden my taste a bit more i guess. The whites go well with fish, chicken, bakes (again white wine for white meat) and the Rose, i think, goes well with more or less anything. Chill it and its a great summery drink. If you ever get a chance to taste some Ice wine, you definitely should give it a try. They are apparently made from grapes which are left to freeze in the winters and the result of which is really sweet wine (again served as dessert wine). The colour is a deep golden brown and the more brown it is the more sweeter the wine is. Canada is popular for its Ice wine and last year when my mom visited Canada, we had asked her to pick up a bottle for us. It's very expensive and you get them in these swanky bottles. We were stingy about using and took it out only on certain occasions.

It was the first time i tried out Vintage Port at the wine tasting session, and i loved it. Its very very sweet and suits the Indian palette beautifully. They were unbelievably expensive and so we didn't place an order for that. We however did pick up a bottle of Prosecco which is an Italian (dry sparkling) white wine and another one (i don't remember the name..I'm yet to get it delivered) which we liked at the tasting. This was nothing compared to the others ordering wine cases with their favourites.

There are various wine merchants in London who custom make wine cases as per your requirement and also conducts wine tasting sessions. The cost varies from about 20 to 35 quid, depending on the arrangement. I would suggest you try out a session, at least to know what its like...you need not be a hard core wine enthusiast for that.

Thats me @ Roberson