Pizza Chronicles

So I tried my hand at baking today with a Frozen cold cheese Pizza. The instructions seemed simple enough. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees; stick the pizza in there; let it bake (or burn) for 15 minutes straight and voila, you got a hot and delicious pizza .... NOT! Instead, it ended up looking something like this:


Oh well, I guess with every disappointment comes a lesson (South Park style). I learned something today i.e., to pay more attention this things I'm "trying a hand at" for the first time! Nothing is as easy as it seems. duh!

My cooking (mis)adventure

We're all aware of the fact that cooking isn't exactly a forte of us desi men (most of us anyway). I was no different when I left home for abroad couple of months back as I had to learn the not-so-canny art of cooking the hard way, following recipes written on a piece of paper like an engineer. They tell me it's common sense really, but it's all french to me to be honest. I remember once I added HALDI (Tumeric powder) to mashed potatoes, only to realize later that I was supposed to mix ZEERA (Cumin seeds) instead! Go, as they say here in the US, figure!

Anyway, blunders (although, admittedly a lot less dumb) were the order of the day during the entire semester. I did, however, get much better at it progressively through the course of the semester. A proof of that follows. Below you see a snap of me multi-tasking and preparing spaghetti, bhindi (okra) and beef patties at the same time. A first, I tell you, for a novice like me :P


I would still consider myself a n00b when it comes to cooking. I still cannot make any meat-dish yet. I would love to try out QEEMA (ground beef) and maybe even Chicken Biryani, although I'm told it ain't that easy. Oh well, I guess I'd have to content myself with my "watery" daals, bhindis and bhurtas (mashed potatoes) for now. I know they say practice makes perfect, but I know Razz the Chef wouldn't have lasted a day in this world!