Disclaimer: This was a recipe that Did Not Live Up To Expectations. There will be many of these, but I'm posting them nevertheless. I want to encourage people like me who see perfect dishes but invariably make mistakes. You're not alone. Just keep trying!
I really wanted to make this and it seemed so easy! I followed the recipe exactly, except I added brown sugar instead of white, thinking it would taste good...
My curd looked like mud.
I also didn't add enough sugar. Samantha from A Teenage Gourmet said that she usually cut the sugar in half and didn't find it too tart, so I did so too.While tasting, the curd tasted fine to me. It could easily have used more sugar, but I also liked the tart tone.
But later when having a bowlful, it was just too...weird. The zest and sourness made me feel sick. I want to try it with orange: no sugar to add, since orange juice is sweet; and it would have a gorgeous colour! 

On Sunday mum was really tired and she especially hates thinking of what to make with cauliflower. 
Coincidentally, I had just been browsing the recipes on my iPad just to see how people make stuff (I realised how non-up-to-snuff I am after seeing the first episode of junior master chef Australia...how good are those kids???) and I came across 3 different cauliflower soups.

So I made caramelised cauliflower soup.
Mum and dad really liked it and the flavours, but my sister struggled to get through it. Even after I reassured her several times that everything was puréed so she wouldn't see any onions, she left a whole bunch. But anyway, everyone as their preferences. I happen to be a soup-lover <3

If I had to present it to the judges of a cooking show, I know what they would say: improve the texture. It would be better if it was smoother, as it was kind of rough or grainy.... I don't know how to describe it. Mum said that maybe if we had let the cauliflower cook in the broth before pureeing it would have become more soft. Mum made some little cutlets out of the cottage cheese, coriander and the scooped-out potato from yesterday. She served them with toasted pita and they were delicious too!
All in all, it was a really nice, healthy family meal and everyone was talking and it all looked so pretty. :)

On saturday I helped dad make dinner. 
Tarini and mum were coming back from a day-long early-rise hot, tiring class trip to Alibaug complete with sunburns, annoying mothers, wailing classmates and choppy waters, so we decided they needed some comfort food.
Dad suggested I do something with potatoes, like making a stuffing with some cottage cheese, onion and coriander.
The bottoms of the potatoes were brown and crunchy and the tops were still light yellow (looked raw but weren't) and the filling tasted good. 
They tasted even nicer warmed up the next day. Tarini absolutely loved them too, and as she said, she's the "ultimate test" .
They tasted lovely with dad's homemade bean and tomato koftas (which he was absolutely thrilled about). I'll see if I can get his recipe :)

I was looking for a simple but yummy pancake recipe. All the healthy ones end up runny, flat or tasteless, so I decided to go full force. I picked one from one of my old Kids Cookbooks and made the batter the night before, since my dad and I were going cycling in the morning. 
They came out as thick, delicious American pancakes. They were definitely a success! I had mine with sugar and jam.

I made my own applesauce, but it just stuck to the pan and burnt!
I used instant oats which dad said wouldn't matter, but I don't know if rolled oats were better. I didn't have ripe bananas-- in fact, these bananas had just arrived-- so they weren't mashing so mum suggested to microwave it. I did, for about 30s, and I mashed it, but it totally congealed......
So that wasn't very good.....
Everything was looking and tasting fine and I made 2 batches of small ones. I made some with peanuts, some with almonds , some with a bit of nature valley crunchy bar on top, and quite a few with some peanut butter stirred in (I have always thought that peanut butter would taste great in oatmeal, so why not in this?)
They looked great, but when mum tried them she said they seemed under cooked. 
I tried one....... Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck........ It was like raw play dough!!!!! 
Dad thought the problem was a lack of sweetness. 
So we dissolved some powdered sugar in warm water on a stove and drizzled that over the muffin things and baked them some more. Better.....
I have them warmed and that's ok. But definitely not my best.... They looked so appetising on the website! So fun, so cute, so oatmeal-muffin-y.... I guess maybe her toppings were sweeter, her oats were different and her banana was better.... But I dunno....

Whoopie Pies!
Since having the Pumpkin Spice ones from Trader Joe’s in Chicago, I have been in love with these creamy, cakey, sweet packages of delight.
After having a Whoopie Pie party here in Mumbai, my friends inevitably developed the same obsession with them.

The problem? 
You can’t get them here! 
So we decided to make:
Not-So-Red Velvet with Vanilla frosting

I say not-so-red because we couldn’t find food colouring.... but it’s not that good for you anyway.
After a while I had to confiscate the frosting because with all the ‘clandestine’ licking, it was going to run out...
We had an argument as to how to remove them from the foil, (No, you do not hold the foil upside down and let them fall off...) and had fun picking which pairs of cakes would look cute together.

I personally prefer whoopie pies chilled. I think they just become nice and solid and ice-cream-y. 
After frosting them,  we were too eager to try some, so we split a fresh one.... yum....
The chilled ones were just too delicious! We couldn’t put our finger on the flavour at first, and then it hit us: Ice Cream Sandwiches!
They tasted like ice cream sandwiches..... only much better, much fresher and with a more cocoa-y complex flavour.