Fairyland

Hi :)

I decided to write something about fairy tales since I literary grew up reading them and believing in them.. I always thought that there was a mother goos and I too had a fairy godmother often I have wondered where she is and will she come help me when I need her.. sprinkle some magic on me!!

And No I am not talking about the New versions of these fairy tales which has twists and turns and unnecessary intrusions..although they are entertaining to watch in big screen and in 3D now ;) .. I am talking about the classics the originals of cinderella , snowwhite, sleeping beauty, jack and the beanstalk, goldilocks and the three bears etc.. 

I remember very well when I turned 5 my aunt and uncle gave me this huge hardcover book which had all these stories and the most amazing thing about this book was the pictures. It was handpainted and the pictures looked soo mesmerizing..I can still remember the smell and feel of that book.. How many times would I have read them.. now its pages are also torn but yet it has soo much of a meaning .. It took me into a different world, A world full of wonder/magic/adventure/bravery/courage/witches and wizards.. Oh how I love those.. sometimes when I read them I feel like its actually happening and once the story end you come back to harsh reality

Childhood is something that we continue to miss as we grow older.. the more older we get the more we wish we could go back to being a child with the constant pampering from parents and the carefree stress free life that all of us used to have as children ... not to mention the play times with cousins and friends as well ... :)

Something I can remember very well and I continue to miss terribly is my reading.. When I was small I used to read sooo many fairytale over and over. My three aunts used to tell me many russian fairytales when we sleep. we used to play parts and sing the songs loudly .. and what fun we had !!!

These stories which are very cliche yet still its able to capture our attention at whatever age we are at, just seeing the titles would bring so many memories and times where we used to believe in them.

I hope that this feeling is there with all of you who have read, believed and lived theses stories..

XO
Amra

Beautiful People

Hi There Peeps

So after a loooooooooong MIA.. I am back .. married and all no

w :P.. pfft... ok so this post heading was written long time back and I don't recall at all as to why I named it "Beautiful people" but I thought I'll continue with my opinion on who "beautiful people" are

What is Beautiful?

When asked this question many reply..

" Beauty is awsome figure, fair skin, rosy lips and sexy eyes"
" Beauty is modesty"
 "Beauty is Sexy looks"
 "Beauty is gorgeous hair and big eyes"
 "Beauty is your appearance"

These are the most common replies you get when you ask someone what is beautiful in there opinion, All the aspects are related to the outer appearance.. It's how you dress, how you look, how you talk, how you walk, how your skin is etc.

In sri lanka and India the "Looks" of  GIRL is of utmost importance when looking for a groom. Especially the Grooms mother and aunts look into the fact whether the girl is "Beautiful or Pretty". As long as they have fair skin and good looks thats all that matters, Dark skin and imperfect features are considered taboo and they simply refuse the proposal just because the girl is dark or short or fat..

But let me say something.. Not all beautiful people are good.. and not all good people are Beautiful.

Beauty in my perception is related to the heart, so what does that mean ?

Your heart has two sides to it.. the good and the bad.. the evil and the saint.. and we have the power to control our heart we alone have the right to decide what side to show to the world and the side which we decide to show will reflect on our appearance.

No matter how Hot you look whether you have the perfect figure and perfect skin nothing counts if you dont have a good heart and  good manners.

Everybody is beautiful whether they have dark skin or white, good hair or bad hair...whatever. if you have good manners, good conduct, Kindness, not wish bad for people, smile, care, friendliness, love, etc thats all you need to be beautiful.. Beauty is your dreams, your imaginations, your wishes and your goals.. Its everything positive that you want to embrace in your life

Try showing good, Try to become a better person and that eventually will reflect in your appearance and make you glow.

Looks doesn't matter its the character that you have to live with so build your character.. be an example. leave a mark in the world with your character and not your looks.. as people will forget how you looked how beautiful you were in front of people who have great characters people who have inspired the world by there words there wisdom and there behavior.

So my simple advice is to build your character be a better person take and give back to the society and community you live in. embrace your life as it is.. work hard and always always always be happy... whatever the challenges you face today it was destined and it was meant to happen and everything happens for good we may not realize it now but one day we would and then we would be thankful.This would make you a BEAUTIFUL PERSON!!

Love
Amra

TART ATTEMPT 3 ! -

My 3^rd Attempt at a Tart- This time its Chocolate Fudge tart!!!! Yaay….

Spoiler: For people who are on strict diet and figure conscious be warned and stay away 

So our festival Eid Ul fitr was around the corner and normally like any other festival for our festival also we usually make a lot of sweets and savories.. I love this time of the year as all the family members gather and cook together and spend some quality family time… In our family ( Which is filled with a lot of aunts and cousins and most importantly LOVE) this time of the year means where the sweets and savories take priority more than the meals :)

I for once did not want to make traditional sweets like ghulam  jamun, watalappan, bas boosa etc ( I know rly weird names but trust me they taste heavenly – we have BIG SWEET TOOTHS ) even though they were made and I ate most of them ;) so I decided to do a tart – A chocolate fudge tart.. and this is how it happened

SO initially when I looked at the ingredients and the picture of the Choc fudge tart it was sooo appealing... It looked really gooey and mushy.. Which I love in food… so I thought well why not try it out. The ingredients mentioned in the book was for one tart which served around 8 people… which is not enough when it comes to my family. So I decided to make double qty. I think that’s where I went wrong

Starting off I had to make the short crust pastry for the base. The thing is I did not have short crust pastry so I had to make the sweet crust pastry recipe… for those of you who did not know the difference they add a bit of sugar to the short crust to make it sweet crust.. voila!!!

So this base first of all I did not like since it was very soft and crumbly like, the base I used when I baked my almond tart (MY FAV!! – and which came perfectly first time around) and I think this on had too much butter… I am more of a sort of hard and finely baked crust person.. anyhow moving on

The choc fudge filling did not require much ingredients either but I had to put in a dozen eggs (phew… the calories there) plus a good amount of dark choc chips… so what I did here is that I did not add a lot of sugar I wanted my choc fudge filling to have that mild bittersweet taste to it which I nailed…  plus I added a whole bunch of cashew nuts cuz well who doesn’t like nuts right?

Anyway the tarts came out fine.. but not great as I wanted it to cuz in the picture the tart looked super neat specially the top layer once it was baked was like smooth and perfect no crumbs at all.. well mine as you can see …. Does not live up to dat… BUT... the tart got baked without any rawness in the middle or whatever and I managed to bake 4 tarts with double qty. 

Well my family (this includes my aunts cousins uncles etc etc) all of them loved the tart.. They said it was perfect it had the right amount of sweetness and gooeyness to it and they enjoyed it a lot. But personally I was not satisfied since it did not come out as I wanted it to.. But I would try this recipe for the second time for sure just until I perfect it :)

 

So yes this was my 3^rd attempt at a tart I am sorry if I bored you because of this lengthy description about my tart baking experience but I hope one day whoever is reading this would have had similar experiences as I am having… 

So until next time bye for now :)

v

My dream space

DREAM HOUSE

So I am gonna take you on a tour of how I want my dream house (which i created in my mind thanks to pinterest :) ) to be like... Be ready to BEDAZZLED!!!! 

I  am soooo in love with this room... the very minimalist look and the colors in the room is just what would make me feel at home and at peace..

Not to forget the books.. I LOVE READING!!!.. this is a great way to stack your books without cluttering you room with book racks and what not .. just stacking them on the floor seems to take less space and tend to spice up your room too since that's the only bit of color there is :)

The wall art " Infinity of Love" is just perfect... I have nothing to say about it other than just perfect

If i need to change anything about this room I would just add some blinds to the window.. the thought of too much sunlight in your face when you wake up int he morning is not that appealing.. :p


We all have a time when we just want to throw our feet up wear our jammies and just chill with you best buddies the whole day just eating laughing playing and most importantly gossiping ;) - this is typically for girls.. well this is just the room for that...



From the colorful bean bags, cosy attic like space to the dark wood floors this space screams GIRLS ONLY.. I can imagine myself just hanging out with my besties talking eating junk food playing and watching movies or best thing ever narrating HORROR STORIES!!...especially in the night :) as it will be cosier..




Everything about this space is just Perfect, that's it its just perfect.. I love the low ceiling and wooden floors ( I have this obsession over low ceilings and wood - attics ) love the color combinations of the room and the fact that there is no bed and there is space to keep BOOKS (which is important in my case)...

I am assuming here that there is a glass window just above the rug which overlooks the sky.. it would be perfect at night fro stargazing... lye on the fluffy rug and just look at the stars how awesome can it be ( although during day time you might have to put up pretty thick blinds to block direct sunlight )

This would be great place to spend some time alone.. dreaming, planning..thinking and just enjoy some quiet time by yourself.. I would spice it up a bit by adding fairy lights maybe :)

   

For the love of Food/Baking

Okay so here we go  "Heavy breathing"

Food.. one of my favorite words in the history of words..

so firstly let me start of by saying just because I am writing about food doesn't mean I am fat OK... I am perfectly average sized like any normal average person is.. Hey curves are the new sexy ;)

anyway enough about how I look. Nobody cares anyway.. Lets go back to food "Heavy breathing"

Let me start off by saying when I say food here I am going to be a bit biased ok.. I am a baker!! I love baking and baking makes me happy :):).. so when I say food I am specifically gonna focus on baked goods Pies,Tarts,Cakes and any other thing that goes in the oven and come out !! plus other things too here and there you know..

So in my life i have actually done quite bit of baking... I am no professional of course.. but hey I try ! .. anyway whenever I try to do my baking the major problem that I face is lack of ingredients in Sri Lanka.. that's such a bummer.. you know you see a recipe online and in your head your like "yaay I am soo gonna try it" and then you scroll down to the ingredients and you are like " oh maaann... cirusly".. so let me just tell you what kind of ingredients we DONT have in sri lanka.. even if you do have its thumping expensive you think 3 times before buying it... but yeah once in a while to treat yourself you can spend a bit... specially being a girl ( you know what I mean ;) )

SO yeah here is some stuff that what we DON'T have in Sri Lanka.

1. Blueberries/Blackberries/Raspberries... etc .. well let me put it this way - the only berries we have in sri lanka are STRAWBERRIES ( yh i know right!)
2. White chocolate chips - I haven't really seen them.. its probably there but not in regular supermarkets
3. Graham crackers - They have no idea what it is
4. Good quality cream cheese - yeah i know right you don't get that here :(

But we are Sri Lankans for a reason so we always manage to find alternatives which are completely bizzare or we just omit that ingredient and add something which is actually available.. thereby creating our own sri lankan version of it.. 

So what I am trying to do is take you'll on a baking journey with me (along with so many other journeys :p ).. each time I bake something new I will write about it and tell you my experience... and as for my past experiences and baking I have done I shall write about it too in a on and off basis...

So buckle up your seatbelts and hold on tight cuz its gonna be one hellawa journey :)

Happy baking fellas :)