Monday, February 1, 2021

Indian Cappuccino style Beaten Coffee

 

Ingredients for 1 serving:

1. Nescafe coffee - 1 teaspoon

2. Sugar - 2 teaspoons

3. Water - 1 teaspoon (to mix the coffee with sugar, gradually drop by drop)

4. Milk - 1 cup

5. Chocolate powder - sprinkle (pinch)

Gather all ingredients

Mix coffee and sugar, add few drops of water

Beat for 5 minutes, till the colour changes to a lighter beige colour




Boil milk


Mix the coffee/sugar mixture to the boiling milk
Stir for a minute
Pour coffee in cup and back in container and vice versa to make more froth


Sprinkle with a little chocolate powder



Voila...Enjoy!


Sunday, November 15, 2020

My Maskerade Journey (*blog post in progress)

CARE...DARE...SHARE

BC CDC (Centre for Disease Control) - MASKS Update

As we are amidst a Pandemic globally so why not...

Came across Tom Bihn's idea of sharing his designs and taking the Open Covid Pledge

*Inspired By:

The creative Turban/Beard mask designs from Sunnie Delilah (UK) 

The innovative adjustable Ear loop with Lanyard concepts from Tom Bihn (Seattle, USA)

Started making masks end of July as we ran out of the disposable ones and thought to myself, this ain't rocket science. So, I pulled up my sleeves and my sewing machine from the storage room and off I went about reverse engineering the last disposable mask we had. I even re-used the ear loops and the nose wire for the first prototype. 

Then came the Olson mask and I loved it, took that challenge on and produced many.

Initially, it seemed that I was quite late to join the sewing party...but, as they say: "It's never too late for kindness". 

Revived my lost hobby of sewing and took up volunteering my spare time to making custom face masks for family, friends and our UBC community via donations and my first University Neighbourhood Association's Community of Caring Grant. 

Advantages of working and living on campus at a research university is that there are a lot of dedicated people working tirelessly on advanced projects that are willing to listen and provide guidance. Came across an article regarding best fabric material & style and reached out to the researchers behind the study - Dr. Jane Wang, from UBC Faculty of Medicine. She tested my sample masks and gave me constructive and qualitative feedback. She also introduced me to the "Protecting Frontline Workers (PFW) + The Free Mask Project of Vancouver" Group. 

I donated my first set of dozen masks to the PFW group using a popular mask pattern shared in the group: 

Popular patternReverse Nose Fold - Improved Pleated Face Mask By Sophie Passmore

Then came a request that I couldn't say No to...Dr. Wang asked me to make 15 Turban/Beard friendly masks for Dialysis patients at the Abbotsford Hospital as they are required to visit the hospital 3/4 times a week and provided me with all the fabric material. So here it is fellas...this is what I've been up to...it's a lot of inspiration from those who are leading the way in making and creating new things based on need.

Turban/Beard friendly Mask with Ties


Left the newly received material in the garage over night


Now that's a lot of material that came in the bag


Trying to figure out which fabric to use for inside and outside...


TEMPLATE (probably 10th Iteration) as I wanted it to fit within the 8 1/2 " x 11" normal paper size and 
did not want to waste any precious fabric, so the perfect wave separating the main mask from the pocket was born =)

Material cut outs: 
Main mask (double layer of fabric for Inside & Outside cloth with fold on nose/front section)
Pocket (single layer of fabric for Inside and Outside cloth)


Sew the curve nose section for both main mask with cloth inside out and straight seam on pocket cut out
Spread out the two main mask fabric pieces like a sandwich for a cozy fit and statrt pinning the top nose section and the sides. Insert the pocket with the right side out folded, matching the colours. So, when this is all reversed, it looks matchy matchy 
Fold the inside layer in order to reverse mask once done sewing
Secure it all using pins and clips
Sew the top section and the bottom section
Reverse inside out

Voila, it's starting to take the shape
Sew the sides for a finished look
Insert the head ties with a cord lock


On to the second version with nose piece insert:








Got feedback from Dr. Wang: "How about adding a channel through the perimeter of the bottom section of the beard pocket for a tighter fit? " 
Me: Sure...let's try that and it worked perfectly.



Mask...Sleep...Repeat!









Friday, July 31, 2020

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Karah parshaad recipe


Sharing my favourite parshaad recipe learnt from my grand mother - Mrs. Gurdial Kaur Grewal. She'd have it ready every time we visited her in the city beautiful Chandigarh.




Make sure you have all the ingredients together, ready to go. Here in Vancouver, we find our Indian groceries at Fruiticana (or Sabji Mandi).

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Desi Ghee (Nanak)
3/4 cup Flour (Sher Atta or Golden Temple)
1/4 cup Sooji
3/4 cup Sugar
2 cup Water



Level up ingredients with measuring cups.



Step 1: Turn gas on and put ghee once hot (medium heat)



Step 2: Turn on second gas to boil water and mix sugar till all sugar is melted and mixed to form a syrupy liquid (can be left on side on simmer in parallel)



Step 3: Once ghee has melted, add flour and sooji together



Then it's all about stirring, stirring and stirring till your arm hurts and beyond =)



Make sure to stir constantly and quickly as the flour needs to be golden brown evenly

 

At least 10 minutes on medium heat, can be done more brown according to your liking

 

Step 4: Pour the sweetened water carefully as it'll sizzle (stay back as much as possible)



Slowly add water and stir to blend the water in the flour mix



Make sure to break any small flour lumps so it's evenly smoothened

 

Stir slow and steady, leave it for a few minutes to cool off

 

Pour into a bowl, ready to eat. Voila!

 

And expect it to be gone right away...as everyone loves to eat prashaad.