Pumpkin Pecan Loaf

When my brother visited , they brought some pumpkin loaf with them. So while we were site seeing and the lunch or dinner happened during odd timings, hogging on all those stocked snack items helped to keep up the tourist energy. That pumpkin loaf was a hit. So when I stocked up on pumpkin puree I knew I had to try it.

When I first came to the US, it was Thanksgiving season. Jacob had bought some pumpkin chocolate cookies and they were heavenly. I remember those being the days when I was novice in baking, I didn't think of baking it myself then. But as I got better with baking, I did bake them and ate it to my hearts content. These seasonal cookies/loaf are my weakness. If I try to control myself; I cannot and just end up eating it all. So I try to make pumpkin puree at home and freeze it in portions to bake it in intervals over an year untill pumpkins start appearing next. So I do not hog over all those goodies baked all at once but have it spread all throughout the year.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies for 3 years of Blogging !

My little space turns 3 today! Time flies, I must say. I still remember, 3 years back, one fine day I put across the thought to Jacob, of starting a blog. And his 'Yes' was so strong that it started. But I never thought it would come this far with me (the lazy one being the author of it :) ). And all thanks to all my supporters and my blogger friends who kept the fire in me on, to keep it going.

This blog was a start to engage myself during my free time. Now 3 years down the line, I guess, it has somehow become my identity; a part of me. If you are a blogger, you would know the feeling of you being addressed/introduced as the author of your blog in a gathering. It is such a joy to be doing something out of the usual stuff and I hope I can squeeze in some time to my little space in the coming years too. Its a tradition to distribute sweets as you go along spreading the good news and so I thought cookies would be the right fit for today's occassion, even though the post is about an year old.. he he...So lets talk more about these cookies now.

Palmiers / Elephant ears

I have always loved to have Little Heart biscuits. This is one thing that neither have I ever procrastinated my decision to buy and indulge in these crispy heart shaped cookies nor have they ever lasted to be stored to have later. Yes, I was addicted to them :).

Weekly grocery shopping calls in for a tour of the bakery section. All throughout the tour, my inner self would be yelling out to me - control Anupa, control ! But I have disobeyed many a times. One such time was when I fell for Palmiers. They reminded me of Little hearts (my weakness).

Homemade Puff Pastry and Chicken Puffs

During my hostel days, I remember that my parents/brother/uncle/aunt whoever visited me, a package from the bakery would come along with them. In that package, puffs would be one of the things. It used to be one thing that you take with you when you are visiting family members / having a tea party / having a bride viewing at home etc. etc.

I have noticed the current generation have a different trend these days. They would rather prefer fried chicken, burgers, hot dogs, pizza... Since the demand for puffs has gone down, the bakeries tend to make only a hand full of them and only the early birds get lucky. So, it had been a while that we had them.