Two little lovers

Two little lovers sat on a wrought iron gate

He sang of her beauty

She sang about his strength

Two little lovers flew away to their nest
But one song of passion
Lingered on the moonlit fence

Almond cake with orange caramel...

I'm having oven troubles....it's really depressing. Our oven has been in this world for almost 30 years, and in oven years, I'm sure that's very very old. It trips the fuse after every 10-15 minutes, and my heart stops because an oven that suddenly gives up, can do nasty things to a cake gently wanting to rise up and stay there...

Thankfully, today, despite of all the oven troubles and a hovering nagging depressing thought that I might not be able to bake for quite some time now, my cake persevered

I took the recipe for the orange caramel from "Cakes and Bakes" cookbook from the Food Lovers series, while the cake is something I threw together, because I didn't have poppy seeds, and in any case they are prohibitively expensive here. I also think that almond and orange is a combination that is not exploited enough.

Caramelized walnuts

My mom has, for some mom-ly reason unknown to me, hoarded walnuts. She also suddenly decided that the stock needs to deplete a bit, before all of them go bad. I always thought walnuts have a shelf life longer than the dinosaurs, but then we know it didn't workout too well for them.
Anyway, cutting a long story short, these nuts are now my responsibility, considering I insisted I deal with them.

The first of a few nutty recipes to come, and the simplest one yet, Caramelized Walnuts. I've always wanted to make these since I tasted them at my sister's place (read ate the whole bag). I love the caramelly-salty-nutty combination, and I added a small twist which makes them much more delightful than the store bought ones.

You will need:
1 cup of walnuts
1/4th cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1-2 teaspoons of rose water(This can be skipped, or substituted by another flavor. Coffee might taste really nice)

Add walnuts, sugar and rose water and toss in the pan. Put the mix on medium flame, continuously stirring and coating the walnuts until the sugar first melts and then turns into caramel.

Add the salt and keep tossing and stirring till walnuts become a rich golden brown color. Immediately remove from the heat and spread on a very lightly greased plate. Total cooking time is about 2-3 minutes.