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.

Espresso cookies...

I made cookies with white chocolate and coffee. "joy the baker " made these, and I just had to try these(Click highlighted link for recipe).

The only thing I would change in these almost perfect cookies is I'll use powdered sugar next time.

Please make these, you won't regret it.

Sweet Imitations...

Its' Sunday. Sin day. When Im at my laziest best.

Also when I get incoherent random urges, to eat Italian food.

So I made pasta...a very healthy wheat pasta with veggies and grilled aubergines.

I then went ahead and dealt a knockout punch to all the nutrition, with a stupendously calorific tiramisu imitation.

I used rum instead of marsala wine, sponge cake instead of ladyfinger cookies, didnt bother to brew espresso, but just swilled coffee granules with rum and cold water and dipped the cut up cake in it.

Also since I try to avoid eggs in recipes where I can, no raw egg white.

Yeah, I can be pretttty lazy and Im sure the Italians out there are not going to be pleased....but I put that thing together in 15 minutes, so time saved is a Sunday enjoyed.

Please pretend you didn't see the cocoa all over the rim...

When it rains...

....it's absolutely essential to do two things

Go for a long run in the rain....it's exhilarating...

(Make sure you run carefully, slipping is NOT fun, and make sure you wear a windcheater to keep the torso warm so that you dont end up getting pneumonia)

Throw together a hot apple crumble...

A bit o' spice and everything nice...

Making a cake for my dad is tough. He doesnot like gimmicky cakes, frosting or other frills. He likes his cake straight out of the oven, or if not, then the cake should have a rustic character and flavor that makes up for not being warm.
He also likes his coffee, which doesnot seem relevant at this point, but trust me, it is...

After a lot of thought, I decided to make a rum n' raisin cake. Now the next hurdle I faced was finding a good recipe which didnot use buttermilk, or too many eggs, or applesauce. I've realised that buttermilk lends a certain shiny bubble dry texture to the cake, which I was sure my dad wouldn't really like.

So I finally decided to stop wasting time, and made my own recipe, going along with whatever felt right while making it.

It turned out really well, moist, full of flavor and my Dad went for a second helping, which means he loved it!!!!

Now, while I was throwing ingredients together, my mom decided we'd have an unconventional cake cutting, and offer small cups of freshly brewed coffee infused with saffron and nutmeg!!! That combination was stupendous!!!