Kitchen Reality Shows

Was watching Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on Netflix and its pretty addictive! I don't know much about the guy (Gordon Ramsay), but he looks like an awesome entrepreneur! He spots flaws that people working in the restaurant haven't spotted for years! It's amazing what he does. If you're really good at something, it really shows! Knowledge of different kinds of cuisine, top notch taste buds (:D), very efficient.. of course some people might not like him because he swears a lot and is extremely rude to people - but hey, everybody needs some tough love at times..

'Wierd' Al

Been recently hooked to 'Weird' Al Yankovic's parodies. Got up today humming the 'Party in the CIA' song! It's awesome and worth listening to atleast once.. its a parody of the 'Party in the USA' song by Miley Cyrus.. saw some of his other parodies.. liked his popular one 'white and nerdy'! was ROFLing..

not fair!

apps like GymPact and RunKeeper make me wish I had a phone with a data plan :(

ahh.. coffee...

Love coffee.. Cannot live without it.. Have to absolutely have it in the morning every day.. Tried to wean myself off it once.. Was successful.. Then came back on it again.. Cuz i still love coffee n what's wrong with having a cuppa joe once a day?

Recently got gifted a coffee percolator (from coffee day - though i'm not able to find a picture of the one i have online).. Very useful.. Tried it first with dunkin donuts (original blend) ground coffee beans.. Was used to nescafe classic instant powder, so took a while to adjust to the dunkin donuts flavor..

Once accustomed, it wasn't too bad.. 

Cons

• The percolator only seems to give coffee (decoction) strong enough for one person.. They suggest using another table spoon of coffee powder on top of the lift-able lid, but doesn't work and results in the coffee having a burnt taste..
• Gives watery coffee.. So not good for people who need a strong decoction so they can mix it with lots of milk/cream.. 
• Takes a while.. U have to let it sit on the stove for like 5 minutes before it starts coming on to the chamber at top.. 

Pros

• Tasty coffee-shop coffee
• Watery consistency liked by black-coffee lovers..  :)

Haven't tried it with less water.. It might give the strong decoction like by madras coffee lovers, so they can add lots of cream.. 

Another thing i've stumbled upon is that coffee beans need to be ground coarsely for use in percolator, as opposed to the ones used in coffee machines - apparently.. So i'm thinking of may be buying a coffee bean grinder to get that right.. :) results if possible later..

Though i have to admit, i like the nescafe classic freeze-dried instant coffee powder a lot :d

baking!

have had a lot more time than usual on my hands.. and took to a lot of cooking.. and baking.. :)

until now, i've ended up using eggs or egg whites (in cartons) for baking a cake.. i did try once or twice with oil instead of egg - but didn't quite get the consistency that i usually get.. being a vegetarian (the no-omlette kind) i had trouble getting used to the 'ickiness' of eggs..

so here's all the stuff i tried till now..

Trial 1:Oil instead of egg
made a german chocolate cake (from mix of-course) with oil.. the equation is:

1 egg = 1/4 cup oil

oil preferred is vegetable oil.. but i've tried canola too
conclusion:
works. but the cake doesn't rise as it does for eggs

Trial 2: Applesauce instead of egg
made a double chocolate brownie with applesauce

1 egg = 1/4 cup applesauce

made the applesauce myself (from leftover apples). was very easy to make and tasted great. i think applesauce is more suited to brownies than cake.
conclusion:
works very well actually. didn't miss the egg

Trial 3: Applesauce instead of egg & oil!
now i tried to get real healthy (sugar apparently doesn't count as bad to me).. i tried to avoid oil too..
and applesauce was one of the alternatives!
tried carrot cake this time.. the equation remains the same as before.. so..

1 egg = 1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup oil = 1 cup applesauce

conclusion:
bombed.. tasted ok n everything.. but didn't rise at all.. came out half the size of usual.. but i coated it with frosting n was edible..

so trying to find the best way to make fat-free eggless cakes that rise.. found an alternative.. am gonna try it out before i make the suggestion..

whoosh!

my super power is to 'cut through crap' :)

Studio audience on BBT

I have moved on from the theory that there is a recorded laughter track on bbt.. I was watching some videos of bloopers and i saw the actors interacting with the audience real time..

I have now formed the theory that the studio audience is really stoned... the picture of a stoned Mr. Garrison watching teletubbies comes to mind.. :D

TIL - Amy & Leonard

Today I learned that Amy and Leonard have been out on a date before! Mayim Bialik and Johnny Galecki have acted together in an episode of Blossom where Johnny was her date!

howard sez..

[when watching star wars on blue ray] "if we don't start soon, george lucas is going to change it again" !! LOL!

does magneto know that..

not all metals are magnetic?

a quote..

That's one career all females have in common - whether we like it or not - being a woman. 

Sooner or later we've all got to work at it, no matter what other careers we've had or wanted... 

- from All About Eve 

Hottt!

I've always preferred a place that is cool and nice. I can even stand snow and rain and cloudy days, but I cannot stand heat! It's surprising that I come from Chennai where there are only 4 seasons - summer, summer, summer and summer! I just kinda learned to deal with it most of my life - stepping out only when i need to and always going out shopping or something during evenings.

May be there is a reason people of the early ages defined hell as a very hot place, hahn?

procreation

do people have children just because, at some point of time in their life, they need a real reason to live?? :D kidding.. but some people might agree.. and after they become old in retrospect a lot of people think children were a main cause of happiness in their life..

i've done this exercise with a bunch of other people where we have to narrate our life in a short period of ten minutes.. boy! was it enlightening! we don't realize, until we talk about it, what the defining moments of our life really were!!

crossover

The guy who plays Rajesh Koothrapalli's dad in BBT was the same guy who played Babu Bhatt the Pakistani restaurateur in Seinfeld.. the owner of the Chinese restaurant to whom Sheldon asks to show the Citrus peels in Mandarin is the same guy who acts in the Chinese restaurant episode of Seinfeld.. interesting how actors get picked for a job.. i wonder if there was even an auditioning for these positions in BBT..

after a reallllllly loooong time

enjoyed the previous episode of the BBT about the spreading of gossip.. <3333333333 the opening scene where Sheldon and Amy talk about the work of the author who writes books about science for the average masses.. when he stands up and insults the author - that was brilliant!

Jim Parsons has gotten fat! been celebrating a lot after the award he won? :D

Ripped Divinity

Was Ganesh always fat or did he have to bulk up to support his head? :D
I get the weirdest ideas!

Rihanna Ripoff

Kadhalil Vizhunthaen song 'Unakkena Naan' is an absolute and total ripoff of Unfaithful  by Rihanna. Who's gonna tell Rihanna?

jobs

for a hippie he sure does want strict control of the products and technologies that Apple is associated with.. interesting..

beleive

Expect people to be better than they are; it helps them to become better. But don`t be disappointed when they are not; it helps them to keep trying.

- Merry Browne

video chat

what's the deal with the video chats in the big bang theory? why do people turn sideways while talking to characters as if they were actually sitting before them instead of from a laptop screen.. for example while Amy's mom was video chatting with Amy and Sheldon, Amy's mom had to turn to her extreme right to talk to Sheldon.. i mean unless Amy's mom had a larger than life laptop/computer monitor she wouldn't have to do that.. right?