Chocolate Almond Cookies

Turn it into a little gift, simple and nice!

Ingredients A

250g butter
120g icing sugar (I used 90g)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Ingredients B
300g plain flour, sifted
200g ground almond
200g toasted wholed almond, halved
** Use wholed blanch almond instead of skinned almond. I tried skin almond and it's not as good as wholed blanch almond.

Decoration:
100pcs small paper cups
500g cooking chocolate, melted / semi sweet chocolate
150g toasted nibbed almond

Method:

1. Cream A till well-combined. Mix in B to form soft dough. Shape into small balls and wrap up half almond. Bake at 180C till golden brown. Remove and leave to cool
2. Decoration: Place cookies into small paper cups, cover cookie with melted semi sweet chocolate and spinkle some nibbed amond on top. Chill in the fridge to set the chocolate before storing in a container.

Simple Carrot Rice

Simple, Quick and Easy Lunch box recipe. Though it is quick and simple, it is loaded with lots of Vitamins and Energy. Most kids never eat Carrots as simple curry/stir-fry, because of their sweet taste, For those Picky eaters, try this masaledar, Jabardast Carrot Rice. 

Ingredients

2 Medium Sized Carrots, Peeled and  shredded
2 Cups Cooked Rice
Salt to taste
1 tsp Shredded Ginger
Coriander for Garnishing

Seasoning
1 tbsp Gingely Oil/Sunflower Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds/Kadugu
3 nos Green Chilies, Slited Lengthwise
2 sprigs of curry leaves 
1/4 tsp hing/Asafoetida
1 tsp Urad Dal
2 tbsp Peanuts/Vaerkadalai (optional)

Method

• Heat oil in a kadai/pan, splutter mustard seeds, add hing, green chilli, curry leaves Peanuts and Urad dal one by one.
• Let Peanuts and Dal roast and change color a bit, Take care not to burn them.
• Now add the shredded carrots and toast it for a minute or two. 

• Take it off the flame and add it to the rice and mix well. Adjust Salt. Garnish with coriander and shredded ginger
• If you are packing it for kids, try grinding chillies, ginger, curry leaves and coriander to a coarse paste and add while seasoning. yeah, I know, Kids!!!!!!!!!!!!

Makes a good lunch with potato fry/chips. Packing this for Srivalli's Kids Delight

HLOCs in Peril

There was a large portion of Andrew S. Ross' "The Bottom Line" column, Wells Fargo cutting customers' lines of credit, in the San Francisco Chronicle today devoted to banks yanking Homeowner Lines of Credit from Bay Area customers with good credit.

Ross' article is required reading for any homeowner who plans to finance a remodel with an unused HLOC. Even with a stellar credit rating, you may find the HLOC is bye-bye.

Peggy