Homemade Lemonade

Lemonade is a refreshing drink at any time of the day. It is the favorite drink of my DH. Homemade lemonade has its own unique taste and is heavenly to taste. I usually make a lot of concentrated lemonade and then dilute it whenever needed. You can make a lot of variations to the taste by adding fresh basil or mint leaves or any fresh herb to the lemonade and give it a variety of flavors too.

Ingredients:

Lemon/ Lime - 5-6 (About 1/2 cup of lemon juice)
Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 3 cups

Method:

• We start by making a simple syrup for the lemonade. Add the 3 cups of water in a vessel and add sugar to it. 

• Bring it to a boil until all the sugar dissolves completely in the water. Let the simple syrup cool down completely.

• Meanwhile, squeeze the juice out of the lemons and keep it aside. We should be able to get about 1 cup of lemon juice from 6 lemon.

• Once the simple syrup has cooled completely, add the lemon juice into it.

• Mix it well and bottle it. You can store this in the refrigerator for bout 2-3 weeks. 

• Take quarter cup of concentrated lemonade and dilute it with 2/3rd cup of water. Chop a few mint leaves and add it to the lemonade. Serve chilled and Enjoy!!

Finger Printing with my Kid

We bought a book on Finger Printing in a Book Fair, that is some 2 months back. All these day, it was sleeping in my Book shelf. Suddenly thought about it and took it out. Me and My Kid, got our fingers dirty and tried out some prints from that. It was Fun. Lot of Fun!!!!!

Step by Step Neat Instructions in the Book

The Book Title "Ed Embereley's Finger Print Drawing Book". It is so damn good. Very detailed instructions, Good Fun for Kids. Starts with simple prints and goes on to create to Vehicles, Animals. People!!!!Gives you a great start in Finger printing.

These are prints we tried from the Page "In the Garden"

Putting things together, to get a Garden

I m running a Blogging Marathon with some of my Blogger Buddies, Please Do check out their Recipes here Srivalli, Priya, Suresh, Jay, Monika, Reva, PJ, Azeema , Ayeesha ,Veena , Usha, Soumya and Gayathri.

Pumpkin Cheese Cake

A wonderful memory of being with my friend’s family. I am talking about Bob (Robert) and his wife Hema who are in Cincinnati OH. I met them when I was in Ohio. On a Saturday we decided to cook a full lunch menu for Sunday and Bob would do the dessert while myself and Hema would do the main course.

I was very excited to taste his Pumpkin cheesecake, because I did never taste one. Basically I never liked Pumpkin at all, but after eating his cheesecake I changed my mind. The Cheesecake was wonderfully done right from scratch and it tasted delicious and Yum O! just as it looks.

I was able to eat only a small piece of it, cos I had a heavy lunch, so I packed half of the cake and had it all through the week sharing with some of my other friends. They all liked it very much. Thanks Bob! for your tasty Pumpkin Cheese Cake.

Ingredients:

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For Graham Cracker Crust:

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2 Packets of Graham Crackers (crushed to powder in mixer)

5 tbsp melted Butter

For Filling:

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1 Can Pumpkin Puree (we are going to use only half of it)

1 Cup Sugar

5 Eggs

3 Pckgs of 8oz Cream Cheese ( room temperature)

1 small pcakage of crushed Walnuts for garnish

Method:

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To Make Crust:

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1. In a 9" cake pan Spring Foam pan.

2. Preheat oven to 350F.

3. In a bowl mix all the crust ingredients and mix well

4. put all the ingredients into the pan and press it with a fork, first to flatten the bottom and bring the rest of it to the sides up into u can get it.

5. Bake it for about 5-8 mins or until the crust turns to golden brown.

6. Remove form Oven.

To make the filling:

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1. Mix all the filling ingredients except the eggs in a blender to make a smooth paste.

2. Add the eggs and mix again slowly just until it's mixed well. (Note: don't mix or blend too much, else it will make the cake too mushy).

3. Now pour this fillng mixture into the crust, sprinkle the walnuts over the top and bake it again for about 50-60 mins.

4. Once it's done, off the oven and let the cheese cake stay in the oven and keep it for about 2-3 hrs so that it can cool and come to room termperature. (Note: for good Pumpkin Cheese cake u can see some cracks on the top as in picture)

5. Enjoy this Yummy Pumpkin Cheese cake!