easter crescent

Easter came and went almost unnoticed. This year, instead of celebrating all that spring has to offer, we chose to spend lazy weekend by the sea. Our usual place was nothing but planks of wood and a tarp in-between the palm trees. The heat is almost unbearable at this point and all the beach huts and restaurants are closing. So much so, we decided to venture out to another, normally very happening, beach, to avoid this depressing “end of the season” landscape.

Since we skipped the celebrations, I didn’t immerse myself in usual pre- Easter chores. Instead of painting eggs I decided to check some sewing projects off my Pinterest list – at last! I started with mass production of skirts to build up momentum. They are the easiest and fastest, plus I usually need some visible results not to stop mid-project.

 

With that said, I did acknowledge Easter is small, but fun culinary way: carrot rolls. Of course I didn’t have these fancy cone forms, but turns out I didn’t really need them.

I made one with filo pastry, continuing my latest obsession. Turned out delicious, but needs some work on the visual front. 

The second, made with recipe for crescent rolls, was a total jackpot.

 250 g flour

2 tsp instant yeast

½ spoon salt

2 spoons brown sugar

1 egg

50 ml milk

2 tbsp of oil

Mix everything together and kneed. Leave to rise for about an hour. Roll and cut into stripes (or triangles for crescent rolls). For the carrots, make cones from baking paper and simply wrap the dough around starting from the tip.

I glazed it with egg mixed with food coloring, but egg alone will do. Bake for about 15 minutes. 

Because of the sugar in the recipe, they are slightly sweet, but still pretty universal. I stuffed the carrots with chicken salad and egg paste, plus tried crescent rolls in every possible way. The only thing about the carrots – they don’t have much space inside so I recommend avoiding any larger chunks in the stuffing.

Sunday breakfast and filo-sophical experiments

Surviving without the gas (still) is, unfortunately, equal to surviving without a stove. Everything has to be either baked or steamed.  I don’t complain – I like it that way, only it makes breakfast choices rather limited… But necessity is a mother of invention and, in this case, worked quite well. Apart from smoothies, overnight porridge and sandwiches, I started making egg cups and I love it! Not only they are delicious, but they look cute too.

I usually mix ingredients into egg white, and top the whole thing with egg yolk – works the same but looks much better. 

Salmon cup – whole egg with pinch of salt and pepper baked till set, topped with smoked salmon and caper

Parmesan cup – egg white mixed with 1/2 tsp of flour, ½ tsp of  powdered flax seeds, pinch of salt and Italian herbs; topped with egg yolk and caper, sprinkled with parmesan and baked till set

Pesto cup – egg white mixed with ½ tsp of pesto and 1 tsp of wheat bran and pinch of salt; topped with egg yolk and baked till set, topped with mozzarella slice and olive – baked till cheese melts

Zucchini cup – egg white mixed with ½ tsp of bread crumbs, grated zucchini, grated mozzarella, pinch of salt and Italian spices, topped with egg yolk, baked till set

Potato cup – egg mixed with 1 tsp of flour, grated potato, garlic, pinch of salt and pepper; baked till set then topped up with greek yogurt

 

Apart from giving my muffin forms good exercise, I decided to check out the filo pastry. Somehow, I never tried it before coming to India, and here… Well… finding normal butter is a challenge. Couple of days back I found few packets of frozen filo and was jumping for joy.

I’m dying to make baklava, but I didn’t want to start with such a project hence experimentation. Instead I made nutella – almond rolls. Turns out, filo is not only delicious, but also very easy to work with and quite forgiving. I just stacked stripes of pastry, brushing with peanut oil in between, then smeared some nutella with almond flakes on top and rolled. Yummy!

The big flood(s)

In the middle of our idyllic existence, suddenly, apocalypse struck. Quite literary. Pipe in washing machine broke causing flood no. 1, pipe under the sink also broke causing flood no. 2 – ironically, since we’ve just seen Noah.

 Some architectural genius put crappy plastic pipe from the sink, straight into the tailed wall, making it impossible to replace, without some major drilling, hammering and all the other plumbing/constructing things.

As if that wasn’t enough, our supply of gas just ended. In India gas pipes are pretty much nonexistent. One has to go through painful application process in order to get gas cylinder, which is then connected to the stove. With all my kitchen toys, we managed to survive on one cylinder since we moved here, but now the time came for a replacement. Apparently to get one, we need some gas company booklet, which, of course, we misplaced months ago. Looks like Universe has a nasty sense of humor today. Ok, Universe, I hear you, loud and clear! Happy April fool’s day to you too!

As for Noah, I needed some time to decide that I didn’t like it after all. I read some reviews beforehand, but the negative ones were solely concentrated around the differences between the movie and the bible. That didn’t bother me at all… considering the length of the written story that was to be expected. Besides, Arnofsky isn’t exactly known for Christian epics and heartwarming family stories.  

Throughout the entire show I had one overwhelming thought:  He had way too many ideas for this movie! If I could take it apart and look at certain motifs and subplots separately, there is a lot of interesting material there. But the final product is a, rather random, mixture of them all. 

There were quite a few moments I did enjoy, mostly the visual parabolas and comparisons; plus Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Hopkins were splendid as always. It’s the inconsistencies that bug me. The stone transformers and magic beans, childish take on veganism and some reptilian hyenas… what was it all for? Plus, it seems like Noah really had it for the mankind. Respect nature, cherish all life, all is well till the man come along. Then it’s back to good old Russell with his anger management issues. 

The interesting part was vision of the flood as ultimate mass murder, and the big question: how is it just? Not to mention the fact that god, as such, is present only by omission. It makes you half wander: was it all just a figment of derange mind? Placing the story above time and suggesting its repetitive nature were also engaging.

I would enjoy a deeper exploration of one or two motifs, but in the present form, the movie is quite schizophrenic. And not in a good way.

Box vs bag – monthly beauty delivery

I’m a sucker for gifts in boxes. I don’t know why, but there is sth much more exciting about opening a box than peeping into a bag or ripping the wrapping paper. 

It was just a matter of time before I ordered my first beauty box. In India, the whole concept is rather new and only now is getting really popular. I tried few of them, but at the moment I’m subscribing to two: Fab Bag and Envy Box. While the latter is completely new to me, I’ve been ordering the Fab Bag – previously known as Velvette Box – for more than a year. 

So here it is: a little compare and contrast. Box vs Bag – as I see it.

Envy Box is a quite close imitation of Glossy Box, attempting to provide luxurious sampling experience. Their website is well designed, easy to navigate at nice to look at with all the cute, girly illustration. What I really do love is the box itself. It already made its way to my desk as a pretty storage solution.

As for the samples they are perfectly adequate: good selection of five skin and hair care products, fragrances etc. But, fair warning, they really do come in sample sizes – the kind of samples you can get with your purchase in any nicer cosmetic store. Considering the price (850 Rs. per month and 10% off on full size products), I would say that value for money isn’t their strongest side. 

Boxes are delivered in a timely manner, however there was a little blip with one of the cosmetics I ordered. Allegedly it was not available in the whole India at the moment of my purchase. I’ve been offered a few choices like refund, late delivery, points to redeem in the store… I decided to wait, but it’s been more than a month now, and all I heard was that the product hasn’t cleared customs yet.

All things considered, I don’t think I will be placing another order, unless I get sth really amazing next month. I will miss those boxes though…

As I mentioned, I’ve been ordering Fab Bag for more than a year. At first, it was delivered in nice, black box, but at the moment it is, as the name indicates, small cosmetic bag. It comes in different print every month, and though they are undeniably cute, I really have no idea how many more bags I can find a use for. Their website is perfectly nice, plus I do like the fact that they offer bags for men as well.

The whole experience is definitely less “posh” than the Envy Box, as they carry products from less prestigious brands. The offer specifies three samples per month, but nice little bonuses – additional samples, cookies, jewelry – can be found every month. The samples come in perfect travel size. I can actually pack all the necessary cosmetics into one of those small bags. While the skin/ hair care and bath products come in bottles good for several uses, color cosmetics are closer to full size. Honestly, with all the eye shadow palettes, lip-glosses and mascaras they send, I don’t remember the last time I went makeup shopping. Value for money gets my thumbs up (599 Rs. Per month and 20% off on full size products) together with the choice of products.

To sum it up, if you want to pick up some high end cosmetic, Envy box is a good idea. You can try the samples and decide what works for you, before spending big bucks. If, however, you are looking for some cool, everyday products delivered to your doorstep and worth their price – then Fab Bag is a great pick.

Box or bag; it’s like getting a surprise gift every month. And who wouldn’t like that!

Feb Envy Box

 

Forest Essentials Sugar Rose Petal Lip Balm

Rene Furterer Carthame Moisturizing Milk Shampoo

Thalgo Collagen Cream

Eminence Organics Chocolate Mousse Hydrating Masque

Givenchy Gentlemen Only 

Givenchy Dahlia Noir L'eau 

March Envy Box

 

Innisfree Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask

Narciso Rodriguez For Her EDT

 Eminence Organics Sour Cherry Whip Moisturizer

Eau Thermale Avene Very High Protection Emulsion SPF50+

Rene Furterer Okara Protect Color Radiance Enchancing Shampoo

Pipa Bella Jewelry

Feb Fab Bag:

Just Herbs Age Defying Kit

Tommy G Dual Lipstick

Cetaphil Cleansing & Moisturizing Lotion Kit

Cookie Man Fresh Baked Australian Cookies

Vivel Cell Renew Fortify + Repair Kit

March Fab Bag

Flormar Loose Powder

Thalgo Collagen Concentrate

Portico Spa Verbena Renewing Body Lotion

Pearl Drop Earrings