White Sauce Pasta.....

I'm not a fan of cooking.... but every once in  while i find myself wanting to make some yummy dish that every one just loves!!! ha ha... Also you'll mainly find me cooking when masterchef is going on on tv.... i find it super inspiring..... a little worried about watching master chef junior.... i think i'll just feel super silly about my (non-existent) cooking skills!!!

Also cooking in different kitchens can totally cramp your style... back in bombay i had a very tiny kitchen with every thing at arms distance.... and i knew all my spices all my veggies all my utensils.... here it's a little tough..... the kitchen is big and everything has its own place which i'm not really aware of.... yes yes... the more i'm in the kitchen the more i'll be aware!!

So anyhow.... the other day i made a pasta.... a nice green pesto flavored heavily white sauced generously cheesed pasta!!!! and here is how-

i chopped up about four stalks of green onion.... ( i know most people don't cook the green of it... but i did!) a lot of garlic.... maybe some 8 to 10 medium sized ones and 2 big green chilies....

shredded boiled chicken.... doesn't look so appetizing.... hmmmm.... yeah but it tastes great once its cooked!!!

I hardly used any spices.... just some thyme and parsley and some ready pesto sauce and salt pepper... added some grated cheese later..

I usually use olive oil... but since I didn't know where it was i just put a little regular oil into a non stick pan...

put in garlic and chilies first... i love when the garlic gets nice and brown....

added the spring onions.... some capsicum (one) and about seven baby corns chopped in circles...

once it was all nicely stir fried.... i added the thyme parsley pesto sauce and salt pepper

Now i didn't take pictures of the white sauce preparation because it has to be done real quick... what u need to do is in another pot add some butter (i add in a very guess work kinda way :( but about three to four table spoons) then add some flour.... maybe some three to four tea spoons....keep stirring this and while stirring add the milk to this..... 

now there are two ways of doing this... one is you keep it on the gas and keep stirring till you have no lumps.... but this is tough since the sauce keeps getting thicker while its heating.... so the other option is that after adding enough milk take it off the gas and quickly stir out all the lumps and then put it back on the gas to thicken up...white sauce is a little tricky but its just so much yummier than red... i think!

once your sauce is ready add it to the pasta.... at this point i added some grated cheese to add to the fun value....

I almost never taste the food i make while cooking.... don't know why...!!! but you should and make sure your spices are all ok.... 

the boys had called for some cheese and pepperoni pizza from Dominos and some garlic bread.... yummy!!!!

Gift Wrapping Paper!

finally after so so long another DIY.... i've missed it !!!!

this, well i did long back .... when  i was still in bombay (u can see my old table....!!) but it was a very fun and easy one to do....

So i love gift wrapping paper as you well know.... and i love the idea of creating your own... I'm not much of an artist.... so this whole stamping designs was what worked for me...

One was is to buy those mehendi (henna) stamps that you get ready made in the market... but i find those designs too traditional... i wanted something fun!!

So i decided to cut up my erasers into different designs and use them. I did see this at another site.... but now i've forgotten which one... :(

but here is my version of making a fun gift wrapping paper....

all you need is like a thinnish paper ... i used a butter paper (gateway was too thick tracing paper too thin....) some erasers pencils and a cutter and then some paint.

now this is the first most important thing.... i lost one sheet over this....!! the writing has to be a mirror image.... i know you're thinking "but obviously".... but no when your super excited "not so obvious!!!"

So write anything like love or happy birthday (if you have the patience) I chose Hello because it just seemed most cheerful!!! 

Start cutting.... again be very careful.... the eraser is small and the cutter is sharp.... also if you cut one alphabet wrong you have o start over.....

also remember to cut only up to about half the eraser in thickness....don't go all the way you could end up separating the alphabets.

yes it is not very neat I agree..... but by the time I reached "o" i was a little run out of patience!!!!!!!

I also did some fun stars and stripes to add a little design element....

So here we are with our little stamps.... always test first.... see the colors you like.... regular acrylic paint is what i used.... just make sure your paint is not too thick not too watery.... 

and before you stamp on your final stamp once on a rough paper to remove any excess paint...

decide on a pattern first and then keep stamping!!!!

and ta-da.... your handmade gift wrapping paper is ready!!!!! 

how fun is that? with such a pretty wrapping paper... the gift can be a cheap one !!!! ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!