DIY fake photo canvas for zero dollar | Frugal home decor idea

Staying in rental apartment means paying a high price for damaging walls due to several holes.  So I came up with a solution and decided to add our photos and personalize our living room and our apartment by putting up fake photo canvases.

Fake photo canvas?  Yes, and this is using Thermocol (aka Styrofoam).  Again.  (The previous wall decor idea gluing a paper over Styrofoam sheet).

baked goods as gifts

Earlier, when we were invited for lunches or dinners, it used to take some time to think about what to gifts the hosts, whether they might already have it, whether they would like it or would get it exchanged, where to shop from, and so on.

Then I started baking cookies and brownies and gave the baked goods as gifts.  Not many people bake, not many bake without eggs, people's kids especially like cookies and brownies, it is easier to bake and gift something for everyone to eat and enjoy, and putting in a little effort in this kind of gift is more obvious.

While I used to take the baked goods placed in tissue paper inside a transparent box, last month I added a little personal touch to it by writing a decorative label/note on the box.  So now the host knows what the baked good is made of as well as when to consume it by.  It looks thoughtful and it looks good.

Go an extra mile - sometimes it is absolutely worth it.
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apartment search checklist

While cleaning up the drawers some days back I found this apartment search checklist.  Last year since I was on vacation in Asia and Alok had to hunt for apartments here, I left with him this long checklist of the kind of apartment I want and the kind of things he needs to look or ask for.

recipe testing and comparing results

So many times I tried a new recipe first time when I were to have guests over for lunch or dinner at my place and the dishes flopped.  So many times Alok has told me to cook something I have before, instead of experimenting a new dish from a new recipe when I invite guests.  Because of the numerous times a recipe did not give me the results I wanted and because of the numerous variations in recipes for a particular dish - I started testing multiple recipes at home to discard the flop ones.

When Shumaila commented "so much research went in this" on my Blueberry Muffin post few days back, I thought of posting a few photos I had randomly clicked over a period of time.  This is how I test 2-3 recipes at once because if I cook different recipes over a gap of few days or weeks, I may forget what one tasted like in comparison to the other.  And the recipes that work - I upload them on my blog.

one cup of tea

This happened almost ten years ago. One day my dadaji (grandfather: father's father) came home for a bit in the afternoon.  My mom and the help were probably not at home, so I offered to make him a cup of tea (Indian Chai) although I rarely entered the kitchen those days.

As the tea started to brew, I felt I had put too many tea leaves (chai patti) since the tea looked dark.  So I added more milk.  But I knew my mom used 50-50 ratio of water and milk.  So I also put more water.  That meant adding a little more sugar.  I was trying to apply logic.  As I let the tea boil, it appeared a little lighter in color than what I used to see mom serve.  Without any sense of measurement, I put another spoon of tea leaves and let it brew longer.

The chai continued to get dark brown.  Then I had to add more milk, more water, more sugar.  I sieved some chai into a cup, whiffed to cool it and took a sip.  Oh lord, the chai tasted way too sweet!  I probably should not have added sugar each time.  So I put in more tea leaves, more milk, and equally more water.  And prayed for this to be the last trial.  Because the one cup of tea turned out to serve almost eight people.

Finally, I sieved the chai into a cup, put some biscuits on a plate, and took the tray to my grandfather who had been waiting past 40 minutes for one cup of tea.  He took the cup by its handle, looked at me and asked, "itni der kaise laga di? chai bana bana ke fek rahi thi kya?!" [translate: why did it take you so long? were you making tea each time and throwing away?]

Ten years later today, I laugh so hard remembering this incident that my stomach hurts.
That one cup of tea.
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