Nola

The French quarter in New Orleans is a beautiful place and every nook and corner is worth a click. Here are a few of my favorite clicks from this weekend.

1. Window shopping is fun here and each store has something unique to capture your eye.

2. Bourbon Street was insane on Friday night. But a calm stroll on early Saturday morning tells quite a story about the previous night.

3. Hauntingly beautiful and colorful walls of this old city!

4. The French architecture.

5.  Fountain in front of the St. Louis cathedral -

6. While the city is cheerful in the morning, it has an eerie feeling in the night (except at Bourbon Street - That's just plain crazy and might even scare the ghosts away!).  Makes you believe that some of the stories from the haunted tours around the city might be true.

8. Of course, the local food is amazing and seafood is the best I have ever had. When we travel, T refuses to go to any place that has less than 500 reviews and 4 stars on Yelp. So he can be totally trusted with good food options and from all the awesome places we ate at, my favorite was Acme Oyster House. The 45 minute wait for a late lunch at 3pm was worth it!

9. Finally, the local bands, musicians and street entertainers make the city come alive!

 

Anyone with a love for their camera, great food and music would definitely love this place!

Apple Sauce Cake

Last week my co-worker got this most amazing apple sauce cake to work for the whole team to share with the afternoon cup of coffee. It is so awesome to be surrounded with co-workers like her! :-)

Pam also shared her recipe (passed on by her mom), and I tried it out on this lazy, cold and rainy weekend afternoon.

Ingredients
For the cake:
21/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter
11/2 cups apple sauce
11/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup crushed pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups powdered sugar

For the cake: Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix well. Sift flour and spices together. Alternate the flour mixture and applesauce into the butter mixture until all is added and mixed well.  Add the pecan/walnut pieces to the batter.

Pour the mix into a well-greased 9x9 pan and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

For the icing:
Melt butter and brown sugar together. Heat to a boil for 2 minutes. While stirring constantly, add milk and return to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn-off heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.

Once cooled, add the powdered sugar. If the icing is too running, add more sugar (little at a time). When the icing is a little thickened pour onto the cake and let it cool. Sprinkle a little bit of powdered sugar on the top.

The icing was the best part of the recipe. I couldn't stop tasting it every few minutes. 

So yummmm! 

Fig tree update

I got this fig tree in March after being overly obssessed with it (see here).
It was half the height when I got it with about 7-8 leaves - fingers crossed; think it is doing great so far!

This time last year

Weddings are always fun! Looking back at this time last year and reliving the fun through the photographs...

Happy Diwali!

Diwali Customs

My favorite Diwali custom is exchange of sweets (and diyas).

Virtual happiness

Recently I found this blog online and ever since, I have been revisiting the site everyday for my 5 minute dose of virtual happiness!

http://coffeeinthemountains.tumblr.com/

I am sure you will agree.
Btw- I dont like the iphone interface for this blog, but it looks fab on the desktop!