Bake…..Set….Ting: Aromas of Life!

I hadn’t thought I’d write about this until the day I baked because I realised my page isn’t just a travel blog, it is about sharing experiences of exploring myself. Doing anything new is exploringoneself. Bringing out hidden capabilities and developing new skills. Therefore, here we go.

Since I was a teen, I have always enjoyed being home alone. With my husband travelling to Africa, I was going to be on my own for 10 days – one more thing to check off as first times. I had made a list of things I would do which broadly consisted of watching movies / tv series that I like, trying my hands at baking, and shopping!!! Movies / tv series didn’t turn out that well until 4^th/5^th day and being a ‘skinflint’, shopping was also regular, nothing special. So let’s talk about what happened with baking.

It was Friday evening. First weekend alone, he has never left me alone in these years. I decided to bake Shepherd’s Pie and checked the recipe online. I had all the ingredients (or so I thought) to make ‘my’ version of the pie – that’s a better way to put it than to say I made the pie from whatever I had available. As soon as I began gathering the ingredients, I realised I didn’t have butter. Cannot prepare the potato mash without butter! All right, I decided to quickly pop out to a co-op next door. The guy on the counter said he cannot take card payment for less than £5. Duh!

While walking back home to get some cash, thoughts filled my mind. God has mysterious ways of playing games when you are on the roll to have fun. I think He enjoys putting little obstacles, perhaps to check how determined you are! I always love playing these little Chess games with Him. I also missed India so much – in India, all local shopkeepers know you and in a situation like this they say, “Koi baat nahi behenji, kal de dena..” (Don’t worry ma’am, pay tomorrow).

Following the recipe outline, I prepared the ingredients, heated the oven and now it was time to be patient. I kept checking from the oven ‘window’ for the potato layer to turn a bit golden. I ended up baking longer than recommended in the recipe but the outcome was simply delicious!

Shepherd’s Pie with Garlic Bread

My version of Shpeherd’s Pie

Yes it is a lot. A lot for me. It served me for lunch and dinner for the next day as well.

Delighted with my first experience, next on list was scones. I had checked ingredients, shopped in advance, had checked the recipe several times and had also observed a friend bake them nearly a week ago. The waiting time was difficult to pass which I managed, although checking frequently how my scones were doing. It was relishing to watch the scones rise. A feeling of accomplishment. I took them out and found out they had risen into a weird shape! However when I tasted them after they had cooled, they were really good. Every ingredient was in its correct proportion. Although I could have let them bake for a little longer and made them little smaller in size.

Second straight success boosted my confidence. Next day was the short bread day. Same story – all ingredients checked, batter prepared – had to keep adding flour to get the correct thickness because I added too much butter – but the rest remains the same. The wait, the peeping through the window, opening and checking the aroma – the same emotions. Once done and cooled, I took a piece, and… ..and they were delicious just that we cannot name them shortbread!! They were soft as a cookie. Too much butter I believe.

But hey, that’s what we all do. We all make mistakes the first time round – at least I am brave to write it on the blog!

Anyhow I hope you enjoyed the read and that it triggered memories of similar stories. Stay tuned with this page for more fun stories 😊

Written by: Chahna D.

Edited by: Milauni T.