2010 Badam Halwa Adventure!

Last birthday, I wanted to surprise my husband with some dessert..and my eyes caught hold of a big box of Badam(Almonds).. I rushed to Internet, browsed few sites, saw some videos, and prepared Badam Halwa for the first time in my life!!

With limited resources, i managed to complete it..I didn't tell the name of the dessert I made.I asked my husband to close his eyes, and asked him to guess the name of the sweet he was tasting..ops..he said it was milk sweet.

Hey, that was not what I wanted to hear! anyways, he agreed it tasted like a dessert!

During last diwali my passion to cook badam halwa grew stronger..i wanted to prepare the dish for my in-law's house and my parents..i really wanted to prove my capacities...

i got almost 1 kg of almonds..all excited i prepared the badam paste..this time , I was confident..since I already prepared the dish earlier..but it was after I prepared the dish , I realized, that I was over-confident...I put ghee..and sugar to prepare the sugar syrup..oh no..!! it turned into caramel..hey, but that's not at all how halwa needs to be prepared!!..then i added the badam paste and I screwed it very well!!..i left the new unknown dish incomplete..and returned to in-laws...

2 days later, the badam returned to my in-law's home..in a different color, different shape..my mother added gram flour and gave a new life to the incomplete dish I left at mom's home.

Since then, my hubby was making fun of my Badam capabilities..he said..if he wanted to scare his boss or put some one in place..in his office..he told he'd give them the Badam I made.. He said, if I prepared Badam dish..he'll come home late..mm...he made much fun of me....for quite a while..

I got saffron in a nearby shop..

I was stacking the badam ingredients in my kitchen.

Yesterday...I felt quite bored...my eye stuck the badam box, kept on top of our fridge..

I couldn't stop myself from experimenting it...I took quite a less quantity of badam..In half hour, I prepared the dish...I tasted it ..wow..it melted like sugar..wow..the saffron did the magic..color, consistency everything was perfect..

My hubby came from office..i told him, I prepared a surprise sweet for him...He guessed it right ..my hubby was like " Oh noo..!! not again..!".

I made him open his mouth and put the sweet into his mouth..He smiled..He loved it..We had 1 cup of badam halwa..each.. couldn't stop eating it...

It was a success story..Today Badam met its happy ending..(into our mouth :) )

Moral of the story..: keep trying, stop not until u achieve success!!

Though I have troubled and tortured my dear and near ones..with my Badam delight..today it was a Hit ..Here goes my recipe :

Badam Halwa Recipe:

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• 1.5 cups Badam - microwave them for about 2 min and leave them soaked.Peel the skin and leave it soaked for about 2-3 hours. Grind the badam with milk into a coarse paste.

• 2 cups Milk + 2 cups Sugar - boil the milk till it reduces to 50%.

• Now add the magic ingredients into the milk : cardamom + saffron about 12-15 strands.Boil the milk with these, with constant stirring..after about 5-10min..the flavor of these 2 would blend well into the milk.

• Now add the badam paste into the condensed milk.Let it reduce to 50%..keep stirring constantly..add 1 cup of ghee and keep stirring..and let it reduce to 50%..let the paste come to a nice halwa texture..similar to upma.

• allow it to cool..take your cup and enjoy the most delicious mouth watering badam halwa.

Lake Tahoe...in Winter

We were planning for an outing during Christmas vacation this year. We finally ended with a trip to Lake Tahoe.. wow! what a wonderful place it was....I have always heard about snow, seen it in TV.. it was the first time I saw snow in my life!

Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in US..It was formed 2 million years ago!! We were about to see this oldest Lake in the world..wow!

The Lake is spread across 2 states in US : Nevada and California.The tourist attractions in Tahoe area available in 2 regions, North and South Lake Tahoe.These regions are known for the enchanting Valleys around them.

In Summer, water rides are popular and in winter, its all snow time!

Our trip was for 3 days..We started on the Christmas eve..we planned to start by 8'clk

in the morning, and as usual, we got late, and started at 12'clk , Friday afternoon..I could see a gradual change in the scenic view, as we traveled.I saw beautiful meadows, Farms and slowly it started getting cold.We could see tall trees welcoming us to Tahoe..wow...truly breath taking!

As we were nearing Tahoe, we saw a Bridal Veil falls of Lake Tahoe. It was a tiny, cute water falls, flowing from a small creek.

It really excited me at lot, and soon, I could see snow all way. We saw a giant snowman, built by the visitors of Tahoe. I really loved it!

We reached South Lake Tahoe around 4pm. It was already dark and we couldn't visit any place at Tahoe that day.We stayed at Richarson Resort at the South Lake Tahoe.We found an Indian restaurant nearby, and it was very crowded..we had our dinner after 1 hour of waiting time.All hotels were buzzing with people, since it was a 'hot' tourist spot during 'Cold' Christmas.

On Saturday, we headed to the Hope Valley, in South Lake Tahoe for Snowmobiling. It was very cold that day, and my husband drove the heavy and sturdy vehicle.It was an exciting ride, we went off track twice. We reached about 7200ft high and rested in the place, where Die Hard 2 was filmed.

That evening, we went to enjoy the breath taking view of the South Lake Tahoe. The shore was all covered with snow, and the steps that was leading to the shore was all snow..we had to literally slide all our way through the snow.

It was Sunday morning, we woke up at 6 am. It had been snowing all night, and our car was under a pile of snow!! We cleaned the car and vacated the guest house. We quickly headed to Gondola ride at Heavenly Hills. It was a must see ride at the Lake Tahoe. We got the most amazing view of the entire lake from the ride..

We halted at about approx. 9000 ft high valley, had a hot star bucks coffee and enjoyed the beauty of the valley, snow fall and the panoramic view of the lake..It was freezing -4 degree Celsius...It was really a heavenly view! We proceeded to the top of the Heavenly hills, at about 1000ft we had to return due bad weather conditions.

We started towards North Lake Tahoe.. we saw many scenic places on our way..we saw the Emerald Bay and proceeded to Squaw Valley

We went for SnowTubing for one hour..the rate was nominal of 20$ per head.We could take 6 rides and enjoyed the 'Snow Tubing' from a height less than 150 ft.

We took breakfast items with us, and this turned very helpful..we could reach the places we wanted to visit in time since we didn't have waiting time in the crowded eat outs.Lake Tahoe has a lot of fun places..we could visit 2 adventures per day..so it is better to plan the fun activities before the trip..