Birthday Video for Dad.

Here is a small video that I prepared for my Dad's birthday!

Flavoured Popcorn

One of the best things about living in a hostel is that you can have a movie night anytime you want. Impromptu plans over lunch/dinner can result in late night movie sessions with friends, and during those times, you really love to munch on some popcorn! But being on a student budget means you can't really afford the good stuff. And by good stuff, I mean the flavoured popcorns.

So, a couple of days ago, during one such movie night, I decided to upgrade the regular popcorn that can be bought from the street vendor at a nominal rate- about 500 gm comes in Rs. 30, which is enough for 4 people to sustain a 1 hour 30 minute movie.

And it's super easy. You need just 10 minutes before the movie starts to prep the popcorn.

I tried two flavors- butter and chocolate.

BUTTERED POPCORN

All you need is butter and salt for this one. Melt some butter, add a pinch of salt to it. Pour it in a bowl containing the normal popcorn and give it a nice toss. I covered my bowl with a plate and shook it with all I had. And the end result is buttery popcorn.
If  you want more flavors, you can add anything from oregano to pepper to chili powder. Be as creative as you want to be.

CHOCOLATE POPCORN

I think every hosteler needs chocolate in the room. Since I am addicted to chocolate, I also have a bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup. So, for the second flavor, put as much chocolate sauce as you want, and give it a good toss. And you have yummy chocolaty popcorn for the movie night.

Cover the bowl with a plate to give it a good shake

Chocolate Popcorn

Alternatively, you can also melt chocolate in the microwave and then pour it over the popcorn. You could try Snickers, 5 Star etc for a variation in flavors too.

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My Own Article Table Stand

I haven't been able to experiment with food of late. So, today, the weather being so cold that you can neither stay out of the room for too long, nor really wish to cook, because the cold water numbs your hands when you are washing utensils, I decided to use one of the old Amazon boxes and make something out of it.

I had been watching a lot of DIY youtube videos, and I found these videos on how to use a cereal box as a magazine stand. It was pretty fascinating and overtly simple. Being inspired by those videos, here is my easy version of a cardboard stand which can be used to keep loose sheets of paper, journal articles (which I have in plentiful, being an M.Sc student) or even light magazines.
And the best part is, I didn't have to use glue to make the box, just an old pencil sharpened from both ends.

 And this took just 5 minutes. Cut out the cardboard. This was from a keyboard box. Sharpen the pencil, and piece the cardboard from both ends. That's it.

And to make it decorative, you have an array of options, starting from spray painting, to drawing, to making a collage.

Here's how my stand looked at my study table.

So, there you go. What do you think about it? Ain't it easy?

Cake in a Mug!

Today I baked the fluffiest, spongiest cake in the history of my baking live. And though the sugar was a little less, I think I ended up masking it pretty well with copious amount of chocolate sauce!

This is how super awesome my Mug Cake looked!

And in terms of how easy it is, once you put it in the microwave, it's done in under 2 minutes at 600 Watts. The whisking does take a little time. But if you have all the ingredients handy, the mug cake will be ready in 15 minutes tops. How cool is that? Not only is it delicious, you end up saving a lot too for all the important things in life, like shoes, makeup, dresses, did I say shoes? :)

You need the basic cake ingredients, in lot less proportions. My ingredients were-

• Flour- 2 tbspns
• Sugar- 2.25 tbspns
• Milk- 1 tbspns
• Vegetable Oil- 1 tbspns
• Baking Powder- 0.5 tbspns
• Cocoa Powder- 2 tbspns
• Egg- 1
• Vanilla Essence - 0.25 tbspns
• A pinch of Salt

The reason why I didn't go into teaspoons and tablespoons is because you can't afford to have too many spoons in the hostel room. I have one trusted spoon, and I hope all college students have the basic observation skills and knowledge of fractions to make do with just one spoon.


Step 1 is to mix all the dry ingredients. I didn't even use castor sugar for my cake mix. The regular granular sugar works just fine. I would suggest using a fork to beat the egg. Add all the wet ingredients after that, and whisk the mix well, till you see tiny bubbles forming.
Step 2 is to microwave the batter for 2 minutes and then dig in to satisfy your dessert craving without a pinch in the purse.

You do not have to use a separate bowl for whisking. Use the mug in which you want to bake the cake. There is also no need to grease it since you will be eating right out of the mug.

I was so excited to make a cake in the hostel for the first time that I didn't take too many photos. And once made, the cake finished so fast, I again didn't have too much time to click pics.

Do try it and let me know how it turned out. I will try to mix and match more flavors in the near future.


  

About

Do NOT let the blog address mislead you. This is not a blog about some dude, I mean brother blogging about things he makes.

Why, you ask, it's called Bro made it? To which I reply, don't you shorten Cassandra to Cass, Melanie to Mel, Jennifer to Jen, William to Wil, Samuel to Sam? Well, I can go on with examples since I have had this conversation many times over, but I believe you get the drift? So, with that logic, what would you shorten Brototi to? Bro, right? Hence, the origin of the name. And along with it my woes of turning around every time any random person calls someone "bro" when I am out.

Now that we have firmly established why a girl's blog can be called "bro made it", let me talk about what it's all about.
This blog was created to be a food blog, but might change directions depending on the blogger's fancy. I will try to make easy hostel friendly recipes, because frankly, I am tired of the canteen food.

If you are here, I am guessing you feel the same. And hoping the posts helped you in some way.

Would love to hear more from you all! I love all things food- cooking, eating, and talking about it. So, drop a line if you feel the same.

Three-many cooks bake a random "I've had worse" cake.

Sometimes, I feel like I am a crazy person with super silly ideas for fun. My love for cooking/baking/improvising with food happens to be one such quirk.
But yesterday, I found a couple of kindred souls!

So, I had gone to heat some hot chocolate at night yesterday, when I heard a lot of giggling coming from the common room. And the reason for all that laughter were two friends' attempt at baking a cake without using measuring cups and spoons. And for an amateur to not only attempt such a feat, but to get "I've had worse" reviews is quite a feat, let me assure you.

 After mentally dancing to have found not one, but two food aficionados in my hostel floor, I got to speaking with them, and realized they had a fancy to cook, so they had gone and bought the ingredients the same day itself. What's better than an amateur cook/baker, you ask? An impulsive one! Because, when you are impulsive, more often than not, you do not get to have all the ingredients mentioned for a recipe, and you end up improvising, and giving a dish your own unique touch.

I am not going to talk about the recipe, because I don't know much about what went into it. But this is how it looked.

We had slathered on a lot of melted milk chocolate and chocolate sauce on top, as is evident









And these are the two happy bakers- Medha and Aradhana.

  Here's hoping I will get to bake many more things with them in the next few months and learn many new recipes and tricks.
I did learn one new thing yesterday. Sprinkle a little granular sugar after your are almost done whisking the batter to get a little bit of crunchy goodness to your baking.