Recipe of the month: Vegan Chocolate Pots

Two years too late but we are finally HOME for the holidays 🏡

 

You know, I had mentally prepared myself that we would be spending the year-end holidays again in Singapore. I had planned lots of fun activities to diminish the gloom of yet another year away from family and friends. But all of a sudden, travel opened up so one thing led to another and soon we had booked our tickets. Plans were made with cautious optimism. But then came the Omicron scare and unexpected changes in rules which put things on shaky ground. But after much deliberation (and a gigantic leap of faith!), we decided to go ahead with our plans because of the ghastly prospect of continued restrictions in 2022 (who knows right? 🤷🏻‍♀️). 

So during the first week of December, after an absolutely frenzied week of wrapping up work, shopping, sorting, cleaning, packing, preparing for the new school year, drowning in documents, forms, PCR tests and what not, we landed in India 😊

After spending almost two glorious weeks with my family in Mysore, we are now enjoying the remainder of our holiday in Bangalore. The weather is lovely and being at home with family is even better.

With our unexpected travel plans, I haven't been able to maintain a consistent blogging schedule. I had planned a few posts for December but I haven't been able to execute any of them. Oh well!

If you have been following my blog, you would know that almost every year I do a Christmas special recipe post. As per my original plan, this year I wanted to make gingerbread cookies with the kids. I had even bought the cutters and all the required ingredients. But I obviously had to change plans. Being in India, I decided to do something simpler and also make it vegan because my BIL and his wife (who are currently holidaying in India with us) have been vegan for many years and I wanted them to be able to enjoy the dessert as well 😊

These Vegan Chocolate Pots literally need just THREE ingredients and take barely 10 minutes to make. There is no tofu or avocado or coconut cream which are the usual suspects in vegan desserts. I won't go as far as to say that this dessert is "healthy" (healthy-ish maybe?) but if you look at the ingredients individually, they are all good stuff. Of course, you need to wait a few hours for the dessert to chill in the refrigerator but otherwise, this is the most simplest dessert you can put together. In case you don't want to make it vegan, just substitute almond milk with regular dairy milk. 

The incorporation of dates imparts enough sweetness to this dessert so you can go for 100% cocoa chocolate. I have used 70% dairy-free chocolate because that is what was available over here on short notice. I garnished the dessert with strawberries to offset the extra sweetness. We absolutely loved the smooth mousse like texture. It felt like eating luscious nutty chocolate spread out of a cup.

This is a great make-ahead dessert that looks pretty, tastes good and will appeal to almost everyone with the exception of those weirdos who don't like chocolate (sorry 😄). 

 

I hope you try it and love it the same way my family did.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year  

Book review: Hooligans of Kandahar by Joseph J Kassabian

Hello and greetings from India 😊🙏 

If you were wondering why I have been silent on the blog, now you know. I will be sharing more on my (rather unexpected) trip back home in the coming few weeks but for now, I have a book review for you that was long pending. 

Hooligans of Kandahar

Author: Joseph J Kassabian

Genre: Non-fiction

Release date: August 9th 2018

Published by: TCK Publishing

Page numbers: 258

Joseph Kassabian was born and raised in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan and enlisted in the U.S. army in December of 2005 at the age of 17. He served multiple combat tours in support of the Global War on Terror. 

Based on true events, Hooligans of Kandahar is a gutsy and unvarnished account of ground realities in war-torn Afghanistan from the point of view of a U.S. Army soldier. The narrator, Joseph Kassabian was deployed for a tour of duty based around Kandahar in Afghanistan for the duration of 1 year from May 2011 to 2012. The focus of the memoir is not on the war or its outcome but on the daily lives of the soldiers during their deployment. 

The Hooligans of Kandahar was written in 2017 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

***Synopsis***

The novel opens with young U.S. soldiers in their homeland basking in the sun, smoking and surrounded by anxious family members waiting for buses to whisk them away to a war they know very little about. They are excited by the prospect of going to war despite being filled with apprehension and uncertainty. 

The second squad are nicknamed “Hooligans” because of their inherently violent nature and propensity to cause mayhem. The hooligans don't think twice about being insubordinate, brutalizing Afghan civilians, stealing another squad’s air conditioner (or even a goat), playing with explosives or firing a grenade dangerously near themselves. For these soldiers, living and working in deplorable conditions with extremes of weather (blistering heat and numbing cold), appalling lack of sanitation resulting in a hotbed of diseases and a startling inadequacy of resources and facilities proves to be a battle all in itself. If that wasn't enough, having to deal with the mostly uncooperative (and sometimes hostile) locals, corrupt Afghan police and the incognizant Afghan army while facing periodic life-threatening attacks from Taliban insurgents perpetually puts them on edge, thus threatening their mental faculties. The soldiers survive on caffeine, nicotine, and sleeping pills. Their way of life in Afghanistan becomes a recipe for chronic physical and psychological stress. If the Hooligans were left to their own devices in Afghanistan, their attitude would have sent them to their graves. Squad leader "Slim" who although manages to get his soldiers in line, subjects them to an unrelenting rage often bordering on insanity. 

The hooligans go on a wild series of misadventures during their time in Afghanistan. Their days bleed together in a haze of insomnia, random missions, planned missions, guard tower duty and supply runs which forms the main content of the book.  It also sheds light on the interactions between the members of the squad and the dynamics they share with their superiors. It also highlights their undying loyalty to one another and their fortitude. 

My thoughts....

The last book I read on Afghanistan chronicled the lives of ordinary Afghans from the perspective of an Afghan. This memoir by an American shines light on the daily lives of U.S Army soldiers in hostile territory and provides a completely different perspective. 

The goal of Kassabian's squad was to capture Mullah Omar, one of the leaders of the Taliban and a wanted fugitive but they didn’t even come close. Hardly any of them believed in their mission in Afghanistan in the first place. As a reader, it felt frustrating that nothing the soldiers did on the ground seemed to matter to them. Even after sacrificing their mind, body and spirit, they never felt like they accomplished anything. The novel ends with the soldiers exhausted and over-medicated with mental and physical scars for life.

10 outdoor spaces to visit in Singapore during the year-end holidays

Judging by the number of views my posts on outdoor parks and gardens have garnered in the past two years, it seems quite apparent to me that folks living in Singapore have really been exploring green spaces across the island. With travel out of the picture for so long, this is hardly surprising. I myself have been out with my family on weekends checking out off-the-beaten-track spots for leisure. There are still so many places that I am yet to cross of my list. It just goes to show that Singapore isn't as deprived of nature as it once seemed.

After naively assuming that this Covid-19 nightmare might be coming to an end, we now have the new coronavirus variant Omicron to envelope us in new worries and fears! I wonder what next year has in store for us long-suffering people of the world 😓 

Just as there appeared to be a bright light at the end of the tunnel with respect to travel, the clouds of anxiety and uncertainty are now looming large thanks to this damn virus which just doesn't seem to give up - it is just one genetic makeover after the next. Despite that, for the upcoming December holidays, it seems like travel is likely on the cards for a large number of Singapore residents who have been eagerly waiting for an opportunity to visit family or friends living overseas and/or escape the monotony of the past two years. Then there are those who would like to err on the side of caution and defer any kind of travel for a variety of valid reasons. I totally understand and respect both points of view. 

If you get to travel during these December holidays, then good for you! I hope that you enjoy yourselves. Stay safe and in prime health folks.

For those of you who are going to spend the holidays in Singapore, that's okay too. If your travel plans have been disrupted then please don't get too disheartened. I hope you get to take a few days off from work, rest, recharge and get to spend quality time with your family and friends. Go out and have some fun. Eat and be merry 😊 Happiness is a state of mind so try to put yourselves in places where that state of mind will come readily and naturally. On that last note, I have even compiled a list of serene outdoor places in Singapore you could go to. 

These places are not ranked in any order of preference. They are places we enjoy going as a family and if you haven't checked any of them out, I hope this post will inspire you to do so. 

So without further ado, presenting 10 outdoor spaces to visit in Singapore during the year-end holidays,