DAY 61- LITTLE ARTIST'S SPECIAL BREAD-BUTTER PUDDING..

And so on Sunday I went for my 1st Art exhibition ever..
And frankly , I'm glad that it was my first introduction, into the world of beautiful art, because i swear i have never seen such a pure display of heart felt colors in motion..

Zeke, Zene, Vivaan, Angaad, Kiara, Rihaan were some of the artists displaying their paintings , under the tender and patient nurturing of Sonali, who they have been with for some time now...
The kids had some of the sweetest work you could see..
Zeke and Zene have been working with 'Aunty Sonali for some time now...
Zeke much longer , while Zene like any younger sister would hang on the table and just be there throughout the class..
Asking tons of questions...frankly like most girls i know..

Till one day Aunty Sonali, gave her some paper and colours and we all realized that she has just been soaking in all that Zeke was being taught...

It was lovely ,the whole ambience..
The beautiful paintings, the little fingers pointing at their creations, the proud Mama's and a few of the Dada's...
Friends of the little artists...
All buzzing around like little bees...and I swear the paintings were really lovely...

And I must say that I went home with one of the best paintings at the show...
Why because 8 yr old Vivaan who is the son of my best friend Mini,painted it for me , for my birthday..
Its a painting of this man holding a baby...something that I saw in London ,and fell in love with on sight, a Lladro figure..
And Vivaan painted it for me...
Bless him...

So like all excited and enthusiastic mum's..
Everyone of us made a small batch of goodies for the 'Art Exhibition"..
Manasi bought sandwiches and chips that we all attacked..
Mini bought delicious brownies...
I made fudge, apple crumble and really easy hazelnut and chocolate bread puddings, in tiny molds , with some Creme Anglaise sauce...

Well , I have eaten bread pudding from the time I was a kid..and frankly its like French toast but , you can bake or steam it...
After eating bread pudding for years, and being completely fed up of it ...
I started making it a few years ago again...

It's only after becoming a mum .that I realized why I was fed this at most given occasions..
Well, it has eggs, milk and bread, as its main ingredients..

And If I can put all this in one morsel in my kids mouths, I'm a happy bunny..
Well as you all know ,I'm a chocoholic and my kids love Nutella , so I now add that to the recipe, also some orange juice and Cointreau for extra measure...

And it has such a comforting, wholesome and home taste to it..
That frankly its our home favorite..

So I am going to give you, my version of what I made for the kids...
You can also add a few nuts like almonds or pistas..it really tastes nice...


Ingredients..

Milk - 500ml
Butter - 100 gm
Eggs - 2 , plus 1 yolk
Sugar to taste...
Bread - 10 slices
Nutella - spread as much as you like in the middle of the bread, so that when you cut it into 6 pieces, every piece has a little nutella
Freshly squeezed orange juice
Cointreau if you feel like it..

Well I needed 1 slice of bread cut up into six squares for every one and a half little mold..
So fill your mold depending on its size...

METHOD
Pre heat oven to 180 degrees..

In a shallow vessel, mix the milk, eggs and sugar...
Melt the butter and add it to the above mix...
Add the juice of 1 freshly squeezed orange...
Add cointreau to your taste...
Smear 10 slices of bread with nutella and, cut them into six squares...
Dip this into the milk mix and pile it into the molds...
See that the bread is moist and filled to a little less than the top of the mold..
Bake this in the oven till it rises up and is golden brown and slightly crisp...
It should take approximately 20-25 minutes...

This is a great fun dish to do with kids, they love breaking the eggs and mixing it with the milk, and frankly even if you go a bit wrong, you really don't go wrong..
So Zeke and Zene, went for it with a vengeance, were dirty , with splashes of milk on their clothes and everywhere and of course the kitchen was a mess..
And they were both giving one another instructions on how it is done...
Well what can I say...Guess they hear me talking about food a lot...
And they were so excited because they knew we were taking this to their art exhibition...

So after I put all the little bread puddings in the oven..
The three of ours showered , changed and got ready ...
And after much shouting and trying to pack the fudge, the apple crumble ...we were waiting for the little bread puddings...

I cant even explain to you or describe to you , the aroma that my kitchen was filled with..
Hmmmmm....that warm orangey-chocolatey flavour..that wafted through..
And so as soon as I took, all these little puffy babies outa the oven..

We dug into it, immediately....poured a little Creme anglaise and some Hersheys Chocolate syrup..
And dug into a bite-ful of just the most comforting morsel of crispy-soft goodness, the hazelnut and the, slight tangyness of the orange exploding like tiny stars...

This has to be eaten fresh out of the oven on to a plate and into your mouth...
So off we went Zeke, Zene. apple crumble, fudge and 36 puffy little bread puddings in the boot of my little Red Bug...
We drove from Versova to Juhu, loudly singing, 'Wake up Sid"..
We love that song...
Thank God , we were not really singing to Sid , because he would have run away ...screaming ha ha ha ..

So After a really long time, here's presenting. 'Little Artists Bread-Butter Pudding"...yummy and if can say so, ever so slightly better than my Mommies, with a whole lot of smiles and yeah..yeah..yeah.. only from, "Maria's Kitchen"...