Sweet!

How many of you watched the inauguration without a tear in their eye or hope in their heart? It was a fabulous moment in history when Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States. Our local schools turned on their classroom TVs to let the children build their own memories. Medha tells me that after the crowd started shouting "No More Bush", her class had their own chant:
No more Bush,
Only Trees

What a great day, yes?!

There were more highlights to the day. The Daily Tiffin was nominated as one of the best group blogs on food! Voting is open until Saturday, January 24th at 8 pm EST. So hurry on over and cast your vote if you think since you know we are doing a good job at The Daily Tiffin.

Vote for The Daily Tiffin

Also, Jen's Use Real Butter has been nominated as one of the Best Food Blogs - Overall. How cool is that?! Jen's photography is mind blowing and her recipes are fantastic. She has a wicked sense of humor and is a real sweetheart. Plus she gives warm genuine hugs. So while you're over at Well Fed feeding their polls, please take a moment to stop by the Best Food Blog category and vote for Jen!

Vote for Use Real Butter

I thought that would be all I would need to make you wonderful readers do but there's one more clickety-click that I found about just now! Aimee of the hilarious and well-written Greeble Monkey holds a monthly Greeblepix competition where she gives away $250 in photo rentals from a local Denver photo shop. This is the first month that one of my pictures is in the top 10 finalists. Voting ends Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at midnight Mountain time so please go take a look and vote for the best picture from those 10 inspiring images.

I want to be free

And when you're done voting, please come back here to celebrate with my version of Saffron Hut's Coconut Burfi. This has been a hit every time I have made, once I mastered the art of making it, that is. My version is richer and creamier as that was the only solution to get the burfi to 'set'.

Coconut Burfi

Picture courtesy Jen of Use Real Butter

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup frozen unsweetened grated coconut, thawed
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (1 pint)
  
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 tbsp sliced almonds
  

1. Combine sugar, cream and coconut and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently.
   
2. Reduce heat to simmer.
3. Cook until the coconut mixture comes together and is very thick. This takes about an hour for me at this altitude.
   
4. Grease an 8x8 inch tray with melted butter.
5. Transfer the coconut mixture to this tray and sprinkle with cardamom powder and sliced almonds.
   
6. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 8 hours.
   
7. Cut into 1 inch diamonds or squares and serve as dessert with vanilla ice-cream or by itself.

Notes:

• The original recipe calls for 1 cup of milk which I have substituted with heavy cream. No matter what I did, the burfi just would not set when I used milk. Also, I was usually left staring at half a carton of heavy whipping cream, wondering what to do with it especially since I do not make butter chicken as often as I make this burfi. Remember that 1 pint is about 2 cups so that little pint carton of heavy whipping cream is the right size to buy.
• Sometimes I cook the coconut mixture a few minutes too long. That results in a very firmly set burfi. In this case, warm it gently in a microwave for 20-30 seconds or leave it out on the counter for 15-20 minutes before serving it.
• This coconut burfi is different from the traditional Indian coconut burfi as it is more fudge-like in its texture and very moist.
  

I hope you enjoy my version of this Coconut Burfi as much as we do!

I went out for a bike ride yesterday - yes! On January 20, 2009! In winter! We had glorious weather - just as we do today with temps almost touching 70F. So I had to make another Obamicon to commemorate just what a great day it was yesterday.



I will leave you on that Obama-high and hope that the new President is able to help fix all that has been undone in the past eight years.