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Garden Vegetables-Navy Beans Vegan Soup 2007-11-22 02:16:12 It is that time of the year again, when the cold front has set in. The cold makes me want to stay inside, bundle up in some warm clothes, pull up a rug and sip something warm from time to time. And when hunger strikes it makes you crave for something special that makes you feel good both inside and out. The first thing that comes to my mind is hot hearty SOUP with some warm crusty bread.
Both me and my husband are great fans of soups and we have all the time in the restaurants, however I had never ventured trying it out by myself. But after seeing many of Rachael Ray’s cooking shows and the ease with she makes them, by putting together readily available ingredients, in less amount of time, it got me started into trying it out.
I also looked for recipes on the internet that would suit my requirements. Even though there is no dearth of recipes for soup, my main source of idea and inspiration for this soup came from this site here. After going through numerous recipes I finally Read more:Garden
, Vegetables
, Beans
Gingered Potato Pepper Sabzi 2007-11-19 09:42:19 Here’s raising toast to the much awaited and anticipated time of the week, the weekend. Ah! The sweet joy, relaxation and freedom associated with the weekend after a major grind parallels none. It all beings Friday evening after calling it quits at work, suddenly things seem casual and laidback and everything is freed from the clutches of time. The pressure, tension, routine is put to rest and it is the time of sweet indulgence.
Come Saturday and everything seems relaxed and calm. Monday seems so distant in the horizon, that there is time even to graze and admire the vegetables. The million chores, shopping, grocery, bill pay etc everything can wait while this peaceful moment is savored, at least until it lasts!
This is my contribution for the event Think Spice …. think Ginger hosted by wonderful and thoughtful Sunita of Sunita’s world.
Ingredients
15 mini peppers
1 medium potato
1 small onion
2 Tbsps Grated ginger
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Turmeric
Chi Read more:Potato
, Pepper
Easy Tomato Onion Side Dish (Gojju) 2007-11-15 09:48:26 I usually enjoy the drive back home from work sans the traffic of course. That is the time when I am done with the major grind of the day; away from the noise, tension, pressure, people etc. That is the time when I am by myself in the closed environment, surrounded my soft music feeling cozy with just the right temperature, not too warm or too cold.
After falling into the everyday rhythm of driving and seeing the familiar surroundings, my thoughts about work fade away, the rough edges of the pressure, tension soothed by the music, my left brain function is put to rest and the right brain activity catches on. That is the time when my mind mentally goes over the stuff in the fridge, pantry and come up with a plan for dinner.
There are days when I get ideas for easy and delicious dishes that I just cannot wait to get home to try out. There are many things to look forward to when I get home my family, my home and cooking. The drive home becomes so much pleasanter and all of a sudden sh Read more:Tomato
Cauliflower Potato Peas Sabzi 2007-11-13 11:57:46 Cauliflower next only to Cabbage has been a favorite vegetable of mine. I enjoy them in any cooked form; however I love them best when they are transformed into this dry Sabzi with a mix of potatoes. I feel that it is very comforting, appetizing and also pleasing to the taste palettes. Another reason to love this cauliflower recipe is because it is so easy to make especially during the hectic weekdays. The cooking work is divided between microwave and the cook top and the dish gets done in no time at all. Cauliflower is also available all the year around in the groceries and for us provides a good break from the usual eggplants, Okra, cabbage etc.
This is my contribution to Srivalli’s Microwave Easy Cooking (MEC). This is not completly cooked in microwave as part of it is done on the stove top as well. Srivalli has however garciously agreed to accept this for her event.
Ingredients
1 medium cauliflower
1 medium potato
1 small onion
½ cup peas
2 cloves garlic Read more:Potato
, Cauliflower
Moong Curry and Cucumber Idli (Mooga Ghashi & Tausha Idli ) 2007-11-28 06:59:38 Time and tide waits for none says a 14th century adage and I am sure most of us could not agree with it more. Days fly by at the blink of the eye and even before we realize it months and years have passed by and all that is left behind are memories. Some of them good and warm ones that we like to cherish and some not-so-good ones that we like to forget.
There are so many ways of evoking those memories like food, people, places, special days etc but I personally feel that food is the strong catalyst of all. Food is a part and parcel of our everyday lives and more so when there are festivals, get togethers, parties etc and there are bound to be lots of memories associated with it. I instantly go down the memory lane especially while making special festival meals, traditional meals etc and cannot help but recall the experience of joy, family, food, excitement felt during festivals.
“Mooga Ghashi” along with “Khotte” (idli steamed in jackfruit leaves) is a quintessential part of K Read more:Moong
, Curry
, Cucumber
Milk Dates Peda in Microwave 2007-12-05 10:21:14
Food Blogging in general makes you think about food, recipes ideas, writing and presentation in ways not thought of before. Food Blogging Event in particular makes you put on your thinking cap and takes thought process to a whole new level especially when a new food ingredient is involved.
I was stumped when it was announced that the key ingredient for the AFAM event this time was DATES. Dates adorn our pantry as a garnishing ingredient for our cereal or oatmeal and occasionally to be eaten as is. Other than that I have very limited or in fact, almost no experience using it in our everyday or special cooking.
I really loved the idea and wanted to come up with something for the event. I had the idea of making a Date Burfi by adapting this lovely recipe here. When I thought of this idea I was expecting to find the taste of dates blend with that of milk, to create a unique taste with a sticky texture. But when I actually tried this I found that dates are mellow and subdued
Steamed Toor Daal Dill Cake 2007-12-03 03:45:43 When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade, said somebody. Groovy! But what does one do when given a soaked cup of Toor daal? This was my quandary one weekday evening after getting back from work, when I found myself staring at soaked Toor daal, when I thought I had soaked Chana daal in the morning to do God-knows-what.
“Serves you right, for placing the Toor daal jar right next to the Chana daal, anybody in the right mind would be confused” said the inner voice.
“Yeah right! I have hundreds of chores to finish before setting foot out of home, not to mention handling toddler tantrums, feeding, cooking etc etc” I pitched in.
“Ah! There she goes on the defensive again, but anyway I am sticking to my theory” the inner voice said adamantly.
“Never mind the nuances. Let us move on and find out what to do with this. We already have lots of daal, so making sambhar/rasam is out of question. Also I want something quick, healthy and more like a side-dish that even the kid can eat
Instant Sooji Onion Appe 2007-12-18 02:38:37
I was going through the food pictures I had taken a while ago and realized that I had not yet blogged the recipe for this Instant Appe. It was intended to be a part of the trilogy series, the others be Chana Daal Appe and Dahi Vada Appe.For this Appe I was thinking of a way of making a healthier version of the famous "Rave vade" of Karnataka. The batter is made of Sooji, onion, green chilies and it is deep fried.
Of course, this version is no where close to the original, but nevertheless a healthier version to snack on. Â Also as a note of caution these cannot be let out for a long time as they do not maintain their crispness for a long time.
Ingredients
1/2 cup fine Sooji (rava)
1 small onion
½ cup idli rava
½ cup rice flour
2 Tbsps yougurt/cream
3-5 green chillies
1 Tbsp jeera (cumin)
¼ tsp baking soda
Coriander leaves
Salt, oil
Curry leaves
Â
Method:Â
Chop the onions and coriander leaves finely.
Mix all the above ingredients except oi
Tangy Coconut Yogurt Curry with Vegetables (Majjige Huli) 2007-12-13 02:35:47
So few days ago while cooking this refreshing dish, I was watching over my toddler play with some of his toys few feet away from where I was standing. Sometime later he started chewing on one of his toy and I like any other dutiful mother asked him to stop. The naughty toddler that he is continued to chew on it ignoring my willful pleas, so I scornfully said "S, you are a Bad Boy, stop chewing it".
Now I was expecting that he would listen to me and stop chewing, but instead he said "Amma Bad Boy". That totally caught me off-guard as I was hearing it for the first time and I ended up laughing loudly and giving the toddler a big hug.
It's one of those wired things that kids say but to me it seemed very funny more so because it was coming from somebody not more than 3 feet tall, bundle of innocence who until "yesterday" could not even sit, let alone talk. I had heard him say words, but not sentences and this seemed like a sentence to me albeit an unconventional one.
Anyway, Read more:Tangy
, Curry
, Vegetables
, Majjige
Random Facts Meme and 50th post 2007-12-10 10:40:31 Dhivya of "Culinary Baazar” has tagged me for this Meme. Thanks Dhivya.
This is also my 50th post on this blog. I wanted to thank you all for the support, warm comments, acceptance and that is what keeps me going and makes me want to write more and cook  more JÂ
Now onto my first Meme . The rules are :-
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or wierd things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
It was fun thinking, writing about myself and I have totally enjoyed it. Here are some of my random facts about me:
Everybody in my family except my husband was born on the 10th. I was born on March 10th, my Dad September 10th, MIL and my toddler October 10th, my Mom and Brother November 10th.
I can speak quite a few Indian languages apart from English. Kannada as I grew up in Ban Read more:Random
Easy Zucchini Garlic Sabji 2008-03-03 16:23:52 Dear Husband’s perpetual complaint is that the vegetables here in the United States, especially Zucchini
have a sweetish taste to them and accents even more when cooked. He complains that it tends to ruin the taste of the dish and tends to steer clear from that vegetable. I on the other hand love it; and [...] Read more:Garlic
Non-food: Nostalgic Moments…. Simpler Times 2008-03-01 08:41:28 One of our favorite pastime is watching some old 80’s and 90’s Hindi, Kannada songs, or an old movie snippet on YouTube. Both me and Dear Husband are from Bangalore and we share similar backgrounds be it in terms of food, school, friends, movies, Bangalore city etc. Even though our choice and taste of songs [...] Read more:Nostalgic
, Moments
, Times
Malai Aamras: Fusion of RasMalai and Aamras 2008-02-21 09:30:10 Instant RasMalai using Ricotta Cheese and Vegetable Puffs using the Pastry sheets were some the new shortcut/fusion things I was introduced to when I was newly married here in the United States. Being a novice cook, never in a million years would I have imagined making either of these from scratch the traditional, laborious way. [...]
Instant Mini Dosas for little ones 2008-02-18 10:35:55 Food is such a sore subject while dealing with our 2.4 year old. First of all nothing seems to appeal him and then trying new foods is out of question. Two things happen when I take food to him one is the utterance of “Nooooooo” and then making a face and tilting of his head [...] Read more:little
Healthy Breakfast: Oatmeal and OJ 2008-02-14 06:46:14 Are you giving him THAAAT for breakfast on Valentine’s Day?” said the inner voice.
“What is wrong with that, besides I do have some pink color in the background, to correspond to Valentine’s Day?” I said.
“Jeeez, people on this day profess their un-dying love for each other, buy expensive gifts, cards, whip out decadent meals and [...] Read more:Breakfast
, Oatmeal
Mango Coconut Burfi 2008-02-11 06:03:22 With the weather continually being “cloudy chilly windy damp” for months we had a surprise bonus this past weekend. Early in the morning there was glorious sunshine and the temperature by mid morning had already climbed to the 70’s. I even dared to open the backyard door that was closed for a long time now [...] Read more:Mango
Stuffed Eggplant (Bharlele Vaingan ) 2008-02-07 18:42:01 Every cuisine in India has its own version of making this Stuffed
Eggplant delicacy. In fact even with in the same cuisine there are so many variations that it is hard to categorize this as belonging to a specific region. It majorly depends on the ingredients that go into the masala for stuffing.
Making this is [...]
Tindora/Tendli/Dondakaya Rice 2008-03-12 10:39:00 I remember what my mother would say about cooking: “thinking is the hard part, while the actual cooking and cleaning is the easy part”. I did not think of it much then, but now that I shoulder the responsibility of cooking I totally understand what that means. First of all coming up with a menu [...]
Sweet Pongal 2008-03-20 08:28:52 One convenient reason why blogging makes it worthwhile for me is because I can refer to my own recipes online anytime for years to come. I know it sounds silly, but it is true.
A few days ago while contemplating what to make for dinner; it occurred to me that it had been a while since [...] Read more:Sweet
, Pongal
Arusuvai: Broken Wheat, Coconut Ladoo and the Surprise Ingredient 2008-03-26 00:59:52 The “Arusuvai Friendship Chain” was started by Latha and Lakshmi at The Yum Blog along with Bharathy of Spicy Chilly and Bhags of Crazy Curry. Latha from “Masala Magic” continued the Arusuvai friendship chain in USA. Thanks to you all for this wonderful idea.
The Arusuvai Friendship Chain is all about sending a surprise food ingredient [...] Read more:Broken
, Surprise
, Ingredient
Healthy Breakfast: Pumpkin Idli (Dudhi Idli) 2008-03-27 14:18:40 I was introduced to the new concept of Pumpkin
Idli only after my wedding. My mother-in-law had prepared it early in the morning for breakfast and I had it with some ghee. Suffice to say that the taste was totally out of this world and I became a big fan of it ever since. It [...] Read more:Breakfast
Non-food: Rush Hour Mornings, Traffic jams and Murphy’s Law 2008-03-29 10:28:03 You know Murphy
’s Law “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way” (Source:Wiki). Now this adage fits the Rush hour mornings and Traffic jams like a glove. It is the same old story of traffic jam, but a new twist is thrown in every morning [...] Read more:Mornings
, Rush Hour
Healthy Breakfast: Pumpkin Idli (Dudhi Idli) 2008-03-27 14:18:40 I was introduced to the new concept of Pumpkin
Idli only after my wedding. My mother-in-law had prepared it early in the morning for breakfast and I had it with some ghee. Suffice to say that the taste was totally out of this world and I became a big fan of it ever since. It [...] Read more:Breakfast
Arusuvai: Broken Wheat, Coconut Ladoo and the Surprise Ingredient 2008-03-26 00:59:52 The “Arusuvai Friendship Chain” was started by Latha and Lakshmi at The Yum Blog along with Bharathy of Spicy Chilly and Bhags of Crazy Curry. Latha from “Masala Magic” continued the Arusuvai friendship chain in USA. Thanks to you all for this wonderful idea.
The Arusuvai Friendship Chain is all about sending a surprise food ingredient [...] Read more:Broken
, Surprise
, Ingredient
Non-food: Rush Hour Mornings, Traffic jams and Murphy’s Law 2008-03-15 04:28:03 You know Murphy
’s Law “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way” (Source:Wiki). Now this adage fits the Rush hour mornings and Traffic jams like a glove. It is the same old story of traffic jam, but a new twist is thrown in every morning [...] Read more:Mornings
, Rush Hour
Tindora/Tendli/Dondakaya Rice 2008-03-12 10:39:00 I remember what my mother would say about cooking: “thinking is the hard part, while the actual cooking and cleaning is the easy part”. I did not think of it much then, but now that I shoulder the responsibility of cooking I totally understand what that means. First of all coming up with a menu [...]
Malai Aamras: Fusion of RasMalai and Aamras 2008-02-21 09:30:10 Instant RasMalai using Ricotta Cheese and Vegetable Puffs using the Pastry sheets were some the new shortcut/fusion things I was introduced to when I was newly married here in the United States. Being a novice cook, never in a million years would I have imagined making either of these from scratch the traditional, laborious way. [...]
Instant Mini Dosas for little ones 2008-02-18 10:35:55 Food is such a sore subject while dealing with our 2.4 year old. First of all nothing seems to appeal him and then trying new foods is out of question. Two things happen when I take food to him one is the utterance of “Nooooooo” and then making a face and tilting of his head [...] Read more:little
Healthy Breakfast: Oatmeal and OJ 2008-02-14 06:46:14 Are you giving him THAAAT for breakfast on Valentine’s Day?” said the inner voice.
“What is wrong with that, besides I do have some pink color in the background, to correspond to Valentine’s Day?” I said.
“Jeeez, people on this day profess their un-dying love for each other, buy expensive gifts, cards, whip out decadent meals and [...] Read more:Breakfast
, Oatmeal
Welcome and Wishes for a Happy Ugadi/ Gudi Padva/ Sansar Padvo 2008-04-06 16:36:01 Dear Friends,
Wishing you all a Very Happy
Ugadi. Ugadi also ushers in the New Year for many Indians and is celebrated with great fervor. On this wonderful occasion also welcome to my new home.
My blogging journey that I started off with RedChillies has been an awesome experience so far. I learnt and discovered new things [...] Read more:Welcome
, Wishes
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