J is the cutest!!!

Kids can be so cute sometimes, well... most of the times except when I am not in such a cute mood :). Last evening was one of the pleasant evenings  where all of us piled up on each other. R sits down on the couch to rest for a while after a demanding day. I consider that as an invitation to rest my head on his chest. This looks very appealing for J to jump on me and D is kind enough to climb atop all this to give me a kiss . Thank god for such a lovely family and loving times with each other.
Back to the point, J wanted to give her dad a Xmas card which she had made a few days ago. The detail missing was just that she had given me the same card the day she made it. I guess she thought she could impress R with no extra effort. R gave all the pampering she expected and asked if it was only for him. She wanted to say "Yes!! Its only for you"  but in the process of telling that she realised I was watching. and tried to change her words to "Its for all of you" . Poor 6 year old that she is, managed to combine that to blurt out a " Its for anf you" . What followed was a 15 minute session of teasing J for that. I love you Jaanu, for the sweetheart that you are!!

No more a UFO!

Finally the Poncho did see the light of the day. Poor thing this Poncho, ever since I finished crocheting her, she must have thought " Atlast, I will be on the shoulder of this pretty princess and see the world with her".  But I had other plans as always. Just before I had weaved in the ends, my attention switched to other things and she was totally forgotten. Happens with me all the time.
She remained folded and tucked away for an entire year .sob! sob! Today as it happens, I was in this mood to organize some stuff under the bed which apparently were already organized. I just love doing this especially when these stuff are things crafty. Back to the topic, while I was at it, who should just peep out, but the long forgotten Poncho. I took pity , and weaved in the ends and even adorned her with 2 pompoms. Awww ...the cutie.
She is all set to make my princess J happy . or atleast I hope J is happy having it.

Simple Everyday Tindora Sabzi / Thondekayi palya/ Ivy Gourd side dish

Simple things which kids say can take you by surprise and put you into the epitome of happiness. Waking up one fine spring morning, sunny boy comes at once and hugs me with a look of such great gratitude . Without me questioning he starts " You know mamma, you are the best. our are just THE BEST."

me :??

Sunny:Well... you not only are good to me in real world, even in my dreams when I am facing trouble , you come and comfort me. You are THE BEST!!
The above incidence has absolutely nothing to do with the recipe below ... I just shared that coz I wanted to :).
Well...kids are not fond of veggies. One trick I learnt was to scare them showing R's grey hair, telling them that the reason he has grey hair early in life is because he never had vegetables when he was their age. Can't believe, Kids are so conscious of their looks , they have improved a lot in the sabzi intake. But every time I serve the vegetables, invariably, the kids topic is always about how Pappa got grey hair early. This annoys R to the extreme. But this particular sabzi is liked by kids and R alike. Simple comfort food- Roti with Tindora sabzi/Thondekayi palya. Recipe follows.
Ingredients:

• Oil: 5-6 tblspn
• Mustard seeds:1 tspn
• Hing: a pinch
• Garlic chopped: 2 big cloves
• Onion chopped: 1 big
• Tindora chopped: 4 cups(ends cut off and discarded and sliced round thin)
• Red Chilli powder: 1 tspn or more as per spice tolerance
• Coriander/Dhania powder : 1 tblspn
• Turmeric powder:1/4 tspn

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a pan. When moderately hot, add the mustard seeds and allow to crackle.
2. Add the Hing, followed by the chopped garlic for half a minute or so.
3. Add the chopped onion and stir fry until the garlic and onion turn light brown.
4. Add the Tindora , stir and cook until the Tindoras are almost half cooked.
5. Follow this by the spice powders : Turmeric, Coriander and Chilli powder and the salt.
6. Stir to mix all the spices with the vegetables and cover and cook until done.
7. Serve with Roti or Chapathi.

Note: Tindora needs to be cut into thin round slices for better taste. I will try and put up some pics soon to give a better idea :).

First book to make him cry!

I am writing this because its the first time he cried after reading any book.

Dev read the book "Old Yeller" today. I have yet to read it so I don't know much about it except that its about the relation between a boy and his dog. I noticed that keeping the book away after finishing it, It seemed like he was hiding his tears. When I got closer , he just hid his head in my chest and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed . Rubbing his back, I tried consoling him "Its okay to feel sad dudu..." I had yet to complete my sentence when Jaanu interrupts in her signature way " Its okay to be sad Chetta , but NOT okay to be mad " .  Dev couldn't help smiling and for that minute forgot about the sadness in the book that he just read . I am so thankful to the cheer that Jaanu brings in everytime.

I hope my kids get to read many more books which touch them , inspire then and help them grow in ways only books can.

Eat to live or Live to Eat!! Fruit salad with a Mango base.

I had no clue my kids thought so much about my eating craze. Here i was in a " I can't take it anymore " kind of mood the other day. Hubby and kiddos had tried some tricks to cheer me up, but not to much success . So my almost 7 yr old Dev gets busy thinking and writing, giving the impression of someone doing a thesis on the creation of the Universe. Within minutes, he hands a five point plan to his dad on "How to cheer Mamma". Given below is what he had written down:
1. Whenever she wants to eat something, we give it to her.
2. We keep her enganged. ("engaged" in proper English)
3. Make her laugh and laugh.
4. We take her to a Restaurant.
5. Treat her like a Qeen !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( "Queen" in proper English)
Just a peek at the note was enough to cheer me up until i noticed that 2 of those points was about eating. When i questioned him, his earnest reply is "Well ! thats what you do most of the time!" Seeeeee....
Anyways, here is the recipe for another favorite desert of mine . Everyone who has tasted this until now has fallen in love with it. You will too and so does Dev! Its a fruit salad with a Mango base with all the stuff which adds to the yumminess of the taste of Mango!
The picture was sent by my dear friend Pratima who like others loved it.

Ingredients:

1.Heavy cream: 1 pint (473ml)carton

2.evaporated milk: one 14oz can

3.condensed milk: one 14oz can

4.Mango pulp : one Tin(30 oz)

5.a whole assortment of fruits: a few bananas chopped, 1 or 2 apples, peeled and chopped, grapes, tangerines , any fruit that you prefer.

Procedure:

Whisk the heavy cream , evaporated milk, mango pulp and condensed milk in a big bowl. Add the fruits and chill in refrigerator. Serve cold.
Be warned: all your guests will beg and plead for more coz you can never have enough of this.
I am sending this as an entry to "Mango Mela" at http://cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com/2009/05/announcing-mango-mela.html .

Aloo methi ki sabzi - MP style

How would you feel when your husband who has been a faithful ardent crazy fan of your culinary skills comes home after a dinner at a friend's place and goes ga-ga over your friends culinary skills ?I don't know about you but this happened to me for the first time and I for one didn't know how to handle my jealousy :). But i had to face it. Sonu is a great cook but she is also sweet enough to share all her great recipes.One such recipe of her sabzis follows which ofcourse hubby dear loves. Its a typical MP (Madhya Pradesh state of India) style dish , so simple and very delicious. I love the mild bitterness of methi and its combination with potato, especially the roasted taste of this combo. Goes great with rotis /chapatis .

Ingredients:

• Potatoes (large) : 2 peeled and cut into small cubes
• Methi(fenugreek leaves) : 1 big bunch
• Oil :4- 5 tblspns
• green chillies: 2 finely chopped
• garlic :4-5 chopped
• red chilli powder : 1-2 tspn depending on how much you can handle.
• turmeric powder :1/4 tspn
• salt to taste
  

Procedure:

1. Pick the leaves of Methi , wash and chop them up .Keep aside.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes and keep soaked in water.
3. In a pan, heat the oil. Keeping the heat at low ,add the chopped garlic and fry for a minute.
4. Once the garlic turns light brown, make sure the oil is not too hot and add the red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
5. Follow this by chopped Methi and Potato cubes.
6. Stir fry this on medium heat until all the water from the methi has dried up. That is the vegetables are about 3/4th cooked.
7. At this stage add the salt and continue to stir fry until the vegetables are completely cooked.Serve hot with rotis/chapati .
   The trick here is to not close the lid on the pan while it cooks.Yummmmyyy!!!

Avocado Strawberry desert

Long hiatus from blogging owing to a very nomadic experience on the family front . Back to blogging and happy to be back. Let me start, rather restart with one simple desert recipe, the source of which I am unaware of . Passed on from friends I guess. This particular recipe has no fixed measurements. Avocado, the key ingredient here is very similar to the butter fruit we get in Bangalore. The juice centres(especially the ubiquitous Ganesh fruit stalls :)) in Bangalore make a soothing milk shake out of the butter fruits. Yummmm....
The recipe I give below has a strong Avocado taste ,( well, because its an Avocado desert , dummy) and I feel only people who love this fruit will like this desert . Wow!!! i talk sense :D .
The chopped strawberries really add a great crunchy taste to this.

Ingredients :

1. Avocado: 2
2. Strawberries: 8 chopped
3. Condensed milk: just enough to give the sweetness.(i used about half a can)
4. Heavy cream: just enough to give a mousse consistency.

Procedure :

1. Take the pulp out of the Avocado fruit to a blender.
2. Add the condensed milk and heavy cream and run the blender.Add the condensed milk and heavy cream in batches so as to get the right consistency and sweetness. I feel the sweetness requirement really varies . For my atrocious sweet tooth , the more, the better :).
3. Take the mixture out of the blender into a bowl.
4. To this add chopped strawberries. Mix well and chill in the freezer for not more than 30 Min's.
5. Serve in individual cups. Enjoy