Kayal's Kitchen

Authentic Meen Kulambu

2010-04-23T11:44:00.002+05:30

I can assure you, this recipe will surely be a treat to your senses. I prepared it so many times and it has come out well all the times. I can mention it as my signature recipe even. My inspiration for this recipe is my fiends mom, who is the expert in preparing non veg dishes. I usually get a hint from her for all the non veg preparations.

Ingredients

Sankara Meen/Red Snapper - 1/2 kg

Tamarind - lemon sized ball

Pearl Onion - 15 nos

Tomato - 1 small

Green Chillies - 2 nos

Chilly Powder - 2 tbsp

Corainder Powder - 2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - as required

For Tempering

Gingelly Oil - 2 tbsp

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves - few

Aesfoetida - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Clean the fish three times. Here we get it cut as a whole fish, with head and tail removed. Otherwise you can cut it in bigger sizes.

Soak the tamarind in water and get a thick extract out of it.

Marinate the fish with chilly powder and salt for 2 hrs.

In a kadai, add the oil and items for seasoning. I usually use the mansatty for this kulambu.

Then add the onions and tomato. Saute them till they become soft. Then add the tamarind extract, turmeric powder, salt, chilly and coriander powder.

When the gravy starts boiling, add the whole green chillies. You dont have to cut these chillies. People love this as a sidedish with curd rice.

Close it with a lid and cook it in medium flame for about 10 mins.

Once the raw smell goes off and the consistency become slightly thick(it should not be too thick) put the marinated fishand close with a lid

It takes only 5 mins for the fish to get cooked.

Be gentle while stirring, so that fish dont get broken after it gets cooked.

Serve hot with Rice and Vanjaram(King Fish) Fry.

Vegetable Biryani and a Come Back

2010-04-19T12:32:00.004+05:30

After a very long time I am back again. Really it took a lot of time for me to settle down in our own city after spending 5 yrs in bangalore. My kid started with his playschool...and after 4 months now only he started going to school without much toruble. I found, getting him ready for the school is the toughest job in this world and am also mastering in that recently. Ok Stories apart, here's the recipe for today Vegetable Biryani

I have already posted few other version of the same before.

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 3 cups

Veggies altogether - 3 cups(I used beans, carrot, potato, cauliflower, paneer and frozen Peas)

Bay Leaf - 1

Cinnamon - 1 inch stick

Cumin Seeds - 1/ tsp

clove - 1

Curd - 2 tbsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp(optional)

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 3 nos slit

Grind and Extract:

Coconut - 1

Green Chillies - 10 nos(this depends on how hot you want it)

Green cardamom - 3

Method

Soak the Basmati Rice for 20 mins.

Grind the things mentioned in the "Grind and Extract" section and the get the extract. You can add water and get it in three rounds.

In a kadai add a tsp of ghee and add the whole garam masala items. Then add the basmati rice and fry it for few minutes.

Then add this extract, salt and mix well. Close it with a lid and cook until done. Dont stir often. I used 1-1.5 ratio for cooking the rice and i cooked it in a heavy bottomed non stick kadai with a glass lid. The rice should be seperate.

In another kadai, add a tsp of oil and then a bay leaf. Add the onion and fry it till done. Then add the cut veggies (except paneer) and saute well. Add half a cup of water, salt, curd and garam masala. cook them till soft, still they shoudl be rigid.

Grease a pressure cooker with ghee/oil and add the rice layer first and then with veggie masala, then with rice like that. Close it with a hot tawa at the top. Cook it in a low flame for 10 mins.

Gently mix the rice and masala together. Serve hot with Raitha.

Manjal Paal - Turmeric Milk

2009-11-20T15:12:00.003+05:30

Its always raining here, this entire month and am finding it difficult to dry all the clothes. This is the best season to get cold, cough etc. Manja Paal is the one, we often prepare at home as one or the other one will have some throat problem. This drink will be very soothing to the throat and you can get good sleep after drinking this without any dry coughs. When i came to know about the event Think spice - Think Turmeric, this one flashed my thought immediately. My FIL is having a slight cold and he drinks it for the past two days.

Here are few medicinal values of turmeric

It is a natural antiseptic, antibacterial, anti inflammatory, stomach soothing agent

Is a natural liver detoxifier.

Reduces the risk of childhood leukemia.

Used to heal any cuts on skin

It plays a mjor role in anti cancer activities

Ingredients

Milk - 1 cup

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Pepper crushed or powdered - 1/2-1 tsp

Palm Sugar - 1 tsp

Method

No specific preparation done here.

In a cup of hot milk, add all the ingredients and mix well.

Drink before going to bed. Thats all.

I am sending this to Think Spice - Think Turmeric hosted by Sudhesna

and also to Healing Foods hosted by Yasmeen

Maida Halwa - Tried & Tasted

2009-11-18T17:51:00.003+05:30

This halwa reminds me of my childhood times. when i was doing my schooling, we had a petty shop near our school and there we get so much of kids cookies, chocos, biscuits and this one. I love this halwa a lot. I never knew this can be made at home. I didnt even know that this one is made out of maida. when i was browsing through net, I found this recipe from Srivalli's blog. It was so simple, that made me to try it at home on the same day.

Ingredients

Maida - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Kesari powder a pinch

Cashew - few

Ghee - as required.

Method:

Make the sugar syrup till one thred consistency

Prepare a batter with maida, kesari powder and water.

Pour this batter into the boiling sugar syrup and keep on stirring.

Keep adding the ghee till you get a well formed halwa.

Once it is ready, pour it on a greased plate and decorate it with roasted cashews.

I followed the exact recipe from hers and found it very tasty. My kid too loved it.

Baby Travel

2009-11-18T17:50:00.000+05:30

Being a parent, whenever they plan for a trip, my only concern would be my kids convenience. Here is a great site which has good information about Baby friendly Travel. They also have a list of products for baby travel like sleep gear, strollers etc.

Gulab Jamun for Indian Cooking Challenge

2009-11-15T11:58:00.000+05:30

I am back to the blogosphere. It was really a tough time to settle down and get things done. I really faced a very tough time as there were continuous doctors visits one after other in the family. I don't know what would have went wrong. Even now there are few more packed boxes, yet to be unpacked...and god only knows when it can be done.

Coming to the Indian Cooking Challenge, already I missed one (Murukku) last time. So I didn't want to miss this time too. I was planning this for almost one half month, got print outs of this recipe at least five times...got delayed....delayed and at the end I made it on sat evening.

Appah how many hurdles I should cross. I was grinding batter for Sunday breakfast and preparing the khova. All of a sudden my husband peeped into the kitchen and asked whether I will be able to prepare bajjis for him. It was raining outside and its a perfect time for a bajji too. It was really shock for me, as he is not a fan of bajji and he asked me for the first time in 3 years of my married life. What else...I got things ready for a bread bajji, the easier one. Finished off with the bajji session and I was very happy that my husband and kutty had a great time with the bajji.

Then started off with the jamuns, by that time the khova got ready and made the batter with the ingredients mentioned. Closed it and kept it. Kept the sugar syrup boiling. Used all the buffer time to finish off with my batter mixing. Once everything got ready, I fried the gulab jamuns and put it in the sugar syrup.

And then the comedy session started...I waited for half an hour....1 hr....8hrs....the next day morning too came....but jamun still remained hard enough.....ooops then only I realised on seeing the unopened cooking soda packet. :'( wat to do....Mission Failure. But the taste was good...but hard.

Please do read the comments from my husband and in laws

Husband - "I have sent one to Dr APJ, to try it as a new weapon and one more NASA to do a research on it"

BIL 1 - When my kid had a jamun in hand "Pappu hold it safe otherwise u may harm ur legs when it falls down"

BIL 2 - "Oh my god, you tried it a wrong time....we are done with the remodelling of our house and we don't need stones any more"

Its my fault and I am really scared of trying it anymore...as i was boiling 2 litres of milk on a LPG.

But anyway am posting this as I tried it. I am eager to see all your comments.

Masala Vada & a Short Break

2009-09-23T16:13:00.003+05:30

I got a transfer to Chennai and I am really busy with the things related. I was trying hard for this transfer for the past few months and it got clicked recently. This time I think it be will really really tough shifting things from here to there, settling down etc. So I thought I will come back to this space, once I settle down there. It wont take much time I guess. Moreover I can come back with a bash, as I would be having access even at home.

Here's a small recipe from my drafts,

Recipe for Masala Vada:

Ingredients:

Channa dhal - 1 cup

Onions - 1 big

Green chillies - 3

Red chillies - 3

Saunf - 1 tsp

Ginger - a very small piece

Garlic - 3-4 pods

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Salt - as required

Curry leaves and coriander leaves

Method:

Soak the channa dhal for 3 hrs. Drain the water fully.

In the mixer, add the 1 green chilly and 3 red chillies, cumin seeds, saunf, ginger, garlic.

Grind them together smooth. Then add the soaked dhal. Using whipper, whip to get a coarse batter.

The batter should be thick enough.

Mince the onion, 2 green chillies and the leaves. Add it to the batter. Add salt and Aesfoetida. Mix well.

Heat cooking oil in the stove, slightly simmer it and fry the vadas in hot oil.

If you want a different taste, you add cinnamon and mint leaves to this.

Serve hot with chutney.

Please keep visiting my space, still I am back.

Erisseri

2009-09-09T17:41:00.002+05:30

One of my mallu friend got me 'Erisseri' on the onam day. It was so delicious and I immediately wrote down the recipe from her. Then I tried it today morning. It came out very well and heres how I prepared it.

Ingredients:

Black Channa - 1 cup

Raw Plaintain - 1

Yam - 100 gms

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Pearl Onions - 6

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Seasoning

Mustard and urad dhal - 1 tbsp

Curry Leaves - few

Red Chillies - 2

Obviously we have to use coconut oil.

Method:

Soak the channa overnight. Pressure cook it with salt and 1/2 tsp chilli powder. Add only little water as this curry will be dry.

I microwaved the cubed Yam and plaintain seperately(with 1/4 tsp chilli powder each). They should be well cooked.

Once the pressure is released, add the yam and plaintain to the cooked channa and allow it to cook.

In the meanwhile, grind together coconut, pearl onions and cumin seeds coarsely.

Add this to the vegetables and mix well. Adjust the salt if required.

Cook for some 5 minutes and switch off.

Do the seasoning with the items mentioned for seasoning.

Thats it delicious curry ready to serve with hot sambar rice and pappads.

Offeretti Search Engine

2009-09-09T17:39:00.000+05:30

Are you a Face book user? Then you should be aware of the Offeretti. Offeretti Offer Search Engine helps you to dig out the details about the various offers near your place. It’s really amazing to browse through the site. You can get anything and everything from this site about any offer. With the help of Google earth they designed this site awesome. Login and you will really find it useful.

Festival Special for Indian Cooking Challenge

2009-08-31T23:33:00.007+05:30

Vinayaga Chathurthi is always my favorite festival. Since I was brought up in a village, its always a joyful event to buy clay ganesha. I will be roaming around to get all decorative things like umbrella, erukka maalai and so on for that ganesha. But this time we missed this festival, as we had to attend a close relative's marriage at chidambaram. After that travel, I couldn't find time to prepare this, as I had to bring back home to normal. I missed khamam dhokla also, so I didn't want to miss this time too. So I made myself to prepare something at least for Indian Cooking Challenge. I reached home by 8.30 PM after that I started my venture. When I read through the procedures, I realized only 2 recipes can be made easily at that time. So ended up my list to kozhukattais and peanut ladoos(from Valli's recipe)

I prepared the same way as mentioned by Valli. This is the second time in my life, I am preparing kozhukattai. Because my mom used prepare only pidi kozhukkattai and not this one, so I never had a chance of learning this. As my husband is very much fond of this sweet, he is very particular about the taste and texture. He has a great list of specification on how a kozhikattai should be. Even after 25 years of excellence in kitchen, he will find faults with my MIL's preparation of this sweet. This made me keep away from preparing this. No other go, I ought to prepare this at least once in a year during this pooja. I thought I am saved this year, but this ICC trapped me into trouble :( .

My poornam came out well and the dough too. But after seeing my first set of kozhukattais, my husband thought he only will prepare it. I was very conscious on the getting a fully covered kozhukkattai, but he felt that the cover is too thick. So he only did all the kozhukatais after that. Really it came out well and you can see the snaps.

Making peanut ladoos was not a big deal and it also came out as expected. Actually I thought of doing a small pooja with this as the neivedhyam, but its was toooooooooo late.

Easy and Safe Storage

2009-08-28T18:25:00.000+05:30

I found it very difficult to dump all my important things in a safe place, while we were doing remodeling of our house. Actually when we decided to remodel, we didn’t think of this point anytime and we thought we can dump in room. But at the last moment both of my brother in laws came back home, finishing their college days. We have to give them a room and obviously that’s one where we kept all our important things. When was looking for a good solution, I found out his website, who provide Storage Units on rental.

They are providing a wonderful solution with storage units in all sizes and according to our specific needs. Their site is accessible throughout the year. They also provide a Free Move in Truck with a Self Storage Unit Rental. I really felt it to be a very useful and compact for my needs. All you have to do is you have to create an account there and make payment online. They also provide valuable points to be considered while packing and moving. They have online payment centers also, which made my job easier. I think this will be a useful piece of information for those who are shifting or remodeling your house.

Murungaikeerai Thuvattal

2009-08-28T12:35:00.005+05:30

Drumstick leaves are always my favourite. I love everything made out of it. As you all know its rich in iron content and especially ladies who are pregnant need to take it for sure. Every doctor will prescribe iron tablets throughout pregnancy and even after post pregnancy. So it becomes a must take greens during pregnancy. When i was pregnant, we found it very difficult to get this leaves here. So my mom used to carry this greens wrapped in a wet cloth(to keep it fresh) from my hometown. I will soon post one more recipe on murungaikeerai kashayam, which i drank to get rid of the excess water accumulated. Everyone will face swelling in their legs during pregnancy and if you drink this kashayam, immediately the swelling will go off.

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients:

Drumstick leaves - 1 cup

Toor Dhal - 2 tbsp

Pearl Onion - 10

Green chillies - 4 nos

Seasoning

Mustard Seed - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method

Pressure cook the toor dhal to a level, that it is done 3/4th.

Mince the onion and chillies.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Once the mustard splutters, add the onions and green chillies.

Then add the greens and dhal(along with the little excess water used for cooking the dhal)

If you want you can even garnish it with scrapped coconut.

That's all serve it with hot sambar rice.

This is my lunch box with Raddish Sambar, murungaikeerai thuvattal and curd rice.

This lunchbox enters the Wholesome Lunchbox event conducted by Margot.

Also this am sending for the Food for 7 stages of life - Pregnancy (Zero hour) event hosted by Radhika and Sudeshna

Rapid4me

2009-08-28T12:30:00.000+05:30

I am music freak and hence rapid share is more close to my heart. Now they have come up with an excellent Rapidshare Search Engine named Rapid4me. With the help of Rapid4me you can easily find any type of files such as video, music and games. Now my search has become more convenient and faster. I heard that the site's response is overwhelming. With their user friendly technology, it has already creating waves in the ever growing internet community. Let us make use of it and save our precious time.

Veg Korma

2009-08-27T16:18:00.002+05:30

This is one more for the Viki's Side Dish for Chappathi event.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower florets - 1 cup

Potatoes cubed - 1 cup

Green Peas - 1/2 cup

Paneer - 1/2 cup

Capsicum - 1

Onion - 1 big

tomato - 1 medium

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Saunf Powder - 1/4 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp

Coconut Paste - 2 tbsp

Cinnamon - 1 piece

Mint Leaves for garnishing

Method:

In a kadai add some oil and fry the cubed paneer. Drain them and put in a bowl containing water.

In the remaining oil, add the cinnamon and then onion. Then add the ginger garlic paste.

When the raw smell goes off, add the tomato and all the vegetables except capsicum & paneer.

Now add the turmeric, chilly powder, saunf powder, coriander powder and salt. Mix well and close with a lid. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the capsicum, garam masala and the coconut paste.

Cook it for 2 more mins and garnish with mint leaves.

Serve with hot chappathi.

My husband really loved this gravy and it was a great happiness for me.

Vinyl Shutters Collection

2009-08-27T15:37:00.000+05:30

Larson Shutter Company has a huge collection of vinyl shutters in various sizes, colors and styles. Shutters will give your house a new stylish look. You can now buy a top quality exterior shutter online at a discount at Larson Shutter Company and get free shipping! They also sell some of their standard size shutters at a discount along with the custom shutters for your home.

Cauliflower Pepper Curry

2009-08-27T15:35:00.002+05:30

Work has become so tight nowadays and am finding it very difficult to post anything. Also we have been on continuous travel for some or the other functions. I have been silent viewer of my favourite blogs and kept worrying on seeing my blog silent. I just found some free time after a long gap. Just thought posting in all my pending dishes.

This is a very quick and delicious recipe, which goes well with chappathi.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 big

Green Peas - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1 big

Green Chillies - 2 nos

Crushed Pepper - 2 tbsp(a/c to ur taste)

Salt - as per taste

Curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Method:

Put the cauliflower florets in boiling water and drain them.

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and add the onions.

Once onion is cooked, add the ginger garlic paste.

Once it is done, add the florets, green peas and mix well.

Now add the pepper powder, salt, sprinkle some water and close with a lid.

Once the veggies are done, garnish it with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Serve it with hot chappathis and onion raitha.

I am sending this to the Side Dish for Chappathi event conducted by Viki's Kitchen

Web Hosting Geeks

2009-08-16T23:25:00.002+05:30

Find a place that features the best web hosting providers.webhostinggeeks.com is the place to be. Since they have the best client offer besides ever, and by knowing that getting a domain from them will help us to promote the new name of our business. Web Hosting Geeks is an awesome site which provides a concise list of the 10 best web-hosts, and much much more than what we are expecting! It lists all the free and bonus features for each listed service, along with customer reviews and ratings. There is no room for downtime when your website is already set up so better go with the best and you could very well do that search easily through web hosting geeks. You can have multiple web hosting and all webhosting plans include at least one free domain name registration. Avail now of their service and use it for your blog. Read their blog at http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog I find their services beneficial to bloggers because it has unlimited space and traffic. You can easily get unlimited web hosting domain from them plus you can enjoy the free online yahoo marketing too. They also announce awards in various categories such as best budget hosting, best blog hosting, best email hosting and many more. Another feature of webhostinggeeks is that they also allow writing your own web hosting reviews. Visit the website for more information.

Paneer Potato Masala

2009-08-06T14:20:00.004+05:30

This is recipe tried following a TV show.

Ingredients:

Paneer - 200 gm

Potato - 2

onion - 1

To Grind:

Pearl Onions - 10

Garlic - 10

Tomato - 1

Red Chillies - 10

Coriander Powder - 2 tbsp

Cinnamon - 1

Clove - 2

Cardamom - 2

Khus Khus - 1tsp

Fried Gram - few

cococut - 2 tbsp

Method

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and fry the cubed paneer. Drain it and put it in a bowl containing water and turmeric mixed.

Bake the potatoes and keep it aside.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the cinnamon, clove and khus khus. Once it starts spluttering, add the onion and saute well.

Then add the garlic, red chillies. Saute till the chillies become crisp.

Now add the tomato and the coriander powder.

Put the coconut and fried gram in to the mixer along with the sauted ingredients and grind it to a smooth paste.

Keep a kadai add 1 tsp of oil and saute the onions. Then add the paneer and potatoes and the ground masal. cook it for 5 mins in simmer by closing the lid.

Serve this with Roti and hence I am sending this to Side dish for chapathi event hosted by Viki's Kitchen.

Mushroom Potato Curry

2009-07-29T14:24:00.001+05:30

Mushroom has become a mandatory item for lunch on every weekend. Rarely we prepare non veg and rest all times its mushroom curry, with rasam/sambar. We will late lunch by around 3-4 pm on weekends. Nowadays my kid is insisting on eating with his dad alone. My hubby dear finds it difficult to have his food properly. but its truly a great enjoyment. I will be busy cooking in the kitchen and my kid will come & take a plate for my husband (whenever my kid feels hungry). He will show that plate to me and ask "Tha" (which means give). I will put something in that plate, he will go running with that to his dad and have the food with him. He come back for the second serving. So cute of him.

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients

Mushroom - 200 gms

Potato - 1 or 2

Onion - 1 big

Tomato - 2

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 3 tsp

Coriander Leaves - few

Method

Clean and cut the mushroom and all other veggies.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the onions.

Saute till it becomes translucent. Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes.

Add the tomatoes and all the powders and salt.

Now add the potatoes and mushroom. Mix well.

Sprinkle some water and close the kadai.

Stir in between till the veggies are done.

Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rasam or sambar rice.

Enjoy Debt Free Life

2009-07-29T14:00:00.001+05:30

Recession has badly hit everyone and many people are struggling with unmanageable debts. We have to plan wisely to manage our debts within our limits. But with busy schedule, people find it difficult to manage themselves. Other way is to seek help from Debt Management Experts. Abacus is one such company. So what do they do? They work as a bridge between the debtor and debtee. They work in favor of debtee by producing the details to debtors about debtee's debts, incoming and outgoing. They also inform creditors that you cannot pay the debts at current situation. You can gain more advantages on consulting with Abacus Debt Management Plan. Abacus Debt Management also has various other useful plans like Reclaims, IVA Debt Solutions, Trust deeds and Repossession. They deal with all kinds of debt like Credit cards debts, Store cards debts, Overdrafts debts, Mortgage Shortfalls etc.

They have tool called Debt Analyzer which will calculate all income, debts to be paid and how much you money are left out with. All you have to do is go to their link and fill in a form specified on the right hand corner of the website. After which one of their expert advisors will give you a call and you can get their assistance in clearing off your debts efficiently. Use their service and have a Debt Free life thereafter.

Avarkkai Porial

2009-07-15T13:43:00.002+05:30

This is one more excellent side dish for any sambar. But I like it to have as a gravy with rice. Usually on a rainy day, my mom will surely prepare this porial, rasam and hot rice. She mix the hot rice with this porial and feed us even when i was doing my college. I love my mom's mixing as she will add a little more salt and it would be nice to have from mom's hand always.

Lets get into the recipe.

Ingredients

Broad Beans (Avarakkai) - 500 gms

Pearl Onion - 10

Tomato - 1 small

Sambar Powder - 2-4 tsp

Salt - as Required

Mustrad and urad dhal for seasoning.

To Grind:

Coconut - 3 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method

Grind the items to grind to a smooth paste.

Heat a kadai and add 1 tsp of oil.

Add the seasoning items and then the onion. Once the onion is soft, add the tomatoes and then the minced avarakkai.

Saute for a awhile and then add the sambar powder, turmeric powder and salt.

Sprinkle some water and close with a lid. Saute in between til the veg is done.

Once the veg is cooked well, add the ground paste. Mix well and switch off the stove.

you can have it as a side dish with sambar or else directly with white rice.

Home Security

2009-07-15T13:40:00.001+05:30

In this modern era, everything is growing in a rapid speed. Even thieves are using recent technology for burglary. A proper Home security system becomes more essential nowadays. Recently I read a home security system review article and there they have mentioned certain preventative measures to keep our home safe.
Few are listed here
1. Keep your doors and windows closed all the time with all the curtains covered.
2. Keep your lights switched on, especially when you are moving out. This will create an impression that someone is still there in the house.
3. Apart from this install a proper a home alarm system in your house, which can alert on time if required.

So Protect your home and have a hassle free life.

Ennai Kathirikkai Porial (Brinjal Fry)

2009-07-14T14:09:00.004+05:30

This is my all time comfort food. We went on a unplanned temple visit and we all were so tired after coming back home. Every one was hungry but no one had energy to prepare anything. So I ended up preparing a simple comfort meal containing Rasam, Ennai Kathirikkai Porial and few pappads. Everyone enjoyed this meal and finished off everything.

Ingredients

Brinjal - 1/2 kg

Garlic - 20-30 pods

Sambar powder - 2-3 tsp

Salt - as required

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad dhal split - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves and Coriander Leaves - Few

Method

Cut the brinjal Lengthwise and put it in water.

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Then add the garlic and saute for few seconds. Then add the brinjal, sambar powder and salt.

Sprinkle some water over it and close with a lid. Saute well in between, so that it doesn't get burnt. Adjust the water until the brinjal is done.

Finally add the leaves. I used more coriander leaves, this will add up the aroma.

So simple yet delicious dish.

I am sending this to FIL-Brinjal conducted by Sanghi.

Wedding Sarees

2009-07-14T14:06:00.003+05:30

I am very much fond of sarees. I believe any woman can look like an angel in a saree. When it comes to sarees, I love handloom cotton sarees the most. But for festivals and marriage it’s our tradition to wear silk sarees. My sister in law's marriage is nearing and I was checking out for a nice designer saree for her reception. That’s how I came to know about the utsavsarees through a India shopping website. They have a splendid collection of sarees, salwars, gagras etc. All are at reasonable rate. I really loved this Wine Pink Faux Georgette Saree and ordered the same for that reception. Yeah...my next search is for the right accessories for this awesome saree.

Snake Gourd Kootu

2009-06-30T12:26:00.001+05:30

I love any vegetable in the form of kootu, as it requires only very less oil and rich in protein. From the beginning, instead of giving only pappu, I used give any veg kootu to my kid. He loves to have kootu rice with ghee. I usually prepare this kootu as a side dish for any kulambu. Today i prepared pachai mochai kulambu along with kootu.

Ingredients:

Snake Gourd - 3 pcs

Bengal gram Dhal - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 3-4

Red Chillies - 2

Aesfoetida - a pinch

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Mustard and urad dhal for seasoning.

Method:

Pressure cook the dhal. Cut the gourd, onions and chillies.

In a kadai, add 1/2 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items and cumin seeds.

Once the mustard splutters add the onion and chillies and saute well.

Now add the snake gourd and saute for a while.

Now add the cooked dhal, salt, and turmeric powder. Close with a lid and cook till the veg is done.

Add curry leaves and coriander leaves for extra flavor.

If you want, you can also add a small tomato for this.

Serve this kootu along with kulambu or rasam rice.

Bed Bugs Info

2009-06-30T12:18:00.001+05:30

One of my friends recently moved to a rented apartment. There she found so much of bed bugs and her entire family is suffering. Now she got a remedy to get rid of the bed bugs. Even though it doesn’t call for any serious health problem, there is no exact bed bugs bite treatment. Only thing is the family suffered from severe itching for many days. They called in for some pest control company and got rid of it. In my point of view the best way is to use a mattress encasement, which will zip around the mattress entirely and seals up the inside - meaning no bugs are getting in or out.

Rava Laddoo for the Indian Cooking Challenge

2009-06-30T06:52:00.000+05:30

Recipes are transferred from generations. In my case both my Mom and my MIL learnt cooking from my mom's mom. She was an expert and till now some of her masterpieces remains unacheivable. Like athirasam, idyappam, suzhiyam etc. Some of them were tried several times and left as it didnt turn out upto her level. Later they stopped trying even. When I heard of this Indian Cooking challenge, I felt very happy to get a chance to try out the tough ones. After mastering them, I can challenge my Mom and MIL ;) hehehe

Coming to the trial run, my trial run was a great success. As it is already month end, I decided to prepare it yesterday. I had all the ingredients ready at home. But when I started, immediately the power went off. Ooops what a bad sign I got. I determined to go ahead and finish it off with the charged light. Cooking in Candle Light:) As I am doing it for the first time, I took a print out of the recipe mentioned there. My hubby dear helped me in getting things done and reading out for me. The only thing is he was very keen on measurements. I wanted to have less sugar, but he was jumping on not use different measurements. It appeared so kiddish, but I really loved the overall experience.

I used the exact measurements and the same procedure as mentioned.

Only thing I couldnt achieve was, I couldnt get a good round shape, as it was so hot. I prepared the balls immediately, after I took off from the stove. Later I realised I would have waited for some more time, so that it would have cooled little bit. Any which ways, I will be preparing it often, as it turned out well.

The most lovable thing was, my son loved it so much. He was asking for it, before he went to bed. Later the next morning as soon as he got up, he took that box and was asking me to open it and give him one. Thats the appreciation I got.

Gift for my Hubby Dear

2009-06-25T13:54:00.002+05:30

Every year my birthday has been so joyful. Thanks to my husband, who made all these days so memorable. His gifts have always surprised me and I love the way he choose it for me. He has been so dear to me. He will jump in joy when am happy and encourage me in my down times. He has been a good motivator for me till now. Whenever something suppresses me, he will dig out the root cause and help me to overcome the hurdles.

Watches have always been my husband's favorite. He's so crazy on having trendy watches. I have gifted him so many watches. This time I want to update his collection with the recent trends. I searched in the net and I loved the Movado Watches collection at Bluedial.com. Movado has long been the leader in sleek sophistication and revolutionary design concepts. The collections at Bludial.com are all original and they provide a good warranty for the same.

My hubby dear's birthday is nearing and I will definitely gift him with a Movado watch. Bluedial is giving an excellent discount on this collection. The collection they have is so awesome. I really loved the user friendliness of their site.

Mango Smoothie

2009-06-25T13:38:00.003+05:30

For the past two years I was not able to relish the taste of mango. Firstly I was pregnant and that was my morning sickness time. The next year, I was feeding my kid and was not allowed to take mangoes. So I was eagerly waiting for this season to come. From the time the season started, I was having mangoes like anything. Upon that we got a box full of Organic Mangoes from the orchid, as a gift from a friend. Those were so natural and tasted so heavenly. That's was really a great treat for my mango quest.

Ingredients

Mangoes (Fully Ripen) - 2 or 3

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/4 - 1/2 cup depending on your liking of sweet. I didn't add sugar at all as the mangoes were extremely sweeter.

Method:

Peel off the skin of the mangoes and cut them into pieces.

In a blender add the mangoes, sugar and blend them well.

Add the milk and blend it once. That's it. If you want it more cold, store it in fridge and have it after sometime. Or you can have right away.

This Mango Smoothie enter the Mango Mela conducted by Srivalli.

Tweet To Win!

2009-06-22T16:57:00.004+05:30

An Energetic contest is hosted at Itsabluworld website by the BluFrog Energy Drink and you have great chances of winning fantastic prizes. There are five prizes which you can choose. They are listed below.

1. Blugamer - This is a Ultimate Gaming Package which includes

Xbox 360 Elite System (includes 1 controller & Xbox LIVE Headset)

Rock Band 2 Bundle

Call of Duty: World at War Complete Package

Xbox Wireless Networking Adapter

Complimentary X-Shot

2 Cases of Blu Frog Energy

2. Blustreak - The Richard Petty Driving Experience gives you the thrill of stock car racing, side-by-side action, drafting, passing and all. This includes

Round Trip Air Fare for 2 from Major Gateway Airport

Ground Transport to and from the Hotel

Luxurious hotel for 2 nights

2 Tickets for Rookie Driving Experience

Complimentary X-Shot

3. Happy Blu Year - an exciting New Year’s Eve in Times Square in New York City. Thats an experience of a lifetime, a bona fide international phenomenon watched by like over a billion of your friends!

4. Blullapalooza - The widest array of musical talent anywhere, from every corner of the globe.

5. XtremeBlu - Win a trip to the 14 Winter X Games in January 28-31 2010 from ESPN in Aspen(Included in this prize package is a round Trip Air Fare for 2 from a Major Gateway Airport,Ground Transport to and from the Hotel,Luxurious hotel for 3 nights,2 Tickets to Winter X Games,Complimentary X-Shot).

Exciting prizes. To win you have 3 options.

First Option is to leave a comment on which prize you would like to choose and why.

Second Option is to spread a word about this contest. Telling our friends on which one you would go for and the reason for the same.

Third Option is to write a blog post about the contest and which experience you would choose if you won. Be sure to leave a comment on the contest site with your URL .

If I win, I will be interested to choose the Happy Blu Year. For me new year is the happiest moment every year and i would like to spend that at New Year’s Eve in Times Square in New York City.

For detailed contest rules and regulations please visit: http://itsabluworld.com/contests/rules/

Aloo Bonda

2009-06-22T12:51:00.002+05:30

Because of hectic work both at home and office, i couldn't manage to post regularly. Nowadays my kid also giving me tough time for feeding him. In that I am not at all getting involved to take a snap of what i prepare.

We were been to a relative's wedding and I took a week off to help them in the preparations. There will be around 20-30 people at home for one or the other function. For a lunch the cook prepared potato podimas. As there were so much of diabetic patients in our family, they didn't had much. In the evening the cook prepared sweets and savories. While preparing mixture i asked them to prepare some batter extra and asked them to prepare aloo bonda with the leftover potato podimas. All the children and youngsters loved it and everything got over in minutes.

This is a very simple evening snack, especially on a rainy day.

Here goes the recipe...

For the Batter:

Besan Flour - 1 cup

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp

Salt - as Required

For the Stuffing

Potato - 2 big

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 4

Lime juice - 1 tbsp.

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Mustard and Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Bengal Gram dhal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves - few

Method:

Bake the potatoes and mash it. Mince the onion and chillies.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items like mustard, urad dhal and bengal gram dhal.

Once it splutters, add the onion, green chillies and turmeric powder.

Once onion is sauted well, add the mashed potato and mix well.

Before switching off the stove, add the lime juice and leaves.

Stuffing is ready now. Make small balls out of it.

In a vessel make the batter with the items mentioned in 'For the Batter'

Dip the balls into this batter and fry them in oil.

Aloo bonda is ready and serve it hot with Coconut chutney.

Note - You can make the stuffing like this or you can reuse the leftover potato podimas as I did ;)

Green Path Chlorella

2009-06-22T11:42:00.000+05:30

It’s our responsibility to take care of our family from health problems. It has become very common to take a natural supplement to restore the body equilibrium. One such product is green path chlorella. Green Path Chlorella is the purest, highest grade Chlorella on the market. It removes toxin naturally, reduce cancer risk and fortify our body with essential vitamins and minerals. Without our knowledge we may already be suffering the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning, which include fatigue, frequent headaches, difficulty concentrating, digestive problems, and more. Chlorella herbal supplements can relieve these symptoms while improving your overall health and well-being. Many people have used it already and found it very useful. You too can utilize this and get benefited.

Arisi Adai

2009-06-11T16:05:00.004+05:30

This is one more easy dish, which can be made on the days we grind for idly batter. I either prepare paruppu adai or this one, on every batter grinding day. I have added drumstick leaves jus to add to the taste of the adai.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Par Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Thuar Dhal - 2 tbsp

Green Chillies - 4

Red Chillies - 4

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard+Urad dhal+ cumin seeds mixture - 2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Onion - 2 big

Green chillies - 2

Curry Leaves + coriander Leaves - few or Drumstick leaves.

Method:

Soak the rice and dhal together for 4 hours. In a grinder, add the chillies and fennel seeds.

Once they are grinded well, add the rice and dhal. Grind it to a smooth batter.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the items mentioned for seasoning.

Saute well till the raw smell goes off. Mix this with the batter, add salt and mix well.

The batter should be little thinner.

Heat the tawa and prepare adai's out of this batter.

If you add drumstick leaves, the taste will be heavenly.

I am sending this Arisi Adai to the Ravishing Rice event conducted by Nags

Furnitures - Online

2009-06-11T15:37:00.001+05:30

Legends Furniture Online is a Furniture store, which has a fabulous collection of home office furnitures. I was astonished by the collection they have. They have categorized all the products in such a way that is easy to search for. They website is also very user friendly. They also provide free shipping inside the country. When you are planning to buy furniture online, you have to carefully read the company's policies on shipping and exchange of damaged goods. Furniturefromhome.com provides a very good service before and after product sale. The life of any furniture depends on the way we maintain it. Furniturefromhome.com has an furniture guide which helps us to keep our new furniture in top notch condition for many years. Their collection on storage beds is also awesome.

Paruppu Usli

2009-05-28T13:39:00.003+05:30

This is a special side dish, often prepared in brahmin families. I learnt this recipe from one of the TV shows. It sounded so easy and hence I thought of giving it a try. I first tried it with beans and it came out so well, but I didnt took pictures. This time I made it again just to take some snaps. This time I used cluster beans(kothavarangai).

Ingredients:

Cluster Beans - 1/4 kg

Channa Dhal - 1 cup

Red Chillies - 5

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

salt as required

Seasoning:

Mustard & Urad Dhal - 1 tsp each

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Onion - 1

Curry Leaves Few

Method:

Soak the dhal for 1/2 hr. Drain the water and grind it with chillies & little salt. Grind it coarsely as we do for vada.

Put this paste to a microwave safe bowl and bake it for 5-8 mins(depending on your microwave). It will become like one hard dried dosa.

Cut it and grind it in mixer again. You will get a coarse powder.

Cut the cluster beans and cook it in microwave by sprinkling some water and salt.

Once it is cooked well, add the powder and mix well. Cook it for a min again.

In a sepearate bowl, heat a tsp of oil and add the seasoning items mentioned, with the help of microwave.

Add the cooked beans and usli mixture to this seasoning and cook it again for a min.

Thats it. Its ready to serve with a hot sambar rice.

It will be really easy to cook this dish with the help of microwave.

This Usli enters MEC:Essential Extras event hosted by Rachel originated by Srivalli.

This quick fix dish also enters the WYF:Quick Meal hosted by EC

Cute Maternity Clothes

2009-05-28T12:09:00.000+05:30

When I was pregnant, my mom stitched 4 dresses for me. They were so big and I felt that I am lost inside the dress. On seeing the dresses now, I can’t stop laughing. Trends have changed a lot. Yesterday I was browsing through the net, to find some good site for maternity clothes. My cousin is carrying twins and I wish I can gift her some good clothes. The dress should be good looking and at the same time comfortable for her. Luckily I found this site Kiki's Fashion. They sell unique and trendy maternity clothes at a very cheaper rate. They also offer an exclusive coupon code to bloggers and friends, with which you can avail 20% off. All you have to do is, just use this coupon code at the time of check out. I think this is really a good piece of information, for those who are looking for maternity clothes.

Dosa Masal

2009-05-28T11:33:00.002+05:30

My hubby dear loves this. He doesn't like poori, but love to have this masala with dosa. Hence every time I prepare poori masala, he will be having only dosa. Anyway I dont like this combo.

This time I prepared only masal for dosa, especially for him(as a thanks note for getting me some nonstick ware).

I prepared masala dosa once. For first dosa, my husband said "Masala is more inside the dosa". For the second dosa, he said "I am searching for the masala inside the dosa". My reaction: Stopped the masala dosa and served this dosa masal. He can take the masala, how much ever he wants.

OK here comes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Potato - 4

Onion - 2

Green Chillies - 5

Red Chillies - 2

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves - few

Mustard Seeds and Urad dhal - 1 tsp each

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Tomato - 1 (optional)

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - as required.

Method:

Boil the potatoes, cool it and mash it gently.

Mince the onion and chillies.

Heat oil in a wok, and season the masal with mustard, urad dhal and cumin seeds.

Add the onion, chillies and saute well till its get cooked well.

Add the potatoes and mix well. Add 1 cup of water, salt and turmeric powder.

Mix well and close with a lid.

It wont take much time to cook. Once it reaches the required consistency, switch off the stove and add the leaves.

My version will be little gravy/watery kind, to serve with dosa.

You can even make it thick and serve it closed inside the dosa. This is what we call masala dosa.

Cell Phone Chargers

2009-05-27T17:50:00.008+05:30

Recently I got my hubby dear got his new HTC touch. As soon as he got it, he was totally into discovering its features, accessories it supports etc. But as it is totally new for him, he was searching for the accessories available in the net. That’s how he came to know the site www.all4cellular.com. This site contains all cell phone accessories like head sets, batteries, chargers, pouches and so on. Often everyone tend to lose their cell phone chargers. Otherwise we will be looking for some wall cell phone chargers which we can use during travel. This site has everything we need at a cheaper rate. I gifted my husband with a good pouch from this site and it just cost $7.95. They have a lovely collection of speaker systems at a reduced rate. You search for the products easily. They are well organized and categorized.

They have good collection of all accessories and you can order it online. They have a secure layer which ensures the security of all of your transaction data. No hazards after shopping with our credit cards. They also provide good discounts on featured products. Browse through their site for more info on cell phone accessories, which will suit your mobile.

Keerai Poriyal (Greens Stir Fry)

2009-05-27T17:43:00.002+05:30

This is one more kind of preparing greens.

Ingredients

Arai Keerai - 1 bunch

Pearl Onions - 10

Green Chillies - 3

Red Chillies - 2

Coconut Scrapped - 2 tbsp

Seasoning

Mustard - 1tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Channa dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method

Sort the greens and wash it cleanly, to remove all the sand.

Mince it nicely. Mince onion and chillies too.

In a kadai, add a tsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Then add the onion and chillies. Saute till the raw smell goes off.

Then add the greens and salt. Mix well and wait until it gets cooked. No need to add water as the greens will get cooked in its own water.

It will take jus 5 mins to cook. Once cooked, add the scrapped coconut and mix well.

Serve hot with sambar rice.

Chutneys Combo

2009-05-26T11:50:00.007+05:30

When I am in a good mood to cook, I will take time and prepare all these chutneys together for idly. I love to have idly with variety of chutney as they serve in restaurants. Whenever I go home from hostel, I used to torture my mom, by asking her to prepare three chutneys in little quantities for me. It will delicious to have like that.

Chutney 1: Coconut Chutney

Ingredients:

Coconut - 1 cup scraped

Green chillies - 6

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Roasted Gram - 1/4 cup

Salt

Method:

In a kadai add 1 tsp of oil and saute the chillies and ginger.

Add this with the rest of the ingredients and grind it smooth.

Season it with mustard, urad dhal, and curry leaves.

Chutney 2: Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

Pearl Onion - 20

Garlic - 10

Tomato - 2 fully ripen

Red Chillies - 10

Salt

Method:

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and saute all the ingredients, till they are cooked.

In a mixer, grind it coarsely by adding salt.

Season it with mustard, urad dhal, and curry leaves, using gingelly oil.

The other one is pudhina chutney for which u can find the method here.

Serve all the three chutneys as side dish with spongy hot idlys.

Today's Tip:

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Vella Kali

2009-05-22T13:44:00.003+05:30

This is a sweet prepared only during the "Mattu Pongal", when we used to do pooja for our "Veetu Theivam"(family GOD hehehe). From the morning, we will be preparing only tiffin items for breakfast and lunch. Will start cooking only in the evening. We will do a heavy menu for the offering, which will the standard items every year. This sweet will surely be a part of the menu and this will be the last preparation. We will do the pooja only after 10pm in the night, have dinner after pooja and we will wear the new pongal dress after that only. But being an atheist, me and my chithi(who is also from an atheist family) will taste everything on time, before pooja. After all these hungama, "swamy ther" (Chariot) will come and we will offer this sweet to that god or goddess (i don't know as I will be almost sleeping on that time every year and get scoldings the next day morning). Stories aside, here comes the recipe

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 1/2 cup

Ghee - 5 tbsp

Cashew - few

Raisins - few

Cardamom - 3

Coconut scrapped - 2 tbsp

Method:

In a kadai roast the rice, till it becomes puffed.

Cool it and grind it in a mixer. It will become like rice semolina.

Heat a 1 tsp of ghee and roast the cashew and raisins and keep it aside.

In the left over ghee, add the coconut and roast till golden brown. Keep it aside.

In that kadai, add the jaggery and 4 cups of water. When it starts boiling, add the rice semolina and mix well, without forming lumps.

keep on mixing as you do for halwa. Till it becomes thick enough.

It is usually served ball shaped while offering to god and for us in a bowl with a spoon ;)

I was thinking so long for the Mithai Mela conducted by Srivalli and ended up here. But I missed the deadline, I don't whether she will accept this.

Double Sinks

2009-05-22T13:20:00.000+05:30

When it came for remodeling our house, there were many ideas from all of our family members. But I was very adamant to accept any idea for kitchen remodeling. It’s my space and i only knew all the difficulties faced and comforts needed. I was very keen on selecting the best modular kitchen, tiles for the kitchen, plumbing and appliances. I wanted to replace everything with the recent trends. That’s how I came to know about the sinks in different shapes and sizes. I got to know about the site sinks USA which has a varied collection of kitchen sinks . All of them are really attractive. What I found more attractive is the double sinks . I feel it will be very useful, while washing the vessels.

You can use one sink for washing and other one for draining. So there wont any water spilling around the kitchen. As a working woman we have many hectic days and we won’t be in a position to do washing vessels that day. The next day when we wake up, we will find many vessels being piled up in the sink. We won’t be able to search for cups also to wash, for having a coffee. In that situation, I felt if we have a double sink, we can drop all big vessels in the bigger one and the smaller things like spoons and cups in the smaller one. So that it will be easier to segregate on hectic times. I am surely going to use this in my kitchen.

Kozhi Kulambu (Chicken Gravy)

2009-05-20T16:46:00.004+05:30

When it comes to non veg, we rarely prepare at home. My hubby dear is very much intended towards Vegetarian and me too not a strict non vegetarian. I have one of my best friend and her mom is an excellent cook, especially non veg. Till date if I wish to prepare any non veg item, I used to call her and get recipe from her. Everything has turned out so well. This is one among them. Its so simple and it tastes so great.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1/2 kg

Onion - 1 big

Tomato - 2

Green Chillies - 2

Red Chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 4 tsp

Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tbsp

Coconut Paste - obtained from half coconut+1tsp cumin seeds

Seasoning

Clove - 2

Cinnamon - 2 inch piece

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

Star Anise - 1

Cardamon - 1

Method:

Cut and clean the chicken pieces well. First with water and then with turmeric powder.

Cut the onion, tomato and green chillies.

Marinate the chicken with ginger garlic paste, salt, chilly and coriander powder.

In a kadai, heat 1 tbsp of oil. Add the seasoning items and then add the onion.

When the onion turns translucent, add the tomato and green chillies. Saute for a minute.

Then add the marinated chicken and saute till the chicken is half cooked.

Add 2 cups of water and close the kadai. Once the chicken is cooked well, add the coconut paste.

Switch off the stove, once it starts boiling.

Garnish with pudhina leaves.

This kulambu will be little watery. Its a good combination with dosa/Idly. You can even have it with Rice/Roti.

I am sending this to The Potluck - Chicken event conducted by Viki

Work Boots

2009-05-20T16:36:00.001+05:30

Working boots are very much necessary for people working in construction related environment. I am here to share information on work boot. http://www.workbootsusa.com/ - this site has really got good collection of work boots. They have all brands like Danner, Wolverine, Caterpillar, Converse and much more. All of them are of high quality. They also do free shipping anywhere within US. They do provide bulk orders on time. They have all kinds of work boot which suits for mining industry, military, homeland security etc. their website is very user friendly and you can get to know many brands also. Browse through their site to get more information.

Shopping made Easy

2009-05-19T12:36:00.002+05:30

I was planning to change my semi automatic washing machine to fully automatic washing machine. But there are hundreds of brands available in the market and I am totally novice on all the features available. I wish someone could be there to guide me on things to look for, while buying gadgets. While browsing for the same, I found this website ShopWiki.com. It is really very useful for anyone who is about to buy any gadget.

When I got my Microwave oven, I didn’t know the actual usage of it. Today I am using only for reheating and for making some popcorns. I never knew the various options available in a microwave and what to look for while buying the same. If I would have taken much care like this, I would have got a valued product. That’s why I thought of sharing this valuable information with all of you, so that everyone can be benefited.

This website is really user friendly and they have information on almost all gadgets like vacuum cleaners, humidifiers, kitchen appliances etc. They have categorized the gadgets so well and it is very search any product. They have all updated information and it makes us easy to know the recent trends. The best thing I noticed in their website is they have the entire brand names list and you can read reviews about the product, do cost comparison etc. Very useful know!! I am really excited and believe you also will be ready to browse through this site immediately.

Tamarind Rice

2009-05-18T16:42:00.003+05:30

Continuing my post related to chitra pournami, I am posting this tamarind Rice. Please do take some time to read my post on chitra pournami.

Recipe for Tamarind Rice

Ingredients

Cooked Rice - 1 cup

Tamarind - Big lemon sized

Red Chillies - 10

Mustard Seed - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1/4 tsp

Channa Dhal - 1 tsp

Groundnut - 1 handful

Cashew - few

Curry Leaves

To Grind

Fenugreek Seeds - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 4

Mustard - 1 tsp

Method:

Cook the rice with 1 tsp of gingelly oil added.

Cool down the rice in wide vessel.

Dry roast the items mentioned to grind and grind it to a smooth paste.

Take a thick extract of tamarind juice and add turmeric powder to it.

In a hard bottomed kadai, add this tamarind juice and keep stirring, till the raw smell goes off and thick base is got.

In a wok, heat 3 tbsp of gingelly oil. Add all the seasoning items one by one and saute till the groundnut and channa dhal are fried properly.

Add this seasoning and ground powder to the cooled rice and mix well.

Add a little tamarind paste and mix well. Add salt and check for the taste.

Accordingly adjust the tangy or spice level. If you feel its not so spicy, you can roast few more chillies in gingelly oil and add to it.

Serve it with potato chips or plantain chips.

Play More & Win More

2009-05-18T14:02:00.005+05:30

I am here to share great news with you all. It’s all about the Charter giving away one $10,000 prize and four 52” HDTV’s as a part of their campaign to reward their customers in new and exciting ways they can. All you have to do is to visit Win 10 Grand Contest Page and answer the simple questions about charter On Demand. You can easily answer them, as they are giving hints also. Every week we have 4 chances to win and they are giving out a 52" Sony Bravia HDTV.

Charter’s Twitter Feed has over 6000 movies and shows to choose. They also have thousands of titles, which you can watch for free. That’s really a grand sweep. It will be great to have a living room decorated with a 52" Sony Bravia and a picture perfect Charter HDTV Connection. That would be a dream for many people. It has become so easier to achieve now. I have already posted about their April campaign. Their April Campaign was about winning a home theater system and one year of free Charter Digital Cable® service with HD programming. They also have given prizes like Xboxes with 360 games and Honda Civic. The prizes have always been more interesting. The more you play, the more are the chances to win.

Seasoned Curd Rice

2009-05-18T12:33:00.002+05:30

I just thought of sharing my own way of preparing curd rice(seasoned). Recently we celebrated chitra pournami. This is not a must to celebrate festival in tamilnadu, but we do celebrate just to have moonlight dinner with all the family members. Let me define Chitra Pournami(obviously for those who really dont know). This is the full moon day in the month of Apr-May, that is the tamil month Chithirai. The day is dedicated to Chitragupta, the official assistant of Lord Yama. This day is considered as Chitragupta' s Birthday.Chitragupta, the first assistant of Lord Yama, is the one who keeps record of the good and bad deeds of human beings on earth. After death, when one reaches the abode of yama, it is he who tallies the good and bad deeds and declares it to Yama. Therefore, the day is dedicated to Chitragupta and devotees pray to him to forgive their sins.

On this day we should be on fasting for the whole day and cook in the evening at before the moon comes. We will have our dinner only after seeing the moon. That will really nice to sit in the terrace, watching the moon and having food, chitchatting...so much fun.

Ok coming to the point, I prepared lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice and curd rice finally. all in very small quantities, just to have a flavour of all variety rice.

Here comes the recipe for Seasoned Curd Rice

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup cooked

Milk - 1/2 cup

Curd - 1/2 cup

Green chillies - 3 finely cut

Ginger - 1 small piece finely cut

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Cook the rice with 1 cup extra from normal cooking.

Add the milk to the rice and let it cool.

Heat a vok and add 1 tsp of oil. Add all the seasoning items and saute for a min.

Add this to the cooled rice and mix well.

Add the curd, salt and mix well.

Serve with mango pickle.

Discount AC Parts

2009-05-18T12:17:00.000+05:30

Summer has started and its time for us to upgrade our cars with air conditioning compressor. www.discountacparts.com is really the best site for all your ac Compressor needs. Whatever may be your car model, they have auto ac parts for that. They are experts in High Quality A/C Compressor, A/C Condenser, A/C Evaporator, Receiver Drier, Orifice Tube and Expansion Devices. They sell high quality products relatively at a very low cost. Their website is very user friendly and you get more details about all the ac compressors. They have all types of ac compressors which includes Mitsubishi ac compressor , BMW ac compressor, Mercedes ac compressor etc. It’s a one stop shop kind of website, which may be very useful for those who are really in need of a/c compressors.

Drumstick Leaves Adai

2009-05-15T17:28:00.003+05:30

I think, everyone will be aware of the rich Iron content in the drumstick leaves. Unluckily, I was not able to find good drumstick leaves in any shop here. Either they will have a spoiled branch or dried branch. Its my favourite and was desperatly waiting for introducing this leaves to my kid. During our search for a play home for my kid, we found a fresh drumstick tree near my place, at the play school. I felt very bad, that the tree was unexplored till that time and it was only a few yards from my place. Anyway they didnt give admission for my kid, saying its too early to put him in a play home. I realized that i am running so fast for everything with my kid. But i felt happy for my discovery of drumstick leaves atlast. So with their permission am getting fresh bunch of leaves. I love everything made out of this, and the first thing that striked my mind was adding the leaves to the adai.

Here goes the recipe

Ingredients

Par Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Toor Dhal - 1 cup

Channa dhal - 1/4 cup

Moong dhal - 1/4 cup

Urad dhal - 1/4 cup

Fried gram - 1/4 cup

Red Chillies - 8

Green Chllies - 2

Pepper corns - 1 tsp

Gralic - 7 pods

Drumstick Leaves - 1 cup

Saunf - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1/2 tsp

Salt and oil as required

Onion - 2 big minced.

Method

Soak the both the rice together in a bowl. Mix all the dhal and soak them in a seperate bowl.

Let them be sokaed for an hour.

In a mixer, add the garlic, chillies and saunf. Grind it to a smooth paste.

Later add the rice and grind well. Add the dhal later and grind it coarsely.

Add salt and aesfoetida and mix well.

Heat a kadai and saute the minced onion with 1 tsp of oil.

Once the onion turns translucent, add the randomnly cut drumstick leaves. Saute this for a minute.

Add this to the batter and mix well. The batter should be little thick.

In a tawa, prepare adai as we do for dosa. Be little liberal in using oil for getting crispy adai.

Serve hot with crushed jaggery, which also is rich in Iron. This is truly a healthy meal(Iron + mor eprotein) esp for kids and ladies.

I am sending this to Grammathu Kaimanam/Village Special Recipe Event hosted by Shama.

also sending to SWC - Cooking with Greens event hosted by Sowmya

Tips for a Wrinkle Free Skin

2009-05-15T16:59:00.001+05:30

In this world of pollution, we should take good care of health and beauty. When we grow older, our skin tends to get more wrinkles. But nowadays our skin gets damaged so soon and we are exposed to so many problems. Drinking lots of water keeps your skin intact. As soon as you take bath, apply moisturizer, which will retain the texture of your skin. So your skin won’t get dried soon. Your diet also plays a vital role here. Avoiding oily foods and high fat content, will keep your skin away from acne and pimples. Eat more of anti oxidant foods and also foods rich in fiber. This will improve the glow in your skin. Apart from all these, you can use quality skin care products like moisturizers, toners and anti wrinkle creams. But make sure that these products are of good quality and made of natural products. Wrinkle prevention does not mean only for outside beauty, but a self confidence built in you. I found this site www.skinbeautymall.com to be really useful for wrinkle prevention products. They have a great collection of skin care products for various types of skin and also for various treatments. Make a best use of their products and restore your skin vitality.

Rava Kichidi

2009-05-11T14:22:00.000+05:30

Its a simple but delicious recipe. In Tamilnadu, smaller functions will have this dish for sure. Even a novice at kitchen can do it with ease. If you are diet conscious, its a good option. Nowadays I have started adding veggies in almost all things i prepare . Its reduces your intake of food at the same time provides you more intake of veggies.

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients

Sooji/Rava - 2 cups

Cut Vegetables - 1 1/2 cups (I used carrot, beans, cauliflower, green peas, potato)

Onion - 2 big

Green Chillies - 5

Red Chillies - 2

Ginger - 1/5 tsp finely chopped

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Ghee - 1 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dhal broken - 1 tsp

Bengal Gram dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method:

Roast the rava, till the aroma of roasted rava fills in air.

Cut all the vegetables, onion and chillies.

In the kadai, heat 1 tbsp of cooking oil and add the seasoning items.

Then add the onion, chillies and curry leaves. Saute till translucent.

Add the veggies and saute till they become soft.

Add 4 cups of water and close with a lid.

When the water starts boiling, add the roasted rava and mix well without making any lumps.

Smear 1 tsp of ghee and close with a lid. Cook in a lower flame for 5 more minutes.

Delicious kichidi is ready, garnish it with coriander leaves and serve hot with Coconut chutney.

Variation-

Few people add 1 cinnamon stick and a clove while seasoning and a thick coconut paste while adding water. It also will be good, as I don't like masala much, I opted this way.

If you want it little tangy, you can even add a tomato.

I am sending this to the 15 minutes cooking event conducted by Mahimaa and also the WYF-Quick Meal event conducted by EC.

This also enters the FIC Favourite hosted by curry leaf, originated by Sunshinemom.

VOIP solutions

2009-05-11T14:15:00.000+05:30

In this advanced era of communication, the need for VOIP has become mandatory for companies. The clarity it provides makes most of the business calls easier. On an onsite-Offshore model projects, the use of a VOIP is extensive. The onsite coordinators are very easily contacted with the help of VOIP and with that all the customer issues, expectations and deliverables are made on time, without any hassle. Xpander Communications prides itself on offering a comprehensive suite of Business VoIP phone systems It has been awarded as the Provider of the Month for March 2009 on myvoipprovider.com. They have many products to suit different types of businesses like enterprise edition, customer service companies, sales organizations etc. If you are looking forward to expand your business, its time to install VOIP and that too from Xpander, the world class provider.

Tomato Kurma

2009-05-08T12:19:00.000+05:30

This is a recipe learnt from my MIL. But still I didn't get any appreciation from my hubby dear. Every time I try it, he used to say "It doesn't match my mother's preparation". I don't know, i do the same way, as she tells. I liked, hence posting it here. You please try ti and let me know, whether its good or not ;)

Ingredients:

Fully Ripen Tomatoes - 4

Onion - 2 big

Green Chillies - 3

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon - 1 inch

Bay Leaf - 1

Curry Leaf - 1

To Grind

Coconut - Half coconut

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Method:

Scrap the coconut, peel off the ginger. Grind them together to a very smooth paste with less water.

In a kadai, heat1 tsp of oil and add the cinnamon and bay leaf.

Add the onion, chillies and saute well. Then add the tomatoes and saute till they becomes soft and mashy.

Then add all the powders, salt and 2 cups of water.

Close it with a lid and bring it boil for 5 mins.

Once the raw smell goes off, add the coconut paste and stir well.

Before it starts boiling, switch off the stove.

Serve hot with idly or dosa.

Be Kind to Animals

2009-05-08T12:01:00.000+05:30

How pathetic it would be to lose our treasured pets at home? The best option is to microchip them. Microchipping is a permanent form of identification that cannot fall off or become impossible to read, giving pets the best chance of being reunited with their owners when lost. Home Again is a comprehensive national pet-recovery service that goes beyond microchipping. They help the American Humane Association’s Be Kind to Animals Week® May 3-9, 2009, by donating $1 for every pet registered during this week. They are making the donation through Bringpets home, a fundraising Web site specifically created to help shelter animals. This website has got a great collection of retailers for various products. If we purchase through this website, a portion of the amount will be sent to animals care like shelter, food and medical care. Browse through their site to get more information.

Speaking about Home Again Web Site, they have helped to recover more than 500,000 lost pets. For an annual fee, Home Again members have telephone access to pet-recovery specialists and 24/7 emergency medical assistance at 1-888-HomeAgain. The program also includes up to $3,000 (minus a $50 deductible) in medical pet insurance for lost pets and up to $500 in reimbursable travel expenses for pets found more than 500 miles from home. It doesn’t cost so much to microchip your pet. My friend recently did microchipping for her German Shepard and she is fearless now. Even if it goes beyond the yard, she is confident that she can trace it out without any hassle. Be kind to your Pets and keep them safe.

Classic Potato Fry

2009-05-05T12:56:00.000+05:30

This is my all time favourite. I think this is the simplest recipe which delivers a heavenly taste. I had a school time friend, who had a regular menu of this potato fry with curd rice. I have seen her taking this for the entire year, other than weekends. I am also a great fan of this dish, but for health reasons, I restrict from making this often. But this is the right time for my kid to enjoy the taste of this fry. He loved it a lot, when I gave him for the first time. Previously I used to give him only baked potato, with little salt and pepper. But after tasting this fry, he is not willing to take baked potatoes anymore. So nowadays I am giving potato in this form alone.

Coming to the recipe, it doesn't involve complex procedure or ingredients.

Potatoes - 3

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - As per taste

Oil for cooking.

Method:

Peel off the skin of the potato with a peeler. Slice them into thin discs.

In a kadai, heat some oil and add the mustard seeds.

Add the potato and fry it for 5 mins.

Add all the powder and salt. close with a lid and cook for 5 more mins.

In simmer, fry it for some more time, until they become crisp.

Serve hot with sambar rice or curd rice.

I am sending this potato fry to 15 minute cooking event conducted by Mahimaa

Remodeling a House

2009-05-05T12:34:00.000+05:30

Remodeling a house is truly a difficult task. When you start off with the topic of remodeling, you will get hundreds of suggestions from each member of your family. Everyone will have their own problems and they want to get rid of them after remodeling. But not every suggestion is feasible. In such a case, I suggest you to get an idea from a qualified remodeling contractor. If you are planning to do a house remodeling in and around Atlanta, it’s a best option to choose Atlanta Remodeling contractors. You prepare a draft plan with all your requirements and get the feasibility from the Atlanta Remodeling Contractor. Your job will be made easy.

Budget will also be an issue. If it’s a small renovation, you need not worry much. But if it’s done on a large scale, then you may have to opt for a home improvement loan. Moreover you cannot stretch so long for this remodeling. It has to be done sooner and the work should be appropriate. The professionals from Atlanta Remodeling project will also get you the required permits beforehand, hence making the entire process smoother. They provide a quality service at an affordable rate. You can reach them by placing a request online or by calling them at (678) 392-4759. Make use of this opportunity to renovate your house according to your convenience.

Simple Veg Noodles

2009-04-29T14:27:00.001+05:30

I am great fan of chinese cuisine(VEG though). But I like only in authentic chinese restaurants. At times I will try out something at home. Both me and my husband work in the same office. Everyday before leaving home, I will be bugging him to decide the menu for the dinner. But yesterday I was too lazy to prepare anything for dinner. So I decided my comfortable menu, which is quite a strange combo. I had some idlies prepared for breakfast and a noodles packet. So I made idly upma and then this noodles. These are the ones which you can finish it off within 10 mins and vacate the kitchen soon. Thinking that I will go to bed soon, I went home and prepared the same dinner. But my bad luck, my son was playing for a long time and I had to accompany him. So all my plan went flop :(

Ok coming to the recipe...

Ingredients:

Hakka Noodles Packet - 1

Cut Vegetables - 1 cup (I used capsicum, carrot, beans)

Onion - 1 big

Green Chillies - 2 split

Ching's Manchurian sauce - 1 tbsp

Salt - little

Method

Cut the vegetables and onion.

Cook the noodles and wash it in cold water. Keep it aside.

In a kadai, heat a tsp of oil and add the onions and vegetables.

Saute well, till they becomes soft.

Add the Chings manchurian sauce and salt. Add the noodles and mix well. Close with a lid for a min and serve hot.

Both Idly upma and this noodle can be done within 15 mins so am sending this to the 15 minutes cooking event conducted by Mahimaa.

Web Hosting made easy

2009-04-29T14:24:00.000+05:30

Thinking of getting in to a next level, ahead of being a blogger? You can get you own domain for your site. There are thousands of companies offering web hosting and you will be confused on which one to opt for. Many hosting companies are there, which varies with respect to environment, web server, scripting language, hosting environment. To know about the best provider and to know more about website hosting solutions you can get help from the webhostinggeeks. The reviews are excellent and easy to understand. Issues like user friendliness, tech support, customer service, reliability & uptime, space and price are all rated on a five star scale. Its one stop shop kind of website, with which you can easily decide, which web hosting service to choose according to your needs and budget. There is a space wherein the customers can share their experience from the provider. This page also displays precisely the overall summary of the features, bonus features and host rating for a particular Web Hosting Provider. This helps you to compare with one another. You can login to the reviews section and there you see the reviews from the web masters, customers and real metrics. This one will give you a clear picture of the best provider, in detail. Once you get your domain, you can feel the freedom over it. I think this piece of information will be really useful for frequent bloggers.

Curry Leaves Chutney

2009-04-28T10:40:00.002+05:30

Curry leaves is the one which turns an ordinary dish into an aromatic dish. This helps a lot in digestion and many diseases related to food can be cured with the help of this small herb. Almost all of the Indian dishes use it while seasoning. We can also consume it with buttermilk, by crushing it into the buttermilk. Especially for women, it helps a lot in hair growth.

This time my mom got a lot of fresh curry leaves from the garden. It was so fresh and hence i didn't want to waste by storing it for a long time in the fridge. Hence the thought of preparing karuveppilai thuvaiyal flashed my mind.

Ingredients:

Curry Leaves - 1 cup

Red Chillies - 2

Green Chillies - 2

Urad Dhal - 1 tbsp

Tamarind - gooseberry sized

Coconut - 2 tbsp

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Method:

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil. Add the urad dhal and roast it till it turns golden brown.

Add the ginger and tamarind and saute well. Then add the chillies and saute for a min.

Add the curry leaves and saute well.

In a mixer add all the roasted ingredients, salt and coconut. Grind it to a smooth paste.

This curry leaves will increase the body temperature. So if you want you can replace the tamarind with lemon juice.

Serve this chutney with hot rice and a some ghee, if you are feeding your kids. It also goes well with idly/dosa.

I am sending this to SWC - Cooking with Greens event hosted by Sowmya

Earth Day - Go Greener

2009-04-25T12:54:00.000+05:30

What are you going to gift your mother earth, on this earth day? She's nurtured us. She's given it her all and now its time for us to do something in return. Today's caption everywhere will be "Go Greener", but I say "Go Greener with Organic Fertilizers". Nowadays the synthetic fertilizers are spoiling the earth soil, with their poisonous chemicals. These organic fertilizers in turn helps the soil to retain more nutrients and moisture, as they are made of natural products such as seashells, canola oil, seabird guano, worm castings etc. Safer Brand gives you a wide variety of Garden care, natural lawn care and Pest control products. They are the world leaders in the organic insect control, organic plant disease control and organic gardening categories! All of their products are OMRI listed.

By the way what you mean by OMRI? Its nothing but the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) - a non-profit organization - provides organic certifiers, growers, manufacturers, and suppliers an independent review of products intended for use in certified organic production, handling, and processing. If the products meet the OMRI standards, then it will contain the logo OMRI Listed®. And you will find this in all Safer Products. It’s not only a matter of saving the mother earth but also our future generation. Giving a pollution free and toxic free environment to our next generation should be our long term goal.

Vazhappoo Vadai (Plaintain Flower Fritters)

2009-04-25T12:04:00.000+05:30

For all these years, people have kept on inventing new dishes out of all possible veggies. This dish is one such kind and I have wondered so many times, who would have invented this and how come they could have got such a thought ;) Coming to the recipe, its a delicious vada you can have. It goes well with Mor Kulambu and also with sambar. If you have patience(to sort the veggie), you deserve a great treat.

Ingredients:

Vazhaipoo(Plaintain Flower) - 1 sorted

Bengal Gram Dhal - 2 cups

Red Chillies - 6

Raw Rice - 1 tbsp

Green Chillies - 2

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Fennel Seeds - 2 tsp

Garlic - 4 pods

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Aesfoetida - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 2 minced finely

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves - minced finely

Method

Soak the dhal and rice seperately for an hour.

Sort out the plaintain flower, wash it and cut it roughly to grind.

In a mixer, add the rice, chillies, cumin seeds, fennel seeds garlic and ginger. Girnd it to a smooth paste by adding little water.

Then add the flower and grind it coarsely. Finally add the dhal and grind it coarsely(as you do for masal vada)

Add the minced onion, chillies, leaves and salt. Mix well.

In a kadai, heat required oil for frying.

Take a small ball of batter, flatten it and fry it in oil.

This vada wont be too crispy as masal vada. It will be soft only and crispier outside alone.

Serve hot with rice and curry. Or if you are serving as a evening snack, serve it with pudhina chutney.

General Contractors

2009-04-15T17:36:00.000+05:30

It’s not an easy job to be your own general contractor. You have to check whether the materials are arriving on time, the subordinates are coming on time and finishing off their work on time, check the perfection of the work being done and so many. Damn sure, at one point of time, you will be fed up and drop the whole plan. When it comes for building our own, it’s better to get the experienced professionals to work for us. Anyway it’s going to be our dream project and let’s get it with utmost perfection. If we seek help from San Francisco General Contractors, we can get a flawless work and we can stay hassle free. They provide the best bid not only in terms of money but also with quality. They take care of all the things such as getting building permits, delivery of supplies, subordinates work etc. When you think for hiring any general contractor we have to be sure of many things. The contractors should be licensed, reliable and satisfy customer needs. They should have a good reputation of handling many clients before. San Francisco General Contractors are very well reputed and they have experienced professionals bonded with them. Utilize them and get your dream home built perfect.

Happy Tamil New Year

2009-04-14T17:17:00.001+05:30

First of all Happy Tamil Year to All. Its been celebrated auspiciously across tamilnadu. Any start of a new year, may it be Jan 1st or Apr 14 or my Bday, I love them all. I feel afresh all these days and energize me with new hopes. I wish everything would go well throughout the year. As far as today, we had a festive brunch(No holiday here :(). Had many discussions and finalized with the menu as Drumstick Sambar, Yam Fry, Sweet Pongal, Urad Dhal Vada and Appalam. As I was running behind my kid to feed him and rushing to office, I couldn't manage to get a snap of my festive food. So I got a snap from my MIL's menu in Chennai through mail.

She prepared Sambar, Aviyal, Vada and Moong dhal Payasam. I just wanted to share how we offer for pooja. The Festive food is served on a banana Leaf . Hope you too enjoyed your New Year.

Arai Keerai Kootu

2009-04-08T12:22:00.001+05:30

Greens are very cheap and you can make much varieties out of it like kootu, poriyal, thuvattal, kadaiyal, keerai vadai and so many. The cooking time is very less. Only time consuming process is to sort out the keerai and cleaning it. If somebody does it for me, I will prepare keerai even everyday ;)

Ingredients for keerai kootu

Arai Keerai - 2 cups (washed, cleaned and chopped finely)

Pearl Onion - 10 minced

Green Chillies - 3 split

Tomato - 1 minced

Green Gram Dhal (Paasiparuppu) - 1/2 cup

For Seasoning

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Split Urad Dhal - 1/2 tsp

cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 3

Aesfoetida- 1 pinch

Method:

For this recipe the dhal should be less and the keerai should be more. Its good on both the health and taste front.

In kadai, cook the dhal (don't pressure cook it). Once it is half cooked add all the ingredients to it and close it with a lid. Let it cook for some time.

That's all season the kootu with the seasoning items.

Serve hot with rice and potato fry.

This is my kid's favourite during lunch time and hence I am sending this for Monthly Mingle -Kids Lunches hosted by Srivalli and originated by Meeta. I truly had a lovely lunch.

Again am sending this to FIC Red+Green hosted by Neha(don't know whether it fits her tricky guidelines ;)) originated by Sunshinemom

Also when I am alone at home, I will prepare this for me and not much of cooking involved, hence sending this to Single Serving Recipes hosted by Spicyrasam

Charter HDTV-a-day Sweepstakes

2009-04-07T17:04:00.000+05:30

Register with Charter Communications and grab an opportunity to win a grand prize package that includes a 52” LCD flat screen HDTV, a Home Theater System, and one year of free Charter Digital Cable service with HD programming. They have bundle packages of cable, Internet and phone connections. Doesn’t matter whether you are an existing customer or a new one, but when you order Cable, High Speed or Telephone online at Charter.com throughout the month of April – you are automatically entered to win upon installation. Charter HDTV-a-day Sweepstakes is truly an exciting offer!

They provide a high speed Internet access in speeds of 5, 10, and 16 megabits per second along very fast downloading feature. They telephone network includes feature like unlimited local and long distance calling to locations in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Charter’s phone service includes 10 popular calling features such as Call Waiting, Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Voicemail, and enhanced 911 emergency services at no additional charge. Their cable package includes both basic service and digital cable package, which has high-definition (HDTV) channels. They are well known for their excellent service. They help their customers to experience the full range of advanced communication services through cable, telephone and Internet. So enjoy the wide spread communication trends.

Homemade Fryums Series - Mor Milagai

2009-04-07T16:36:00.000+05:30

This is one of the delicious and hot side dish that can accompany any rice item. In this summer, it would be perfect to have curd rice with mor milagai. Here I am going to explain the procedure for preparing it.

Ingredients:

Green Chillies - 1 kg

Thick Curd - 1 1/2 litres

Fenugreek seeds - 50 gms

Salt - adjustable

Method:

Get the chillies and wash it properly. Slightly cut in the middle and not fully. This will let the chillies absorb the curd.

Add salt to this chillies and keep it aside for the whole day.

For this mor milagai preparation, my mom used prepare the curd at home and wont use the store bought one. Because she will get the thick curd with much cream/butter in it, which will reduce the heat of the chillies.

Whip the curd and get a thick buttermilk (along with the butter).

The same day night add the curd to the chillies mixed with salt.

Close the vessel with a lid for three days by mixing it inbetween at regular intervals like 6 hrs.

After that sun dry it during the day time on a plastic sheet. And in the night time put it in the same vessel having the buttermilk. This time the chillies will absorb more buttermilk.

This has to be done until the chillies absorb the entire buttermilk. Then for a week we have to sun dry it. It again depends on the temparature level of your city.

Store in a container for an year.

How to consume it?

In a kadai add 2 tbsp of oil and fry this mor milagai. Serve it with sambar/curd rice.

My grandma still used to fry this with castor oil, inorder to reduce the heat of the chilleis we consume.

I am republishing it for the Festive Food: Summer Treat event counducted by Priti

Plumbing made easy

2009-04-07T12:35:00.000+05:30

The biggest headache, while hurrying to office, is to fix a complex plumbing problem. Don’t worry; we have expert plumbers from www.newyorkplumber.biz, who can fix any complex plumbing issues. If it is a small issue like a leaking pipe or a clogged sink, we can fix it ourselves. But for complex issues we should have experienced plumbers in place. New York Plumbing has many experienced and qualified plumbers. During plumbing problems, its better to address quickly, as they may lead to complex issues later. If you are confident enough then go ahead and proceed with the fixing, otherwise it is better to call the New York Plumbers, who can fix it quickly. Low cost plumbing doesn’t mean for a quality work all the time. New York Plumbers always quote a better price as per the request. It’s better to get in touch with a plumber before in hand, so that you call him immediately on an emergency. This will save time, money and you won’t have any hassle at the neck of the moment. For complex plumbing problems we will definitely need equipments or devices of a plumber. In such cases seeking assistance of the experienced New York Plumbers becomes mandatory.

Simple Chicken Curry

2009-04-07T12:12:00.000+05:30

Ingredients

Chicken Boneless - 1/2 kg

Onion (Big) - 2

Tomato - 2

Chilly Powder - 1/2 tbsp

Corainder Powder - 2 tbsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Cinnamon - 2 pieces

Clove - 2

Method:

Clean the chicken well. Mince the onion and tomato.

In a kadai, add 2 tbsp of oil and add the cinnamon and clove.

Then add the onion and saute till it becomes translucent.

Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes off.

Add the tomato and saute for a while. Add the chicken pieces and keep sauting for 10 mins. It will be half cooked. Add the chilly powder, coriander powder and salt.

Add 1 cup of water, mix well and close with a lid. Allow it cook for 10 more mins.

Once it is cooked well and reaches the required consistency switch off. Garnish it with coriander and puchina leaves.

If you want it little gravy, you can also add coconut+khuskhus paste to it at the end.

Sears Huge Clearance Sale

2009-04-06T18:24:00.000+05:30

Check out Sears for their recent huge clearance sale. They have an exciting offer of 75-80% off on fall and winter apparel from now till April 18th. This is really a great deal for us and we can grab so much at a cheaper cost. They have an excellent and unique collection of products like jewelry, Toys, shoes, sports items, appliances, computers, beauty stuff and much more. Their website is really very user friendly and one can order any product easily. I really liked this Apostrophe Print Block skirt. I was amazed by the rate $3.59 each, while the actual price being $22 each. What an offer! For any apparel search, you can narrow down your search to your accurate requirements and you can choose from the colors available. Only thing you need to do is, utilize this opportunity before it expires. In this recession period, Sears’s clearance sale is truly a great deal.

They have a price matching policy which allows you to compare with other retailers for the same product. Here you can find almost all the leading apparel brands. All the branded outfits are with slashed prices. Shop online with Sears and get your favorite apparels at cheaper rates. You still have time, make use of it and get benefited.

Vathal Kulambu

2009-04-06T17:51:00.000+05:30

This is a typical south Indian favourite. this is very common in Brahmin's families. I don't know whether I am preparing it exactly the same way as they do. But mine will also be tasty...so without any hesitation you can give it a try. Sundaikkai - turkey berry. I think you can get this ready made vathal from all Indian grocery stores.

Ingredients:

Sundaikkai Vathal - 1 handful

Tamarind - lemon sized

Kulambu Milagai Thool - 3 tbsp

Pearl Onion - 20

Garlic - 10 pods (slightly crushed)

Seasoning

I use vadagam for seasoning. Otherwise we can use the regular mustard urad dhal combo and curry leaves.

Method:

Soak the tamarind in water and get the extract out of it.

In a kadai add 3 tbsp of gingelly oil. Once heated, fry the vathal and keep it aside.

In the same oil add the seasoning items. Once it starts spluttering, add the minced onion and garlic.

Saute well till the raw smell goes off. Then add the milagai thool, saute carefully for a min. don't burn it.

Then add the tamarind extract, salt and mix well. Close with a lid and allow it to boil.

Once the it reaches the required consistency, add the fried vathal and switch off the stove.

Serve with hot rice and roasted pappad(Sutta Appalam).

My MIL will crush the fried vathal and add it to the kulambu as my husband and BIL's will fish it off while eating. It will be slightly bitter in taste, but i like that way too. You can try both the ways.

Bicycle Accessories

2009-04-06T17:19:00.000+05:30

Cycling is an interesting hobby for many of us. For a comfortable cycling experience, one should have good bicycle accessories. http://directbicycleparts.com/ is a site which offers a wide range of bicycle accessories at an affordable cost. Their site is very user friendly and they have unique collection of accessories. They also offer very useful tips for cycling. Here you can discover various recent accessories available in the market. Browse through their site and get more info.

Mango Pachadi

2009-04-06T12:03:00.001+05:30

This is a sweet tangy combo side dish. This is healthy at the same time as we are using jaggery for that. This will serve as a good side dish with sambar rice.

Ingredients:

Raw Mango - 1

Jaggery - 1 cup (Depends on how sweet you want)

Green Chillies - 2

Red Chillies - 4

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Urad dhal - 1/2 Tsp

Curry Leaves

Method:

Remove the skin of the mango using a peeler. Make rough pieces of mango. I use peeler only for that.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Add the cut chillies and saute for a minute.

Add this mango pieces and saute for some time.

Add 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 tsp of salt and close with a lid.

Once the mango is cooked well add the crushed jaggery and mix well.

Cook it for five more minutes till the jaggery is completely melted down and mixed well with the mango.

Switch off the stove and serve hot with sambar rice.

I am reposting it for the Mango Mela conducted by Srivalli.

Car Steering

2009-04-02T15:34:00.000+05:30

Do you want to upgrade your Steering Rack and Steering box? Here is the end for your search. CarSteering.com provides you with a wide range of steering racks, Steering gear boxes and power steering pumps. They have steering for all car makes like BMW Steering rack, Audi steering rack etc. A comfortable and safer drive begins with a good steering control. The products they deliver are of excellent quality and at affordable prices. We can compromise on the rates but not on the quality, hence it is more important to get the quality products from dealers like carsteering.com. Upgrade your favorite car with a quality steering products through carsteering.com.

Ghee Rice

2009-04-02T11:19:00.000+05:30

I prepared this for the first time and it really came out well. And am happy as my kid liked it so much. I prepared this along with baby aloo kurma.

Ingredients:

Jeera Rice - 2 cups

Coconut Milk - 4 cups

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Cinnamon - 2 sticks

Cardomam - 2

Clove - 2

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 sliced

Bay Leaf - 1

Pudhina Leaves - 1 handful

Method:

Extract a thick coconut milk fresh. Wash the jeera rice and drain the excess water.

In a kadai, add 2 tbsp of ghee and add the bay leaf, cinnamon, clove and cardamom. Then add the onion and saute till it becomes translucent.

Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes off.

Add the rice and the coconut milk. I used microwave cooker for cooking. Microwave it till it gets cooekd well. Add the pudhina leaves at the end before serving.

Serve hot with veg or non veg kurma.

I am sending this to Flavoured Rice event which is an extension of COT-Powders Event hosted by Kadumanga

Parenting

2009-04-01T17:56:00.000+05:30

Parenting is not so an easy job. Everyone will have their own questions in growing up their children. Here is a cool website, Parents connect, which helps you to get answers for almost all your queries. They have so many tips, recipes and advices for handling kids of different age group. They have a discussion board, wherein parent can discuss their doubts and get clarified. Most of the moms will be worries on how to feed the kids with healthy food. Here we can get a bunch of recipes which are nutritious and at the same time, lovable by kids. The tips they provide seems to be very useful and simple. We can also get advice from the experts for any type of issues. Altogether all parenting needs are satisfied here. Happy Parenting.

Tomato Pickle

2009-04-01T14:14:00.000+05:30

Here is my next recipe for the tomato season. My mom prepared this and my only work was to shoot and eat. This one can be a side dish for rice or chappathi, serve as spicy jam for bread toasts or chutney for dosas. Too much na! You can preserve it for at least 15 days with refrigeration. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Tomato - 1 Kg

Red Chillies - 30 - 40

Tamarind - Lemon sized

Lemon - 2

For Seasoning:

Gingelly Oil - 1/2 cup

Mustard and Urad Dhal

Curry Leaves

Aesfoetida

Method:

Cut the tomatoes and sun dry it for a day. Also sun dry the chillies.

In a mixer grind the red chillies first without adding water. Then add the tomatoes and tamarind and grind it to a coarse paste.

In a kadai, add the gingelly oil and the items for seasoning. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add the ground paste and keep on stirring.

Take care that it is not stuck to the kadai. Likewise keep stirring till the raw smell goes off.

Switch off and store it a container for about 15days.

I am sending this to SWC-Meals on Wheels conducted by Lakshmi

Enjoy Your Pregnancy

2009-04-01T12:46:00.000+05:30

I still remember the golden days of my pregnancy. I was so novice and I didn’t know anything related to pregnancy. Also I am so shy to discuss all my doubts and fears to my gynecologist. Moreover you will be getting bundles of advices during this time. Some of them will be realistic and some may be so weird. You will be confused on which one to go for. In those cases we can better seek the help from experts through web. http://pregnancy.healthguru.com/ is one such website which you can refer for any queries related to pregnancy. The have information on when you can get conceived, how to get rid of the morning sickness, how to sleep during pregnancy and so on. This information will really help you to get rid of the unwanted fear you will have during your pregnancy. Most of the Moms-to-be will be worried of whether they will have normal or caesarian delivery. They have excellent videos which portrays different types of delivery so that you can plan for that. One should eat a healthy diet during pregnancy and you can refer the pregnancy diet from this site. It’s a complete 10 month preparation to get a healthy child. I felt this website is a one stop guide for all your queries related to pregnancy. Make use of this and enjoy your pregnancy.

Rasam - A simple one

2009-04-01T12:21:00.000+05:30

I always love to have rasam with paruppu thuvaiyal. Thats more than enough for my simple lunch. Its good for health and also can be prepared in minutes. None of grand feasts will be complete without this rasam. Here am just sharing my way of preparing it.

Ingredients:

Tamarind - Gooseberry Sized

Tomato - 1

Garlic- 2 pods

To Grind:

Pepper Corns - 1 tsp

Comins Seeds - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 2

To Season:

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Urad dhal Split - 1/2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Red Chllies - 4 broken (I usually prefer more spicy. If you want you can reduce the numbers)

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves

Method:

When you pressure cook the toor dhal for sambar, add 2 pods of garlic and the tomato to it and 1 cup of extra water. Fish them along with the extra water before mashing the dhal for sambar.

Soak the tamarind in water for sometime and strain it and get the juice. Squeeze the cooked tomato also in this water.

Crush the things mentioned to grind in a mixer and add it to this water. Don't grind too much.

Add salt, turmeric powder and mix well.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items. Pour this rasam and Switch off the stove before it boils or once it starts boiling.

Pour this rasam into a bowl containing curry leaves, corriander leaves, 1 tsp of cooked toor dhal and cooked garlic.

Serve hot as a soup or along with rice.

International Calling Cards

2009-03-26T10:13:00.000+05:30

When I am searching for some good calling cards, I found this website http://www.uniontelecard.com/. The site is so user friendly and they have a lot of offers to choose. Comparatively the calling rates are so cheaper and you can call any destination across the globe. My cousin went to Canada on an onsite assignment last month. He is got engaged recently with an Indian girl. They have a lot to talk and understand. I suggested this site to him and he was so excited and thanked me a lot. He is making use of all the best offers available here. Their Prepaid Phone cards has so many exciting features like Auto recharge which helps the customers to get their phone cards recharged automatically whenever the balance goes down. It will be very helpful when you are traveling and have no access to net. You also have a benefit of PIN less dialing for 5 specific numbers of your choice. It saves time when you want to call your near and dear ones. They have a bonus points program which allows the customers to earn bonus points on several offers they avail. These bonus points can then be converted into account balance. They also have great offers when you refer your friends who are new to this. Make the best use of this site and reduce the distance between your loved ones.

Bread Bajji

2009-03-26T09:10:00.000+05:30

A Great evening time snack. My FIL is a great lover of bajji that too bread bajji. Bread bajji with pudhina chutney will be a great combination.

Ingredients:

Besan Flour - 1 cup

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp

Saunf Powder - 1/4 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Salt - as required.

Oil for frying

Method:

Mix all the flour and powder together with water. The consistency matters here. If its watery then the bajji will be oily and if its too thick, then it wont be tasty. So make it to the appropriate consistency and you can alter it accordingly on seeing first bajji result.

Here I have added all ready made powder and paste. But if you wish, you can grind red chillies, saunf and garlic together to a smooth paste. The taste will be great.

Coming back to the recipe, cut the bread slices in your desired shape. If you want, you can remove the corner portions of the bread. I don't prefer it as the corner portion of the bread is the more nutritious part and also that will become the crispier part of the bajji. so its beneficial in both the ways as tasty and healthy. Soak the bread pieces into the batter and deep fry in oil. It takes only less time to cook.

Serve hot with pudhina chutney.

You can even make this recipe so rich. Prepare a potato masala and make a sandwich kind of. Soak it in the batter and prepare the same way. The taste will be much more heavenly. As its time consuming i am not taking that risk.

Lovely Watches

2009-03-25T14:52:00.000+05:30

I always keep so many watches in my cupboard. I prefer watches which are very sporty, classic style and also a few professional collections. The very trendy modern watches with golden and silver metal strap will suit you if you go office or a party dinner with your suit. Even a leather strap watch with only dial would be good if you use in daily events like office, work etc. For gym and morning jogging we could go with the sports watch with electronic digital display and with dialers.

I usually prefer to where eco drive watches as there is no need to change the battery and life of those watches are long, but still design and the look of the watches matter a lot. Always you should prefer watches on the basis how does it suit you and the purpose. My favorite all time best collection include Citizen watches, Eco drive watch, two tone metal stainless steel watches, loose wrist watches, perpetual calendar cum Alarm watches filled my cupboard a lot. Watches with diamonds and gold plated are costly but they are sure being best in look and class. You can find a lot of watch collections in the bluedial. You can choose the favorite watches from the lots and lots of collection.

Carrot Halwa

2009-03-25T14:47:00.000+05:30

Ingredients:

Carrot - 1/2kg

Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

Ghee - 5 tbsps

Cashew - for garnishing

Milk - 1 cup

Method:

Peel off the skin of the carrot and using a scrapper, scrap it.

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of ghee and add the scrapped carrot. Saute well till the raw smell goes off.

Then add the milk and close the kadai. Allow the carrot to cook.

Once the carrot is cooked well, add the sugar and mix well.

Once the sugar is completely melted down, add the remaining ghee in regular intervals. Keep stirring often.

At certain stage the halwa will start leaving out the ghee. This is the perfect stage to switch off the stove.

Garnish with roasted Cashew.

Mushroom Chilly

2009-03-25T11:34:00.001+05:30

After a sterounous week of training am back to the blogosphere. In a hurry am posting this recipe as i still have few more days of training. oooh!

This recipe was dormant in my store for a long time and i wanted to post it this time for sure.

I love chinese food a lot. My love for chinese food made me to tryt his out and i really got an appreciation from my husband sayign that "this is very similiar to the one we get in China Pearl (My favourite restaurant in bangalore)"

Here it goes

Ingredients:

Mushroom - 200gms

Onion - 1 sliced

Green Chillies - 5

Ginger - minced finely a small piece

Garlic- 5 pods minced finely

Heinz Manchurian Sauce - 1 tbsp

Corn Flour - 1 tbsp

Method:

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and add the onion. Saute well till translucent.

Add the chillies, ginger and garlic and saute for few minutes.

Add the mushroom and saute for few minutes.

Add the sauce and mix well. Close it with a lid and allow it to cook for 5 mins.

Take a half a cup of water and mix the corn flour without any humps.

Once the mushroom is cooked, add this corn flour water to it, to thicken the gravy.

Thats it server hot with noodles or fried rice.

exterior shutters

Simple Veg Curry

2009-03-17T18:08:00.000+05:30

I always prefer a simple method of cooking. I hate to stand for a long time in the kitchen. Everyday I used to spend around half an hour in the kitchen where in I will prepare breakfast and pack my lunch. If i feel it will take more than this time...I will not prepare anything for lunch...so we will altogether have good dinner at 7pm itself. Thats it. This is one such simple curry which can be done within few minutes and tasty to have with rotis or rice.

Ingredients:

Veggies - 2 cups (Whatever u like)

Onion - 1 minced

Tomato - 1 minced

Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Saunf Powder - 1/4 tsp

Curry Leaves - few

Method:

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and saute the oil till they become translucent.

Add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes off.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Add 1/2 cup of water and allow it to cook by closing with a lid.

Serve hot with Chappathi and raitha. Thats my dinner plate...taste it.

My kids favourite is green peas. He will get the peas and cauliflower alone from everyone in a plate and eat so cutely(I thought of capturing that but forgot...ooh). So am sending this to Monthly Mingle - Kids Lunches conducted by Srivalli orginated by Meeta

Home Furniture Sale

2009-03-17T17:52:00.000+05:30

Looking for some good furniture to decorate your house? Max Furniture offers home furniture at affordable price. You can order it online and get it shipped to your location. They have wide variety furniture to decorate your Living room, bedroom, bathroom, dining room etc. All the furniture is of extraordinary quality. They have all price ranges available. Their website is very user friendly and very clear picture they display. Max Furniture Ltd is well known for its product design and customer service. Max Furniture has recently tied up with HomeDirectUSA to Provide Home Deliveries to Their Residential Customers. They are dealing with all US and international customers even. They ensure for the quality, with which they have sustained in this industry for these many years. They are giving many attractive offers in their Max Furniture Clearance sale. They offer free shipping on a limited quantity of bedroom sets. A house becomes a home with lucrative furniture. The furniture we buy should be of good quality and they should be used on a long run. Most of the furniture they have is handcrafted to ensure exclusiveness and it takes minutes to order them online. I believe this piece of information will be very useful for those who are looking for quality furniture at affordable prices. Make use of this opportunity and decorate your dream home with lucrative furniture.

Capsicum Sambar

2009-03-17T15:26:00.000+05:30

Ingredients

Capsicum - 1 or 2 depending on the size

Toor Dhal - 1/2 cup

Sambar Powder - 2 tsp

Tamarind - lemon sized

Pearl Onion - 10

Tomato - 1

Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Broken Urad Dhal - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Red Chillies - 2

Method:

Pressure cook the toor dhal. Mince capsicum by removing the inside seeds, onion and tomato.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil. Add the onion, tomato and capsicum and saute for few minutes.

Add the dhal, turmeric, sambar powder and salt. Capsicum takes less time to cooks. So within five minutes add the tamarind extract. Allow it to boil for five more minutes.

Once the raw smell of sambar powder and tamarind goes off, swtich it off.

Season the sambar with the items mentioned for seasoning.

Garnish using coriander leaves and curry leaves.

This sambar goes to Lentils Mela hosted by Ashwini

Dollhouse Miniatures

2009-03-16T14:02:00.000+05:30

Are you fond of miniature collections? Here is a cool website which has a unique and awesome collection of Dollhouse miniatures. They have a specialized collection of dollhouse furniture, dollhouse accessories, dollhouse kits, dollhouse supplies and dolls in 1:12 scale. I enjoyed seeing all the products they have and how cute they are. It includes items for living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen etc.

I really loved the 5-PC SALAD BOWL SET. It’s made of wooden, which includes lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives and wood salad serving tongs. You can order it online and get it delivered. Their website is very user friendly. The pictures are detailed and up close with, which you can get to know the clear size and colour of the miniature. Browse through Zoolabees Dollhouse Miniatures website and I am sure you are going to be attracted on seeing their excellent collection.

Quick Fried Rice

2009-03-16T12:41:00.000+05:30

Coming home late from work and thinking of what to prepare for dinner is always a headache for me. Every week I will get veggies, cut them and store them. This always helps to me add veggies to any dish i prepare. I will take a handful of cut vegetables and add it to the upma, or curry for chappathi. This time I had some leftover rice and few veggies alone. So I prepared this quick fried rice.

Ingredients:

Leftover Rice - 1 cup

Vegetables - 1 cup (I had carrot, beans, cabbage...if you have more like peas, cauliflower also will do good)

Ginger Garlic and green chillies paste - 2 tsp

Onion - 1

Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Method

In a kadai add 2 tsp of oil and add the onion. Saute them till translucent.

Then add this paste and saute till the raw smell goes off

Add all the powder, salt vegetables and mix well. Close it with a lid and allow it cook in a lower flame. As i have finely cut all the vegetables, it will take only less time to cook.

Once they are half cooked add the rice and mix well. Close with a lid again.

Garnish it with coriander or pudhina leaves.

That's all its done, serve hot with raitha and potato chips.

I am republishing it for Flavoured Rice event which is an extension of COT-Powders hosted by Kadumanga

Construction Clothing

2009-03-13T15:28:00.000+05:30

Is your construction company is looking for construction clothing? Here is the one stop website www.constructiongear.com , where you can find all varieties clothing, work gloves and work boots. They are dealing all top brands available in the market today. While talking about work boots they should be insulated, waterproof, electrical hazard resistant and slip resistant. Here they showcase various boots satisfying the above requirements. Depending on your work environment you can place the order and it will be shipped within 24hrs. It comes almost all sizes and the collections are there for women and kids too.

Hard hats play an important role in any construction related industry. They have all the safety hard hats at different price range and collection for different kind of work environment. They have hats for welders too with electrical safety. Apart from the work environment collection they also have general clothing like winter clothing, thermals, pants, jackets etc displayed over here. So everyone will get benefited by browsing through this site. They have lovely kids collection which includes fleece hat, beanie caps etc. Men can find an awesome collection of cargos, Dungarees, dickeys etc. I really liked the jackets which are displayed here. The site have both generic and safety jackets. They are all so attractive and best prices they offer.

Kothu Parotta

2009-03-13T12:33:00.000+05:30

Parotta is favourite from childhood. During any exam holidays my mom will be waiting to visit her sister places. I love my dad so much and I always love to stay with him. So I wont accompany my mom and me & dad will lead a bachelor kinda life during the hols. Everyday we will have parotta which will be very tasty in my village. I can bet anywhere for its taste. My menu everyday will be BF - Parotta, Lunch - curd rice(Dad's prepararion) and dinner (Kothu Parotta). Lovely days were they. After I am married I find no time to prepare parotta or taste the same. Recently I prepared Pratt's with the help of cham's Layered Parotta. It came out well, but am too lazy to prepare such one which requires a lot of patience. This week I got some frozen parottas and wanted to try out the kothu parotta. As I have seen the preparation so many times in my life, it appeared as a scene in front of me. So followed that and prepared it and my hubby dear loved it and appreciated me.

Ingredients:

Frozen Parottas - 4

Onion - 2 chopped finely

Tomato - 1 minced

Green Chillies - 2 split

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Kurma - 1/2 cup

Method:

Prepare the parottas as given in the instructions. Tear them into small pieces.

In a kadai, add 2 tsp of oil and add the onions, saute it till it becomes translucent.

Then add the chillies and tomato and saute till the tomato becomes soft.

Add all the powder mentioned above and then add the parotta pieces. Mix well so that the masal gets coated over all the pieces.

If you want to prepare muttai parotta, add the eggs at this stage and mix well and allow it cook.

At the final stage add the kurma/salna and mix well. Actually i prepared potato kurma for lunch on that day (Keeping in mind that i will prepare this dish for dinner hehehe).

Garnish with coriander or pudina leaves, i didn't have either that time.

Your delicious Kothu parotta is ready now. You can serve it with Onion raitha or kurma/salna.

Titanium Wedding Rings

2009-03-13T11:50:00.000+05:30

Wedding is always treasured as a golden moment in everyone's life and wedding jewelry plays a very important role in that. Especially for women it matters a lot as she wants to be the center of attraction in that auspicious occasion. Nowadays you can find many websites showcasing different kinds of wedding jewelry. I found one website which has an awesome collection of Wedding Rings .

They have a wide variety of titanium wedding bands with Polished or Satin finish. They give a rich look and also add beauty to the couple. Exchanging rings indirectly means the mingling of two hearts together and establish a long lasting relationship between the two.

Tungsten rings are also gaining familiarity in the recent days. They are the wear resistant and scratch resistant brands available in the market. They are comparable to Ruby and Sapphire. In this site you can find a rare collection of tungsten rings, which have inside ring engraving and special finish. They provide you with Lifetime warranty also. Apart from wedding rings they also showcase much other wedding jewelry like necklace, bracelet, crosses etc. I believe that this site will surely be useful for all who are ready for marriage or who are arranging for one. Better have a look at this site to get the recent trends and designs available in the market.

Idly Batter for Spongy Idlys

2009-03-12T17:24:00.000+05:30

All experienced cooks....don't blame me. I am posting this only for novice to kitchen. I have been constantly asked by many of my friends to post the procedure for spongy idlys. Its especially for them. When it comes to idly batter, it differs from state to state. Here I will tell about the Tamilnadu style of preparation.

Ingredients:

Par Boiled Rice/Idly Rice - 4 cups

Urad Dhal - 1 cup

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Salt(Crystal) - 1 handful

Method:

Soak all the ingredients separately for at least 5-8hrs.

In the grinder, grind either the rice first or the dhal and fenugreek together first. Its nothing to do with grinding order. Usually what i prefer is to grind the dhal first then the rice as it will be easier for me to wash the grinder later.

Once you grind both mix them together well along with salt. To test whether they are mixed well, take a handful of batter and pour from some height as shown below.

The batter should flow evenly. If it is not mixed well, it flow part by part.

Keep it aside by sprinkling some water over the top of the batter. Close it with a lid, don't close it tightly.
Allow it to ferment for 8 hrs.

The next day when you open it the batter will raised a level above.

Mix it slightly with a ladle. Take a scoop of it and put it in the idly maker. Spongy idlys are ready to serve with chutney/sambar.

Tips:

Batter depends on the rice and dhal you use. Suppose if the dhal is yielding more batter then reduce the amount of dhal you soak and the other way round too. If the idly is sticky, then you can add 1/2 cup of raw rice while soaking. Little bit of analysis will do.

While grinding, be conscious that the batter should not be heated up. Otherwise you can use your idlys to hit anyone.

Whiel mixing the batter should not be too thick or too watery. Take care and prepare spongy idlys.

I am sending this to Lentils Mela conducted by Ashwini. I believe it suits the bill.

Find Irv's Luggage at FindSavings.com

Crispy Rawa Dosa

2009-03-12T12:45:00.000+05:30

This one will be everyone's favourite. But it depends on how crispy it is prepared. I will be the last one to have dinner, when we prepare rawa dosa at home. Because everyone will be mastering the dosa towards the end. Also the batter will be soaked properly for much time, so as to get crispy dosa. I pretend to be so responsible and wait for the dosa.

Ingredients:

Maida/All Purpose Flour - 1 cup

Rawa/Sooji - 1 cup

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Pepper Corns - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Onion - 2 chopped finely

Green Chillies - 4 chopped finely

Curry leaves and Coriander leaves - chopped

Method:

Soak the sooji in water for 1 hr. The more time you soak it, the more crispy the dosa will be.

Add the rest of the flour and mix well without any humps. Add the required salt to it.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and saute the onion , chillies and leaves.

Add it to the mix and add the rest of the ingredients. The batter should be very thin unlike dosa batter.

Tips:

Adjust the proportion of maida and rawa after preparing the first dosa.

More patience is needed to get crispy dosa. maintain a low flame and high flame suitably.

Baby Clothing

2009-03-10T18:03:00.000+05:30

After my son came, my whole purchase will list only his needs and clothing. I used wonder how drastically I changed all of a sudden. I really feel jealous on seeing the Baby clothing collections available for today's kids. I found a website which has a very great collection all baby needs like Babies Clothing, Babies Jewelry, Bathing collection, Plates collection and the list goes on. I was really thrilled on seeing such products. The collection displayed here is unique, colorful and awesome. They also have a collection of Funky Baby Clothes which can make your kid, attract all the people around, wherever you go. They become the star of the show. I really loved this Organic Toys collection they have. I am really concerned more about the child's safety. Junior Builder Natural Wooden 41 Piece Blocks Set contains 41 wooden blocks are of a superior quality and craftsmanship. They are really so cute and my kid is truly gonna enjoy playign with this natural toy.

As I am having a boy, I am very particular about his dressing along with his comfortness in that dress. The boy’s collections are too good here. Actually I was expecting a girl baby then, so usually whenever I go for purchase of kid's dress, I will always have a quick view of girl dresses. Here you can purchase all the Children's Clothes at an affordable price.

If you are planning to gift any kid, I can bet you that this is the best place for you to get the wholesome collection that suits any kid. You can order online and get it delivered to your home. It’s so easy. Browse through this site and give a treat your kids. Happy Parenting!!

Tomato Rice

2009-03-10T17:38:00.000+05:30

As this is the tomato season here, we are preparing so many dishes out of tomato. Tomato is my favourite, even when the season is not there I use of plenty of tomato. Its better to use tomato in the place of tamarind. Here is the recipe for tomato Rice

Ingredients

Rice - 2 cups(I used Basmati)

Tomato(Fully Ripe) - 7

Onion - 2 sliced thin

Green Chillies - 2 split

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp

Cinnamon clove and fennel seeds - as per your spice level

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - as per taste

Method

Soak the Basmati Rice for 15 mins

In a kadai, heat the ghee and add the spices and onion. Saute well till it becomes translucent.

Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes off.

Then add the tomatoes and saute till it becomes soft. Add the powders and mix well.

Now add the rice and mix well.

If you like you can also add coconut milk. Otherwise add the required water and salt. Mix well and transfer the contents to a rice cooker.

Once cooked garnish it with pudhina leaves. Serve hot with onion raitha.

I am republishing it for Flavoured Rice event which is an extension of COT-Powders hosted by Kadumanga

Turbochargers

2009-03-10T12:18:00.000+05:30

Having an Audi or Volkswagen and looking for good turbo chargers? Here is the end for your search. www.turbochargerpros.com gives you the best quality Turbochargers, superchargers, nose cones etc. You can order any Volkswagen turbo or an Audi Turbo online and they will be shipped the next day. All the parts are of unbeatable quality, factory original equipments and all these at an affordable price. They are also dealing with remanufactured parts, which are thoroughly rebuilt. Before shipping each and every product is checked with utmost care on all possible machines and that’s how they maintain the highest standards. The online marketing can survive only with a best customer service and this turbocharger pros is not an exception. They have the best policies designed for returns and warranty. Get the best turbochargers from www.turbochargerpros.com and utilize the best.

Vegetable Biryani

2009-03-10T11:31:00.000+05:30

When I was so young, I read a recipe from a famous magazine. I still remember the name of the recipe "Groundnut Rasagulla". I tried it out and it turned out to be a super duper flop. From that time i made a decision that i should never try recipes from magazines. Last time when my MIL came here, she brought the magazine Aval Vikatan. They give a small recipe booklet along with that. I was just flipping the pages and I found this recipe. It appeared so easy, hence I thought I can give a try (To test whether the magazine recipes are really worth trying at least now ;)). Tried it out and it turned out so well. So some magazines gives the true recipes too ;)

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice-2 cups

Vegetables minced- 2 cups (I added carrot, beans, potato, cauliflower, green peas, mushroom and paneer)

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Curd - 1/2 Cup

Coconut Milk - 1 cup

Onion - 1 minced

Tomato - 1 minced

Green Chillies - 2 diced

Mint leaves - 1 handful

To Grind:

Cardamom - 2

Clove - 2

Cinnamon - 2

Red Chillies - 8

Green Chillies - 4

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Garlic - 10 pods

Fennel - 1 tsp

Cashew - 10

Method

Grind together all the items mentioned to grind, to a smooth paste.

Soak the basmati rice for 15 mins

In the kada, add the ghee and add a bay leaf and other spices like cinnamon and clove.

Add the onion and saute well till they become translucent. Then add the chillies and tomato.

Now add the ground masala and saute well, till the raw smell goes off.

Now add the vegetables and mix well.

Add the rice and rest of the items and mix well. Transfer the contents to a rice cooker and add the required water(1 1/2 cup is enough as water is already there in coconut milk and curd).

Once the rice is cooked well, garnish it with mint leaves and serve hot with onion raitha.

I am republishing it for Flavoured Rice event which is an extension of COT-Powders hosted by Kadumanga

Cosmetic Surgery Advice

2009-03-09T12:31:00.000+05:30

Cosmetic Surgery is the way to reshape or resize and increase the beauty. Nowadays this surgery has become more common due to the extensive medical breakthroughs and less expensive surgical procedures. Here is a good site to visit, if you want any kind of Cosmetic Surgery Advice. MYA, Make Yourself Amazing, exactly tells you the goal of great cosmetic surgeon. There is a forum to discuss more about the surgeries. If you have any doubts regarding the surgery, you can get it clarified from the experts through this site. The advancements in science and technology have made cosmetic surgery very easy and less expensive, that anyone can afford it. If you are looking for a cosmetic surgery, first educate yourself through websites like this, get the surgery advice from experts and then proceed. The surgeons at MYA are so informative and help you to dispel many of the myths that keep you skeptical about cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery depends on individual’s body condition and how they will respond to the treatment provided. So it’s always best to have a consultation with a specialist in cosmetic surgery. The website details you about the procedures they adapt for any kind of surgery along with the personal stories from their patients. This will surely help you to clarify all your doubts related to cosmetic surgery.

Homemade Fryums Series - Bitter Gourd Fryums

2009-03-09T12:30:00.000+05:30

I believe everyone will be aware of the medicinal value of this Bitter guard. We do prepare fryums out of this. This will take a week to complete the process. I am giving the exact proportions which I used this time.

Ingredients:
Bitter Guard - 2 kgs
Curd - 2 litres
Green Chilies - 100 gms
Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp
Salt - As per taste (it should be slightly high as it has to be stored for months)

Method:

Firstly cut the bitter guard in round shape. Don't slice it so thin. While drying it will shrink, so slice it accordingly.

Add the salt and keep it closed for 12 hrs. Next day add the curd to it and mix well. Again marinate it for about 1 day.

Grind together the chillies and cumin seeds to a smooth paste. Add it to the marinated bitter gourd.

Sun dry it in a plastic sheet for about a 4-5 days, depending on how fast it gets dried up. Store it in a air tight container.

In a kadai, add oil for frying (amount required for roasting pappad). When the oil gets heated up, add these dried bitter guard and roast it till it becomes crispier. Don't roast too much as it will leave a bitter taste.

Tip:

Don't use too much of oil for frying this, as the oil also will get the bitter taste after frying. Its better to fry once in a week or once in four days and store in a container, so that there is no need to waste oil. This again depends how much you love this fryum and how frequent you take it.

This will serve as a good side dish for sambar rice and curd rice.

I am republishing it for the Festive Food: Summer Treat event hosted by Priti