notes

Varalakshmi Nombu

2007-08-28T22:29:00.001-04:00

Aadi and Chennai

2006-08-05T19:55:00.000-04:00

The month of Aadi brings me fond memories. A month booming with festivals. Aadi Perukku, Aadi Velli, Aadi pooram, Varalaksmi Pooja and so on… I cant forget these days as a grand feast is served at home on all those days.Vada Payasam on all of them and kozhukattai for a few of them. During my college days my friends used to really look forward to this month as my mom used to pack vadai and kozhukaatai for my hostelite friends… And they served as an excellent snack during our much awaited break hours.
On the 18th day of Aadi month called Aadi perukku, variety rice is prepared and people go to the river side and have their food and thank the Goddess Cauveri.. I used to look forward to this day as my family used to visit a place with a small stream nearby called Agali and have our lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice and curd rice with vadams. We used to carry with us a small tape recorder operated with battery playing nice melodious songs and play cards. Those were happy times spent with the family. We hardly have time for such activities now with my family spread out.

Speaking of Aadi ,I still have one question. Is the month of Aadi auspicious or inauspicious ? Weddings and any major functions are not conducted during this month and I wonder if aadi is auspicious or inauspicious.

Another exciting factor is the Aadi sale. Chennai is one place where one can experience the Sale Fever. A marketing affair is what you can call it. Since no new ventures are carried out during this month a way was found to attract the consumer market. There had to be a technique to get past the fallow period in the agricultural cycle. The silk saree retailers started the concept of the Mega Aadi sale which was soon followed suit by the retailers of consumer durables, home appliances. They even run an advertising campaign on TVs, hoardings, newspapers, special pamphlets .. all to attract the customers. One can experience the sale fever if one happens to pass by the Pondy Bazar and Usman Road areas of T Nagar. Panagal Park is the hub of Aadi sale.

My friend and I, who are shopping fanatics have tried going by these places during this season. But the heat and the rush did not really get us there. It didn’t have to be aadi for us to shop. Every weekend was aadi for us .We enjoyed designing our clothes. I had another friend with whom I used to do my accessory shopping where we used to get in to every shop of Pondy Bazaar and Ranganathan street. Don’t ask me how we managed to get in to those streets and shop. But we did it..

I miss the T Nagar and Mylapore/Alwarpet of Chennai, I ask my friends if they miss my company while shopping. Oh my, the response I got from both of my friends was really touching.. Heard they don’t shop all that much these days and they sure do miss my company.

I am waiting for my vacation to India and my shopping at T Nagar !!

My Love

2006-07-25T21:37:00.000-04:00

Each morning as I wake up
Sweet thots of you
begin in to creep in to my mind
only to wake up
to find you in my dreams
I wait for you to
blossom inside me
bestow that special feeling that none can provide
bring a new meaning to my life
I yearn for the day for you to be mine..

Beautiful Thuya Wood

2006-07-24T19:09:00.000-04:00

My weekend shopping led me to this wonderful jewel- box made of Thuya wood from Morocco. I was so fascinated by its wonderful scent and the craftsmanship that I bought this piece right away.

Beautiful Jewel Box

Thuya wood, a rare wood comes from the Thuya tree (Thuya orientalis), Chinese Arborvitae or Oriental Arbor-vitae. Though its name refers to China, it grows wild in many parts of Morocco and especially around Essaouira.IThis cedar-like aromatic wood is exclusive to Morocco. The unique effect to the wood is brought out by using the outgrowths on the root of the trees and not the trunk and branches which is common.
The wonderful fragrance is brought out by rubbing the wood with lemon juice and vegetable oil for hours and revealing what is the Thuya's natural burled grain. This fragrance and appearance is what sets Thuya wood apart from other woods
I understand that it requires great skill to convert the wood to beautiful gifts and have been passed down traditionally from generation to generation

Thuya Tree

Thuya Root

July 4 Fireworks

2006-07-05T14:58:00.000-04:00

As America celebrated its independence day yesterday July 4th, I was reminded of the independence day celebrations in India. Nostalgic memories of school/college where we had the flag hosting,school parade, songs of Sare Jahaan se accha, Vande Matharam ending with some cultural programmes.I guess today,after the flag hoisting , people spend the day watching television and there is a big time competition among the various channel providers for the interesting programmes they telecast

Since this is my first independence day in the US, hubby and I ventured out to watch the fireworks at the National Mall, DC. I was really taken aback seeing the crowd though hubby did warn me.It was like a thiruvizha.. I have never been to a thiruvizha and guess this is how a thiruvizha would like like in India with the exception of a well behaved crowd as in the US. I almost visited the Mylapore thiruvizha but didnt quite make it fearing the crowd and the narrow streets.

Coming back, I could see people and people, tall short, fat,slim ,from various origins and probably from virginia, DC and maryland ,all geared up to watch the fireworks. It was an amazing display. I only regret that my battery hadnt conked off and I could have captured the wonderful moments(I should remember to check the battery before I leave home). But I did manage to get a few of them though not the best.

There were "Hot Dog" and icecream stalls everywhere. I learn that July is National Hot Dog month and during the July 4th weekend alone 155 million will be consumed and 7 billion between Memorial Day and Labour Day.

The fireworks lasted 30 minutes. It was a spectacular display with the cheering crowd. I read that the evening crowds easily number in excess of 700,000 and believe it or not I was one among them!!!

Fireworks... picture from the internet

Pictures from my Camera (not come out well)

A section of the crowd waiting for the fireworks to begin

The Crowd making their way out...

A glimpse of the metro.I have never seen a crowd like this before.

Potato Podimas

2006-06-24T12:55:00.000-04:00

Potato I believe is one vegetable liked by all. Here is a recipe that is a favourite of mine and is easy to prepare

POTATO PODIMAS

Ingredients
Potatoes – 3 boiled & mashed
Green chillies - 4-5 Chopped
Channa Dal – ½ tsp
Urad dal – ½ tsp
Red Chillies – 2
Mustard Seeds – ½ tsp
Curry Leaves
Grated coconut - 3 tbsp
lime juice - 2 tsp (optional)
oil - 1tbsp
Salt to taste

Method

• Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and allow them to splutter.

• Now add the seasoning ingredients – Channa Dal, Urad Dal and Red Chillies

• When they turn brown, add the chopped green chillies and curry leaves and fry for a minute

• Add mashed potatoes, salt and cook for 5 minutes under low flame

• Add coconut and lime juice just when ready to serve

Shocking Yet Interesting

2006-06-24T08:52:00.000-04:00

I recently watched an interesting rather shocking (for me) episode on the Ophrah Winfrey show. The show had a couple of identical twins as guests. What was interesting was one of the identical twins had changed their sex !!! Imagine changing your sex. Would one dare to do that .. I can never ever imagine this.. Why would one want to do that ? Both the guests were identical twins and both were women. And one of them had changed to a "Man". They talked about how important it was for them to be a "Man" and the need for them to change their sex. I have actually heard of this, but it was interesting to actually watch somebody live. I believe the male changing to a female is more predominant than the female changing to male. The condition is called "transsexual" It means that someone is born physically male or female but they feel like the other gender mentally. And this is different from being a "Tranvestite" which is more common where they want to dress as the opposite gender. I was totally taken aback by watching one of the guests on the show. The guest was born a female (identical twin). Was a lesbian before the guest got a sex change done to a male, now dates women and has gay friends and is attracted to men as well as women.. Oh my God, all this is too much for me to digest coming from a traditional South Indian background but I guess they do happen. Why cant people live the way they are born and make the best of it.

Visit to the Pittsburgh Venkateswara temple

2006-06-19T22:05:00.000-04:00

Visiting the temple has always given me a great sense of satisfaction. I felt contended when we visited the Pittsburgh temple yesterday. I believe that the temple is the first Hindu temple in the United States. The vaadhyam, the mantras and the sculptures in the Pittsburgh Venkateswara temple brought me back my mylapore memories. Having lived close to the mylapore temples, I got lucky enjoying the traditional essence of temples, carnatic music and of course good food.

It was such a feast watching little girls in pattu pavadai and I did spot people in veshti and pattu podavai.Not to mention food - we had good sambhar sadam and puliyodarai.

We bought a book on Hindu culture by Swami. Tejomayananda the spiritual head of the Chinmaya mission worldwide and is a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda. I ought to read this book. I am often asked by my American friends to talk about our Indian culture. Srini and I felt we could share this book with them. I borrowed a book “Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies” by Abbeja A Dubois from Prakash, Srini’s friend. I am yet to read it inspite of Prakash’s high recommendation . Srini has started asking me a lot of questions on religion, God etc… and this is inspiring me to read these books.

Way to win a man's heart

2006-06-17T03:33:00.000-04:00

It is often said the way to win a man’s heart is through his stomach. Mine is with new recipes. Srini (my hubby) loves it when I surprise him every time with a new dish at the dinner table. And who wouldn’t want to please her man !!!!

I have never been a great fan of Brinjal or the Eggplant until I started cooking. One I wasn’t aware at the number of recipes you could come up with it. Gosh ! It’s really awesome and I now know what I have missed all these years. I have always been so finicky with food and hardly ate veggies during my childhood years. Being a pampered spoilt brat my mom let me off and was too pleased if I did eat a meal, forget the veggies…

Today , Eggplant is now a must-buy in my shopping list. Srini loves all the variations that I prepare with them. The Methi Baingan that I prepared day before yesterday was a big hit at dinner and Srini loved it so much.. I am sure you will love it too..I served it along with Cabbage Parathas .You could with rice or chappatis…

Methi Baingan
Ingredients:
Brinjal – small 6 in no
Tomatoes – 2
Fenugreek leaves (Methi) – one bunch
Green Chilles – 3 (adjust according to your spice levels)
½ tsp Tumeric powder
mustard seeds and cumin seeds – 1 tsp for seasoning
salt to taste
oil to fry

Method

• Slit the brinjals lengthwise and finely chop the tomatoes and methi leaves and green chillies

• Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard and cumin seeds

• When they begin to splutter, add tumeric powder

• Now add the finely chopped green chillies and tomatoes and saute for 2-3 mins

• When done add the fenugreek leaves and cook for a 3 minutes.

• To this add the cut brinjals and add salt to taste.

• Simmer and cook for 10- 15 minutes until the brinjals are cooked.

• Server hot with rice or chapattis

Let me know how it turns out in your kitchen

The First Attempt

2006-06-12T23:13:00.000-04:00

I have been reading blogs the last few days. I understand the mantra today is to blog. Everybody blogs.. My husband blogs, his friends blog, his friend’s friend blog. I got so inspired by this blog thing and thought let me give it a try. I then did a quick search on wikipedia to find what a blog is.

The results of my search
"A weblog, which is usually shortened to blog, is a website usually consisting of articles, though they can focus on photographs, videos or audio, in a reverse chronological order. Like other media, blogs often focus on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; however, some function as online diaries instead. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.
The first blogs were known as "online diaries", and started in 1994. The term "weblog" itself was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997."

I then decided to blog. I was waiting for the right day or moment rather to begin as I wanted something good to start with. I love cooking and the food blogs I had been reading I should say have been my source of inspiration .Food bloggers I am going to join your club.

I finally found the right moment to begin. I caught up with a school-mate of mine after 8 years. We were real good buddies at school, after school we changed streams and moved to different colleges and our jobs took us apart. I landed in the states end of last year. I caught up with an old friend of mine here. We were talking of old times and she mentioned this school mate of ours living here and I gave her a big time surprise one day.

She is in DC this week for a conference and decided to visit us. I would say, it was really great to meet an old time friend. She surprised me with her figure. She looks really smart now and I wonder how she managed to shed all her weight. I got to learn how to stay slim and look smart from her. She was in to this dietician thing long back and talks calories and only calories… My hubby kicked off with her too and believe it or not the three of us talked and talked about food, food and only food for almost an hour and a half and we would have go on and on as I interrupted and said “Lets have food” I didn’t realize until now that there was so much to talk about food.

Anyway, as she was visiting us the first time, I prepared carrot kheer the recipe I decided to post. I also prepared bisi bela bath, Aloo fry, Capsicum Rice, Chappatis and dal.

Here is the Carrot Recipe.. I forgot to take a picture. I believe that’s the norm in all the food blogs, I shall the next time

You will need

Carrots- 2
Milk – 1 litre
Sugar – ½ cup
Cardomom powder – ¼ tsp
Raisins, Almonds and Pistachois – as required
Ghee – 1tsp

Method

Peel and Grate the carrots. Put the grated carrots in boiling water cover them with a lid and keep aside for 5 mins. Drain and pour cold water over them. Boil milk in a large pan. Reduce the flame and simmer it stirring continuously for 15 mins. Add sugar and boil.
Now squeeze the water out of the carrots and add the carrots to the milk. Simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Heat a tsp of ghee. Add rasins, pistachios and almonds and roast them in ghee. And add the garnish to the carrot kheer. Serve in a bowl. This can be served hot or cold as desired.

This is a very easy to prepare and does not take much time. Hope you enjoy it.... More to come....