His First Vacation/India Trip

Tags

baby, india, trip, vacation

I’ve heard people saying its better to travel with babies when they are young. I couldn’t understand why, but now I KNOW why! We took Singapore airlines and the whole journey (including the lay over) was 34 hrs. By the time we reached TVM, I felt like we started our journey weeks back. Appoos didn’t cry because of ear pains but he was very uncomfortable and wanted to move/crawl around. The tiny bassinet didn’t help either.

5 weeks in India :
The 2nd week of our vacation, AB got cold and then as the dutiful husband, he passed it on to me ( grrr…. ). Unfortunately Appoos got it too. This was his first cold and it was really painful to see him suffer with congested nose. Luckily he got better in 3-4 days. My cold, coughing, throat issues stayed for a good 3 weeks. Appoos had 3-4 Onam sadyas and had his thulaabaram in a devi temple.

Shopping was really hard with a baby. Me being picky, also didn’t really help the process. AB and I ate a lot of food. Mainly porotta, chicken dishes, rice, curries etc. We went on a Houseboat for a day and enjoyed the food & company. Overall we had a good time.

Singapore:
On our way back, we stayed in Singapore for 3-4 days. I loved loved that part of our vacation.  No household chores, no DIL responsibilities… just eat out, hang out, sleep … bliss! even if it was only for 3 days, it was a perfect vacation for me. Loved it!

The flight back to Cali was better. Appoos slept long hours. I managed to watch “What you are expecting when you are expecting” and “Bel Ami”.

Back to Home Sweet Home!

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Pregnancy & Baby

Tags

baby, birth, husband, love, pregnancy, son

Pregnancy
I think I should have written this post at least an year back. Now I can’t remember half of it. Overall I think I had an easy pregnancy. No morning sickness, vomiting or anything of that sort. I kind of feel like the whole year “2011” I was pregnant lol.

2011
January: We celebrated our 3 yr anniversary 🙂
February: Pregnant (First Positive)
April: 12 weeks reached and announced it to everyone!

I was gaining weight like a maniac. I think I was looking at pregnancy as a “license to eat”. My MIL suggested me to avoid any food with artificial color in it. [on a side note: one of the famous south indian restaurant in bay area actually told me the only curry/appetizer that they have without any artificial color is aloo gobi]

End of April/Beginning of May: We got to know the gender of the baby (Its a BOY!!). From the beginning itself, we both wanted to know the gender of the baby. From the beginning itself I had this gut feeling that it will be a boy. I’m sure Ab thought (50%) otherwise.

mid MAY: BANG!!!!! Failed the glucose test and got diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. I was not too thrilled to hear about that. But I thought it just meant “avoid anything sweet”. The GD specialist gave me a list of things to avoid/cut down. The first line said “CUT DOWN ON CARBS”. I had this “WT*” look on my face. I’m a south Indian, that too from Kerala. How can I cut down on rice. I live on rice & curries (and yes I live to eat 😛 ).

So my day went like this:

Wake up: Poke and test the fasting glucose level
Breakfast: 1 slice of whole wheat bread, 1 egg white scrambled with few veggies.
1 hr: Test glucose level again
Snacks: few almonds
Lunch: 2 whole wheat chapati & curry.
1 hr: Test glucose level again
walk for 20-30 minutes
Snack: nuts/veggies/fruit
Early Dinner: again 2 whole wheat chapati & curry
walk for 15 mins atleast
1 hr: Test glucose level again

It doesn’t look that horrible for a regular person. But for a pregnant lady the whole menu was like a snack :P.

I followed the diet religiously and my weight gain slowed down and I was feeling healthy.

August & September: Baby shower months.

FastFwd to October: Last 4 weeks of pregnancy. First 2 weeks were ok not too great and not too bad.
Then the last 2 weeks came. It was not easy to walk/sit/move etc etc etc.
oh did I mention… I was working too. I worked till the end of my 35th week.
It was really hard to turn once you lie down. Some of the muscles (which I never knew existed in my body) also started to hurt.  At the last doctor’s check up she told me “it seems like your LO wants to stay inside his mommy and don’t want to come out that easily”. So she set a date for inducing. The day before my due date.
(The date after my due date is Ab’s birthday btw). Ab kept telling me that no matter what I do LO will only come on his birthday. I didn’t want to believe him.

So on Saturday, the day I’m supposed to get induced, I started calling at 8 am to the L&D (labor & delivery) @ the hospital to check when I should go in. They told me they will call me back and let me know. They didn’t call back until 5pm.
5pm – we all (Ab, me and my mom) got ready and went to the hospital. I was all happy, smiling and taking pictures. Amma looked very tensed. I told her “no big deal… every one goes through this”.  Poor thing (me) had no idea about what is coming :D.
6:30 pm – They started inducing. They hooked me up to all these machines, put an oxygen mask on me and started monitoring the contractions. It was not bad at all. I was thinking “whats wrong with all these people complaining about contractions and pain… in 4-5 hrs I can go home with my kiddo”.

Next day 1 am: contractions were getting strong and I could see what people were talking about. I thought by then I will be at least 4-5cm dilated and ready to get epidural. So when I complained about the pain, the Dr. came over and checked and to everyone’s surprise she said “you are not even 1cm dilated… may be .5cm”. l couldn’t believe it and I asked her to check again lol. I couldn’t sleep at all. The contractions were getting closer and painful. Ab also stayed up with me asking me to “breath in and breath out”. I didn’t feel like kicking him or cursing at him at that time (unlike many comments I heard from other woman). I felt bad for him because I could see that he was feeling “helpless”.

anyhooooo… Another 14 more hours in pain and no pain meds and not dilating fast enough… I couldn’t wait to get all these over with and hold my baby. I think around 4pm they gave me epidural and told me I was just 3cm dilated and its going very very slow. After the epi, it felt like “heaven” for the next 3-4 hours. I could smile again… talk properly… and even get some sleep.  Around 7-8pm, there was no pain but I felt like my legs weigh a ton. It went on like that till 1am (next day). I wished Ab happy birthday and I told him the next time the doc comes in I’m going to ask for a Csection. He agreed!. The doc came in at 3am and checked on me. She said I was fully dilated and the baby will be here probably in 1 hr or 2 (which is normal for the 1st delivery). 15 minutes later, I was holding my 7 lb 7oz baby boy. We (family) were all crying. My DS stopped crying and looked at me and made a face (I claim that it was a smile). Ab was really happy that DS and him will be sharing the same bday :).

We named him a name that starts with D. Few close friends came over in the evening to see us.
We stayed in the hospital for 3 days before bringing our DS home.

FFWD again to Present Day:

DS completed 8 months. He is slowly getting naughty and learning all the tricks to get attention. Like most of the parents, we both love him more than anything in this world. :). Hopefully he will turn out to be a good human being.

Chicken Jalfrezi

Tags

chicken, cooking, Food, jalfrezi, recipe

This is chicken jalfrezi in my style.

I followed (loosely) chef-adeel’s recipe

Ingredients

• Boneless Chicken Thigh Meat – 3 lbs
• Tomatoes – 2
• Oil – 3 Tbsp
• Cilantro powder – 1 tbsp
• Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
• Cumin powder – 1/2 tsp
• Chilly powder – 2 tsp
• Garlic cloves – 2 (sliced)
• Red capsicum – One particular (minimize directly into cubes)
• Onion – 1 (finely sliced)
• Ginger Paste – 1 tbsp
• Cilantro foliage ¼ bundles
• Salt – to taste

How to make Chicken Jalfrezi

• Cut chicken in to ice cubes.
• After that marinate with turmeric powder, chilli powder as well
  as salt; set aside with regard to whilst.
• Heat 2 tablespoons oil inside a skillet, fry onion and add garlic colves and ginger. Saute them until they turn little brownish.
• Add tomato cubes and saute them as well.
• Now put the marinated chicken and saute them for 5-6 minutes.
• Once the chicken cook half way through, add little bit of tomato sauce also (optional).
• After the chicken is 3/4th done, add capsicum, few cilantro strands and cumin pwd. Mix well.
• Once the chicken is fully cooked, add few more cilantro leaves to the top for garnish.

All Set!… Go enjoy your Chicken Jalfrezi (Ed.) with Roti 🙂

October 2010 to July 2012

Tags

2010, 2011, 2012, baby, boy, coming back, Food, husband, kunju, love

wow it has been a very long time since I logged in or even visited my blog.
This doesn’t mean that this is a coming back blog. I might go away again and disappear for a long time. Who knows!

I hope Vimmu, Priya, Anu etc still remember me 🙂

So many things happened/changed in the last 2 years. My perspective, priorities, likes, dislikes etc…

I still like coffee, food (of course!) and yes I still talk a lot.
I haven’t been to a movie theater in the past 10 months (there is a reason for that)
I don’t like to go for shopping as much as before but the little stinginess that I had before is still staying intact 😀
Working in the same company as I was in 2010.
Made few new friends. Few old ones, whom I considered close, turned out to be not that genuine.

Still married to the same guy and planning to stay with him till death do us part … (cheesy..)

what else… hmm… hmmm… oh ya…

I’m a Mom (amma) to a naughty 9 month old baby boy now 🙂 …. how could I forget that big change in my life 🙂

 

 

 

 

My love affair!

Tags

addicted, aroma, coffee, daily, day, espresso, love, monday, shots, tea

I started writing this post saying “I never knew I need you so much”. lol… after reading it myself I felt  the whole post was too cheesy and decided to start all over again.  My weekdays start with a COFFEE. I’m not an addict (yes I’m not admitting I have a problem :P) and I only drink it once or twice a day.  But nowadays I started feeling as if it is a jumpstart for the day. Especially on Mondays when I hate leaving home, the only thought that keeps me driving is the freshly brewed coffee from starbucks/peet’s beans. When I’m having a bad day or when I’m angry at someone, a hot freshly brewed coffee really calms me down as well.  Too much caffeine is bad for you but there is nothing wrong w/ mild coffee right? I have many arguments like these with myself from time to time. I know people who take espresso shots on a daily basis. I can’t drink espressos, it is too strong for me. I also love the Bru coffee from ICH (Indian coffee house) and the regular thattukada. I remember watching Koffee with Karan. They start off the show showing coffee and steam (as if the aroma is spreading). Whenever I see that I crave for it and pause the show (you tube) and make one cup of coffee (usually bru). On weekends I have to cheat on coffee and drink Tea coz of my Mr. & few of my friends 😀 … It’s past lunch time I should probably go get some work done rather than sitting here babbling about my love affair with coffee.

Adios!!!

Home Sweet Home :)

Tags

chicken, cooking, family, fish, Food, hunt, india, job, kerala, kovalam, life, onam, reality, restaurant, sadhya, trip, unemployment

yes thats right!!! home sweet home.. that’s where I’ve been in the past 2 months. 🙂

I’ve enjoyed sooo much in the past 2 months :).. We were planning for an India Trip in August. So once my contract (job) was finished, I didnt bother looking for a new one. I decided I will look for one once I get back from India. So I had no stress or tension thinking about the “unemployment” phase. I sat around, watched tv, stupid sitcoms, movies, read books, cooking experiments,visited my family in east coast, shopping && soooo many more stuff..

Then here comes the best part… 1 month in Kerala… god’s ownnnnnn country :)… I cant explain how much we loved our stay.  One month went sooo fastttttt :(.  First week, we took a 1 week road trip w/ my inlaws. The main aim was a theerthadanam ( basically a food”adanam”). The taste of kottayam fish curry, kozhikodu biriyani… hmm I dont think I will ever like my cooking again :D…

Some Restaurant suggestions for foodies like us : Kozhikodu Sagar (try the old sagar), Al-Bake , Alapuzha Brother’s (its a small crowded  hotel , but their fish curry meals & chicken curry — just superb) , TVM (Tharavattil, Rajadhani (just ok), Zam Zam, Sindoor, & sooo many more)

For those who love beaches, but dont like to go crazy if people are around : try the private beaches in Kovalam. Somatheeram, Thapovan, Coconut Bay Beach Resort etc etc,… there are sooo many of them.

After  looooooong 9 yrs, I got to spend Onam in Kerala. Eventhough, my amma made a big sadya every year & we went to all the onam celebs in US, it can’t be compared with the Onam in Kerala. I think its the feeling of being around w/ the family.. not just parents… but the whole big extended family… I just love that … 🙂 & ofcoz the sadhya w/ adapradhaman, paalada etc.

Few days before the trip, I had a small tension coz this was the first & longest time I was going to stay w/ my inlaws since wedding….. It was totally a great experience… I never knew inlaws could spoil you more than your own parents… and I experienced that….  and hats off to them for dealing with me :D… lol …  & on the way back we got free upgrade to business class 🙂 🙂 🙂 … So, overall it was a greaaaaat trip. It’s been more than  a week since we got back and I’m still talking about the trip lol..

Now back to reality… back to job hunt .. back to “my” cooking & housekeeping 😛 …  😦

Kovakka Thoran

Kovakka/Tindora/Ivy Gourd/Dondakai – Thoran

In India, ivy gourd is often recommended to diabetics due to its low glycemic index and its possible ability to help regular blood glucose.  Ivy gourd contains beta-carotene, a major vitamin A precursor from plant sources. It is also considered a good source of protein and fiber.

I usually make kovakka mezhukupuratti instead of thoran. Today I was just browsing through the recipe sites and came across “The budding cook” . It had a recipe for this thoran and I thought I will try it out with some changes…

Here is the recipe that I followed:

• Kovakka – 1/2 kg – slice them into 4 (length wise)
• Mini Carrots – 10 – slice them into 4 (length wise)
• Green Chillies – 6 – slice lengthwise
• Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
• Salt – 2 Tbsp (or to taste)
• Shredded Coconut – 1 small cup

Combine all the above items in a pan with 1 cup water. Cover with a lid and cook for 15 – 20 mins in medium heat (or until they are cooked). After 10 mins, add crushed chilly (1 tsp) to the pan.  Mix well and close the lid.

• Red Pearl Onions–  7 (thinly diced)
• Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
• Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
• Oil – 1 Tbsp

Heat ½ Tbsp oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and when they start spluttering, add the shallots and curry leaves. Once they are well sautéed, add them to the pan with cooked kovakka. Add the rest of the oil to the thoran and saute it well till it turns dry (Keep it on low flame for 5 – 10 mins )

Serve with Rice.

March ??? Not my month in ‘09

Tags

babies, company, contractor, death, driving, health care, kids, lay off, love, march, month, parents, rip, stop, ticket, violation, Work

I usually hate Sunday evenings & Mondays, especially because of the thought of getting up in the morning to go to work/school. However I never totally disliked a month in a year. Beginning of this year was going totally well & then March came and all the bad things started happening. May be they are not the worse in your eyes but its worse for me.

1^st week – Violation

“If they think I’m going to stop at that stop sign, they’re sadly mistaken!”

Whenever AB & I go to our friends’ place, he is always the driver and I just entertain/torture him with my non stop talking. One day Smit… told me about her mom’s famous kappa biriyani and I just couldn’t stop drooling. She offered me some & I just couldn’t wait till the evening to pick it up. So I drove to her place following the GPS madam’s instructions. This stupid gps ammachi didn’t bother to tell me there was a stop sign coming up 😦 hence I missed it 😀 (ya she is the last person whom I can blame..) . Who knew a cop (on cycle) would be there waiting for someone like me to miss that stop sign. Anyways long story short, I got a $250 traffic violation ticket & I have to take an 8 hr (slow death) traffic class.

2^nd , 3^rd week & 4^th week – Delete (y/n)

These were the weeks of lay offs. I always thought the best field or the safest is the health care field. Well I still think it’s the safest comparatively but nothing is “safe” in this economy. My client company announced there will be a small cut down of resources mid 2^nd week and on Wednesday my coworkers Vid & Apm got their notices saying that they have 2 days left in the company. But they managed to contact some other group and found 2 positions there and moved there. 3^rd week Monday, they lay off 890 FTs and our manager told us that they will cut down the contractors as well. None of us knew who all are going to be kicked out. 3 days later, they announced the names. Luckily I was not one among them, but I really feel bad for the other 3 who had to leave.

The # of projects we are currently working on (incld. me) are very less and we got an email that says they will consider reducing the contractor staffing even more… 😛 hmmm, so nothing is for sure… There is going to be another set of layoffs pretty soon…

4^th week – Deaths

I don’t want to go in details here coz I don’t like to write about deaths. I heard about 3-4 deaths this week and all of them were about kids/babies. I don’t know why HE took them away from their loved ones at a young age itself.  I can’t even think about how their parents must be feeling now. And I really hope & pray that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.  May they all rest in peace!!!!!

I don’t think I need more reasons to dislike this month. Few days are still left in March for the 5^th week and I just can’t wait for the next month…

Fish Molly

Fish Molly/Molee/Moli

This is my version of Fish Molly. I used Mrs. K . M Mathew’s Fish Molee Recipe for the most part of the cooking. Some websites suggested frying the fish for a bit, so that it wont break in the curry. Anyways, it came out well 🙂

Ingredients

1. 1/2 kg fish fillets, cut into pieces (I used Tilapia Fillets)

2. 2 cup refined vegetable oil

3. 1 cup onion, sliced

4. 1 tsp garlic, crushed

5. 1 tsp ginger, crushed

6. 6 green chillies, half slit

7. 1 tsp peppercorns, crushed

8. A few curry leaves

9. 2 cups thin coconut milk

10. Salt to taste

11. 1 big tomato, cut into four (I cubed it)

12. 1 cup thick coconut milk

Method

1. Clean fish well in salted water ( I used vinegar).

2. Heat oil in a pan. Saute onion, garlic, ginger, chillies, peppercorns and curry leaves.

3. Add thin coconut milk and stir to a simmering point. Add fish pieces and salt. Cook the fish over low heat with the lid on until the gravy thickens.

4. Stir in tomato and thick coconut milk. Continue to cook over low heat for a few minutes, taking care to see that the curry does not curdle.

5. Remove from heat and serve hot.

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19 : 19

Tags

chicken, dance, dark, donate, fish, Friends, kappa, kerala, life, love, money, place, saree, tag, teacher, trust

How to and what to :

1. You are given a set of questions.
2. Google the image which best suits the answer and post a picture from first page of image search with minimal explanation.
3. After you finish tag 6 other blogger friends and let them know.

Vimmu tagged me on this.  Let me try to finish it in the next 30 minutes 🙂

1.Your age on your next birthday

2. A place you’d like to travel to

Always God’s Own Country 🙂

3. Your Favorite place

again my hometown in kerala 🙂

4. Your favorite food/drink

Kerala paratta & Kozhi curry

Kappa Vevichathu & Fish Curry

karikkin vellam

5. Your favorite pet

6. Your favorite color combination

Red, Black, Dark Pink

7. Your favorite piece of clothing

8. Your all time favorite song

there are many songs I love… this is just one among them

9. Your favorite TV show

No question on that 🙂

10. Full name of your significant other

cant beleive this came up 🙂

11. The town in which you live

the map is too small right… I know 😀

12. Your screen name/nickname

cant beleive its there 🙂

13. Your first job

Internship @ GE

14. Your Dream Job

wanted to be a proffesional classical dancer or a teacher :).

15: Bad Habit you have

I usually trust everyone I meet and most of the time I get hurt in the end.

16. Your worst fear

Im scared of darkness.

17. The one thing you would like to do before you die

hmmm I cant answer that … hmmm… hmmm… still thinking :D….

18. The first thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000

First thing will be donating some money to charity..

19.Your favourite credo in life.

I love everyone :)…

Try to forgive & forget, if not, atleast forgive and learn a lesson from what happened.

ufffffffffffffff…

It took me more than 30 minutes to finish this. I have no energy to tag anyone today… I think I will do that the next time I login..

Till then… Be Happy… Keep Smiling… Adios ~ Remya

p.s : tagging : – Alice , Aparna , Rads, amreekandesi , Rekha