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!!!

Happy New Year

Tags

fold, happen, hold, images, life, memories, New year, old, quote, reason, things

” I believe that everything happens for a reason

People change so that you can learn to let go

Things go wrong so you appreciate them when they’re right

You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no-one but yourself

sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together. ”

AND

“Here’s to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here’s to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.”

01:01:10

“Here’s to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here’s to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.”

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 😛 …  😦

Sleepy Day!!!

Tags

birthday, blog, brother, excuse, Friends, hariharnagar, month, Movie, night, sleepy, tweety, weekend

It’s been almost a month since I logged in here. I thought of writing here whenever good/bad, a disagreement, a fight, or anything that sort happened. But I was too lazy to open this up and write.  In the past 1 month, I got too busy at work… bla bla bla… I think I’m just trying to make up excuses to console me that I didn’t get time to check my blog.. lol. . anyways… 😀

This week was special to me, coz it’s the birthday week. It started off with my bro’s bday, and 2 of my friends’ bdays back to back  🙂 :).. We all are planning to get together for the night and most probably will go for a movie (“Hariharnagar 2”). I have heard bad & good reviews about the movie. But I’m just going to take my chances and watch it.

I’m not getting much to scribble down. I’m feeling very sleepy .. Don’t get me wrong thinking its late night, its just 2:19 pm.

All of you out there, wide awake and reading my blog…  :P… have a great weekend & have lotssssssssss of fun…

Adios…

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.

Dance Baby! Dance…

Tags

2009, competition, dance, Friends, fun, husband, weekend, wife

Several times in my old posts I mentioned that I loveeeee dance & I’m saying it again… I just love it!!! 😛

 A month back we (4 of my friends + me) participated in a semi classical dance competition.  The choreography was really good and it was a song about Lord Ganesha… Most of us messed up here and there but very minimal for the audience to notice 😉 … at least that’s what I think.  It’s really hard to get costumes here for any dances other than bangra or dandia costumes. We didn’t want to use any of those sorts, so we bought materials (net cloth, linings & lace) and stitched it. Thanks to Wal-Mart & Michaels !!!!  We dragged all of our close friends to watch the program. Since most of us have lotsa common friends; the audience list from our side was very less ;). But anyways long story short, surprise… we won first 🙂 🙂 🙂 ….

 

 2 weeks later we (5 of us) participated in a Holi dance program in a nearby temple. It was more of a cinematic dance & most of us enjoyed it during the practice. I think it was mainly bcoz the dance had too many quick movements & we thought “hey best way to burn calories”. Most of us are of the same kind “got a gym less than 2 apts away but too many excuses to stay away from it, like “apartment gym is too small”, “too many guys”… bla bla bla.  Coming back to the topic…this dance was not a competition, so I think the seriousness level was really low (for me at least). May be that’s the reason 😉 we forgot few steps on stage. The very funny part was that, 95% of the other participants were <10 aged 😀 and audience were quite surprised to see us. None of our so called “close” friends showed up for this program… may be bcoz we scared the he** outa them in the last one ;).. well cant blame them… even AB was not there to see the dance; he came exactly 10 minutes after our dance. I wonder whether it was intentional or just a GPS trouble to find the place (like he mentioned) ;).  I’m sure he was pretty scared thinking I might yell 😛 & he was very surprised to see me all chilled.  Actually I was glad he missed the program otherwise he would have seen me counting stars on the stage.

AB: oh Im soo sorry I missed your dance… are you angry?
Me : oh no… its ok hun… :P…
2 other guys: Bcoz of AB we missed our wives’ dance.
(ab was driving them to the temple)
AB: “shocked” :O… “ya coz of meee huh … trying to play safe?”…
Someone: hey our poor husbands missed the dance (so no photos of us L ) so why don’t we dance for them in the tennis court by Rsh’s apartment
Girls: great… sounds good… what do you think guys…
Guys: :O “huh” “hmmm” “erghhh…” nahh thats ok… u guys are tired rite…
us: oh no … thats ok… lets go…

Guys: “damn it” 😦  😦

 — The dialogues in quotes are my imagination from their facial expressions ;)…

We danced again in the Tennis court & made them video tape it again: D… this time w/ less mistakes.

Overall, It was a great day and we had so much fun 🙂