Gajar Ka Halwa

Tags

carrot, dessert, Friday Feast, gajar, halwa, holi, indian, recipe, winter food

I had to start this post with that pic… I know I am a little late and summer is almost here but I somehow absolutely forgot about it but guys you are still getting those red carrots… make it one last time before they vanish from the market… I surely will and then how can I not have something sweet for holi 🙂

Gajar Ka Halwa (and I refuse to call it carrot halwa it just sounds something different also I am reminded of the carrot halwa that u get here made out of those orange carrots and that is just not my cup of tea 🙂 ) is one of my all time favorite desserts. I remember how we would start waiting for red (those orange carrots were not available in delhi in those days.. carrot used to be only red and available only in winters) carrots to come right from October so that we get to eat halwa 😀 😀 😀 and that patterns continues still

Hope you too enjoy the recpie

Ingredients

• 2 kg red carrots
• 500 ml cold milk
• 250 gms khoya (if u dont have khoya available which is usually the case in Bangalore u this recpie to quickly make it. Its microwave recpie for palkhoa, just be careful to reduce the sugar u add later)
• sugar to taste (i usually like it less sweet so I put about 3 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp ghee
• 1 cup mixed dry fruits

Method

• Shred the carrots (take care to not make them too fine they become too soggy if u do that)
• Put the carrots and cold milk together on the stove in a big kadai (putting it together and the milk being cold is very important else there is a tendency for the milk to curdle)
• Simmer stirring often and let it cook till the carrots are about half done…
• Add sugar and ghee to it… this point of time carrots will leave a lot of water, let it dry. By the time water dries the carrot will be almost cooked
• Let it simmer for another 10 mins or so
• Add the khoya and dry fruits to it and roast for about 10 mins on low heat
• Serve hot

My mouth is watering seeing the picture and I so want to make it again… Also I was thinking of making gujiya for this holi I have never made them before so if any of you have a fool proof recipe or tips please to send 🙂

On the other hand gosh will  u all mommy bloggers specially the ones in US tell me how the hell do you manage the house, cooking, kid and a blog single handedly??? I have just been doing it since 2 days and I think I am dead, the brat is sleeping right now so I squeezed some time to write a post, I still haven’t opened the reader and replied to the comments…. and here atleast I have a housekeeping maid who comes and go.. I bow to u all 🙂 apart from the work load we three are really enjoying this phase… this is the first time ever we have had as a family alone…. mil lives with us and the sometimes that she has gone visiting to sil’s house the maid has been there… It suddenly feels so nice to have the whole house to ourselves… (Disclaimer : My mil is nice I am not saying anything against her 😉 its just that the feeling of three as a family is very nice..)

and holi is here too… so here is wishing all u guys a very happy holi… keep the spirit of the festival and play sensibly… drink a lot of bhang 😉 Happy Holi

PS: the above pic is taken somewhere on the highway during our Delhi-Bangalore Drive

Healthy and Tasty

Tags

organic, restuarant, review

Ojas’s nanny of 1.5 years is getting married and leaving for her marriage today so yesterday morning N told me that we should go out to dinner today.. couple time God knows when will be able to do that again 😉 and then Sachin the master blaster went and made a 200… what better time to celebrate

We went to Lumiere – An organic restaurant which has opened near our house sometime back and man I am so glad I did that

As the name suggests they serve everything organically grown…. I just loved the place.. the food is delicious absolutely yummy I think the basic vegetables were so yummy that whatever u do with them it would have been tasty…

the decor is very simply done in cane but looks very elegant…we were greeted with a complimentary juice…

The menu is wide with north indian and items from all south indian states with a little bit of Chinese thrown in… there is a wee bit focus more on non vegetarian but there are enough options for vegetarians too.. we stuck to veg that day

What impressed me really is their commitment to health… they dont serve red meat, don’t use maida in their bakery and it still tastes so so yum..

They also have a variety of juice being served including various options with wheatgrass…

We ordered dal tadka, aalo methi, tandoori rotis along with lemon juice and one wheatgrass shot and polished off everything followed by desserts… caramel custard and watalappan – a srilankan dessert…we finished the meal with a complimentary shot of wheatgrass and mint for digestion and breath

And the rates are also not exorbitant… we spent about Rs. 725 for the whole meal and came home with a loaf of freshly baked herbed whole wheat bread which we savored in breakfast along with eggs…

Definitely a place I am going again and recommend to all…

And yeah the nanny search begins yet again.. if u know of a lead please mail me

Fire

Tags

Abc Wednesday, Abc Wednesday Round 6, carlton towers, fire

one of the five elements of the greatly useful to the mankind at the same time extremely dangerous and I think hence considered as very pure…

The below picture is taken at Tirumala, Tirupathi

Unfortunately the dangerous side of fire was also shown to Bangalore yesterday as their was major fire due to short circuit Carlton Towers resulting in 9 dead and 70 injured.

May all of those rest in peace and God provide courage to their families to deal with the loss and those injured be fit very soon

The sad part in yesterday’s fire was that if we were better equipped much more damage could have been saved… I feel so angry when I write this, angry on the authorities who are not equipped enough to deal with a fire… angry with people who instead of helping were standing taking pictures and videos inturn blocking the way for the fire engine… Can’t we be least bit sensitive??? Is it so difficult?

PS: I am sorry for the rant I usually try and keep the ABC Wednesday posts happy but the very fact that N was there five minutes before the fire started is making me very sad and worried… what if the fire had started 5 minutes before or N decided to stay there for 5 more minutes… Plus some friends friend have lost their life in this…Please pray for everyone

The Wedding Story

Tags

wedding, wedding story

PS: A long post ahead but if reach the end I can assure u will be laughing out aloud 😀

I have read tons and tons of Birth Stories and I love reading them… Absolutely heart them but somehow I haven’t read many of the wedding stories around 😉 apart from ofcourse the lovely and most hilarious account by Ritu of her elder son’s wedding written in true Ritu style 😀

As most of us know our dear friend Prats is the latest one to get into the wedding routine and just before he was going for his wedding, we were chatting on how difficult it is to get married and here I just mean the ceremony what happens next my friends most of you know 😉  Tons of people to keep happy, both bride and groom have some rituals and way of doing things and man it is such tamasha most of the times… While we were discussing all this Prats asked me about my story and how we met etc… though that is something I dont want to put on the blog… let me share with u what happened in the ceremony which was truly bound to be a true blue 2-state kind of wedding… A loud and fun loving typical punjabi family meets a very simple and conservative Telugu people….

So here this post is specially for you Prats… wishing u a very happy and long married life ahead and hoping to hear a lot of stories about your wedding when you are back now that u are already back

As I mentioned above ours is a mixed culture marriage and the first meeting that parents had both of us were very clear that we are headed for trouble… I had seen a Bengali and Telugu marriage gone crazy and all that happened at the wedding was arguments on what should be done how, inspite of the fact that they had two weddings and all I could remember was that marriage when we were talking about the formalities to be done. And as far as N is concerned the smaller the ritual the better for him… the best that would have worked for him would have been Court Marriage but alas the parents didn’t give in to that.

With all the above in mind and also the fact that wedding was to be held in Bangalore and my parents lived in Delhi… Also the fact that N just has a sister who is always running madly busy with her office, home and kids and whose views on anything religious or ritual are a 180 degree opposite from N, we both decided to take the wedding arrangements in our hand. And I think I am yet to meet another couple who has done that.

6 months of wedding planning was totally tiring but what fun it was… I think it brought us closer as a couple. We took some major decisions together as a couple, we started to understand the likes and dislikes (said and unsaid) of each other deeply… Where will the wedding be, what kind the wedding be, what will be the menu, the reception, the person who will do the mandap, the person who will decorate the car basically all decisions were taken by us were taken by constantly consulting elders 🙂 and being together

We had all the numbers the details of everything and the day before wedding we were like enough is enough… we need to enjoy our own wedding 😉 and thought of handing over the stuff to various people around…. so the duties were handed over… most went off well but a few were really memorable….

The wedding was supposed to happen at 10:45am in the morning… gosh for a punjabi family its a crazy time… we can’t imagine getting up so early, gossiping (yeah thats the most important part of a wedding whether you agree or not 😉 ), dancing (a punjabi wedding infact nothing punjabi can’t happen without it), the various ceremonies list go on… all of us were freaked out (ofcourse I had made peace with it as I had searched to 10 parlors who will make me ready by 8:30 am as a result I had a parlor far far away from the venue )… After the elders cribbing and making it peace with it… lot of cranky sleep deprived souls, we had slept at like am in the night after a rocking mehendi night (but thats another post)…. hey did I tell you that sleeping early in the night is the biggest crime one can make in Panju wedding 😉 we started at about 6 in the morning for the ceremonies… and about 7 a very dear friend P (u are reading dear?) and my uncle N were packed off to the venue to oversee the mandap making arrangements and a family friend R took me to the far far away parlor…

I reached the parlor and got a lashing for being a late and was hurried to the chair to get decked up… and ting the cell starts ringing, its P saying the flower guy hasn’t turned up 🙄 :shocked:

P: Monika the flower guy hasn’t turned

Me : shouting what??????????????

Parlor Aunty : sit straight, I am doing your hair

Me : :ignoring her: What are you saying, what do u mean he has not come? the mandap should be almost ready by now…

P: yeah thats why I called you and he is not picking my call

Me : shouting louder giving the PL heart attack… what?????????????????????

PL : sit straight the makeup will all go bad..

Friend R : very sweetly and caringly give the phone to me let me talk, I will settle the matter

Me : ok whatever

After two minutes R explained P to call N (uff what drama it is becoming) and try and do something and PL started working on beautifying me again and just that the cell rang and this time it was N

With a deep breath and a resolve to keep calm and I picked up the phone

N : the flower guy is not picking up the phone, should we get married without mandap..

there he broke my resolve of keeping calm… 😦

Me : what do u mean? do u know what you are saying

By this time the  PL had given on me and just stood staring me…and I like gestured her to give me 5 minutes to settle all this…

After 15 mins of crazy calls from 3 people to the flower guy he picked up the call and said he will come in 15 mins… he was drunk and out sleeping or so he said…

He arrived after 30 minutes and when people reached the venue the mandap was still getting build… Gosh… there was a flower chaadar he was supposed to bring along for me to walk under to the mandap and that was getting weaved… the state of mom’s tension is something I can’t even describe…  and the minute I arrived at the venue and looked at N both of us broke in a laughter and I had well meanings aunts asking me to shatup and the other side aunt’s give me stares as if N is marrying a mentally retarded girl

Meanwhile another friend A was assigned the task of bringing the pandit to the hall at the correct time (BTW did I mention I got married by a female pandit, doesn’t it rock) and he got late by about 20 minutes which created another scene of panic in the hall as for my sil the mahuratam time (the time to put the mangalsutra) was like something which should not be missed at all and the time period for that mahurtam was exaclty 5 mins… giving everyone of us heart attacks…

Luckily by the time the pandit arrived, the mandap was also starting to look a little mandap ready…. and my sil was ok lets get started that came another problem… none of my brothers or sisters had arrived at the venue, they were in the car which was stuck in infamous Bangalore traffic and they are the ones who was to hold the flower chaadar and take me to the mandap… makeshift brothers were called (basically anyone who was around and male I thank God no one picked N to hold the chaadar) and I was taken to the mandap and the ceremony begin… with uncle N wearing his night dress and P going off home to get ready…

Hey hold don’t go away there is more 🙂 15 minutes into the ceremony and the mandap fell… can u beat that? this time my brothers who couldn’t bring me to the mandap had to pay for their mistakes and hold the four mandap pillars all through the ceremony 😉 Man it was funny… we should have been tensed but I remember seeing them and a result burst out laughing ok ok I controlled myself 😀 😀

As if all that was not enough we were missing the mahuratum time resulting a very itchy and upset sil for whom it was a question of everything going wrong if we missed that which resulted in her having a brilliant brain wave… what if we skipped all other rituals and jumped directly to the mangalsutra… ok we can’t jump fine lets just do it after the mangalsutra ha ha ha and there started a huge argument again… between my sil and the female pandit…. and let me warn you when two females are in argument everyone should stay away 😉 what sill wanted to do, the pandit will not allow to happen in anycase being a strong Arya Samajain for whom steps are so important… and after a long argument and lot of people using their brain it was just decided that we will keep quiet and do nothing in those 5 minutes.. yay u got it… just sit and yeah pray 😀

uff what a day that was… at the end of it all we were both just glad it was over… and on this day I have just one suggestion to give u all

WHATEVER YOU DO FOLKS NEVER EVER ARRANGE YOUR OWN WEDDING AND IF YOU BE READY TO FACE MUSIC 😀

Edited to Add : I absolutely loved GM’s idea of converting it into a tag… so here it goes… Guys make me proud by making me a creater of a tag he he

Rules

• Narrate your whole wedding story or any one incident of the wedding that you remember the most…
• Link me up… yes I want to read as much of them me is greedy 😀
• Link the person who tagged u… (I am hoping it will move to the second level)
• Tag another 5 people

So here are the people I tag

• Dhiren : yeah go ahead and satisfy your itching fingers
• Sups : I want to know whether that rs 500 helped 😉
• Goofy : Now you were the one who suggested it right 😀
• Dee : because they are another couple who arranged the wedding and it went smoothly but there will a lot of interesting stories I am sure
• Ritu : she has some secrets in her closet lets get them out 😉

Also BlogAdda has showered me with some love again and this post has been picked for the Spicy Saturday… thank u folks… u rock 😀

Now following @monikamanchanda !

Haathi Mere Saathi

Tags

Abc Wednesday, Abc Wednesday Round 6, elephant, pics, picture

E is for elephants… the majestic huge animals and their babies which look super cute

the super cute baby

sibling love

the whole family

the lovely and sought after tusks

care for a bath

For some more E’s visit the ABC Wednesday Page…

PS: pics taken at Dubare Elephant Park, Coorg and Banerghatta National Park, Bangalore and for those who are wondering what the tittle means… Haathi mere saathi simply means Elephant my dear and its a old movie song

Will he see it only in Pictures

Tags

save our tigers, tigers

About 2 months back when we went to the zoo… I took this picture (I know its a cheetah…) looks majestic but me and N were discussing that how sad it looks behind the bars and I had this very very said feeling about it… But when I read that there are only 1411 tigers left in the country which once had the highest numbers the first thought that came to my mind was that may be they are better in the zoo atleast they will not poached

I hope we are able to do something and Ojas really gets to see them rather than only the pics…

Simple and sensible steps one can do copy pasted directly from Parul’s post

Spread the Word

Let everyone know that our tigers are on the brink of extinction and that they need us. Now. You can start by joining the Save Our Tigers movement on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and spreading the word wherever you go – online or offline.

SMS

A short message can go a long way to help save our tigers. Let all your friends know about the movement through SMS – just type in your message and ask them to visit SaveOurTigers.com to join the roar.

Write to Editors

Write a letter or an email to editors of popular newspapers and magazines, asking them to support the cause and highlight the urgency to save our tigers. The more people we can reach and inform, the louder our roar will be.

Donate

Organizations such as WWF and The Corbett Foundation work for tiger conservation and need our active support. If possible, you can chip in with funds, volunteer for work or donate clothes, etc. for the forest guards by tying up with such organizations.

Volunteer for Our Tigers

Your time is the most important contribution for our tigers. If you think you have the skills or the commitment to help the tigers on-site, do contact an NGO working for tiger conservation to volunteer for our tigers.

Preserve our Natural Resources

Loss of habitat is one of our tigers’ biggest problems. We can reduce pressure on forests by avoiding unnecessary use of forest-derived products, such as paper and timber.

Be a Responsible Tourist

Visit tiger sanctuaries and national parks and discover our country’s natural heritage. But please remember that the wilderness is to be experienced, not to be polluted by packets of chips, etc.

Go here for more information and doing your bit. Lets be responsible enough to make the next generation see the majestic animal

The Perfect Date

Tags

celebration, drive, love, perfect date, the serai, valentine

I have been having a very quite valentine today, the first after we have met… We both are always looking for something or the other to celebrate a day… I know most people say that its a cliche everyday is a day for love but I strongly believe that little celebrations just revive the love, the romance factor in a relation… So valentines is a perfect reason for celebration for us and we make it a special day everytime… A holiday around that time… the 12 o’ clock celebrations, a romantic candle light dinner, a evening in the city club… something for just of the two of us…

But this valentines due to my neck (which is much better BTW 🙂 ) we are at home… doing nothing and just resting and so when I read this post by Goofy..  I felt a little sad and happy at the same time…

So here is what my ideal valentine date would have been (and that is what we had planned before the neck pain hit me 😦 well almost minus the thin sexy avtar and the Ferrari)

A sexy red Ferrari convertible with a sexier me 😉 , N driving on the lovely highway… we zipping past sunflower fields and hair flying away stopping only for a cutting chai on the road side and finally reaching the destination a lovely resort tucked away in a lovely coffee estate… just the two of us in quaint and a very romantic suite with orchids on the side and a private pool, endless conversations flowing, reading books side by side, long long walks followed by wine in the pool,chocolate and  and ofcourse lots of nocturnal activities happening at all times of the day 😉

So whats your perfect date? What did you plan for valentines and did it happen that way?

Broken and Bored

Tags

bored, slipped disc

Sigh 😦 My neck is almost broken… Terrible terrible neck pain started 4 days back and it is now diagnosed as Slipped Disc… I am defective piece I am telling u guys… Feeling so frustrated

As a result I have been under house arrest and will be so for the next 4 days with the physiotherapy guy coming home everyday and feeling terribly bored… Can’t  sit on the laptop for long… Can’t read for long… Can’t even play with Ojas for long…

What do I do???

And did I mention that I am feeling frustrated oh yes I did but I will say it again… I am feeling very very frustrated… whatever will happen to my workouts now… they are atleast gone for a month… entering a gym or running is out for a month and that finishes my dream to complete the blog25k 😦 😦 sigh…. why me????? always why me???????????

Kheema Gobhi

Tags

cauliflower, Friday Feast, gobhi, indian, indian main course, recipe

Its winter time and the time we get yummy, fresh and tender cauliflower… the flowers that begged to be picked up and get quickly made, so I have been making a lot of gobhi a lot of ways and one of my all time favorites is “Kheema Gobhi… This is a recipe which I fondly remember as a major winter comfort food and that too a comfort food which is healthy too… isn’t that rare?

So here I share one of my all time favorite gobhi recipe

Ingredients

• one medium size cauliflower
• 2 onion grated
• 3 large tomatoes pureed
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2-3 cloves
• 4-5 peppercons
• 1 big black cardamom
• 1 1inch piece of cinnamom
• 1 tbsp dhaniya powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• salt and chilli powder to taste
• 1 tbsp oil

Method

• Grate gobhi with the use of a large crater or cut in very finely like this

• Heat oil in a non stick pan and add cumin and roast till they turn golden brown in color
• Add all the sabut masalas and fry for 2 minutes
• Add onions and fry till golden brown
• Add tomatoes for 4-5 minutes till done
• Add turmeric, dhaniya powder, salt and chilli powder
• Add the gobhi, sprinkle a little water and cook for about 10 mins till the gobhi is done
• Garnish with corrainder leaves and serve with roti

PS: Guys please bear with me running very busy… will reply to all ur comments very very soon… I promise

C is for Coffee

Tags

Abc Wednesday, Abc Wednesday Round 6, chickmagalur, coffee, coorg, pics

and the lovely lovely places where they grow… Coorg and Chickmagalur

To see more pics and details about the places visit my travel blog… here for Coorg and here for Chickmagalur