Mom's cooking: cilantro pickle

My mom is like a free-lance cook! She never strictly sticks to a particular recipe...she enjoys cooking, serving and eating alike and changes ingredients slightly per the 'liking of the moment'. I guess I genetically carry that from her and make a few experiments myself :) Here's the generic recipe:

Ingredients: Cilantro, Tamarind, Salt, Sugar/Jaggery, Red Chilli, Urad Dal, Chana Dal, Mustard, Turmeric, Asofotedia. Optional: Garlic, Curry leaves.


Making:
1. Prepare seasoning first. In hot oil fry urad dal and chana dal till red. Add turmeric, mustard and red chillies. Wait for about 1 min, add Asofotedia, stir and remove the vessel from the stove.
3. In few drops of oil lightly saute' the cilantro for 1-2 mins.
4. Separate out red chillies and grind them.
5. Then grind cilantro with tamarind, salt and jaggery.
6. Mix the puree with rest of the seasoning.

- If using garlic, it needs to be slightly sauteed as well, along with cilantro and grinded. The heat will remove the strong pungent taste of garlic.
- If using curry leaves, add them to seasoning after adding asofotedia.

Simple Pleasures

In the hustle of busy schedules of everyday life, we tend not to notice or not fully enjoy simple pleasures in life. As I tell my husband always, life always gives us ample opportunities to look at it and appreciate it...all that is needed from us is to take an extra minute and pay attention. The few things that caught my eye, mind and heart alike and pleased me the most recently...

- a bright yellow flower along the river side
- smell of cilantro
- bright light green color of grass
- orange red shades of sky during sunset against the silhouette of pine trees.

Nature is a healer. It presents everything in the most beautiful shape or form. It is only upto us to actually perceive it and pay attention.

Re-cycle

I heard about recycle a lot, but started practising it only since last year. Herez what I have been doing:
1. Carrying re-usable shopping bags to either groceies or mall or anywhere I go shopping. I try best to never bring back a plastic bag from any store.
2. Recycling all paper and plastic: I have separate bags beside my trash can - 1 for paper and 1 for plastic and recycle every paper/plastic and paper/plastic-item. Later on, I empty them when I empty trash as well.
3. Using lesser plastic items in the home. For example I have completely stopped using disposable plates, silverware or glasses. I use more steel/wooden items in the Kitchen now than before..like spoons, boxes, etc. I still have a bunch of them from before, but I am not buying any new ones.
4. When I have a take-out or make my left-over lunch or dinner 'to-go', I ask if I can have a paper bag. It is not possible to have one many times, but I make sure I ask.
5. Using hand-towels..cloth ones as much as possible instead of paper towels.

I know we can neither undo the damage that we already did to the nature nor completely turn away from plastic, but we can do atleast few things differently to prevent the damage getting worse..hopefully!

Moist yellow cake

My brother had a special request..he wanted the next cake I bake be really soft and moist...so, I managed to combine about 2-3 recipies and finally came up with a good one today:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoons baking soda

Makes 2 6'' cakes.

2009 White House Correspondents' Dinner

This happened few weeks ago and somehow I wanted to watch it again today and have some laughs. The first time I watched the Live telecast on CNN, I could not stop rolling with laughter.
Wanda is simply cracked me up. Obama was good too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmyRog2w4DI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0GwZFAV1Lw&feature=related

blocks/checkboard cake

I was helping my friend make her son's 1st bday cake..was so excited that I thought I should write about it.

herez my thought on making it----

- a sponge cake will be good..its enuf fluffly for a little kid or a moist chocolate cake will be yummy too.

- make a large 9x13 cake, cut blocks out of them. If you want thicker blocks, make multiple layers of the cake

- make butter cream with different colors for each block..light pink, yellow, blue, green..

- decorate the blocks with white bead border... tip#5 or a bigger tip based on liking(bigger or smaller dots)

- buy rolled fondant..its much easier to make fondant and for vegetarians..the best option is to use Wiltons rolled fondant, that way you can stay away from gelatin. Roll it out and cut out alphabets and stick them to the blocks...the buttercream icing itself acts like glue. So, if u press the alphabets against the iced blocks...that will keep them intact.

- make the alphabets or anything with fondant 1 week in advance so that it gets enough time to dry...start working on the cake 3 days in advance. that will be good enough.

- If you have a lot of time you can make animals as well from cut outs or can just decorate around the cake with the kids' toys.

Doe-eyed little deer..

I saw a little deer really close yesterday..just about 15 feet!
Yesterday evening, after coming back home from work, Shailu, my hubby and I went to the Chatthahoochee natural preserve for our regular run. My hubby and I go there in the weekends, but managed to pull Shailu into it recently as well. Shailu and he were ahead of me and I was slowly running, sometimes simply walking...it was almost sunset and the grass and tree bark were glowing like dipped in gold in the tender bright evening sun. I was enjoying the beauty and wondering how good it would be if I knew how to paint well and replicate the sight....and there suddenly I panicked! There was something staring at me from between the trees. I got scared immediately..a second later, I calmed down to realize that a little deer was looking straight at me. I was on the road, there was a fence along-side it and the deer was right behind the fence! It had big, dark, beautiful eyes..and did not even wink or move. It simply stared at me. It was simply beautiful :) I walked a couple of steps and it turned its head along to keep looking at me. I thought it might jump over then fence for a second. I did not want to take any chances since I was alone and my folks were not nearby. I started to run and the deer ran back into the woods. It was the closest that I saw a deer. I have seen deers at Chattahoochee before, both times at sunset, without expecting to see them, but it was at a distance. But, this was the best....:)
I have been to the drive through sanctuary in Ft. lauderdale and had the deers come to our car, but that was nothing in comparision to seeing one few feet away, staring into my eyes, totally unexpected out of the woods!

My dearest decoration so far

I assembled my cake for final class yesterday - fondant wedding cake with royal icing petunias :)

Ever since I joined course3 and flipped through my course book, this one cake caught my eye and I fixed my mind to do this one as my final cake.

I enjoyed working on it, but it was really tough to work with the deep flowers. Even though I dried them for 4 days, until I got the technique to peel off the aluminium foil, I broke about 4 flowers. Even after I figured the technique, I broke another 2 flowers, because they dried too much.

Lessons:

1. Make many more flowers than you would think you'd use for your cake.

2. Make sure you are working with Med consistency Royal icing for the deep flowers. The flat ones like cherry blossoms can be worked with thick or thin..even if u accidentally make ur icing thin.

3. Make sure you let the flowers dry for atleast 3 days. Then check on them. Dont let the flowers over dry as well.

I sent the pictures to my friends and was amazed at their response...4 of them got inspired to take courses themselves as well, after seeing the pictures...the value of visual impression huh?!

Cranberry Walnut Cookies

I mix and matched 2-3 recipes and finally came up with something that I liked:

3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. milk
2 tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp orange zest, grated
3 c. fresh or frozen cranberries, stemmed and chopped; or dried cranberries
1 c. chopped walnuts

Measure flour, baking powder, soda, and salt into a bowl; stir with a fork to mix.

Cream butter, sugars and orange zest. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in walnuts and cranberries.

Drop and spread by the tablespoonful 2" apart on greased baking sheets Bake 10 to 12 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven until golden brown. Makes about 2-1/2 dozens.

Taco Bell gets even better

I am always a fan of their chalupas, but now, I have one more reason to be there anytime..the Fresco menu. Whats furthermore impressive is that they gave the nutrition guide as well. I went to Taco Bell to get a chalupa last week and saw this menu and nurtition guide brochure there...I was pretty surprised and amazed as well. I asked the cashier and she said its been around for more than 6 months now, but I found out about it only last well, and I am glad I did :)

http://www.tacobell.com/fresco/
http://www.tacobell.com/nutrition/information/

I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger speak on the news sometime ago, asking all the restaurants in CA to publish their menus with the number of calories on the side and its nurtition value. I do not know whether its a law yet or just a thought, but it will be nice to have all restaurants and fast food places do that in every state as well.