Food Adventures - XII : Hakka Veg Noodles

So hubby dear is missing his maggie noodles diet. So tonight's menu: Hakka Noodles - wheat noodles, stir-fried veggies with a dash of soya sauce and chilli-garlic sauce.
We finally got a chance to use the korean chopsticks amma sent.

Food Adventures - XI : Kandi Pachadi

So my cooking interests have shifted from main course to side dishes, particularly chutneys and podis. After my failed attempt at alam pachadi, i thought of trying kaushik and my favourite kandi pachadi. To accompany the all-nutritious pachadi, i made carbs filled aritikaya koora and ulipaya pulusu. The pulusu as usual was too high on mirchi count. The unbearable sidhu-siddhartha roy from Khusi was the cinema dish for this fun lunch.

Food Adventures - X : Beans Parupu Usili and Mor kozhambu

My thirst to make something 'different' landed me on tamil food blogs. Considering my hubby dear is a tamilian soul trapped in a telugu body, I thought it was great idea. After about 98% of cooking, I found out he doesn't like beans parupu usili but loves mor kozhambu. But when the dinner was served, he loved it!! yaay!
My excitement was put to rest when I learnt I didn't make an out-and-out tamil dish, its also an andhra dish with a different name : beans patoli and majjigapulusu! so much for innovation!

Food Adventures - IX : Samosa

What time is it?...It's tea time!! What better than using the left over potato stuffing and maida dough from my previous food adventures!! So using good old tricks learnt way back in school (one use of SUPW), I made this so-so samosas for tea.

Food Adventures - VIII : Stuffed Capsicum

This time it was another old favourite's chance to be cooked: Stuffed Capsicum. Many variations to this filling dish, but I made it my favourite way - stuffed with potatos and a whole list of veggies. I add veggies to any and everything; one trick I've learnt over time to make Kaushik eat all his veggies.

Food Adventures - VII : Kajjikaya and Gutti Vankaya Koora

Another reason to celebrate and a really important one: Kaushik's paper accepted in PRL!! yaaay!! We celebrate the night with another set of favourites : Kajjikaya and Gutti Vankaya Koora.
Thanks to all those various food blogs (too many to mention) which helped me make these dishes.

Food Adventures - VI : Akki Roti

This time I wanted to make something 'different' and instantly 'akki-roti' came to my mind. One quick call to Nethra, my good kannadiga friend and once roommate and I was ready with the recipe and tips for akki-roti. I made allam-pachadi to go with it.


Experience: Don't get creative like me and make the pachadi with green chillies, it gets HOT!

Food Adventures - V : Gulab Jamun

V-day is nothing more than a 'commercial' holiday. But this doesn't stop us from celebrating love. We did it with Kaushik's favourite: Gulab Jamun. To accompany the sweet, I made peas pulav and rajma masala. Again, thanks to vahchef for his tips!



We watched this 'logically-amazing' telugu movie, Chirunavvutho; a must-watch. We liked the logics-filled dialogues so much that one of them found its place on my fridge-board.

Food Adventures - IV : Aloo Kofta

Husband's first paper published and it's time to celebrate!! yaaay!! What better than a nice dinner. No, we are not going out. We are going to make aloo-kofta. This time too the food-blogosphere helped, but did mislead me - resulting in too much besan in mu koftas, nevertheless, hubby dear loved them! I just took out some extra digenes after the dinner.

Food Adventures - III : Chivda

This snack is another long lost favourite. In fact, the snacking habit by itself WAS long lost. It was time for yet another evening coffee and my mind paused at the big poha packet we bought out of 'atukula-pulihora' craving. Thanks to the food-blogosphere, we had nice chivda to accompany our coffee.


This time however, the husband couldn't come home, so we 'to-go' this chivda with coffee in hubby's favourite san-antonio flask.

Food Adventures - I : Mysore Pak

It all started in Summer of 2006, with my then-roommate, Shilpa promising this wonderful sweet for a special Sunday (which never happened). The thought revived memories of the mysore paks perfectly made by dear most amamma. After a long phone conversation, I gathered the tips and directions from amamma, but could never find the time for it. Now that I was 'jobless', literally, this was the first I thought of making. After a wonderful visual explanation from vahchef, I set out to make this all-time favourite.

Ingredients:
1 cup Besan
1/2 cup Sugar
2 cups Ghee
1/4 cup water
Method:
Add a tsp of hot ghee to the besan and sieve it. Take sugar in a thick-bottomed sauce pan and add water just enough to cover the sugar. Keep stirring till the sugar dissolves and attaines a soft-ball or thread consistency. You can check the consistency by dropping a drop of the sugar syrup in a bowl of cold water or by using your fingers OR (thanks to madhu atta for the idea) use a kitchen thermometer to check the syrup temperature, it should be 250F. I got caught up in checking this and my sugar syrup became fit for Chakkara Achchulu (Sugar Figurines). Following madhu atta's tip this time, I added water again and started over. When the consistency is right, add the besan and keep stirring. Now add the hot ghee one ladle at a time. (For first-timers like me, the amount of ghee might give a slight heart-ache, but we'll get used to it) When you see the color change, pour the mixture onto a greased plate/bowl and let it cool. When firm, cut into desired pieces.

Food Adventures - Intro

This is a series on my 'jobless in college station' food adventures. An attempt to chronicle the cooking spree to vent out frustration on the current economy. But, bright side of life is my hubby dear gets to eat fresh cooked (most-of-the-time) food for every meal. So get ready for a feast fit for a hungry soul.
P.S: Please feel free to grab a hajmola or two! (We had an entire bottle with 120 tablets!)


Kaushik-the taster,unaware of the storm cooking in the kitchen.

Boredom..

how much i liked doing nothing...but these few days of 'get-paid-for-doing-nothing' after a long semester full of hectic week-days and fun-filled weekends..makes me feel..bad,sad and mad!! while i sit here postponing things-to-do..trying to figure out, what all am not doing... its a strange feeling..listeing to melodious songs of my room-mate, wondering why can't i sing... looking at online books.. wondering why i can't read a book?.. looking at the toned body of the girl sitting next to me... why can't i work out?..looking at the screen wondering why can't i get up and get going?
as they say..don't think twice..its alright! :)

hmmm...

"Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" - Green Day

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Lo...main bhi salha dene lagi...:D

a frnd of mine has been passionately working on his research, and someone publishes similar work just before he manages to write a paper on it..I enter the sceen and tell him about the many difficulties he would face in the research line ...(given some experience with my da being a scientist).end result.....i give him an "awe inspiring" (in his words) speech ...:D
I know, i can hear my frns say...."inka chalu taggu"...hehehe..at the end of teh conversation -
vichikai: ??? kallu tirigi padipoyava emiti ???
sirishkaushik: ledu ledu
sirishkaushik: jes sittin back n appreciating!
sirishkaushik: can i make this a blog of mine?

hahhaa.....o range lo feel ayyipotunale nenu :D

jana tha japan...pahoonch gaye cheen..

7:15 PM, Jan 10'06
"FREE" mail from Papa John
7:20 PM, Jan 10'06
Digged out 6.99$ pizza coupon, given ages ago at aggie nights
7:30 PM, Jan 10'06
Decided to hv pizza for dinner
7:35 PM, Jan 10'06
Amma calls
8:30 PM, Jan 10'06
Manisha comes back from Florida
8:35 PM, Jan 10'06
We decide to go out for dinner
8:45 PM, Jan 10'06
Enter into Papa John's..
ME: Does this coupon still work?
PAPA: Work for what?
ME:(r u nuts?!)For pizza!!
PAPA:(Confused!!)
ME:(hello!!!)Do you stil have the offer??
PAPA: (Points at the logo at the bottom of the card)
ME:(:P) sooory!!
The coupon was for DOMINOS!!!!
hehhe... bade bade sheharon main choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain!

After some time....

After some time.. i finally made up my mind..hehe..that i should get back to blogging?!..but tht song will always be special for me :)
new year...new hopes.. new challneges.. new oppurtunities..new me??? donno!!
this coming year..for the first time i want to make a resolution...want to get back to tht me.. whom i somehow lost in the race with time... tht me who is still there behind the layers of different shades formed by different strokes of life.... now! thts too much of philosophy for me... neways....
2005 was full of "first time" experiences.. first time flyig out of country.. first time getting a credit card.. first time paying tax!! (strange.. i never realised i also wud grow up to pay tax!!)... first time..visiting a wonder of the world.. first time.. feeling lonely..whn i was literally on the top of the world..(1800ft above ground level, on the top deck of CN tower..world's tallest observation deck)
2006 started with never-thought-wud-come-true wishes ... saw the beautiful niagara falls..and soon..i'll become "veechi atta" from "veechi akka"...and donno what more..
I am looking forward to this new year with all my enthu.. hope i can fulfill my expectations....OM!

[-o<

itni sakti hame dena daata.. man ka vishvas kamzor ho na..
hum chale nek raste pe hamse .. bhool kar bhi koi bhool ho na..
---------------------------------------------------------------

Dream dreams no one else can see...

They say there is no meaning of your life if you don't dream..but if you get literally crapy dreams.. whadda life u've got!!!
Like the Bryan Adams song goes...
"Free is all you gotta be
Dream dreams no one else can see
Sometimes ya wanna run away
But ya never know what might be comin’ round your way ya ya ya..."
Yday I was up till 4am doing my 457 homework.. and when i slept finally i started dreaming about the course, the problems i was doing... can't recollect excatly but i did come up with a new crapy technique to solve one of the problems.. but who cares!.. Bac home when i was working i used to dream about my projects, my boss(:(( ), the deadlines, during the microstation trainiing toh i used to dream of teh snap points, the errors i did.... all the crap tht i had to take in the morning raat main bhi mera peecha kyon nahi chodta!!! :((
Wanted to read sigmund freud's "interpretation of dreams" before coming to TX but as usual i am too lazy to "read" anything..

Alai Pongeraa kanna...

Some people have such beautiful voice that once you listen them sing, that song reverbrates in your mind all the time. Yday i had the most "musical" drive of my life. And the " Alai Pongeraa kanna..." sang by nethra and smriti, i heard yday is still lingering in my mind..
I thot this wekend will be very boring,with a sketch of what all assignments and homeworks and readings to finish this weekend. But when i woke up on saturday,my room mate asked me if i would like to some to Austin!! and there i was in the car with amnay and nethra...two of the few people i met at TAMU who are absolutely passionate about music. We were going to Austin to pick up Mrs.Shirisha shahank - an upcoming star in bharatnatyam.It was a pleasure to be in company of an upcoming star in bharatnatyam,also the wife of a great fluteist, and nethra, who had the chance to sing with the likes of SPB.We started our drive with my all tiem fav "purani jeans aur guitar.." and loads of good hindi songs and on our way back we played some awesome flute, gutiar and yani!!When i woke up on sunday... my head was aching.. i guess too much of good music is bad for me :-P