Why I "love" cooking

I was doing some work upstairs and R was having his lunch. I had made cabbage for lunch.

R: I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that this is the best cabbage I have ever had in my life.

A: And the bad news is that there is nothing left for me?

R: Yes.

A: So, do you like it better than both moms' cabbage?

R: I am so in the moment that I am not thinking of the past or future.

PS: He had left some for me. he is not that mean.

Lentil Fritters Recipe

Allison had requested this recipe. Sorry about the delay, but here it is:

1 cup toor dal (dal=lentil)
1 Tblspoon urid dal
1 oninon finely chopped
3 green chillies finely chopped
6 curry leaves
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (paprika)

Wash the lentils and soak for 4 hours. Then blend the two lentils in the blender to a very coarse consistency. Do not add water. I guess you can omit the urid dal if you don't have it. No point buying the whole packet for 1 tablespoon. After it is coarsely ground add the chopped onions, green chillies, paprika and curry leaves. Mix it all well and make into small doughnut shapes. Deep fry in oil.

Keep eating.

The end.

Lentil Fritters

Day before yesterday I cam home from work and look what I found.



It is lentil fritters or where I come from, it is called parippu vada. It is really delicious. I had made it once before, but it tastes so much better when I am not the one doing the work.

My MIL is staying with us for a while. My husband's slightest wish is her command, so I have been enjoying some of the fringe benefits as well :)

Long (Sleeping) weekend

So the long weekend went by in a flash. I had a huge, long list of things to be done and I have pretty much accomplished nothing. I woke up at 11 am this morning, had some milk, checked email and blogs and then puttered around until lunch time. There were some leftovers both of us had for lunch. Then I read a book until about 2 and then slept until 5 pm. By then, I was pretty disgusted with myself.

So much for the nice long list.

Friday evening I was hopeful of getting my ambitious list tackled. One of the projects I had in mind was rearranging the dining room closet and the guest room closet. God willing, we will have some back to back long-term guests starting August, so I had some plans for both rooms. Anyway, I pulled all the stuff from the dining closet onto the dining table and that is where it is sitting now. I have put away some of it, but most of it is still sitting there.

This is a picture of the dining closet before. Since I didn't actually do any work, I don't have an after picture.



In the unlikely event of a cleaning happening, I will be uploading the after picture. *Public service announcement ends*

This is one of the guest room closet. We are transferring all of hubby's cassette collection into an under-bed storage bin. He is in the picture scratching his head wondering as to how he got himself talked into doing this.



All Saturday morning I was thinking of going for some necessary shopping. But it was raining and that combined with my inherent dislike of shopping, I ended up thinking about it until evening when I could stop thinking and not feel guilty for not actually going. Other than all that thinking, I have no recollection of what I did Saturday morning. We had a showing of Pilgrims Progress at church on Saturday evening, Sunday went by with church, ladies meeting etc.

Today evening, I made some idlis home. I know none of you are interested in my Indian cooking tales, but this has been a a very difficult dish for me to master and I think I finally got it right today. (There is still scope for improvement of course) Husband and I may have done a victory dance in the kitchen. I am not admitting or denying it. There is no evidence, there are no witnesses.

The picture of those beauties - for two people who might be interested. Dad and Mom.



Here is idly with sambhar and onion chutney in my plate. Husband is behind the chutney. I want to give credit where it is due.



I also made lemon pickle for the future. I got 2 bottles full. By future I want it to mean 3 months, since we are technically supposed to eat them sparingly with rice, but at the rate we eat it, the future could very well mean 3 days.

Pickle is one of those dishes for which I assemble all ingredients beforehand like this. I cannot afford to miss any, the result will not be good if I do.



I am obviously not going to give a recipe because I know none of you are interested in a dish which contains 10 chili peppers and 16 tablespoon of red chili powder (paprika). Here is a picture of the final dish before being transferred into glass containers for the "future".



I had to write about all the food since that is about all I have to show for the three days I stayed home. Seriously, I get more things done when I work outside the home from 9-5. Maybe there is a time for everything and it was a God-ordained time for me to rest. I will console myself with that.

How did your weekend go?

A recipe and a language lesson

Here is a super simple recipe for gobi manchurian in the menu on my weekly plan. If I can cook it, anyone can. Incorporating veggies into your diet is good for you. But in the interest of full disclosure, I will say that this is not the healthiest dish ever.

What You Need:
Cauliflower: 1
All purpose flour: 2 cups
Corn flour: 1/2 cup
Soy sauce: 1/4 cup
Green/Red/Yellow pepper: 1
Onion: 1
Ginger: 1 tsp
Garlic: 1 tsp
(ginger and garlic are optional though)
Salt: as required
Chilli sauce: As per your taste

What You do:
Cut the cauliflower into regular size florets. Make the batter by mixing all purpose four, corn flour, salt a few drops of soy sauce and water. Make sure the batter is not too thick or watery. Dip the florets and deep fry them in oil. Take it out. (We squish the oil out with a paper towel usually). Cut the onion and the pepper and keep aside. Use some of the same oil and fry the onion and pepper. Not too much, its good that it still be a little crunchy. Add garlic and ginger. Pour the soy sauce over it. I used hot chilli sauce as well. I am not sure how it will be without the chilli sauce. You can use ketchup as well if you prefer.

Take it off the fire. Pour it over the fried cauliflower. Mix it well, so that all the pieces catch the paste. Keep it covered for a while.

What You Eat it With:
Best enjoyed with Indian flat bread called Nan or Paratha. If that is difficult to get, do what I did. I just ate it for lunch with Tortillas. Tastes great.

For more yummy recipes, please visit Randi at I have to Say
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Oh, and by the way if you haven't figured out, gobi is hindi for cauliflower. Say it with me

Go-be. (go as in go and be as in become)

Of course you don't say it hyphenated but you already knew that.

See! you learned something new today.

Muhuhahahaha

Okay, if you all are still reading after the scary title, here is the thing...

Well, I totally mean to don't mean to brag about it, but I MADE PIZZA FROM SCRATCH YESTERDAY!!! From scratch people, from scratch.

Ok, so I know that you are all great homemakers and knew how to do it when you were 6. But give a girl (who could not peel potatoes 3 years ago) a break, okay?

I saw the recipe on Crystal's blog and the ingredients were handy and she made the process seem really easy, so I decided to go ahead and make it. I stopped at the store on my way back home and got the aluminum pizza pans and mushrooms and jalapenos and I was all set to go. I came home and announced that it is pizza for dinner.

Hubs: Where do you want me to order?
Me: No, I am making pizza
Hubs: You bought the crust?
Me: No, I am making it from scratch, with the dough and everything
Hubs: You are WHAT??
(I repeated the above sentence)
Hubs: Sweetie, that will take HOURS and I am starting to get hungry
Me: No, it will take only half hour according to the blog
Hubs: Okay, if you want to do it...What's for backup?
Me: Thanks for the confidence. It is reassuring

Anyway to make a long story short, I pretty much followed the recipe with slight variations to satisfy our palate and 1 hour later, there it was


Isn't she a thing of beauty? Well maybe not, but that's only because the camera was not working and I had to take it using my cell phone. But I do assure you she WAS a thing of beauty.

I got all my satisfaction out of LOOKING at my creation because you know I can't actually eat it (gluten allergy).

I am told that it was delicious and way better than the store bought one. Needless to say, hubby ate his words along with the pizza.

Tuna Cutlet

First time I am posting a recipe for something in my blog. It is a recipe for tuna cutlet that I make. And it is famous all over the greater Orlando area.

Okay maybe just my local area.

Well, alright couple of my friends like it..They really do!

Here it is anyway.

1 can of tuna
1 potato
1 onion chopped really small
1 green chilly/jalapeño (You can put more if you are adventurous)
Enough oil to fry the onion + Separate oil to deep fry the cutlets
1 egg
Breadcrumbs

Fry the onion + green chilly in oil until it becomes slightly brown. Add tuna and add salt to taste. Cook tuna until it gets cooked to your taste. (I like it WELL COOKED). Meanwhile boil potatoes until it is soft enough to get mashed.

Add the mashed potato to the tuna and mix all of it together. Take it from the fire and keep it aside. After it has cooled down, make round patties from it. Dip it in the bowl of beaten egg and coat it with breadcrumbs.

Deep fry it in oil.

The final product should look like this. This was taken a long time ago when I made it. Unfortunately all of it is covered in plastic wrappers. But you can still see it.



Enjoy!!!