DayPlanner-28-29-30-Mar12-NormalDays

DayPlanner-28-29-30-Mar12-NormalDays:

28th, 29th and 30th as I had been to office it was a normal food.

28th: I planned to make chappatis and palak paneer. But hubby told let us have chappatis with palya and chutney. So I went his words.

29th: He came home early and brought palak, we had Palak pappu and Rice.

30th: As I went to my SIL house and came I brought ridgegourd pappu made by her and prepared pulachaaru.

As it was year end hubby had a very hectic work schedule and couldn't literally concentrate much on things.

Breakfast on 28th was: Lemon Rice and Curd Rice

Lemon Rice:

As shown in above figure the ingredients are:

Salt - 2 tsp

Cooked rice - 1/2 glass

Roasted Groundnut - few

Cashewnuts - few

Green chillies -4

Curry leaves - few

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Channa Dhal - 1 tsp

Lemon Juice - extracted from 1 lemon

Oil - 2 tbsp

Turmeric - 1 tsp

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai once its hot roast cashewnuts and keep it aside

Take it out and in the same oil add mustard seeds once it splutters add urad dhal, channa dhal, groundnuts, curry leaves

Once the dhal becomes red add green chillies and mix well

Add powdered salt and mix well again

Before switching off the stove add 1 tsp of turmeric and mix well

Once this mixture gets cooled add lemon juice and mix well

Spread the rice in a big bowl so that it becomes little cool

Put the above mixture and mix well

Curd Rice:

Salt - 2 tsp

Cooked Rice - 1/2 glass

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Channa Dhal - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Curds - 1 cup (which appears like a bowl)

Green Chillies - 2

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai once its hot add mustard seeds when it splutters add urad dhal, channa dhal, curry leaves, green chillies and saute well

Remove it from the stove on the cooled rice, add salt and curds and mix well

Curd Rice is ready.

Note: I first prepared tadka for curd rice and used the same kadai for lemon rice. So the time to heat the kadai for the second time gets saved.

Oh God, that black colored one in the photo is mustard seeds and cumin seeds which i have kept for both lemon rice and curd rice.

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Is Cooking a challenge?

Is Cooking a challenge?

Yep cooking is a challenge for a person like me. I married on Feb 14 2003, learnt how to make coffee and sambar, rasam from my hubby. Oops, as there is a saying "Practice makes woman/man perfect", it took atleast an year for me to make a good sambar/rasam. My father-in-law was working for defence when we married and my mom-in-law stayed with my father-in-law. They were in Noida. Once I was 8th month pregnant carrying Aditya, my mom-in-law came down and started staying with us.

From that time, till last year she was making delicious food, I used to help her only by chopping the vegetables. On Saturdays, if I cook by any chance, it used to be a disaster. But after starting blogging seriously I learnt so many new things which included to set the measurements  right. For example, making Rasam is very easy only few ingredients - salt, rasam powder, tomato, water, jaggery and any additional things to add flavour - curry leaves, cilantro. It can be cooked with or without dhal. But if the measurements are not correct, then it would be tragic situation at home.
For different rasams please click here.

Belated Ugadi festivals wishes to all my blog readers. I know, might be you are thinking why I am wishing in this post. Coming straight to the answer, Ugadi is also considered as New Year for Andhrites or Telugu people and also for Kannadigas and a start for all new things. Ok, so what?

I have started cooking from this Ugadi in my house and today, it is 6th day of my successful food at my home. Successful????  My hubby who loves to have tasty food, said you are preparing good dishes. Wow, that helps me put a new cap of Chef in my house, which I lacked almost for 9 years after my marriage.

I have seen spinsters being part of events and cooking delicious food to name few:
a. Preeti - Preeti's Kitchen
b. Maha - Maha's Lovely Home
c. Aarthi - Yummy Tummy

Hats off to these spinsters and lovely moms.

Lovely moms cooking food for their family:
a. Srivalli Jetti - Spicingyourlife
b. Vaishali Sabna -  Ribbons to Pastas
c. Meena - Chattersmusings
d. Radhika - Ticking palates
e. Madhuram - Eggless Cooking
f. Saraswathi Iyer - sarascorner
g. Divya - Dilse
h. Hema - Aromatic Cooking
i. Mireille - Global Tastes and Travels
j. Pradnya's - Pumpkin Farm 
k. Sharmi - Neivedyam

These are just a few to name. There are many please visit here to see whom I follow.

So, here is just a list of what I made, the recipes will come out soon.
Day 1 - 23rd March 2012 - Ugadi
Sweet was: Akkibelepayasa. As this has to be done for Nivedhyam, it was done by my mom.
Sambar: Carrot, Turnip and Potato
Rasam: Dhal Rasam
Side Dishes: Papads and Aamvada (aamvada was prepared by my hubby, as I had to catch my little son Aadya).
Hit thing was cooking we started at 12pm and 1:30pm it was ready. Usually, we used to take our meals only by 3pm on festival day.

Reason for me entering kitchen was: My MIL, FIL and Aadya, little one was going to Vizag the next day, i.e., on 24th March 2012 so in-laws were busy packing their luggage for a fortnight. My hubby only informed them to pack and asked me to cook food. I was happy to get an opportunity and more happier when it came out with great tastes.

Day 2 - 24th March 2012: First Voyage of my inlaws and little one in flight.

Aadya excited as he is out of house

MIL in tension about his son

FIL posing

Aditya had Science exam on this day and was back from School at 12:45pm. I was excited and planned to do the following:

Sambar: Tomato Pappu (replace ridge gourd in the linked post only with tomatoes)
Rasam: Dhal Rasam
Starter/Appetizer: Crispy Noodles (next post)

Lunch menu was perfectly fine and was ready by the time Aditya arrived from his school.

Planned evening snacks did not turn up:
Evening Snacks(planned): Eggless Dates Cake which turned out to be bad because i added more maida and made it thick mass.

Eggless Dates Cake - Disaster (due to more maida)

Potato Cheese Balls: Potato palya was ready and I had brought Cheese from store. But I did not check the oil, which had got over.

Adi smiling at me keeping an ice cube on his head (his experiment)

Potato balls after keeping it in freezer

Potato Balls before keeping it in freezer

So evening snacks did not go well. Hence, I learnt the lesson once again, planning is essential.

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