This makes a very impressive dinner party dessert. It is best served warm, with fresh cream if desired, and can be made well in advance because it freezes very well. Serves 4-6.

Hello friends,

Hope you all have been doing great there!!

I utilised my long break to learn a lot of things including some good recipes. So I thought I should share it with all my blogging friends here.

I'll be seeing you all in your blogs soon...

Thanks for all your support even when I was not around! Your support only helps me to continue my blogging! :)

When I came across a lot of my blogging friends who were taking breaks, I thought I wouldn't do it, and I would somehow try to be in touch the with blogging world. But here I am, taking a break!! :(

Life is getting a little busy and I'm not able to sqeeze a little time for blogging. So after trying for some weeks, I finally decided to take a break.

This doesn't mean I'll not be visiting you guys, I will visit and give comments to you as much as possible,  but not very frequently. Also, I'll not be posting my recipes often too. I'll try to post atleast once a week and comment all your wonderful posts.

Meanwhile you guys have a wonderful time cooking and blogging!! :)

I had a bunch of grapes in my fridge for a long time and decided to prepare juice out of it. This recipe is nothing special, just a basic.

Ingredients:

Grapes - a bunch (app. 1/2 lb)
Sugar - 1/2 cup

Direction:

1. Wash the grapes.

2. Blend it with sugar (do not add water)

3. Filter it to remove the skin.

4. Serve it cold with a couple of ice cubes on it.

It goes to 15 minute cooking by Mahimaa and RD for Summer hosted by AnuSriram.

When I saw Lima beans curry at Usha's blog, I knew it was a must-try. So I gave it a try today and turned out great. I have replaced lima with Soy beans (edamame), nonetheless to say it has tons of proteins! :D Also adjusted the amount of ingredients according to my taste.


Ingredients:

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Onion - 1/2
Tomato - 1
Coriander powder(dhaniya) - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder(jeera) - 1/2 tsp
Soy beans - 1 1/2 cups (I used frozen)
Salt
Oil
Chopped cilantro - 2 tbsp

To Grind:

Green chillies -2
Ginger - 1 small piece
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon - 1
Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp


Direction:

1. Chop onion and tomato finely. Grind the ingredients given under "to grind" to a smooth paste with a little water.

2. In a pan, heat oil and add mustard and cumin seeds.

3. When they start to splutter, add chopped onion and fry till it becomes golden brown. Add chopped tomato and fry till is becomes soft.

4. Add the soy beans with cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Cook covered till it becomes soft.

5. Now add the ground paste and cook for 5 more minutes covered. Add a little water if required.

6. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with roti/rice.

This curry goes to WYF:Sidedish hosted by EC.

I guess Tulip Festival is going on at Skagit valley now. I miss that beautiful sight of uniform, colorful flowers. I thought I could share a picture with my friends who haven't visited this wonderful valley.

Btw, this picture was clicked by Sriram. I just love this queen orange tulip standing head up among her yellow subjects!! :D

Thanks dears and have a wonderful weekend! :)

என் நண்பர்கள் அனைவருக்கும் இனிய புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள். இந்த வருடம் அனைவருக்கும் நற்செய்திகளுடன் மகிழ்ச்சியாகவும் ஆரோக்கியமாகவும் அமைய இறைவனிடம் பிரார்த்திக்கிறேன்.

So for all my blogging friends and visitors, I pray to God for good health and happiness in this auspicious day of the new year. Have a blasting new year friends! :)

As for today's post, I wanted to start this new year with a sweet, so went for a simple one, Rava Kesari (Semolina Sweet).

Ingredients:

Rava (Semolina) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1.5 cups
Water - 3 cups
Ghee - 2 or 3 tsp
Cashew nuts - 5 or 6
Raisins - 10
Grated almonds - 1 tsp
Cardomom powder - a pinch

Direction:

1. In a tsp of ghee, fry rava till it turns golden color and keep aside.

2. In a tsp of ghee, fry cashew nuts and add to the rava.

3. In a large pan, boil water and add rava (with cashews) slowly while stirring the water continuously.

4. After a couple of minutes, add sugar and cardomom. Keep stirring continuouly until it becomes thick and consistent in nature.

5. Garnish with raisins, almonds. If desired, add a pinch of saffron strands.

Its baking time!! :D I never had the guts to bake cakes ever. But managed to bake before just for Sriram's Birthday. So again, when I came across a lot of blogs with wonderful cakes around, I really was inspired to bake again. So I gathered up all my courage to try again. And, here it goes, my successful (hopefully) story of baking a chocolate cake.

Ingredients:

Direction:

This chocolate-water cake is on its way to For the Love of Chocolate event hosted by Poornima.

After having a delicious mango lassi from Saravana Bhavan, I wanted to try it myself. :D So bought these two gorgeous mangoes for the first time and tried it. So you can give me the verdict if it was a success after looking at the lassi pictures. :)

Ingredients:

Mango - 1 (or) Mango puree - 1 cup
Yogurt - 2 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup (I like it sweeter :D )
Cardamam - a pinch


Direction:

1. Skin the mango and cut into small cubes.

2. Blend all the ingredients together in a blender/mixer. If you want you can add some ice cubes and blend too.

3. Serve it with a couple of ice cubes on top of it. Whip cream would sound great too. :)

Mango lassi is my entry to RD FOR SUMMER event hosted by AnuSriram.

This is a very simple fry for potato lovers without any hassles involved. You can go for this fry if you have potato at home. Goes well with any rice varieties.

This potato fry is on its way to Cooking for Kids - Potato Event hosted by Deepa initiated by Sharmi.

Ingredients: 

Potato - 2 or 3
Onion - 1/2
Red chilli - 1
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Channa daal - 1/2 tsp
Urad daal (split) - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 5 or 6
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt 
Chopped cilantro - 2 tsp

Direction:

1. Pressure cook potatoes with 2 cups of water (about 3-4 whistles). After the pressure is realeased, skin the potatoes and break them into small bite-sized pieces.

2. In a large pan, heat oil and do thadka with mustard seeds, curry leaves, channa daal, urad daal and then add red chilli.

3. Add chopped onion and fry till it turns golden brown.

3. Add potatoes with turmeric powder and salt and fry for a couple of minutes.

4. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Potato fritters is the snack idea given by mom when I asked her for any potato snack for kids and the recipe courtesy goes to her too. It was yummy and crispy and I'm sure kids would love it too, if moms don't mind a little oil while frying. ;)

This entry is dedicated to Cooking for kids - Potato Event hosted by Deepa initiated by Sharmi.

For the first time in my life, I have been awarded for a Photography Event. I am honoured to receive the third place for the Mega Click Contest conducted by Gayathri. I would like to thank all my visitors and friends for their support and love for me. As such I'm not a great photographer, I've just started learning photography, especially Food photography. So this award really means a lot to me and I will preserve it for the rest of my life. It is really encouraging and inspiring me to learn a lot more and do better with my photography skills. I would also like to thank my husband for being my greatestest inspiration. :)



The Chakili picture which won me the prize! :)

Tomato chutney is another favourite dip loved by Tamilians. Its prepared with Tomato and onion as main ingredients.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 4
Onion - 1
Red chillies - 4
Channa Daal - 2 tsp
Urad Daal - 2 tsp
Jeera (cumin) seeds - 1 tsp
Tamarind - 1 small pulp
Oil
Salt

Direction:

1. Chop tomatoes and onion. In a large pan, heat oil and add the daals and fry till turns golden brown.

2. Add red chillies, chopped onion and jeera and fry till onion turns golden brown.

3. Add chopped tomatoes, tamarind pulp and salt and fry till they get mashed up.

4. Remove from flame and cool it down.

5. Grind it to a smooth paste. Again heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry the paste in it for a few seconds.

6. It can be stored in fridge and used for a week.

I'm kind of rushing this to the FIL-Tomato event hosted by Sanghi. :)

MCC 2009 is a Mega Click Contest hosted by Gayathri. When I came across this event, I thought I could give my contribution too. So I'm sending the following pictures which I tried to take with better concentration than other pictures. Hope it clicks!! :)

Banana Salad

Potato Masala


Banana Heart

Sambar Powder