Filter Coffee

If you ever had a sleep over at a South Indian or Tam Bram (Short form for Tamil Brahmin) in the 1990s or earlier, most likely you woke up to the voice of M.S.Subbalakshmi chanting the Subrabatham accompanied by cup of good filter coffee. Each household would have a favorite "go to" brand of coffee, their blend of chicory and peppery.
 

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Spinach or Keera Masiyal

This plain looking dish is easy to make and is a whole meal in itself. Lentils, spinach and some ghee for fat to make it a comfort food. I eat this like stew on cold winter days with clarified butter substituted for oil. All this recipe asks for is a teeny-tiny bit of ghee and a little goes a long way by means of satiety and taste.

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Idli Upma

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade and when idlis go wrong or when made in excess, you make idli upma. Left over idlis are a must for this recipes. I have never made it with fresh ones though. The recipe is very similar to Poha or aval Upma. I leave the left over idlis in the refrigerator and the following day they are ready for the upma.

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Pasta Bake - White Sauce

My son's favorite food is pasta. we make red sauce, white sauce, no sauce, spaghetti, bow ties, and my son considers all of the above as a variety of foods. It's sent in lunch boxes at least once a week. The preferred kind for lunch box is cooked pasta sauteed in oilve oil with carmalized onions, colored peppers and Italian seasoning. Yep, my son is a foodie, so I call sauteed onions as carmalized. That's our make believe world where I am the chef and he gets his gourmet lunches and dinners.

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Aval or Poha Upma

Ingredients
1 Cup Aval or Poha ... preferably the thick kind.
1 Onion chopped
1 Green Chilli slit in half
A few Curry leaves
1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder 
1/4 cup milk (optional)
1 tsp Oil

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Adai

As a stay at home mom, my mom always had tiffin ready for us to eat as soon as we came back home from school. Tiffin can be described as a snack that is not as heavy as a meal. As always there are always exceptions like the Adai which is considered a pretty heavy meal. Lunch at school was at noon and by 5 in the evening I was ready to eat anything edible I could lay my eyes on. Last thing I wanted to hear was we were having Adai for the evening. Apparently adai  is one of those recipes I hated as kid and gradually acquired the taste to appreciate the texture of the partially grind-ed lentils along with onions or sometimes the slight bitter taste of drumstick leaves added when available in the local Indian stores.

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Mango Pickle

I know it sounds strange but I do not like pickles, the hot and spicy Indian kind. The cut mango pickle is the only exception. My friend and I would go their terrace and pluck raw mangoes from their neighbor's mature tree. A few we would bite into as we chatted under the shade of the tree on hot Summer afternoons in Chennai and a save off a few for her mom to make this pickle. The last time I went to India, the trees were no longer there, but her mom remembered my favorite pickle and made it for me. Now that I think about it, all my friend's mothers made this pickle when they invited me over including my sister-in-law's parents. Does that tell you anything about how crazy I must be for this recipe?

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Pasta Sauce

I have been wanting to document some of our favorite family recipes. Finally a snow day, which is nothing short of a miracle in Texas, drove me to write up the recipes. The pictures were in my draft folder for a long long time now waiting to be published. This recipe is adapted from Jamie Oliver. Until I read his book, The Food Revolution, I did not realize the pasta sauce is a real easy recipe to make and such a healthier option over feeding kids with the bottled sauce with unknown ingredients and preservatives.

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Rava Dosa

I must have been close to 10 or 12 years old, when I promised to myself that I would never ever make anything my kids did not like. Little did I realize that with kids, constant exposure encouraged them to gradually develop and enhance their palettes. It's true with getting kids to eat vegetables. The more they are exposed, better are their chances of developing a liking to it. I am sure you guessed it, rava dosa was never a favorite of mine. I also realized, it was because of the overly rubbery texture of maida or all purpose flour and the taste of chopped ginger.

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Idlis & Dosas

Many cultures have ceased to make dishes that involve fermentation. Not that I fear Idli will soon become one but with many opting to buy idli batter rather than making it at home makes this dish a highly likely candidate. The weather in USofA does make it a tad bit more harder for new cooks to master this recipe. Unfortunately, there are no short cuts, practice is what makes the mastery of this recipe perfect. Like most South Indians you will find me paranoid about perfecting the technique to result in soft idlis comparable to how a handful of jasmine flowers feels like. The reference to jasmine flowers is as old as idli itself and is a yard stick used to measure how well a cook performs.

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Tomato Chutney

I am not a big appliances addict. However, every once in a while I go crazy about an appliance, even if the allure is short lived. The hand held blender is my latest go to appliance in lieu of the Indian Blender aka the Mixie. There is a time and day for blanching, peeling de-seed the tomatoes. Weekdays are just not molded for an elaborate prep.

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Srirangam - Trichy

My parents are in town and my whole house is turned upside down. No meat in the house, breakfast at 8, lunch at noon, snack time and rotis for dinner sharp at 7 just like clockwork. Did I forget no more dirty dishes in the sink and my kitchen floors are speckless. I had a day off from work, a few Mondays ago and all they wanted to do was visit the temple and eat South Indian food.

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Somewhere Over The Rainbow

It's been a few months, Riya and I head out right after school, once a week, for a mom-daughter, girl to girl talk. No topic is out of bounds for these tete a tete. At times the conversation is intense and at other times it gets as silly a 12 year old can get. We discuss Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With The Wind and recite dialogues from "The God Father", a side effect of watching all the 3 parts back to back this Thanksgiving break. Time does fly. It feels like yesterday, when we brought her in a car seat from the hospital and today we discuss middle school drama with her.

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Tiger Creek, Tyler TX

My parents joined us for our Thanksgiving dinner along with my cousin, her family and a friend of hers. A friend of mine and I headed out shopping in the wee hours of mid-night. What's Thanksgiving without a bit of  retail therapy.
Saturday, we visited the Tiger Park in Tyler, a conservatory for rescuing tigers. They have about 30 tigers and close to 40 big cats in total including a couple of lions, pumas, bob cats etc. I don't think I have ever seen so many tigers in one place. Looks like there are more in captivity than in nature. Rohan was all attention to what the guide was telling us and re-enforced multiple times that the trip was worth the long drive.

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Grapevine Lake, Texas

Looking for a good hiking route in DFW metroplex area, the trail around the Grapevine lake is an option. May be not in Summer as it's right around the lake and it feels way more hotter than it really is. Not something you need in Texas Summer.With that said, it's a great option for a Fall or Spring time.
Most lakes in Texas, with the exception of two are man made. Natural or not, sails in water capture my attention and a place on this blog. Must have been the influence of English poets like Williams Wordsworth. Too bad they do not do much of English poetry in my kids' schools, at least not yet.

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Samosa And Chai

It's a beautiful Autumn day outside, while I am still in August on my blog posts. Another major, may be not, milestone that occurred during the Summer is that my kids learned to make tea. Tea making is a perfect start to teach somebody how to cook as it starts off with boiling water. A little flavoring gives the new chef some freedom to try out their natural abilities and be a little experimental while staying with in the boundaries.

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Read ... Laugh ...Repeat

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Chinese Lantern Festival, Dallas, TX

A must see exhibit of lights beaming with creativity. Dragons made out of Porcelain plates, ancient creatures assembled from tiny bottles filled with colored liquid, ants on vacation some see-sawing while others playing a band, a miniature Temple Of Heaven about 1/3rd the size of the original one, mermaids, mushrooms, octopus gardens, dinosaurs, flamingos and Texas long horns to name a few exhibits.
No doubt the dragon was the high light of the show, mainly because the 300 feet dragon built from 15,000 dishes joined by hand is spectacular. Can you spot the plates?

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Happy Diwali

 
It's still raining Diwali celebrations here in Dallas. I have a 2nd round of Diwali party at work tomorrow. The first one was held last Friday. My parents are here to join in the festivities with us. Super exited about that!!! We hosted last weekend with sparklers and sweets galore.
I have a new found love for sarees. But some how could not get myself to buy one this Diwali for a one or two time wear. Sure I will get there, some day. The water jug filled with roses and the heavy duty appam-maker (appam-karai) as shown in pictures below are my latest finds. Actually my dad's finds.

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Kids' Room

I usually refrain myself from reading books that my daughter does. The Hunger Games Series is probably an exception. We watched the Hunger Games and I could not resist my self from reading "Catching Fire" to know that happens next. Waiting a year for book #2 to be made into a movie did not appeal me as I suffer from exhibiting really low thresholds of patience. Gripping is an understatement to describe Hunger Games. I was pleasantly surprised to find the book written using simplistic language avoiding fancy schamcy words and sentences. No wonder it's such a popular book amongst school going kids and adults alike.

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Play Dress Up And Garba

A lanky girl in tees and skinny jeans or shorts in the Summer biking around the neighborhood or throwing in a few hoops in the back yard, playing the piano particularly the Christmas songs at this time of the year so she can be ready for the holiday season or reading a book too fast ignoring my words of wisdom to read slowly absorbing every word and appreciating sentences best describes my daughter. If she is not doing any of the above she is probably definitely listening to Taylor Swift songs. She needs a lot of convincing to dress up girly-girl. Not that she is a tom boy, but simply does not take the time to dress up fancy.

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Fall Festival At Work And Middle School

Elementary school is a good time to try out various activities for the kids to get an idea of the their interests and to identify inherent talents. By Middle or High school the kid could still surprise you with a hidden talent or an interest they never showed when they were in elementary. Riya is still into spelling, singing, piano and her latest fascination is with sports and politics. Governor Romney did a wrong move by pulling in Big Bird into the political debate. My kids are so against him they remind me everyday that he could very well pull the plug out of NPR, one of my favorite radio stations. Riya made it into the school's Tennis team but sustaining the team needs a lot of practice. She is also looking at basket ball for the upcoming season. It's a little overwhelming for us but she seems to be enjoying the whole thing and efficiently managing her time.

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