Vijayadasmi Day

This is such a auspisious day in this festive season. Saraswathi pooja and Vijayadasmi are my favourite festivals and very close to my heart. These two days fill my heart and mind with bursting new positive energy.

My grandfather always insisted us to do all the things you want to excel in this day. Till marriage, my grandfather and my dad made me and my brother to sit with our favourite books all day. They also encourage us to do our favourite art form. They have taught us that to excel in different areas of our interest , start it on vijayadasmi. So I make it a point to start / practise the arts or studies on this day.

This practise has made me gain more interest on my passions.  I read and do things I want to excel in this day.

Thank you thatha and appa for inculcating this beautiful habit in me.

Happy Vijayadasmi. Stick to your passions and strive for excellence in the same.

Wishes =)

 

Ellu Sadham (Sesame seed Rice)

One of my favourite rice item that goes very nice with potato fry is Sesame seed rice. "This is the favourite food for Hanuman and Perumal " says my grandmom. So on saturdays, since my childhood, atleast one spoon of this rice will be served in our plate.


This rice has very good nutritional values.

Ingredients:

Sesame seeds (white/black) - 3 tsp
Dried Red chilli - 3-4 No
Curry leaves - 5 - 10 leaves
Thoor dhall - 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder - a generous pinch
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Salt for taste
Cooked rice - 1 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp


Steps:

 

Heat the pan with oil. Once the oil is hot, put mustard seeds and let it burst fully.
Put Thoor dhaal, Sesame seeds ( I used black sesame seeds) , then red chillies

Add asafoetida powder and curry leaves, then salt. Stir well until cooked.

Once the ingredients emit a pleasant aroma, place them in a mixer and grind them throughly.
(Do not add water)

Mix the ground seeds with hot rice and serve hot.

As I mentioned it goes well with potato curry.
 

Aviyal : Typical South Indian Recipe

I grew up on all the tasty and healthy South Indian Tamil Brahmin Recipes. One of such authentic recipe is Aviyal. My mom and grand ma make excellent Aviyal. I prefer Aviyal with Rasam Sadham(Rice). Mostly this dish is preferred with Adai.

This easy recipe has many nutritious values. Almost all vegetables can be used in this recipe.

The other day I made Aviyal and Rasam sadham, which came out very well. My hubby insisted me to make Aviyal on the same weekend  with Adai. He loves authentic food too.

My mom taught me this dish which I felt to be very easy. Thanks to my MOM!

Ingredients

Beans        -       5-6 No
Potato        -      2 No (Medium Sized)
Carrot        -      2-3 No
Coconut     -      1 cup (grated)
Jeera seeds -      2 tbsp
Mustard      -     1 tsp
Green Chilly-    3 No
Curry Leaves-   10 No
Salt               -    For Taste
Coconut oil  -     2 tbsp
Asafoetida   -     2 pinch
Curd            -     2 cups

Steps

Cut vegetables into 2-3 inch long pieces.
Boil them with 2-3 cups of water

Grind coconut, jeera, green chilly, curry leaves, Asafoetida into a thich paste with little water.

In a  pan, add oil ; temper mustard seeds along with curry leaves.

Add boiled vegetables along with water, ground paste and curd.

Add Salt and keep it in heat for 5 - 10 minutes.

Serve hot with adai or Rasam sadham

PS: Any combination of vegetables can be used. Tumeric Powder (1 pinch) can be added to enhance colour.
If watery , add water (1 cup ) mixed with 1tsp of corn flour

Yummy Aviyal Ready

Tamil New Year Lunch

This is yet another late post. This is to showcase what all I cooked for Tamil New year. The Lunch was yummy and delicious.

I made more than 12 dishes. All traditional Tamil dishes which turned out to be tastiest lunch.

We dumped ourselves with these exotic dishes and celebrated the day.

Post on these recipes soon

The pictures turned out to be great.

DIY : Valentines Day Love Tokens

This weekend was simply a learning. I learn few beautiful DIY ideas from Pinterest and few other websites.

The DIY Ideas were awesome and that too for Valentines Day. These gifts may be silly and simple. If I gift these to my love, he will truly appreciate my creativeness and encourge me in constructive learning.

My hubby is the most important person in my life.. Learning some simple stuff and showing my love towards him even in these tiny gifts makes me happy.

I learnt to make hearts. I learnt to make hearts just by joining papers and also the Origami style heart.. Also learnt Heart Bookmarks! The website from which i learnt Origami is Origami Club!!

Please find the hearts which i made for my hubby for this Valentines day.

                                  Valentines Day is fast approaching!!!!

      ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Welcome 2012

      Welcoming each New Year fills up my heart with happiness, excitment and feel of responsibility. 'To do this year'  is my favourite activity. I have made nearly 100 activties for this year.

     I spent this New Year day with my parents and brother. The day was awesome. My mom gave me "Authentic Indian Milk Sweet' (Paal Peda) to start this wonderful year. One fact about this year is it being a leap year.


This shot was taken from the 3rd floor cafe of my work building.



       So let me write all my good, precious moments in this page for me to go through atleast on New Year Eves.Good rise in your goals, life and love is all I expect in this year . Moving towards what I want.

       I wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.

Activity 100 : Hello Holidays

Christmas is fast approaching. I clicked few Christmas tree. I love christmas tree. As I have already mentioned, I want to decorate a chirstmas tree with beautiful simple ornaments.

Anyways, say hello to Holidays

=)

Activity 100 : Festival of light

Karthigai 2011

Activity100 : Scented Sticks

Scented Sticks are mandatory ones in pooja of our households. Aroma of burning these sticks kindles the devotion in you.

Activity 100 : Thanks Giving Day

Thanks to all my loved ones. I always adore loving my people and being loved.

Happy Turkey Day.

I really want to experience all these special occasions esp  dinners

Activity 100 : Kolam

This is an art done with Rice powder mixed with water. We do this on festival day to express something good is going on in the home.

I  love doing this art around our house on festival days. One such art is shown above.

Try this. It is very easy.

Rangola Rangola Rangoli

As our favourite festival is fast approaching , all are gearing up to shop the latest outfits, jewels, footwear, and esp crackers.

Most of them in workplace were not able to  concentrate on their work. Hence our cilents grabbed this time to conduct fun activities for employees for a week.

For today , It was Rangoli competition. One would have seen colours all over splashed , spread over their designs and around. There were 5 teams I guess. I just captured all the rangolis as gesture of participation.

 

I liked this one very much :)

=)

Hope everyone enjoyed this competition. Advance Diwali wishes..