Bottles, Dals and Kitchen decor!

Most of my pet-jars in the kitchen seem to have one or the other kind of dal. Some white, some round, some cut, some yellow, some small, some large. I don't have a clue what half of them are. Thanks to this great fact that you can't substitute one type of dal for another in any Indian dish, I ended up with all these varities. And with each visit of parents, one more new type gets included!
This weekend, as I washed and dried all the bottles under the sun I decided to do some dal-sorting. Most of the dals were beyond their expiriy date. Some jars even had a small, yet, thriving eco-system in them.
Idea! I had 3 pretty-OK shaped bottles. Few nice looking but not edible dal packets. And some time to spare.
So came up with these for my kitchen window sil :-D
Felt they looked nice!

(click image for an enlarged view)

Want to try? Its too simple to be explained in steps. So here goes some tips:

1. Ensure that the jars are perfectly dry before you begin this!
2. Take care to use a funnel to put the dal through narrow-mouthed bottles.
3. Masoor dal gives a vibrant look to it. Use it in plenty.
4. I used an old packet of rock salt for the white portion. Salt/Sugar can also be used.
5. I even stuffed a few dried-red-chilles near the top of the bottle.
6. You can add ANY stuff from your kitchen here. Don't stop at dals. I have added even a saunf layer!
7. And yes, you might have to sacrifice some of the good green-gram and other dals which you use frequently. Don't depend ONLY on the stuffs which have outlived their expiry dates!

That is it, I guess :-D
My attempt doesn't look all that neat. But I got so excited with the idea that I had to-had to-had to blog it :-p

For the "2-minute-rukh-sakthe-hai" types!

Today I pay due respect to the omnipresent curly substance of our everyday life which comes in a bright yellow pack and which when added in boiling water and cooked for 2 minutes yields hot and nice-smelling dish called... yes, you guessed it right, Maggi Noodles:)

The popularity of the dish is obvious by the nature in which it finds its acceptance among all age groups in India. To think of it nobody calls it noodles, or even Maggi Noodles, its called just Maggi!! In this light, it can be compared to the success that Xerox achieved in the world of printing and copying. These days nobody looks for a 'photo copy' or a 'copier', instead you ask the guy at the STD/ISD shop to "take a xerox" of the page, and when moved closer towards South-eastern side of India, its apt to "take a jeraaaks".

So going by the trends and calling it by its pet name we see that Maggi is so powerful yet versatile that it becomes break-fast when eaten at 8, lunch when eaten at 1, snacks(!!) when eaten at 5 and dinner when eaten at 9. Its like this wonderful-dream-come-true operating system which never cribs and can never go wrong whatever way you use it! And what more, with Maggi by your side the Indian Constitution prevents you from declaring that you don't know cooking! It comes in handy when your cooking qualifications are subjected to scrutiny during "interviews". " So what can you cook?" "Err...I can make tea, coffee...uhhmm...and yes, Maggi :)". The impression is favourable, trust me. You will clear the "interview"!

On one hand as Maggi fan-followers grow in numbers in social networking fan clubs and babies ponder switching from Ceralac to Maggi, its only natural that the number of nasty e-mails circulating "gossips" about Lady Maggi also shoots high, call it the effect of celebrity status!

According to them Maggi's "goooey texture" is made of boiled udders of goats and sheeps, and the magic powder inside those silver sachets contain the worst of chemicals, enough to make all moms in India go panicky and ban the food in home. Not funny. I was a victim.

But Maggi's fans are the most loyal ones on earth. They strive harder and harder to optimize the 2-mins cooking even more. Some revelations in this regard can be found by googling for it. To get you curious, did you know that you needn't really cook it on fire for 2 mins?? You could just add it into boiling water and close the lid just like you would make the easier cup-noodles! :)

I can't help but smile when I see tiny toddlers watching their mom draw out a packet of maggi from the shelves in the super market and pat comes the question "Mommy, when are you making me Maggi?" :)



Long live Maggi, the crucial life-saver of bad cooks, bachelors, lazy couples and many others!!

PS - Analysis of the effects of Maggi in the lives of Software Engineer couples has been avoided on purpose :D

Plant a Thought.

I am smitten by a new hobby. Gardening.

Two pretty white flowers bloomed in the balcony of the apartment opposite ours. Like all other infatuations of a woman, this also was triggered by a "neighbour's-envy-owner's-pride" case. I don't know anything about rearing a plant, but I wanted a plant as well, at any cost!!!!

From the time I remember, I have never been too involved in making a garden. One among the handful of incidents was when we planted a sapling on vanamahotsava day in school and I have no clue what happened to it later. Watching mom "waste" an entire Sunday forenoon session digging up the soil and cutting plants and soiling her clothes and slippers was what gardening meant for me! And I didnt fancy doing all that and getting dirty!

But never mind the past. This weekend, 4 people whose total Gardening Quotient (GQ) didn't exceed 20 found a nursery where we could get saplings. "finding a nursery" was another long story since nobody was sure if the nursery my hubby dear used to see on his way to school 15 years ago still exist or not and after much speculation and help from shop keepers and confused strangers on the roads, we found that it did exist!

We were welcomed by a 45-50-looking man wearing a lungi and shirt. There was a whole bunch of plants to choose from, I noticed!
Me : "Oru chedi venam" (We want a plant)
He : (a little surprised with my innocent request) ok..
Me : (Smile and stand, coz I can't explain anything more!)
He : (Smile and stand, coz he can't help me unless I speak more!)

After a few minutes of agonizing silence for the 3 people who accompanied me, I cleared my throat and attempted to explain what I was looking for..
"ee apartmentile balcony-il vekkaan oru chedi venam. Chedi valuthaavaruthu. Poo okke venam. Valya kashttapaadonnumillaathe poo undaakanam. Anganathe ethu chediya nallathu?"(I want a plant that I can keep in the balcony of my apartment. It shouldn't grow. It should have a lot of flowers. Without too much of effort from my end, it should bloom. Which plant should I take?)

Obviously, he didnt like my requirements! So he didnt answer my question, but motioned me to take a look at the plants in the nursery.

I would point to each plant and ask the same question "itu valuthaakuo?" (Will this grow?) and after committing a few mistakes by replying with a "ohhh...nallonam valarum" (yes, it will grow really well), to which I responded "ohh..enna venda" (is it? then I dont want it) he strategically started answering with "illa, valare slow growth-a.. 4 years edukkum" (its got a very slow growth, takes 4 years to grow even a little). Hmm..smart!

Soon the 4 of us dispersed to four different directions that the confused gardener lost track of us! The impression that he had of us when we walked in smiling was probably all washed out, for he was seen scratching his head and wondering if we would leave him free and get lost! He would never have seen so many fools in one frame!

Finally we narrowed on a few pots of marigold and daisy-like flowers. 20 rupees each was a big deal, I thought. In Bangalore, this would cost me atleast 60 or 70!

4 faces looked carefully at the marigold pots.
FIL : "Itinu valam okke engana?" (What do we add as manure?)
He : "Chanaga podi ittal mati" (You can add cow-dung)
chorus : "CHANAGAMO???? Atonnum kittilla avde!" (COW-DUNG?? We don't get that in Bangalore!)
He : "Jaiva valam.ellu podi aaylum mati" (any bio-manure. you can add crushed bones also)
me : as if that is easy!

Then there was this discussion on how to re-plant it once we go home, how many times to water, how much to water, how to take it in car and many more how-tos and we were done. Marigolds, it was! In another 10 minutes, we walked out, each with a marigold pot in hand.

A 10 hour long tiring journey in car and here they are, my marigolds and daisy-like plants, dropping dead in my balcony. Sigh! But I do want them to bloom!

The story of a Kissan Jam Bottle

Am not feeling well today. I have a runny nose, fever and an aching body to give company all day long. The dull aches that sinusitis gives my face only adds to my misery.

Took an off from work today lest the AC worsens my situation.

Catching a cold means the end of the world for me. I become as irritating as a 5 yr old refusing to go to school. Having hubby also not around makes you feel all the more sick.

To cheer up, I looked in the cupboards to see if there was anything interesting. Some books, my old jeans which do not fit any more, some crockery, some bulbs...hmm..bulbs..thats interesting. I rummaged and found 4 of them, all in proper working condition.

Immediately enquired Google if there was anything I could do with a used bulb. They said I could make glitter bulbs. But it involved lot of technical uncertainties. The ones I had were working ones and if I did what they told, hubby dear wouldn't be pleased to see 4 good condition bulbs become glitter pots.

But nevertheless, I read through and found it pretty good. I managed to find a Kissan Jam bottle from kitchen and did the same thing. See ->






To do this, you would need

1) A glass bottle
2) Glass paints of any colour (I used Sunset Yellow)
3) Glitter or any small-tiny-decorative stuffs. I used the "springy-gold-coils" I got along with the Tanjore painting kit.
4) err... Thats it.. and a small amount of patience :)


How to do:

Pour in a generous amount of glass paints into the bottle. I used about 20 drops.

Keep rolling the bottle so that the paint spreads evenly around the bottle. Take care otherwise you might end up with thick coats on one side and thin on the other.

Once done, invert the bottle and place a glass beneath to collect the excess paint from the jar.Keep it for a good 15 minutes.

Wipe the mouth of the bottle with a tissue.

Now, sprinkle glitter or anything that catches your fancy and shake the bottle so that they get stuck on the edges.

If the paint looks wet, dry it with a hair-dryer.

Use a colourful ribbon to cover the mouth of the jar. (I didn't do this)

Your little flower-vase is ready!

Fry till Golden Brown..

Take any culinary book, am sure these lines would never be missed. Its there all over like a punchline!

Talking about recipe books, writing it is as much as an art as is cooking itself! You need to choose words with utmost care so that it tempts the reader to try it. Once the reader runs through all the ingredients required and is satisfied that (s)he has all the stuffs ready she is automatically drawn to the Method section. Now once (s)he starts reading the method, the author should hand-pick and present the words in such a way that he (more than often she) actually starts smelling the aroma of the spices being lightly fried in oil!!

Some tips (read as "culinary jargons") used to draw the readers attention are -
(Use these phrases in case you are looking for an alternate career in writing cookery book/online posts)

1) Onions are always fried till golden brown. Am sure many a times all of us would have wondered what exactly the golden brown colour was, but sure enough we have been made to believe that onions taste best when they are "fried till golden brown", a thing never achieved !!

2) Garnish with fresh mint leaves and blah blah... mmmm sounds so appealing! The readers would fall head over heels for this!

3) If you observed, recipes with simple names rarely catch your attention. Instead see the increase in page-hits you would get if you posted the simple recipe of prawn fry to Golden Fried Prawns in Sweet-n-Sour Vinegar Sauce.

4) Not to forget that colourful picture of a juicy chicken ready to be dug into surrounded with "garnishes from point# 2", a checkered napkin in white-n-red! Yeah man, its going to be nothing without an eye-catchy pic of the (supposedly) real thing

5) If its an online post, get your friends and parents to comment on your recipe. Bribe them to give you as many stars as possible for your ratings and watch the magic as some naive unassuming user(read: prey) searches for something and your recipe gets another hit!

Now who cares if your prey ends up skipping his dinner coz of half kilo grams of burnt prawns with a vinegar sauce that doesn't taste half as exotic as it sounds! You receive your hits (pun intended ;-))

Happy Writing!

"Pls take an Orkut Photo for me...! "

Thanks to orkut, we have few new words to add to the dictionary. A friend of mine has made a remark on the word "scraps" but more than anything, I think its the word "orkut Photo" thats catching up fast in people's lingo..

Lets try examining what type of word it is..
Of course,its more of an adjective to the word photo.. "Da,pls take an orkut photo of mine .." which means it should be good enough to be put as a profile picture in orkut. As a matter of fact, in order to call a photo "orkut photo" ,it should satisfy the following criteria -

1) Even if I look like a mirror-cracking material in real, in an orkut photo I should like the hero/heroine right out of a sugar-coated-lovey-dovey H(B)ollywood movie.

2)The background should be perfect.. Preferably looking very similar to European countryside or New York skyline. If they can't be met, its alright,pls refer to point no : 4 for a solution.

3)There should be a touch of professional charm in the photography .. you know,something like showing you in a silhoutte with a tiny ray of sun peeping out beneath!

4) For guyz, you get extra points if the photo is taken to show a jazzy car/bike along..and for girls, its any photo where they are decked up like the ladies in kyon ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi or for that matter, any other K-serials of Ekta Kapoor ...

5) For a handful of people, this kind of photo is taken in such tricky a way that you-will-know-its-me-but-you-can't-see-my-face... like creatively wearing a mask, taking the photo in such a way that only a portion of your face is seen (and the pose looks so natural sometimes!) These people fall in those category where they are strictly forbidden to put their photo in orkut after their worried parents/spouses read about orkut crimes (now, that will soon be another new word !) in newspapers.

6) Orkut photo also happens to be updated very frequently, like ones resume !

A recent trend in orkut photo culture is that people tend to have a "status message" along with their names where they mention if their album has been updated today or not! And then there is a swarm of activity in their scrap books "you look choooo cute yaar" blah-blah...
If you are going on a holiday, few pics are shot mandatorily just to make them candidates for orkut photos and after 5 rounds of heavy rigorous screening which is capable of scaring even our historic Abhimanyu , one of them gets to be "The chosen one". And what follows is another couple of rounds of editing contrast,lighting,removing red-eye blah-blah until the expected degree of "glamourism" is achieved!
All said and done, it would have taken half of your day...and with a satisfied smile you upload your "orkut foto", only to realise that your best friend whom you located recently is still looking at the glamorous "orkut foto" and wondering who you are!Here you are,listing down in his public scrapbook all those moments in your life that were too embarassing for words just to help your weak-memoried friend map the ugly-duckling in school to the glam-doll in the "orkut foto" ! Sigh! :-) But life goes on...

Happy Orkut Photography!

Cooking for Dummies - The 10 point Mantra!

1) Before you start off anything,DO NOT check if you have all the ingredients. If you do so,believe me, you will not only end up having cooked nothing but also doubly hungry than what you were 2 hrs ago.

2) As a corollary to the above, it is a fact that you are never in posession of all the ingredients mentioned in the recipe. And DON'T even try to fetch them from somewhere!Its a waste of time! This was my first important lesson.

3) If the missing ingredients happen to be scattered mostly in the top portion of the recipe in the book, it means you are in danger.. (you are trying to make a chicken biriyani without chicken!). Instead if they are towards the bottom,breathe easy, leaving them out is purely harmless !

4) If you have decided to cook something, don't even think twice! Cook it!

5) While cooking non-veg, rely on those Meat Masalas to save your day! They make up for your bloopers very well! :-)

6) Keep stirring like crazy.... non-stop !!!!! :-))))

7)Keep your recipes out-of-reach of your victims so that you don't give them too much of hope and they don't know what exactly were you attempting to cook! (If the victim happens to be somebody who knows what exactly we possess and what we don't,then surely don't allow him/her to take a look, cos its people's nature to notice what is not than what is.. human
psychology ;-) )

8) Keep your utensils squeaky-clean. This way you earn trust of your victims ! This also slightly lessens their tension and helps them to relax (atleast,until they actually taste it!) ;-)

9) If the dishes get really bad, serve them in your bestest bowls (aesthetic appeal does a lot to soothe the strength of "de-complimenting" ;-) )

10) Finally, if you are lucky enough to get a pass score ,make sure you let the world know of it! Move the contents to a jazzier serving bowl, garnish it with anything that you lay your hands upon,take snaps from all angles and multiple lights ,send it across to all of your friends, declare it on your blog (if possible, update your orkut album too!!) ... phew! we are not done yet.. use your mobile fones buddies...call up friends and send sms!!!!

Once done with all this circus, bow to your audience and thank your victims for having co-operated :-D

Happy Cooking....Be a Winner!!!

PS :- Sorry Sand.., But I know u still love me :-p

Macrophotography Lessons from Sand :-))))

" The Complete Man "

Howzzat?? That's from Sand's shirt !!


" Ma'am's name in bold " :-)


Guess what that is... its my key chain with my name on it. And its placed on his denims ..Cool effect na?

" Time and tide waits for none "



Sand's watch :-))

" Smoking is injurious to health "

Naah,my guy doesn't smoke ;-) This cigarette butt was the first thing that caught our eyes when we were hunting for our prey ...

Photos Courtesy and "Its-mine"-selfish-child-syndrome (read Copyright :D) : Sandeep (more photos at sandeepgnair.blogspot.com)

PS - Sand, don't forget the chocolates for this publicity ;-)