Hooked to the Tube!

....and why not(Shameless and Jobless, My husband calls me)....am watching my all time fav sitcom 'Friends'as I am typing this. Hooked on is the right word to use as I am hooked on to the show only for a while until something better comes along.

So Im kinda done with my House Obsession for now...moving on....Im waiting to watch the new much talked about comedy series Outsourced on NBC , Thursdays at 9:30 Pacific. This serial features a call center in India. I think im going to love it...watching so many Indians in an American sitcom....the trailers look very promising, hoping the real deal is as good.

The other one is Wipe Out on ABC on Tuesdays at 8:00...infact that starts in another 10 minutes, so I better get done with this blog soon. Its a Game show,Apparently this is the third season, don't know how I missed the first two. Anyways it involves Contestants participating in various hurdles to win a prize money...Don't know if you remember , but it looks like a remake of the popular Japanese game show...don't remember the name, but I was a huge fan of that show.

One of my favorite as a kid was the crystal maze...I loved the four zones and the theme of the game show...I always pictured myself playing all those games...Would love to see it again after all these years....until then, three cheers to the Idiot box and the couch potato in me!

Nandi Yoga

I started my Yoga Practice with them in my Second month and my decision to do so could not have come at a better time.

When going through a list of teachers and institutes for Prenatal Yoga classes, I had one thing on my mind , the place/teacher/institute should not be very commercial and classroom like.....and though there are many places and people that teach Yoga much closer to home, I did my research and chose Nandi in San Mateo. Yoga today is more like a Fashion statement, a couple of my friends think it is 'cool' and done in order to lose weight and stay slim and because of this thought process, Yoga is highly commercialized today. I never looked at Yoga as a slimming mechanism....Yes, it can help you keep fit, as you age, it can help you maintain your flexibility, but more than anything the peace and relaxation helps you focus and stay calm.

When my doctor asked me to describe my lifestyle ,what I said shocked me...." well I love Junk Food, a couch potato who doesn't even step out for a 20-30 minute walk in the day"...the Doc was sure not happy, given my parents physical condition, she wanted me to take my life and health a little seriously and I totally agree with her. So earlier on in my pregnancy I decided to join a Yoga Class, that was the only way I was going to get some form of exercise.

What I like about Nandi is their extremely dedicated and passionate group of teachers and their Yoga-As a way of Life Approach than the routine mechanical exercise Approach. One of my earlier favorites was Talei, who held prenatal classes on Wednesday evenings. She lights four candles on all the four corners, some light music, dims the light and then as she starts her practice...she says 'aaah' loudly every now and then as a way of releasing any built up tension.She made us do the same thing for every exhalation. It felt really good. Talei is however not in town and I might not see her during my term.

My current favorite is Nancy, who amazingly has a blissful look on her face all the time. She makes sure to ask you how you are feeling every time she bumps into you. She starts her practice by reading a verse out of a book...something that she read the other day, had a very strong impact on me...I forgot to ask her about the book and who wrote it...but it goes something like this " when it comes to pain and pleasure, pain teaches you a lot in life which will help you going forward and hence it is your friend"...She was also the other day telling us how she was walking on the sidewalk and tripped, she could have hurt her foot real bad if not for her flexibility which she got from her dedicated yoga practice.

Most of these teachers also believe in old school birthing processes , where birthing is treated as the most natural instinct known to man kind which involves very little medical intervention. Well each delivery is unique and I'm hoping that I can experience it too with as little medical intervention. I might continue my yoga practice with them even after the delivery if I can. Well for now I hope i can keep going until my delivery.

In the beginning I had a hard time with some postures, but today I seem to do them a little less effortlessly and I feel like I have started focusing on my breath which helps me ignore the pain in some poses. The Key is to breath in and out loud and let the movement flow with every breath, which I believe I can do better today. At the end of the class, after all that stretching it feels good to shut my eyes, my senses and go into deep trance' shavasan', when I open my eyes and come back to the mat, I feel very refreshed.

Thank You Nandi!

New Hope!... New Beginning!

Like everything else I think my blog needed a new makeover to get me started again. My hubby is like "whatever happened, wheres the blogger? "....Its just that sometimes theres an overflow of thoughts , good and bad and I forget that now I have a place to pen them down. Would I share my deepest of feelings and thoughts on this blog, I don't know, but then I never did have a Diary. My teachers tried hard to get me into the habit of keeping one, but I refused...My life and my feelings have always been like an open book and those closest to me can exactly read what is in it and those who do not like what they read, I truly don't care...and so I decided to blog instead of keep a Diary.

One of the things that I haven't been very open about on the social networking sites is that I am Pregnant, All of 7 months now. I have spoken a lot about it with my close pals but have not written about it yet.

This year started off with the Good news, around Jan 5th or 6th is when I found out I was pregnant , I was about 4 n half weeks then, and there was a life growing within me...may be it is my dad I thought, actually everyone said that. The very first time I saw this life was when I was 6 and half weeks pregnant and later at 8 and half weeks, it was a baby human. When the doctor showed me the heart beat, I kept staring at it wondering at the way of life, the most Crucial Organ in a Human Body... the Heart..With it starts life and with it ends Life....I wondered, one day My dad too came to this world the same way with a beating heart and on October 7th, the same heart stopped beating and took him away from all of us. I looked at the small Baby and thought where one life ends the other begins...then again may be it is the same person, My dad coming back to me...All Over!!!...and I smiled.

My pregnancy so far (touch wood) has been really good. There really hasn't been too much to complain about, Thanks to God. I have eaten whatever I felt like eating , I have done whatever I wanted to do, so I must say I have had a very good time, thanks to a supportive partner.

On my 20th week Ultrasound my Husband and I found out that we are going to have a Baby Girl!!!..We went to the Ultrasound telling ourselves, Boy or Girl, it dint matter, we just want to make sure the Baby is healthy and growing right. My husband already seems very possessive about his daughter...ha ha..."Ask me" I tell him narrating all my stories with Dad.

Well now after finding out the Sex, we have to think of a name. Why?....knowing Sandesh and me, We will sit on it till the end , and later when the Baby is out, we will fight, laugh, fight and land up keeping a name that both of us don't like....that is why , we need to at least think of a few names ahead of time. I, the one with a lot of time at hand, have a small list of names that I like, Sandesh hasn't quite approved of any and so I'm waiting....some of the names that I have liked

Naisha- New Hope, Special

Ela- Earth

Aarna- Goddess Lakshmi

Lakhi- Goddess Laksmi

Aaliya- Highest Social Standing

Well these are just some of the names that I have liked. Now waiting for Sandesh to give me his list.

My due date is on September 12th and both of us and our families are waiting to Welcome this New Member to our Small Family..Sandesh, me, the twin Uncles,the Great Gran mom the Granmas and the Gran Pas in Heaven:)

Colors!

Well the story behinds these set of photos is rather amusing!...

I used Red nail polish...as nail polish does not blend completely with water...some were smudged , but I did get a few that were intact drops in the water. In the other picture, I smeared some blue toothpaste and put a few drops of nail polish on it to give it the contrast.

I am glad I decided to use what I used as these things have a certain consistency , which the normal water colors do not, anyways I could not find my water color set that day.

Paint-a-stic!

Since my husband got a Macro, I have been itching to try such abstract shots...must say this one took quite a while. I still did not manage to get the perfect drop, but am happy with the final result. These photos needed minimum processing, as I wanted the colors and the lighting to stay intact. More time went in deciding what props to use and how to set it up in order to get such shots...I did it the most basic way one can think of, camera in one hand and the paint brush with dripping paint in another. My husbands tripod was in the car and I could not wait till evening to take these shots, so I decided to use my not so steady hands.

The fun part about shooting these pictures more than anything was the use of imagination to get the desired effect, and the use of some really sundry items around the house, no studio type materials,na.

some more in my next blog!!!!

Reaching Out

What I have here is a Shadow reflection of my hand in the water standing on our cemented tiles in the backyard!…the texture of the concrete tiles is what give this picture a distorted appearance.I liked the tree branches popping in on the right but wanted to avoid the water pipe on my left , unfortunately, trying to take a picture of my own reflection without getting the other objects in the frame turned out to be hard. The abstract quality of the picture is what pleased me.

Different Facets of Dew Drops

I am very particular about my subject...and hence it is very rarely that you will see me roaming around searching for something to take a picture of...but this morning a casual visit to the backyard helped me meet my subject....it was lying in front of my eyes...waiting to be captured...a beautiful pressed leaf with dew drops sitting on it...as if a few crystal pearls were balancing on the surface just to catch my eyes...I couldn't wait...I ran in to get my hubbys camera and got some pictures!..

Windows Live Writer!...Im lovin it!!

My husbands New Year present turned out pretty good. A lenovo Laptop was not something I had in mind, I mean for that matter I was not expecting anything, May be that is why it turned out this good.....anyways I have been more active on the blogging front now...watching TV, cooking, cleaning and blogging...pheww...multitasking big time!...and I just cant stop admiring this tool Windows 7 has...its called Windows Live Writer...and its amazing how it works...I have configured it to my blog and I type the matter on it and click publish!...Voila!...in a matter of seconds my matter is published on my blog. It not only saves a copy of every blog that I write, it has features to add pictures, videos and links and even photo albums. Best of all it gives you the ability(limited, not like your other photo processing and editing tools) to edit pictures as you insert them, including the ability to watermark them....Cool ha!

Pav Bhaji

The way to man’s heart is through his stomach and that is precisely why I prepare this dish very often. Very popular among Mumbaites, this dish is also a hit with my husband. Growing up in Mumbai, he loved eating dishes like Pav Bhaji, vada pav, bhel etc. Though I am personally not a big fan of this dish, I enjoy it when well made. One of the tricks to making good Pav Bhaji is getting the (masala Pav Bhaji Powder) from Mumbai(ask your friends/relatives who live in Mumbai or are making a visit to the city). I learnt this particular dish from my mother- in-law. She is very good at preparing it, but thanks to her I get one of the best Pav Bhaji Masalas from India. So lets see how this goes…..

Ingredients:

A pack of Pav (Indian Bun)- available at most Indian grocery stores ( breakfast rolls can also be used as a substitute in absence of Pav)

3-4 medium sized potatoes (boiled and mashed)

2-3 tsp cooking oil

2-3 Tomatoes finely chopped

1 big onion finely chopped

2-3 green chilies finely chopped

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp coriander powder

1-2 tsp Pav bhaji Masala( available at most Indian stores)

1/2 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp Lemon Juice

little coriander leaves for flavor

salt to taste

( can add veggies like carrots, peas and green bell pepper to add more nutritious value to the dish)

Method:

For the Bhaji(Gravy):

Boil the potatoes and mash them well. In another pan, heat some oil. Then add the onions first and sauté them till they turn golden , now add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell of the paste disappears. Now add the tomatoes, green chilies and fry again for some time, till the tomato cooks well and a puree like consistency is formed. You can add some salt at this stage. It will help in cooking the tomatoes much faster. Next Add all the dry spice powder and add some water and cook. Now add the mashed potatoes and try to mash the gravy as you stir, the potatoes and tomatoes should be mashed well by now and should form a think pureed gravy. Add more bhaji masala if needed at this stage. Once it is almost done add some butter and simmer for sometime till the butter melts and blends well with the gravy. Now turn off the heat and add the lemon juice and Coriander leaves and mix.

Pav( Indian Bun):

Take a flat bottomed pan and heat it. Cut the Pav in half, starting from the white sides of the pav any which way you like. Now smear some butter on the pan(or you could just use a few drops of oil) and toast the pav on both the sides. Serve hot pav with some Hot bhaji(gravy/dip).

for some extra flavor sprinkle some finely cut onion and a few drops of lemon juice on top of the Bhaji. Enjoy Mumbai Ishtyle Pav Bhaji!!!!!

Rava (Semolina/Sooji) Vadas

During my college days I hardly entered the Kitchen….it was one of those things….Mom thought that I had to do what I had to do in college , study and hang out with friends.

My Mom is an amazing cook…during her healthy days, she was known for her cooking skills…You name it and she can make it…her recipe diary is going to be my inheritance from her…she would throw these huge parties for 30-40 people at home…and then plan her menu so delicately keeping in mind every guest…it was just plain fun watching her do all this.Knowing her…everyone wondered what I would do,after marriage…would I turn out to be like her…ha  ha…I still do not know…but from what Iv heard…some of her cooking skills have rubbed off on me…though I consider myself a novice in this area.

I love to cook but more than that I love to experiment and I study my guests well before they come in order to make sure they don't just eat, but enjoy their meal well.

One of my snacks that is always a hit with my guests is the Sooji Vada. I got this recipe from Mom…but when compared I still don't think it turns out as well as hers,but there is no harm in trying , is there?

I have decided to add recipes to my blog, may by be this will be my recipe guide some day .Will also create a new blog for it later on…but for now….lets serve up some hot vadas.Amma this one is for you ;)

 

Ingredients:

Medium Sized Potatoes 4-5

Sooji/ Coarse Semolina  2 cups

Plain yogurt- 1 tbsp

Hing/asafetida- a pinch(optional)

Curry leaves, Coriander/Cilantro leaves, Green chilies- finely chopped

Finely grated coconut- 1 tsp (optional)

Salt to taste

Method:

Boil the potatoes and mash them. Now add the Semolina, remember, the semolina should be equal or more in quantity to the mashed potatoes. Too much potatoes and less semolina can result in the vadas absorbing excessive oil. Now add all the other ingredients and mix to form a batter adding little water, enough for the vadas to take a firm shape. Too much water can lead to two things, one, you will not be able to give the vadas a firm consistency, two, again it will absorb a lot of oil. Keep aside for 20-30 minutes.

Now heat some oil in a pan for frying, when ready fry the vadas till they turn golden brown in color, always fry in medium high heat setting to make sure the vadas get cooked inside as well as outside. If the batter sticks to your hand as you drop it in the hot oil, you can wet your hands very lightly before making balls.

Can enjoy it as is or like I recently learnt that it tastes very good with some green mint chutney too, thanks to Abhi!