A Peek into my Life

We visited Save farms way back in March after my daughter's final exam for the school year when my parents had come down to visit us. It was the perfect season to visit the farm. The farm full of trees kept us cool from the March sun. One of our favorite fruits, chikoo was also in season. I reckon December-March would be good months to enjoy the farm. They have this beautiful website with all the details about the farm. It is mainly a chikoo orchard but it has lots of other variety of trees too. This farm is one of my happy places. Trees, nature, farms, forests..you get the drift, these places replenish my soul. Unique trees Before I get carried away into poetic language, let's begin at the beginning ;) of the trip, ofcourse. We planned to leave by 6:30 am. The farm is about 2-3 hours away depending on traffic. Me and my husband were on the bike and both sets of parents, along with the daughter in the car. We stopped at Vithal Kamat after about an hour and a half. It...

The next weekend after our Washington DC trip , we went to Myrtle Beach. This trip was much more planned. The weather was beautiful that weekend. It was perfect weather for a beach trip. We started on Saturday morning, a little after 7. It is about a 3 hour trip. We had packed some breakfast to eat on the way. I made vegetable patties or puff (whatever you call them) and zucchini pineapple muffins. For the puffs, I used frozen puff pastry and filled them with a samosa type filling of potatoes and peas before baking them. I used this recipe for zucchini bread but made it in a muffin form. Muffins are easier to travel with and eat on the go. We also had some good ol' chai in a thermos. Our friends got potato masala sandwiches. After our tea and fuel break, we reached the hotel around 12 in the afternoon. We went straight to the beach which was about 2 blocks from the hotel. When the daughter first stepped in the sand, she was uncomfortable with the sand sticking to her feet. Af...

When Nupur from one of my favourite blogs announced that she was hosting the My Legume Love Affair  event on her blog, I could not help but participate. Especially since I had already posted a great recipe featuring the star ingredient of the event : "legumes" (My category of legumes is beans :)) MLLA is a long running blog event which is on the 60th edition this month. That shows how much everyone loves their legumes. This event was started by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook and is now run by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen . Lisa has an MLLA information page which also contains all the previous event round-ups with lots of legume recipes. REPOST starts. Last week, there was a picnic at my daughter's preschool. Everyone brought a dish to school and all the parents and children sat outside on blankets and had lunch. My daughter loved playing in the playground and eating popsicles and ice cream. She was not ready to leave. We had to carry her outside. I wanted to...

Last week, there was a picnic at my daughter's preschool. Everyone brought a dish to school and all the parents and children sat outside on blankets and had lunch. My daughter loved playing in the playground and eating popsicles and ice cream. She was not ready to leave. We had to carry her outside. I wanted to make a side dish for the picnic which could be made ahead of time as I had also volunteered to help set up the picnic lunch. And as I have said before, I am not a morning person, specially when it comes to cooking. I wanted the dish to have some indian flavor as well. This bean salad idea just came to me. I jotted down the idea because I knew I would forget it when the time comes to cook it a week later.  Bean salad This salad has 4 types of beans, lots of veggies and some fruit and a nice sweet and tangy dressing. It tastes better once it sits for a while in the refrigerator. So it is the perfect make-ahead dish. It also goes nicely with a light Indian meal. I made ...