A Peek into my Life

Today's post is just me showing off the new lamp which we made using a glass bottle as a base. Last year, when we had gone for strawberry picking at a local farm, they had some gallon cider jugs (like this ) out to take for free. I have a thing for glass and I just couldn't pass up a beautiful and free glass jug, even though I had no idea what to do with it. I looked around for ideas sporadically on the internet and I finally decided to make a lamp out of the bottle. We got a Bottle Lamp kit from walmart and a lamp shade with ring with goes under the lamp. The lamp kit makes it very easy to convert a bottle into a lamp. There are lots of tutorials on the internet for bottle lamps ( like this ). I did not drill a hole in the bottle for the wire, like some tutorials say. I just let the wire hang behind and it is not very noticeable at all. I had used a plain lamp shade and the lamp was looking a bit boring. I decided to dress it up with ribbon. I found a nice ribbon at ...

Last Sunday was Holi. It is the festival to welcome spring. It also has a religious significance in the story of Prahlad and Holika. While many people love it for the play with colors, for me, it has to obviously link to food. The food synonymus with Holi is Puran Poli. I did not do the poli part, and just went with Puran. The puran poli making process is a little difficult and time consuming. And it is so delicious that it is easy to overdo it. I just made a little bit of puran to offer as prasad. The puran made for eating on its own is a little different than the puran used to stuff the polis. The chana dal is kept whole instead of pureeing it and it needs much less sweetner than the puran for polis. And the biggest advantage, it is quick and hardly requires effort. I am all for the foods that deliver great taste while being easy to make. If you are like me and want a taste of puran poli without all the effort and time, this puran, which is more like a halwa, is just the thing. ...

In my last post, I wrote about Methi Muthiyas that I used in my Undhiyu inspired sabzi . I had initially made the muthiyas as an accompaniment to a simple dal-rice meal. After having them with the dinner and some more for breakfast with ginger chai, I had just the right amount leftover to use in my undhiyu sabzi. Muthiyas are meant to be snack food and go best with chai, preferably with some tamarind chutney or ketchup on the side. As you might know, people in Gujarat love their tea time snacks. It is basically the land of snacks. :) And for a good reason, with snacks as good as this (and things like khaman, handvo, khakhra and so on), people will gladly skip meals to have tea ;) Methi Muthiyas Ingredients: 1/2 cup atta (whole wheat flour) 1/2 cup coarse wheat flour (also known as wheat ladu flour) 1/4 cup besan (chickpea flour) 2 bunches methi 1/8 tsp asafoetida 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp sugar 1/2 tsp dhaniya-jeera powder 1/4 tsp red chill...

I have great love for the Gujarati Undhiyu. It can sway my vote away from chaat as I wrote in my post about our Atlanta trip. I have an even greater love for "Matla Undhiyo" which is like a cross between chaat and undhiyo. That is more about the entire experience. Ideally, in a farm outdoors on a winter afternoon. The fresh papdi and tuvar beans are cooked in an earthen pot (aka Matlo in gujarati). It is an elaborate setting of digging a hole, adding coal, covering the mouth of the pot with straw and then cooking the beans and the root vegetables. The vegetables are served right out of the pot and the diner has to peel the beans, mash the vegetables themselves, add the different and unique chutneys, oil (probably sesame oil), sev and eat like a chaat. Jalebi on the side is kind of mandatory :) That is probably my favorite childhood food memory. Mostly because of the inherent party like atmosphere of lots of people eating on a farm, using their hands, customizing it and par...