Attack of the tomatoes!

Hello everyone! How are you doing? I'm doing good. A tad tired though but good. The sun has been really hot and its getting to me. Today has been a fun day. I went for a workout at noon, I had a good workout with 10 minutes of elliptical, 30 minutes of treadmill and remaining time I did weights on machines for my quads, hamstrings, triceps, biceps and abs. So it was good. Later, I met up with a friend and we went to 'The corner Deli' in Clintonville. I'd heard about the salads being good and my friend really wanted a salad and soup as she had a head cold. We had a portobello wrap, a salad with sesame dressing and miso soup. It was delicious! Later in the evening, we had a block party. Josh and Dava- our neighbours organized this one- they invited all the neighbours to a potluck party- it was at 5:30 in the evening- so more sun! It was good fun. One of my neighbours has a 10 year old son named Rudy. He's so funny and active. So we played frisbee with him and basically its nice to know who are closeby..
Our tomatoes are really peaking these days. We have quite a lot of them..just have a look..


and these are not all of them..there are plenty on the vine too!
So for the party, we made salsa naturally! It was really good



The party lasted till 9:30 and boy was I sticky after all the loafing, playing frisbee, and sitting out in the shade yet hot outside...I took a nice bath after I got home..
I think post tomatoes, our garden will end for this summer. But, we've had loads of fun with it. We grew cucumbers, marconi peppers, lettuce, raddichio, tomatoes and now 'Baby watermelon'!Look at it..



It was really sweet..

There's another West Indian dish that I really like- its called patra. This is made with taro leaf rolled with spices and tamarind paste. I bought it from the Indian store and I really like it.



Its sweet and sour in flavor....
Midnite snack- blue corn chips and salsa. Phew, I'm really tired. I think I'll end here. Wish you guys a happy week!

Meteor shower fun!

Yoohoo people! How are you all doing? I'm feeling soo good, I'm in love with the world! I'm having my morning cuppa coffee and just reliving last night's fun in my head. Yesterday, yahoo said there were gonna be meteor showers early August 12th. Obviously, I wanted to see it. So Jamie and me made plans of watching it. She was of the opinion that if we are watching it- then we have to do a thorough job of it! She's from the countryside and knows what a dark sky looks like. She says, you can see a lot more stars in the country, than in the city because of less artificial light around. First we tried our backyard, at midnite. Jamie wasn't happy with the darkness- so off we went in search of closest country we could find. A brief consultation with a friend revealed that Plain City might be a good bet. Our destination was Cosgray Park. 315N, 270 W, 33, on 161. We packed our blankets and pillow and off we went in search of this park at around 1 am. Plain city has a lot of corn fields. Finally, after half an hour of looking, we found a dark safe spot off the road, spread our blankets and lay down under the darker sky, staring at it, looking intently for shooting stars. Romantic as this sounds- clear skies, moonlight, sky filled with stars, there is a tad pesky reality to it- bugs! Buzzing in your ears, over your eyes. Manageable though. We managed to see about 15 of them. I wanted to sleep the entire night under the sky, I was so excited with the idea, but when bugs started getting in our hair- the plan got aborted.

Ideally, this is what I would have loved to see...


Source: http://www.kokeytechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/meteor-shower-photo.png

But what we saw was this..



I get excited about so many things, but I also realize that I am so ignorant about so many things...this event got me thinking- do I really know what are meteor showers? So I did a search and this is what I learnt..
Meteors are bits of rock and dust that plunge into the earth's atmosphere and produce a glowing trail when they excite gas particles. This is from a website. Personally, I think, the flash of light is also because of the friction the rock particles encounter when they enter earth's atmosphere. The Perseid meteors are bits of debris shed from the comet Swift Tuttle which takes 133 years to orbit the sun and last came close to the inner solar system in 1992. Its fragments hit the earth with a speed of 59km/second- causing most to disintegrate far above the earth at altitudes of 80-120km- around the edge of space at 100km. A typical meteor is the size of a pebble or grain, but creates a column of gas that is ten of kilometers long and hundreds of meter wide. Apparently, earth accumulates about 1000 to 10,000 tonnes of materials from meteorites each day. So my children- there's your science lesson for the day!
Yesterday Jamie and me went to the Indian store. We got samosas and Jilebis. Both are deep fried samosas are salty and jilebis are syrupy sweet. I love these things. More on these things post consumption.I gtg to school now to learn gel electrophoresis, work out and come home do job search, future search, ponder on how to make the most of this life...Have a great day!

My mom is in US of A!

Yohoo people! how are you all doing? Its 10:30 right now. My mom was supposed to land at 10:00 pm. I'm so excited she's here! It's been 5 years since I last saw her. Excited as she is to see us- she's also apprehensive about how I'll see her. She's in her mid 60's and says she looks older now and not like I last saw her in person. I tell her that I've grown older too and she'd have to tell me how I have changed. She lives alone in Southern India in Mysore with my brother just a few blocks away from her. When I was a kid, my dad was the dominant personality and he pretty much took care of everything outside the house. My mom was a stay at home mom taking care of us. She didn't know much how to operate in the outside world. So to be like my dad was to be smarter, dynamic, energetic, funny and we did not want to be like our mom. But after dad died, I'm impressed with the way mom has taken care of things. He was heavy into the stock market with such complex dealings which was hard and very time consuming. Mom learnt all that she had to do to unlock our money without any help from us and did it. Talking to her on the phone every week I've got to know my mom. She is smart and funny too and not as naive as she appears sometimes. She does a great job of taking care of her health which is a huge comfort to us. All of us kids have always felt very protective towards her. My mom is gentle and has sensitivity. She introduced me to a lot of good literature, movies and music and I really appreciate that. I want to cook for her because other than accessory help I've never cooked major meals for her. I have a feeling she will like where I live because she loves nature. I want to show her the OSU campus, Columbus Metropolitan library, RPAC, Franklin park conservatory and other places depending on her inclination. Moms are moms- you get made at them, irritated at them, fight with them, but in the end they're there for you.
Events after the last blog post: I had a potluck at my house on Saturday with my African friends. This was really a bad day for me because the potluck got decided very fast and I wasn't ready for it. Originally I had planned for just 3 people, but it turned out to be 5 and I simply was not in the mood for it as it was the first day of my period and I was in huge pain. But I had committed to it so I pulled myself together and decided to give them a taste of South India. I made rasam, cooked beans and rice. Rasam is a sweet, sour and tangy pulses soup made of split pigeon peas. This is a pretty common lunch/dinner and its comfort food for South Indians. Since it was a potluck, somebody bought a pizza so people loaded up on that and did not have much of an apetite for my food and from what little they ate of what I'd made, I'm not sure if they liked it. I have noticed it though- most people outside India prefer North Indian food over South Indian food. South Indian food has less fat, more rice and vegetables, more coconut, different spices, breads made of different kinds of healthy grains whereas North Indian food is richer. People eat more wheat, meat, tomato onion ginger garlic based curries, more kidney beans, chick peas. Personally, I think my taste buds have become international. I can eat tasty vegetarian food and a little bit of chicken from any country. Rice is not a daily need for me anymore, nor is roti or our lentil soup for that matter. I was a little disappointed though because in my opinion everything was tasty and they did not seem to like it. Oh well!

Here's a picture of rasam courtesy pachakam.com



This is how split pigeon peas look like



Sunday, I spent my day sketching the creative genius Freddie Mercury! here it is



This was very hard for me before because I was never able to align the eyes and I got angry and gave up. But I had drawn one eye and still kept it open on my bedroom floor hoping someday I'd get around to it. Then this sunday, it ocurred to me that the eyeballs should be in alignment and slightly slanted coz his face is slightly tilted. So using a scale, I got an estimate of where the eyeball should be and then drew the eye around it. I'm not superpleased with it because eyes are still not perfectly aligned and Freddie has attitude in that picture which I haven't captured. His eyes are darker too. I need to get blacker pencils. But I'm happy with the nose, lips and chin. I posted it on my facebook in case anybody had any new input for me which I hadn't noticed. I'm glad I got at least this far with it. Maybe it will be good when I draw it a second time.

Sunday Nancy dropped by to pick up the books she'd left behind. I love Nancy. She's so interesting with a wide variety of interests. She had attended an 'Art of living' workshop. Since the organization was started by an Indian guy, she wanted to know what I thought of it. Personally, I'm not very comfortable with any organized groups. To me, each person has a different way of dealing with stress and anxiety and it has a lot to do with being able to handle ones emotions. For some its journaling, working out, talking to friends and for some the techniques taught by the organization might work too. I don't have anything against them as long as they don't push it down my throat. I gave Nancy an Indian dessert called Kheer which is rice pudding. It's so supereasy to make! I boiled milk (approx half gallon) threw in a handful of rice and sugar to taste and let it thicken on low heat. Keep stirring it every few minutes so that the milk doesn't burn. The milk did get burnt a bit but the burn added a nice caramelized flavor to it. So it was really good.
Nancy got us some crossiants from Whole Foods. They were so buttery and chewy! awesome! Today we made crossiant sandwiches.



We cut a crossiant in half, slathered mustard on one end, placed some spinach, sliced tomatoes, golden browned zucchini slices, cheddar cheese slices and on the other end of the crossiant we slathered basil flavored mayo. It was really good!

Tomorrow I'm going to the Ohio State Fair for the first time with Nancy. I'm guessing its gonna be a lot of animal petting and I'm really curious about the butter sculpture and the machine which gives my percent body fat and of course food!

So long folks and good nite, sweet dreams!

Love from Smita

Farmer's market goodness

Cheers Folks! how is everyone doing? I'm doing okay. I have to admit that my spirits are kinda low coz of the constant reminders of how bad the job market is and I should be doing this doing that and the job descriptions that I see on the web seem dull. My sister reads the NY Times stories of gloom and tells me to move in with her and save my money. It's a great offer- she has a nice house, I wouldn't have to worry about rent or living, but I love my space. I function best in my space and I'm hesitant to move. My sister is great and comes up with some very nice suggestions for me, but she can be very intense too and has an effect on me and sometimes, what she wants for me is not necessarily what I want for me. At least for sometime now, I've been trying to break free from my siblings influence, so you have no idea how worried I get at the thought of moving in with her. Even though I know what I should be doing, I'm not doing it. I need something invigorating to look forward to, something imaginative, lively and fun. I'm not averse to working hard, but it should be fun hard work. Then there's another thing I do, believe the negative and question the positive about me, even when I do get positive feedback on my work. Some days, I can really write a book on how to sap your energy. But enough of that, I know if I can affect my moods this bad, then the converse is also true, I can and have pulled myself out of it too. So I need to learn to relax, think positive and not worry so much. All this worry is my creation, my emptiness, and I have to figure out a way to fill it with my imagination.
On saturday morning, Jamie and I went to Clintonville farmer's market. It was cloudy but fortunately, it rained just after we got home. There were sunflowers everywhere- these are some of my favorite flowers because they're big and bright. We bought a small bunch of flowers. Here's the kitty sitting by it..

The bike path has some really pretty purple weeds and white flowers. After the current bunch wilts, I plan to get some weeds. Evening we made some Indian bread called roti and used it as a pita. Look at it swell!

Then we made some hummus with roasted garlic and made this..Roti layered with hummus, fresh cucumbers, boiled egg and diced tomato. It was pretty good.

Then we also got some haverti cheese from the farmer's market. It is so creamy and delicious. We had it as a snack with crackers and tea.

We also got a jam- this is made of peaches and chillies. Its yummy. The chilli hits you in the end in your mouth and its not like your mouth is on fire, but you are aware of its presence.
We saw Schlinder's list on Sunday. I really liked it a lot. It's in black and white. It's about how Oskar Schlinder- a Nazi bussinessman, creates wealth and then uses this wealth to free 1100 jews from concentration camps. It just boggles me how Hitler convinced so many people to commit such horrid crimes. I'm guessing most of you have seen it already. Did you know Steven Spielberg did not accept any money for this movie he made? I love Liam Neeson too. He has a goodness about him that I really like and I think he is sexy. Who are your favorite movie stars?

The cutest cat ever!

Yohoo people! How are you all doing? I am doing great. It was awesome to have Gina-the Candid RD, Emily- the healthnut and Nancy over yesterday. Its much fun cooking when people are open to trying new things and I enjoy cooking for friends. Thanks for all the good things you said about the food on your blogs. I think you've covered pretty much everything. FYI, the snacks I made in order are -Bhelpuri, Dahi (yoghurt) puri, Aloo tikki(potato patti) with garbanzo bean curry called chole, Paani puri and the dessert is called Falooda. The conversation did raise a few questions in my head, like, why is Indian street food called 'Chaat'? Chaat means 'lick' in hindi-the national language in India- so I'm guessing it means licking good food. The other question was why does ever dish have the suffix 'puri'? I haven't been able to find the definition for it yet. First, I thought anything puffed is puri- because the fried Indian bread made from a wheat flour dough is called p00ri and here the rice in Bhel puri is puffed and the puri in paani puri(the puffed water filled one) is swollen( I'm tired of using the word puffed). However, this definition could not justify the flat crackers in dahi puri. I'll let you know when I find out.
Veering off to a totally different subject, I adore Jamie's cat Enky! He is one of the nicest cats I've met- a great innocent playful companion, non smelly, a sweet mew and this is used only when we accidently step on his tail or when he wants to get in from outside. I have to really control myself from picking him up and making him sit with me. Here are a couple of pictures


Enky lazing on my bed


Observation of my each and every move from his vantage point


All out!

Today, we had leftovers from the party. Jamie made a nice cucumber sandwich for dinner- toasted buttered bread, slices of cucumber, fine chopped onion chopped cilantro and mint, salt and pepper and a dash of ketchup. It was sooo good. Most of the times, the simplest, freshest foods are so damn tasty. For dessert we had cake with a dollop of ice cream and raspberries. you really can't go wrong with a dessert like this- it was very good.



Today, Emily had forgotten her gift from Turkey at home. So she came home to fetch it. We were watching Nancy's picture book on Greece sitting on the floor. Of course, the cat tried to be the center of attention by sprawling himself smack in the middle of the book. He was pushed aside unceremoniously. The turning of pages was bothering him I think and he bit into a page! Now the book has two tooth marks on the edge. I was quite surprised. He'd never done that before. It was a nice afternoon with Emily though. I'll miss her very much when she's gone. I really like and enjoy my friends a lot. They make my life happy.
Other than this, I applied for 2 jobs, read about food allergies in the 'nourishing traditions book', listened to a 'Concert for George Harrison' DVD while reading. This was a concert for George Harrison by all the greats like Eric Clapton, Ravishankar, the remaining Beatles (Paul and Ringo), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Monty Python folks (apparently George was a huge fan of these folks)and Tom Hanks was there too. George Harrison was such a nice soul. I miss him. His son Dhani Harrison looks exactly like him! Jamie introduced me to this. You know you can get music concert DVD's from Netflix. I got a 'Queen live in Montreal' DVD and it was sooo good! Then I also saw one of Planet Earth DVD on Seasonal forests. I confess I slept in the middle. We usually turn our lights out when watching DVD'sand I guess that's what makes me sleep. Then I saw a little bit of Prez Obama's live press conference on Healthcare reforms. I'm not really sure of the details, but from what he says it seems like the reforms will enable doctors to make decisions with the patient in mind such that they do not prescribe treatments with their profit in mind (like prescribing a tonsillectomy, where a treatment with antibiotics will treat a case of sore throat). He also thought highly of the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland hospital. I apologize for my utter naivete in this area- it's so complex with so many tugging forces- doctors, patients, the insurance companies, republicans and democrats disagreeing, and even democrats among themselves disagree. Being a prez is hard- but I guess it's satisfying if you really want to solve problems and get some success. I have good feeling inside about Prez Obama. I'll end here.
Ciao folks! Have a wonderful day tomorrow

Hello again!!

Hello people! Its been such a long time. Sorry I've been so quiet but when your nose is in the grindstone and pedal to the metal....well you get the picture. Phew!!! I finally defended my thesis on 12th June and submitted my thesis to grad school on June 19th. I tell you I've never done so many all nighters before. One day I was surprised myself when I was working till 7:30 in the morning and even then I wasn't supertired but I felt I should be and slept for an hour. It's interesting how we are so wired to sleep at night. But I never forgot the blog and kept taking pictures to post coz there have been so many good eats that I have to tell you about it. So brace yourself, this post is gonna be looong. Feel free to read it in sections. I'll proceed in the sequence in which they were made. Then there's our blooming garden which is a source of so much pleasure..ooh let's start!!



First, Jamie made this Cawliflower with almonds and lima beans. It was very good. But the flavors are so subtle that it took some zen meditation from me (whose taste buds are spice hardened) to appreciate the hint of flavors. This recipe is from a cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey. This is what went in:

Approx half a cawliflower
1 cup lima beans
1.5 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
2 cloves of garlic- fine chopped
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp dry sherry
2 quarter sized fresh ginger
11/4 tsp salt

Put cawliflower in cold water for 0.5 hour. Add lima beans to boiling water and cook them for 5 minutes and then drain. Then mix cornstarch, sherry, sesame oil and 2 tbsp water. Heat oil and saute almonds. Stir fry garlic and ginger in the same oil. Then add cawliflower, lima beans and almonds. Add 2 tbsp water and cover with a lid. Cook until cawliflower is crisply tender. Remove lid and add the cornstarch mix made earlier. Saute for 30 seconds and its done. Jamie made pasta with this- shell pasta with tomato sauce topped with bread crumbs.



This is another dish with orzo pasta, sauted broccoli, mushrooms pine nuts, a red chilli, julienned carrots and salt and pepper. Its been such a long time since I made this- I don't completely remember the recipe, but its about 7/8 right.



OMG!Don't judge a dish by the way it looks! When we were making it, both Jamie and me were like this is gonna be a disaster, but it turned out to be soooo good. This is sweet and sour tofu
I made the sauce Jamie fries the tofu.
Make a paste by mixing 1/4 cup cornstarch with approx 2 tbsp water.
Cube extra firm tofu (This is where we went wrong, we chopped it too small)into 1 inch cubes and fry them in 1/4 cup oil.
For the sauce, 3.5 tbsp white vinegar,
1/4 cup water,
2.5 tbsp sugar,
1tbsp soy sauce,
1tbsp ketchup,
1 tbsp brown sugar,
1/4 tsp ginger powder,
1/2 tsp salt,
11/2 tbsp corn starch mixed in 2 tbsp water.
Mix everything except cornstarch on medium heat and add corn starch after everything has dissolved. You have to keep an eye after adding cornstarch coz the sauce thickens and can burn.
Mix the sauce with fried tofu and garnish with toasted sesame seeds. My mouth is watering even when I'm writing about it...mmmmm
We had it with garden fresh bok choy. This was a first. I'd never had this leaves before. We grew them in our garden

In the garden.....



On the plate...



Bok choy has a cabbage like taste. It has a pungent flavor which I did not expect..like parsnips.Anyways, we made stir fried bok choy. Take a tbsp of oil, 1 clove of garlic- fine chopped, 1 tsp ginger, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame seeds and we used about 2 heads of bok choy. It turned out to be really good with sweet and sour tofu.

and here's the salad....



One of our dinners was a garden burger. Jamie bought the patties from the Clintonville farmer's market. It was awesome. The ingredients in the patty were so unusual- I'd never have thought to combine these ingredients for a burger patty. It had spelt berries(wheat), black beans, carrots, onions, oats, kale, apples, garlic, ginger, balsamic vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper. I first thought this is store bought patty- nothing much to write about, but then I had a bite..my eyes opened wide and I knew it had to come here..



I love eggs. These are so good when you're busy- they cook fast, good source of protein and you can season them in so many different ways. We made Koo Koos. This is from a recipe book. There's no way I would've thought of pairing together cawliflower and eggs.



Take a couple of cawliflower florets. Put them in boiling water for a few minutes. Then under cold water. Give it a fine chop and saute in oil with a dash of salt and pepper. Meantime, beat eggs with a pinch of baking soda, add salt and pepper and the cawliflower mix. Pour it in a pan. Cook it covered on low flame for 20 minutes. We had it with fage yoghurt.



Have you folks ever had tempeh? We got some from the Indonesian store. I did not like it very much. Maybe because it is fermented soy and it doesn't have a very good smell. We fried the tempeh after coating it with a mix made of 1/2 cup water, 11/2 tsp coriander seeds powder, 2-3 cloves of garlic and 1 tsp of salt. We had it on top of salad made of bok choy, cawliflower and boiled eggs with gado gado dressing( remember? the peanut based Indonesian dressing?). Doesn't even sound appetizing, does it? Well, I think tempeh is an acquired taste.



Deviled eggs! I love it. Jamie makes these. When I was a kid, I hated cold eggs. Now I can eat them. She boils eggs, cuts them in half, takes the yolk out and mixes it with mayonnaise (to taste- if you want more creamy, add more and vice versa), salt and pepper, blends the mix with a fork such that there are no lumps and spoons it on the egg white. For decoration she sprinkles some paprika on it. They were absolutely delicious!

I'll end this section of recipes with a dessert. Since there was a lot of cake around my B'day, we decided to make this cake when we didn't have any cake in the house. This is Low fat tiramisu, totally made by Jamie. Frankly, this is so so yummy, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference from the original and yet it's so low in fat. The recipe is from heart healthy cookbook. The picture is a tad hazy, but I'll give you the complete recipe

Cherry Chocolate tiramisu
You'll need
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp instant coffee granules
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 ounces ladyfingers
8 ounces fat free/low fat whipped topping, thawed
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
16 ounces frozen unsweetened pitted dark cherries; thawed and undrained
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup slivered almonds, dry roasted

In a small bow, stir together water, 1/4 cup sugar, coffee granules and vanilla until sugar has dissolved.
To assemble, dip ladyfingers (sugar side in coffee) in coffee sugar mix prepared above and make a layer of this in your dish. Spoon whipped topping over it, covering evenly and sprinkle with cocoa powder. Repeat. Cover the dish with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8-24 hours.
Meanwhile, halve the cherries(Jamie had bought fresh cherries, she froze it, cut it in half and threw the pits)add 2 tbsp sugar and cornstarch until cornstarch is dissolved. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil for a minute stirring constant. Remove from heat and cool it. Stir in almond extract and store in refrigerator until serving time.
When serving, spoon cherry mix over individual servings. Sprinkle with toasted almonds too.
Nutrients/serving: Calories: 246. Total fat 2.5gm, sat fat 0gm, polyunsaturatedfats: 0.5gm, monounsaturated fats: 1gm. Carbohydrates: 51 gm. Sugar: 32gm. Fiber 3gm. cholesterol 4mg. Protein 3 gm; sodium 69mg.
Okay, the sugars are still high, but hey this is a dessert and if you work out and eat this, I'm sure the sugar won't get stored as fat.

Our garden is really growing well. We harvested bok choy, radicchio lettuce so far. Radicchio was very crunchy but very bitter. We made a salad and I had to take bites of bread in between to mask the bitter. Cucumber vines are spreading with yellow flowers, cabbage is growing. We had to get harvest all of radicchio to make room for the spreading cucumbers, tomatoes? look at them!!



Our single strawberry harvest..

..

Jamie got this cute Cleveland Browns grill from home..isn't this cute? We plan on grilling some portobello mushrooms and corn on this.



I got a noodles and company menu from RPAC. Plan is try some of their recipes at home. Will let you know how it turned out. I'll end here. Hope everyone is having a great summer! Cheers everyone!

Smita

Where is Summer?

Good afternoon people, How are you guys doing? Aww Gina I'm so sorry you had to through that heart in your mouth experience with your poster, but you took care of it, awesome! How is Emily's ankle doing? I hope it gets better soon. You must be missing running. Hasn't the weather been cold lately? Yesterday, I didn't get a jacket and it was freezing. I hate to feel that way in June!
Moving on, for me, I am done with the major chunk of writing and today I am doing the bibliography. I want to be done with it today. Side by side lab experiments are also going on.

Its been just 4 days since I've missed out on writing here and it already feels like such a long time. I've been reading, writing, doing experiments, tending garden, working out, watching a movie here and there and cooking.

These 4 days, Sunday I made this black lentils and kidney bean soup. I'd made it for you guys the first time you came to my house, but it got burnt during the reheating process. Does that ring a bell? Well I made it again coz I really like it, its yummy and very nutritious. Black lentils contain a high level of protein, including essential amino acids isoleucine and lysine, however they are lacking in methionine and cystine. Apart from these goodies, it is loaded with dietary fiber, folate, vitamin B1 and minerals like molybedenum, manganese, Iron, phosphorus, copper and potassium. The dish I made translates to 'Buttery lentils' It has

1 cup lentils
1 can of kidney beans- cook the lentils first and then mix the kidney beans.

For seasoning,
heat vegetable oil (2-3 tsp)
add cumin seeds (1tsp)
4 tomatoes (I chop into cubes and roast it in oil and then puree it in a blender)
1/2 tsp red chilli powder or 2 small dried red chilli
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp coriander seed powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp ketchup
1/2 cup fresh cream (I used half and half)

Roast all the seasonings upto garam masala first- heat oil, then add cumin to a light golden brown, tomatoes- when tomatoes are roasted then add coriander seed powder and garam masala, red chilli and add garlic last. I prefer not to overcook the spices, that's why I add them in the end so that they roast just for a couple of seconds.
Blend all this. Mix it with the cooked lentils, add cream and butter and give it a gentle boil. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice. Its very filling and tasty. But beware! It can cause gas! so Gina- Beano beforehand!





Monday, Jamie and me walked to Columbus metropolitan library to get some DVD's she'd requested (Monty pythons- the meaning of life and the life of Brian). We were starving when we got back and made this sandwich. It was absolutely delightful.

Whole grain bread
Dill dip from grocery (Kroger)
To the dip we added red and yellow bell pepper, some fine chopped cucumber, onion and we sauted some zuccini and pine nuts
Mix everything together and place this between the slices of bread.
We also had oven baked fries with this.









Tuesday, I was having a craving for these South Indian rice pancakes with potato curry and coconut chutney. I get the mix for the pancake from the Indian store. It was okay from the original standards. The homemade pancakes are golden brown in color and very crispy. I feel that most westerners do not like south Indian food as much as north Indian food. I don't know why. The coconut chutney was damn tasty.
I took a handful of frozen coconut, 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, 1 green chilli, coriander leaves, a small piece of ginger. Blend it away and season it with mustard seeds roasted in a tsp of oil. The pancake tore but I took the picture anyway.










Wednesay, Jamie created another lovely dish from orzo pasta. I always thought orzo was rice. Apparently, its pasta shaped like rice.



Cook orzo pasta
Olive oil- 3tbsp
Red bell pepper..1/2
Large onion ¼
Mushrooms…1 small can
Red beans….1/2 can
1 can diced tomatoes
Seasoning..basil, Italian seasoning, minced garlic, salt and pepper
Grated parmesan, parsley topping





It was very very good. I hadn't eaten much the whole day, so I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I saw 2 movies in these 4 days - The color purple and Monty Python's the meaning of life. The former was a great movie, but it was kinda sad to see how the black women were treated by their husbands in the early 1900's. Oprah was there in the movie too.
Monty python don't even get me started on it! it was SUCH a drag! I had higher guffaw expectations from monty pythons- but I just managed to get one big one. So one of the teachers is giving a sex lesson to this bunch of boys and is quizzing them in between. So he asks one of the students, how would he start foreplay? The student says by rubbing the clitoris. The teacher then screams 'Why do you want to stampede to the clitoris? why not just start with a kiss?' I guess this was kinda an unexpected response and caught us off guard. Both Jamie and me had a rollicking laugh at this one. The movie has 10 parts where they take you through the ages to finally arrive at a silly meaning of life- live in peace and harmony. I would've been really mad if I had to put myself through this movie doing nothing else. Thankfully, I was doing some thesis work on the side. So it was bearable.
I'll end here. Good luck with your poster tomorrrow!

Banana pancakes

Good morning! I'm so glad its sunny outside today. I might go for a workout in a little while. Actually, I wanted to leave right away ( 9:45 am) for a spin but I was really hungry and wanted some fuel for my workout. So I made these banana, blueberry walnut pancakes. They were so delicious I had to tell you about it.

I don't see any reason to buy pancakes mixes from grocery when you can make really healthy tasty pancake batter at home using much healthy flour than nutritionally minimal white flour. I used wheat germ, mushed a banana into it, chopped walnuts and threw in some blueberries and had it with maple syrup. I think the syrup is a tad high but I like syrupy sweetness!

Here's how the garden looks like now. Look at it grow! Look at the saplings..

ouch! the kitty thinks I'm a tree. He's biting me!

I really haven't done anything fun lately. I want to do some cool fun clothes shopping too. I'm tired of my current clothes. I think I'm leaning towards colored stockings to wear with skirts. They're so funky..:)

Anyways, I'll end my rambling here, work out and write the discussion part of my thesis.

Have a great weekend!

Smita

Good Luck to Emily!

Hello people! How are you all doing? First of all Emily good luck with your defense tomorrow. I can totally understand when you say you get sick of seeing your thesis. You look at it so many times and then it starts getting on your nerves, isn't it? But I am pretty sure you are gonna do fine.
Gina, the watermelon salsa looks absolutely delish! I'd never heard of it before and I concur with how you feel about veterens. There was a short clip on ABC about a wall where the names of the dead were engraved and survivors talking about how it was, whether they feel guilty to survive- it actually brought tears to my eyes.
Memorial day weekend was good. Jamie really wants a mattress bad and I have been contemplating getting a new one too. So we went mattress shopping on sunday. We haven't found our perfect mattress yet. On the way back, we stopped at Whole foods and got this Izze drink( actually we really wanted salad spinach but ended up buying other stuff..aargh). This is flavored sparkling water. Rather tart I must say. I wonder what makes it that way. Nice to sip on while studying.


This is the spinach salad that we made. It was damn tasty. Using toasted sesame makes such a difference to the taste. You can actually taste them! We had strawberries, blueberries, celery, grapefruit and spinach in the salad. Dressing: Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, toasted sesame seeds, toasted almonds, pine nuts honey salt and pepper.

Jamie really knows how to kill time. She makes jewellary, bracelets- with thread- making knots of all kind, walking, and last but not the least she enjoys cooking. She made hummus. This was superb! I am sure you guys have heard of Wasa http://us.wasa.com/products.aspx. This is very crisp, whole grain bread. I really like it because of the umpteen toppings you can eat it with.

The recipe for hummus asks for

1 tbsp canola oil, 1/2 cup minced red onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, 1 tbsp minced fresh basil/1/2 tsp dried basil, same with oregano, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp ground pepper, 1/4 tsp cumin powder, 1 can garbanzo beans, 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, salt to taste. The onion and the garlic need to be toasted a little. Blend it all together and voila!

I will talk to you folks later. Have a great day tomorrow.

Until then, over and out!

Smita

I love Summer!!!

Hey People! looks like everybody is having a nice time. Yay!!! me too! I have been reading, writing, cooking and playing.
Yesterday, Jamie wanted to use RPAC. So she bought a guest pass and we worked out. One thing that was new for me though was I used the swimming pools in RPAC for the first time. It was so much fun! Since we'd already worked out before we headed towards the pool-I just did a lap in the lanes. Even though I had the energy for more laps- I did not want to tire myself out as I had to get back to writing. It had been at least 3 years since I stepped in a pool and boy was I glad that I was able to swim ??yes!!! though I still am not very comfortable with my face in water- on my back its heaven! then there are the shallow play areas with a shower of water and finally the warm jacuzzi!!! Both of us rode our bikes home. On the way, we saw turtles/tortoises (I don't know how to distinguish between them) on the bike path! Iwas quite pleasantly surprised since I did not expect them there. Damn cute- they immediately slid their head in the shell when they saw us approaching.

This is how our garden looks like now- with all the saplings planted. The white tabs seen are a reminder to us about what we planted. We will have to wait for a month or two before we savor anything. But meanwhile, regular irrigation goes on. If you look carefully, there's a strawberry plant on the top left. It has small green berries at this time. I hope we get them.


Foodwise, its been great too. We had Indian bread, spiced green beans and boiled mung beans. The good thing about this Indian bread (called roti/chappati) is that you can knead the dough and keep it in the fridge. It stays for a week at least and you can make fresh bread everytime you eat.
Everything is quite easy to make took me 40 minutes to make the whole meal.
For green beans- Take 2 tbsp oil in a pan, add a tsp of mustard seeds, 1 green chilli, a dash of lentils ( roasted lentils add crunch to the dish), then add frozen green beans. Let it cook. Finally add salt and fresh coconut (I get a frozen bag from the Indian grocery store).
Mung beans were super easy too. I boiled it in a pressure cooker ( a pressure cooker is a must have in an Indian kitchen- you won't find many Indian households without one). Seasoning was heat 2 tsp oil, add a tsp of cumin seeds, grate some ginger, 1 green chilli. Pour this on boiled mung beans, add the juice of 1 lemon and mix. Salt to taste. Very yummy and filling.

Since its been a while since I wrote, I guess I've taking pics but not posting it. This is stir fried rice- one of Jamie's creations. Oil, carrots, peas, onion, salt, pepper soy sauce and rice.

Remember the spinach, sprouts and beets salad I told you about, well we made it again and this is how it looks like. I wish I had a better pic for the last two. But bad picture aside, ain't this colorful?

Today was one good day. A guy in a truck was handing out free samples of Glaceau Vitamin water. This new one is orange flavored and touts itself to be just 10 calories. But it has quite a variety of natural sweetners- 1) Crystalline fructose, 2) Erythritol ( never heard of this one) and 3) Rebiana (extracted from stevia) and 4) 3 gm sugar. Tastes like, well, Vitamin water. Can make out that it has sweetners.The moment I saw 10 calories- I knew it was going to be there.

So long folks.

Take care and have fun

Smita

My Family

Hello people! How are you guys doing? I have been thinking of my family these days and how they have shaped me. I grew up in a large family. I am the youngest in a family of six- eldest sister, my second sister and brother are twins and then there's me. Since the age gap between the rest of my siblings and me is quite large, they were more influential on me than my parents. My parents were bored when I came around. I was pampered as the baby of the family- my sisters used to entice me to share their bed with them- my eldest sister with stories and my second sister I don't remember what. The story involved a boy , a bear, a plane and a forest. It got created as the night went on and I was permitted to make additions- I vaguely remember one of them was a mobile sink. My second sister, when I was in kindergarten, always took me with her during recess. With my brother, it was hard initially coz he resented me because of all the attention I got as a kid, but later he was okay with me. I grew up in very lush North India in a beautiful large government owned house with a nice kitchen garden- we took organic food for granted and didn't realize how expensive it was outside.
Being the baby of the family has its good and bad sides. The good- Since my dad was the only earning member of the family, money was for more important things like education, clothes were secondary. But all of us girls love clothes and it was hard for my sisters. They made sure that I had enough when they started earning. I look upto my siblings quite a lot. My eldest sister, she really showed us what we could achieve. Coming to America was an impossible dream until she showed it could be done. She was so motivated on her career and she is doing very well today- she works at Intel as a hardware engineer and is pursuing an MBA and she went through some really hard times while getting an education- having to live with relatives and a cousin who hated her- I really admire her for getting through all that. My second sister has always been my playmate. I adore her. She is accepting of me, does not put any pressure on me, lets me figure my way out and is there for me when I need her. My brother was spiritually inclined since adulthood and eventually went on to become a monk. My siblings exposed me to good literature, good music, and always set very high standards for me. So I learnt to appreciate a lot of good quality stuff through them.
The bad of being the youngest- Since they were such towering figures in my life, they could do no wrong - I really sought their approval quite a lot, especially my eldest sister and my brother. So to break free from them, know of my own likes and dislikes and trust my own instincts has taken me some time. Even among my extended family, I was ignored as the youngest one- so to value my own opinions and judgements has been another break free from my siblings experience. I am a sensitive person, I used to call them up at the slightest hurt I felt which to them was no biggie. I am glad it was made known to me how hard it was for them when I was hurting and even tiresome at times- ever since then I am superconscious of the fact that I am not draining on anyone. I don't want to complain. But some old habits take time to fade. As far as possible, I try to deal with them on my own, but sometimes, the self gets too much to bear and I need an outlet.
Another thing I have realized is that they are not these perfect creatures who know how to deal with everything. My eldest sister, since while growing up she had to encounter those hard environments, she had to to toughen herself. She is beautiful and has had a lot of attention but she just pushes people who try to get too close to her. She may deny the fact, but this is what I feel. That does not remove the desire to have someone however. She also has this perfectionist tendencies where nothing is good enough. She is hard on herself as well as us and that makes it hard to be with her at times. Don't get me wrong- she has a great sense of humor, is funny and always has helped out the family financially. But it took me a while to realize that I could actually be there for her emotionally. Same goes for my other siblings. My brother was a software engineer before he joined the monastry. Their's is a modern monastry. He's their tech support guy. He sends an occasional e-mail
I am sorry if I have poured out complaints when I am frustrated. I try hard to be responsible for my emotions and keep myself happy and believe in myself that I can actually do good quality work, make more money. Its not easy especially when you are prone to bring yourself down, but the more I read blogs and see people around me, its the same for everybody and all we can do is give the self a chance, keep trying and never ever give up on ourselves..

Gourmet food!

Namaste everyone! ( this is the Indian hello) How's everybody doing? Hope Emily had a great B'day. I thought of you on your B'day and I can't wait for the day when I can relax from writing pressure and focus on more pleasant stuff like the menu for your party. How goes sample
collection for Gina?
I am doing okay. I have this writing pressure on me. But I try not to stress myself too much because I cannot read/think right under too much pressure. But that being said, I actually enjoyed reading two papers which were very relevant to my study. One paper happened in a pig farm where they inoculated pigs with very virulent, moderately virulent and avirulent virus and measured how much of it came out in aerosols. The avirulent virus was not detected in aerosols at all. So I think I using avirulent virus (the one I have been working with) will not work for what we are trying to accomplish. Another paper used flow cytometry to count bacteria in aerosols and they went on to measure how much of it was there, how much was viable and how much was culturable. Technology is so cool these days...hello hello! are you there! wake up wake up! there's more interesting stuff! promise!
Okay now for the good stuff. Remember I told you about the 'Vegetarian sandwiches' book I got from the library. Well Jamie has really gotten inspired and she wants to eat and make some gourmet food and I totally support her in this endevor! Today her appetizer was 'Red and yellow pepper bruschetta'. This was soooo good. She got a nice baguette and toasted it. Then roasted some pine nuts. In olive oil, fry fine chopped red onion, red and yellow peppers. Pile it on the toasted bread and top it with grated parmesan cheese and roasted pine nuts. This was so so good! The sugars in the red and yellow peppers and onions caramelize a bit with roasting giving it a hint of sweetness and the parmesan adds just the right amount of a slight pungent flavor and good bread makes such a difference to the taste. Highly recommend this one!!



The main course was 'Zuccini pasta'. Make ribbons of zuccini using a scraper just like below. Heat olive oil, add 3 cloves of fine chopped garlic, then add zuccini, cook for 5-7 minutes, add 1 red chilli, juice of 1 lemon, 5 tbsp of half and half, 5 tbsp of grated parmesan cheese salt and crushed black pepper. Toss this on cooked linguini pasta and mix.


This is what the final dish looks like. We had it with garlic bread. It was awesome! Very lemony flavor and we had a very filling dinner today.



I'm sorry I haven't been as regular with posting as much as I want to. Its this writing stuff which takes precedence in my list. I have done the reading for most of what I want to write and I really spend a lot of time cracking my head over how do I say it best and convey it effectively.

Moreover, having to look at this creature down below, lolling, stretching and yawning in front of me, on my bed, does not help either. Just look at him!!



But if he's not in front of me, I'm wondering what he's upto. Darn these overcute pets!
(FYI- This is Jamie's cat)
Until we meet again,

Adios amigos pals!

Love from Smita