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

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

Of cold weather and fried food

Phew! What a long day it has been today! I was in school till 8:30 pm. Today I walked home. On days I don't go to the gym, I try to walk home. Its a 3 mile walk and its not too bad. I feel very irritable when I don't sleep well. Yesterday was one such day and was too groggy to write. But, worry not, I did have a culinary adventure. Catherine is my friend from Kenya. When she started talking about Indian food being a part of their staple diet, it was very surprising to me. Then it dawned on that a lot of Indians went and settled in Africa for trade purposes and apparently some of our food got absorbed into African culture. It is good fun talking to Catherine. Sometimes the African pronunciation is slightly different from the way we say it and it does make me smile. So day before yesterday, Catherine was very keen to make 'Bhajias' and her enthusiasm to make bhajias rubbed off on me. This is a fried snack food. These feel best on a cold rainy day with a hot cup of tea. Daywise, yesterday was perfect...cold rainy day. This is how you make it

Batter
1 cup chick pea flour ( can buy it from the Indian store)
salt to taste
chilli powder to taste
1/2 tsp Coriander seed powder
1/4 tsp Cumin powder
water

make a paste which is neither too watery nor too firm, roughly the consistency of a smoothie

Chop
potatoes into thin slices
Onion slices
cawliflower ( I used frozen)
A lot of different vegetables can be dipped in the batter

Take enough oil for deep frying.
Heat the oil. ( Test the heat before you fry by adding a few drops of the batter- if it splutters and rises to the top, then its done)
Dip the veggies in the batter and gently place them in the hot oil.
Fry till both the top and bottom are golden brown.
Remove from oil onto paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Let it cool so that you can bite into it. This goes best with chai tea.

Me and my friends made it during the winter chill in North India. We'd make this and wrap ourselves in blankets and drink ginger tea.

Okay, this is not the healthiest stuff around. But I must have made a deep fried food after at least 10 years. So I did not feel too bad.
I'm so glad that the Kroger close to my house has newly started this set up like in upscale grocery stores- where you can pick what nuts you want and how much you want. I like it better than picking bagged nuts.

I feel like doing a spices glossary on my blog. I will do it one of these days.

Its 12:11 am right now. I gotta sleep before I start typing gibberish.

Good night and sweet dreams people!