KEYS TO MY HEART

Cooking Rampage on a long weekend

2012-02-19T20:36:04Z

Juicing away

2012-01-19T09:16:22Z

Since I acquired a Waring Pro Juicer, I haven’t really tried too many variations; however, one of my favorites so far is carrot-apple-orange. Yum!

This time around, since I had store-bought grovestyle orange juice at home, I added that into my freshly made carrot-apple juice from 3 carrots and 3 apples.

The Cell Phone

2012-01-19T09:17:46Z

Recently, I had the misfortune of having to deal with the loss of cell phone service for a couple of weeks. Thanks to Sprint, it took me back to the days of having no cell phone, when life was much more plain and simple.

It was annoying at first, not being reachable to all my friends and family. It was also extremely irritating because I had gotten used to carrying my smart phone around everywhere and being up to date with tasks and other things. My biggest use for my smart phone was the ability to sync my email/calendar/tasks using the Google’s exchange service (Google sync). I have a habit of putting everything on my calendar and my tasks are essentially lists, and getting the university email directly to my cell phone was a big bonus too.

Suddenly, the loss of service had rendered me helpless as I had to keep my email window open in the computer to constantly check my email. If it weren’t for Google’s voice service, I wouldn’t have had text messaging or telephone functionality. Although it bugged me in the beginning, it sort of opened me up to these other avenues of internet telephone services. It showed me the dependency I have on the electronics and technology in my day to day life.

This also reminded me of the times when we didn’t even have a telephone in our home. I remember my mother would ask me to write a few lines at the end of a letter to my grandparents. Visiting relatives and immediate family every few months was the way to keep in touch with them. Going to my hometown in Rajahmundry and bathing in the Godavari were my fondest memories growing up. I didn’t even have to worry if my cell phone would get wet.

Things change so quickly. In a matter of decades, the way we talk to people and keep in touch with them changed drastically. Gone are the days of painfully sending out party invitations. Now, you just invite your friends to an “Event” and make them RSVP on Facebook. You’re always available to friends either through Facebook, Twitter, Cellphone, Email and Instant Messaging. Is it even possible to go completely off the radar these days?

The world around us is shrinking quickly. Even a cell phone service outage couldn’t keep me off the map. Maybe I got out of “sync” for a few days, but I still was very much in touch with the necessary people. I quickly realized that we are not really separated by the miles but only by the speed of our broadband connection. This makes me extremely excited for the new 5-10 years. All the sci-fi movies and our wildest dreams could very well become a reality.

P.S: No hatred for Sprint through. They did give me $50 in credit and new phones for their bad service.

Mile sur mera tumhara..

2010-02-26T21:38:07Z

..tho sur bane humara.

The evergreen song that reminds us that, no matter how uniquely different we are, how we can all unite and stand together as one. This was brought to my attention recently through a FB post an old friend of mine made. Enjoy the cultural diversity exhibited in the song, blended together beautifully with a medley of melodious voices!

Here is the old, original version:

Original Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

And the new one, released recently in 2010:

New Mile Sur Mera Tumhara – Part 1

New Mile Sur Mera Tumhara – Part 2

Music & love

Yummy chocolate chip cookies!

2012-01-19T09:20:21Z

Cooking Healthy & Yummy

My latest addiction is…

2009-07-18T23:32:24Z

….Lipton PureLeaf Raspberry Tea. This stuff is truly delicious! I have never been a fan of tea–of any kind, until I was introduced to the green tea frappucino at Starbucks. My goodness, that stuff is good. Yeah, not much tea-like though! Then, I tried citrus-flavored green tea (also by Lipton), which is refreshing. However, the raspberry tea is just awesome! I have been looking everywhere for a bigger pack of it, hoping it will be cheaper. I have only been able to buy a 2-serving bottle for $1.49+tax at the market at school. I have been, in pursuit of this amazement, to Smart & Final, Vons, Walmart, Target, Big Lots, CVS, and Rite-Aid. Nowhere is the deliciousness to be found–not even on Amazon! If anyone knows where this is to be found in a larger pack of bottles, please let me know. With the summer heating up (to 97F today in San Diego!), there would be nothing more enjoyable than sipping on this PureLeaf Raspberry flavored Iced Tea.

If you are looking for something new, with far few calories (the PureLeaf Raspberry Tea is 80 calories per serving, and 150 per 8 fl oz bottle) than a green tea frappucino without whipped cream (290 calories for a 12 fl oz Tall), and have never tried these iced teas, give it a shot. I don’t think you will regret it for one minute. Cool relief on a hot, hot summer day. Mm, Mm, Mmm good.

PS If you have not tried Starbucks’ Green Tea Frappucino, which is usually available every summer, you are missing out! It’s quite good, but not for the calorie conscious. It’s a treat for the self, once in a while

Reminiscing

Eating healthy, staying healthy

2009-07-18T23:29:37Z

I have never been one of those crazy health freaks. I have laughed and ridiculed people who watch their calories everyday, drinking diet sodas, eating fat-free food and drinking fat-free milk. I love good, tasty food. Having grown up in India where almost all the vegetables you eat are organic and the milk was freshly squeezed from the buffalo every morning (agreed it was diluted with water but still it was yummy). I really just hated everything I ate when I first came to US. The milk tasted like water, the yogurt didn’t taste right. The potatoes and peas were sweet. The eggs I ate had no taste and smelled too bad . Eggplants were huge and tasteless. The complaints I had about food were endless. Recently, I started going organic and that made a world of difference to the taste. Organic whole milk tastes much better than Indian milk, organics eggs = yummy; I just avoided the label ‘fat-free’ and I realized that the food in US never tasted better.

There was a downside to this whole experience. When you start avoiding fat-free label, you are getting into a territory where your food is potentially unhealthy for your body. Obviously, the trade off has always been taste and health and that’s really unfortunate. I don’t understand how we can’t have tasty and healthy food which are not fruits. You don’t really know how much of this food is polluting your body until you check your weight on a regular basis.

Recently, I started going to the gym because I realized my body needed some strength and stamina. I was always too lazy to go to the gym because it was too far away and I didn’t want to spend an hour walking there when I have about 4-5hrs of time to myself every day besides work. But, one of my friends offered to drive me back and forth every morning and I told myself why not? I started getting into the habit of checking my weight on a daily basis and I realized how much you can gain by gouging yourself on good food for just one night .

I always felt like I was a fairly healthy person. I have good immunity and I still don’t have glasses. I don’t get sick too often. But, there is always the need to improve the tone of your body and also increase the stamina. Especially at this age, where we get little to no physical activity, it is important to know what you are eating and keep yourself healthy. I still don’t get fat-free food but I limit my intake and get some exercise to burn off the excess calories .

Good weekend, good food

2009-07-18T23:40:11Z

Yummy

It feels like it has been forever since I last blogged. Jagadish would definitely agree (I can almost hear him say, “That’s because it HAS been forever”). But here I am. It was a generally good weekend. I did a lot of clean up around the house. I may (or not) be moving, but I’ve come to realize I have a zillion things I don’t need or use around the house, but that blog is probably for later. I made a scrumptious meal this weekend–one of my all-time favorites: Vegetable Fried Rice with Cauliflower Manchurian. Here is how you can make it yourself: trust me, it is not as painful or time-consuming as it may seem if you use the shortcuts I did!

For the rice, heat some oil and toss in a teaspoon of ginger and garlic, along with half a green chilli, and a couple of red chillies (these are entirely per taste, and I picked the addition of red chillies up from Sanjeev Kapoor). Add onions, but do not brown them. While they turn translucent add sliced green peppers, and frozen carrot/beans/peas. Saute on high with a light sprinkling of salt until the veggies turn bright green, but do not let them brown! Set aside.

For the crispy florets of cauliflower, first steam cauliflower in the microwave (2-3 mins). If you are using frozen cauliflower, make sure it’s thawed out, and then steam it in the microwave. For the batter, I used half cornflour and half all-purpose flour, 1 tbsp of red chilli powderand 1 tsp of soy sauce. The batter should be the consistency of pancake batter–not too thin though, because as I’ve learned, that absorbs a lot of oil. Heat the oil until hot enough for deep frying and coat each floret and drop it into the hot oil carefully. Gently turn over until the florets are completely browned on all sides. These are very yummy all by themselves, and I must admit I sampled a little at this point

For the gravy, heat a tbsp of oil until hot, toss in 1 tbsp of ginger, 1 tsp of garlic, and depending on your taste for spice, 1 green chilli. Add finely chopped onion, and chopped bellpepper, and fry until onions are browned. Add soy sauce, cook for half a minute or so, and then add water. Lower the flame and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. While it’s simmering, add some cornflour to water. While stirring, add the cornflour mixture to the sauce and continue to simmer for another minute or two. This will aid in thickening the sauce to a perfectly edible consistency. Toss in the florets and coat well with the sauce. Top with some freshly chopped coriander/cilantro.

Finally, for the rice, add a tsp of oil and separate the grains. Then combine small amounts of rice gently with the veggies on low heat. Continue until desired amount of rice+veggies is reached–I try and add lots of veggies! Now turn up the heat and continue to gently fry the rice. Remember to use a tsp or two of oil as it is frying, especially if the pan is not non-stick. Sprinkle soy sauce generously (I used Tamari sauce, which had extra flavor I thought), about 1 tbsp for the amount I made. Although I did not use them, spring onions add a definite kick to this rice–if you have them, use them in the veggie step.

Now, that does seem pretty easy does it not? Anyone can make it! And not only is it incredibly delicious, the rice packs in a lot of veggies, so I’m thinking, it can’t be all that bad either.

Fickle thing called love..

2009-07-19T03:21:29Z

Isn’t it weird how some people keep falling in and out of “love” at the drop of a hat? It has been one of those things that’s been bothering me a lot lately. I do not intend to be self-righteous but it is just ridiculous and irritating the way some people act.

One of my roomies is a complete womanizer. It is, of course, true that nobody ever gets along with their roommates and you could think that I might have some unknown agenda for laying such allegations on him. Believe me, whatever I say here is just the tip of the iceberg.

As I was saying, this guy had a girl friend in India when he came to the university with me. This did not dissuade him from adding a multitude of American girls to his Facebook and flirting with them into the wee hours of the night. He eventually found another girl living in New Jersey and would spend talking to her in the late nights spending all his minutes on the phone. He even met her when he went to meet his sister in NJ. But, apparently, nothing happened as she found out that he had a girlfriend (she saw her picture on his phone’s wallpaper which he forgot to change) and he never talked to her again or maybe she never wanted to talk to him

Well, that’s just one instance. He recently broke up with his girlfriend for reasons unbeknownst to me and he is already in “love” with another girl. It took him a couple of months to get over his relationship and fall in love again. He insists that she is not a rebound girl and that this relationship is more “mature” than the previous relationship and what not!

The point of this rant is not to pick on him; it is just confounding how people use the word “love” for every silly feeling they have. It is just abusing a pristine word. I am not saying that you have to fall in love only once in life (even though that’s how it should be, ideally). We all have false positives, we were all young once when we fell for the wrong people. Even then, you don’t just give it all up in a few days when you have invested your time and emotions in it for a good few years. I know wallowing yourself in pity and sorrow is hardly a good thing, but could you honestly say that you were in a relationship with someone if you do not feel that way?

Having said that, I don’t even know what is the right time to move on and get on to next relationship. I just think that it is disrespectful for something you cherished and valued all these years if you just “fall in love” too soon. I really hope people don’t use “love” for every high they feel. I believe that love just does not come out of thin air. There could be attraction or even a connection to begin with but it will take awhile to understand each other, to understand your own feelings for him/her and finally to understand the ramifications of being together. It will not all be easy, not everything will be perfect but even with everything going against you, if you want to hold on to that person’s hand forever, that is when you are truly in love.

Go Green

2009-07-19T03:28:16Z

Recently, just around Earth Day, I bought some seeds to plant. I did have plants before, but only 2-3 have survived my neglectence. I was determined not to let that happen to these seeds. I took care to peek at them everyday and water them as needed (but not too much). I planted sunflower seeds (those are the large leafed ones), basil, and some perennials.

If you noticed, these are all in little pots. I do have larger ones that I plan to transplant these into. I’m not sure when is the best time to do that, so any suggestions are welcome, but I think the roots have to be pretty strong for the plants to withstand the move.

It really is amazing how hard seeds, with just a little soil, water and sunshine can grow into these brilliant green little plants. I really, really hope they live to be healthy strong plants!

Sad Update: I discovered two fat little caterpillars feasting on my sunflower plants I got rid of them, but the plants are in dire state. I am not sure they will make it. Boo. I hate insects.