Saturday, August 27, 2011

beetroot Upkari

  • Rooting for  ruby red beetroot, here's a quick & super easy side, nothing glamorous or fancy - just a good for you 'unmessed with' beets.  I've been making repeats with a couple of delicious ways to serve these healthy addition to our diet. A sweetish hot beet upkari  &  oven roasted beets are 2 favourite side dishes devoured happily by both my kids. Did I mention that I have one picky kid & another extremely picky?!
  •    A week  ago few of beet shreds went into the red velvet cake as a trial & I was very proud that the kids had no idea that they were eating healthy. I almost feel powerful to have complete control of what goes into their bodies...well, almost! In near future I do have plans of making a raitha & a cold soup as well. Did I mention that I have a few golden beets growing in my kitchen garden?



 
  Ingredients:
  • beets - 4, peeled, cut
  • mustard seeds - 1/8 tsp
  • red chillies 3
  • curry leaves- a sprig
  • coconut - 1tbsp
  • salt

 
  • Heat oil in a pan. Temper with mustard, red chillies & curry leaves. Add the matchstick beets, salt & half a cup of water. Cover & simmer for 15 to 20 mins till completely cooked. Garnish with grated coconut.

Monday, August 15, 2011

chudi pooja

 I am having a great summer so far.
 A relaxing 2 week road trip with the kids went e-x-t-r-e-m-l-y well. Driving around with kids for hrs together is not as daunting (this time around) as it was until a few years ago. Thank's to all the fast food chains for 3+ meals (parental judgement is futile here), nintendo & gameboy which were used to the max. Meeting up & staying over at a few of the closest family we have here in the U S as well as visiting a few places around at temp destination were all going as planned. What a perfect way to make use of hot summer days & vacation, I thought.....only until I came home to a minor setback of a break-in. It brought all the smiles down & scared my babies for sure! It was pretty hard to assure the kids that all would be okay, the very first night back home while I was scared just as much... but materials can always be replaced. Luckily we moved past the fear pretty quick under the circumstances and planned to have the house ready for the Chudi pooja this coming weekend.


Here's how the front of the house looks today.
I'm happy how my little tulsi plant was decorated for the day.
I couldn't be happier that the chudi pooja and lunch we hosted  went really well. Just plain old laughter, good food and might I add a perfect, amchi meal, if you ask me! It was a beautiful day weather wise & the special shravan celebration for the sumangali friends made my house feel blessed as well.







Menu for the day was: Dalithoy, tendle bibbe upkari, jainavro ani kadgiche tepla randay, pulikoddel, duddhi upkari, batato ani karathe podi, valval, kolmbo ani sheeth.




 A friend who recently returned from India got us kele halvo ani kashi halvo which we relished like there is no tomorrow. Thank you Prabhu family!


My darand looks very festive today along with my walkway.

 A beautiful Sunday came to an end with melodious songs from Vinaya Shenoy and  our tabla artist, Rajesh Pai who religiously entertain us at every occasion with his music perfomance.