World's best peanut Chutney/pallila pachadi

Most of the people's breakfast in south India is Idli or Dosa. The best combination/dip to eat Idli or Dosa is with chutney or sambar. There are two types of chutnies, coconut chutney and peanut chutney. We cannot find coconut all the time so the alternative is peanut chutney.  My brother and I love to eat Idli because of our mom's peanut chutney. Today I am going to show you how to make the world's best peanut chutney.

Ingredients:
100 grams of peanuts
2 to 4 green chilies
1spoon cumin seeds
2 garlic gloves
1 gram tamarind
1/2 spoon channa dal
1/2 spoon mustard seeds
3 spoons oil
4 curry leaves
Salt to taste
Sugar one spoon (optional)

Method:
1. Take a small pan add one spoon oil to the peanuts, add green chilies and roast it for 10 minutes or until the peanuts turn brown in color.

2. After that cool it for 10 minutes.  Transfer peanuts and green chilies to food processor add cumin seeds, garlic gloves, salt, tamarind and sugar (optional).  Sugar will enhance the taste of peanuts.

3. Here is the technique to make soft paste. First add very little water to break peanuts then add little more water and blend it to make normal paste then add more water to get the right consistency of a fine paste. If you pour all the water in the beginning you won't get the right consistency.

4. Then take a small pan add 2 spoons of oil.  After oil heats up add channa dal, mustard seeds and curry leaves.  After the mix is roasted well pour it on top of the chutney.  That's it, peanut chutney is ready.

 

 
5. Enjoy it with Idli or Dosa.

    

Old picture frames in garage to homage frames

Almost everyone's garage is filled with unused stuff instead of a car . Our garage is also the same. One day I decided to clean my garage.  When I was cleaning up I found some old picture frames and I got an idea.  We are all spending lot of money to decorate our homes with scenic nature picture frames, why not we make our own expensive scenic frames?

I started searching through my pictures archive.  I am a travel person.  My husband and I got to go to so many places.  And wherever we go I usually take lot of nature pictures.  I am not a photographer but I try to do my best. From lot of vacation pictures I choose few that I liked the most.  Then I had the pictures printed in enlarged size that fit the frames.  I hung these two frames in my living room. Whenever I look at these frames it reminds me of those beautiful places that we have been to and of the great experiences.  And the old frames are now an inexpensive nice decorative nature frames in our home with a personal touch.

Centerpiece with plate and vase

Center piece for coffee table or dining table at a christmas dinner.

I have set up three small glasses, one red, other gold and another one is plain glass.  The colors I have chosen put out nice christmas vibe.

I have kept them in the center of the golden plate and spread colored petals around them that are green, red and brown in color.

I am using vase as centerpiece on a side table or a small dining table.

I have spread tiny stones at the bottom of the vase.  I then painted a pine cone green to stay with holidays theme and placed it on top of the stones inside the vase.

I bought some inexpensive christmas lights from IKEA that work on batteries and wrapped them around the vase.  A simple centerpiece is ready.

Christmas lights n old vases

Christmas lights are used for decoration in our homes. I have lot of vases just laying in my attic collecting dust.  I have an idea to convert those vases into party lamps by using christmas lights.

I have a red glass vase and a clear pot glass vase.  I have placed couple of christmas light strings into each of the vases and it feels like party time instantly.

Since it is clear and therefore bright, pot glass vase can be used as a side lamp.

And since it is dim red glass vase can be used as cool bed light.

Used glass bottle to a rustic flower vase

Flower vases are one of the finest decorative pieces in a house. Even a small flower vase can bring refreshed look to a room. I am going to show you how to create a rustic vase in an inexpensive way.

You need only 4 items to make this.  Used glass bottle, rope long enough to wrap around the bottle, glue and paint.

Apply glue to the rope and wrap it around the bottle in tight pattern starting from bottom to the top. Add a flower and that's it, rustic vase is ready. If you want you can paint the rope.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms are a great appetizer for any party. Not only are they easy to make and serve, they are also a healthy snack. For making stuffed mushrooms we need very simple ingredients. Come on let's begin the party.

Ingredients:

Mushrooms

Garlic glove

Small carrot

Coriander leaves

Small pieces of cheese

Salt and pepper

Method:

1.  First clean the mushrooms, take out stem and keep the mushroom cap and dry it.

2.  Finely chop the carrot, garlic, coriander and cheese. Mix it all together with salt and pepper.

3.  Preheat the oven or toaster for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Mean while stuff the mushrooms with the mixture made in step 2 and transfer the stuffed mushrooms to the baking pan.

4.  Bake the mushrooms in the oven or a toaster at 350 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes. Serve to the guests and get their compliments.

Old batteries to new couples

I had bunch of used batteries left over when my husband replaced them with newer ones in my kid's toys.  Instead of just throwing them away I came up with this idea of painting them and using them as decorative pieces.  Eventually though I have to properly dispose them.