Front patio - Gardening

Every year as spring approaches many place fresh flowers plants on their front patio to bring liveliness to the house. Today I am going to show you how I arranged my front patio with lot of flower plants.

As you are walking towards the patio you will first see white and purple flowers on the steps.  I have arranged them in contrast color pots to brighten the flowers.

Then you will see bushes of five types of colored flower plants in one large pot. In this way you can save space and it looks so colorful.  First, I arranged taller red flower plants towards the back.  Then I arranged pink and purple flowers on each side. In the middle I planted marigold to offset pink flowers. In the front of the pot I planted snow whites that make the pot vibrant.

Then in a small pot I planted blue flowers plants and placed the pot on a long pole behind the large pot.  The combination of two different sizes and the colorful flowers surely will catch anyone's eye as they enter the house.

Simple party decorations

My baby turned one year and the birthday came on Sunday.  So a simple birthday party with my own decorating ideas was in order.

I chose a simple decorating theme of white and blue colors that suits for a baby boy. I decorated my living room with white and blue balloons with a colorful happy birthday banner in the back. I hung white ribbons like a wave and in between I placed green flower shaped ribbons.

I continued the white and blue theme in the dining room. On the dinning table I placed white color table cloth and in the middle I placed sky blue color cloth .

For centerpieces I used old glass coconut oil jars.  I cleaned them and wrapped them in blue gift wrapping sheet. Then I placed white and mixed color flowers in the jars.  Under the jars I placed a white paper cutting flower sheets that you can find in any dollar store. I used the jar lids to put candles and placed them in front of the jars. The candles brought elagant look.  In between the jars I kept party favor bags.

Around the centerpiece I arranged blue and white plates.  To decorate this table I spent less than twenty five dollars.

Last but not least I selected my birthday boy cake and candies also in white and blue colors. Not only did the cake look good it was delicious as well.

Carrot, green peas potato curry

Not many dishes are as nutritious as this carrot, green peas and potato curry. Carrots are rich in vitamin A, green peas have protein and potatoes are full of carbohydrates. Not only nutritious but the curry makes for a good presentation with it's red, green and white colors.  The cooking process is very simple.

Ingredients
2 carrots
2 potatoes
25 gms green peas
1 ginger
4 chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of turmeric
Half spoon chili powder
4 curry leaves and coriander leaves
Salt  and pepper according to taste

Method
First peel the potatoes and carrots. Then wash them and cut them into medium size pieces.

Then put them in pressure cooker for 2 whistles. Meanwhile mash together ginger, green chillies and cumin seeds.

Take a pan, heat the oil, add urad dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds ,asofedetia and curry leaves.  Then add ginger paste.  Fry for 2 minutes then add bolied pototaes, carrots and green peas.  Fry for 5 mintues.

After 5 minutes add chily powder, salt and pepper.  Keep the pan on stove for 3 more mintues.  That's it, coloful curry is ready.  Garnish with coriander leaves.

Socks snowman

I love to make snowman in winter, it is so much fun. But in other seasons we cannot make snowman, so today I am going to show you how to make snowman the easy way all year round. It is also so much fun, lets grab an old pair of socks, scissors, buttons, a small piece of cloth and glue.

Take an old sock and cut the ankle part off.

Then take other end of sock pour rice or other similar substance in it.

Then tie a band at the top and in the middle.

Add two black dots as eyes and red or any other color dot as nose in the top portion. To the bottom portion add two buttons.  Tie any color cloth around the neck area as a scarf.

 I used a smaller sock to place over the head as a cap.

Little snowman man is ready to decorate any room.

Cauliflower pickle

Every south Indian pantry is guaranteed to have a pickle of some kind, if not multiple pickles. My mom makes lot of pickles with almost all kind of vegetables. Today I am going to show you how to make cauliflower pickle that I learned from her. This can be substitute for mango pickle when sour mangoes are not available. So lets start the process.

Ingredients:
200 gm cauliflower
3 spoons mustard powder
2 spoons red chilly powder
Half spoon fenugreek powder
3 or 4 garlic gloves
1 spoon cumin seeds
4 spoons oil
1 lemon
Pinch of turmeric 
Salt according to the taste

Method:

First wash the cauliflower then chop into small pieces.

Here is the tip for getting good flavors, dry roast the powders for 4 to 5 minutes.

Transfer cauliflower to a mixing bowl, add pinch of turmeric, 3 spoons of mustard powder, half spoon of fenugreek powder, one spoon of salt, 2 spoons of red chilly powder, 4 spoons oil, garlic cumin paste and finally one whole lemon juice and mix it all together.

Then let it rest for one day until cauliflower absorbs all the flavors. There you have it delicious cauliflower pickle.

CD weaving wall art

In our home office there are so many damaged cds and dvds just lying around.  I have been thinking of repurposing them into wall art. Today I am going to show you one way to do this. You need old cd/dvd, scissors, wool (preferably of multiple colors) and a big needle.

First step, take a wool string approximately one meter in length.  Tie one end to the cd by looping through the center hole.  Using other end of the string loop through the center hole, over the edge of the cd and back through the center hole while making sure the loops are couple of inches apart.  Do 8 or 9 loops and you should end up with star like pattern.

Second step, insert a wool string into the needle.  Weave through the star pattern alternating up and down through the loops.  Add colors as you desire. You can do this step without a needle but I found it easier to do it with a needle.

If you want you can make a tail as shown below.

Shrimp cocktail with dipping sauce

Few summers ago my husband and I went to a seafood restaurant. We were very hungry when we arrived at the restaurant.  Looking through the menu we came across shrimp cocktail appetizer.  Since I never had it before we decided to give it a try.  After 5 minutes cocktail shrimp arrived with two sauces, one red and the other white. I devoured shrimp and the white sauce.  I can never forget how good the shrimp and white sauce tasted that day. Today I am going to show you how to make simple and easy shrimp cocktail with white dipping sauce.

Ingredients:
15 Shrimp
Mayonnaise
Hot sauce
One garlic glove
Spring onions or scallions
Salt and pepper

Method:

First wash the shrimp.  Boil a bowl of water until it bubbles, then add salt and shrimp to the water.  Leave shrimp in the water for 5 minutes or until shrimp turns pink.  Take shrimp out of water and keep it aside.

Second step, take a bowl, add mayonnaise, 4 dashes of hot sauce, smashed garlic glove, salt and pepper and mix it together. Garnish with chopped scallions. That's it shrimp cocktail is ready.  Enjoy shrimp with the sauce.