Entry way organizing

Entry way is the face of a house. From the way you organize your entryway, I think everyone will come to know the kind of person you are and it will reflect your personality.

I planned my entry way to be very clean and organized. As soon as you enter the house you will see small bamboo plant and you will feel so refreshed at the sight of green plant. Closet for hanging jackets is on the left side.  I can sit on the shoe bench, relax while taking my shoes off.  To avoid misplacing the keys I have placed the key holder on the wall above the shoe bench.  I can hang the keys as soon as I enter the house.

I also added little accents to the entry way.  Above the key holder I hung a rustic nature frame, it matches with shoe bench.  And for the bench I added a small dotted pillow which makes it also look like a seating area and not just shoe bench. I kept a small Buddha statute with stones in front of bamboo plant which brings a very calm and soothing feeling.

This is the way I organized my entryway, hope you liked it.

Bendakay fry/ okra fry

Okra fry is one of my favorite curries of all time. Not only it tastes good but it is also rich in vitamins. So lets start making a tasty and healthy okra fry curry.

Ingredients:
250 grams okra
1 spoon channa dal
1 spoon urad dal
1 spoon mustard seeds
1 spoon cumin seeds
8 cashews
1/2 spoon red chilly powder
1/2 spoon turmeric powder
2 spoons dry coconut
Salt to taste
4 spoons oil
Curry leaves

Method:

1. Chop okra into round shaped pieces. Then heat up the pan add oil, channa dal, urad dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, cashews, turmeric powder and curry leaves.

2. After the mixture is roasted add okra to the pan and keep lid on for just 5 minutes.  If you keep lid on for more than that the mixture will become sticky due to gummy nature of okra.

3. After okra becomes soft add red chilly powder and salt.  Let it fry for another 5 minutes.

4. Before turning off the stove add dry coconut and it will bring more taste to the curry.

5. Transfer to the serving bowl.  Enjoy it with rice or roti.

Beerakaya pachadi/Ridge gourd chutney

Sometimes we get bored of same vegetable curries.  To try something different we can make chutney instead of curry with the same ingredients. Today  I am going to show you how to make ridge gourd chutney.

Ingredients:

1 long ridge gourd

2 tomatoes

2 garlic gloves

1/2 spoon coriander seeds

1/2 spoon cumin seeds

1 gram tamarind

4 stems of coriander leaves

3 spoons oil
Green chilies

Salt for taste

Method:

1. Chop ridge gourd and tomatoes into medium size pieces. Then heat the pan, add oil, add chopped ridge gourd, green chilies and coriander seeds. Let it fry for 10 minutes.

2. After 10 minutes add tomatoes to the pan and fry until it turns to brown color. If you add tomatoes first they will not let ridge gourd to fry because of the juice that will come out of them.

3. Let the mixture to cool for 10 minutes and add it to the blender.  Add cumin seeds, coriander leaves, garlic gloves, tamarind and salt.

4. Blend until mixture turns to fine paste and serve with rice. While having chutney with rice if you add little bit of ghee you feel like you are in the heaven. Trust me.

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.