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.

Sankranthi-Bommala Koluvu/Bogipallu/Arisala Adugulu

I have been dreaming for so many years to do bommala koluvu (toys display). When I was in 8th grade I saw bommala koluvu once in our neighbor's house. They had lot of fine dolls on display, and of course as a little girl I was so tempting to play with them.  And at the same time I wanted to do this type of display myself. Finally time has arrived to make my dream come true.  I decided to do bommala koluvu with my baby.

I have been so eagerly waiting for Sankranthi to arrive this year because I planned to do Bommala koluvu, Bogipallu and Arisela Adugulu for my baby. Sankranthi is special for me since childhood days.  I grew up in a small village where my dad was a farmer.  During Sankranthi every house in the village would come alive.  Fresh paddy bags from rice crop harvest are stacked.  Huge colorful rangolis are laid in front of the every house. A small ball of cow dung with colorful flowers on top of it is placed in the middle of every rangoli.  Sankranthi is harvest festival and is the time of year traditionally when farmers make money by selling their harvest.  So at this time we get new clothes and my mother used to make lot of traditional sweets and snacks. Not only for farmer families but every family is in festive mood.  Haridass, Gangireddhu people  and katikaparulu visit every house and people donate rice to them. Sankranthi is celebrated over three days.  First day is Bogi, second day is Sankranthi festival and final day is Kanuma.

First day which is Bogi we usually wake up early in the morning, collect firewood, set a bonfire, sit around fire for a while and then take a bath. January is winter in India and sitting around fire on a chilly winter morning feels wonderful.  Some families arrange bommala koluvu in the morning then in the evening perform bogi pallu pouring for children below five years.  During this time of the year a very special fruit called Bher fruit is in season.  Bher fruit are small in size and are perfect for pouring.  They are mixed with marigold petals and are poured over babies head.  Sometimes we add small coins to the pour mix and ask other children to collect the coins as they drop on the floor. Whoever collects the most coins is declared a winner. Its a fun occasion for everyone.

I decided to make it more fun, so I added arisala (andhra sweet) adugulu (steps) to the festivities.  For this one would place odd number of arisalu on the floor and make children walk by stepping on each arisa.   My baby who is only 8 months old at the did great job stepping on each arisa, ofcourse with help holding him up.

On the second day of the festival we do puja in the morning then we make sweets and lot of special items.  All the family members and guests would sit together and eat these items.  Now I am going to explain to you my bommala koluvu and how I arranged each level.  The hard part for me was to setup 5 levels which I accomplished mostly with my baby diaper boxes and books.

Top level I started with house because it all starts in a house, family, happiness, achivements etc. After that I arranged countryside, village setup because I was grew up in a small village.  At the same time it represents clean environment, no pollution, healthy living style. Then its kondapalli bommalu kitchen setup with barbie family.

 

Second level is tea party set up, Irish doll and basket full of toy fruits.
On the third level I placed light lamps at the ends. Disney toy couple in the center and the rest are small toys like birds, fish etc.

Fourth level consists of divine statues of Ganesh, Buddha and Krishna.

On the last level I placed Ganesh idol with flowers on both ends. Then I finished this level with my favorite kiddy bank and toy sewing machine.

At the bottom I added more flowers, fruits  and peacocks to give glamorous look. This is the way I have arranged my bommala  koluvu. I have set up five levels but some  go for 9, 11 or even more levels.

Third day of Sankranthi is Kanuma. On this day some people offer clothes to the elder people and get blessings from them.  Pujas are performed to cows, buffalo. This is to show our gratitude towards them for helping us in farming, providing milk and much more.  More food items are cooked on this day including non-vegetarian items and enjoyed by family and guests.

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.