The Indian spice Box--the tale behind it

Since we are talking about spices lets first talk about indian cuisine.

The cuisine of India is characterized by its use of various spices, herbs and other vegetables grown in India.Indian cuisine has had a remarkable influence on cuisines across the world, especially those from Southeast Asia.In particular, "curry", which originated in India, is used to flavor food across Asia.

The staples of Indian cuisine are rice, atta (whole wheat flour), and a variety of pulses.The most important/frequently used spices in Indian cuisine are chilli pepper, black mustard seed (rai), cumin (jeera), turmeric (haldi, manjal), fenugreek (methi), asafoetida (hing, perungayam), ginger (adrak, inji), coriander, and garlic (lassan, poondu). Popular spice mixes are garam masala which is usually a powder of five or more dried spices, commonly including cardamom, cinnamon, and clove.

North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products; milk, paneer, ghee (clarified butter), and yoghurt (yogurt, yoghourt) are all common ingredients. Gravies are typically dairy-based. Other common ingredients include chilies, saffron, and nuts.Most of the curries in northern india are eaten with a bread's like roti,phulka,naan,chaapathi etc.

Traditional cuisines of Eastern indian namely Orissa, Bengal, and Assam are delicately spiced. Their cuisine consists of Mustard paste, curd, nuts, poppy seed paste and cashew paste are preferably cooked in mustard oil.They curries are mostly eaten with rice or spiced rice.This region is more famous for the sweets such as rasagolla, chumchum, sandesh, rasabali, chhena poda, chhena gaja, chhena jalebi and kheeri.

South Indian cuisine is distinguished by a greater emphasis on rice as the staple grain, the ubiquity of sambar and rasam (also called chaaru and rasam), a variety of pickles, and the liberal use of coconut and particularly coconut oil and curry leaves.This region is more famous for the breakfast dishes like the dosa, poori, idli, vada, bonda,pongal etc.Another famous dish from the south is the "hyderabadi biryani".Not to forget the south indian filter coffee.

Western India has three major food groups: Gujarati, Maharashtrian and Goan.
For me maharashtra reminds me of the evening snacks like pani puri,bhel-puri,chaat,vada-pav,raagda etc Gujarati cuisine is predominantly vegetarian. Many Gujarati dishes have a hint of sweetness due to use of sugar or brown sugar. Goan cuisine is influenced by the Portuguese colonization of Goa.



This is the spice box that u find in most of the indian kitchen's.The other day all the ingredients in the spice box were over and so i again filled them up immediately...It was so pleasant to see all the beautiful vibrant colors..that i immediately thought of clicking a photo n here i am with it.The spice box is almost similar to the spice racks that we have out here in the US.

But for some reason i prefer useing the spice box itself(though its a personal opinion) might be i have more memories associated with things like the spice box,grinding mortor n pestle etc

I remember amma keeping all the grocery shopping money in it along with the spices..so that if any one passes by the house selling fresh vegetables or fish she doesnt need to run to the cupboard everytime.

So coming to the picture clockwise from top is

Methi
Chaana dal
Urad dal
Mustard
Corainder
Jeera
Red chillies( in the center)

These are the regular things that one uses for a Tadka or Poppu apart from the Hing,Curry leaves n Crushed Garlic.

Glass Painting's

Everyone who first meet's me ask what i do...i say Housewife....soon afterwards comes the big question...then how do u pass ur time??..N the general answer i give is cook,clean,bake n deocrate cakes n do glass painitng.

Glass painting... i was first introduced to this hobby in 2004 just by mistake...I was doing my MBA n them Amma was like apart from studying u dont even have a nice hobby...Ofcourse she will not let me come into the kitchen n cook then..

So she introduced me to her friend...n she inturn introduced me to her cousin,who does glass painting,mehndhi,pot painting etc...all such simple stuff.

That's how i learnt my glass painting.Here are a few of my works..








It's just a nice n simple hobby which doesnt require much painting skills.Thanks to amma i learnt it because of her.During my initial stay in US..this helped me a lot to pass my time...n from then on it became one of my hobby.

So when i went to india last year i wanted to thank Amma...So i painted the rajasthani lady n some camels(that u see above) n framed it n gave it to her when i stayed over there.

The other 2 paintings that of the birds n fish on lotus were my first paintings in US(painted on 2nd week after coming to US).The elephant painting was a gift to my friend who recently bought a townhome.They were some more which i gave as gifts but forgot to take a picture of them.

I usually get a photo frame with glass(since framing is quite costly out here in US) n paint on that...on most occassions i give them as gifts to my friends,which make's them very happy..

I will blog the procedure of how to paint on glass along with pictures(picture tutorial) soon

Roses Are Red......

The other day i was writing about the march snow in chicago...n the same day i happend to this CLICK event for April 2009.I might be relatively new to the blog world but i thought of giving it a try.....so here i am submitting an entry for it......

Spring, spring is coming soon,

Grass is green and flowers bloom,

Birds returning from the south,

Bees are buzzing all about,

Leaves are budding everywhere,

Spring, spring is finally here!

"April prepares her green traffic light,and the world thinks,'GO' "-Christopher Morley

Every season has its own beauty,be it the snow in winter,amazing color's of the leaves in autumn,beautiful flowers in spring etc.....But out of all my favorite was always spring,where i get to see the beautiful flowers,butterflies,birds....Its so refreshing to see it after many months of white snow .....which turns the whole place into black white.

Spring brings not only a fresh lease of life to the plants and birds but also to us.....because we start with a new year (ugadi).....which inturn brings us new hope ,new begining.....Since spring signifies color....I thought of submittimg this "Basket weave cake with red roses"..

That's a choclate cake with chocolate frosting topped with red fondnat roses.As said in my earlier post ,i made that for valentines day...becoz the two things that go hand in hand for valentines day are Chocolate n Red colour so i incorporated both of them into my cake .

But apart from that the cake had bright red roses which signifys spring as well .So thats the reason for me sending it to this event .

Roses signify a lot of things but a red rose always signifies love....Lets all start this new year (ugadi) by sharing this love with one another and make this world a better n worhty place to live in.

IF...?????????

After a nice full and heavy meal on Ugadi day,that afternoon i happened to this good telugu movie called "Happy Days" on Tv.I have seen this movie several times before.....n i was like each time i see it...i think ....is this movie trying to remind me of something ?.......N then there was the answer Yes.....It reminds me of something....so what is it...

For those of u who didnt see the movie It is about a few friends n their life in an Engineering college.....Apart from this what caught my attention was a poem which one of the friends had to byheart n recite it back inorder to impress a English Lecturer.......It was this that caught my attention...I have heard it somewhere.....Where ? Where did i first hear it .....??

Any Guesses?????

Till my 8th standard i studied in a catholic school St.Josephs in vizag ,It had a ICSE syllabus n from 7th or 8th std we had a book on poems it was called "Flights Of Fantasy".....n Two poems that made a place in my mind were IF---Rudyard Kipling n Daffodils-Williams Wordsworth.

Two very good poets i am found of.

IF---??????

No matter what ever we do in our daily lifes,everything starts with a If....What if i do this? What if i do That? What if my boss doesnt like it? What if this will happen? etc etc etc.......They are so many if's and but's in our life.....thats because man is a social being...we need to socialise with people wherever we are...So it's not always What we like to do..its sometimes What we can do for others...

Oh my god thats a lot a Philosophy from a girl of my age.......but thats ok....it did one good thing ,it reminded me of my school days...While in school i was staying in a hostel and i can say i had the best time in life with all my friends..We were a bunch of naughty friends...

IF---Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

There is a lot to learn from this poem,it tells us how we should be . Its one encourageing poem we can look at when we lose anything....

If" illustrates the practice of self-confidence and expresses that, in being confident, the reader must have the courage to face unpopularity and disagreement.It helps to find a balance between private ideals and public action, warning against making the machinations of the mind an end in itself. In other words, to be a leader an individual must be able to put private dreams and philosophies to public action.

It tells us how a individual should regard both profit and loss, neither of which is permanent.It shows that model leadership requires action that is based on a worldview that is complex, multifaceted, and ultimately inclusive.

It tells people to work against favoritism and work toward regarding men with equality.By emulating the characteristics of a model leader, an individual can achieve "manhood." That's how all of us should be .

Let it Snow.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 29th 2009 when i woke up this morning and started brushing my teeth ,i heard my hubby shouting.... Ammu .......come fast come and have a look at what happened!!!!!.I was like what,what must have happened so early in the morning....then i came out n he was standing in the balcony next to our living room.

....and i was like WOW!!!!!!! thats so pretty.I was so surprised to see snow all over the trees and from between the branches i could see the lake flowing calmly and two ducks having a nice swim in it....n there was our apt office just near the lake appearing like a small cottage with snow all over it...My idea of a perfect dream home...I was so happy n excited...that i didnt find any words to express it .....but here is how exactly i felt like..... in the word's of Billy Collins


Snow Day by Billy Collins:-

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,

and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,schools
and libraries buried,
the post office lost under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.

In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch,
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea and listen to the plastic radio
on the counter,as glad as anyone to hear the news .

And now I am listening hard in the grandiose silence of the snow.

Thats how exaclty i felt ....

Seeing the snow i became a bit lazy and enjoyed the calmness for sometime,then got romantic heard some good old hindi kishore kumar songs,with a nice cup of masala tea and masala dosa.I know ur mouth is watering as well...

Its nice that once in a while we get to enjoy such beautiful things of nature....forgetting all our worries,responsibilitys.....etc from the regular hustle and bustle of life.The last time i felt such a peace of mind was for fall when we to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for fall....n went to some beautiful spots like Cades Cove,Clingmans Dove,The blue ridge parkway....

They were simply superb...I never get tired going to places like that over and over again....which are very scenic be it the beaches like Bora Bora(Tahithi),Santorini(Greece),Maui(Hawaii),Bahamas etc or the mountains like Smokys or Yellow Stone national parks, or The snow clad Alaska n Swizerland......Of course those are my dream holiday spots

So back to what we were discussing ......this sunday i was so excited to see the snow,that we went to the forest preserve nearby....we took our camera as well....I Fell in love with the nature so much ,that my camera started clicking...CLICK!!!...CLICK!!!!....CLICK!!!!.I am not a professional photographer with the SLR cameras......But i felt like one big photographer with just slim n sleek olympus camera.For more clear photos u can follow this link

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/amukta.ch/MarchSnowfallInChicago?authkey=Gv1sRgCJzz5ML0-Lb_dw#

All the photos are in there original colors,except for one or two which were processed......the moment i stepped out it was all black n white......all the trees appeared black n snow was white.....that must be the reason why people say "As White As Snow"

And so u can see some of my good work in all the above photos .We were walking in this forest preserve in the parking lot taking some photos ....n my hubby pointed his finger towards the trees....n there i could see a family of deer ,i think 4 of them 2 big with beautiful antlers n 2 small ones sitting on the white snow staring towards us.....that was a very good sight ....but i couldnt capture it in my camera as they were too far....n they didnt stay there for long..

So that was One beautiful day in chicago suburbs....wihtout the regular complaints from why its so windy n cold in chicago.....We will surely miss it wherever we might be.