Monday, November 30, 2015

The relaxed mind sings...

Hello beautiful hearts...❤

I have been traveling around my hometown past few weeks.
The temperature has reduced and so has the city noises.
The serenity of the place has brought a peace to me.
As I sit in my balcony sipping my evening tea , I watch the life outside with delight.

I remember the quote from Bollywood song...'mai shayar to nahi, magar aye haseen 
Jabse dekha maine tujhko 
Mujhko shayari a gayi'......translated as I am not a poet, dear beauty
But after seeing you,
Poetry has come to me.....

 My relaxed mind feels as if speaking to me the below lines...


I wish I was a bird 
I would fly so high,
Into the vast blue sky. ⛅
No borders, no visas for me,
I am free I am free.

I wish I was a flower.
And would bloom so wide,
Every morning on the green tile.
For the little girl who sees me
The world would look so right.

I wish I was a star
Which shines so bright so bright
To give the direction sign
For the wanderers of the night.


Do comment if you ever experienced this feeling....and dear friends your suggestions are always welcome.


Monday, August 31, 2015

Sheer Khurma - An Eid delight!



Whenever I hear "Eid Mubarak" I picture the sheerkhurma next and voila, after a little chat with the relatives here it comes. Green, white, brown, saffron all vibrant colors floating around in ivory and oh, the slow but charming fragrance filling my nose, my lungs and my heart. I can feel my tongue salivating already.
I am sure many of you would share this feeling.
Eid and Sheerkhurma have made a bond since traditions especially in Indian muslim houses.
I did not find much ado of it in middle east or the US.
Here like other celebrations, On Eid day, people are welcomed with sweets.

As you know, I am not a fan of sweet products, but i always look forward to this treat.

So wherever I am, I make some of it during Eid. This makes the day complete.

So lets see how we prepare this bowl of goodness...
(You will have to start preparation at least 2 days before the date you want to serve this.)

RECIPE:

You will need:
50 gms almond
80 gms cashews
50 gms pistachio
30 gms charoli/chironji
            Try to get in Indian stores or in the bakala(middle east). In case not available in your location,             you can leave it out.
1/4 tsp saffron
50 gms raisins(must not be sour)
2 litre milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cardomom seeds powder
2 tbsp ghee
1/2 cup vermicelli

Directions:
  1. Soak almond overnight. When soft, drain water. Peel and cut them into thin strips.Spread on a plate and let it dry. almond thin slices
  2. Soak pistachio and cashew for around 3 hours. Peel pistachio. Cut cashew and pistachio into thin strips and spread them till dry.                                                    thin sliced cashewthin sliced pistachio
  3. Soak the charoli/chironji for an hour, then peel them. discard skin. This takes more time because the size is very small. Spread on a surface to dry.In case you do not get charoli, you may skip this or use pine nuts.
  4. Once these dry fruits are dry, we need to roast them.In a pan take 2 tsp of ghee, heat and then add the dry fruits. Keep stirring till a nice aroma is sensed.
  5. Take out on a plate and let it cool. You can make till here few days before and store in air tight container. roasted dry fruits
  6. Heat ghee till it melts in a pot. Add the vermicelli and roast till it is slightly brown. Add raisins.
  7. Add the dry fruits and roast for a minute. You should be able to see that the raisin have blown in size.
  8. Add milk slowly, stirring it along.
  9. Keep stirring till it boils, then reduce flame.
  10. Add sugar, keep stirring. Mix in cardomom powder and saffron.
  11. Boil this till the milk reduces by 1/4th amount.
  12. Serve it in bowls.
sheerkhurma


A tip:
You can even add evaporated milk. If you would want to add condensed milk, be sure to reduce the sugar initially.
If you like a little more flavor and color, Add chopped fresh dates or dry dates powder when you add milk.

So try it and let me know in comments if you liked it. Suggestions are always welcome.


Wednesday, July 29, 2015

When it Rains :-)


Since decades now, I have known how it feels when it rains, but when it drizzled in the dessert land it was a new feeling altogether.
The temperature here is very high(50`s) in summer and very low (5`s) in winter. The arid climate doesn't have a monsoon season in particular. It rains anytime when winter is coming and retreating.
In some way I feel it marks the joy of goodbyes to summer hotness and then the sadness of the departing winter coolness.
The area witnesses showers for only a few minutes, but ironically it sometimes leads to floods on the street(blame the drainage).
Ah, but unlike back home, flood here is just water logging on the streets, there are no children playing in the knee deep waters, no automobiles splashing water on the people walking along the street, no fun!

My heart aches for the rainy season back home. I remember when we were kids, school reopened during the monsoon and in just few weeks everyone would be drawing for the topic 'A rainy day' in their drawing books.Pages painted with grey and dull blue showing a lady in umbrella, raincoat and gumboot clan children being escorted to school, on street children making paper boats and sailing them in the gushing gutters were typical.
And as we grew older we went from playing in puddles to trekking near waterfalls. The rain showers turn everything on land green. Our colleagues and friends would organise treks into nearby mountains. The lush green mountains with springs and waterfalls here and there were so refreshing!

I stand here now in my window, hands outstretched to catch the pouring rain drops. My husband looks at me with a smile and says 'makes me remember my days as a kid when going out in the rain was forbidden'
Ah...I am young again....The rain is still refreshing...the smell of sand still nostalgic...


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Reincarnate that fav purse!


Hello beautiful hearts!

Two weeks back, I realized my favorite wallet needed to be bid goodbye...
Perhaps I have been tagging it along too much with my shopping fetish recently...

All of its other parts, the zip, the lock the inner lining seemed good, but it was its skin that showed all signs of old age :(
Then I though why not give it an age defying act? So I got my paint supplies and started to draft a design I would want on it.

This was my chance of playing a designer....hmmm...this very thought took me time to look for designs.
Then it occurred that the design cannot be anything i want, rather it should be something i can use.

So how did I go
                                    from


                                     to

                                    ????



You will need-

  1. A worn out old wallet or purse.
  2. Acrylic colors.
  3. paintbrush size 4 and 1 and a flat brush.
  4. an old toothbrush or soft grit paper (maybe size 800)
  5. clear varnish(available at a hardware store)
  6. water
  7. bowl
  8. masking tape


What to do-

Rub the outer surface with a grit paper (sand paper) to make it clean, level and little rough. This will make it easier to paint. Brush it with a toothbrush and then clean with a soft damp cloth.

Tape a masking tape on surface where you do not want to paint like zips, metal.
Taping is a good way when you want to do a color block design where you tape one part and paint the remaining, then later with contrast color you paint the part that was taped.

If your purse is a leather or rexine one, then you can use shoe polish to give the first coat.
Let it dry completely before proceeding.
I would suggest you use specific colors available depending n the fabric of the purse, like leather paint for leather fabric etc. This purse was made of some felt type material and so I used acrylic colors.
I have used fevicryl acrylic colors, and acrylic colors work great on most surfaces.

Chose a color you would like to be the background(base color),
Mix it in the ratio 1:1 with water.
Here I chose a Blue shade to give a denim effect.

Using a flat brush paint the entire outer surface of the purse.
Let it dry.
The water in the color will be absorbed by the fabric.

Apply a second coat. Its a good idea to keep bending your purse in between coats to minimize the color cracking.
You will have to apply more coats depending on how the color is absorbed in the material.
Finally apply the solid paint directly.

Now you can paint more designs on it as your wish.

Once it dries, apply a coat of clear warnish. This will secure the paint.

And voila,
   Your purse is reincarnated....



Back

Front








Tuesday, March 31, 2015

China Grass Pudding (Ghaas ka Halwa).

China Grass Pudding or Agar agar pudding (Ghaas ka Halwa) recipe.

Mr. Right has a sweet tooth, and I am not a fan of sugar.
Thus I try to make desserts that are mildly sweet and still give the satisfaction of a yummy sweet dish.
Thus on a day before weekend, I was thinking of a dessert after dinner. We usually like to have some nice slow munches while watching a movie post supper on a weekend night.

I tried to picture the sweet stuff I love and at the very first I saw Ice cream.
I love icecream. What might make this sweet dish so appealing to me? May be that it is chilled..

Sweet and Chilled...Sweet and chilled yes and it would be nice to have an easy one...

So then my mind pictured the China Grass pudding. My mom used to make them, and I would like to eat them...
This is usually a no miss Iftaar dish during Ramadan in many Muslim houses.

So lets get making-


Here is the Recipe..

Ingredients required:

1/2 litre milk (full fat preferred).
1/2 cup agar agar(cut the long stems into small pieces or take 1/3 cup powder).
1 cup water.
4 tbsp sugar.
food color (as per choice).
vanilla essence (or 1 tsp grounded cardamon powder).
chopped dry fruits or saffron.

Directions:
  1. Soak agar agar in 1 cup water for 30 minutes or more.
  2. Start heating the milk till it boils. Add sugar and stir.
  3. Meanwhile in separate pan heat the agar agar with water till it dissolves completely.
  4. When the milk boils add agar agar and keep stirring
  5. Reduce flame to medium. Keep stirring and simmer for 5 min.
  6. Add color and essence.
  7. Remove from flame but keep stirring in intervals.
  8. When it is a lukewarm, take around 12inch pan and pour into it.
  9. Garnish with dry fruits or saffron.
  10. Freeze for 30 minutes or till it is set.
  11. Cut the pudding vertically and horizontally to get square shapes or diagonally for diamond shapes.
  12. Serve chilled and Enjoy.

Small Variation Big Effects:

1.
Instead of essence and color (Step6) we can add Rooh Afza ( a drink concentrate from hamdard) for a nice pink tint and Rose fragnance.
Here you may use any other fruit drink concentrate, but I would say use only the ones which are sweet.
But you can always experiment,better to add the flavor after removing from heat.

2.
Another style i found out that makes it look more presentable and high class is giving it layers....
For this we will need colored gelatin.
I have used Jell-O strawberry flavor.
And to give a contrast, I added green color to my pudding mix.

So here I made the china grass pudding as I normally would.
When I keep it for cooling (step 7), I mixed  a small amount of gelatin as per instruction on the packet i.e. Add boiling water to the gelatin and stir to dissolve. then add cool water.
When lukewarm, I poured this on top of the pudding.(After step 8).
Garnish if you want with dry fruits or leave as it is.



In case you have a fix number of guests coming up, you can set your pudding in small serving bowls and directly place for dessert.

Do let me know in the comments if you tried and liked it. Suggestions are always welcome.


Sunday, March 29, 2015

First One

Hello beautiful hearts  <3
How is the juggling of life going on?
As this is my first blog, formally I should introduce the person typing this right now and this which is being typed right now! Uh? That`s me and my blog!!!!
I am simple, down to earth and often confused person out there. I am no genius and no celebrity at all, I maybe like the next door neighbor, the first bencher at school who moved to the last bench by high school. I may be like any of you who have a beautiful heart ready to be explored. That brings me to the reason I want to blog and reach out to friends.
Friends-a very special relation in each of our lives.
With this blog I hope to share life experiences. I also look at this personal blog as a channel to carry my thoughts out through the locked door...
Have a Good day and God bless:):):)

XOXO