Short break

I am taking a short break yet again. Going down to Pune as we have a celebration !

My Father-in-laws younger brother is celebrating his  75th  birthday  and if that was not enough its their  50th wedding anniversary.

This calls for a grand celebration does it not?

So here is  wishing K.S. Sheela Kaku and Shri Papanna Kaka all the good health and happiness in this world.

With respects,

Paneer, Bottle Gourd and Mint Parathas-Working Lunch Thali

When Valli was floating her idea of Indian Thali Mela I was quiet. 

That is quite unlike me. Usually I like to be in the thick of things if not doing anything else at least making a noise.

You may wonder why I was quiet. Well there is a reason no three reasons

1. Will I be able to cook an entire festive thali all by myself? I do not know why I wanted one festive thali but I wanted it. I still want to make one but

 2. Will I have eaters? For my family is one are very fussy eaters so I did not want my hard work go down the drain.

3. The most important reason is I do not know how to click it. The pictures suck.  

So I decided to let the festival go by. But I hate failures or giving up before I try so I decided to try. I would love to see your comments on improving my pics.

Fennel Seeds ~ Mukhwas

One thing we all have to agree a  meal needs a fitting end.

  What better than Saunf or badishep or Fennel as it is know in Hindi, Marathi and English respectively?

According to Wikipedia,“Fennel is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, but has become widely naturalised in many parts of the world, especially on dry soils near the sea-coast and on riverbanks.

In Greek mythology, Prometheus used the stalk of a fennel plant to steal fire from the gods.
It is a highly aromatic and flavorful herb with culinary and medicinal uses, and, along with the similar-tasting anise, is one of the primary ingredients of absinthe.
Many cultures in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East use fennel seed in their cookery.

Fennel is one of the most important spices in Kashmiri Pandit and Gujarati cooking. It is an essential ingredient of  the  Assamese/Bengali/Oriya spice mixture panch phoron  and in Chinese five-spice powders.

Fennel leaves are used as leafy green vegetables either by themselves or mixed with other vegetables, cooked to be served and consumed as part of a meal, in some parts of India. In Lebanon, it is used to make a special kind of egg omelette (along with onions, and flour) called ijjeh.

 In many parts of India and Pakistan, roasted fennel seeds are consumed as mukhwas, an after-meal digestive and breath freshener. “

Please do check it out here.

This is how we like our mukhwas…

1.     Mix in a kadhai/wok ½ a kilo of fennel seeds with lemon juice, ½ a lemon is just fine, add 1 ½ tsp salt. Mix well.

2.    Taste it. Feel free to add more lemon or salt as you please but remember to mix it well.

3.    Place the kadhai/wok on low flame on the gas and stir. Initially occasionally but once the wok heats up continuously.

4.    Heat till yiu get a nice aroma. Switch off the gas but continue stirring for say 4-5 more minutes.

5.    Cool and transfer to an airtight container.

Sending this to
 SYF & HWS Series-Fennel seeds guest hosted by Kaveri,event by Anu.

Pumpkin Stir Fry

What do you do when you have no veggies but pumpkin?

In my place no one eats pumpkin, especially the red one. I just do not know why. I have tried all sorts of way making this veggie in sambhar, a veggie. No sir… they all turn up their noses at it and the poor gourd has become quite upset.

So coming back to the original question what to cook? I have only pumpkin.

Tinda Stuffed with Paneer and Mint~ Dedicated to Mom

 I decided to make tinda and started to make Tinda Do piyaza that I had seen here.

However as I started long lost memories of how we, that is we siblings, hated this vegetable as kids swamped me. We always fought with my mother when we saw this vegetable. But in the sweltering heat of Nagpur and Akola where we spent our childhood in the summer very few vegetables were available. One was Gola Bhaji and other dhemsa or tinda. Poor mom had nothing to make, she must have been so frustrated…

Whole Wheat and Corn Flour Muffins~ A Blog Hop

Last time I was sure it was my last Blog Hop as I missed the dates.

 I posted on 14^th instead of 11^th lucky for me I just caught the linky. The question that kept on seeping in my thoughts was “Am I still a member of this group.” Can you imagine my happiness when I saw Radhika’s mail informing about my partner for Blog Hop. Thanks Radhika.

For this times Blog Hop I am paired with Priya Srinivasan of Enveetu Kitchen!!

The choice of the recipe was easy as there was a demand for muffins, the chocolate chip ones from the kids. I generally do not want to use refined flour while baking so any recipe that uses whole wheat in muffins and cakes I bookmark. This is one down on my bookmark list but they are so delicious, tasty and soft that I will be making these muffins repeatedly.

Bridal Shower~Water Melon Granita

There are few moments in life that you cherish like the baby’s first smile, first love, when you marry the person you love and respect!  

Every girl dreams of marrying her hero and hand in hand you embark on a new unknown path with dreams in heart and sparkle in the eyes, where nothing else matters but the love for each other.

From the title you all must be aware that I am talking of someone getting married yes. Who is the lovely bride ….but Aarthi of Yummy Tummy; she is marrying the Man of her dreams in the month of the17th of May,2012.

For any celebration friends and relatives gather more so for a wedding. Where there are celebrations, both before and after the wedding there is food.

 Since we cannot be all present for the wedding what do we Foodies do? We cook up a virtual Bridal Shower!!

 Cook what? From where? From Yummy Tummy of course!!

So here is our treat, blessings and good wishes to the Bridal Couple.

Hope you enjoy the party Aarthi.


Here is what we have all cooked up.

So here with Cheers to Aarthi and the Bridal Shower group.

Wish you both a Very Happy Married Life!!

My reading list and my breaks

I have started dreading the months of March, April and May.  I cannot attend to my reader and so my reading list grows so long that I find it a bit of a daunting task looking at the numbers.

As usual I have hit the 5 century mark please folks bear with me. I will get down to reading your posts. I may not be brilliant with my comments  but I am sure you guys will bear with me.

Thanks.