naan

yummy! easy naan

in America as far as i noticed, in restaurant bread menu section naans are pretty much everybody's favorite choice. i never attempt to make them at home, i used to make a lot of excuses saying my self that, i needed a hot tandoor to make or i must be super expert naan maker to make those fluffy flat breads. i was wrong!! and now i know that i don't have to be super expert to make them!! they are so easy!! and yummy!

you need these to make: (makes 10 naans)

11/2 tsp: active yeast

1 tsp: Sugar

1 Cup: warm water

1 tsp: salt

3 cups: All purpose flour (maida)

6 tbsp: oil

3 tbsp: milk or yogurt

1 egg (optional for vegetarians and  substitute with 3 tbsp yogurt)

butter to rub on cooked naans.

• in  warm water  add yeast and sugar stir and keep it aside for 10 minutes.

• add the rest of the ingredients to warm yeast water and mix well keep on kneading for 5 minutes. it becomes so sticky while you are needing but that's OK! put the dough in a well oil coated bowl, cover it with a cloth or plastic wrap and keep it aside for 2 hours.
• before you start cooking naans, get your oven ready adjusting one rack to top position and set the oven broiler in height mode.

• the dough rise up, push it down and knead for 2 more minutes, divide the dough to desired size balls and roll them any shape you want. (round, triangle, oval, bunny, star, what not ;) don't make them too thin, if the dough is sticky use all purpose flour.

• most of us don't have the tandoor's at home which traditionally use to make these delicacies. tandoor ovens are very hot more than 600 or higher degrees, even though we don't provide that much heat, our kitchen broilers do pretty good job, put 1-2 naans on non-stick baking pan and cook them but watch carefully since you turn on the broiler before you start rolling naans, by the time you put the naans in the oven it is hot and they cook fast and burn easily. it takes approx 1-2 minuets on one side and flip it over to cook the other side not more than 30 sec. butter the naan generously on both sides and repeat the same to the rest of the naans.
• if you don't have the oven or don't want to use oven, stove top works perfectly fine too. butter both sides of the naan and fry them on the pan until golden brown color. 
• serve them warm.

if you have left over dough cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge up to a week, the dough still rises in the fridge and naans came out pretty good, even though i cook them with week old dough from fridge!

caution: very addictive and irresistible (sorry! dieters :)

 

soaps.......soaps.....soaps

People around me always compliment me that i smell really good, that credit totally goes to the soaps and body washes i use. one day my son returned from pre-school and came to hug me he is kinda grumpy from nap on the way home and my smell hit him so hard and he become alert and said "Amma! you smell yummy"!! that's the power of the soaps i use;) i collect them! (i know i know they are just soaps) i love to give them as a gift, and receive as a gift.

                                    I got this cutie from my hubby two days back from his sin city trip

i bought the deep memories of fragrances of flowers and fondness of such smells along with me from India.  most of the places in India, woman plant  jasmine shrub in their backyard. summer jasmines are most memorable fragrances of mine. i never wear them like most Indian women wear in their head, but i still remember the summer evening breeze brings the fragrance of these delicate white blooms. Jasmine in Cleveland weather! no way! so i substitute it with body wash:)  

Lavender, jasmine, cherry blossom are the ultimate favorites of mine.

I keep an eye on THISE particular shop that i shop very often to steal their deals.

 I love good design, contemporary package with old fashion fragrances, so all in all i liked bath&body works and TJMaxx shops for best of the best body washes  with out  breaking my bank. tjmaxx offers cool luxury stuff around the world  to spoil your self. but offer is limited and you may not get same thing again so buy and keep when you find the one you like. 
 

                                                     soap petals for bathtub luxury or what!!

                                                                       Oh! my my 

                                      soap monkeys for bath room decor, also great gift item


Image source: petals, heart, monkeys, body wash

Funny Egg Art

Oh boy! those eggs are so adorable. look at what they did with simple every day stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

            hopefully from now on a smile or a chuckle appears on your face,
                               when ever you see an egg ;)
source: go

that's how a pumpkin grows

That's How A Pumpkin Grows from fashionbuddha on Vimeo.

kids are much smarter than parents, now a days, i don't have any doubt about it, their imaginations are much visual than ours. My daughters reaction about her brother is "how come he knows that already"? if she feels that way just being 7years apart, imagine how i feel being 27years apart from him. Since Christmas  he is in to songs and singing loudly around the house and having fun singing. so i am searching catchy songs for him and i love this one!

Take time to relax :)

 Among the many forms in which human spirit has tried to express its innermost yearnings and perceptions, music is perhaps the most universal.

It symbolizes the yearning for harmony, with oneself and others, with nature and the spiritual and the sacred within us and around us.
There is something in music that transcends and unites. This is evident in the sacred music of every community - music that expresses the universal yearning that is shared by people all over the globe. 

                                                               -Dalai Lama

just for 9:38 minutes close your eyes or look at the nature and try to relax

vinyl stickers

vinyl stickers for design and art lovers
                        smart and funny, you could show off to
your friends and family.....also scare them too;)

                                                              For living room

    for bedroom or any door

                                                      i love this one hahaahah!

bathroom spy! any body would scare to death with this, but, so good!

Next to door, before leaving checklist

well i want some of those or i put it in my wish list. if you want to visit here you go!

all images source are  from Hu2

kudos for creativity

Super imagination and colorful thoughts, putting them in illustration, print, photos, on and on. i can daydream but i cannot put my imagination like these creators do so let's just enjoy there work and appreciate it. i indubitably do that :) that's a fancy mouthful word, but I'll use it anyway;) say this tongue twister, indubitableness. English is my second language and some words are tongue twisting for me and so funny.

oh! boy! watch out for the point!

that poor mommy is me :(

illustrator captioned it as "spying on your neighbors" but, watching Mrs woo across the street, counts??

                                  source all above: aaron

go your own road 

source: here 

                               i definitely need one
                                           source: here

funny print advertisements below:

he is using bose noise reduction head phones!!

source: here

  source: here

have you notice something that dog is showing ;)
source: here

children's book

OK! if you are from India and living abroad and you have children and trying to introduce indian gods and semi gods to your kids, you are in the right place and this is my shopping find for your kids. I bought this book about 4 years back to my daughter, since then she, now my son are crazy about it, they have their  fair portion of quarrel to share that book. I think that's the only caution i have to give before you buy this cute, i mean perky book of Hindu mythology. i am so excited to share this with you!!

look at his eyes hahahahah!! so cute :)

If you are not a Hindu and wanted to introduce world mythology to your kids or yourself this is so funny, adorable, colorful, enthusiastic book you ever read. (if you are the first timer to Hindu gods, they are pretty confusing to track :) because there are soooo many of them) parents of Hindu culture around the world finding hard explaining to kids and telling the stories of mythology because children are attracted to cartoons faster than our boring storytelling and scolding once in a while if they are not paying attention. I bet a lot of parents like me wanted a fun way to accomplish that and sanjay patel  put brilliant effort and we have to thank him while kids enjoying this book. (notice artist's eyes and Ganesha's eyes in the bottom :))

                                        if you want to buy this book

i think a lot of orthodox crowd already bugging him about the cartooning the gods and the take it easy language he used but they should know one thing his effort for our kids is priceless and according to his web site he never even been in India and he created a book this good, as a gift for us, isn't it more than enough. there is one more gift from him that is free;) is desktop images of Ganesha and Kali and they are so adorable.

photo source : gheehappy

weekend movie

I am a proud member of Netflix .... it's a window for me, to watch movies around the world and learn different cultures and life styles. Huge collection of 'instant play' section, so no waiting for the movie in the mail box, you don't even have to go out to get the DVD from mail box Super Huh! i know :)(who ever live in Cleveland they understand my winter blues) Friday night is our family movie night, four of us watch movie together, kids turn first and then us as a couple, before bed time and any thing interesting in netflix ( this is the plan but in reality we always don't end up watching couple movie though. we end up sleeping at the end of the kids movie). He watch movies for fun and i watch with passion as usual. my selections are kinda boring for him.

this weekend I watched Brick lane. based on Monica Ali's novel. i did not read the book, not yet, may be someday...books and movies are two different media and i decided to follow only one if the content is same. i read Namesake and i adore that book, but i don't like the movie may be because i am comparing too much with the book. so i decided choose only one, book or movie.

Immigrants are full of emotions, memories of birth place haunt you, literally haunt,  whispers of the childhood, struggle of fitting in new place, and you are the one and the only one relate to it, very personal  from person to person.

when i read the review of this movie, i thought Oh! one more movie on immigration and what's the difference they are going to show us, but from start to end it surprised me and i loved the movie. simply wonderful, heart warming and cerebral. It was a personal journey about human beings. every immigrant asks at least once themselves "where is my real home"? i personally feel home is where you found your freedom and awareness. Tannishtha Chatterjee is so talented and Sarah Gavron did a fabulous job.

pesarapappu kobbari boorelu

This is my moms recipe. there are variety of fillings for boorelu. chanadal with jaggery is most popular in south India.  we call it poornam boorelu. i am not crazy about desserts but one thing i used to savor is coconut burfi (kobbari lauju). i am an island girl not like Elton john's though :) so, coconut is our most beloved ingredient in cooking and always accessible in our backyard, don't forget the front yard and also both sides of the house and as far as your naked eye could see in any direction, may be that is the reason our region started making boorelu with coconut filling. chanadal plus jaggery  and moongdal plus sugar these combination's goes really well and on top of that  you add coconut to it, so no wonder the taste is so distinctive. For festivals, early morning ritual for youngsters as a household help is breaking coconut, grate it, sipping coconut water while doing it ;) is a vivid memory of mine. 

                                                 pesarapappu kobbari boorelu

Ingredients:

pesarapappu: 3cups (split moong dal - skinless)

coconut: 2cups (grated)

Sugar:31/2 cups (if you are freakish about desserts add 1/2 cup more:))

elaichi: 1Tbsp (cardamom)

minapa pappu: 2 cups (whole urad dal-skinless)

rice: 2/4 cup 

oil: to deep fry

about 4 hours before you are planning to cook this recipe soak pesarapappu in one bowl, minapa pappu and rice together in other bowl.

Make moong dal paste and steam cook it. i used idli molds but you can use anything. what you have to accomplish here is steam cook the moong dal batter.

while it is steaming slightly brown shredded coconut.

["My mom shared a story with me when she visited me last time, that she used to hate this process of shredding those steamed pesara pappu idlies with her fingers, (they are kinda hard, you'll see) at the end of the process her fingers get sore and eventually she started hating these boorelu all together.  the mornings are full of activity in the village kitchen and every body is waiting not only the kids and men in the household but a lot of other responsibilities lie there in the morning, she probably wished for a tool that works faster. when i took the food processor out that day she is soooo emotionally happy. no wonder we are so emotionally attached to our kitchen gadgets."  after that story i started appreciating my gadgets more.]

 

Full of gratitude, use your wonder food processor and shred the pesarapappu idlies to tiny pieces. 

add sugar and water in the pan and let it boil until it reaches the one string consistency, that means press a drop of syrup between your index finger and thumb and release the index finger slowly syrup should form a string.

 

add sugar syrup,slightly browned coconut, elaichi, and mix well. sugar syrup absorbs in to shredded idlies in 10 minutes. while it is in that process, grind the minappa pappu and rice in to dosa batter consistency. 

make lemon size balls with pesarapappu, sugar syrup, coconut mixer.

      you could eat them just like this too :)

dunk these in mina papappu batter and deep fry in very hot oil. boorelu should be under the oil when they are cooking so the batter clasp the filling. so, be generous with oil.

and they make approx 50 boorelu.

before you are serving make a hole in the middle with the thumb and pour the warm ghee. 

Try and enjoy!

by the way

Happy Makara Sankranti

restlessness

 "Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide."  -- Buddha

 

While i am growing up every body used to give me suggestion that i must seek a Guru (a spiritual teacher). Yep! you guessed right, I am a very restless person inside and out. impressing me is not that easy. In India people prefer Guru for personal growth and strongly believes that every body should have a spiritual teacher. Finding Guru is the first and very critical step to personal growth. it's like planting a seed for self awareness.

A lot of people in India and around the world just take advantage and act like spiritual teachers to cash the people beliefs and very few makes you feel like you found one. it depends on what you are seeking for and how happy you feel after you get the answers or results. after all the end result matters most.

some of them are respectful and some you never know what's going on behind those closed ashram doors. some of them are plain cheaters. just like good counseling and bad counseling in western world.

I heard plenty of stories about these so- called guru's cheating scandals all my life, so i never liked the idea of orange robed, long beard, long haired person who is surrounded by thousands of hypnotized people calling him god.  i hated their cheap tricks and long speeches which never make sense at all. humbug.

A lot of intelligent and philosophical and highly respectable saints also there, but the problem is i am not too dumb or enough smart to understand their standards. i am also not looking forward any debate or anything like that with them anyway. i need results not lectures. not at this age by the way. understanding somebody's point of view and applying in our chaotic life style, is not that easy, it's a life long practice, but i want results now, so i can enjoy life NOW.

Having a husband and two kids my restlessness went to peak, my need to seek a guru is not others priority but become a mandatory, and migration from India to America makes it as emotional restlessness, so friends and family started begging to their knees and also my husbands pitiful face, my kids pity on me makes me look in to myself and realize that i have no choice but find the Guru that close to my criteria.

i take initiative and prepare a list:

• please! i don't like speeches.
• Don't create anything  from thin air, the holy ashes, holy water or Sindoor for my restless married forehead.
• Answers must be in plain understandable language to my restless, mindless questions, no gibberish or philosophical show off.  
• i read all the books on self help so don't tell me i need to calm down, show me how!!
• i am not following where ever you go (guru chasing what they call, following where ever he go, they go) i have a life and especially kids, so make my life much easier with easy tools to practice at home.
• i don't want to sit in the middle of hundreds of people chanting something which is not helping my restlessness but makes it even worse.
• It suppose to get rid of my mind chatter, even though i don't want to practice at home or i just give 10 minutes per day.

did i find any, Yes! after reading books and literature finally i trust one and put the time aside and took a class, that's a huge step for me, and now, i am still restless but with awareness. yes! you read right! i am still restless but i know why i am restless, i know how to control and be patience with awareness, and filtering all the chatter in my mind as good and bad. 
read this art of living 

                                                

                                                            Try this sudarshan kriya

(image:art of living)

cute bags for kids

i always look for adorable stuff and also affordable for gifts. when i stumble to this page i was so in love with those bags. aren't they cute :).. perfect find for grand parents and aunts to spoil there loved ones.

 

skip hop

ambience of life