Fever is catching up..winter olympic fever that is. Friday Feb 12, 7 EST is the opening. And we are hosting this year….with glowing hearts indeed!

 And we are aiming for lot of Gold medals; actually want to come first in the medal tally. We did lot of preparation, yes everybody else did too. But there is nothing like winning it all on home ground. Last 2 times we hosted (1976 and 1988) we did not do that well. So what, 3^rd time is charm.

 Winter Olympics will be followed by Paralympic. The expectations are pretty high there too.

 So this Friday, it is all Red and white for us. Go Canada Go!

Here is a chance to star in your own personalized romantic novel in any setting you want.

 Choose the theme and fill in 26 personal details about the staring couple. The customized novel will be available online or get delivered to you paper back.

 This is what they say , in brief:

yournovel.com inc. is the brainchild of husband/wife writing team Kathy M. Newbern and J.S. Fletcher, who write together as Fletcher Newbern. They not only developed the concept and founded the company in 1992, but have written 18 of the 25 current novels available.

When not writing romance, they work as travel writers and have visited many of the exotic locations that are the settings for their personalized romance novels.

 Cool eh!

 Any takers?.    http://www.yournovel.com

incase you did not know, indian patriotic song Mile Sur mera tumara  has been revisited and re made and released on 26th Jan on ZOOM channel. here is a dekho.

I could not find the full 16mts video in youtube.  Times of india has the full song here : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/5502160.cms

getting nostalgic?, here is the original

enjoy!

[I like Rachel Ray’s 30minutes cooking-quick and easy yet mostly mostly healthy, take help from store bought items etc. Next time if anyone wants to buy me a gift, buy this book (see I am not just giving out recipes, even gift ideas for me- c’mon have some modesty  Mia!!)]

 I like Cabbage, but the very thought of washing fine chopping it puts me off. Then I found this one salad aisle in grocery shop. A pack of  ‘ Coleslaw salad mix’ – has green cabbage, red cabbage, carrots etc.

 -          in a kadai, 1 tsp oil. Sputter mustard seeds.

-          Add ½ chopped onion or few shopped shallots

-          Add Curry leaves few if you have

-          Add chopped green chilly for  heat

-          Add ½ inch chopped ginger root

-          When the onion is getting transparent, add ½ tsp turmeric powder.

-          Mix well. Now add the coleslaw mix ( if you fine some big pieces in the pack, take it and chop it and of course add to kadai)

-          Add salt to taste.

-          Mix well. Make like a heap with the spoon. Keep it in medium heat with lid closed till when its own steam started coming from it.( in about 2 -3  mts)

-          Turn the heat off. Keep it like that for another 4-5 mts. Mix it well and serve.

-          I don’t like it over cooked, like it little crunchy.

 Voila..Cabbage thoran ready. You could add grated coconut if you like to the mix.

 Oh..I am so tired of chopping all that cabbageJ

An old gem! hope you like it.

Have  a wonderful day!

Recently, in an email exchange I came to know the real name of a regular here. I love her beautiful name and said so in the response. To which she said, she  did not know my real name until recently and hold your breath readers this is the best part- she said “I think there is a certain oomph in it (my name)that is unexplicable”. (I felt like Bipasha Basu for a second). She added “this is not to return compliments”.

 Then I told her of my dilemma and Like to blog about it. She seems to have it too and said ‘I totally hear you on compliments – how do you figure out it is genuine as opposed to lip-service.  Please do write about it, would love to see what the regulars think of it.”

 When someone compliment you or about something 1) how do you genuinely return the compliment 2) how do you the response is honest?

[in the above conversation we knew we were being honest]

 The other day, one of my son’s good friend’s mother told me that what wonderful and caring kid he is. Her daughter talks lot about him at home. It is true for her daughter too. She is one of the cutest; and very well mannered child. My son talks about the things she teaches him. I did want to say that to the mother in return and said something in that effect. But I was not sure she felt that I was not just returning the compliment.  This is one another common example apart from the name mentioned first.

 So when someone tells you that you have a nice name and you think the same of their name, how do you say it?

 And same about your kids?

Please share and enlighten us!

 ** for the mallus- it is Malayalam movie song of Jayaram that goes  ‘confusion theerkaname, ente confusion theerkaname

I loved Christmas as a kid, I still do although the celebrations look little different.

 As a kid, there were no presents exchanged (no shopping stress and stress of whether the presents will be liked) and santa who?. Preparation was very spiritual. Most of us went vegetarian for 24 days. we tried to go to church for 6.30am mass all 24 days leading to Christmas. Church was almost 3kms away, of course walking ( I mean running); come back and go to school another few kms walking( see we are all in good shape those days..haha). We made jewelry for baby Jesus by doing good deeds e.g. helping a friend in study would earn a bead for HIS bracelet. A blanket for HIM was really hard to earn (needed whole lot of good deeds). We all kept account of what we made for Jesus. We competed to give the best gifts to Jesus (some we manipulated). Making Nativity scene at home was the main activity on Christmas day. Architects, engineers and interior designers within us put our best towards that. A stable was made with all raw materials found easily in rural environment. In the night a group from church came to each home (not just Christian houses, no one was excluded) singing carols and carrying baby Jesus. They will keep Jesus in the stable. Most houses will treat them with sweet black kaapi and treats.

 Things are little different now. Apparently my kids tried to make some presents for Baby Jesus (I totally lacked in this) by doing good things and being nice. However, anticipation for santa was killing them..almost.; what if he can’t make it in time here after delivering presents to kids in India, what if Rudolph gets tired? and our house has no chimney, how is he going to get inside?(yeah, ofcourse mama said he has a magic key for our house and he will sure manage).Wish list is changing day by day, what is he did not get the last requested item.

 Santa is the action hero; people get so stressed out. But I like the decorated malls, carols playing everywhere( I missed all that when I was in India for one Christmastime- though mommy made sure that we don’t miss santa by she dressing up as one(well, she is one of a kind anyway).

Of all, then or now I feel good in celebrating the most important birthday in the year- that of Baby Jesus.

We de-decorated the house after Christmas ( except outdoor lights- Our daughter made a deal with dad that he will keep the lights for her birthday which comes after Baby Jesus’s Birthday). So this post is actually clearing black log.

 Putting up the Christmas tree in the first weekend of December is a tradition we started. We (read I) always decide a color combo (did blue and silver in the year son was born, pink and gold in the year my little girl was born) and start the decoration with the tree and take it to the rest of the house. I do it in the night when the rest of them sleep away and they wake up to a decorated house.

 This year was different.  My decision for Blue was vetoed by son and wants to keep gold as the main color; the ornaments could be any color he said and started decorating. All I did was the lights and the star on the top. Rest was done by the kids. It was unlike any other year’s tree, but I loved it. Bottom part was crowded with ornaments and top till where they could reach from a chair.

 Eventually we added lot of handmade ornaments – from an arts workshop in our library where the kids get to decorate baked ornaments, decorate the library tree and get to take some home too.

 We always have the Nativity scene also near the tree on a stool. The arrangement was also son’s- where the angel should stand, which sheep should be closer to baby Jesus.

 My daughter dutifully turned on the tree lights after washing her hands coming back from school. She would get worried that baby Jesus has no light. Innocence of kids are so much that occasionally she would keep some small books on the stool and tell baby Jesus to read, if he wants to( or ask mother Mary to read it for you). She wanted to make sure Baby Jesus is as comfortable as can be.

 We went for night mass on Christmas eve. Choir was superb. Air was crisp, dusting of fresh snow on the ground, I could see angels in the heavens..almost. Told Jesus to take care of one and all. Santa had left gifts for all of us by the time we came back.

 In all, our family had a wonderful wonderful meaningful Christmas. Hope yours was good too. God Bless.

He used to do jigsaw puzzles before with my help. Recently I got him TMNT 100pcs puzzle. He totally surprised me by doing it all by him in short time. From then on, pretty much every evening he does it all over again. Interestingly, I love the way he approach the puzzle – make the 4 sides and work his way inside ; unlike me , I go from one end other left to right. He is asking for more. I think it is fair and I should get him. It is not expensive at all.

 Now, madam has to match brother’s steps. Every time brother is working on TMNT puzzle, she is on Dora the explorer 24pcs puzzle. She is doing pretty good; now looking for Boots feet piece and Benny’s head piece. And the nicest brother he is, he gives her lot of tips to forge ahead.

 I know what I am getting for the family this Christmas holidays. One big puzzle with lots of sky and sea pcs. We probably will do it right in our living room floor.

This one has no story; reminds me of no one. But if you make it probably it will remind you of me, the survivor cook( may be leave this part- you may not want to make this again for the fear of my face coming flashing in front of you).

  There is no real recipe for it- you need- frozen mixed vegetable with peas, carrots, corn, cut green beans etc  (1packet-), OG2( onion and  ginger garlic paste), 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, cut potatoes, broccoli, mushroom ,tomatoes (optional- I do it when I have time to cut these)

-          In a sauce pan Sauté chopped onion, green chillies (if you need). Add ginger garlic paste.

-          Add Frozen mixed vegetable – frozen vegetable section in the grocery store

-          Mix it well. Add water just enough to cover the vegetables. Add optional veggies. Cover with the lid on till vegetables are cooked. Add in soup to it and mix well. Turn off the heat

 It has the consistency of chilli. And if anyone want to add any meat to it go for it – add browned minced meat, cooked shredded chicken etc. But I like it just the veggies.

 Yup! I take it for lunch, just by itself