A Few Awards and a Tag...

My lovely blogger buddies have always supported my place with blog awards, which I'd never missed out on.I believe I 'd not failed to acknowledge each and every one of my friends for their loving gestures. :).

No words to Thank all of you for all the Love, Care and Concern!..:)

Accepting the Lovely Awards received lately.



Thank you Ammu, Kitchen Queen and Suma..:)

The rules are:

Put the logo on your blog or post.
Nominate at least 7 blogs
Let them know that they have received this Scrumptious award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.








Thank you Lissie and Mythreyi and Suma.. :)

The Kreativ Blogger award comes with some rules:-

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

...here goes the 7 facts about myself..:)

• Loving and caring.
  
  
• Easygoing and friendly.
  
  
• Possess a great passion towards Art.
  
  
• Short tempered and impatient(working hard on it ;))
  
  
• When it comes to unpleasant experiences I never take up anything "to the heart"and am forgiving and forgetful and try my best to compromise.
  
  
• The few things with which I cannot live are: Mom's place in Kerala, dear and near, internet access ;) and personal freedom along with the usual stuff..food.. water..clothing..shelter..oxygen etc..;)
  
  
• Lazy and a bad cook..yes, I mean it :)!!..
  

The long pending award from Swapna, Renuka, Lena, Suma and Prajusha :)..excuse me girls, for this late pick up.. :)..

I am passing this to the budding blogger, Shalini :)




and I'd been tagged and awarded by this lovely girl :)


1. What is your current obsession?

Chatting/(fun) fighting with my childhood/school/college pals.

2. What are you wearing today?

Printed Cotton Saree.

3. What’s for dinner?

Sorry!...Dining out ;) (with my sisters-brothers in law, their families).

4. What’s the last thing you bought?

Healthy/organic and edible goodies from this lady's ;) shop, Eat to Live which got inaugurated day before yesterday.

5. What are you listening to right now?

The office girl's 'heated up' conversation on phone ;) with her colleague, going louder than the lovely guitar riffs of Hotel California melting down my ears through the head phones.. :)

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?

A pretty, friendly, loving and an enthusiastic girl.A Great Cook for sure!..:)

7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?

Luxury brings comfort but not happiness. So I would choose to be in any place where I can be calm and peaceful.

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?

Loose fitting cotton clothes. Sunglasses for long travel.

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

To Bali ;) where WE would love to FREAK around.Minus THs and my children of course... ;)..

10. Which language do you want to learn?

Telugu(script).

11. What’s your favourite quote?

Minds are like parachutes.They function only when they are open.Sir James Dewar

12. Who do you want to meet right now?

Arthy, my long lost second cousin(I get to chat/mail every week but haven't met her ever since our childhood days).

13. What is your favourite colour?

Nothing in specific.Love all lighter shades.Black, when it comes to cars/gadgets.

14. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?

The Salwar which I got designed, personally.

15. What is your dream job?

A smart IT Pro.(..you asked "dream", right?) :)..

16. What’s your favourite magazine?

Any magazine that provides interesting stuff for a long and tiring journey.

17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?

Would spend it for my husband and children(could readily answer this as I have my life's very first earning in my hand bag right now) ;)..Thanks to Food buzz team..

18. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?

Any attire/accessory which doesn't really suit the person.

19. Who are your style icons?

..hmm..sorry!..None !..

20. Describe your personal style.?

Very casual at home.Would dress that would suit the occasion.Love ethnic stuff, prefer 'comfort-clothes' rather than fashionable ones.

21. What are you going to do after this?

Hoping to click the Orange button right down which reads "Publish Post" ;)

22. What are your favourite movies?

Nandanam, Nayakan,...is all what I can think of now..

24. What are three cosmetic/makeup/perfume products that you can't live without?

Eyeliner, henna, mild n pink lip stick.

23. What inspires you?

Beauty of Heart.

24. Give us three styling tips that always work for you:

Decent clothes, matching jewellery, simple make up.

25. What do you do when you “have nothing to wear” (even though your closet’s packed)?

This happened once while V n me were about to leave for an evening function.Got frustrated all of a sudden with the closet wide open ;) and dropped the idea to go out.. ;)..

26. Coffee or tea?

Plain/black Coffee in the mornings and tea in the evenings.

27. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?

Listen to some soothing music and sleep for longer hours.

28. What is the meaning of your name?

Bharathy-Goddess Saraswathi.

29. Which other blogs you love visiting?

Love all, for sure!!..

30. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?

Caramel custard.

31. Favourite Ornaments. ... (replacing with the question...)
Favourite food

Anything edible and NOT vegetarian ;)..

32.Question invented-In fact this happens to me lately with blogging, how about you?.. how do you solve ?
"I have an ocean of photos, an encyclopedia's worth of recipes, but nothing flows out from my head, when it comes to rants".

**The rules of the Tag are : Respond and rework – answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, and add one more question of your own. Then tag eight or ten other people.



I would like to nominate the Kreative and Scrumptious, One Lovely Blog awards to my following blogger friends..and tag them..;-)

• Renuka

• Swapna

• Prajusha

• Lena

• Nags

• Lavi

• Ammu
  

Read More »

Tweet

'5 Qs' and a 'Fridge Display'..

I have been tagged for '5Qs' by the mom and for the 'Fridge Display' by the daughter.

I enjoyed doing them.The 5 Qs, where one has to answer to the questions without much breaking of the head, and for the 'fridge', to take photographs part by part and to rant about....Thank you ladies..:)

The 5 Qs

1.How long have you been blogging?

From the month of March 2007.This Food blog was started after a month and is now 8 months old.

2. What inspired you to blog and who are your mentors?

My sister who works with Google was the inspiration.
I started a generalised blog to share the day to day happenings and a few recipes.My sister(she’d started her food blog only after mine) wanted me to start a specialised food blog and gave this great girl’s link for an idea of what a real food blog was.That was when she and her friend, together came forward with a wonderful idea to put a start to this.
R.P had encouraged me immensely, even when I was new to blogging and the portal had inspired me to come forward with the present blog.All my post-links pertaining Kerala Cuisine strictly goes to this portal too.

3.Are you trying to make money online or doing it just for fun?

More than cooking I love photography and presentation.So all these are a part of my hobbies.
Blogging is a terrific ‘outlet’ for me and all of my friends I had earned, make my days more meaningful and pleasant!..
After my sister’s advice I did have ideas of making money, but dropped them for the time being.

4.What are the three things you love about being online?

1. As soon as I connect to the net I login G-talk to pester my sister, busy in her office.I truly 'nag' her and am seriously thinking of getting myself, her net-name “Nags”..:)

2. Simultaneously I watch out for the pop-up comments in G-talk and reach out hungrily to my blog for those precious comments from my dear readers.I blog hop, go through my friends’ new posts and give them my feed backs.

3. Ever since this food blogging I am in constant quest for recipes.I enjoy going through the varied tastes of the world, googling and just gaping at the monitor :).

5.What are the three things you struggle with online?

Blogging keeps my body glued on to the chair, fingers to the keyboard, and the eyes to the monitor, a little too much.Meanwhile I seldom share the system with others in the family.I neither or unwillingly attend any phone calls or doorbells.Many a times I had to confront burnt milk pans and kadais as the after effect(minor kitchen disasters) while trying to multitask.:)..

Therefore; Addiction, Selfishness and Negligence are the 3, I struggle online :).


Now for the Fridge Display..

I was too lazy to clean or organise the fridge before taking the pictures and below are a few of those random shots..A fridge to me is an 'organised store room' and need not be always spic and span ;)..after all it has to be functional and the accessability of the materials are much more important..:) ..


The freezer chest..

On the top left are the ice trays, the palm molasses(panai vellam) for my plain coffee to start the day,the Tupperware container which Lathamma had sent over and wanted me to use it to collect cream,raw peanuts and frozen peas.

The bottom rack is for those store bought powders.You can see masala powders,Ada (for prathaman) Badam milk mix and processed cheese.On the extreme right is a small jar containing sundried Raw rice tablets(pacharisi villai).I dilute one of these with water and use for maa kolam for my Pooja Room.(I use the place for preserving grated coconuts, homemade butter and cooked left over dal as well).

The main racks..

The top one with boiled milk in that pan, left over curries and Thirupathi ladoo on the right.
The middle one has a pan of homemade tea cake,which I made yesterday after lots of pushes from my kids and tucked in lazily to get rid of the ants outside.Chocolates beside.
The bottom most is reserved for Idly/Dosa batter, in 3 different containers.


The 'Veg Box' is refreshed every week and invariably has all the vegetables I need in stock, each wrapped up in different polythene bags. Stays fresh for even 2 weeks, in our Indian weather conditions!!..

The 'Mighty' Door..

The white box with peeled small onions, sliced big onions, Ginger on one side.Mango Ginger/Maa inji on top, lime tomatoes and chillies.This unusually placed'vegetable counter' is for the easy access while in emergency cooking.
Ready made soup packets(vanilla essence bottles, kesari colour and active dry yeast are hiding behind).Cashew nuts, Almonds and Walnuts in the next one.
Juices, home made pickles, sauces, pizza toppings and jams.
Chilled water at the bottom most, as you can see.

[Phew!..I could have better unloaded a few, so as to minimize typing :)!..]


Somehow, these magnets on one side of the fridge catch the attention of most my guests; each one commemorating our sweetest foreign trips..:)

I tag Renuka, Remya and my sister for 5 Qs and Fridge Displays. ;)

Read More »

Tweet

Fantastic Four Meme...

The Yum girl, Lakshmi, has tagged me for a Fantastic Four Meme.Thank you Lakshmi.

I prefer posting the memes separately without the recipes, attached.

(Whispering the reality- Simply can't overcome the recent laziness to blog recipes) :)

So please bear with me to come up with "a recipe less Meme".


Here Goes:

4 Places I've lived

• Alappuzha (Kerala, India)-infancy,
  
• Kottayam (Kerala, India)-childhood till marriage,
  
• Thanjavur(T.N, India)-After Marriage,
  
• Now residing in a town of T.N- Totally Nailed-Settled for the rest of my life.

4 Jobs I've had

Ambitions- Reality

• Pursue education- Sacred Knot
  
• Specialisation-Nutrition & Dietetics- Jr Chef
  
• PhD Nutrition & Dietetics- Sr Chef
  
• A decent job outside India-Mom of 2 ; a complete housewife.

4 Favourite places I've holidayed

• Swiss-Grindelwald and Lucern in particular.I believe Swiss is heaven on earth.



• London- the architectural beauty and elevation of its historical buildings, the charming and the friendly English.



• Venice-the beautiful water body linking almost every where, the Gondolas, reminds me of "Vallam" and my ancestral Alappuzha(the Venice of the East).



• U.S-Florida-the ultimate Disney world, magical Newyork, Las vegas for gambling and Buffalo for the mystique Niagara.

4 Favourite foods

Have a broader outlook here, as brought up in such a way, "not to ignore any food"..

To quote 4..

• Anything related to "Kerala Cuisine"-Kappa puzhukku and meen mulaku arachathu topping the list.
  
• Amma's and Granny's-Anything they cook(chocolate cake and vattipulusu to mention respectively ).
  
• Kothamalli Thuvaiyal- by my ma in law...and only hers.
  
• Ammayi's(her mom's) cooking-She had been my teacher for cooking..as V had been brought up by her food tastes!.
  

4 Favourite places I'd rather be

• A couple of days relaxing in a slowly drifting House boat in Kumarakom which stops now and then to load the fresh catches of Pearl spots and baby mussels and getting cooked hot in the house boat kitchen, and me nibbling karimeen pollichathu, kakkayirachi ularthiyathu.. with a cool can of coke.
  V and kids can very well join in, if they can tolerate the stink aroma :D..
  
• Can spend even hours gazing at the crystal clear snow fed river flowing down up from the mountains amidst the fragrant flowers, the smell of the fresh green grass..deeply inhaling the fresh air.
  
• My bed room cum home theatre, watching my favourite movie(uninterrupted till finish),with surround sound speaker effects,..V and kids can join, as long as they don't bother me .. :D..
  
• Parents' place in Good old Kottayam..receiving pampers..eating all the favourites..with siblings..where I can be as I am..:)..of course back to V, with extra pounds.. :)..

4 Bloggers I like to tag

• Remya
  
  
• Sirisha
  
  
• Sona
  
  
• Roopa

Read More »

Tweet

A Mid name Meme..

This had been a pending post since I had been asked to do a 'Middle name Meme' by the cute Sirisha and the sweet Zlamushka!.Sorry to keep you waiting, girls.

Posting right away with not much of mental preparation or attatching the Meme with a recipe post.

Here are the rules:

* Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
* When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
* At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
* Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged.

I do not have a Middle name and I would like to choose SRI.The reason being this is the first part of my man's pet name and that the word denotes prosperity and wealth..:)

S- Sincere..I like to be a sincere person.Whether the task is light or not,I do it in a sincere way. Sweet-Love sweets and love to be sweet.Self Confidence-I lack this a little too much.Mainly when it comes to responsibilities and leadership, I move behind getting tensed up for the same ..in other word Procrastination!.

R- Rhythm,Raaga is all what rushes by.A Lover of Music, Eastern or Western.I start comparing the melodies associating them with raagas.Anandabhairavi, Hamsadhwani, Sahana, Sindhu bhairavi are my favourite few.Love Roses.

I- Innocence- I love innocence..of a baby or even this sweet quality if resting in adults!!:)

Irritation- As anyone it is tough to stand this.My latest irritation was that when one of the ladies here who has the name of an Indian holy river passed a statement."Ooh!What's big issue about this food blogging!!.."I had been thinking lately to ask my husband (poor hen pecked fellow) to take one of the dishes I make everyday in our digital camera (she stresses the word everyday and adds that a digital camera can make the work easier!!) and upload the same in the web!...after all everything looks nice through the lens!"

I was aware of the fact that she lives with her husband and two sons, pampered by her own relatives, cares little about her aged parents-in-law(her husband is their only son) and poses she is occupied the whole day!..

I could speak nothing but smile and move away from the holy river, as a reaction..


And now, I am supposed to pass this to my blogger friends with names beginning S,R and I.

Shall I ask SRIvalli and SReelu to take up, please?:D...

Read More »

Tweet

I Have Been Tagged!..

Four great months of blogging and I've been tagged for the first time for a meme; of 7 random facts!. I love to be tagged and thankyou Roopa for tagging me the first.Thankyou Suganya and Archana for tagging me as well.

Here goes those cool facts..

1. When my better half came to know that his wife has developed an interest in creating a food blog,the next moment came the comment,"You hate to cook and you are absolutely a wrong one for thaaht!”.Yes!..I am a lazy cook but had developed my interest to cook, with much effort, keeping up the proverb,'Reach a man’s heart through his tummy'. I have tasted its fruit too :)...

2. I am an Art Lover.I had been immersed in creative hobbies like Oil and Fabric Painting,Hand Embroidery,Craft work,Singing and writing Poems.Is blogging eating up all my leisure time,lately?.

3. A sort of a person who gets confused easily but tactfully hiding this negative character,I try to confuse others.I am a multilingual and a South Indian mix….33.33% Mallu,33.33% Tamilian and 33.33% Andhraite. I was born and brought up in Kerala, got married to Tamil.N,but we are basically Andhraites!!Confused???:D

4. I am a lover of Non-veg food.Most of my blogger friends invariably torture me by posting all those yummy favourites of mine making me crave ssooo badly.I love eating out,Chinese being my favourite.My man and kids are pure veggies and I console myself…After all the world is turning vegan…(sigh)!!.

5. I am jovial and friendly…yet sensitive and short tempered :).A messy place around, irritates me and I get madly upset when my expectations turn topsy turvy,the negative aspects that I sincerely try to change.

6. My happiest moments, are the ones spent with my parents and siblings in my mom’s place every summer in Kottayam.I adore my Mom as she is the most active and talented person , I ever know on earth.Love her chocolate cakes and her traditional Southie foods.Holidaying with my man and kids is my passion that certainly follows..:)..

7. I always wonder, how anyone could Love the Unseen God,when one fails to love his fellow human being?.I am neither an atheist nor an ardent worshipper of God.Still, I’m Blessed with all the best in life so far which makes me happy and contented.

I tag 7 too….Nanditha , Shivapriya , Kanchana , Dr Soumya , Alapana, Sobila and my sister.
Please accept if you have time and inclination.Ignore if you are already tagged :).

Read More »

Tweet