Category: News and Updates

Many of you ask why I like to use sooji. For many of my recipes I add sooji to add crispness or to give flour a coarse texture.

When I use sooji with all purpose flour (plain flour or maida), it adds crispness and flakiness to dishes like samosa, kachori etc.

I also like to use sooji with basen (gram flour), when a more coarse basen is required. I don’t stock and I don’t expect you to keep or buy coarse basen as it’s rarely required. For example coarse basen is used for basen burfi and boondi ladoo. It’s easier to add sooji to regular basen as a substitute to coarse basen.

For the same reasons I add sooji to whole wheat flour.

I have been babysitting my grandkids for the past week as my son and daughter-in-law went on a short 9 day trip to India for a family wedding.

Because the kids are in school with many activities, they decided to leave the kids with Alex and me. My granddaughter Mansi is 8 and my grandson Raghav is 5. They have stayed with us before, but this is the longest they have been without their parents!

Alex and I have been responsible for getting the kids ready for school, taking them to their many after-school activities, and of course keeping them entertained! I have also enjoyed feeding them! Their schedules are so busy that we have to make sure they are prepared!

It’s definitely been challenging, but we are enjoying this quality time with our grandkids. Of course with two kids in the house there’s bound to be some challenges. For example, both Mansi and Raghav have certain television programs they enjoy watching…then there’s Alex, who hasn’t been watching his usual news programs. It was also been a challenge feeding Raghav as he is a very poor eater. Plus, both of the kids are missing their parents. We are doing our best to keep them entertained.

Today, Mansi and I made strawberry short cake. She was the chef and I was her helper. We had a great time doing that!

Mansi enjoys visits from her Chacha (uncle), Chachi (aunt) and their daughter, Rhea. Raghav, on the other hand, loves his chacha and Chachi, but he is still very jealous of Rhea!

Mansi has been a great help. Before sleeping, Mansi will take out both her and Raghav’s clothes for the next day. Before bed, both the kids love to jump in my bed and climb over me!

I was taking Mansi to her dance class the other day and she was being mischievous as usual. I jokingly told Mansi that her Mom’s friends always tell me how well behaved she is and why don’t I see that? She proudly informed me that with others she has to make a good impression. She then said “Dadi, (grandma in Hindi), that will never happen with you!”

 Now they are both asleep and the house is very peaceful. I can now enjoy a cup of tea with Alex!

I had a great time with my family. We all had fun. It was a hectic week. We took lots of photographs of our family but they all got deleted by mistake except a few.

My blunders for Diwali preparation! Three days before Diwali, I decided to make all my deserts and appetizers and do my laundry on the same day as I have an old bad habit to do multiple things. Not a good idea you are asking for disaster. Nothing came out as I planned by end of the day I was in tears. My husband smiled and said hopefully one day you will learn to do one thing at a time.

I was making boondi ladoo which I served just as boondi and served them in cup cakes cups. The same thing happened with coconut burfi. I had to shape them differently and again serve them in foil candy cups. Gulab jamuns turned out hard which I still have sitting in my refrigerator for next get together. I will cut them in pieces and before serving I will mix them with vanilla ice cream.

The end result was that every thing tasted well and every body enjoyed it.

This year Diwali falls on October 17th – which is conveniently on a Saturday!

Diwali is often referred to as the “Festival of Lights” and is a celebration of joy and happiness. Diwali signifies the victory of good versus evil. Hindus celebrate Diwali throughout the world with great enthusiasm.

There are many traditions that are followed when celebrating Diwali. Preparations for Diwali often include cleaning your home and opening the windows to welcome the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi, into your home. Candles and lamps are lit as a greeting to Goddess Lakshmi, hence the name “Festival of Lights”. Gifts are exchanged and festive meals are prepared. Lively fireworks, and games of cards are enjoyed to celebrate Diwali!

This year I am especially excited for Diwali because I have a new granddaughter and this is her first Diwali.

I have been busy preparing some delicious desserts. The sweet smell of cardamom and saffron has infused the whole house! Gujias are typically prepared as a main sweet snack for Diwali. However, this year, I have decided to go a different route and prepare a variety of sweets such as coconut burfi, boondi ka ladoo, gulab jamun and shakkar para.

In celebration of Diwali, my family has helped decorating the house including the Christmas lights. I am hoping Mansi (my Granddaughter) will be able to help me to decorate the front entrance of the house with rangoli.

We will be kicking off the Diwali festivities with a family dinner at my house the day before actual Diwali. This celebration is called “Choti Diwali”. I will be preparing a traditional dinner for my family. The menu is puris filled with urad dal, spicy squash, Bhindi, matar paneer, dahi vada, and cumin rice. For dessert we will have gulab jamun and bondi ka ladoo.

 After dinner, keeping in tradition with Diwali celebrations, we will be playing cards. I plan to serve spicy peanuts, burfi and of course chai. My husband is an expert at preparing chai so he will take on that task!

Diwali day we will have family get together our son’s home. I will post photographs of our celebrations soon!

I hope you all have a very Happy Diwali!

Paryushan and Dash Lakshan are two of the most important festivals for Jains.

Right now we are observing Paryushan which is an 8 days spiritual retreat that started on August 17th and will end on August 23rd. Through this festival an attempt is made to put an end to all vices, passions and lustful desires in thought, speech and deeds. Usually, Jains will fast many different ways which includes not eating and drinking for a day or designing a personal customized fast in order to live simply.

As paryushan will be ending then Dash Lakshan will start from August 24th to September 3rd. The festival is the observance of ten universal virtues. Some of these virtues which I understood and have been more meaningful for me are Forgiveness, Contentment, Truthfulness, Self-control, and Detachment.

I believe Jainism is more of a philosophy then a religion. I remember when I was young my father telling me God is within you. Always justify your actions to your self while you are working towards your goal.

Both festivals end by asking forgiveness from all. I do not have any animosity towards anybody, and I have friendship for all living beings.

Forgiving others uplifts the soul.

The holidays are here and you can smell it in the air! It’s getting dark earlier and the days are cold. This can only mean one thing…the holidays are fast-approaching! My grandchildren enjoy this time of year, especially putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house. My granddaughter Mansi is in charge of ensuring that the appropriate decorations and tree is up! When asked what she wants for Christmas, she really couldn’t think of anything and appeared to be content with what she already has. Now that’s the spirit of the holidays!

I won’t get to spend Christmas day with my youngest, 10 1/2 month old granddaughter as she will be visiting her other grandparents and cousins. We will miss them at our family dinner this year.

I have some menu suggestions for the holidays. These menus are perfect for cold winter days! Comfort food at its finest!

You can find all the suggested recipes on my website.

 Menu #1:

 Appetizers: Masala Peanuts, vegetable pakoras with Hari Cilantro Chutney, fried papdam.

 Main Course: Lentil soup, Palak Paneer (spinach with Indian cheese), Aloo Gobhi, Gajar Pickle, spiced Yogurt, Cumin Rice, and Puri.

 Dessert: Serve hot Boondi (instead making them as ladoos), Eggless Pineapple cake.

Menu #2:

 Appetizers: Spicy Potatoes, Dhokla with Hari Cilantro Chutney. Spinach Salad

 Main Course: Butter Paneer Masala, Cabbage with green peas, Aloo Began (potato with eggplant), Yellow Fried rice, Spinach Raita, Naan.

 Dessert: Apple Crumb Pie, Kheer.

It has been two and a half years since my first video was uploaded on to YouTube. I am looking to making my 100th video very special. I have decided that 100th video recipe will be a Kaju Burfi (cashew fudge), which is a very simple and a very festive dessert. This burfi is a universal favorite for Indians as it made in all parts of India. Kaju burfi is a staple dessert found in all sweet shops. It can be refrigerated for many months, so you can cook it now and serve later. Kaju burfi is vegan and you can never go wrong serving this burfi to your friends and family.

Whenever I make this burfi my grandkids want more and more! My husband who loves all types of nuts has an excuse why I should make more often!

I am always looking forward to preparing this video recipe!!!

By the way this is typed by my granddaughter!!!

As you can tell I haven’t been blogging for a while. It’s been difficult to get the ball rolling again.

I wanted to share with you a great article about Asafetida that my student, Allison, shared with me. Asafetida is a popular Indian spice that I use in many dishes to season vegetables and lentils. The article describes Asafetida’s history, popularity, and medicinal values. The article is published in the Saudi Aramco World magazine. Link to article: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200904/devil.s.dung-the.world.s.smelliest.spice.htm

It has been awhile since my last post because I have been busy with family and with cooking classes.

I feel very energetic and very satisfied doing these cooking classes. I have wanted to share my cooking experience for years, and now I am able to do that through classes and videos.

It is a good feeling.When visitors to the site make a comment that I remind them of their mom, to me that’s the best compliment someone can give me. Many years back my close friend told me I should stop being a mother figure to people, but the other day she called me after reading one of the comments on the blog and said with a smile now it is the right time to be a Mom.

I don’t do much baking but many of you have requested an egg less cake so I have been trying different recipes. After trying a few and making a few changes, I think I have come to a recipe my husband and I agree on. So let me give it one more try and then I should be doing posting it on the site in next three to four days.

I love to do all the recipes you ask about. But many of the dishes I have never heard of and some I only know by name. Slowly I will try to learn more recipes.

Don’t forget when we cook we try to use the ingredients we have on hand. For example if I wanted to make matar (green peas) paneer but at the last minute I find I don’t have green peas so I use instead a bag of mixed vegetables, or I don’t have tomatoes so I decide to do a yogurt gravy. Experiment and share and do come up with a fancy name for the dish.

Holi, a favorite holiday of mine, is coming up on March 11, 2009. Holi the festival of colors, traditionally a harvest festival, celeberated all over india.

Holi celebration begins with lighting up of bonfire on the Holi eve to cleanse the air of evil spirits and bad vibes, the victory of good over evil.

Holi celebration makes the festival more exuberant and vivid when people rub ‘gulal’ (variety of color powder specially made for this occasion making sure it will not hurt physically) on each other’s faces and cheer up saying, “bura na maano Holi hai” witch is translated to “please don’t mind today is Holi”.

The colorful festival bridges the social gap and renews relationships. On this day, people hug and wish each other ‘Happy Holi’.

Like every other holiday Holi has some of the specialty food people will make. A special drink called Thandai is served (main ingredients are milk almonds various spices and sugar). Usually lots of dry snacks are made like gujhia, khasta kachori, namak para, shaker para, basen ladoo and mathries and more. They are easy to offer to the visitors who come to play Holi with you.

I just love holidays they just bring very positive vibes and something to look forward.

I am now officially a grandma for the third time and I’m absolutely in love with my precious granddaughter! I have been with her since her birth and am loving taking care of her. These past few weeks have been really busy for me. I have to say my granddaughter is cute as a button and it will be fun to watch her grow.

With a new baby, it is important for new moms to eat well and more importantly eat the right foods. These days I’ve really been working to convince my daughter-in-law and son just how important diet is for new moms. It’s been a struggle trying to get my daughter-in-law to not eat foods she loves such as breads, pastas, and snack foods. Although, I have to say my son is harder to convince than she is as he just brought back her favorite ice cream and snack food from the grocery store!

Hi, so far the New Year is going as planned. I have been successfully de-cluttering my home but it’s taking a little longer than I planned. I keep on finding things that I have forgotten about but they bring back lots of memories. Basically that’s what takes so much time. I have saved lots of things for so many years thinking I may need them. I am now saying to myself if I have not used it for four years I am going to let it go.

I am also working on some new recipes. The recipe for Peda that is milk based candy is ready. The recipe for Matar Mathi Malai (fenugreek leaves with peas and creamy cashew nut sauce) is looking good. I need to test the recipe one more time, as this will be my first recipe where I will be using a cashew-based sauce. Also I’m working on a recipe for Atta (whole-wheat) Ladoo with Gaund (edible gum). I am trying different techniques, as the current recipe requires more ghee than I would like to use.Watch for new upcoming recipes.