Happy New Year 2011!!!!!!

I wish all my dear blog followers and readers a Very Happy and Prosperous new year 2011 with these roses from the garden in my home back in India.

;

These roses were lucky to be clicked by Professional Photographer Mr.Jose. Can you see the difference?

All contents images and text, unless otherwise mentioned  are copyright of ©My world of euphoria.  A lot of effort is put in this blog, so do not copy and paste without permission.

Crochet Pen stand/Recycle series 2

This is the ice cream container  pen stand. Had yummy ice cream and loved the ice cream picture in the container and since I like to recyle,  reused it as pen stand.

Just 4 months before I started blogging crochet was my favorite hobby.

I got an idea to cover the ice cream pen stand with the yarn in which  I practiced crochet shell stitch.

;

                                   A closer look at the corchet

All contents images and text, unless otherwise mentioned  are copyright of ©My world of euphoria.  A lot of effort is put in this blog, so do not copy and paste without permission.

Christmas Gifts

These are the gifts I got from my husband on the eve of Christmas!

Plum cake is the favorite cake of mine.Few days back I was explaining my husband the taste of this plum cake. Its was great surprise for me when I got this plum cake!!!!! I loved the Ice man . There is no snow here to make a ice man but I got the ice man which I can keep it in living room and enjoy.

I thank my dear husband for these lovely gifts!!!



The little orange Christmas tress



Christmas gifts  reminds me the story by O.Henry-The gift of Magi.This story was in our syllabus for English subject, but I don't remember in which standard.Our English teacher narrated this story, so nicely that at the end of the class tears loaded in my eyes.In this story, Della and Jim scarifice their only possessions to buy Christmas presents and those presents becomes useless for them but it showed the true love that Della and Jim had for each other.

Happy Christmas !

I wish all my dear blog followers and readers a Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Colours on my dinning table

With Inspirations from Preethi, who has a beautiful blog, I did this dinning table centerpiece.

How is it?
Thank you Preethi, for the Monkey see Monkey do post in your blog.
You can see Preethi's blog here

My Vinayakar painting

Lord Vinayaka is the remover of all our obstacles and we  pray to him before doing anything.

Moving away from India, temples is one among the list of things that I miss! So I painted Lord Vinayaka and hanged it near the front door of our house.

Now,

when I go out of my home,this painting reminds me to do a little prayer before I leave the house.

Giveaway / My Recyling Series 1

I visited a blog Compai, by Justina Blakeney a couple of days back.Her blog is amazing! Is full of inspirations for me. She has a extremely beautiful giveaway a sugar mold!

Visit her blog and  participate in the Give away here.

When I was posting a comment in her blog, I made a list of all the stuffs that I have recylced, this year.Thanks Justina! for making me think of my recycled stuff.Here is my latest  recycled stuff. Recycling has been inculcated to me by mother and my grandparents.

This ghee tin was reused for storing my craft supplies.A week back I read a post organise using bottles by Purnima in her blog a creative project.After reading that post,I decorated this tin with acrylics.

Now this tin looks like this...............

Another big ghee tin  also got decorated and  now it looks like this............

 The other side of the same tin..........

 Thanks Purnima for your tutorial! Now, no one can find out its a Ghee tin .If you would like to try it out check it here

Pappu soup/ parappu soup/Red gram lentil soup

This soup is easy to make.Last week was a bad week for me.I sustained an eye injury.This was followed by Sinusitis.When we suffer from respiratory infections we feel like having something hot.Just warm water will be soothing for the throat.I was cooking paruppu for sambar. It was at that time I wanted to have something warm.I usually boil red gram lentil with tomato, salt and turmeric powder for sambar.So it was easy for me to make this soup.
I just added 1/2 cup more to  the  usual red gram that I use for sambar.When the red gram and the tomato was cooked well, I took it in the soup bowl and mashed it with a spoon as it was already well cooked it was easy for me to mash.
After that I added salt and pepper powder according to my taste.Since I am lover of coconut oil, I added 1 spoon of coconut oil.The soup was ready.
You can add coriander leaves to garnish.I was in a hurry to have the soup warm so I forgot to add it.

Dinning table centerpiece decoration

The center of our dinning table  got decorated  with the fruits and mint leaves  this evening.

A full view of the decor



My cute little fruit magnets and the yellow ribbon rose (made by me!)
That evening  I planned to prepare mint chutney(Pudina chutney).So the decor lasted only for few hours.Once I removed the mint leaves, I saw the fruits covered with water bubbles which looked like dew drops, I asked husband to click a picture of the apple with the water droplets. He did it for me and here is how it looked.



I hope, with all my blogging friends, I will become very creative.
I visited  Susan's blog http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com and got this idea. Her blog is amazing! Just after reading it, I jumped into action and did this decoration.I just improvised Susan's idea with the fruits and mint leaves that I had in my fridge.To add beauty to the already beautiful glass jar with apples, orange, lemon and mint, I added my cute little fruit magnets, the yellow ribbon rose and a dancing couple surrounding the bottom of the  glass jar.It was fun and enjoyed looking at it.The fragrance of the mint leaves was spreading across the table.It was a feast to the eyes!
You can find the how to of this decoration in Susan's blog in this link   here 
Thanks a lot for sharing your idea, Susan!

Thakkaaya burfi/Thengai burfi/Coconut burfi

Coconut has been used by our ancestors and they lived a healthy life.Coconut has a lot of benefits.Its is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals.Coconut oil has medicinal properties,you can find in many of the Ayurveda medicines.My mother says that when we are seasoning the dish with coconut oil it destroys the germs present in the food and is good for the stomach.Coconut oil is good for the skin and helps for the growth of hair.Drinking coconut water is good for kidney problems and intestinal disease like dysentery.It also gives instant energy.Coconut oil has disappeared from most of the kitchens because people have false perception that including coconut in any form will cause heart diseases etc,(my husband is a victim of it).I did a google research and explained him the benefits.Now he is slowly including the dishes prepared out of coconut oil or coconut in his diet.

Tengaya or Kobbari is the name of coconut in Telugu my mother tongue.I am a lover of coconut in any form.My mother being from Palakkad uses coconut in almost all of her dishes.For my birthday my mother prepares coconut burfi sweet.

For this Deepavali, I planned to prepare coconut burfi and searched for the recipe, I wouldn't call my mother as my Internet phone was out of order. I was a silent follower of a blog- mydiversekitchen by Aparna. Since Aparna and my mother hails from the same place most of her traditional recipes are similar to how my mother makes it, so kept following this blog for one and half years.In fact she is  my inspiration to start my blog.I have tried most of the traditional dishes in her blog and most of the recipes came out well in the first shot itself.This is mainly because of her detailed explanations.If we watch the cookery shows in  TV  we forget something but in Aparna's blog she describes beautifully, even a person who have not tired cooking yet will end up cooking good dishes.

I google searched the coconut burfi and couldn't find the recipes for coconut burfi as my mother makes, then I realised I have to check out in my diverse kitchen.There it was with great explanations. I went into the kitchen and prepared coconut burfi, the results was amazing!.The only change I made to Aparna's recipe was, I used cashew nuts to garnish coconut burfi and cut it in diamond shapes.

 



A closer shot of coconut burfi



Check out Aparna's blog here http://www.mydiversekitchen.com/2009/09/thengai-barfi-cardamom-flavoured-sweet.html for the recipe.I am sure you will become a follower of  this blog.In her blog she has Useful links, I learnt a lot from those links. Through this post I would like to say my heartfelt thanks to Aparna for sharing her knowledge!

Strawberry topiary

We bought our lovely dinning table recently and it is treated with great care since its new to our home! This week we had a long weekend and had guests for dinner.I was inspired by my friend Purnima in decorating the dinning table.So thought of decorating my dinning table after going through the tutorial in her blog.She had the tutorial for tomato topiary, for a change, I tried the tutorial with the strawberry.
The results were awesome! Thanks a lot Purnima for the tutorial!


Have a look at it.

Strawberry topiary on my dinning table

This shot I took before it was made perfect

I hope you might have guessed how it was done.Don't try it without checking out  Purnima's blog here http://acreativeproject.blogspot.com/search/label/tutorial


She has explained in detail, also I assure you that you will get many more dinning table decor ideas from her.
The pink colour table runner you see her is my dupatta ! I got this idea from Purnima. For a long time I have not used this dupatta (shawl worn on the shoulders ) because the width was short.Thank you Purnima, I am glad that I reused my dupatta! 
The fragnance of the strawberry tempted me to have one. The guest praised me for my creativity, but the real credit goes to Purnima for sharing this idea! Enjoyed doing this. Try it out and surprise your husband or your guests!



Clay pot cooking guidlines

I dedicate this post for my first follower of my blog GB. Thank you GB! for asking me to create  a post for cooking in clay pot.

Cooking with clay pots is not new.
 Our ancestors used clay pot to prepare food this is evident from the potteries seen in museums. Lifestyle changes had made clay pot disappear from our kitchens.

While you  buy a clay pot, see that it doesn't have any cracks. The clay pot will be in earth colour and clay pots are even  available in black colour. I have seen black colour clay pots in my grandparent’s home and my husband's native village.

If you stay in USA you can find clay pots in Asian store or Indian grocery stores.

You have to prepare the clay pot before you start cooking food in it. For this, you have to clean the pot with plain water and immerse it in water for half an hour to one hour. My mother-in-law prepared my clay pot for me by pouring "ganji" as I say it or "kanji" (left over water after boiling rice).|You can cook rice with enough water and drain the excess water and pour it in the clay pot. Keep it for 8 hrs. You can repeat this process once again, if you feel that the clay pot is not clean.This will help to remove any dust and also this process makes the clay pot moist.

When you are done with this just wash it in plain water and start cooking your recipe.

See that you start in a slow flame initially, and then increase the heat.

Use a towel or an oven gloves to handle the pot when it’s hot.

I use the wooden ladle to saute the vegetables while cooking.Don’t use metal ladle it may cause scratches and break the pot.



My wooden ladle that I use with my clay pot

 

My other wooden ladles



Vegetables usually, cook fast in clay pot in about ten to twenty minutes. It’s the same with fish.

I use Gas stove for cooking. You can even cook with Oven but see that the oven is not preheated and increase the heat gradually. Clay pot cannot withstand sudden change in temperature, so there are chances that you may break it. Don't use it in microwave.

I cover the clay pot with a stainless steel plate while the food is being cooked.You can also use a clay pot lid if you get it.Once the clay pot gets heated, it retains heat and your food will be cooked fast.When the food start to boil, simmer it. Food in the clay pots can stay hot for some time. This helps to keep food warm for a considerable time. I think clay pot might have served as a hot pot in olden days.

Use separate clay pot for vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. You can cook gravies and dry roast lentils in clay pot.

If your clay pot doesn't stand on your kitchen counter top, use a folded towel as I do to place the clay pot over it. If you have a trivet use it.

Don't use dish cleaning soap solution for cleaning the clay pot because the pores in the clay pot can absorb it and you may get the soap taste in the food that you cook in it next time.

Allow the clay pot to cool and rinse it in water.

Clean it with salt and you can use plastic scrubber or a soft cleaning sponge that is not dipped in soap solution.

If your food is sticking to the pot, pour water in the pot and allow it soak. This helps to easily remove the food that is sticking.

After cleaning it, dry it thoroughly with a kitchen towel and store it by placing it upside down.

Your clay pot may look black in colour at the bottom or in the sides after using it for several times. Don't think that you have not cleaned it properly. Its a natural coating, this helps to add flavour to your food.

Can you see the coating in  my pot ?

Handle the clay pot gentle because it breaks easily.

Did you know?

Healthy cooking process is essential to retain the nutrients in the food; food cooked in clay pot is nutritious and tastes yummy!

Enjoy cooking in “ mann chatti”(this is how clay pot is called in Tamil and Malayalam).

Try it! Relish your dish and let me know if it came out well I will feel like getting a reward for my post.

Clay pot cooking

 I wished to have a clay pot for cooking  pulisherry, pulikuzhambu and moorkuzhambu( All these are south Indian curries which uses tamarind or buttermilk).My husband eats non- vegetarian dishes at restaurants and parties but he cooks fish at home.He was also saying that we have to buy a clay pot for cooking fish curry. The taste of curry cooked in clay pot is far better than the same food cooked in stainless steel pots ands pans.
My mania for cooking with clay pot started before I became a fulltime homemaker.Earlier, during my childhood days I used to spend my vacation with my grandparents, there I have seen my aunt using clay pot for cooking.Apart from cooking non vegetarian dishes she used to roast horse gram, peanuts and other lentils in clay pots.In my grandparents home I have seen numerous uses for clay pot.A lady who sells clay pot used to visit my grandma's house asking if she needs any clay pots. My grandmother was a regular customer of her.The clay items that my grandmother buys from her include a storage jar for water, (its called kodam in Tamil and Malayalam) with a small lid to cover it, few pots and a shallow pot for frying. My grand parents owned cows, so my grandma used to buy big clay vessels to store water in it so that the cows can drink from it.During summer, my grandmother stores water in the kodam.We used to play a lot with other kids in the neighbourhood and come running into the kitchen to drink the water from the kodam.The water will be cool cool and I will not stop with one glass of water, the water will be so cool that you like to drink more and more.Those were the days when refrigerator has not entered into the kitchen of most households in our place.Thank God I got a chance to enjoy the water stored in kodam.I don't know how many children of these days had the chance of drinking this water.The broken clay pots were dumped below the trunk of a jackfruit tree.I don't know the purpose of it.
Also, I have seen big jars made of clay in which my grandmother stores rice.My grand parents had pigeons, the water and the food grains for these pigeons were kept in shallow clay pots.It was used as a bird feeder.These are the uses of clay pots that I remember, there may be other uses also.

My mother didn't posses any kitchen utensils made of clay.In my home, egg is the only non vegetarian food being cooked nowadays.Even before, when my mother used to cook non vegetarian dishes, my mother had separate pots and pans but not clay pots.I was insisting her to buy a clay pot. Before my  marriage, I used to watch chef Dhamodharan's show in Jaya TV( A Tamil TV channel).In this show the chef uses clay pots to cook, I admire the way he cooks in the clay pots.Just to see the chef cooking with the clay pots I used to watch this show.I should have noted down the recipes also.But then, I was not into cooking as I was working.I cook only when my mother has gone for some relatives marriage or other functions.I also cook when I wish to prepare some recipes that are new or interesting or easy.
 Till now my mother doesn't have any clay pots.I have to gift her one.After my marriage, I saw  my mother -in -law cooking in clay pot. she used to cook greens like drumstick leaves curry, pulikuzhambu,  in clay pot.I said her that I love food cooked in clay pot.Like my grandparents my in-laws also used clay pots for various purpose but before our marriage my husband told to remove all the clay pots from the house, so I didn't see any thing made of clay except for two pot.
I visited my in-laws place during the month of April.In their place during  this month they had a local festival for a deity called Marriamman.I visited the temple for praying.Before I would reach the temple, on both sides of the road  and in the near by ground I saw a lot of stalls most of them were for children and many were selling fashion accessories.For my surprise, I saw few stalls selling clay pots.I decided to buy one clay pot after I finish my prayers.After our prayer was over I told my husband, that I wish to go around the stalls.There were a lot of things that I wished to buy but my husband told that I cannot carry everything back home as we have to limit our baggage for 30kgs.Finally ended in buying a clay pot, few posters and peacock feathers.My sister-in-law came to temple while we have done with the shopping.I showed her the things I bought, she got me another shallow clay pot and a beater made of wood for churning butter milk.One of my wish got fulfilled.Here is my clay pot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my clay pot

Finally, I managed to bring one clay pot to my home safely here without breaking it.My husband and I had a fight to cook in the clay pot. Since he wants the clay pot to cook fish and I want to cook vegetarian dish in it.
I won, my poor husband was so generous that he left it for me to decide.I cooked parappu curry( a gravy made of red gram lentils) in the clay pot first, as that was one of my favourite and easy dish to prepare.

Red gram lentil cooked in clay pot

Later, I cooked  mambazha pulisherry ( a mango curry) and moorkozhambu( a butter milk curry) in the clay pot.Still I am using the clay pot  for vegetarian dishes.Next time when I visit India I will bring another pot for my husband, so that he can cook fish curry in the clay pot.

Kadala curry

I tried different versions of kadala curry.Konda kadala (chickpeas) is one my husband's favorite.He use to give me feedback.After trying a lot of versions of kadala curry, at last a got a very good feedback from my husband for a version of my own.He told me to make a note of this version as it tasted good for him. I prepared this curry after incorporating my idea with the kadala curry that I  tasted in one of the kerala restaurant.Their restaurant looked brownish black color and what I liked the most is the tooth like coconut pieces that they included in the curry, also it was watery a bit.My husband doesn't like potatoe masala for puri, so I made this curry for puri.I also make this for puttu and idiyappam.Here is my version.

Ingredients
Brown chickpeas (konda kadala)-1 cup
Coconut pieces( cut in tooth like shape)-10 -15 pieces
Turmeric powder-1/4tsp
Coriander powder-1 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder-1/2 tsp
Pepper powder-1/2 tsp
Tomatoe-1
Tamarind-1 gooseberry size
Salt-as per taste

For grinding
Coconut scrapping-1/4 cup
Red chilles-4
Fennel seeds-1/2tsp
Cumin seeds-1tsp
For Seasoning
Pearl onions-6( crushed)
Curry leaves-few
Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds-1tsp
Garlic- 2 cloves (crushed)
Urad dhal-1tsp
Coriander leaves- few
Coconut Oil-3tsp

Preparation
Soak kadala or chick peas for six hours.Boil konda kadala(chick peas)  in pressure cooker with enough water and salt.It should not be over cooked.Don't drain the water when its cooked. Save it to add to the curry.
I am a lazy person so I did my seasoning in the beginning itself as didn't like to use my seasoning pan separately for seasoning.If seasoning is done at the end, the taste will be better.Heat a pan and pour the coconut oil, add mustard, urad dhal. cumin seeds, garlic, coconut pieces and saute for a while.Now add the pearl onions, curry leaves and saute until the onions are cooked. Add the tomato pieces and saute until the tomato is cooked.Add the cooked kadala along with the water.Add the coriander powder, pepper powder, chilli powder, and salt and cook until the water boils.Mean while grind the coconut, cumin seeds fennel seeds and red chillies to form a paste.Add this paste to the curry and mix well once its starts to boil simmer for few minutes.Prepare juice out of tamarind and add to the curry.Check for salt and allow it to simmer for five to eight  minutes.Garnish with coriander leaves.Enjoy!

Banana Flower

 Bought a banana flower to cook, but my husband doesn't like to eat it.Everyday I postponed the plan of cooking banana flower, so what happened to the flower? It was stored in the fridge, but still the inside part turned black and I don't want to cook and eat it alone.Not only that I am little lazy to cook it, as it takes a lot of time to peel the flower remove the stamen  and to chop it.

I thought why I bought the flower? My conscience didn't allow me to throw it in the dustbin.What to do with it?  Got an idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thought of making it as a show piece.Peeled the outer cover partially and kept it on the dining table.Ooh it didn't stand erect. How to make it stand? Got the answer.Took a porcelain cup placed the flower in it. The flower can stand erect now.

The flower gave a new look to my dinning table.

Point to ponder-Next time when I go to purchase vegetables I will think twice before I buy this flower.

Banana flower is good for health.But my husband don't likes to eat healthy once.

Enjoyed the flower on my table!

Flower arrangemment

I brought some flowers for a festival called Onam.Actually prior to the festival the entrance of the house or the Muttam is decorated with flowers.Since I stay in a apartment I don't have much space in front of the house.I decided that I will decorate my entrance with flowers.How am I going to do it? Thought of doing the decoration inside the house..........no it should be outside the house.........but cleaning people will come to clean in the middle of the day to clean the corridor in our apartment.........so all my flowers will be sweeped off in the middle of the day .......What to do to make the flower arrangement to be there for the whole day? Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Took a big china plate I had sprinkled some water,arranged the flowers.I kept the yellow flower in the middle covered its outline with pink flowers and place white flowers around it.I had some space in the plate.Covered the space with another round of pink flowers.Enjoyed doing this!When the cleaning person arrived I took off the plate once he has done with the cleaning, I kept the plate in the entrance again.The flowers were fresh till the next day.How? because it was not exposed to sunlight and the water I sprinkled in the plate kept it fresh.Thank God I was able to celebrate Onam with flowers!

Ribbon pakkado

Ribbon pakodo was the name introduced to me  by my in laws, in our house its called just pakodo. I like this snack because its easy to make.This was the first snack that I prepared after my marriage. Now let us see the ingredients required for this snack.

• Besan flour or kadala mavu-3 cups
• Rice flour-1 cup
• Jeera power-1 tsp
• Salt- as per your taste
• Chilli powder-1tsp
• Hing-1 pinch
• Oil for deep frying

You also need the mould or achu (with a hole which looks like a slit)
Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients except the oil.
Add water and mix until it becomes a soft dough.No need to knead like what we do for chappathi.
Put this dough in the mould.
Heat the oil in a frying pan.
Check whether the oil is hot by testing with a pinch of dough.
The dough should rise to the surface of the oil immediately.
Press the dough directly in the oil.
Flip it over.
Take it off the oil once it has turned golden brown.
Enjoy!

Tips for cooking

1. Plan the menu ahead, so that you have all the ingredients while cooking.
2. Wash the vegetables before cutting.
3. Green leafy vegetables like mint, coriander, etc,as to be rinsed in water several times until the water is clear.
4. Keep a small spoon for salt so that you don't take a large amount of salt.
5. If you are deep frying don't use the oil again for deep frying.
6. Label your spice and flour containers.
7. If you are using potatoes, wash it and boil it with the skin.Once cooked it is easy to peel the outer skin.
8. Wash the dishes immediately after cooking.
9. Wash your sink daily when you have finished with cooking.
10. Avoid using food color while cooking, its not healthy.
11. Use transfat free oil for cooking.
12. Serve the food with love.

Peacock and Sun

This is the fabric painting of peacock and Sun that I did on my white top.Also I added brown flowers as border.I have outlined the flowers with yellow colour.Peacock, fish, duck and elephant are the  animals that I can draw.Yet to learn how to draw other animals. When I did the painting of sun I lost interest, you can see the impact.Its not perfect. I admire the blue green colour  of peacock and  its feathers .
Did you know ?
Peacock is a male bird.The female bird is called peahen.Its young one is called peachick.