It's me....

Bottle Gourd Kofta Thanks to Aveek's mom! Ingredients For Kofta Bottle gourd- 1 grated Ajwain- 2 tea spoons Jeera powder- 4 teaspoons Chillies- 2 finely chopped Besan- 4 teaspoons Salt- To taste Oil- For frying For Gravy Tomato- 4 Onions- 4 Cinnamon, Clove, Cardamom- 2 each Chillie powder- 3 teaspoons Salt - To taste Oil- 3-5 teaspoons Procedure For Kofta Squeeze out all the water from the grated bottle gourd Mix the rest of the ingredients and make into balls  Deep fry the balls and set aside For Gravy Cut the onion and tomatoes Grind the tomatoes and onions separately In a pan add oil and add the Cinnamon, clove and cardamom. Add the onion paste and saute till golden brown Add tomato paste and saute till the raw smell goes Add salt and chilli powder. Switch off the flame once the oil begins to separate. Add the koftas to the gravy and enjoy. Note Green chillies can be avoided in the kofta i...

When my daughter is asked for a story, she tells the story of a crow. A crow went up and sat on a tree. It sang a song but fell down.  It got hurt on its head and went home. Its mother applied medicine on its head and so, it recovered quickly.  This is probably her version of Aesop's fox and crow story . Other Kids stories in this blog

I will be starting with a dessert/snack first! This is an Eggless Banana Bread (with optional dry fruits). I learnt this from a cousin, with few of my own additions/improvements.  The main ingredients...  Maida - 2 cups Powdered Sugar - 2/3rd cup Oil - 1/4th cup Baking Soda- 1/4th tea spoon Over-ripe Bananas - 2 Optional Ingredients: Dry Fruits: Powdered walnuts, Almonds, Cashew - 1/2 cup, Raisins- 15 Method Pre-heat the microwave at 180C in the convection mode.  Sieve the maida, powdered sugar and baking soda.  Mash the over ripe bananas and add them.  Then add oil, powdered dry fruits,raisins and mix well.  Now, coat an aluminium tray with crystallized ghee.  Add the mixture and bake in the microwave in the convection mode at 180C for 1 hour. After 1 hour, allow the bread to cool.  Slice it and enjoy Tips Use over ripe bananas, it gives the best taste. Banana can be substituted wit...

Ramya has been experimenting with different recipes and I have been the guinea pig. Generally, they have been good and I love the new stuff she makes. So, we thought she should start posting her recipes too. Her first post coming up soon.... More posts from Ramya's Recipe Series

I started a series of short stories that I tell for our daughter before she goes to sleep. She has started play-school since November 2011. So, one story that we tell her is how her day passes... 1. Mother wakes her up at 7.30AM, brushes her teeth and makes her drink milk. 2. Father gives her a bath, and hands her over to mother to put her into her school uniform. 3. Mother give her breakfast 4. Father drops her in school at 9AM by car. 5. Mother goes to school at 12PM by walk, picks her up and comes back either walking or by an auto. 6. Grandmother gives her lunch and puts her to her noon nap. 7. Father picks her up from Grandmother's house and brings her back to her house 8. She plays, eats dinner and goes to sleep! Other Kids stories in this blog

My 2 year old daughter keeps asking me for new stories every night before going to bed. I have used up most of the kid stories that I remember, and now have started inventing my own stories based on other stories that I read. She has been listening to my adaptations of Tintin, especially  Destination Moon  and  Explorers on the Moon . My stories are really a set of statements, mostly less than 10 and simple. She really enjoys these stories and sometimes repeats to me/her mother. My latest story is inspired from Tom & Jerry , and the Lion & Mouse story . 1. Tom is chasing Jerry because he is hungry. 2. After running around for some time, Tom manages to catch Jerry. 3. Jerry begs to leave him, and offers a piece of cheese that he has at his home. 4. Tom agrees, and follows Jerry to his house. 5. Tom sees that Jerry has a small kid. 6. Tom is a nice cat, so he lets Jerry go and asks him to give the cheese to his kid rather. My daughter really enjo...

Managing my tasks has been one of the most difficult tasks! After a lot of advice from family and friends, I have started maintaining a single list of all my tasks. When I was using a single laptop with MS Outlook, I used the inbuilt task list. Now that I no longer have Outlook on my laptop (I work for IBM, and we use Lotus Notes as our email tool), I was looking for a better tool (preferably on the web). I didn't like the Lotus Notes version of task management, primarily because launching Lotus Notes is a task in itself (with a start date and end date) :) I was therefore trying out a variety of tools on the web. Gmail Tasks I started with Gmail Tasks. This was great because, it was integrated into Gmail. I liked it also because I didn't have to do much in terms of clicking; tasks and subtasks could be created using just the keyboard. However, I wanted slightly more detailed options - especially for reminders, start date, due date, and the UI was not so intuitive for that...

I have been a great fan of Douglas Adams ever since I started reading his " The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy " six-book trilogy! I was such a crazy fan of the book that I had an index of my favourite parts of the book. I used to participate in online quizzes, conduct quizzes and post in online forums, and such... I have re-read the book an uncountable number of times - focusing specifically on the indexed pages. I recently listened to the audio versions of the book. Found some parts much more interesting than while reading. I also inspired quite a few friends to start reading his books. Whenever anybody asks me for book suggestions, that is the first book I suggest. Recently, I listened to his posthumous book - " The Salmon of Doubt ". This book is a collection of previously published and unpublished material, mostly content from interviews, introductions to his books, his views on technology, and god (he was a faithful atheist). I am now reading the paper...