Sun Shine Smoothie & The Flavors of Islamorada , Florida

It always feels good to take a break from routine, relax and rejuvenate and comeback with double strength. After few rounds of discussion , we settled on a trip to Florida for the winter break . Being from East Coast , the name Florida itself gives that thrill and excitement to let loose yourself to that gorgeous sun shine and that too in December where Boston will be completely blanketed with white snow.

This being our second trip , we planned to visit those we missed on our first trip. Key west and Space center topped the list.

We felt as if we were liberated as we don't need layering or that heavy jackets weighing  some pounds any more. Our mornings are dedicated to Miami beach. It is one of its kind of experience to forget about anything and everything and surrender before nature, the early sunrise, the water , the golden light,the waves , the mist .  While my son shine enjoying his time in water I used to sit and relax and try to capture that scenic beauty and save for rest of my life.  The gorgeous array of coconut trees and palm trees all along the roads would remind me of my place in India and perhaps that's the reason I feel more connected to this place, I guess.

After breakfast , it was time to visit Downtown Miami. As December is peak season in Miami, we spotted tourists from across the globe. The ferry ride, the gorgeous park are something that we enjoyed the most here.

The Next 2  days all for Florida Keys & KEY WEST, the southern most city of continental USA. It was almost 3 hours of  drive from Miami . I would rather call it the Southern most paradise with  most natural scenic beauty. With the sub tropical weather, the diverse culture , the unique architecture and history, this place is bejeweled by mother nature and carries an unbeatable romantic appeal. I bet you will fall in love with this place even if you are not much into nature.

Being so close to Cuba, the Florida Keys comprises of Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon , Big Pine Key and Key West . It was all  about water , water and water and which we loved the most.  While you travel through , you will feel like you are in the mid of Atlantic as both your sides will be covered with water. The ocean, the sunshine, the water , the wind ....together it makes a whole new experience. We took our time to explore Islamorada as the island attracted us the most with impeccable , serene beauty after that long travel.

Fishing , fossils and boating  , Diving, eco tours,  water sports, on the water activities and dolphin encounter scooba diving and so much more to do here.  You wouldn't regret any single minute you spend here.  The everglades , Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay on one side and the Atlantic and the beautiful reef on the other side. What else can one ask for?

 If you haven't visited yet , all I can say is , you are missing a great experience that lasts your life time.


Now comes the smoothie I enjoyed there after my morning walk .

Ingredients 

Florida Navel oranges ........................................ 2
Pineapple .......................................................... 1 cup, chopped
Banana................................................................1/2 cup mashed
Coconut Milk .....................................................1/4 cup
Plain Greek yogurt...............................................1/4 cup, I used homemade one
Honey ................................................................2 tsp (optional)
Mint ................................................................ few leaves for garnish

Method

Blend everything except mint and transfer to a tall glass, garnish with mint, enjoy.

Those cute coasters are from my best friend Dolphia, isn't that beautiful ?

Want more options ? Check out Sandhya's Tropical Smoothie , another one on the theme KeyWest.

Disclosure :  This post is sponsored by The Florida Keys and Key West in connection with Honest Cooking 

Spring salad with Carrots and Cukes

Days are getting brighter and warmer here.The first thing I do in the morning is to open my patio blinds. I know I can't open the door , I can't step out. Still I do this every morning. Hubby would be asking me " There is nothing other than the bald trees and I wonder what you are seeing every day? "I don't know. I will stand near the patio door and see the outside world, the so called bald trees and parked vehicles and some sky . This is what I see pretty much every day.But I feel very happy when i do this. I feel like life is back when I see Sun.  Now this week , I'm seeing some buds on those bald trees . I'm all happy feet to go out and enjoy my nature walk, soon.

 It's been a long since i shared a recipe here. I kind of lost my rhythm I guess and wonder what to write. Hope to improve soon. Till then bear with me.

My sonshine loves salads and today he will be early from school. These are the days I get to feed him enough veggies and now you know why I'm making this.

This is a simple salad with available fresh produce. You can add and subtract veggies based on your choice. Most of the time I go with mix and match of veggies and nuts to make it interesting  with  some crunch in every bite.


Ingredients:

Carrots ......................... 2 medium
Cucumber ..................... 2
Lettuce .......................... 1 head
Dried Cranberries............. a handful
Toasted sesame seeds....... 1 tbsp (optional)
Salt .................................. to taste
Pepper ............................ to taste
Lime ................................ juice 1 tsp
Olive oil ............................ 1 1/2 tsp
Tahini ............................... 1 tsp


Method:

Wash and prep the veggies.
I have chopped them as disks .
Throw in all the veggies along with cranberries in a wide mixing bowl.
In a small bowl , whisk together oil, lime juice, salt , pepper. Stir in tahini.
Pour this dressing over the salad.
Top it off with toasted sesame seeds if using .
Serve immediately.

Note:

Mix the dressing just before serving , otherwise the salad becomes soggy.
You can add toasted almonds / crushed roasted peanuts .
You can use orange juice in the place of lime to make variation.

Snow 2016 and the magical moments

Its been a long and hope you are all doing good. Whether I blog or not , I try to capture some special moments of life. When Dolphia and Meena shared, I got motivated to share what I captured.
It was all white out when it was snowing then suddenly it became dark and that magic happened.
The light after that storm was so mystical . All thanks to my Sinus problem I hardly step out to enjoy snow, but this magical light pulled me out.

After that when  the community snow blowers were doing their best, I tried my best to record my son shine enjoying to his fullest.It's not that easy to capture him and that too when he is outdoor, enjoying something.

And my first trial on creating a GIF.

Holiday Spiced Apple cake

Where to start,I'm not sure. What to share I'm not clear. But I'm just going with the flow. It was one winter morning that we got connected to each other.Thanks to FB without which we wouldn't have met. We took our time to know each other. The first thing  that clicked for me is the straight forward approach. Slowly we started understanding each other. From that minute to until now , this is one such relationship I would cherish my life time. What relationship am I talking about ? Any clues....

Whether I'm bored , whether I'm confused , whether I'm super energetic, I have something to share . This one such bonding has given me so much . I have grown in leaps and bounds as a person and as a blogger. I have realized my pitfalls and started working on them. When hundreds are ready to pull you down when you are confused, this one will  be there to guide you, help  and constructively criticize . My day never ends without OUR little time. It is very common to help whenever you have a free time. But this one is a super busy bee, who works full time , but always plans things perfectly , which I feel is the ultimate strength.

Those where the days we send greetings with personalized messages, handmade ones , then came telephones to pass messages instantly. Now everything is through FB and Whatsapp. But this one made our Diwali a memorable one with her hand crafted tea and a personalized message leaving us emotional.

If you are still clueless , it's none another than Dolphia Nandi Arnstein from Storyofcooks. And after all. November is about Thanksgiving. I don't cook a ThanksGiving meal , that's when I decided to cook something and dedicate a post to someone who has been special to me.

Now coming to this apple cake, this is simple and straight flavors, mild sweet making it perfect coffee or tea time cake. I didn't wanted it to be rich , but you can add chopped nuts or dry fruits , if you prefer.

I have used white wheat flour , as I like to avoid all purpose flour/ maida. It's totally your choice. You can chose a combination of whole wheat flour and APF combination too.

Ingredients

White Wheat Flour ...................................... 2 cups
Dark Brownsugar .......................................1 cup
Butter ....................................................... 1 stick / 1/2 cup room temperature
Milk .........................................................1/4 cup
Egg........................................................... 2 large
vanilla Exgtract ........................................ 2 tsp
Salt ....................................................... a pinch
Baking Powder ...................................... 1 tsp
Baking Powder ...................................... 1 tsp
Ground Cinnamon ................................... 1.5 tsp
Nutmeg ................................................... 2 pinches, finely grated
Cardamom ...............................................1
Cloves ....................................................2
Apples ..................................................1 cup grated
Apples ................................................ thinly sliced for garnish

Method

Grease a bundt pan with butter and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a spice grinder , grind cloves, cardamom  with nutmeg and cinnamon.
In a medium bowl , sift together the flour, spices, salt , baking powder, baking soda.
In a large bowl, whisk together butter and eggs one at a time.
Add in the sugar and beat well along with milk. Finally throw in the grated apples and stir well.
Now mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in batches.
Try not to over do the mixture.
Transfer to the prepared pan and place it in the top rack.
Cook for about 25 minutes or until the tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool the cake and move it to the serving platter.
Arrange the thinly sliced apples and dust with a bit of spices to garnish.

Deepavali lehiyam

Wish you all a Very Happy Diwali !!! May the festival of lights fill your homes lots and lots of peace and prosperity !

When Diwali comes , our homes will be filled with sweets and savories. In Tamil Nadu , we have a tradition of making sweets and savories , and most importantly this Lehiyam. This involves jaggery , so do you think it's a sweet ? This contains loads of fresh ginger, now do you think this is a savory? If you have chosen any one of these, you are totally wrong. This is a kind of medicine we prepare to aid digestion as we might end up eating a lot of sweets and savories.

The prior night of Diwali , friends will be coming for sleep over and all girls will be having mehandi (tradition and natural tatoo). That night will be filled with endless chats, giggles and laughter.

The Day of Diwali begins usually with a heavy and loud noise from the fireworks to help us wake up(?). Mom would have prepared a special oil with pepper and ginger and she would generously apply a handful on our head and we will have a hot water bath chanting the holy bath sloga
" Ganga Cha Yamuna Chaiva Godavari Saraswati, Narmada Sindhu Kaveri Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru"

which literally means I invoke , water from holy seven rivers  into this water to become pure and blessed.

Mom would have kept our new clothes in front of God in a Manai( wooden plank). We pray God and get ourselves dressed up with all new clothes and accessories and lots of flowers too.The first thing that we eat on this day is this medicine to prepare our tummy. By that time Dad would have prepared a small hurricane lamp to help us with our fire crackers.  
Breakfast will be usually all the savories and sweets (Bakshanams) along with a tsp of this medicine. Some homes prepare Idli and chutney .

All these  traditional  and festival memories are so fresh , which i cherish the most and I feel it's my responsibility to pass it on further.

As you all might know about the medicinal properties of ginger , cumin and coriander, all these are the basic ingredients. If prepared in a correct manner this medicine stays well for up to an year in the regfrigerator. Every morning you can take a small marble size portion and help you regulate your appetite and aid in proper digestion.

Ingredients

Ginger ..................................250 gms
Cumin Powder .....................50 grms
Coriander Powder................50 grms
Jaggery.................................500 grms
Ghee ................................. 3 tbsp

Method

• Wash and peel the ginger, slice them into roundels and grind to a fine paste without adding any water to it.
• Now add the cumin and coriander powder and mix well and set aside.
• Mix jaggery and 1/8 cup water in a heavy bottom pan and heat in medium to let the jaggery melt.
• Now strain the jaggery syrup to remove any impurities and bring it back to the same pan.
• Heat in medium and let the jaggery syrup thicken to consistency that when you drop some in a bowl of water , you will be able to roll it well.
• Now add the ginger +cumin+coriander mix and cook in low to medium flame.
• About after 15 minutes of cooking , add 1 tbsp of ghee and keep stiring.
• later after another 5 minutes add another 1 tbsp ghee and again keep stirring.
• After another  minutes, you will see the mixture is becoming a single mass  now add the remaining 1 tbsp ghee and cook.
• In about 2 or 3 minutes you will see the mixture leaving the edges of the pan and resembles that of halwa.
• Turn off the heat and remove it from the stove.
• Let cool completely and transfer to a clean air light container,preferably steel one.
• After its completely  cools down , keep it refrigerated.

Serving Suggestion:

One marble sized ball every morning.

Sweet Potato Tikki with Cranberry Chutney

It's been a while since I'm here.Hope you guys are doing good. Well , at times we need to priorotise. It's Friday and I know my boy will be expecting something special. So managed to make this yummy and quick tikki and chat pati cranberry chutney to go along with it. If you wonder what tikki means, think of croquetts  or a small patty . This is not a deep fried version so eat guilt free and enjoy.

This Indian version of croquettes are yum with full of textures and flavors unique with Indian Cuisine. I've added some corns to get that crunch and slight sweetness from sweet potatoes along with earthy and warm roasted cumin , spiciness from chillies and some dry mango to cut through sweetness and loads of fresh coriander leaves, it's a riot of flavors in the mouth.

Tikkies ready to get shallow fried

Hot tikkis with a lip smacking dip can give you a best company when the weather is gloomy and ready to pour. If you like coffee or masala chai , then you can start a party there. Hope to meet to all with lots of writing and a good recipe, probably soon.

 Sweet Potato Tikki

Ingredients

Boiled Sweet Potatoes ..............................1 cup mashed
Corn ......................................................... 1/4 cup
Gram Flour ...............................................1 - 1 1/2 tbsp as needed
Green Chile................................................2 finely chopped
Roasted Cumin Powder..............................1/4 tsp
Turmeric Powder........................................1/4 tsp
Dry mango/Amchur ..................................1/4 tsp
Salt ......................................................... to taste
Fresh Cilantro ...........................................1/4 cup, finely chopped
Bread crumbs........................................... 2 tbsp
Oil ......................................................... 2 tbsp

Method

You can steam cook or roast in ovet to get the potatoes cooked to soft, peel and mash it well.
Mix everything else together other than oil and breadcrumbs.
Grease your hands with a bit of oil and divide the dough into equal sized balls.
Press between your palm to make a patty.
Coat them in breadcrumbs and arrange them in a platter/ baking tray in a single layer.
Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
At this stage, remove them from refrigerator and  freeze in Ziplocks for later use.
Heat oil in a shallow frying pan in medium and arrange in the  pan and cook till golden brown on both sides.

Cranberry chutney

Ingredients

Cranberry .................................... 1/4 cup
Oil..................................................1 tbsp
Asafetida/hing ................................. apinch
Red Chilli Powder............................ 1 tsp (adjust to heat)
Mustard............................................1/2 tsp
Salt ................................................. to taste
Curry leaves................................... few

Method

Heat oil in a deep pan/ Kadai.
Add mustard and curry leaves and allow them to crackle.
Add cranberries with rest of the ingredients and allow it cook til the berries break up and turn soft.
Add 1/2 cup of water and allow the chutney to boil.
Once the oil floats on top, turn of the heat.

 

Navarathri and Caramel Aval Payasam | Caramel Poha Kheer |

Happy Navrathri to all of you. Lots of interlaced memories around this festival. Navrathri a sanskrit word meaning nine nights(ten days) to worship Goddess in her different forms The first three days as Durga , the next three days as Lakshmi and the last three days Saraswathi. The tenth day is celebrated asVijaya Dasami .Every region in India has its own tradition . The city turns colorful and you'll notice more liveliness. You can read this post about Durga puja from my dear friend Dolphia to know about the Bengali traditions associated with this puja.

In Tamil Nadu ,  we start our preparations a week before as we arrange idols of god and related for the nine days pooja and we call it Golu. As kids we will look forward to this as we will be enjoying our quarterly holidays. The real fun begins when we get to open the idols wrapped in old clothes and papers from the trunk box. Some will be sparkling and some will need little bit touches. And the other fun is to set your garden set up to make an interesting golu. Amma used to allow us to bring in some soil and happily we will throw in some mustard seeds to get a natural grass set up.

The first three days we worship Goddess as Durga to destroy the evil mind and gain noble thoughts.
The next three days as Lakshmi to gain purification of mind and the last 3 days as Saraswathi to biuld knowledge on our purified mind. I remember Amma chanting slokas all day long and finally ending the morning pooja with Lalitha Shobanam and offering prashad to Goddess.Usually the morning neivedyams will be some form of sweets . Evening a simple arathi with another prasad , usually sundals ( lentils / beans boiled and sauted with simple tadka).

The most interesting part would be in the evenings you can plan and dress up in different costumes and visit other golu's (other houses) to show case your costume and taste some sundals and all accross the walk you get to discuss and compare about costumes with friends...You get to see so any police man , musicians, some kids dressed up as women with saree and boys with dhotis.... so much fun ... those were the days....

The eighth days is worshiped as Ayutha Pooja and the ninth day as Saraswathi pooja. We arrange all uour books before Goddess Saraswathi and is a norm that we don't read that day. The tenth day is Vijaya Dasami ... meaning victory by gaining good knowledge. I remember my Paati ( Grandma) saying , first you throw all bad thoghts, clean your mind so that you can gain knowledge....This is the day we pray Goddess and take a book from the set and read.

Now for the recipe, it is a quick version of payasam , you can make this in under 30 minutes from start to finish.


Ingredients

Aval / poha/ beaten rice................1/4 cup
Sugar ............................................1/2 cup or little lesser
Whole milk ..................................2 cups
Saffron......................................... few strands
Cashews and raisins ................... few
Green Cardamom....................... 3 , crushed
Nutmeg Powder .......................... a pinch
Salt ............................................. a tiny pinch
Ghee ......................................... 2 tbsp

Method

• Warm the milk and add saffron strands and set aside.
• Heat a tablespoon ghee in a heavy bottom pan and roast the cashews and raisins separately,set aside.
• Add remaining ghee to the pan and roast the poha/ avan/ beaten rice and roast until a nice aroma comes , just for about a minute or so and set aside.
• Now add the sugar to the same pan and keep cooking until it is caramelised and a beautiful color is achived.
• Now slowly remove the caramel from heat and stir in the milk with saffron whisking continuously.
• This is the right time to add in nutmeg powder.Let the milk come to a full boil and reduce a bit. 
• Now add in the poha/ aval and cook until it is cooked well and the mixture comes to a kheer / payasam consistency. 
• Add the crushed cardamom just before taking it off the heat.
• Finally add in the roasted cashews and raisins. Enjoy hot or cold.