shanta

my little one's daycare lady makes a green smoothie for the kids with spinach, carrots, banana, berries, sometimes she adds fresh apricots from her backyard - the little ones love it! i tried it once, it was okay but not sweet, i like my smoothies a bit sweeter. maybe adding some honey will do the magic. she also makes a fruit smoothie for her own kids with costco's frozen mixed berries - i've tasted this, it's sweet and yummy!

looks like guava.

Ummm! Parle Gs! That's my breakfast with a cup of instant coffee! I love dipping'em in my coffee and manage to get them out whole! We recently bought a whole box(around 200 packets) so that we don't have to go buy them often! Great blog, Monica, loving it!! Do we get to see a picture of the little monkey?

Great blog, Tammy! I'm looking forward to all those baby food recipes, please do post some pictures of Liam's meals! My almost-14-month-old is such a picky eater, am always looking for new ways to get her interested in eating.

Shanta, Thanks for paving the way, I'm going to try that also. ← Just a word of caution: These baked ones seemed to be HOTTER than their deep-fried version. Hubby has the habit of munching on these before dinner, he had one last nite and it was so hot, he felt it burn all the way down to his stomach and we had to call urgent care! I'll have one with curd rice for lunch today.

FaustianBargain, I tried baking instead of deep frying and it was great! Got the dark/black color too :)

Yup! I made some recently in my oven! ← get outta here!!! you baked it instead of frying it??? how do you get that dark black colour? ← Ummm! Lemme get this straight - 'more milagai' are those green chillies soaked and dried in the sun, right? If so, instead of drying'em in the sun, I dry'em in a warm oven for a few days until all the moisture is gone. They still need to be deep fried, though.

Yup! I made some recently in my oven!

fish-kalakukko! No idea what that is, though! [ that's the name of the image ]

Whippy, You can buy Rasachandrika from Popular Prakashan, they do ship outside US, shipping charge may be more than the book's price(around US$7 total for this book and shipping cost to US, but in USD it's still cheaper than at Amazon ;) Here's the link: http://www.popularprakashan.com/showbook.asp?bookid=211

It's one of my favorite fruits, too! It's called Sitaphal India, been years since I had one, now I'm craving!Are these available in US? If so, where?

kheema in ghee sauce?

Falooda!

percyn, looks delicious! do you have any recipes?

Basmati rice is not starchy and has a nutty flavor while sona masoori is a bit starchy and needs to be rinsed a few times until the water runs clear to remove starch before cooking. I use basmati rice only in pulaos, fried rice and to serve with any non-vegetarian dishes. For daily use, to serve with dhals and sabjis, I prefer sona masoori which turns out quite fluffy and not too starchy for my taste. I use 1 cup uncooked sona masoori rice to 2.5 cups water - you can increase or decrease the water if you like harder or softer cooked rice.

milagai, what ratio do you use for idlis? 2 sona masoori rice : 1 urad dal? shanta

Thanks, all, for the recipes and ideas! I'll try these in the next few days and report back :)

I have a few boxes of ginger snap cookies and wanted to use them as a pie crust or in any other recipes... Can ginger snap cookies be used in a pie crust? What kind of filling would you suggest? Anyone tried it? Any recipes or ideas that use ginger snap cookies?

You can eat fennel as is or lightly roasted, a tsp or so - as a mouth freshner.

Inspired by tonite's episode of Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals' "Stoup" - sauted onions+carrots, chicken stock with cheese ravioli+meatballs from Costco, baby spinach, some left over shredded chicken from yesterday's Quesedillas and a bit of curry powder and pepper. Yum, yum!!

4 more!!! Found 3 hiding in a deep shelf including Rani's Feast of India. Saraswat Cookery book arrived today Suman, you're gonna love this book - 93 pages are full of seafood recipes out of the total 212 pages!! The quality of the paper is not so good though :( - Shanta

Suman, You can order/buy Rasachandrika from Popular Prakashan, they ship outside India: http://www.popularprakashan.com/Showbook.asp?bookid=211 They have a branch in B'lore: http://www.popularprakashan.com/Contactus.asp?ntype=branches - if they don't have a copy, try one of the Saraswat Associations in B'lore. Rasachandrika has very few fish and egg recipes - it's mainly vegetarian with tons of recipes listed by vegetables. Found another Konkani cookbook, looks like there are a lot of seafood recipes: http://www.popularprakashan.com/Showbook.a...=add&bookid=210 - am ordering this NOW! Shanta

I have 47 Indian cookbooks , somehow I have two copies of a Gujarati cookbook = 48 total, if you count the duplicate Rasachandrika and a couple of Jaya V. Shenoy's cookbooks have the most "Frequent Cooking Miles" in my collection. ravum, how many pages are in Narayani Nayak's 500 easy recipes? Now you've made me a Curious George would love to have a copy. Shanta

Cut bittergourd into 1/8" round slices, season it with salt and chilli powder or pepper and either dry it in sun or bake (on low/warm) in oven until dry and crisp. Store in airtight container, lasts for months. Deep fry and serve. My hubby likes it as is if baked in oven You can soak it in curds or buttermilk for a few hours or overnite before the drying process to remove bitterness. - Shanta