Uma's Soap Box

Pranav says NO TO HOMEWORK

2010-03-28T04:44:00.000-07:00

Today is sunday and tommorow is monday..back to school time... :(

Friday when I went to fetch Pranav from school, he gave me a book found a note in the book. The note goes this

"Dear Parents,

Can you guide Pranav to do this

exercise at home because he doesnt want to do at school.

Thank you....

From Teacher Faten :)"

When I saw this I was actually laughing, but wanted behave like a mom so went straight to the teacher and asked her what happend madam, she was so nice she said Pranav was not in the mood to do the exercise, So pls make him do this at home. ah ah ah...Its a very big task the teacher gave me..
Saturday we went out for shopping and came back only by 9:30 PM, so no time for home work...hahahahaha...
Sunday, my hubby decided to make pranav do his homework...He says...No appa, na paanamathain Pls appa ennaku ...he says he wants to sleep...and says I dont want to do any homework appa pls...
Appa says no pranav no TV. u have to do ur homework. all in the vain, My son goes to my MIL and says her Paati keelai povaveenam, Appa enna Home work panna sollara. Ennaku Home work NO.
Thats it Sunday is over now...and HOME WORK GOVINDA GONVIDA...

Certification

2010-01-31T05:04:00.000-08:00

Atlast did something nice. Cleared some certification. It was a bit difficult to study but no fear did some of my certification here goes the list
It was fun to study....but very much different in doing this certification loved it so much..so perparing more and more and more....
1. Java - SCJP
2. IBM FileNet Administrator 4.0
3. IBM FileNet Adminstrator 4.5
4. IBM FileNet Prerequisite 4.0
5. IBM FileNet Prerequisite 4.5
Will update more..........Coming Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnn

Pavaka-Coconut Podi

2010-01-31T03:50:00.000-08:00

Got some interesting chutteny podi, using Pavaka/Karela/Bitter Goudge. Its from my friend @ Taste of Mysore. U can get the receipe details from here

For my reference, just making a note of it. Here goes

Ingredients

Biter Gourd : 1 No

Dry coconut/kopara - 1 Cup

Dry Red Chillies - As per the spiece required

Salt - as required

Tamarind - 1 samll piece

Jaggery - Small piece (I didnt had this)

Oil - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric and Salt for soaking Bitter Gourd

Preparation

1. Wash and Grate the Bitter Gourd and milk it with salt and Turmeric keep it aside for 1/2hr.

2. After 1/2 hr, squeeze out the water from the Bitter Gourd and add little water and squeeze our the water too.

3. Take 1/2 tsp of oil in a hot bottomed pan and fry the Red Chillies. Keep them aside, In the same pan fry the Grated Bitter Gourd till it is crips and then keep it aside to cool down.

4. Put off the stove and add the Dry coconut in the same Pan for sometime. After all these are cooled down.

5. In a mixer at the Red Chillie,BG,Dry coconut.Salt,Tamarid,Jaggery and powder it . Let it be a bit Coarse.

6. Serve it with hot Rice or For Dosa as chutney powder . ENJOY MAADI

Photo is not proper. Camera got some prb..Swapa Adjust MAADI PLS

Brinjal curry - Ghee Rice - Garlic Rasam

2008-11-22T22:06:00.001-08:00

Brinjal curry/ Kathrika Curry - Ghee Rice and Garlic Rasam

I learned this from my sister in law..she is a great cook...lots of her recipe yet to be posted will post one by one..

Today special was Kathrika Curry with Ghee Rice and Garlic Rasam.

Here the recipe for Kathrika Curry.

Ingredients

Small sized Brinjal - 5 or 6 - cut them into 4 without taking the stem off
2 medium sized tomato
1 cup of grated cocunut
1 tsp of jeera
1 tsp of methi
2 medium sized onion
small peice of Ginger
2 to 3 garlic
a pinch of Turmeric powder
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
salt as per ur taste

Preparation

Grind the tomato's into a fine paste keep it aside

Fry jeera and methi separately and grind it to a smooth paste with Coconut

Take a pan, add some speices and then add ginger and garlic fry them and then add onion's fry then till they turn to brown, now add a bit of turmeric powder,

Add the tomato paste and the cocounut paste and fry wel, now add the chilli powder and the coriander powder, salt to it and fry for another 5 mins and then add the slit Brinjal to this gravy..let the Brinjal get cooked with the gravy..

Once the Brinjal is cooked, put off the stove and serve hot with Jeera Rice or Ghee Rice or with Chapati.

Ghee Rice - its the normal way of cooking but today we cooked Ghee Rice with cocunut Milk

Preparation of Ghee Rice

Wash the Basmati Rice and keep it aside

Take some Ghee in a pan, add some spieces to it, if u want u can even add Jeera and slited Green chilli, I just added Jeera today. Put the Rice in the pan add cocounut milk to it ( 1cup of Rice - 1.5 Cup of Coconut Milk abit diluted), add some salt as per ur taste. Pressure cook it for 2 wishtle and done..Ghee Rice is ready to eat.

Garlic Rasam

Ingredients

1 small tomato
2 to 3 garlic - Crushed
curry leaves
2 red chilli
Jeera and Peper powdered but not fine abit rough
Tamarid juice - 1 cup

Preparation

Take a pan add some oil to it, put some mastured , curry leave, Red chili and the finely chopped tomato and curshed garlic to it..now fry the above , after 2mins add Tamarid juice and mix wel, add salt turmeric powder,peper and jeera powder.

Leave it in slim for some time..Rasam is done - dont let the rasam boil with bubble..the taste of rasam will go if it boils..u have to let it pongivaranam (literally dont know wht to type in English) but it should be like the way milk is boiled :)

Aval Upma/Avlaki/ Pooha

2008-11-19T22:28:00.001-08:00

Pooha (Aval or Avul - Upma) / Avlaki

Ingredients :

Urad dal - 1/4 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/4tsp
Chana dal - 1/2 tsp
Onion - 1
Ginger - small peice
Pooha (Aval) - 750 gms
Jeera - 1 tsp
Green chillies - as per ur taste
Groundnut - 2 to 3 tsp (i usaully add more)
Salt
Coriander leaves
Curry leaves
Lemon juice - from 1 fruit
shredded coconut - 2 cups
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Preparation

Aval/Flat Rice 1cup - blend it once in the blenderSoak the Pooha/Aval for 3 to 4 mins and wash it well in cold water and strain it
And let it dry in the strainer for about 15 minutes
Heat some oil in a pan and add mustard seeds
Add some jeera and the dal, ginger and green chillies, groundnut,curry leaves
Then add the onions and fry them till they become golden brown
Then add the pooha and add little oil, and add the turmeric powder, salt.
Finally add the lemon juice,
when u serve Aval upam/ Pooha ,top it up with a bit of grated coconut and abit of grated carrot.

Serve them hot with chutnies

Aval upam/ Pooha is ready to eat.

Ras Malai

2008-10-29T23:57:00.000-07:00

The main Dessert Ras Malai...which i made for this deepavali...with no help from anyone at home....but i made a ISD cal (can u belive it) to talk to LG and bugged her with so many questions..anyway thanks LG for ur help...

Here goes steps how i made it..hopefully will get lots of comments to impove it, but it was yummy and came out so wel.....my mil was immpressed..

Ingredients

Ras

1. 1/2lts of Milk

2. 1 cup of Sugar

3. Cardamon - 1tsp

4. Badam and pista finely chopped

Malai

1. 2lts of Milk

2. Vinegar - 2tsp

Tto cook the Malai

1. 1 cup of water

2. 1/2 cup of sugar.

METHOD:

In a pan add milk and bring to boil.

When it starts boiling add Vinegar and stir continuously until the milk curdles completely.

Let it cool and set completely. Drain using muslin or cotton cloth using as much strength.

and tie the cloth for abt 4hrs.

Note- there should be no water left else the panner balls will break when put in sugar water.

now slowly form small round balls out of the panner

Meanwhile in the pressure cooker add 1 cup of water along with 1/2 cup of sugar. When the sugar melts in the water add just 10 paneer balls keeping a good distance between each of them and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Repeat the process untill all is done adding little sugar and water as required for each batch. (If u add all the balls into it the shapes with changes , so its better to keep distance b/w each balls)

In another pan heat the evaporated milk with sugar ,saffron and Cardamon and bring it to boil.

To this add the above malai balls draining them from the sugar syrup.

Now add the finned chopped Badam and Pista

Chill for a few hours and enjoy.

Rava Ladoo

2008-10-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

Another sweet made on Deepawali......

Here it goes

Ingredients
1. Rava 1 Cup

2. Sugar 1 Cup

3. Raisens

4. Cashews/Almonds

5. Ghee

Preparation
* Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee in a wide saucepan and roast the rava in it for a few minutes. When you start getting the pleasant aroma of the rava, switch off the heat and let the rava cool. Do not let Rava turn brown .
* Once the rava is cooled, transfer it to a blender along with the sugar and cardamom seeds. Blend them for a few minutes so as to mix the sugar and rava well. But see to it that the rava does not become too fine (I made it too fine).

*Heat 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the raisins and cashews/almonds and allow to cool.
*Now in a small kadai melt the ghee, you can reduce the heat to the minimum amount so that the ghee remains in its liquid form until u are done with the laddoos.
*Take the rava+sugar mixture in a wide vessel or plate. Add required amount of ghee to form small ladoo's. Add the Dry fruits to the mixture

Rava Ladoo is Ready...:)

I am sending this to Sudeshna's Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth event

White Pumpkin Halwa

2008-10-28T02:42:00.000-07:00

My first try...Made this for Deepavali, This entry goes for
1) Priti's Diwali Celebration Event.
2) AFAM - Pumpkin hosted by Madhuram of Eggless Cooking
3) JFI - Festival Treat Event guest hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons

Ingredients:

White Pumpkin- 2cups (grated)
sugar- 1 1/2 cups (as per taste)
ghee- 3 tbsp
cardamom- 3
milk- 1
cupcashews and raisins- 1 tbsp each

Procedure:

Peel off the outer skin from the pumpkin and grate it. Squeeze out the excess water from the gratings. Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a kadai and add the grated pumpkin and broken cardamom. Saute until any remaing water is absorbed. Add sugar and stir well. Now add milk and cook on low flame till the pumpkin is cooked soft and all the milk is absorbed. Now the halwa should be in a semi solid stage. Add ghee little by little stirring till you get the halwa continuously. Then add the fried nuts, raisins . When the halwa leaves the sides of the pan switch off the stove. Serve this warm or at room temperature. Here is a bite for you too all

Happy Deepavali with Cocunut Burfi

2008-10-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Happy Deepavali to one and all...hope everyone had a nice time

This Deepavali was fun...my son was able to say HAPPY DEEPAVALI :) Enjoyed so much with my son..

(Pranav with his Dad)

I got some Plain Diyas from the shop

Painted Diya's Up side down

Light of Joy

Time for some bakshanam on deepavali

1)COCONUT BARFI RECIPE (Nariyal Ki Burfi)

Ingredients:
1 big coconut grated

1 tsp cardamom seeds (ground)

1 tbsp ghee

1Kg sugar

1 cups water

How to make coconut burfi:
Mix water and sugar in a kadai. Prepare one-string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water. Add cardamom and mix well. Add coconut to the syrup and mix welGrease the plate with gheeSpread the prepared evenly over the plate and allow it to cool. Now with the knife, cut it into desired shapes. Nariyal ki burfi/ Coconut Burfi is ready to be served.

Entry for JFI - Festival Treat Event guest hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons

and for Priti's Diwali Celebration Event.

Thank u note

2008-10-19T00:04:00.001-07:00

I tried Srikar's Mango-Carrot Rice it was cool, yum and great...had a nice lunch today..everyone at home liked it so much..thank u Srikar's Kitchen for such a nice Recipe..

Its a nice being in this blog world..learned at lot from all..now i have lots of option to cook...thanks to one and all...in the blog world

For Mango-carrot Rice Recipe pls check here

Carrot Payasam

2008-10-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

Carrot Payasam- Easy to make and yummy yum ...only that the color is not Red or the carrot color..i added less carrot today..

1. Carrot - 1 Cup grated

2. Sugar - as per ur taste

3. Milk - 3 cup

4. Cashchew - 10pieces

5. Cardomon

6. Badam - 3 chop into small peices or Grate it

Method

Cook the Carrot with lill water, Once the carrot is cooked, take it and grind it to a paste, then add milk , sugar and cardomon, let it boil it the qualilty becomes 1/2 i.e. it should become thick

Now take 2 tsp of ghee add, cashchew net to it fry till it becomes brown now add this to the payasam, add the garted Badam to it...

I made this just for 3 of us here at home :)

Yummy yum tasty tasty Carrot Payasam is done donna done

I am sending this to Sudeshna's Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth event

Sprouted Green Gram Salad

2008-10-18T07:42:00.001-07:00

Very simple and very healthy full of protien
Required

Green Gram dal - 1 cup
Carrot grated- 1 cup
cucmber grated -1 cup
raw mango grated - 1/2 cup

Method
Soak the green gram dal 3 to 4 hrs, drain the water of the Green gram dal and tie it with the cloth and keep it aside for a day ,next day it will be sprouted
now mix all the above ingredients, add some lime juice , salt and peper, just before serving
Sprouted Green Gram Salad is ready

Learned this from my MIL..she is an excelent cook..will post more from her, this one goes to Divya's Diet Food Event

Quilling

2008-10-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

My First Quilling.
I got a Quilling kit from my SIL, so tried to make some.
The best wishes card was the simple one.

Steps
1. make 6 petals i used approx 7.5cms of paper length - Eye shaped
2. 4 - 2.5cms of Green paper and rolled only on one side
3. 1 - 2.5cms of White paper to make the center of a flower
3. Arraged everything together with just a lill glue

Best Wishes card

Bunch of Roses

I learned this Roses from a tutorial which Vani had shared, if any of u need it I can send it thru email.

Masala Roti with Gobi Mutter Masala

2008-10-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Theplas or Masala roti - found this recepie from one of ur blog, they called it THEPLAS but it didnt turn out for me like THEPLAS...so i named it Masala Roti :)

THEPLAS
Spiced parathas.
Cooking Time : 25 to 30 min.Preparation Time : 5 min.
Makes 12 to 14 theplas.
Ingredients 2 cups whole wheat flour (gehun ka atta)
1 cup curds 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)
1 1/2 teaspoons chilli powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
2 tablespoons oil
salt to taste
Other ingredients oil to roast the theplas

Gobi Mutter Masala - Made this one in a different way.

Cook gobi and mutter keep it aside
Grind - 1 cup coconut, 2 tomato, 1 onion, 1 tsp garam masala, 1tsp sambar masala

Take a Pan heat oil, add cumin seeds and add one finely chopped onion, 3 to 4 green chilli's slit(based on how much spice u want), ginger and fry till the onion turn brown, add the grinded mixture to this and fry it , till the oil comes out( i still cant understand how oil comes out...my Mother in law helped me in frying this).. once done..sorry forgot to mention..pls dont forget to add salt....:)..add the cooked veggi's to it fry for another 5mins.....Hey its ready...lets have dinner
Yummy Yum

In the above picture, i dont think u can c the gobi , by the time i came to take the picture , my hubby and my MIL had almost finished there dinner ....so very sorry next time will take a better pic and show u.... have a nice day guy's

Jeera Rice with Kadi Pakora

2008-10-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

Today's Special - Jeera Rice with Kadi Pakora

I tried the Kadi Pakora punjabi style u can get the details here

Jeera Rice - Put some ghee in a cooker, once the ghee is hot add some Cumin seeds, Lavang, Onion, Green chilli Slit into two, fry the above till the onion turns brown now add the washed Rice to the above gravy and fry , now add water to cook the rice, dont forget to add salt...hey jeera rice is ready in 10 mins...cool na

Have a look

Jeera Rice with Kadi Pakora sending over to Aartee's Sapadu Ready Event

Night Lamp - Using CAN

2008-10-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

Sending this to: Can Art

I got inspired by Vani so much that...i used her idea and made a night lamp hehehehe

Preparation of Night Lamp

1. Clean the CAN

2. Cut open the top portion and discard it

3. Cut the CAN using Scirrors - long strip no:of strip depends on how u want it

4. i got a small blub with holder and connected it to a wire and plug

5. Ur Night Lamp is ready.

It is durable i think.. i started to use this in my room, I used a Red Blub it looks cool

Navaratri - Golu - 2008

2008-10-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

Navarati - 2008

Finally started off with my blog. First thanks to Priyanka who asked me start.

I have seen many of ur blogs They are so nice, Thats the reason i got tempted to start off with.

Kick started with Navarati celebration.

I loved to arrage dolls when i was young...my mom had lots of collections..was lovely, when i got married my parent's gave me lots of dolls as Sri-danam(dowry hehehehehe) sorry my parent's special gift to me...

After i came to Malaysia, this is my thrid year of celebration started to collect dolls here and take look and tell me how they are.

Arraged 3 steps -
Top Step - Kuberan , Ramar Set , some guys with instruments
Middle Step - Vennai Krishnan , Marapaachi boomai, My Coke Can swam
Last step - Ele the Elephant, Ganesha My Friend , Chatiyaar and Chatiyaaramma, Chinese Grandppa and Grandmma and Kalasham

Rice Grain Kolam for Ayudha Pooja/Mahanavam

Sending this to Navaratri Festive Food Event,hosted by Lakshmi of Taste Of Mysore