Memorable memorial day weekend

This memorial day long weekend turned out to be very memorable. We had a family reunion at Gatlinburg for 18 people. We had family from Australia, India, Kuwait, Detroit and Atlanta. The ages ranged from 3 years to 72. Surprising part was that everybody had fun. We rented a furnished house for three days so all of us can hang out together.

We reached there on Saturday and went on rope car. We watched Uthama Puthiran movie starring Dhanush and Genelia. It was a family fun movie. It was a clean movie with no violence or cursing. Watching with the group doubled the enjoyment. Vivek's acting and comedy is super.

On Sunday we went to Clingman's dome and Cades Cove. I got to climb rocks with my 6 yr old niece. I was happy that I could climb Clingman's dome without too much stress. On the way down, we got to see a bear and a cub in the distance. We had picnic lunch near the stream at the foothills. Once back in the house, we watched the movie - Pancha Thanthiram - a Kamal movie. Crazy Mohan's dialogues are clean and rip-roaring funny.

We even got to play dumb charade - men against women. It was fun to act and guess the made up words to trick the other group.

My daughter asked how was the weekend. I just told her in one line - "your father did not touch his computer for whole three days". He is a computer addict - has to check emails the moment he wakes up and sleeps with the computer by his side at 2 or 3 am. So it tells a lot when he did not think about computer for three whole days.

My co-sister who was reluctant to close the business and come on vacation commented on the way back that we should arrange more of these family gettogethers. My younger daughter was envious that she could not join due to her summer course and mid term exams.

She also pondered why we did not go on this kind of fun trip when just four of us had family mini vacations - most of them were filled with sight seeings in a hurry - we tried to see too many places in too little time so we can cover many places. But we never got to see the real things. We were like an army - focused without any distractions. She is an outdoor person and likes rock climbing and hiking while her sister is a jogger. My husband likes to do things faster - even when two of us go for a walk, he will walk few yards ahead of me and then would try to walk back and forth so I can catch up with him. I used to walk fast too till my father came here and commented - "why do guys do everything fast? even walking is a fast chore and you forget to enjoy nature and surroundings." Now when I go on walk, I try to admire the flowers in front yards and birds in the trees.

So overall, the memorial day weekend helped us all unwind and enjoy each other's company.

Recipe challenge

I went to a friend's house to use their massage bed. It is a Korean Migun massage bed with heated jade therapy. It relieved by lower back pain just after two trials of 30 min. each.

After the massage, Radhika offered me Carrot juice. I saw her husband making it in a juicer. They used carrots, apples and ginger. The juice was delicious. But I looked at all the pulp that is going waste. It has fiber and all the other nutrients. Radhika gave me the pulp and said try making something out of it that is edible. Last time somebody tried to make carrot halwa out of it and it tasted like cardboard and we had to throw it.

I took the challenge. I made Carrot Dosa for main dish, carrot chutney for side dish and carrot halwa for dessert.

I gave it to her and she liked the halwa a lot. She felt that the chutney was not spicy enough. (since I could not figure out how much apple pulp was in the mixture, I underestimated the amount of spice needed.) I am waiting for her to try the dosa and give me the feedback.

Here are the recipes:

Carrot Halwa: (takes 20 minutes to make in the InnoStir automatic stirring pot)

Milk - 1 cup
carrot + apple + ginger pulp from the juicer - 1 cup
almonds -2
cashews -2
pecan -2
walnut - 2
pepitos - 6
pistachio -2
elaichi (cardamom) 1
sugar - 1 1/2 cup
butter - 1 tbsp

Grind all the nuts and cardamom in Innomix Surya big jar. Then I add the pulp from carrot juice and milk. Blend again till it is a smooth paste. Remove the ground mixture. Now add sugar to the big jar and pour into the mixture. This helps clean the nuts and the ground mixture stuck to the blades and side of the jar. (minimum wastage of food).
Turn the Innostir on and set the temperature to 200F. Turn the knob to continuous stir. Add butter and wait for 20 seconds (for the butter to melt slightly). Now add the sugar + ground mixture to InnoStir. Close the lid.

After 12 minutes, remove the glass lid and continue cooking. Turn the InnoStir off after 5 more minutes. Check the halwa is done by touching it with wet finger. If it does not stick to your finger, it is done.

Cool it and enjoy. If you want, you can garnish it with slivered almonds and raisins.

Carrot Dosa:

carrot + apple + ginger pulp from the juicer - 1 cup
Raw rice - 2 cups (soaked for 3-4 hours)
Red chillies - 12
curry leaves - 6
jeera - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

Grind all the ingredients (except rice) with 1/2 cup water  in Innomix Surya big jar. Once it makes a nice paste, add soaked rice and 1/2 cup water and grind till the rice paste is smooth. Season it with mustard seeds, uard dhal, hing and curry leaves. Prepare the carrot dosa batter 1 hour before making the dosa.

Now heat a tawa and pour one ladle of carrot dosa batter and spread it nicely. Do not spread it too thin. Pour 1/2 tsp oil around the carrot dosa edge. Close the tawa with lid. Cook it in medium heat for 2 minutes. Now open the lid, flip the dosa and cook it without the lid till the other side is cooked. Serve with pickles, sambar, chutney or carrot chutney.

Carrot Chutney:

carrot + apple + ginger pulp from the juicer - 1 cup
Chana dhal - 2 tbsp
urad dhal - 1 tbsp
red chillies - 6
jeera - 1/2 tsp
dhania (coriander seeds) - 1 tsp
tamarind paste - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
brown sugar - 1/4 tsp

In a skillet, add 1/4 tsp oil and fry  urad dhal, chana dhal, red chillies, curry leaves, and hing. Then add jeera and dhania. Once the dhals turn golden brown in color, remove from the heat and transfer to a plate. Let it cool for 5 minutes.

Use Innomix Surya mixie small jar and grind the roasted mixture. Then add carrot pulp, tamarind, salt, brown sugar and grind again. Make sure that the mixture is not too smooth. Take it out when it is of sooji (cream of wheat) consistency. Add little water while grinding, if needed, to make a paste.

In the skillet, add 1 tsp oil and pop mustard seeds. Then add urad dhal, curry leaves, hing. Once the urad dhal turns golden brown in color, add the ground carrot chutney and saute it for 2 minutes on medium heat. Once the water evaporates, remove from heat and serve with dosa.

This chutney can stay in the fridge for one week.

Lightning Strikes -close encounter

Lightning - it is pretty if you look at the pictures. Lightning is frightening if you see it's furious face up close especially if you hear a loud thunder followed by it.

Yesterday, bunch of our friends met in a common friend's house to plan for their daughter's upcoming arangetram. Pot luck dinner and good time with friends. We were all having fun. Planning for the arangetram is similar to planning for wedding (in India they compare conducting a wedding to building a house). Lot of tasks. lot of work. But it also becomes lots of fun when you get together with your friends and share the tasks.

Around 11 pm, we heard a big thunder followed by a bright light. We were not sure if it is lightning or somehting else. We saw a bright light through the shutters of the window. It looked wide and seem to be lasting little longer than a typical lightning. We all came up with different theories - may be somebody is celebrating with fire crackers, may be a transformer got hit by the lightning etc. We went to their deck but could not see anything. There was no power outage in the neighboring area. Turning on TV we found out that there is a severe thunderstorm warning in our area till 4 am. So we all decided to leave and go home before weather gets bad.

Today our friend called and solved the mystery of the bang we heard yesterday. The tree in his neighbor's property which is closer to his fence (about 20 feet from the place we were sitting in his house) got hit by the lightning yesterday night. It just burnt but fortunately, the rain prevented the fire from spreading to the neighboring trees. I have not experienced the thunder and lightning that close before.

Really God has been watching all of us. It could have been worse. I can not thank God enough for sparing all of us yesterday.

laughter yoga

Kids and babies laugh about 300 times a day. As they grow, we make sure they grow out of laugh. We think it is silly to laugh too often. Age and number of times we laugh are inversely proportionate.

In India, when we were growing up, girls were expected not to laugh too loud. You will be scolded if you laugh loud especially when our parents have guests or visitors. Now scientific studies have shown health benefits of laughing. Dr. Madan Kataria of India has started laughter yoga movement to bring harmony and peace in the world while improving your health.

I just joined  a laughter yoga and it is helping me mellow down. Laughter has helped me to relieve stress.
I took my daughter to laughter yoga. She is usually very vibrant and has a nice laugh. So she did not appreciate that we have to fake laughter to get the health benefits of real laughter. She has the real thing baby!

There are different kinds of laughter. (I am not talking about sarcastic laughter). I have a friend in Oregon who has the most beautiful laughter. Once you see her, she will make you forget all your worries and start laughing. Her laughter is very contagious. In fact I was talking to one of our common friend who mentioned that when she was in high school, she could hear Shivi's laughter across the building. My older sister laughs very quietly without making any sound. My unlce used to refer it as lightning - it will come in a flash and disappear fast. My younger sister used to laugh loud and my uncle referred it to thunder. It comes loud and it is continuous.

This is the first blog I am writing. I hope it inspires you to laugh and forget your stress.