Ladled

While driving by a ranch today I wondered why ranch dressing was called so. Wiki says it was first made at a ranch. While travel writer Jennifer wilson goes to her Croatian ancestral village in Running away to home , Susan Conley goes to Beijing in  The foremost good fortune Jiaozi  and biaozi qipao Hami melon

With a friend for breakfast, I wanted to make rava pongal. I had the split moong dal with husk. The rava pongal turned out tasty none the less. Dessert was double ka meeta, recipe from Sanjay Thumma. Instead of rabri, I used condensed milk. Evening snack, Bhel puri. A thing about recipes is that some ingredients decide if you are going for it or not. One recipe I saw called for aloo and chole. Boiling chole would need some soaking and so planning ahead. I was glad to find another without these. There is something fun about pepping up something as plain as puffed rice into a snack with all the crunchy sev and papdi(I used chekkalu instead).

Today at the oriental store, I saw a naked black bird and wondered what it was. Silkie chicken. Few minutes ago, I knew I had to look up something related to food but couldnt call it up. TV news showed a lady chased by a wild turkey. Bingo. Tomorrow surprise breakfast. Rawa pongal from show me the curry. Me : Can you show me how much is a pound? Butcher: one leg Me: No, how much meat in a pound? B: one leg Have to try Naan. Why eat with one hand? Today while having a chicken pita for lunch, I felt like dunking pieces of chicken into the tzaziki sauce, which way I got my fingers greased. With those very fingers, I grabbed a big coke glass of water and lo behold, a wet-floor-caution scene appeared in no time. pretzel bun

Having made aloo cutlets - shallow frying, I wanted a baking way for drumsticks. I was looking for a recipe, with chicken drumsticks in Indian spices. I needed something without bread crumbs. I marinated the chicken in yogurt and spices and then baked it. It worked well for me. I had put in some potato wedges. I am half way done with 10 pounds of them. Next time I should remember to add other veggies.

Last night we had Kathi rolls for dinner. The first time I enjoyed them was at a street side, Zaika rolls in Noida. The vendor had a stove at his standing level, he would first put the roti on the tawa and then pour a beaten egg onto the top and then flip. Once cooked, he would stuff the egged side with a spicy chicken curry that was generously mixed with onions cut lengthwise. At the office cafeteria, they served Kathi rolls served with cabbage but no layer of egg inside. When you have street food, you can learn how to make the food too. I have my eyes set on bhelpuri.

My neighbor once offered me a sweet dish. She had boiled diamond shape cut rolled out dough in water, sugar and elaichi.She introduced me to Knol-knol/Kohlrabi. Know your ingredients I made upma after learning how to from my mom. As I came to the end of the process, I realised the upma wasnt soft to the touch and was uncooked to the palate. Later I had to throw it all away, as I had made it with Idli rava  instead of Upma rava . When I met my husband first at his apartment, he recalled how by mistake he had once given someone salt instead of sugar. As a symbol of a sweet life ahead he wanted me to start with sugar in my mouth but ended up putting salt. Potluck For an SUPW  class, each of the students had to bring something they cooked. I hadnt learned cooking by then. one year my mom made vegetable biryani. Many of us did that, passing off food cooked by our moms as our accomplishment. another year we dunked chunks of whole bread in bengal gram batter and fried them. I ...

Recently I had potato fry at my friends BBQ and next visit at Costco made me an owner of 10lb of potatoes. My first trial was aloo fry and then aloo parathas. With some stuff still remaining, I wanted to make puff pastry. To inform myself on making puff pastry at home, I watched some videos. I was convinced to make cutlets by resorting to shallow fry than to hide a slab of butter in rolled out dough. When I put forward this step above from non-frying me, my husband was flying on the magic carpet of curry puffs. I couldnt become the perp so I made Pepperidge farms puff pastry, the silent accomplice. It was a hunt finding it. Knowing that the sheets are thawed, I knew where to find it. the frozen section. At my eye level, there were boxes of pumpkin pie. Last week we recieved  a 12" pp instead of a $75 rebate. I think it was worth it, all that lardering up the body. When I tracked down the pastry sheets with a representatives help, I thought I might have never found it, given th...