In chronological order...the delicious times that were had at living with soy sauce and masala...
So, I follow quite a few food blogs. I am almost addicted to food blogs because I have some ridiculous fears that if I don't subscribe to them, I'd run out...of food blogs. In reality, the more I subscribe, browse, the more I find of blogs that I like and it is so bad that at this point, I just don't have enough time to browse/read them all. However, good food blogs have motivated me to improve MY food blogs with one of the goals being - to take better pictures. So I did some research and learned that one of the best things that you can do to take better pictures is take them in natural light. The problem for me now is during the weekdays, I don't get home until 5:30ish and by then, it's already dark! I can't believe it get so dark so fast in AZ. The solution to this is very simple. I can cook on the weekends and take pictures then and there but I rarely feel like cooking on the weekends. Weekends are time for the hubby and I to go out to eat or for relaxing on the couch while watching TV. Good times but definitely unproductive. As a result, my pictures are a little bit over-exposed but I am working on it.
Oct 21st
Now, my memory is a bit cloudy as these things happened awhile ago but by looking at the food choice, I can safely gather that I was on another one of my journeys toward a healthy lifestyle and diet. That means, eat lean protein and vegies so dinner was baked tilapia and grilled asparagus (seasoned with garlic, salt/pepper, tossed with olive oil and topped with Parmesan cheese). I have never used asparagus before but there was a big bag of yummy looking asparagus on sale at Costco so why not.
It was also beginning to cool down in Arizona (apparently for only that lone weekend). I decided to make us a hearty Italian soup (pasta e fagioli) to warm up the soul. This soup was DELICIOUS!! 5 stars and more and very easy to make. It's italian sausage with vegies, beans, and pasta. This soup will become a regular in this household.
Oct 25th
I finally cooked during the weekend but it was a slow cook meal and thought I started cooking it at 12:30 in the afternoon, it wasn't finished until 8:30 PM. I have always wanted to try making a pot roast but it was just too meaty a dish for me but I had a change of heart after purchasing a slow cooker. I have heard so much about how convenient a crock pot is so I went out and bought my own crock pot. Unfortunately, after bringing it home, I broke the lid while washing it. I was forced to substitute another lid that did not fit well. Lastly, I didn't realize that if you open the lid during cooking, you basically added more time to your cook time and I opened that thing a few time during the roasting. The result was a pretty good pot roast but I bet it would have been more tender if I didn't open the lid. Next time, I will just leave it alone. Nevertheless, we finished the pot roast within 2 days. Dinner that night was pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions with a side of butter garlic mashed potatoes. It was late and I was hungry (ie. grumpy) so I was in a hurry to eat but hubby insisted on taking pictures. I am glad that he did bust out the camera to capture our pot roast moment.
oct 27th - Diwali
After work, I rushed to the market to pick up some food and tried to make an Indian dinner in celebration of Diwali and a little surprise for the hubby. Diwali is one of Kar's favorite holidays and I know that he miss celebrating it in grande fashion with lights, fireworks, and SWEETS in India. He suggested that we visit India during festival time next time we go there so that will be what we will do, later. I went to the market and picked up some sweets, Jelebi, some milk sweet, and some vegetable samosas. I also made some coconut burfi for our neighbors (who weren't home when we visisted to drop of some sweets). Dinner was potato roast and drumsticks sambar. Unfortunately, we took only one picture of everything so this were all that we had captured.
Oct 31st
Halloween was PJ, unibrow, ugly moles, bad make-up, and moo shoes. I actually went to work like this...all of my coworkers were dressed up in PJs...I am contemplating whether I wanted to post my ugly make up face but I will at least post my moo shoes. We got to experience our very first "trick-or-treat" this year and the kids that came to our door were so cute. We decided to do that again from now on because this time I had to cut our candy giving experience short to catch a Hindi movie (Golmaal Returns). It was OK. It was "very expensive movie--hint hint" (Kar finally got a speeding ticket while we were driving to the movie via photo radar). This type of ticket is usually pretty expensive but does not add points to your driving record and/or insurance.
Nov 6th and soon after
Recently a popular Asian market in Arizona had opened another branch that relatively closed to my house. I decided to stop by Lee Lee (in Peoria) and picked up a piece of salmon and a couple of pomprets for fish fry. The salman was prepared the normal way that my mom prepared them which was frying and then topped with sauteed onions, garlic, and tomatoes. I also had some gyoza. The pomprets were prepared a few days later and it's Indian style. It was turmeric, chilli powder, salt/pepper, and ginger garlic paste. I followed Amma's recipe with addition of ginger garlic paste. Delicious, both style, Vietnamese and Indian. I really love fish and well most seafood.
Nov 17th
Beef fry, almost Kerela style - did not have coconut oil at home and substituted desecrated coconut for actual coconut chunks. I was too lazy to run over to the store and did the best with what I had at home. This was as Rachael Ray would say, YUMM-O! This dish was gone in a flash and Kar was giving it 6 stars out of 5 stars. I tried to be artistic in this picture. Does anybody see any improvements?
Happy belated Thanksgiving! We celebrated with a Thanksgiving meal cooked by Mimi's cafe. During out lunch, we got rained on, in fact, we got hailed! We sat outside on the patio and it rained with chunks of ice. We didn't need anybody to refill our iced water. The next day, we spent it SHOPPING. I bought clothes and Kar bought an XBOX360.
Lastly, I really despise terrorists.
Our thoughts and prayers for Mumbai.
On 2nd thought, I didn't want to end this post on a bad note so I am going to squeeze in a little bit more of update. Hubby was so sweet. He surprised me (almost) with a keyboard since my keyboard had a couple of buttons that didn't work. What a thoughtful gesture--- small gesture but a lot of heart! Thank you! I love those nice things that you do for your partner without any reasons.
Until next time...
