Carbo loading - fill stomach to fill heart

Lakshmi is running the Nike Women's Marathon this year on October 21st. One of the standard practices these days in our house is to have a carbs packed dinner (aka Carbo Loading) to Friday night as it helps her during the run. When I ran a marathon last year, Lakshmi (or sometimes her mom) used to prepare this dinner for me - which usually was either Pasta (or) Quinoa (pronounced keenwah). Since the roles have reversed this year, I was making Pasta for dinner on Friday night

Just to have a change this week (L had hinted earlier to me about a Pasta overdose), I decided to cook something else instead and searched for recipes on the net and decided to make the following - Minnestrone soup (L loves soups), Vegetable Chinese Fried Rice (L loves Chinese style fried rice) and Potato Fry (L loves potatoes)

Soup was served first as an appetizer, but L loved it so much that she had 2 bowls full. The fried rice and the potato fry also turned out to be really good and we had a hearty-carbo-loaded meal

Both our stomachs and hearts were full :-) It was immensely satisfying to be able to cook something for my dear L

Happy Birthday Ma(amiyar)

Today is L's mom's birthday. Here's wishing her a very happy birthday

P.S: This is a post on L's behalf from L's better-half :-)

Shake it up for dessert

After a quick/light dinner last night, I was still craving for something to feed that little corner in the stomach. Technically, I wanted to have a dessert. I thought of eating some fresh fruits and went to the pantry....lo and behold!!!...I decided to shake it up instead!!

I grabbed some fresh bananas, some organic frozen blueberries, a glass of milk, half a glass of water and pinch of sugar. Threw them all into the blender and in less than 60 seconds a healthy dessert was ready. It wasn't too sweet or sour. Though I can't really vouch for it, I felt that the flavors of the banana/blueberries kind of counter-balanced each other. This treat can help to add a boost to your breakfast or for a quick dessert after lunch/dinner

"Romba nalla irukku appa" from Vidyuth is endorsement enough for me and made my day!!

Pottered!!!

Thats the word I'd like to use for joining the never-ending Potter fan club, after years of wondering what all this hype is about. From a oh-its-just-another-story to oh-my-God-what-was-i-thinking, the transformation has been supersonic, thanks to L

Finished watching the first 4 parts. Will watch the 5th very soon, probably even before anyone gets a chance to read this post!! Such is the obsession at the moment that 6th and 7th parts will be seen FDFS (First Day First Show) whenever they get released

Time to party - in Tamil Nadu (update)

The following article (needs user id/password) seem to be answer to the question that I had posted here

Teething pain, yet can't speak about it!!

For the past 1 week, our little one, Vishruth, has been very cranky. To name a few traits - uncontrollable whining/crying, begging to be lifted, erratic sleep patterns. L and I were wondering what the reason could be and didn't arrive at any conclusion. Little did we expect it was actually due to him teething again.....During one of his crying episodes, I spotted 2 little milk white teeth sprouting adjacent to the couple on his lower jaw....no wonder all those signals that he was giving us - sudden and severe diaper rash, constant shrieking sounds and shoutings pushing the limits of our ears now makes sense.

However from his perspective, being in so much pain and yet to not be able to communicate it....i can certainly imagine how frustrating that can be...

Vinayakar Chathurthi and Kozhakattai (Italian Style)

From the title, you probably wonder what the heck I'm talking about. Well read on...Saturday Sep 15th was Vinayakar Chaturthi and it's customary to make Kozhakattai (rice dumplings - sweet and spicy) to offer as Prasadham to the Lord. However due to unavoidable circumstances, we couldn't do it this year. We did offer some sweet milk, fruits as Prasadham and kept it as a simple affair.

Based on the recipe that I recently saw here , I decided to make some Ravioli (2 filling types - Spinach/Mushroom and Sun-dried tomato) for dinner for my dear wife. The ravioli came out pretty good and my wife enjoyed it. She also quipped that we did make Kozhukattai i.e Ravioli are just flattened Kozhukattai's and I coudn't agree more.

We had some fillings (both kinds) left over for Sunday and L ingeniously whipped up some Ravioli Parmigiana for dinner and quite a meal it was....Thanks L

Love and love only

என்ன காயம் ஆன போதும் என் மேனி தாங்கிக் கொள்ளும் உந்தன் மேனி தாங்காது செந்தேனே
எந்தன் காதல் என்னவென்ரு சொல்லாமல் ஏங்க ஏங்க அழுகை வந்தது
எந்தன் சோகம் உன்னைத் தாக்கும் என்ரென்னும் போது வந்த அழுகை நின்றது

very powerful lines, how very true....aptly written (Padmashree Vaali), divinely tuned (Maestro Ilayaraja) and grippingly emoted (Padmashri Kamalahaasan)...

P.S: Why hasn't Ilayaraaja been awarded a Padmashree? Not that it affects his composing abilities without one, but as an ardent fan of a musical genius who has contributed immensely to the music field, I can't help but wonder....Well that's a subject matter for another post!!

Cyberspace to Outerspace

Way to (go)ogle!!

Happy Teacher's Day

A very Happy Teacher's Day to all those teachers out there.....

Time to party - in Tamil Nadu

I read on the net that Sarath Kumar, a prominent actor from Tamil Nadu has floated his own party with much fanfare to further his political ambitions. Only last year, Vijaykanth, yet another actor from South, started his own party "Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam". With every tom, dick and harry from tamil filmdom starting a political party, only time will tell if they can topple the usual suspects, DMK/ADMK in the Tamil Nadu political arena!!

Cute Couplet

I read this short but sweet couplet eons ago somewhere. I can't recall where and so can't reference the source. Anyways, here it goes

"Life is sweet, if we make it so;
If love is there, let the hearts overflow"

Labor Day Weekend

Whew!!!! Just to live up to the name, the weekend was full of labor.....loads of laundry, folding clothes, vaccum, cutting veggies for the week etc...

Lakshmi had her marathon training run on Saturday morning. So I prepared lunch - chana masala, tomato rasam and white rice. I also made kichdi for Vishruth. Saturday evening was an Oriental and not-to-be-forgotten one. Lakshmi made some out of the world items like Vegetable Manchurian, Cauliflower in Schezuan sauce, rice and noodles. Yummy....

Lakshmi also took the initiative to re-organise the rooms (kids and ours) and the result....for the first time the kids slept in their own rooms and we in ours (Sept 2nd 2007, day to remember). Lakshmi and I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, very peacefully after putting the kids to bed

Lakshmi made some really wonderful Thenkuzhal, Seedai (salt and sweet) and Semiya Payasam for Sri Krishna Jayanthi (Lord Krishna's birthday). Vidyuth thorougly enjoyed the process of preparation and helped his mom as well . It came out so good that even Vishruth, nibbling on small pieces, semeed very content. We also distributed some to our neighbors before proceeding to the temple for a quick prayer visit