Pongalo Pongal

We celebrated Pongal on Monday 1/14 in spite of being a week day. L made the traditional ven pongal and chakkarai pongal which was very delicious. We (read "me") couldn't wait for the neivedhiyam to be over and wanted to eat it right away. However He had other plans since we didn't offer it to Him, as for some reason we couldn't open the cooker. Apparently the safety valve wouldn't release. It took a lot of iterations from both L and me to finally pry it open before we could eat.

Anyways Happy Pongal to one and all

Happy New Year 2008

Wishing one and all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!

Thanksgiving Dinner!!

I have been in the US for 11 years now and I have been to only one American style Thanksgiving dinner so far. Most of the times, it's only vacation/shopping and never has it a been home cooked meal. At least until this year.

L and I have been married for 5.5 years and this is our 6th Thanksgiving together. L decided that it was high time to make a traditional (also vegetarian) dinner at home. She managed to prepare a delicious 6 course menu for us for dinner. The menu comprised of Green bean casserole, creamy polenta with spinach, baked asparagus with pistachios and almonds, fried potatoes, blueberry sauce and dinner rolls. Each of the these items need at least a post on their own to elaborate how good it was. They were absolutely delicious with the blueberry sauce being the clear winner followed closely by the rest

L also made some cheese quesadilla for Vidyuth. Vishruth had to be content with his paruppu saadham :-)

Overall it was a night/feast to remember!!

Happy Thanksgiving

L had a Thanksgiving potluck at work today for which she made some awesome mix-veg-aval-uppuma and cucumber raita ( I took the same for lunch too)

We had a potluck at my work last week for which I took (read "bought") some plum cake :-)

L also made some rava kesari for Vidyuth, which she couldn't make for his b'day due to lack of ravai. Vidyuth and his best-friend-at-home Akruthi immensely enjoyed the same

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!! We don't have special plans and we plan to just catch up on - sleep, talk time (L and I, not with kids), some of the Deepavali movies and a few other things....

In Love We Trust

I read this quote recently and wanted to share it with the readers of this blog. "You can trust someone without loving them, you can't love someone without trusting them"

It's a very true statement and full credit goes to the person who thought of the above

Happy Deepavali!!

Today is Deepavali (Festival of Lights). Though we typically wear new clothes, burst crackers, eat a lot of sweets/snacks, see all special programs on TV and visit relatives on this festive day when in India, today is like any other work day being in the US. Of course we relished on the goodies prepared by L for this occassion.

Best wishes for a very Happy Deepavali to one and all, and may peace, love, joy and prosperity be all around you!

Day full of treats....no tricks!!

My 33rd birthday was very special indeed. L planned as much as she could considering that she was just recovering from pain after her stupendous marathon on Oct 21st. She baked a Banana bread cake topped with some cereal on 25th night. She made me crispy fried green beans and french onion soup for dinner on 26th (my birthday).

Not satisfied without giving me a delicious 4-course, she made Veggie fried rice and Veggie manchurian for dinner on Saturday. All of the above were incredibly tasty as was evident from what was leftover (or not left over). She also got me a nice T-shirt, jeans and a cute ring

To sum it up, my birthday and the days preceeding and following it were full of treats....no tricks!!

Happy Birthday Guru

Here's wishing a very happy birthday to my dearest Guru.

Happy Birthday Father(-in-law)

Today's is L's dad's birthday. Here's wishing him a very happy birthday

Navarathri Celebrations - Golu

Our Golu this year

Navarathri Celebrations - Curtain Raiser

One of the things we do religiously every year in our house is the Navarathri celebrations. We actually take a lot of pride it and try to do it as sincerely as we can. Preparations are on in full swing in our for Navarathri this year. L and I have a ton of work to do. L is in charge of setting up the Golu steps, Golu, preparing Sundal for all the people who'll be visiting us to see the decoration. I'm in charge of ensuring that there will be enough sweets/savories for the visitors, preparing gift bags (or goodie bags as we are used to calling them now) for the ladies and the children

We both will have a lot of work for the next few days particularly on Friday and Saturday as we will have a ton of people visiting. We plan to visit our friends' Golu on Sunday

A real challenge this time will be to ensure that Vishruth doesn't climb up the steps or brings the house (or Golu) down :-) Vidyuth isn't much of a concern as he is going to be running around with the kids non-stop

More updates on the event will be posted at a later time....

Happy Birthday Brother(-in-law)

Today's is my brother-in-law (L's brother) Ram's birthday. Here's wishing him a very happy birthday.

Happy Birthday (Belated) Periappa

October 4th was my periappa's birthday. The least I could do to a man who has helped me and my family selflessly for all the time that I have known him, was to remember and wish him on that day. I didn't (and I feel ashamed and that's really how I feel). Here's wishing him a very happy (belated) birthday!!

Bay area 7 year anniversary and Gandhi Jayanthi

Today marks my 7 year anniversary in the Bay area. Yes, I came here on Oct 2nd 2000 and like many others that preceded me, I was hoping to make millions of dollars by joining a startup venture. Well we all now know what happened to those dreams....

Today also is Mahathma Gandhi's birthday and there is one quote of his that I would like to mention here....."Be the change that you wish to see!!"

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 :-)