Award Time!

Smitha and Ashwini have passed on this wonderful award to me. Thank you so much Girls! It always feels wonderful to be appreciated and I feel so encouraged to do better.

This award comes with some rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers (it’s tough as all are creative in their own way :))
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated

7 things about me...

1. I get along with all kinds of people and make friends easily. But there are very few who actually know me, I don't open up to people easily.

2. I like my privacy, I have to have time to myself doing whatever I want without an audience, sometimes just lie on the bed day dreaming. I can't stand people who assume that just because I'm at home and don't have kids I'm always free and have nothing to do.

3. I'm crazy about food. It wouldn't be really wrong to say that I live for food. It's my solution to all my worries. I'm especially crazy about all kinds of desserts(especially chocolate) and junk food.

4. I love to shop for clothes, shoes, bags and all kinds of stuff for the home. Currently I'm obsessed with kitchen items and I'm trying to restrain myself, feeling sorry for my hubby who is constantly pleading with me to stop:).

5. I believe in God, but not in religion.

6. I do not like to keep pets. I'm fond of animals and I enjoy watching their cute antics, but from a distance, I'd go crazy if they come anywhere near me, I feel terrified.

7. I love to read. I read atleast one novel a day, especially love thrillers and romance. I get so engrossed in them, I often imagine myself as one of the characters and say their dialogues out loud, Ya I'm crazy that way. Same in the case of movies, love them.

Now for the hardest part, nominating seven friends....

1. Anudivya

2. Ann

3. Bergamot

4. Lakshmi

5. Ivy

6. Priya

7. Sanghi

See ya'll soon....

Khaman Dhokla - Indian Cooking Challenge

This months dish for Indian Cooking Challenge was Khaman Dhokla. Dhokla is a Gujarati dish and one of the healthiest snacks, almost guilt free. It's also so visually appealing with its bright yellow colour and all the garnish, just impossible to resist. I made this last week when I had a couple of friends over and we enjoyed every bite.

This is a wonderful recipe...do try it.

Palak Chicken

Heyy...hope you all had a great weekend. I really enjoyed mine. We had friends over for dinner on Saturday, it was a potluck I was hosting and we had some awesome food. Then on Sunday we had arranged a surprise baby shower party for a friend at Round Table, played some games and had great fun.

Cooking took a back seat except for my contribution to the potluck, which was the Chicken fry I had posted a while back. The rest of the meals we just managed with some leftover's from last week which also included Palak Chicken that I had made on Thursday. I love to add spinach to gravies in which they won't taste so obvious and I love the green color it gives any dish. This is one such dish I like to make often and it's really yumm.

Palak Chicken
Ingredients:

150 gms spinach

4 green chillies

2 lbs chicken

1 big onion

1 tbs ginger garlic paste

1 tomato

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala

1/2tsp cumin powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1/4tsp turmeric powder

2 lbs chicken

salt to taste

8-10 curry leaves

Method:

Blanch the spinach and grind to a smooth paste along with the green chillies.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the onion till golden. Fry the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute.

Add the tomatoes and cook till the oil separates. Add the masala powders and fry for a minute.

Add the chicken and mix well. Add the salt, cover and cook for about 5 mins. Add the ground spinach and curry leaves and mix well. Add some water if necessary.

Cover and cook on low heat till the chicken is done.

Check the seasonings and remove from heat. Serve hot with naan or chappatis.

Challah Bread

Last weekend we had been to NASA, something I've wanted to do ever since I got here, but it was such a disappointment. We had to wait in the car for over an hour to get through the gates and there was nothing to see. There were some games n all for kids, lectures about space missions and I could not catch a word of it, there was so much commotion in the tent. I was basically in a sour mood with it being so hot n all, I'm sure I've mentioned that I cannot stand the sun. But the day ended well, we were a big group and went to one of our homes and played games and stayed till dinner.We were really tired at the end and although I had promised I would get back to blogging by Monday I couldn't bring myself to write a post until today.

The oven in this apartment is even bigger that the previous one and I could not wait to use it. So it's great that I have been paired with Tania of Love Big, Bake Often for Taste n Create this month. She has got amazing recipes for baked goods, but the one thing that caught my eye was the Challah. It's been ages since my last bread and this was a braid, something I have seen in so many blogs.

I finally baked it yesterday and everything went so smoothly. The dough was easy and the braid was a breeze....lots of practice with my hair:-). You can get the recipe here.

I used rapid rise yeast as that was all I had and so I could avoid the first rise. I really wanted to take step by step pictures but the camera was still in the car after the weekend trip and so this was all I could manage after Manoj got back from work.

My bread browned within the first 15 mins, so I had to cover it with foil. Baked for 40mins and it was perfect. My home smelled heavenly for hours.

I prefer the bread warm and had some as soon as it had cooled down a bit.

Had some for breakfast today with some chole...Yumm!

Also sending this to Susan's YeastSpotting.