Adventures outside

Yemeni spices. Found this at global village in Dubai at the Yemeni pavilion. Thought it looked beautiful.   

A couple of years and kids later...

I don't perceive happenings in kitchen as 'adventures' anymore. Complete the task in hand quickly and scram out!

Re: Care for a cup of tea?

A status update on my tea addiction rehabilitation - think I'm almost there. Did without tea one whole day. Yippeee...

Care for a cup of tea?

My name is Jumana Abdul Majeed and I have been a tea addict for years.
The thought of sipping a good cup of tea drives me to get up every morning. Well, I mostly drink only 2 mugs of tea a day. Sometimes 3 and sometimes even 4. And the mugs are those huge IKEA mugs! I find myself looking at the clock at times during the day to check if it is tea time yet! I secretly hope the person who we visit serves us a good cup of tea (a 'good cup of tea' would be a strong milk kannan devan tea with less sugar)instead of cold drinks or worse - horlicks!

There! I got it out of my system. That is the first step in a rehabilitation program isn't it? to ADMIT.

well, do you think i would be posting this without sipping a cup of tea? You can be very wrong ;-)

One gooseberry a day...

I have developed this great interest in Indian gooseberry (aka Amla, nellikka) lately. Rich in Vitamin C and a lot of health benefits, its best eaten raw. I just LOVE the after taste sweetness that it gives. I am not sure if its psychological or if it is just purely coincidental, but my frequent cold occurrences have reduced tremendously after my gooseberry intake. I'm not joking! According to www.hinduonnet.com - "...it is the richest source of Vitamin C. In fact it contains more Vitamin C than that in orange, lime, guava or sweet lime. 100 gms of the edible fruit contains about 600 mg of Vitamin C. " (http://www.hinduonnet.com/mp/2002/03/18/stories/2002031800880200.htm)

I also like the pickled version of the gooseberry made at my grandma's place. All I had to do was boil some water in a saucepan, add some salt to it, drop the washed gooseberries into it, close the lid for a while and then transfer it to a jar after it cools down. I also added one slit green chilly to it.

Heavenly abode

It's very cozy and quiet in here. Dark too except for the thin ray of light that seeps through one of the broken hinges of the door to this heavenly den. Heavenly den indeed. We had voted this the most exotic place to be this summer. It's just got everything any of our kind can ever imagine - from luscious sugar, honey to a whole big plastic container of biscuits and confectioneries - our favorites. Cake mix, pancake mix, custard powder, caramel pudding powder... Then there is this area which we are not very interested in - rice, maida, aata et al. Not to say they are unvisited. They do have visitors alright. Smaller, bigger, different skin colored than us. But we do live in harmony with them. Its quiet and peaceful here most of the time. Except for the times when that lady barges in and distorts our organized lives. Oh no ...here she comes again! EVERYBODY ....SCRAM! RUN! HIDE! SHE IS COMING! "hey lady! Let me tell you something. We work very hard for this. Day in and day out. We don't stop. We don't sleep. We don't even stop to rest. You cant just come in one fine morning and shoo us away from here. We wont give up. So wipe that frown off your face, you lady with a bulging tummy and leave us alone! Be nice. Why cant you be more like that bespectacled tall guy of your household? We like HIM. He does us all a favor and leaves us alone. He even gave us access to the honey jar once. We were having the time of our lives then until you butted in and shut some of us inside! oh no...why do u always ignore my words and choose to shoo us down?" SWOOSH!.... there we go again .... flying into the air and all the way down to the kitchen floor. ah well... all we have to do is pop onto that floor fan, onto the wall and then back to the heavenly abode. the ants go marching one by one ...hurrah hurrah!

black pepper - add spice to your taste buds!

This King of Spices is one of my favorite ingredients in my kitchen. I always make sure I have got some ground pepper ready in my cabinet. Home ground pepper is what i prefer over the powdered black pepper that we get in the market. Fresh ground ones add a zest to your food. I think im really head over heals in love with this spice!

PHOTO: http://www.exportersindia.com/