What makes you think that you are so damn important.

Sorry, couldnt blog yesterday. Super busy, left house at 8 to volunteer for art class for my daughters class. They made sculptures fun times indeed. Than went to another class, after class i got an invitation from my friend for chai and chat.  Tempting...I havent  chai and chatted with her for months. However,  before i accepted the offer i had to think like a responsible mom and housewife...i thought about the many tasks that can be accomplished if i miss this chai and chat.  Like dishes, laundry, vacuuming ( man i really need to vacuum).   Shoot, I need to cook too for my family, i have this really important lecture that i need to attend in the evening and i wont have enough time to cook anything if i go for my chai and chat. Than, i quickly contemplated on what i would cook. Something easy that my husband can handle serving and tasty so my kids wont take too long too finish. Oh yes, i can make pasta with chicken. Easy peesy. All i need to do is marinate chicken with montreal steak seasoning or just salt, pepper, garlic and whatever i have in my spice cabinet, and grill or quickly saute in pan. Boil some pasta preferably bow tie or penne or that twirly one rigatoni i dont know who cares. Quickly saute mushrooms, and oh yes that asparagus i bought from the farmers market which was a result of a very long and informative discussion on facebook on how to cook asparagus. I guess i can use peas, or green beans or even spinach anything green really, just to make sure we got the greens covered.  I chop up the asparagus and saute that too, got some sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts in the fridge, toss those in with the asparagus than toss in the cooked mushrooms and some good old jar of alfredo sauce ( I like classico brand and thats all ill use). Wait do i even have a jar? I guess i can make  the sauce. Its easy really:
1/4 cup butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

melt butter on medium, add in the cream simmer for  5 minutes toss in the rest of the ingredients and that's it really.

But i am totally hoping i have a jar. I hate chopping parsley!

So when the sauce is simmering I  add in the chicken bring to a nice boil simmer for like 10 minutes and let the flavors combine. I can do all that while the pasta boils. After, pasta cooks, add in some olive oil to prevent it from sticking. I can just ask shak (my husband) to simply add in the sauce before serving. (If I add it in too early than the ever moisture sucking pasta will suck the sauce dry and they ll be stuck with cheesy non saucy pasta with asparagus, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. No biggie i can so do that, I can even do that after the kids come home from school, it will be done in less than 30 minutes. Now back to my friends offer..So, i snapped out of my contemplation and i saw my friends face waiting for an answer.  I thought to myself..."screw it all" I'm going for chai and chat. All those things will be there for me tomorrow but spending time with my friend is priceless, its so not cliche. Me needs some my time too you know i am important. Besides i came home beaming with positive happy vibes, than after school one of my kids had  to go to her friends house for a very important school project, than the friends mom offered her to stay for dinner, the other offspring  came along with me to the lecture at the university i was going to in the evening.  My  husband  calls and says dont cook just for two people, he will take my son out for dinner. Good positive energy emits good outcomes.

I need to learn to be a bit more selfish, giving myself importance is a new thing for me. I have been completely exhausting myself of all my resources.  I need to revitalize so i dont end up hating what i am doing. I need to step back fuel up than get back into the race. I mean in this day age we are all like those race cars in a nascar race.  If we dont make a quick pit stop to fuel up and tune up. We will most likely BURN UP.

I firmly believe in the power of good intentions, if you make good sincere intentions with pure thoughts, God will absolutely definitely will help you accomplish it.  So far so good, i pray my intentions dont go astray and my sincerity stays firm to its purity.

Whats for dinner!!!!

Today, while i was sitting here wondering what to write, i got a reminder from my youngest child that i have to cook dinner. Seriously!  Everyday cooking in my house is very healthy.  I believe in the moderation diet, Eat everything but enjoy it in moderation,  use caution when you use your spices salts and fats.  So, today i made something extremely simple, it took me literally 30 minutes start to finish. I know genius right but no its not genius its efficient.  I made steamed rice, daal(lentil curry) and lightly spiced pan fried tilapia. It was light and yum.I got these tilapia loins the other day from Costco.  I took 6 out and submerged them in some warm water.
Rice:
 2 1/2 cup of basmatic rice, clean and rinse add water and cook it however you cook rice.
Than i get 1 cup of red lentils wash and rinse than add  2 cups of water.  Add spices
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chilli or whatever you desire
1 tsp garlic and ginger paste
1 tomato
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 lime juice
boil until the lentils are soft if the lentils are not cooked than add a bit more water and cook until completely soupy, add 2 green chillis , a little bit chopped cilantro and some curry leaves if you have any.  I didn't have any so no curry leaf in my daal..... than tarka it (tarka means to add hot infused oil into a curry)
basically you get a few tbsp oil in a very small pan, add a bit of cumin seeds, mustard seeds some dried chillies and heat it than you directly tarka the hot oil into the lentils soup.
(by the way: give me daal and rice any day and ill be happy, its the ultimate comfort food)

Fish
I remove the fish from the water and i add
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of chilli powder
2 tsp of cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic
massage the fish with the dry ingredients add 1/2 cup of flour and toss it so each loin (LOL) is covered with flour.
I get a large pan add a good amount of oil so the fish is submerged half way in.
I heat the oil slowly drop the fish into the hot oil and fry them until they are browned on both sides

You must remember the oil must be pretty hot or if it is even a little bit cooler the fish will become unbelievably oily.  The moment the food starts cooling the oil will start sticking so remove it quickly and place it on mesh or one of those racks so the oil drips off immediately. I obviously did not have that problem, i simply removed it from the pan to the platter without any excess oil stuck to my fish..... years of experience ofcourse.

Even though the above recipe looks like it has a lot of spices it really doesnt because when frying,  most of the spices float away into the oil so you are left with a very mild spiced fish.

happy eating!!!!

Just whining

So, after all those days i begin once again at the very beginning.  I mean i have been really irrtiated lately.  I mean what is a housewife to do with her time.  I mean i cant really afford to eat bon bons and watch soap operas.  I mean think of my very own bun bun and imagine the soap opera i will be going through shedding the excess filling out of my thighs. "So why are you so bored, i mean you have all day when we are gone, why dont you read" my husband says while i am seething with anger inside with a giant smile on my face. "why dont you start a blog or paint something or how about redecorate" my good friends and family members who work, go to school and have a life suggest.  "I wish i was in your position, the things i would be doing like taking long baths, watching jerry springer and watch whatever plays on tv these days".   Seriously i have absolutely no frikkin idea what is on tv these days.  I have just moved into our new house almost a year ago with a very fancy tub and i havent even used it once.  I dont even know if my tap works, what do i do with my time while my kids and hubby are away?  Before, when my kids were younger, i would be driving them around town to entertain them so they dont climb up the walls with boredom. Playdates were fun for mommy and child. Parks, libraries, malls or whereever the LA parents magazine suggest i go to entertain my very energetic child.  Now that they are older and have no time for me or  go to the park, library or mall  i am still finding myself driving around town aimlessly. But what housewife doesnt, sometimes i wonder if women go back to work just for this reason.  But than again the poor working women, they still end up coming to all soccer practices, basketball scrimmages and after school dances, programs etc. They do errands at lunch time, grocery after work and cook dinner. I  wonder how they do it;  why am i even complaining? Oh yes i am not complaining i am just bored out of my mind!!!!

lets start at the very beginning

"Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with A-B-C"
The sound of music the all time favorites of anyone who has ever lived in America or anywhere in the world in fact. The first lyrics are so to the point. "When you read you begin with A-B-C" and "when you sing you begin with Do-Re-Mi".  The essentials of all beginnings of learning.  For cooking the essential of all essentials is salt the grain that brings everything together. Without salt there is no essence; as if all the effort given into a dish was pointless, a life lived with no reason.  The most commonly used is table salt, which has an additive called iodine, helps it from clumpin up and can also help from getting thyroid disease. Apparently i didnt have enough of it in my lifetime.  There is the kosher salt, which a lot of chefs prefer that has absolutely no additives.  There is the dreaded sea salt which infact is not dreaded at all, its very good and great for adding on home made fries, nuts or whatever you want to fry. It is very light and soft in flavor. There is the black salt (kala namak) often used in India, very strong and well, black in color.  There is pickling salt, grey salt, and ofcourse rock salt, used to make ice cream.  How do i know all this info on salt? I read on the internet, believe it or not, if you look into the right websites you find good useful information.  I got this info from food.com. 
So, the reason for this blog is two things.  First reason, is to occupy my time with something productive and Second, Its a blog for my friends who are gastronomically challenged.  They cant seem to fathom that cooking is clearly not rocket science.  I mean rocket science is a whole profession it requires that you have some interest in rockets and the science that goes in it.  You need to have the intellectual capabilities of understanding the this and thats of all things rockets science. Cooking only requires  your tongue, your eyes, nose, well all your five senses.  I never believe in hiding recipes or keeping secrets recipes i mean seriously why would anyone do such a thing. Its quite silly really, in this day and age i can find a whole bunch of grandma and aunt whoevers recipes that are most often exactly the same.  I am going to be posting mostly my recipes that i have tried and created on my own plus some recipes that i have tried and tested and eaten and enjoyed. I have been cooking since i was 13 years old, actually really really started cooking when i  was 20 years old like you know not jello or hamburger helper stuff or tea. I noticed that through out my life that whenever i cooked sometihng even as simple as scrambled eggs; if done with enough love and happiness it becomes amazing.  Scrambled eggs without love is just eggs that look like ground turkey. So, start your day off with good intentions, do what you do eveyday with good intentions.  Start with pure sincerity and end with complete satisfaction. Say, whatever i will place on the table will be there to nourish the body and revive the soul.