Aloo Tamatar ki Sabji | Potatoes in Tomato Gravy

If you have potatoes and tomatoes at home - you can make Aloo Tamatar ki Sabji.  If you are fasting or celebrating a festival - you can make Aloo Tamatar ki Sabji.  If you are bored of dry stir-fries - you can make this gravy Aloo Tamatar ki Sabji.  

If you cannot come up with ideas for your lunch or dinner today - go ahead and make this simple Aloo Tamatar ki Sabji.

potatoes in tomato gravy - aloo tamatar ki sabzi

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failed attempt: moong dal pakoda - what to do?

$#!T happens.

No matter how many times you previously cook something, some days you still screw it up.

Some days, accidentally, you add a little extra salt or a little too much chili paste.  Sometimes you spill a little out, or pour a little extra in.  Once in a while you throw it away, a few times - you can fix.

pakoda batter became too runny - what to do?

I was intending to make moong dal pakoda.  Soaked the split green mung bean (hindi: chilkewali moong dal) for an hour.  And then, something happened.
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pinwheel cookies | vanilla-chocolate | eggless cookies

There are vanilla cookies.  There are chocolate cookies.  And then there is a combination of both that merge to become one: pinwheel cookies.

Best of both worlds, ya know?

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mathri - crispy, savory, flaky - indian crackers

Mathri is a crispy, savory, flaky Indian cracker that has a great shelf life, goes along well as a travel snack, can be enjoyed with some lemon pickle, and is a perfect accompaniment to Chai - the Indian tea.

And making mathri is very simple - for lazy people like me, what could be better than making something one time and enjoying it for the rest of the month?!  Pretty much on the same lines of namak paare and shakkar paare.

mathri - savory, crispy, flaky, Indian crackers

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food photography: behind-the-scenes - by a beginner, for a beginner - part 4

I love seeing the before-after images of people, places, and objects.  I love watching backstage footage of performers before or after a stage show.  I love seeing making-of of movie scenes and album songs.  I love watching bloopers on YouTube videos.  I love seeing behind-the-scenes photos of an event.

If you feel the same as I do, this post is for you.  This post has some of the behind-the-scenes pictures of food photos I have clicked over the last year.  A lot of us learn a much more from a behind-the-scenes picture than we do from the final image.  Here I'm sharing some of my behind-the-scenes secrets (*cough*).

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corn on the cob, grilled corn, how to freeze corn kernels

Some time ago, corn was for 25 cents each at Walmart one day, so I bought aplenty.  When I was husking all the corn one weekend, removing its silk, breaking the corn into half, then carefully slicing the knife down to remove its kernels…Alok came by, saw what I was doing, and...

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recipe: phool makhana kheer

My mom made this phool makhana kheer when I was with her in Indonesia.  I wanted her to teach me as much cooking as she possibly could within those three weeks that I was there.  She wanted to teach me as much as she could within the short time.

But instead of writing down recipes while she demonstrated, I clicked pictures as she cooked. And then ...

"no mom, keep your hand this way over the pan"
"okay, pause right there"
"wait mom, I have to click to show what you are doing here"
"this one got blurred, stir it again"

until she got fed up.

This phool makhana kheer is from one of those days.

phool makhana kheer

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6 Tips for Smart Blogger to Save Time - Blogging Tip # 5

Of all the mistakes I made in these two years of blogging,

and I mean my-precious-time-regretfully-wasted kind of mistakes –

Here are some, which I hope, other beginners do not make.

And I am giving some tips that the bloggers can take.

Doesn't matter whether you blog on cosmetics, craft, cook, or bake.

'Coz really none of these tips are fake.

And if you are making these mistakes you gotta put a brake.

All I want is for you to be awake.

Because if nothing else, your valuable time is on stake.

So go on, read it, for your own sake.

And if the tips help you, feel free to send me a cake.

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Potato and Capsicum Stir-fry | Aloo Shimla Mirch Sabzi

"What should I cook with these leftovers?" is a question I ask myself every evening when I cook dinner.  I mostly cook extra food during dinner to eat the same for the next lunch.  So I usually do not worry about cooking lunch or think much about the leftovers before then.  Sometimes it is leftovers of a little dal, some rice, some sabzi, and sometimes the leftovers are in the form of raw vegetables.

This one time I had half a capsicum, some chopped garlic, some cilantro, half an onion, and some lemon juice left from the previous day, as well as few dried up curry leaves and some green-chilies-turned-into-red-because-of-forgetting-to-keep-in-refrigerator from the previous week.

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make your own cake board - easy, quick, cheap, yet presentable

Just thought of sharing a simple how-to: to make your own cake board at home.  These pictures are from February 2012.  When I baked a cake for a couple that was moving to another place, I wondered how I would take it for them that evening.  I did not want to carry it on a plate and cause extra work for them to rinse and send the next day.  I did not have a cake box, a cake carrier, and had no intentions of investing in one ... so I came up with cake board that will also be easily disposable.

effortless, cheap, simple, and quick cake board

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Eggless Classic White Bread [Cuisinart Recipe]

I have given up on my husband.  I don't think he is ever going to buy me a KitchenAid stand mixer despite all my direct pleading and indirect messages.

Was feeling ... umm, what's the right word ... LAZY, that's right ... for kneading the dough to bake bread and have been waiting to get a KitchenAid stand mixer for motivation, but the possibilities looked bleak.

So one day while flipping through the Cuisinart food processor booklet, when I saw this white bread recipe (using all-purpose flour) I gave it a shot.  And oh my, this eggless homemade bread with the help of a food processor turned out a success!

Eggless Classic White Bread

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