Your time is limited!!

While I was reading a sad news of the demise of Mr. Steve Jobs, somebody whispered in my ears "Your time is limited". I looked back and there was no one but me in my cube and the poster that said "Your time is limited " hung in front of me.

I realize that my mind is talking to me and this time the thought really hit it hard. May be because , the world I was living in has changed suddenly. Not that Mr. Steve Jobs was really close to me (how I wish!) , but because to some extent I experienced the reality of non existent.

Till now I was living like there is no end, and infinite years / time to come. I was procrastinating lot of things , I always wanted to do, thinking that I will do this when some thing else happens. But today some how I am feeling like some one has awaken me from sleep.

There was time when things rarely changed so drastically.Always read about great dead people in history text books only. All difficult and life changing decisions made for you.

But now I hope I am awake and would really like to live as if

"Your(My) time is limited, so don't (want to) waste it living someone else's life, (and May I) have the courage to follow (my) your heart and intuition"

Instant Dhokla [:)]

Being a working women, there are some days in my life when my refrigerator is completely empty!!![:(] and Mr. Dhokla is always at my rescue [:D]. Me and my husband being foodie, love all kinds of chaat, and what can be more great that healthy tasty Dhokla!!

So when I don't have many ingredients and not much time to buy them, I make Dhoklas following way

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cup besan

1/2 cup curd

1/2 cup water

2-3 tbs semolina

1 tbs oil

1 tbs mustard seeds

1tbs asafoetida

1 tbs turmeric

salt

3 -4 tbs sugar

lemon juice

1 tbs gingerpaste

1 -2 tbs baking soda

1/2 tbs baking powder (not must)

1 tbs eno fruit salt

2-3 finely chopped chilies

Step 1:

Mix besan and dahi , water , sugar and semolina

Heat it for 30 secs in microwave (Just to make it luke warm) and keep it aside for around 1-2 hrs.

Step 2:

Then add salt, mirchi , turmeric, ginger(if needed) to taste.

Step 3 and 4:

Add some water in pressure cooker, and heat it for few mins.

Add baking powder and eno in the mixture and mix it well.

Remember: add baking powder /baking soda and eno just before when you are going to cook them.

When the water in pressure cooker reaches boiling temperature , pour the mixture in a vessel and keep the vessel inside the cooker and close it.

Remove the whistle and cook for 20 -25 mins.

Tip: grease the vessel with oil from all sides.

After the when the cooker is cold, remove the lid and TADAAA Dhokla is all done.

No but we can't eat it yet.

We need to garnish it.

Take a small kadai (Wok)

add 1-3 tbs of oil.

heat it.

Then add some asafoetida and cilantro (kothimbir)

Pour this mixture on our baked fluffy Dhoklas and serve with chutney!!!!!

The Rosy Way!!!

So, it was my hubby's bday...and I wanted to do something special..

I have never tried my hand at exquisite cooking...so i thought..if way to the man's heart is through his stomach..then why not try something in that area.

Determined to cook something special, I didn't want it to be just a cake, as with most of the surprises he is very sharp to guess it.

This time I wanted the ball in my court. Something which is very different but yet linked to birthday[:)]/

So what can be more different but yet birthday like than a tower of delicious cupcakes [:)]

An idea struck me, why not do it SPRINKLES (the famous cup cake company in Standford area) way.

Having a tower of birthday cakes with different flavors.

I wanted tropical flavors rather than regular peanut butter and white choclate types ,so I decided to do a mix an match of flavors like

1)Rose Cupcake

2)Pineapple Cupcake

3)Mango Cupcake

4) And our very own chocolate cup cake

And all of them in eggless flavors as some of my friends are allergic to eggs [:)]

Here is a brief recipes of them for ppl who want to try their hand at baking.

Rose cup cake was a hit of the day

General eggless muffin recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

Dahi 1cup

Sugar 1 cup

Oil (half of dahi)- 1/2 cup -1/4 cups,

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda mix

Maida 1.5 cups

Little vanilla essence

Mix dahi, sugar, oil, baking powder and baking soda and leave it aside for 20 mins. Then add maida(all purpose flour) and vanilla essence and mix well in one direction, till the batter is smooth.

You can get paper cups and cup cake pan. Place the paper cups in pan and pour batter into the cups [:)]

Bake at 350 degrees for around 20-25 mins

To check whether the cake is ready or not, place a toothpick in the center of the cake and remove it .

If there is no batter around the toothpick your cup cakes are ready.

For rose essence:

EXTRA INGRIDENT:

1 bottle of Gulkand 250 gms (Rose petal jam) [You can get this in any of the indian grocerry stores]

(Since Gulkand is already sweet, you can reduce the sugar level in "GENERAL Recipe" .)

2 tsp of rose water/ rose essence

For Pineapple cup cakes:

EXTRA INGREDIENTS:

1 cup pineapple cubes

1/4 cup crushed pineapple

For Mango Cup cake:

EXTRA INGRDIENTS:

1/4cup Mango Pulp

1/4 cup mango cubes - if available

Add the EXTRA INGREDIENTS to the above mentioned general cup cake recipe to get which ever cup cake flavor you want to bake [:)]

The unwritten letters

Each word says million things

But you never heard it.

Each thought left to tickle the happiness

But you never understood it.

Each letter written to convert miles into arms away

But you never replied to it.

Each expression to make you feel you are mine

But you never felt it.

Each letter written by my tears just for you

But you never read it.

To eat or not to eat!!

Well my fight with my weight is going on for a long time now...so much so that I feel "fight" might not be a correct word for it but "war" can be an appropriate one.And in this winning and loosing game ...(well for me most of the time it is gaining game...even though I prefer to loose [:)]) I have reached to a point where my ability to do mathematical calculations of calories has reached a far extreme. When ever I see food the only question that arise is "TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT" along with "100 cal+ 120 + 500= 720 so 1300 -720 = 580" etc etc.

Though when I look back..it does not seem so bad... as this has given me a unique quality of self control along with cautiousness about my well being....And had this not been forced on me by society, I would have still been the same old poor little Pooja whose food choices are mostly biased on the taste and not the contents in it. As this provides pleasure only for small amount of time and painful life ahead(with all diabetes, high BP and arteries clogging) ...Same as judging the person based on his/her outward appearance and not based on pure intentions and thoughts .

Solitude

The importance of solitude is seldom understood in our asian lives , though we are the biggest preacher of it. Most of the time, in the times of difficulty we try to find people to blame things on , to find support from or talk things out. But have we ever given a thought that talking to ourself can be the most rewarding thing. I agree that discussing things out with others do give us different perspective, but talking to ourself in our own solitude time can give us a new direction.

Most of the times we just live like normal animals, undermining the strength of our mind. We play during childhood, then study, work, marry, bear kids, marry them off to others and then die alone - only to recognize that we have never lived. We never think that being alone is the best way to discover the most beautiful thing ever got created on this earth - OUR SOUL. Many times in our society a SOUL is regarded as a spirit , a ghost!! But have anybody thought that it is the most beautiful place to visit , where springs never dries out.

As an indian I am taught of 4 stages or ashrams of life , one of them is VANPRASTHA ASHRAM and SANYA ASHRAM. During this stages of life, when one grows old, he has to take up the path of sloitudeness in the forest and devote his remianing life to God.But why one have to take up this path in the end??why not through the journey of life??

I think that it is only in the silence of solitudeness we can hear the voices of our daily existence and see the truth that life reveals to us, which we conviently ignore in the company of others.

As quoted by Hans Margolius - Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.