Avalakki Vada

My first recipe on this blog.

I plan to send this recipe for the contest held here.

We have enjoyed this snack on many cold evenings ....

Avalakki Vada

(Beaten rice / Poha Vada)

Ingredients:

Thick Poha: 2 cups
Ginger: Finely chopped
Red Onion (small): Finely chopped
Green Chillies: 2 - Finely cut
Cilantro: Chopped
Curry leaves: Finely cut
Salt: To taste
Oil : For frying

Method:
Step1: Soak the poha in water so it gets soft.
Step 2: Drain the water from poha and mash it
Step 3: Add the rest ingredients
Step 4: Make small balls and flatten it
Step 5: Put oil in a Deep bottom vessel (Kadai) and heat it
Step 6: Once oil is hot, deep fry the flattened vadas on low flame.
Step 7: Remove from oil when golden brown and strain excess oil on tissue paper
Step 8: Serve hot with Ketchup

Tips:
1. Soaked poha is moist and should be easy to mash and easily mixes with other ingredients and takes any shape given. If its not taking desired shape, add a table spoon of Besan to the mixture.
2. Always fry on low flame ... if not it doesn't get cooked evenly.
3. Firmly press the vadas, if not they might split in oil.
4. If Thick poha is not available, you may use thin poha, but it gets soggy when soaked in water, so just sprinkle water on it to make it soft. You will need 3 cups though.


Enjoy !

Cantaloupes' performance and Valentine's day

We had our quarterly community meet last saturday and there was plenty of involvement from the Cantaloupe household. While BP participated in 20-questions game ... Cantaloupe danced to on stage and Junior was all over the place and hopping and jumping and dancing and generally having a blast. And moi .. well I gave my first live Keyboard rendition on stage and was part of a drama.

I had earlier written about the drama here. I tried hard to back out but BP advised me that a commitment had to be met ... if I was wise I'd have read the script before agreeing to be part of it ... now that I had agreed to be part of the drama I shouldn't back out. And so I stuck with it.

Attending the practice sessions was hard. Usually the dance practice happened on weekday around 7:30pm. BP wouldn't even be home for me to drop Junior and go for the practices .... so I had to finish dinner preps / cleaning before leaving ... take both kids along.... drive the distance ... help Cantaloupe with her steps and rush back home, feed dinner to kids and then take a bite. My drama practice sessions were over the weekends. So it was much better since BP took care of the kids.
I was watching "Everybody loves Raymond" series around the same time and our drama script turned out to be an adaption of one of the episodes .... but there was a huge difference. While the serial itself had established the characters in its previous episodes, our drama had NO characterization and hence my earlier post.

Anyways, as Aamir put it in 3 Idiots "All izzz well" ... and drama turned out quite ok I thought. But I am still not clear about what in the script was so fascinating that the audience was really in splits ... :))

The best show of the evening was definitely the kids dance show ... and Cantaloupe danced with such grace ... proud mama was glowing all evening. And oh ... Junior put up a show too ... she had mastered all the steps herself .. if only someone allowed her to perform on stage. Nonetheless that didn't deter her enthusiasm and screamed akka akka and danced herself right below the stage almost giving a mini performance.

But personally for me the satisfying moment was the keyboard rendition sis and me played.(Read here. One step closer to my wishlist bucket) It was a tribute of sorts to Dr.Vishnuvardhan (Kannada actor who recently passed away). We had picked songs from his famous movies and remixed it and played only snippets. I later learnt that the audio system was not very good ... and audience couldn't hear very clearly ... but to me it was first of sorts and I was satisfied with the way it turned out.

And oh ... the sambar I prepared for the event was a hit as well ...

Next day being Valentine's day dawned bright and early .... of course its a routine in our household ... the only day we get a chance to sleep longer is sunday and that is THE day the kids have picked to wake up earlier than usual. We all wished one another ... Cantaloupe gave her dad the card we had prepared together. BP bought them new clothes ... and went off for his weekend badminton leaving me and kids and sister. Cantaloupe and her chikki (my sister) baked awesome cup cakes to surprise the men (BP and my BIL) and they surprised us by bringing 8 varieties of sweets and samosas. We savored the sweets and played Kannada Ankatakshari of sorts (clause being songs which had words love and/or its equivalent words)

Overall an eventful weekend it was ...

Random tidbits

We were in a local grocery store ....
Cantaloupe (C) : Amma, please buy me Samosas
Me: No dear ... you have still not completely recovered from your cough
C: Amma pls ..
Me: You pick ... want a new tooth brush or this samosa ... I am not spending on both
C (happily): I want the tooth brush please ... but the Pink Princess one ..
Me: Of course honey ....

A bystander stared at this cruel mom who coaxed her daughter to pick tooth brush over samosas ...
Cantaloupe got to pick her tooth brush and cruel mom bought her tooth paste as a bonus as well !

Teacher's Appreciation week

This week is Teacher's Appreciation week in Cantaloupes' school. The theme is Winter Olympics. PTO has come up with different ideas for each day of the week appreciating the teachers. Like flowers on one day (in red, blue or white), books, thank you notes etc. I am all kicked about this but sadly Cantaloupe is not showing as much interest. She has always maintained that her teacher is good but other Kindergarten teachers are better ... one particular teacher she adores because the said teacher has lovely hair :) Go figure her reasoning ..

Anyways, Cantaloupe teacher is good ... but not great. She is good with teaching ... but I think a teacher should act like a motivator ... a supporter in needy times .. clearly this teacher isn't. There is complete professionalism in her approach.. but the personal touch is missing. And I think thats a big factor as to why Cantaloupe is not so much enthusiastic about this week. Its not like she doesn't want to write a thank you card and decorate ... but she is doing it just for the sake. I have nudged her sometimes to do it with more enthusiasm but don't see much results.
Growing up I was very popular with the teachers ... you know teacher's pet student who followed every bit of their instruction .... quietly sat in the class and never troubled them .... enthusiastically participated in all activities be it singing, dancing or art or science projects. I was am almost ideal student a teacher could ask for. And I loved ALL my teachers and respected them tremendously.

And its hard for me to not see the same enthusiasm I once had for my teachers missing in Cantaloupe.
Tell me .... did you love ALL your teachers ? Would you actively take up in their appreciation ?

It feels so good...

... when you remember complete lyrics ... background music and tune of a Bollywood number last sung almost a decade back.

ps: The song in question: Chori Chori jab nazarein mili from Kareeb

Junior Language

What do the following mean? (many in Kannada)

Kankata
ellowe
Thotha
Maniiii
boo
Aalu
Daachi
aapeepe
Dova
Kapaka

Ah well ... that Junior for you and the words called out are
Kannadaka (glasses in kannada)
Yellow
Thota (meaning water)
Mane (house in kannada)
Blue
Haalu (milk)
Drakshi (grapes in Kannada)
Office
Dora
Chikkappa (for "Chacha" in Hindi or Uncle)

Junior's speech has improved by leaps and bounds now .. she speaks in small sentences. Sentences of two - three words and manages to communicate almost everything she needs to. She even sings ... her favourite song being Jo Jo Laali Naa haduve. This was one of the songs my parents sang for me when I was a little girl and when she sings the same I can't stop myself from being flooded with memories of my childhood. She can also sing some Boney M songs ... Daddy cool being her current favourite. Of course she has her own versions of the song such as Mommy cool .... akka cool ..

Just want to put down her baby words before she outgrows them ....

Grrrrrrrrrr

You propose .... he accepts .... and then he cribs about the proposal.

I am talking about the business client ... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .... I proposed requirements on a certain project and the guy signed off on requirements and we delivered the product to him and he complains requirements were never clear and complete.

My head hurts after a grueling 3 hrs meeting....