In our house DH is a huge fan of tea and has a wide range of tea collection. One of his weekend activities during summer is to brew a big pot of one variety and then refrigerate it. While serving he tops it off with ice, fruit juices, lime, mint etc.  This is a cool and refreshing way to beat the summer heat. 

Speaking of summer here in Texas it is at its peak and that means temperatures in the range of 100-110 F. It is hot and sultry both inside out with the feeling of thirst all the time. What better way to quench thirst than with some cool and refreshing ice tea topped with fruit juices/syrups? 

This time we decided to make our own Blueberry Syrup, thanks to the splurge of blueberries that we had after our BlueBerry Picking escapade. We googled and after looking for some recipes we got an idea and came up with this one.

Fruit Syrups are very easy to make, and the number of flavors one can concoct are endless. Substitute raspberry or blackberry or strawberry or even a combination and that makes a terrific syrup. The uses of it are endless, use it on pancakes, toasts, toppings on cakes, parfaits, combination with lemonade, iced tea etc and the list goes on.

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We had eaten a Dill Rice at a Mediterranean restaurant when we were on a vacation far east (no not that far east a little to the westJ), and that taste had stuck onto us for a long time. It was a simple rice recipe, nothing complicated but the way the rice and dill was cooked appealed to our taste buds. It must have been exhaustion, hunger, the timing we are not sure but anyways the taste and memory lingered on for days to come. 

Anyway we found some fresh dill last week and DH remembered the Dill Rice we had at the restaurant. He offered to give it a try and make his own.  So this is DH’s recipe that he made last weekend for our lunch. This is more of an Indanised version of the one that we had at the Mediterranean restaurant. This rice had a lemon taste with mild flavor of Dill in the background, spiced with the green chillies balanced by the sweet taste of beans and cooked onion. This is more like an extension of our very own Chitranna with the addition of dill and beans!

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It is not often that one would find me in the kitchen preparing something as elaborate as this dish. Most of the dishes I make are quick ones, which do not involve too many steps and gets done in a jiffy. Even though I cite the excuse of lack of time, the real reason is I am lazy to cook something that takes a long time.

But this one is an exception as it has a warmth and tradition marked on it. This recipe of Konkani Chitranna Gojju was my husband’s maternal grandmother’s “Amamma” trademark recipe. She had passed this along with so many others on to her daughters including my MIL. I had noted down this recipe and had seen my MIL making it once. Amamma a warm and wonderful lady passed away recently. So I wanted to make this in her memory and save it for years to come. It is a small way of paying respect and also cherishing her much loved traditional recipe.

So what is a Gojju? For those unfamiliar with the name, Gojju is a Kannada name and is a spice paste/concentrate consisting of tamarind, jaggery, dry coconut, sesame, oil and plethora of spices. It has a balanced taste of sweet, sour, spicy and salty, but in concentrated form. This is treated more like a pickle and is eaten only in spoonfuls. The common way to eat this is by mixing a spoonful of Gojju along with warm cooked rice. Even though it is a time consuming process, the end result is worth every bit of it. Needless to say this is a favorite one at our house.

The complete preparation takes about an hour to make. But keep in mind a little goes a long way for this. Keep the Gojju in an air tight container and it lasts for a month without any problem.

Off this goes to Jaya’s Back to Basics Event an event hosted by a warm and witty Desi Soccer Mom.

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It is anniversary time here at RedChillies. It has been 3 years since I started RedChillies and 2 years since FoodWorld. Now, I am not the type of person who is big on celebrating birthdays or anniversaries, the quieter the better, but then this one is different and wanted to share it with you all. This one is different as I owe it to you all and so wanted to take this opportunity to thank you, dear Readers for supporting me in this.

You have taken the time to visit my blog, leave comments and put in words of encouragement on my little space and thank you for that!  I read each and every one of your comment and I treasure them all. I would also like to extend my heart felt thanks to my husband, family and friends for the great support.

The past 3 years has been a filling and an enriching journey. I am happy to say that this blogging has become my hobby and passion, a big part of my life.  Blogging is not only a platform for sharing recipes and ideas, but also a good way of learning things be it recipes, technology, photography etc. I am still an amateur cook, photographer and writer and I have a long way to go. It is a learning experience and I hope to learn in the process and do better as I go along.

Regarding FoodWorld, currently there are 375+ members in the bloglist and I want to thank each and every member for being a part of FoodWorld. Thank you for your patience and I am glad that it is a way of bringing our small food community together. Lately I have not been prompt in processing your requests, sorry about that and hope to catch up soon. If you have any suggestions please do not hesitate to share them.

On another note, the wonderful folks at CSN Stores have contacted me again and requested me to do a product review from one of their online stores.

If you have not already visited CSN Stores then I strongly recommend doing so. They have about 200 online stores and over 1 Million products! I spent hours browsing through their site without realizing it. Need some cookware collection or children’s furniture they have it and that too with plenty of options to choose from. Or maybe you are looking for bedding options? They have it all Twin Beds, Canopy Beds, Platform Beds  etc! Do check them out.

With all the wonderful stuff and mind boggling choices it is hard for me to decide what to review :-) Anyway, I am optimistic that I will find something that I like and review it soon. Once again thank you all and hope you have a wonderful day ahead.

There is something fun and exciting about Road Trips isn’t it? Just the thought itself gives me a warm feeling, good enough to drive away those blues! We had been on a Road trip recently for few days and it was good change for us to get away from the grind. 

Now what is road trip without good stuff to eat, right? Being a foodie it is not unusual for me to pack lots of stuff to munch and crunch along the way. So I packed the some junk stuff like store brought chips, cakes, chivdas, murukkus, chaklis etc. As if that were not enough I made this quick and easy Sweet Banana Appe to take along. Forget about those depressing things like dieting or calories as even they can take a break and go fish  

OK you sense my excitement here, but let me make it clear, that these Appes are not loaded, but the other stuff that I mentioned before really are! The word Appe (Konkani cooking word) is also referred to as “Ponganalu/Paniyaram/Uniyappam/Paddu in different Indian languages and is cooked in a special skillet called Aebleskiver pan. To see how the Aebleskiver pan/skillet looks like check here. 

As I have said before, I made this for our trip, but then I did not have enough time to take bunch of pictures, but I did manage to get couple of pictures though. Any more pictures then I would have had to deal with the sneering looks of DH and DS.

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The best part of the day for me is when I am done with my work and driving back home from work. This is the time when I am done with the major grind of the day and can finally go home to my family. This is the time when I am away from the office, releases, deadlines, politics, people drama etc. This is the time when I am by myself away from the chatter, surrounded my music, in a closed environment, comfortable with just the right temperature, not too warm or too cold.

 As I go past the garage, my mind gets into this familiar routine of driving. Seeing the familiar roads, turns, buildings it is as if I am in the Auto-pilot mode. After all I have been driving on the same road for 6 years now.  My mind drifts away while my hands and feet know what to do and take control. As the thoughts about work fade away and with the rough edges of the pressure soothed by music, my mind among many things goes over the stuff in the fridge, pantry and comes up with a plan and what to cook for dinner.

There are days when a good idea comes by that are quick, delicious and nutritious and cannot wait to go home to try it. During one of those good days I had this idea of making Mixed Vegetable Kurma.

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