MTR Podi Chutney Uttapam/ Idli Pancake-- Kids School lunch.

Hello Sweeties!!!! We make Idli Sambar so many times, that at times we have been asked if we belong to South India. The thing is Idli Sambar is one item, everyone loves, Its like Pizzas to Indians. Easily found and  most popular. 

I make dosas often with the leftover batter. But they are not ideal to be given as school lunch, so I made these for my kids school lunch and was happy to see empty boxes licked clean.

 

To make Idli batter;

2 cups rice or idli rava

1 cup Urad dal

2 tbspn Oil

Salt to taste

Soak the rice and urad dal in water for 6-8 hours. If using idli rava skip soaking the rava; soak only the dal and then grind it fine into a smooth paste, use the water from the soaking if needed. remove this in a bigger vessel, then grind the idli rava or soaked rice and remove it in the same vessel as the grinded dal. 

 

Mix the grinded dal and rava with your hand. This is because the heat of your palms will help in fermenting the batter faster. Then cover this vessel and keep it in a warm place to ferment and rise up. 

 

Take  a bigger vessel and fill the batter only half way as the batter will rise and double in size. After the rising, add the oil and the salt to the batter and mix with a spoon. 

 

The base batter for idli is ready.  The Podi Chutney Uttapams are basically pancakes from idli battter. 

You will need;

leftover or idli batter

onion chopped

cilantro chopped

 1 tspn MTR Podi Chutney also called Gun powder-- Store brought.

In a pan, greased with some oil, pour the batter with a ladle. Usually Idli batter is thick, we like thick pancakes, you can thin it with some water if you like thin pancakes. Pour the batter, then sprinkle with chopped onion, cilantro and the chutney powder, cover and let cook for 2-3 minutes, flip and cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes. The Uttapas are ready to be served.

 

 The toppings can be anything you like, onions, veggies, peas, corn, tomatoes are the regular ones, but you can feel free to mix and match according to your kids liking. 

This is what my kids ate for lunch that day. Fruits/Yogurt is sneaked in as snacks as they don't eat so much at one time. 

Celebrating 100,000 hits with sneak peek in my garden

Hello Sweetpeas!!! July 4th Holiday was extra special for me this year, not only did I celebrate it with my beloved friends and family but Indulge reached the milestone 100,000 hits. 

This is very overwhelming for  a modest blog like mine. Its all because of your continued support and  love that Indulge is what it is today!!!

So will keep it simple today and let you enjoy a sneak peek into my garden as a Thank You!!!! As and how summer progresses, I will keep updating pics from my Jasmine, Hibiscus, Peppers, Cabbage, Cucumbers and Tomato plants.
  

Love you all so very much and appreciate the time and efforts you all have spend on Indulge-Ashscorner, from the bottom of my heart.

Peak into my Garden

Rosemary and Sage

Hello Dearies!!Today I am doing no talking just showing around a few of my priced flowers/herbs that gave me immense joy and prove to Mr. Ash that the brown thumb is shedding making way for  a greener one.

Celery root planted from the store brought celery. Best out of waste project

Celery and Spring Onion root planted from the store brought celery and spring onion. Best out of waste project

 

Rope of the bell made from assorted old shoelaces, best our of waste project

 Front view of the home Garden

Hibiscus Plant a Mothers Day Gift.

Jasmine Glory

Oh Camping we go!!!!

 Hello Dearies!!! Firstly sorry for being MIA for one whole week. Reason being we went camping. Oh Yes!! our very own first camping family vacation. We had a lot of fun and relaxing and spent time outdoors in a true camping spirit. Well if you count renting a cabin and a RV for 4 families as camping, then yeah we did it all!!! We had booked a tent space and our friend did set up the tent, but we never got to spending the night there. Must admit that someone chickened out of the whole tent story. We did go river walking, singing in front of the campfire swimming in the pool, bouncing and bike riding. I came to know how talented my friends are who sing so well, some even danced the dance. This was so hilarious, it was like a big mad party with no parents watching us.

Will I do it again, Absolutely YES!!! We never had so much fun on any vacation. The family behaved well, no yelling, no timeouts or even eye staring was in place. Yes I am the mom who gives her family THE LOOK!!!
 

Important part of any nature activity is spotting natural elements. We did spot a toad, my friend saw  a bear, like a big grizzly bear, I did not spot any deers in the deerpark. I never seem to spot any where the signs are put, do you spot any animals where they put signs of spotting? But I did see some treats in the camp site store where we took the kids for some ice cream. Enjoii these rare treats. I did not gather enough courage to try them. Just eye candy and pictures satisfied me.

I also learnt the craft of making carnation flowers from tissue paper; which I will be showing you guys in later posts. My friends 8 year old girl taught me to make these flowers, we attached them to a tic-tac clip and I was in Hawaii. I got so many compliments on how beautiful the flower looked and where did I get such a cute flower in the deep woods midst the mountains. 

What did you all do in the summer? Small Vacations and getaways refresh your mind and give you a different prospective towards life.

A Lion's Mane and Lioness with no hair- some hairy issues

Indiblogger and Dove have teamed up once again for an intresting contest on Dove and Hair care. The subject line made me realize that having hair or not having hair is no longer an individual decision. To be or not to be with hair is not only your business but the business of dove and like...every 3rd ad on TV is about fairness cream and hair oil or shampoo. Till a few years it was targeting females, but last few ad's which I happened to see targeted males for fair skin....Love is associated with something that is here today and gone tomorrow. Cutting the long of it, having short or shorter hair all my young life made a victim if ridicule and anguish. Having curly and very thin hair did no help. Feminism is associated with long black hair, well styled hair and usually fair skin and long hair are the most wanted things in the bride search.

When I write this post, I am amazed at the way Gods Thinking process worked, Hence this title.  He blessed Lion with his mane and lioness with none, he blessed a peacock with nice colorful long feathers, but pea hen with none....only place where He seriously messed up was with Humans..he blessed girls with hair and made boys with none or fairly less. Imagine how it would be, if he blessed boys with hair and girls with less;
1) in a Indian wedding setting, The bride is ready in a jiffy with just a change of dress and the groom sends a message, give me 15 mins have to do my hair....or
2)where the girl rejects the boy saying his hair is too small almost looks like  a girl.

When I was growing up, Prothima Bedi/Persses Khambatta made BIG news, y you ask, because     they dared do the thing NO Lady in glam biz dared, they bid farewell to their locks of love. They sported Wati cuts. All my childhood went by having such role models, that if they did big with no hair, why make it a huge deal when I have no hair. Only my loved ones thought, that I had beautiful mane just like Mr. Lion. Only later was I told that with my shocking dry curls, I at times looked like him...

When time came to search for Mr. Ash, my mom freaked out at the thought of the grooms hair being longer than her doll's...oh what a poor mom to do now?...so search began for some products that will obviously keep the roots hydrated as to not create any static that will make my hair stand. Some prospective grooms did decline or reject Ms.Ash saying her hair is at fault, some were rude and some were sympathetic, either ways they were disappointing. IF all was good, can a mere Hair fact not be ignored...Apparently not; even in highly educated Indian classes.

Lesson were learnt and time had come to change the role models for now, I was fantasizing abut Dimple Kapadia..even watched Sagar movie for some clues...And as per instructions, I started reading Femina and Agony aunt columns, any hair care articles that came my way, henna with eggs started marking Sunday rituals, and deep conditioning was ordered. The salon girls started hushing about how the Henna has affected my hair and how I resembled a freshly baked potato . I was again lost, wasn't henna and eggs supposed to make your hair nice soft and strong. Were'nt the girls supposed to GUSH about my orange hair and not hush around me??

All in vain, Ms. Ash accepted the fact, that maybe she was not destined to play with her own hair. Being the positive person she is, she thought that all wa snot lost, having some is much better than having none. Life moved on.

Fast Forward to a couple of years, she met Mr. Ash and love happened with the soul with no hair to play a role, she came to the land of dreams and started using Dove. Then fate changed, when the seasons played a game, her hair was no longer dry and suddenly the curls were tamed. She was however not ready for the sudden change, was it love or was it dove??? maybe little dove and lots of love for myself, was the key to end my hair problems!

Slowly but steadily, over the years my hair has improved with the Dove intense therapy formula and now I have resolved for hair donation with locks of love. Regular oiling, conditioning  and having a balanced lifestyle are the mantras for hair care. Stress is the main cause of hair fall and bad hair, unless you are hair challenged like Ms. Ash. But even if you are, if I can do it you can too. So whats stopping you from loving yourself and loving your hair? Get dovey with Dove.. and feel the world change with you.

I will big goodbye to you with this piece of news on yahoo. Watch this link and decide for yourselve, the value of your hair in someone's eye.

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 This post is my entry to the ‘My Beautiful Hair Story’ contest organized by Dove and Indiblogger.