First

First blog after the birth of my baby. What a bundle of joy she is. Life has changed so much - diapers, feeding, burping now rule my day. There is so much to write, so many feelings to share and so many moments to talk about and so many new learnings that I discover each day to brag about, but right now 6 weeks post baby I am just falling short of words to describe the miracle of life! Right now I am just exhilarated that she has outgrown the first set of clothes - actually diapers. Yes she has outgrown her newborn N sized diapers and has moved on to size 1. Yippie :-) PS: You learn the real meaning of sleepless nights only after a baby!

Mint chutney

For long I was searching for the recipe to make the perfect mint chutney and finally came across something we both liked. Here it is -

Ingredients

1 small bunch mint leaves
1 small bunch cilantro
1 medium onion
1 lemon juice
1/2 green chili pepper
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 pinch black pepper
Salt to taste

Put all the ingredients in a grinder with a little water and grind well.

Here's a pic of the chutney with some dhoklas that I prepared.

My cooking spree is on like never before! (thanks to the taking some time off :P)

Somebody that I used to know..

Ok, this is not your typical Valentine's day song. Nevertheless, it caught my fancy yesterday while watching American Idol and now I cant stop the infinite loop that is running it. It also won the Grammy for the record of the year. Listen to it and judge it yourself! I especially like the high note in this paragraph -

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened
And that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger
And that feels so rough
You didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Here's the song - http://youtu.be/8UVNT4wvIGY

You know you are about to graduate

when ....

1. Your travel schedule spells CRAZY
2. You come to the lab only to go to the gym :|
3. You start enjoying the process of giving talks.
4. You can give a talk about your research in your sleep.
5. You start adding your labmates and your advisor on linkedin
6. When you have a job! (May be this should be the first point)
7. You are finally cooking like crazy at home
8. You are barely working :P
9. When your periods of absence from the lab is greater than all the other years combined.
10. When you realize the difference between an accepted paper and a great paper.
11. When you always have a paper ready to submit to a conference, most likely recycled from previous rejections.
12. When your advisor no longer pushes you for any work be it meetings or research.
13. When you prepare a list of things to do and it does not contain work but contains a list of places to visit.
14. When you finally start visiting nooks and corners of your campus.
15. When your parents come to visit you.
16. When you start clicking photos of your campus.
17. When you finally get the time to read books, watch movies in theatres, follow TV serials.
18. When the biggest activity of your day is the gym :P
19. When you are available on chat from multiple accounts :D
20. When you are embarrassingly the first person to like your friends FB posts.
21. When it takes you two weeks to write what you'd have ideally written in two hours.
22. When you write blogs like this :P

Wake me up when Sept ends...

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends

ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when September ends

Come tomorrow, Adi is flying out to California to begin a new life and job and my beautiful summer of 2012 comes to an end. But I think we were also lucky that we got to do a PhD in the same university - attending classes together, going to the university together esp on weekends to work when there was no one around and facing all the challenges both from the coursework and the inclement winter weather, having lunch together and being just a floor away from each other, cheering each other during the paper deadlines and just going out for a walk together when the Sun shined bright. Minneapolis and the university will not be the same again but I really had a great time due to having hubby around.

Come tomorrow....

Tomorrow is hubby's thesis defense... perhaps one of the biggest change in our lives in the past 4 years... i'm excited and happy and nervous and overwhelmed...

Puzzled

Hubby dear's friends/lab mates/ex-roomates/classmates/co-workers/family members all know about his penchant for solving puzzles and asking them. When we started going around, I was subjected to one puzzle a day until when I strongly protested :P. Whenever, we have a re-union of friends and his btech batchmates, the usual ritual is that they are subjected to solve puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles after a glass of beer. This time in Dec we were all up till 3 am in consecutive nights solving puzzles given by him. He maintains a blog on algorithms and puzzles to whet his appetite. However, today his puzzle solving obsession peaked a new height when I saw him talking to my Mom in the kitchen. He was making her solve a few of his usual puzzles :P What to say but that I married the cutest geek!

Mom's recipe: Vegetable Pulao

Ever since mom has come to the US, I have been getting the pleasures of eating all the stuff at home that I missed for 4 years! One of her recipes that I really like (and that I think I can make myself) is Vegetable pulao. Here is the recipe -

Ingredients:
Rice
Oil
1 tblsp Jeera
2-3 Tejpaat
10 Black pepper
3 Badi Ilaichi
3 Laung
2 Cinamon sticks
1 Ripe tomato made into puree and mixed 
1 Onion chopped
1/2 inch ginger grated
1 Potato chopped
2 Carrot chopped into long slices
1/2 cup cauliflower chopped
1/2 cup beans chopped. 
1 Large spoon oil
Salt as per taste
1 Cup rice cooked

1. Heat 1 spoon oil. Put jeera, tejpaat, pepper, cinamon, laung ang ilachi
2. Fry onions until light brown. Fry grated ginger too.
3. Put all vegetables and let them cook for some time.
4. Once the vegetables are done, add tomato puree and stir for sometime.
5. Add cooked rice and mix.

Take 5!

Hubby and I completed our 5th anniversary on Friday. Co-incidentally this Friday April 6th was also a good Friday as it was 5 years ago. It's very hard to believe that it has already been 5 years as it just feels like yesterday when I fell for this boy in my class who loved bunking classes, watching movies and solving algorithms and puzzles. After 5 years I think a lot of things are still the same but may be some have changed. One of the things that have changed is that we both have become similar to each other. I can't believe 5 years ago I would have frequently deleted my FB account or he would have eaten garlic (although must admit still very reluctantly!). And the things that have not changed is that we still watch movies by dozens and he still remains the best part of me.

Shahi Paneer

After long I prepared something I liked :)

Ingredients

Paneer
2 medium onions
4 cloves garlic
1/2 inch ginger
2-3 green chillies
2 ripe tomoato
1 cup milk
1/2 cup yoghurt
dry fruits - 10-12 kaaju, 5-6 badaam, 5-6 raisins
1/2 tsp garam masala (optional, I like it without it as well)
1 tblsp anardaana dry
1 tblsp cumin seeds
1 pinch hing
1 pinch black pepper powder
Oil
Salt, turmeric to taste

Preparation:
1. Grind onions, ginger, garlic, chillies, anardaana into a fine paste.
2. Heat oil and add cumin seeds and hing after that add the mixture.
3. Fry it till it turns golden brown. Add turmeric powder, salt, 
hing, garam masala, black pepper powder
4. Grind tomoto with dry fruits
5. Once it starts leaving oil, add yoghurt and milk and bring it to boil.
6. Fry paneer cubes and add it to the mixture.
7. Add corriander leaves for garnishing