Shifting time...

It will be atleast two weeks before I post.. will be busy shifting ...we are moving from Gurgaon to Dwarka..

Right now, have my hands full. with sorting, packing, cleaning and pulling my child out of the cartons, suitcases or from under our feet...

Hope to be back ASAP

Ta

Our tiny tot graduates from Montessori

It was a very special day today... our daughter graduated from her Montessori. All the parents were invited, and the tiny tots performed before a big audience for the first time in their life. All of them did a commendable job, and showed the time, effort and thought that the teachers put into organizing this special event.

The play was about saving our environment and my daughter was the tree... and these were her lines..

I am a tree, tall and round

I have lots of green leaves on my crown

I have a trunk, tall and wide,

Here birds and squirrels love to hide.....

and here are a few snaps, not in any order, though..




Our tree - second from left. The other tree is Rhianna, the Water is Vishesh and Soil, Arya


Joined by flower - Advaitha, Butterfly - Richa, Bee - Vedanth and the Ant ready to make his entry behind, is Sumer....

And finally, with their graduation certificates, mortar board hats and all...!!!

'Zentangles' , and the Beautiful Blogger Award

This is my first attempt at the art of Zentangles. The origin of it is mentioned here. Though, without this specific name, I am sure that thousands of people have been doing it and are still doing this....

Basically, this is just doodling, given a nice name... it is really addictive, and I am sure that even doodling can be a work of art.

Check it out and let me know what you think of this.

Also, I got an award from Thess, you can visit her blog here . She has a lot of blogs and lots of interests. Thanks Thess, for considering my blog for the award.

But the conditions of the award are the same as two that I have done before, so I won't be stating 7 things about myself yet again..!!!!

Fried chicken and garlic toast.

I had a more aesthetic picture of this plate, but somehow, this is my favourite..with a tiny hand pushing a fork into the salad...:)

Some fried chicken, fried potatoes , a salad and some garlic toast.. sometimes the simple flavours are very satisfying ..and as you can see, my daughter loved the garlic toast and the tomatoes in the salad..

This recipe is absolutely simple

Lemon juice - 1 small lemon

Soy sauce - 1 tsp

Olive oil - 1 tsp

Sugar - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Crushed black pepper - 1/2 tsp (more or less according to preference)

Crushed garlic - 4 cloves

Whisk all the ingredients, marinate about 500 gms of chicken and 3 or 4 medium potatoes peeled and cut into 1 cm thick discs.

In a wide hot pan, add a bit of olive oil, add the chicken pieces and the potatoes, keep a lid on and shallow fry for about 15 minutes a side.

The garlic toast was made by mincing a garlic, mixing it in some soft salted butter .Then I just coat one side of the bread and toast on a hot plate.

Happy retirement, Dad and mom........

Wow.... today is that day..our parents are finally bidding adieu to a place that has been home to them for so many years...

Doha (Qatar) has been where dad spent the past 40 years, and my mom has shared nearly 35 years there, herself. My siblings and I have spent a few years of our childhood and all our vacation time there too...

I used to wish for my parents to live in India , when my brother and I had to stay away from them for my schooling...but it wasn't meant to be.

Both of them took on a lot of responsibilities at an early age, and have taken care of each and every one of those with panache. I hope they have a very long and trouble-free retirement and enjoy time without any more burdens....

Amma and Acha, may your life forward be everything you hoped for...

Miniature paintings of Jaipur

During our trip to Jaipur in December, I also got to meet some great artists who were award winners in the Miniature Art. This is handed down through generations.

We got a live demo of how they do it. The vibrant colours are from grinding semi precious stones like malachite, corals , conch shells, gold and silver on a rough surface, mixing it with a solution that ensures the colours hold fast, and they draw with a brush with a very fine bristle, that the artists make themselves...

The above outline of an elephant was done in a couple of minutes, including the preparation of the paint...

There were intricate and very very expensive paintings stacked and hung all over the stall....many were done on old stamp papers and looked centuries old...sadly we were requested not to take pictures of the beautiful paintings...

But I could not come away without atleast a small sample, and so I chose the painting of the elephant.

Salad

This was a salad my daughter and I enjoyed for lunch yesterday.

She loves the yellow bell peppers and so I decided to make a salad largely to her taste. That is to say, without too much black pepper, or chilly powder I otherwise add...and I have to say that everything blended so perfectly, it did not need anything else...

Yellow bell pepper - 1 large (cut into bite sized pieces)

Tomatoes - 2

Salami - 2 slices (shredded..i used smoked chicken salami)

Feta cheese - 1 tbsp - crumbled

Spring onion - 1 (white and green, chopped)

For the dressing

Garlic clove - 1/2 a cloved (minced or finely grated)

Olive oil - 1 tsp

Vinegar - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - a pinch

Salt to taste (since feta cheese is salty, please account for that when you measure the salt)

Beat all the ingredients together to blend the dressing well. I usually add some freshly cracked black pepper to this.

Now just put together all the ingredients and the dressing and toss well....the salad is fresh and crunchy, and the feta is just perfect with the dressing...