Mysoor Pak

Mysoor Pak....the name itself makes my mouth water...and the sweet always reminds me of my dear mother.. my mom is an expert in the sweet, I remember that she used to pack me a whole lot when I went to Pilani after the holidays and my friends used to love them.

My sister in law and family visited us from Australia and I had to make something special yet easy, as being alone with echu doesnt give me a whole lot of time to make sweets. Mom suggested mysore pak and I thought it was a great idea.

So here goes my first attempt and I will recommend it to anyone who loves plain simple sweets. It came out awesome and everybody loved it.



1 cup kadala mav
2 cups sugar
whole lot of butter( I know ...this part is not so attractive but I figured once in a while its ok..what are gyms for !) - around 500g

Before starting the sweet, prepare ghee out of the butter in a side flame so that the ghee can be used hot as and when the sweet is prepared.
Wet the sugar just till the top and heat it to make a syrup. Heating for 2-3 minutes is enough since if the syrup becomes too thick the sweet will end up very hard.
After the syrup becomes sticky, pour the kadala mav evenly, smoothing out the bumpy mav around the corners so that it becomes smooth. After all the mav is mixed in the sugar syrup, pour ghee at regular intervals. You will see the whole mixture froth up. Keep stirring so that the mav doesnt stick to the bottom. Keep pouring ghee as well. In the end when the whole mixture looks to be leaving the kadai/ edges, Apply ghee to another vessel and pour it in evenly to desired thickness. Wait for about 5 minutes and when its slightly thickened, Cut the mysore pak into desired sized pieces. After about half an hour, the mysore pak cakes will be ready and be ready to enjoy one of the most delicious sweets ! :)

Dhoodh Peda

This is one of my favorite milk sweets and the ease with which you can prepare it makes it even more tempting. I learnt it from my mother and Here goes...

This makes about 20 pedas..If you want more you can alter the quantities accordingly

1 cup Milk
1/2 cup sugar
big lemon sized butter
little bit of Cardamom powder (elakai podi)

Heat the milk till it boils and then simmer. Add sugar, butter and cardamom powder and heat in sim till the milk leaves the edges of the vessel ( without sticking) This is the consistency that we see for almost all the sweets. Keep stirring now and then so that the milk doesn't stick to the bottom. After the right consistency is aquired, turn the heat off and let it cool down.
After cooling, Shape it into small balls or desired shape and enjoy warm or cool !

The past few days my primary job has been to take care of my toddler boy, my little sweet roudy.Thirutu kutti as I fondly call him. Finally I am doing something which I have been craving for long, and could come out of the "I have to work" shell. I am a full time "software engineer"..sorry used to be...now am doing an even more tougher yet lovely job..being a stay at home mom job.Well that's a seperate blog on how that happened..

Babies are forms of God...Their smile steals our heart and when they grasp you with their delicate fingers, your heart skips a beat. I had a similar experience today evening. Eshwar of late loves to go out and walk with his new sneakers on. So I take him for a walk daily and thanks to the early spring this year...

Usually I take him to the park tha'ts there in out apartment..today i thought I will alter the routine a bit and took him for a walk along the streets. It was a truly fascinating experience.
mom...what are those on the trees...mom..is that a dog..well...eshwar doesn't talk yet...but that's what my mind imagined as he repeated his favorite baby talk over and over again..as I responded back with a smile...

I know every moment i spend with him is a moment of immense joy and i will cherish it with all my heart...
Love you echu....

My pati....

I am writing this post with a very heavy heart. Yesterday the journey of my pati came to a screeching halt and there she lay peacefully undisturbed by the worldly disturbances.

It all started with her carrying me as I was still a newborn, as I was welcomed into this world. Since then to today, she has been nothing but a second mom to me. She is the most selfless women I have ever met, keeping little for herself and meeting the needs of everyone in the family without any expectations. She is the epitome of love and affection.

Very innocent, kind and pure at heart, she was an angel who was fun to be with, strong by heart and had gone through too much in life. Even in her death bed, she kept worrying if everybody was fine.

In my school days I would play dhaya katai, soodu kotai games with her and would fight with her if she won and I lost and she would just laugh looking at my childishness. I would sit and braid her hair..Pati..unaku pini vidaren pati...and in the nights when am sleeping with her, would not let her sleep until she tells me stories till I fall asleep. Pati..edanum kada sollu pati...
These are etched in my heart as sweet memories of my pati

I watched her wither and become weak, but still she was very strong in heart, till the time my grandpa passed away five years back. But she almost took it in her stride and trudged along.

Her everything was weak, her whole body had weakened like a tree losing everything in fall, but her spirit lived on. It all ends like it begins. Everything good in life has an ending and so did my cherished spirit. It slowly came to a grinding halt between 12:15 - 3:15 AM on March 08, 2010.

My sweet angel's life thus comes to an end with her continuing to live in my memories.

Our new car

Today I drove our new ( ofcourse new for us even though its a used car) toyota corolla 2006 LE model to office. Its one of my favorite colours : white. It runs like a dream and as I was leaving the office parking lot, I turned back and gave a proud look at the car. I am sure maintaining a white car in the US shouldnt be that big of a deal. Jay and I were on the lookout for a car for about a month now and this car was probably destined for us, we passed this car once before we bought it. Jay liked it a lot too and hence I think we made a good buy on it. Snap attached.

Krishna jayanthi 2009

Today is krishna jayanthi and there has been no special krishna jayanthi than today in my whole life. Today the little krishna was present unlike all these years, Yes it was eshwar. Eshwar was just like little krishna with his sweet expressions. He looked very cute with the thilak, ornaments and kondai. I am waiting for next krishna jayanthi when he would be walking and I can make his footprints in our home as krishna's.

Eshwar's morning Smiles

I have not blogged in a while and I thought I should start it once again. I have heard of people telling me how life changes for good after a kid. I can fully experience that after eshwar's birth. Not a moment passes by without him in my mind when I am not occupied with work. Nowadays I look forward to going home just to hold him and see his sweet smile. For a mother nothing else is more precious than her baby and every day I feel that more and more. The title talks about morning smiles. I wanted to write about the sweet experience that I have every morning since eshwar turned 6 months and he can interact well. In the morning as soon as he gets up, hes the one to pull my blankets and wake me up. He'll fall on me and when I pull my blanket off to see him, he gives me a big smile which really really makes my morning colourful. He'll try to talk something and when I give him a hug, there he goes again with his big smile again. Babies are indeed bundle of joy.