Wish you a merry Christmas with a paper cup santa

Gond aata ladoo - healthy winter recipe

Hi friends. .as the mercury is dropping in this part of the world. .people are switching to foods that keep the body warm and provide the much needed nutrition for the bones.

These include.  Yummy carrot halwa..seasame ladoos..bajra khichdi..pakodas..and the all time hit gond ke ladoo. Gond Ke Ladoo, is a traditional Rajasthani sweet.'Gond' is the edible gum which is in crystal form in pearly yellowish translucent pieces of different sizes. This edible gum generates heat and that is why it is usually consumed in the winters. It comforts one as it helps to keep the body warm. Gond is fried in ghee, puffed up and added to roasted wheat flour to make Ladoos.

Prepared these over the weekend with mil. Here is the recipe :

Ingredients:

Wheat flour/ Atta, 1 1/4 cup

2tbsp rava

1tbsp besan

Edible Gum/Gond/Khatira- 3 Tablespoons

Powdered Sugar- 1/2 cup

Black pepper powder- 1/4 teaspoon

Cardamom Powder,-1/2 teaspoon

Ghee, 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons Mixed Nuts (cashew, almonds and raisins)- 1cup

2tbsp coconut powder

Method:

1. Heat 1/4 cup of ghee in a pan, add edible gum and fry till it is puffed up. Remove it from the pan and then drain excess ghee and roughly break them to pieces with a rolling pin and set them aside.
2. In the same pan add 2 tablespoon of ghee and roast all the nuts for 1 minute or till they become nice brown. Set aside.
3. Now, on a low-medium flame, heat the remaining ghee and add the wheat flour and roast it, stirring continuously till the flour starts to change its color. Add the rava and besan and keep roasting for 2 mins.
4. Turn off the heat. Let it cool lightly so that it is comfortable to handle. 
5. To the above roasted flour, add the crushed edible gum,black pepper powder, nuts, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, . coconut powder and mix well. 
6. Take this mixture and shape them into ladoos of the size you want.

Madhubani/Mithila painting | Madhubani radha krishna with peacocks

Hi Peeps, as some of you may be aware that I am smitten by the madhubani bug ! :)

Yes the love affair continues with the second painting on Radha Krishna - the eternal lovers!

 Madhubani Painting is also known as Mithila Painting. Legend has it that King Janak of Mithila in Bihar commissioned artists to make paintings at the time of the wedding of his daughter Sita to Lord Rama. Madhubani Paintings are usually done on freshly plastered mud walls of homes in Mithila. Madhubani or Mithila paintings are one of the traditional paintings of India and are known for their bright colors and distinct style.

Traditionally Madhubani painting is done with fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks, using natural dyes and pigments, and is typically based on mythological, folk themes and pastoral symbols or characterised by eye-catching patterns. The coloring is of two styles – Kachni (hatching) and Bharni (shading). Kachni uses delicate fine lines to fill the painting and not much color is used while Bharni uses solid colors to shade and fill the pictures. It uses black outlines filled with vibrant colors. A variety of inventive patterns are made with hatching and stippling added Prabat.

Even though this art is centuries old, it has preserved its original style and content in its native land of Mithila. Even now during birth and marriage ceremonies paintings are made on walls with different symbols like bamboo (lineage,) lotus, and fish. The designs announce the occasion of the celebration and solicit good fortune and divine blessings

The first Madhubani painting can be checked here

Some in the making pics:

School activities and some tidbits

Little miss is so innovative these days.

We have a singing sessions. I sing a English song (mostly from my school memories). Little miss immediately picks few words from that song and makes a song of her own impromptu song..its spontaneous, i am just amazed by her creativity. We have so much fun singing and hugging J

The other day, she was telling the whole of Rupanzel story to her grandpa. Loved her version with all the minute details.

We had a lovely week at my moms place..got to spend precious time with my sweethearts.

After returning from my moms place, father in law asked little miss..”Your mom would be missing your nani(maternal grandma) no?”

The prompt reply comes: “ why, ma hai na!” (Ma she is referring to her paternal grandma that is my mother in law ) J

We all were very happy and proud of her answer. She has started understanding relationships!

When little miss is upset with her grandma or grandpa, here comes her blackmail

“aap aisa karte na, me chali jaungi australia aapko chodke!” aww sweetu..cant stop laughing when she says that!

She is learning dance on “landon thumakda”

This is for the annual day in our society.

Missy loves to perform it for her grandparents after coming home.

Yesterday she made it a point to make her grandpa do the steps she was doing. MIL and I could not suppress out amusement. Fil would have barely danced in his entire life and now has to comply to little missys demands!

We went to watch a play the other day – ye dil abhi bhara nahi

Lovely pay casting reema laagu, vikram gokhale and jayant savarkar.

As soon as we got seated..here comes little missy’s question – Why are there all dadaji and dadi’s here?

Oops! We looked around and saw, yes there was more of mature crowd around. But then thankfully a family with mummy, papa, dada dadi and kiddo came in front and we showed here there are mummy papas and kids as well..and not just dada dadi’s here J what a observations!

Mummy’s little magic trick – Some itching in little ones eyes..yes too much of phone and ipad L. Mumma does her magic trick with a soft cloth and some warm breath..put on little ones eyes..feeels better J itching gone !

Little S loves to recite jana gana mana (Indian national anthem) anytime anywhere J

She loves to do her worksheets with me.

She knows her name spelling and is able to read it anywhere.

The other day i was watching some image on my phone and she said, thats my name! Bingo!

I have a name plate of hers with Saachi’s written on it. But now since she knows her spelling, she wanted to know why this name plate has two “S” where as her spelling has only one!

Good question!

I said the train nameplate belogs to saachi, that is why it says saachi’s

Difficult to convince her though.

FIL: saachi pray to god to give you a good mind

S: bhagwanji meri buddhi sudhar do..

FIL: saachi tell god to reduce your anger

S: no , not anger

ME: why saachi, anger is not a good thing, tell god to reduce it.

S: then he should reduce mummy’s anger too!

Me: oops

FIL: ye baat sahi boli hai

Me embarrassed..kids have so many reasons silently built up in their minds for the actions they do.

We do not realize but our behaviour greatly influences theirs.

FIL and MIL were having some discussion on a dustbin that MIL bought.

FIL was scolding mil , that it is not a good quality one, why she wastes money on cheap stuff.

Hubby returned from office at night

Little S reporting to him: Ma ne faltu ka dustbin layi hai . (grandma bought a useless dustbin)

Could not stop getting amused at her tone and her catching up the conversation and reporting it.

Mamma i have a secret, i will tell that to you in the morning..shhhh

We love playing hide and seek these days

Earlier when little miss used to hide and i used to call out her name..saying where are you..she would jump out from her hiding place and say..here i am!!

Hehe

But now she is getting a hang of the game

She has decided a very nice hiding place in our home, which if someone is new, will be really bit difficult to find out!

She literally scared us out, when she chose a even better hiding place, not making any sound and staying still..stay safe sweet heart

Little S’s love for pigeons is not a secret. She loved to feed them in Sydney and the love is growing by the day here too in india.

We have a cleaner for our car in the society. He returned the car keys at night. MIL was hanging the key on the key stand, but my little one asked for it. She said this is not our key. I asked her to show me, and it really was not our key! It was a merc key! We would have not payed any attention had my daughter not pointed out that it is not our key. Children have such amazing observation, never thought she payed so much attention to the key.