Legume and Tomatoes: Healthy and Satisfying

This is one of my favorite dish--healthy and easy to prepare. And goes with rice as well as chapati (Indian baked bread). Or you can eat it just plain with a little bit of yogurt.

It is easy to prepare because like a typical Indian, I cook the legume (green mung dal) in the pressure cooker. No overnight soaking or slow cooking. It only takes about 20 minutes to have it cooked in the pressure cooker.

Heat up a little bit of olive oil in a pan and cook some tomatoes with salt, turmeric and chilli powder. When the tomatoes are soft, add the already cooked mung dal and mix it thoroughly into the tomato sauce. Let it simmer for a few minutes before removing from the stove.

How to Create U-Tube Video for Your Etsy, 1000 Markets Teams

As an artisan with a shop on Etsy I belong to several teams and on 1000Markets, I founded and manage a market known as the Asian Inspirations Market.

This week as part of my team duties, I created u-tube videos for the Etsy Melange Team ( a mixed media art group with shops on Etsy) and the Asian Inspirations Market. Many of my team/market colleagues wanted to know if it was difficult to do. Actually, it is not. It is super simple and I did it all on Picasa. Basically, it is a slide show converted into a movie format. Below is the video I made for the Etsy Melange Team

Here is how:

Note: Before you gather the images for the video, get the artists consent first.

1. You need to create a folder to hold the images that will be included in the video. Give a name to the folder, preferably with the team name and a date. This is what will show on the first slide (you can also edit the slide later).

2. Go to individual shops and decide on the product that will be part of the slide show.

2. Saving the images---I have a Mac and it is simply a matter of dragging the product image to the folder. Do not use the thumbnail image. Click on the thumbnail and copy the image that shows up on the actual product page. 

3. Once you have added all the images that you want to include in the video, open up Picasa. If you do not have Picasa, you can download it  here

4. In Picasa, select the folder that contains the images and click on the Movie icon at the bottom of the screen.

5. The movie window will look like this

5. Now you set up the video as you want. Under the movie tab, on the left side, you can load audio from your hard disk and use the various options to play (e.g, fit photos to audio, truncate audio etc.).

6. Set the transition style.

7. if you want to add any text slide, click on the slide tab and it will open a blank slide and you can add your text. I must warn you here--the adding and editing text is the clunkiest part of this process. 

8. Click on "Create Movie" to make the movie. It will take a few minutes for it to process.

9. Play it and if you want to change it, click on edit, make the changes and click on "Create Movie" again. You can do this any number of times till you are satisfied.

10. Now the last step: Click on the YouTube button. You need to have an account onYouTube t to load the video. Once you set up the account, follow the instructions on the screen.

Etsy Melange video on YouTube

Peanut Butter and Capsicum Curry

This dish is for those who love  peanut butter is any form, any where. It is a very tantalizing combination, the mild spiciness of green pepper offset by the sweetness of the peanut butter. Though it is a comfort food, it can be still be considered healthy especially if unsalted freshly ground peanut butter is used. Aside from the peanut butter, very little oil is used in preparing the curry. 

Pondy Bazaar

Side by Side

Pondy Bazaar in T.Nagar is one of the oldest shopping and business hubs in Chennai. It has been around for a long time, predating India's independence in 1947. Way back then it was the shopping hub for well-to-do Indian doctors, lawyers and businessmen who lived in the spacious bungalows in T.Nagar. Today, many of the bungalows are being transformed into multi-storied condos while Pondy Bazaar has become a microcosm of 21st century India where tradition and modernity comfortably coexist--slick department stores alongside hole in the wall shops, bicycles with motor cars, styrofoam plates with raw coconuts, pedestrians with jam packed buses...as a visual spectacle it will take the critical eye a long time to unpack. Take a look...

It may not seem like it these are thriving shops that have been around for a long time

Colorful!

Choices, choices

Home Decor Anyone?

 Chappals or Jewelry?!

Flowers!!!

21st century Chennai

Making a living

Creating Henna Dyed Jewelry Components

I love henna and I am always looking for opportunities to incorporate the rich, warm orange brown of the henna color into my work. Ifound a wonderful use for it in the carved bone components that I have been accumulating for a while. These carved bone components make for fabulous jewelry designs but one of the disadvantages of using them is that they tend to yellow over a period of time.

The Song of the Siren

I must have been a woodworker in my previous life. Just like the heroes of the 40s noir movies who could not resist the allure of those mysterious sultry sirens, a bare wooden box entices me into the trap of drawing on it, painting, coloring and decorating it.

The interest in decorating boxes really became addictive during the six months between my daughter's engagement and her wedding. I wanted to give personally made gifts to the relatives and friends who were attending the wedding. I made dozens of decorative boxes here in the US and packed and transported them all the way to Chennai, India where the wedding was taking place. Everybody adored them and, when I opened my Etsy store, my sister planted the idea of selling them in the store. Even my husband likes them and elsewhere in this blog, I have written about the collage box I made as a gift for his professor

When I start on a box, the only thing I know for sure is the basic color that the box is going to be painted--from there, everything is a free form creation. The designs and the decorations on the boxes evolve organically, though the motifs and the patterns are drawn from my Indian heritage. That is why each box is unique in its own way. I am not limited to any particular material, technique or design. You can buy the boxes shown below from my Etsy shop here.

I have used my own yoga art as a decoration for the box below

I have decorated with my own hand drawn designs like the one below

On some I have used lively fabrics and sequined ribbons like this one



I have used lovely washi paper and silk ribbons on such as this one



I have incorporated some of my sari art as decorative piece on this box

What can I say? The song of the siren is irresistible. If you are interested in buying any of my boxes, you can go here.

Buttermilk Drink for the Thirsty Traveller

There was a time when walking was one of the most prevalent modes of travel in India. When train services were scarce, when cars were only for the super rich, when only a few could afford a bicycle, folks traveled by foot--whether visiting a relative across the town or a village away. Southern summers can be hot with daytime temperatures often as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Leaving an earthenware pot filled with water or better still, with a freshly made buttermilk drink, on the front verandah of the house or the street corner or at the village entrance is an old tradition in Southern India--a way of saying welcome and take a rest to the hot and tired traveler even if he was a stranger.


A lot has changed in India in the last two decades. Single family homes with front porches are increasingly replaced with multistoried gated condo communities. Long distance travel is now done via planes, trains, buses and cars and, public transportation, auto-rickshaws and two-wheel scooters are the modes of local travel. Yet, one thing still remains the same--the hot summer and the need for cold water to quench the thirst and to cool the body. And, the tradition of providing free buttermilk drink continues while adapting to the new realities of travel and condo living.

At the condo community where my sister and mother live, my sister has set up a spot under a large shady tree where a pot filled with fresh buttermilk awaits all who drop in during the day. These are mostly service personnel like the watchman, janitor, pushcart vendors, maids, the guy who comes on the weekend to iron the clothes and others. To these folks who commute by bus or bike to work and then toil in the hot sun, the cool drink offers a refreshing relief. Every morning around 10 o'clock, the buttermilk drink is prepared in our kitchen and then poured into the pot and set up in the yard. By late afternoon, it is usually all finished.

Preparing the drink is extra work for our housekeeper and my sister spends about 45 rupees ($1) per day on the milk for the yogurt (not a small amount for India). Yet, it is a nice way of saying thank you to the men and women servicing her community.

  The pushcart waiting for presswala or isthri, who using hot coal irons the clothes

   Supplying fish to one of the ladies

    A hungry cat hoping to catch a morsel of fish

Recipe for Buttermilk drink

Ingredients

Fresh homemade yogurt (or store bought yogurt) half a cup
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Freshly ground cumin to taste
Salt to taste
Freshly ground red pepper flakes (optional)
Fresh coriander finely chopped

Using a whisk churn the yogurt and dilute it with water. For half a cup of yogurt, add approximately a quarter cup of water. The yogurt should be diluted to a water-like consistency but without losing the taste of yogurt.

Add all the ground spices and salt. The taste of the spices and the salt should not overwhelm the taste of yogurt.

Chill in the refrigerator.

Sprinkle the coriander on top before serving.