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Fajita Fridays
We love Mexican food at our home and fajita Fridays are one of our favorites! The fajitas below look like a spread but once you make them a couple of times and get the hang of recipe, there are lots of opportunities for process improvement and parallelizing making this a very convenient Friday or any weeeknight 30minute dinner too. When we lived in San Diego there was this place in Old Town called Cafe Coyote which we used to visit every Friday. They have a roadside stall where they serve fresh off the stove tortialla with butter and salsa just 50c each -- which was a steal for my student days! Most Fridays we ate roadside tortiallas but on special occasions we went inside for a more sit down dinner and that was always their fajitas for me.. After years of hopelessly searching for a Cafe Coyote alternative in south bay I started making fajitas at home instead and that's how our fajita fridays were born. I have a set of Mexican spice blends I …

OT: My Favorite Recently Read Early Childhood books
Once a month or so we, the mother daughter pair, visit our local library and borrow like 20-25 young kids books. So many that recently I started carrying a grocery bag to library - no kidding! She makes me read atleast 4 books a day and sometimes 8 on weekends. And 20-25 are just enough to provide variety for the month. I love public library of our new town. It's large, has a varied selection and all books are in great condition and has a lovely decorated children's section that even adults would want to stay and read in. And a big bonus for me is the small coffee nook --- makes for the perfect book reading experience! Image Credit: goodreads.com We borrow varied subjects and authors but once in a while few books just strike a cord! This is a snapshot of some such - not just to list out for readers but also as a memory for me for future.. We love all the Lucy Cousin books - Maisy goes to Hospital, Maisy goes to Movies, Maisy'…

Masale-bhat (Indian Spiced Rice with Cauliflowers and Potatoes)
Masale-bhat literally means spiced rice. The diversity in Indian cuisine is so amazing that I think every region in India has a unique way of preparing masale bhat and the one below is from my home state, Maharashtra. Masale bhat was an integral part of every wedding while growing up in Maharashtra. In fact I don't remember attending a single marriage ceremony where this mighty dish was not served! It is a sign of how well loved this dish is by everyone. Masale bhat with mattha (cold buttermilk drink with mint, chilli and cumin) are like the inseparable duo of our home town celebrations! I bought a large head of cauliflower from the farmer's market this weekend - it was the rarely seen loose cauliflower (versus the tightly bundled florets version we find here) so I ended up buying a bigger head than I wanted. And while I was thinking of what to make, I thought of the mighty masale bhat. It was a very tasty meal devoured by everyone! The way …

Pizza Love
We love pizza at our home - right from the little one to the grown ups of the house-hold, everyone is a pizza fan.  But, we don't like the heavy cheese version where all you really taste is cheese and a meat topping. We like our pizza to be lightly dressed in cheese, we like to change up the cheeses we add, we like to taste the crust just as much as the pizza, we love to load it up with vegetables and we love to experiment with unusual toppings! Veggie and Persimmon topping So as you can guess, we make our pizza at home to satisfy all these requirements :). But really, pizza making can be a weeknight dinner thing with just a few tips and tricks. Veggie with Mushroom & Olives We buy pizza dough from Trader Joe's - they carry 3 varieties, plain white, whole-wheat and herb. The herb is my favorite - you taste the rosemary or the thyme when you bite into the crispy crust - so yummy! You take the dough out about 15 mins before you hav…

One Food Resolution You Should Consider for The New Year.....
Happy new year to everyone! As we say Good-bye to 2015 and welcome 2016, it's a perfect time to review the good about the past year and identify things to improve for the new year. If there is one food resolution which has been near and dear to my heart for over 4 years now is to eat more home-cooked meals and buy locally and seasonally grown food as much as possible. The later facilitates former to a large extent. This is our fifth year of exclusively sourcing all the produce from local farmer's markets and eating seasonal, and I am so happy that we stuck with this path for as long! It has so many tangible and intangible benefits to health and lifestyle! Before global transportation was as pervasive (think our grandparent's generation), eating local and seasonal is what everyone did. You ate apples in fall, squashes and tomatoes in summer and strawberries in spring - it was all part of enjoying the season. And you preserved or pickled seas…