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's vacation etc etc. Simple sentences, lovely illustrations and easy concepts to grasp for little once. I highly recommend to read one to your <5 year olds!

Image Credit: goodreads.com

Next one is not a famous book but one that I simply adored reading to my daughter. No Time for Mother's Day is a lovely story of a young girl whose mom is also a busy business owner. Mom is always busy, juggling home and office and runs out of time for the standard Mom things - for example, she gets called from office on a Saturday and needs to cut short an outing with her daughter. The mom loves her family and she loves her work too (strikes strong cords with me!). 

The dad and the little girl are really supportive of mom's work and appreciate her for all she does. The daughter also understands how busy mom is all the time and knows that her mom is different from her aunt and thinks hard and finally gives mom the gift she really enjoys for mother's day which is a full day of quiet. No work.

Image Cerdit: goodreads.com

No stress. Just relaxing. I love this book on so many levels and love how it embodies the struggles and joys of parenting with demanding office duties. And that everyone is unique. I would love for more such books to be available to be honest.

Another book we really enjoyed is Mud Soup. It's about a boy who is so afraid to try "mud soup" offered by his Mexican class-mate thinking it literally to mean soup made with mud. Finally he gives it a try, loves it and realizes how silly his scare was -- this book touches a delicate topic of cultural diversity and being open to new experiences. Something I think we all could do a little more of.

Another series we always enjoy grabbing is the Berenstain Bears - mama for mayor, homework hassle, we are a family, Christmas time.. all are great books. Simple sentences, easy concepts and a good short story line. 

Image Credit: goodreads.com

There are many others we love reading - most recent once being Sophie's Squash, many Dora the Explorer books and Mary Eenglebright's collection of classics.

Local libraries are such a great resource to try out and read many different books at no cost. And in this age of apps-for-everything just visiting library and picking up new books to read is, I feel, a great way to get kids excited about reading and build their curiosity.. I love.

Image Credit: goodreads.com

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 I have been eating masale bhat in childhood, garnishes of dollop of ghee, lemon juice and cilantro are really important. Definitely recommend not skipping those. 

Also kala masala is a quintessental Marathi spice powder. Garam masala could be a substitution but taste won't be the same - you can find kala masala in Indian grocery stores here or many reliable recipes by other bloggers!

This was a lunch loved by everyone -- we will be making this again and again and again and hope you do too!

Recipe: Serves 4

Ingredients:

2C rice

3.5C water

3 green onions - whites and greens chopped thin

2 potatoes - sliced into wedges or thin circles

2C cauliflower florets

1tsp ginger-garlic paste (OR 3 cloves of garlic crushed and a small ginger piece grated)

1 small tomato

2Tbsp oil

Spices:

2 whole cloves

2 whole cardamoms

3 bay leaves

1 small cinnamon stick

1tsp mustard seeds

1/4tsp asafoetida

2tsp kala masala (or goda masala)

1/2tsp garam masala

1/4tsp turmeric

Garnish:

Chopped coriander leaves

lime juice

Ghee or butter

dried coconut flakes (optional)

Recipe:

Wash and soak rice in water. Set aside.

Then prep all the veggies. Separate the whites and greens of chopped green onions. Thinly chop tomato and cut the cauliflower into medium sized florets.

Heat oil in pressure cooker. When hot add mustard seeds, as they sizzle add asafoetida, cloves, cardamoms, bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Let sizzle for a minute.

Then add white part of the green onions followed by ginger and garlic. Cook for a few mins until onions start to brown. Then add potatoes and cook a few more minutes. Follow up by chopped tomato and turmeric powder. Then add cauliflower, kala masala, garma masala and stir well. Cook for just a few minutes.

Then add rice with water, salt to taste and stir well. Start the pressure cooker and cook for 2 whistles. Don't overcook the rice.

Serve with a dollop of ghee or butter, chopped coriander and green onions and lemon juice.

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 have to form a crust and use generous amount of dusting flour and olive oil to roll the dough using hands as thick or as thin as you want. All of our pizzas are thin crust - we get about two medium sized pizzas from one dough packet.

This is embarrasing to admit but dozens of pizzas later, I still don't have the hang of rolling a perfect round base - it tends to be a map of the world base, but it tastes just the same, so who is looking :)

Tomato sauce also can be home-made and quickly. Just chop 2 tomatoes, saute in olive oil with crushed garlic and pinch of chilli flakes. Add salt, pinch of sugar (very important!) and a dash of good balsamic vinegar. Let it cook uncovered for 5-10mins while you prep the veggies.

We like to change up cheese - sometimes it's mozzaerlla, sometimes parmesean but quite often it's goat cheese - which adds such a nice tanginess to pizza, though it doesn't really melt so if you want melted cheese stay with parmesan or mozzarella.

Veggie with Figs!

Our usual toppings are mushrooms, red peppers, onions, tomato slices and then we add the mystery topping ingredient!

My daughter has the honor to choose one ingredient from fridge and let me just say that she makes some bold choices :)  but I am so glad we do this as every now and then one of the topping choice just sticks as winner -- she usually ends up choosing fruit, so thinly sliced apples or figs, halved grapes, sliced parsiman go great. Same with thinly chopped spinach ribbons. Just experiment with toppings, it's so much fun!

Veggie with Eggplant topping

Pizza stone is a great investment if you cook pizza often - I can never get the same crust as I get with the pizza stone. I have this but a cheaper model will be just fine too.

It takes me about 20 mins of prep time and then 20 mins of unattended baking time (at 420F) and dinner is served.  

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 seasonal vegetables to enjoy year-around..

Then happened global transportation boom and food industrialization - both resulted in foods being easily transportable 100's of miles from their original picking destination to being shipped to opposite parts of the worlds for consumers to enjoy year-around. Not only it's taxing to the environment but it also causes foods to be picked ahead of ripening resulting in more use of pesticides or preservatives and compromised taste.

The best way to start buying local and seasonal is to visit your local farmer's markets or be part of local CSA or co-ops which will deliver a basket of locally grown seasonal produce right to your door-steps.

There are innumerable advantages of eating locally and seasonally. 

• First, you are eating produce picked right at it's peaks within hours of being picked. Not only it is fresh, it also tastes so much better! 
• You will help local farmer's eco-system and sustainable growing practices
• Fruits and produce bought seasonally is often cheaper purely due supply and demand helping you save $$
• And the weekly ritual of visiting farmer's markets, choosing through rows and rows of freshly picked produce can be so therapeutic and if kids are part of it right from their childhood, I do believe they are naturally grown towards eating more vegetables and eating healthier!

There are also some challenges to seasonal/local eating and here are some tips I found useful over the years:

• Seasonal can often mean repetition - you end up buying same vegetables weeks in a row because that's what is in season. But then, this is your chance to be creative in kitchen! Google various ways to cook with that vegetable and experiment with a new one every week - who knows, you will find a keeper recipe somewhere in there that you didn't even know about!
• How do you know what's in season - there are great resources online or visiting farmer's markets is a more fun way to find out for yourself :)
• Access to locally grown seasonal food - farmer's markets, CSAs, produce co-ops or even some supermarkets now-a-days carry local seasonal produce marked as such!

In this day and age of genetically modified everything and food industrialization, I truly feel that eating local and seasonal is a small step in the right direction, for our health, for our local farming ecosystem and for the environment! 

I get to talk to the farmer's who grow our vegetables on our plates everyday and I know I am doing my part in developing the local sustainable ecosystem, but really the main reason I eat local/seasonal is the taste, there is just no comparison to food with 1000's of food miles -- just try your local farmer's market next time and see it for yourself!

Spicy Black Eyed Peas and Kale Soup

This is a new take on an old favorite. Our new house has a large vegetable patch solely dedicated to many varieties of kale. And while I have always wanted to be someone who eats a lot of kale, the truth is I barely cook with kale always finding it a little on the bitter side. 

However now this flourishing vegetable patch is forcing me to find ways to add kale to our meals.

The easiest way to get more of kale for newbees is to add it in your favorite soups or daals - paired with a little tartness from lemons, kale really shines in these preparations.

This particular soup has black eyed peas - my favorite legume! It can be as thick or as soupy as you want. Mine is usually on the thick side. I love to serve this with a dollop of cream cheese or greek yogurt and some freshly chopped green onions or chives. No bread.

But you could also make it a lot thinner (just add more water or stock) and serve with a crusty bread for dipping. 

Recipe: Serves 6

Ingredients:

1C dried black eyed peas

4C water

1/4 of a large onion

3 cloves garlic

1/2 inch piece of ginger

1 celery

4 large leaves of kale

4 large chopped tomatoes or 1 can fire roasted tomatoes

2Tbsp olive oil

Seasonings:

1tsp hot chili paper flakes

2tsp cumin powder

1tsp paprika -- for color

dash of hot sauce

pinch of oregano (thyme has worked well for me too)

salt, black pepper

juice of 1lemon

Recipe:

1. Rinse and cook black eyed pease per package direction.
2. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot on medium-low heat. Add chopped onions and cook for a few minutes.
3. When onions are tender add finely chopped ginger and garlic. Cook for a few more minutes until aromatic.
4. Next add sliced celery.
5. Remove the stems from the kale leaves and tear the leaves up using your hand into small pieces. (I find that kale is much easier to tear using hands than chopping with a knife). Add kale to the pot and cook for just a few more minutes until the greens are wilted.
6. Add tomatoes, paprika and chili flakes and cook for 10minutes or so until the rawness of the tomatoes is gone.
7. Transfer cooked black eyed peas to the soup pot next. Add cumin, oregano, salt and hot sauce. Cook for 10more minutes on low heat uncovered.
8. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice and ground black pepper. Adjust the seasonings per taste. Serve hot.

To Home Cooking & Family Dinners....

About time to say good-bye to 2015 - can't believe another year has gone by! It's time for me to be thankful for the little joys this year has brought and review how well the resolutions held up. On the food front, 2015 was a great year of eating more family dinners together at our household. 

Mostly all home cooked. We are not big on takeouts. And I have a whole stash of 30 minute recipes so putting a simple and healthy dinner on table even on crazy weekdays has never been a hassle as long as you have a well stocked pantry and fridge.

I truly feel there isn't a more important way to take care of ourselves than managing what we eat. What we eat influences our health & beauty, happiness, stamina to work/productivity and increasingly I am finding out that it heavily influences family bondings too!

A simple home cooked meal is the best way to manage what we eat - and it doesn't have to be very fancy either. A pot of hot soup with some store bought crusty bread when eaten with family together may give you just as much joy and satisfaction as an elaborate Indian feast cooked over many hours. The idea is to sit together, talk share and enjoy a simple healthy home-cooked meal made with love and care. 

We all lead busy lives and grab lunches on the go. I am guilty of exclusively eating all of my work lunches on my desk while catching up with emails. So the evening ritual of coming home, hustling about in the kitchen, putting something delicious on table and everyone sitting together enjoying the meal while talking about their day just feels so important!

Taco Tuesday this week - looks like a spread but very simple and takes 30 minutes

My daughter is always running around me when I am in the kitchen - she is my helper, grabbing a lemon from front yard or few mint leaves or chilli pepper from back yard or helping fix a salad. She loves that - and I feel this combined with visiting farmer's markets have made such a positive impact towards her atitude on food and eating (and touch-wood on that!). 

She also looks forward to the meal times when we all go around the table and share a story of the day - it helps you connect with the families and specially helps kids form stronger family bonds.

On warm summer nights, we take our dinner outside and eat with a candle lantern hung to a nearby tree. Then we blow off the candle and take turns watching stars and matching them with star gazer apps on phone - just so much fun to make your own small customs around meal-times and make that a focus of the evening. 

After-all good food brings everyone together... Here is to keeping the home-cooked family dinners stronger than ever in 2016! 

Leek and Potato Soup

If the soups were to have personalities, I think this leek and potato soup will be the simplest and the humblest of the once I cook. Yet, there is something so homely and deliciously satisfying about gulping bowls of this hot soup on cold wintry evenings that you will not feel like you are missing any fancy ingredients or embellishments!

This soup has few ingredients and as long as I buy leek from farmer's market, all other ingredients are pantry staples which is a huge plus for weeknight dinners.

It is also very quick cooking - about 20minutes. And the recipe is forgiving so no worries if you are multi-tasking in kitchen or playing with kids while a pot of this is bubbling away!

(Incidentaly, I really need to spend more than the 5 secs I have gotten used to spending on my food photos. I went down from an SLR to a Canon decent mid-ranger to my Nexus5 phone for photos and the quality has relatively taken nose-dive too. And while this phone does an okay job in natural light, it's barely manageable in night home yellow light. But anyway, it's either having some photo or no photo, so I am going to deal with the poor quality photos for now. Hope you will excuse the photo quality too :) )

Recipe:

1 sliced leek

2 russet potatoes

2 cloves of garlic - crushed

dash of dried oregano (thyme works well too)

dash of whole milk or heavy cream

juice of half a lemon

1Tbsp olive oil + 1Tbsp butter

salt & pepper

Clean and slice leeks in thin half-moon slices. Leeks are notorious for hiding dirt in between leaves, if this is your first time working with leeks, check out this cool page on how to clean and prep leeks.

In a large pan, heat 1Tbsp olive oil. When hot, add garlic and saute for a minute. Then add chopped leek and saute for a few mins until they are tender.

While the leek is cooking, peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.

Add potato cubes to the pan and cook for a minute. Add water for desired consistency - I added about 6C. Add thyme or oregano, salt & pepper, cover and cook on low medium for about 15mins.

Check that potatoes are tender, remove from heat. Using an immersion blender or just a potato masher, mash or blend soup. I like my soup chunky so I use potato masher and mash lightly. If you like silky smooth soup, then please use blender and puree.

Add 1Tbsp butter, dash of milk/cream and lemon juice. Taste, adjust seasoning. Serve hot!

Naankhatai - Indian Eggless Shortbread Cookies

As a kid growing up, I always looked forward to our bakery visits. There was only one reputed bakery in our town - and something about the freshly baked breads and warm pastries there was so enticing to me even as a child -- just as it still is now :) 

We rarely baked at our home while growing up. Now I think it must have been because of lack of oven in most Indian homes at the time. So us kids were always in a treat visiting bakery!

The one item I bought every time there was naankhatai. Naankhatai is Indian shortbread eggless cookies; meant to be dunked into Chai -- which I did a lot of growing up!

I never bought naankhatai in US though plenty of Indian stores sell it here - it just never felt the same as the freshly baked once I was used to eating. So I have been meaning to try my hand at baking naankhatai this holiday season. I was surprised at how easy it is.

I made 2 batches. The picture below is from batch #2 where I reduced the butter and sugar - turns out they tend to crack a bit with reduced butter but that is just fine for my everyday eating - better actually. Less guilt. But please go with the full butter, full sugar version if you are gifting someone or sharing with friends.

Recipe (makes about 15 small naankhatai):

1C all-purpose flour

1/2C melted butter or ghee (1/2C = 8Tbsp; in the reduced butter version I used 5.5Tbsp)

1/2C powdered sugar (in the healthier version I used 1/4C + 1Tbsp sugar which ius just barely sweet)

1/2tsp baking powder

pinch of pumpkin spice (optional, sub with 1 crushed cardamom and a pinch of cinnamon)

pinch of salt

Mix the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & pumpkin spice. Mix well.

Slowly add melted butter to the dry ingredients and keep mixing to form a dough. Knead for a minute and then wrap in a plastic wrapper and set aside for 20mins in refrigerator.

Then preheat oven to 365F. Divide the dough into about 15 balls. Flatten them slightly and add them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Using a serving knife, make small cuts in the form of a + sign on each ball. Add some crushed nuts on top of each if you prefer (optional).

Bake for 10-15mins until desired brown-ness and crunch is achieved. Remove from heat and let cool for few mins. Store in an air-tight container.