late night cheesy fantasy ;P

The best part about the night before a holiday is to lay comfortably in your bed without having to bother about waking up early in the morning, watching Grey's anatomy till the sun starts to peek in from your window and warning you to get under the quilt before someone walks into the room. Falling in love with McDreamy over and over again ... but wait.... In the midst of all of this fantasy about the O.R and Scrubs and the perplexity in deciding who is hotter among Dr. Derek Shepard and Alex Karev, I can't stop wondering how heavenly would it feel if I got something crunchy and scrumptiously cheesy to munch upon at 2 am right here in the my cozy bed and relish it while I chill out with my television.

Craving for something that tastes awesome and elevates the level of fantasy and comfort, I make myself - CHEESY GARLIC BREADSTICKS

Ingredients :

2-3 pieces of bread cut into thin rectangular slices

a few cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 tbsp of melted butter

2 tbsp of cream cheese 

Grated mozzarella cheese

salt to taste

Oregano seasoning

Directions:
In a bowl, mix butter and cheese along with salt and garlic.

Spread this batter over the thin bread pieces / sticks.

sprinkle over oregano seasoning.
Grill the bread.

Once the cheese melts and the starts to turn brown the bread is ready crisp and ready to gorge upon.

Every time I bite onto this amazingly crunchy and juice piece of bread, the hot cheese sticking onto my teeth and melting in my mouth gives me pure bliss in terms in savor and flavor. And now Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Karev can both take a back seat because my bread beats them in all aspects of awesomeness !!!! ;)

Thought of Food and Food for Thought

Opened my refrigerator  for lunch today and found a bowl of leftover rice.... After a long tiring day out in the sun the very thought of cooking a meal in this heat can give you a stroke. Before i starved myself to death, the calender reminded me of my Aunt's birthday, which further reminded me of the amazing "curd rice" she made for us once.... And I ran back into the kitchen:

In a pan added 1 tablespoon of oil, half a teaspoon of black mustard seeds, half a teaspoon of coriander seeds, half teaspoon channa dal(split yellow lentils) few kadi pata leaves and a teaspoon of finely chopped ginger and let it saute for a minute till the mustard seeds started to pop.

then I added the rice( a small bowl full) lowered the flame and poured in half a cup of curd, a teaspoon of lemon juice, salt to taste and dried mint leaves.

mixed it all well and served....

It is a very light and easy to cook dish which barely takes 5 min.

Today's lunch is dedicated to my Aunt for being the savior of the day on the very special day of her birthday!!!

Its amazing how food is connected to little instances in life and how it manages to enhances the flavor of each moment.  The rich and subtle aroma of the spices added to the dish describe my Aunt's persona so well that leaves me wondering on how beautifully life and people can be linked to food and its flavor. It could be a co-incidence that serving this dish for lunch on her birthday happened, but I lay still in the moment to wonder if this is what is meant to be to make us realize the strong association of character and individuality of a being with a particular cuisine or part of the meal..... Basically i just see food in everything and every being ;) and so believe :

Food for one, Food for thought, Food for life!!!!

So cheers to the calender and the thought!! and  a very Happy Birthday to my Aunt....

P.S: I am having my rice with a freshly prepared refreshing lemonade :)

For people who are not fond of cooking , making something edible and i must put here "delicious" is a great achievement. My mom for the first time ever spent the entire afternoon chopping and squeezing lemons to finally put them together into the simplest lemon pickle ever. 
She has put it into the sun for the lemons to take up the flavor. it will take a few days for it to be ready to eat..... will keep posting on how it turns out to be....
SIMPLE OIL FREE LEMON PICKLE
Ingredients:

• 12 lemons cut out in quarters 
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup red chilli powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tsp turmeric powder
• Juice of 2-3 lemons
• mix up all the ingredients and put them in a glass jar. keep it in the sun for a few days till the juice thickens up and the lemons get tender. the duration will range from 2-3weeks depending on the amount of sunlight received.
• You guys can join us in trying this out? Go ahead! And if you do, be sure to let me know how it's doing. Or just wait to see how our tuns out to be ...... 
• Every thing you cook, reflects on what is going on in your life. Today my mom was more than just free and felt like putting herself in to food which she barely does.... The best she likes to cook is simple tomato sandwiches or maybe an instant porridge.  What do you think this reflects????? Has she suddenly started to feel older or was she just trying to put the surplus lemons to use??? I still wonder... Let me know what you think about it.... LIFE AND FOOD .... they indeed are best friends :)
• P.S: These pickled lemons can be complemented with various Indian breads like paranthas and mathis or daily Indian meals and can also be added to pastas or sandwiches to make them tangy and sweet.
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