Living the dream. One day at a time.

This is my solution to deal with monday morning blues. I got this cheerful mug from Pier1 Imports and since then my tea breaks at work  are something I  look forward to.

I love this picture of stuffed deer I clicked at the museum of science. I especially liked how you can sniff the deer when you push the button. Little friendly tip if you are planning to make a visit- prioritize the sections you are interested in; else you will get lost in the lala land the way I did!

And last is the example of a cheap advertisement. I am glad they restrained from writing buy one get one free!!

Have a good weekend lovelies!!

After a heavy fire fighting at work on Friday, finally we were ready for our much awaited long weekend trip to a small town-Naples, Maine.  This is when I realized that we CAN live without an internet connection for two and a half days, and we actually did not die without accessing any social networking sites.

Early and fresh, we headed to our destination, after two and half hours drive reached Naples, and patted Aditi for suggesting this picturesque town to spend a laid back weekend. After quickly dropping our bags in the cabins right outside Long lake, we decided to take the canoes and explore the lake.  The row boats and canoes were available to the cabin renters whenever they wish(ofcourse with the mandatory life jackets), which was a great bonus point to this spot. For the  evening, we decided to cookout variety of meat on the grill. Being a diverse group of people we decided to marinate the meat with our own spice flavors and the result turned out to be quite a yummy meal and by 9 o clock we were in a meat heaven.   I marinated the chicken with Tandoori chicken masala, ginger, garlic and lemon juice, restrained myself to keep it mild for the benefit of  American heads. We also had a variety of chicken sausages, chicken legs (Redgine wouldn’t reveal the secret spices she added), turkey patties and dum alu. TJ demonstrated his meat grilling skills and we ate our meal sitting on the dock. At night we sipped our respective drinks around a cozy bonfire with some light conversation and called it an early day.

Next morning shivering, we woke up to realize mother nature was not being too kind to us and waited eagerly for the rain to stop as we had a number of activities planned for the day. After a refreshing cup of tea and eggs we went for a drive to Shawnee peak mountain in anticipation of going for a small trek, but the weather was not supportive and decided to drop the plan.

Focus of the day-Lunch was at a local diner Sandy’s-famous for it’s fresh seafood. I stuck to my fish and chips and couldn’t dare eating anything that was looking at me with wide open eyes. But everyone else seemed to enjoy their fresh lobster meat wearing their cute aprons and using a set of tools to cut the lobster shell. The clams in the soup simply melted in my mouth and must say that I had never tasted better clam chowder anywhere else.

Evening was spent riding a jet ski at the nearest lake, the speed in water, the waves, pleasant weather and the beautiful lake was truly an experience in itself and all of us were hesitant to give up their respective skis. For a moment I felt like a TV star with all the wind in my hair and speeding like a powerful diva, but after the jet skiing session I headed back to the cabins and made some masala tea for everyone and I felt like Reshma again :p. Among the group, Shreyas and I were the maximum gas consumers for the Jet skis because of the fast riding, curvy adventures in water and generally acting like a 5 year old. For the next couple of hours we minded our own business and pretty much did what we liked(which involved the most mature thing – taking pictures looking in random directions, notice the serious expression).

For dinner we cooked some more meat, Asparagus and turkey burgers, lets just say we ate to our heart’s content. After dinner we had a long chat till wee hours and then bundled up to sleep. All in all this weekend was a much needed break and we are charged atleast for the next couple of months!!That was my weekend how was yours?

Remember the girl behind my not-so-cool hairdo a year back? sooo she has taken to blogging these days and must say the girl can write,  so here I am shamelessly advertising my didi’s blog(go sue me if you want) who helped me write essays and speeches in past.  Now that we are sharing blog links you should also visit my dimply friend here .

Now let’s come to the title of this post, I never intended to add a recipe category to this site  but I cannot help but post this super fun recipe (No there is no patent on this one, not yet) courtesy of Shreyas. The dish is called baitha anda in Marathi and loose translation in English makes it sitting egg (??) .  The dish turned out to be good enough to make an entry in Rachel ray’s 30 minute meals (I bet you dint know Sanjeev Kapoor showed one minute shrimp rice on her show sometime back) Anyhow, without further ado lets start with the process.

Baitha Egg recipe(for 2)

Ingredients (rather components as the chef likes to call them)

* 3 eggs

* 1/2 onion, 1/2 tomato

* 1/2 teaspoon oil, Ginger garlic paste(1/4th spoon- optional)

* 1 teaspoon chicken curry powder, turmeric, cumin seeds, 1/2 teaspoon Chilly powder, salt

* Chopped  Coriander for garnishing

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan, add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and a pinch of turmeric.

2. When the seeds splutter add ginger garlic paste

3. Saute onion till they turn brown and add Chicken curry powder,  red chilly powder and salt.

4. Add chopped tomato and let it cook for a minute

5. When this gravy is cooked (now comes the tricky part), spead the gravy evenly in pan and make three holes in the pan with a spoon (no physical holes in the pan please) pour the eggs in the holes and stir them lightly with a spoon, make sure the egg doesn’t disintegrate.

6. Cover the pan and on a very low flame let the eggs cook for 4 minutes and turn them over without breaking into more than two pieces.

7. Garnish with coriander and eat with a roti or bread

You should/could/would not call this an omlette and we take no responsibility if the dish isn’t edible.  We enjoyed this quick recipe dish watching Ocean’s Eleven on a lazy saturday afternoon, which not only turned out to be a yummy meal but cured my never ending headache. BTW on a totally tangential note does anyone also think that Catch me if you can was copied from Bunty aur Babli or it’s just me :p

I am neither a “lets make a style statement in a crowd” nor a complete “I wear a gym tshirt on Friday night” girl. The truth is, my fashion idol has always been my elder sister who says ” Reshma always had an eye on my wardrobe and had an obsession for my clothes though they were always too big for her”. When I was 18, I imitated her hair style (high pony tail) and for next 4 years I flaunted thinking that it was cool. okay flashback ends !

This time during my trip to India the conversation in my room went like this:
didi: look at your hair so frizzy and shapeless u need a makeover!
me: its not that bad
didi: lets get you a haircut
me: I want to go to your stylist
didi: no copy cat, lets get you a good hairstylist (googles cool hairstylist in Mumbai)
here is one: He cuts Bipasha basu’s hair
me: But I want to look like you!
didi: (not paying attention to me, calls rather furiously) Hi I need an appointment with the senior hairstylist ..wednesday afternoon sounds right:

I forgot all about it the whole week because I knew i would be in safe hands along with my fashion guru. A week later we entered the upmarket salon, looking totally out of the place surrounded by funky girls and guys (half my age!!!!!) and didi trying to cool me down, repeating the list of famous models and bollywood actors who were regulars there. All this while I was praying for my hair stylist not be one of the girls with pink hair and pierced lips who were running around with scissors.
Finally my name was called and my “senior hair stylist” greeted me, (thank god she had straight hair and looked mature, sorry couldn’t help but judge). She interviewed me for next 15 minutes and I kept repeating ” No No you are totally getting me wrong, I want something like her” pointing to my sister whose eyes were hurting because of the much rolling! Finally after much interrogation and argument miss senior started the procedure. We were served sandwiches and tea in the break (?? yes we got one of those). I avoided looking at the mirror because I wanted to do the whole Sushmita Sen “oh!!! cant believe it’s me” scene. Miss senior was rather intimidating and did not ask a single question during the actual cutting process, which I interpreted as professional and experienced. Finally when she announced the end of the process, I finally looked in the mirror, I looked.. well, different, my head was now much bigger than my body I looked at didi and got a semi-approval nod. (Notice No Sushmita Sen moment here). After some time I got used to looking at different me and we left the salon. As soon as we came out didi exclaimed, “I know what you hair looks like, it looks like someone placed a flower-vase upside down on your head”. There I was, standing outside a frilly salon looking like a flowerpot, and with a perfect analogy. That was the worst haircut I have ever got. My hair looked too funky for my personality and got much chiding from my mom who thought my hair looked like a mane. When Shreyas first saw me at the station, the first word he said to me was “horrible” (did I mention that most of my friends are rather blunt).

I moaned about the haircut exactly for the time spent cutting it, after that I did not feel bad at all, I mean it (I was aware of the disaster, but thankfully I have outgrown that age of self obsession) . Instead I went to the mall, bought 10 hairbands, and for next 8 months i.e. till now never went out without controlling the growing flowerpot. Moral of the story- style channel is fake, there is no before and after moment in real life!

Year 2007-List of things made me :

1. Graduated a week back yaay!!
2. Got a job( signed the offer letter yesterday).
3. Loved Algorithms class.
4. Got a chance to work with Professor Futrelle at school.
5. Realized that I can’t get bored of studying.
6. Got a set of 10 books of Laura Ingalls as a gift, can’t decide which one is the best.
7. Miss PHD did the obvious amen to that!!
8. Learned to be calm and patient.
9. Except for the coffee machine I own all the thing I mentioned here in my wishlist, well almost all!!
10. My niece Trisha turned one, though I missed the party my mom described it in such a way that I almost attended it.
11. Managed to perform well in all my courses.
12. Made 2 new friends and learned to bond with only those who matter.
13. Passed the dreaded driving test.
14. Fell in love with Marathi songs, I wonder whether I was in alien’s land all this while!

Year 2007-List of things made me :

1. Rejection from Google, especially after visiting their mind blowing office.
2. Some of the shocking results though I thought I performed well.
3. Dear ones I adored the most; changed and startled me with their unexpected behavior.
4. Trisha doesn’t even know I exist.
5. Lost atleast 5-6 pounds (yes that makes me almost invisible and definitely not proud of it)
6. For being such a bad driver.
7. Hardly posted anything on blog.
8. For feeling helpless so many times and realizing that it’s by volition.