Tree of life

Ever since I saw this pic Tree of Life by Himani Shukla, I was dying to do it myself. It was simple but a bit tough on following symmetry. Finally finished it and framed it. Tell me what do you think of it? Too simple right..

Waiting for rains..

Well, it's been a lot of days since I posted something. I have been very inactive, lazy and looking for some inspiration to bounce back.
I am desperately waiting for the rain god to show some mercy upon us. Seeing the climate here in B'lore I feel I am living in extended summer.
Few pics from my garden..
The peacock flowers. This is the only attraction in my backyard for time being.

Hibiscus is another plant in my garden which is flowering profusely..

All my plants lined up for some rain..

Peperomia Mania

This is one of the variety of Peperomia plant. I never knew what it was while buying. Fortunately it is still rocking in my home and you can find it in many corners of my home There are many different varieties in this family and the one that I have has thread-like trailing, thick but weak stems and is more suitable for hanging in a basket. I put a small shoot in a bottle just for curiosity. Although it doesn't grow much, it has managed to produce small leaves in water. Grows well when kept in shaded areas..

Weekends

A short hi to all bloggers out there.
My weekend passed without much notice. Hubby was out of station touring Mysore with his German Colleagues. So it was just like the rest of the week days only difference being that I had to bear the constants brawls between two brothers for the whole day. Other days it starts the moment elder one comes back home after school.
For munching something along with Tea I decided to do Methi Cuts . The scenario in my house is that whenever I deep fry something my elder son just peeps in every time and tastes few bites from every batch. The reason he tells is that he wants to ensure all are fried properly. So schweet! In the end,  one quarter of the box would be consumed just by him.
Have a fabulous week ahead!!!

Warli on dried bottle gourd.

There are lot of dried fruits,seeds, twigs in my home which I usually find in the empty sites, gardens during my walks and collect them. So far I have refrained myself painting them, keeping them just as they are. But there was one dried bottle gourd in round shape which I could not resist coloring it.  I picked up ultramarine blue, terracotta colors and drew out few simple Warli figures in them. End result not to perfection but I am happy with it.

MTR Rice Sevai...

Well, this is definitely not a recipe post. This is about my experience with the product MTR rice sevai.

The packet contains dried rice noodles, which you empty into boiling water and strain it after few minutes. Once you have rice noodles, you can use it as you want, like preparing lime bath or pulao etc., out of it.
In the past I have made instant rice noodles successfully out of few other brands, but my husband has liking to only this particular brand of MTR's. Every time I make it, it would become a flop show in spite of following the procedure in the packet properly. Umm, properly according to me.
I simply couldn't figure out why the noodles were turning to a lumpy mass. I tried lot of tricks to make each strand of noodle non sticky, like adding pinch of salt, oil etc.. I used to get so frustrated, upset when the end product was not matching what was shown in the packet.. For  many days I stopped buying rice noodles altogether, but once in a while it would make a way in our pantry, courtesy my husband.
Once I got so upset that I fought with my husband bringing it and banning MTR Rice Sevai in our house. This time my husband took the matters to his hands and said 'I know you are doing something wrong, I will try it myself, if it doesn't turn out good we would stop buying it'. Agreed, part of me wishing the same thing happening to him. But voila, it turned out to be best. So the culprit is 'ME NOT FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS PROPERLY'.
Then we started investigating where I was going wrong. Ok, where this is where I was going wrong, I was not boiling the water properly, I would just see few small bubbles and pour the contents of packet into it. The water has to be thoroughly boiling like you boil for drinking.

So the moral of the story small change in cooking can alter things -:). Sad thing is that, in spite of having around 8 yrs of experience in the kitchen, your husband had to point out your mistake.

Book Review : Extra Virgin by Anne Hawes

I picked up this book from a second hand book shop and tell you the truth, didn't disappoint me.
The story is the real life experience of Anne Hawes and her sister Lucy who are from London and visit a tiny Liguarian village Diano San Pietro in Italy. They visit this place to learn Rose grafting, to experience Italian Reviera but fall in love with the stone house a midst of olive grooves. They buy this house which seems too cheap compared to the highly priced homes in London which they definitely can't afford.  The author describes her experiences with making this village as their second home, olive growing, encounters with their neighbors, beautiful landscapes, peasant villagers and their funny notions about her having cappuccino, salads and using beach . The olive farming village folks think these females have gone nuts for buying olive grooves without any knowledge about them, but gradually assist, accept both of them.