New Mexico - May 2018

I usually end up making at least one trip somewhere in the summers. There was a lot of chaos going on at work and needed a break, this trip aligned very well with that. A friend suggested New Mexico and having lived there she gave a lot of pointers, even offered to accommodate at her mother's place there. We didn't end up doing that. The trips usually need to have some nature or culture in it. The beaches and the cities don't just fit in well. 

We visited Santa Fe and Taos. Both places are very different than a typical city in the US. We flew to Albuquerque Airport. It is one hour drive from Santa Fe. I knew Albuquerque because of the Dr. Vasant Lad's Ayurvedic Institute there. We couldn't visit as the Institute was closed during the weekend. Even though the two cities are just 1 hour drive apart, they are very different in terms of the architecture and culture. I found Albuquerque to be a usual American city. 

We spent the first day in Santa Fe. This is how all houses and buildings look in Santa Fe - Adobe buildings. I liked it so much as it makes them feel uniform and very earthy. The downtown is small and can provide historic glimpse. It's good for folks who like fine dining. We took a round and went to have dinner at a small place away from the downtown. 

Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

Palace of Governors

We had dinner at a small but good Southwestern food place. Food was great and I think some of that I tried for the first time.

Next day we planned to visit Bandelier National Monument and then stay at Taos. Bandelier is where the Ancestors of the Ancestral Pueblo people lived before 15th century. They built homes carved from the volcanic tuff. Later they moved from this area to pueblos along the Rio Grande near Taos. 

Domed Oven

Very popular photo spot

Those holes are houses

Song and Dance by the Native community folks.

We started for Taos from Bandelier. Taos is a town in northern New Mexico bounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It’s known for historic Adobe buildings, Art and Taos Pueblo, a multistory adobe complex inhabited by Native Americans. Both Taos and Santa Fe have a good number of museums and art galleries. Taos really felt like an Art town. 

We stayed in this small inn that was also built with Adobe and run by a lady. Taos is a very small town and this place made me feel like being at home. 

Blue and Black corn. Totally reminded me of Home.

Small sitting area in the Inn. We sat there in the night with our books. 

Next day we visited the Taos Pueblo which is a world heritage site and around 150 Native American community people still live in it. 

Main buildings

Adobe Oven

Usually each floor is set back from the floor below. The roof of each level serves as a terrace for the level above. Ladders are used to go from one level to another. 

History

Houses don't have direct water supply and the river water is used.

Many people have left these homes and now use them as gift shops

After the Taos Pueblo visit, we went to see the steel bridge and the Rio Grande Gorge which was close-by. 

Rio Grande Gorge

From there we wanted to go visit the Earthship Biotecture. An Earthship is a passive solar house that is made of both natural and recycled materials such as earth-packed tires. The Earthship architecture began in 1970s when the architect Michael Reynolds wanted to create a sustainable home with recycled materials. 

Glass bottled used as material

Water Management inside the house

This was the most amazing part of the house. Lots of fruits and vegetables in such a small balcony

The next part of the trip wasn't planned. We met a white woman at the Earthship. During the casual chat, she asked where we are from in India. I usually say 'just above Delhi' as most people can locate that region in their head. She asked the name of the place. I thought, how would she know. When we mentioned hills she mentioned Nainital and I was a bit surprised. It seems she had been visiting the Neem Karoli Baba in Kainchi, Garampani. She mentioned that there is a Neem Karoli Baba temple in Taos. She also mentioned they serve good 'chai' in the evening :). What was there to think more. We went straight to that temple from the Earthship tour. 

From there we started back for Santa Fe where we were supposed to stay that night. We mostly relaxed that night. Next day, we went to see some more art in the downtown before heading back to the Airport. The colorful ceramic art below looked great. 

Chocolate + Cashmere Man

I think I saw this at a small place where we ate before going to Albuquerque.

Until next time......

Nani ko Shradhaanjali

Feb 9, 2016

नानी जी को श्रद्धांजलि

वर्ष २०१६ मौनी अमावस्या को

ले लिया तुमने मौन अनंत

आज तुम्हारे जाने पर

ये मन है थोड़ा खिन्न

शब्दों में ही लिखकर

अब करे याद ये तुमको।

थी गहन आवाज़ तुम्हारी कितनी

सबको करती अनुशासित

सब सोचे था वो कड़कपन

पर हमने देखा चिंता और प्यार।

केश तुम्हारे थे काले कितने

वृद्धावस्था ने भी घुटने टेके थे

सारे नाती पोते भी करते थे

मन ही मन में गर्व उन पर।

पूजा पाठ में ध्यान था कितना

करतीं सबके सुख की कामना

कितनी भी कठिनाई आयीं

पर हार कभी ना तुमने मानी।

इस जीवन में तुम अपने

काम अनेक कर गयीं

मुझको तो बड़े उपहार में

माँ तुम मेरी दे गयीं।

पर अपने ही हंसालय से

तुम आज विदा क्यों ले गयीं?

Tomato Carrot Coriander Soup

The inspiration for this soup is a restaurant in Bangalore, India: Punjabi Rasoi. We went there for a family dinner each time during my last 2 India trips which were a year apart. Both the times I had their coriander tomato soup and simply loved it. It wasn't the usual Indian creamy tomato soup. I made some modification for this soup and made it tomato carrot coriander soup. Almost had 2 bowls of soup before dinner. This has now become another of my favorite soups other than the Thai Tom-Yum soup. This blog started with that soup!

Ingredients:

1. 2 tomatoes
2. 2 carrots
3. Green coriander
4. 1 green chili
5. Ginger
6. Garlic
7. Salt
8. Turmeric
9. Coriander powder
10. Olive oil

Preparation:

1. Wash, peel carrots and blend it along with tomatoes, carrots, small piece of ginger, 1 clove garlic, green chili. I added 2-3 spoon of leftover mashed potato in it as well. 
2. Heat olive oil in a pan.
3. Put mustard seeds and let them splatter.
4. Empty the blender into the pan now. Add water as needed. I wanted a thin soup so I added a lot of water.
5. Add turmeric, salt and coriander powder.
6. Let it simmer on low heat for some time. 
7. Add finely chopped coriander leaves in it.
8. Let it simmer again for some time.
9. Serve hot.

Gobhi Parathe

Long weekend (Thanks to Martin Luther King) had been going great, with a lot of sleeping. I am not sure when I am going to get out of the jet lag mode. The cold weather acts like a catalyst to the sleep! Yesterday was the day when I cooked all meals. Wanted to avoid eating leftovers from lunch in dinner and thus the paratha plan. I have never made gobhi parathe myself so a trial was the plan. They turned out to be great (my expectations from myself were pretty low today).

Here is my recipe which is mostly similar to the several others available online:

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour
2. Oil
3. Water
4. Cauliflower 
5. Salt
6. Garam Masala
7. Green chili
8. Coriander leaves (I forgot to add these but you shouldn't)
9. Ginger
10. Amchur (mango) powder

Preparation:

1. Mix 1/2-1 teaspoon of oil (I use olive oil for almost everything in cooking) in the flour and some salt (as per taste) and make the dough (I usually use hot water) and set it aside.
2. Wash cauliflower and heat the flowers in microwave for 2-3 minutes to make them soft.
3. Grate the cauliflower and add finely chopped green chili and chopped/grated ginger.
4. Add salt, garam masala and mango powder. Add finely chopped coriander leaves as well.
5. Take 2 small balls of dough. Roll them each to about 3-4" diameter. 
6. Add the stuffing on top of one and place the other on top of this. 
7. Make sure to seal all around it. Roll and make it bigger based on your thickness preference.
8. Roast the paratha with oil on a pan. Ready to serve with anything you prefer. I like curd with paratha. You could also add some butter on top of the paratha but I am not a big fan of adding more calories on top of calorie heavy food on a lazy weekend.

Single Bed Quilt

Yet another bed quilt! This post has been in draft since almost a month. Made this quilt last year in November. The plan was to utilize all the scraps and make a quilt out of it. I used some of the old scraps along with new cloth. Since I haven't learnt free motion quilting yet, this quilt also had to do with the stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. I took it to India and now Mom has kept it for our home there. I had bought all material from Walmart. 

Some stats: (I modified the dimensions in between and did not keep track of all of them). 

Desired finished size:

50" * 90"        

Blocks:

8 * 17     

                     

Block size:

5.5" * 5.5" (finished)

Each block needs:

• 1, 5.5" * 5.5" piece of white/light fabric.

• 2, 3" * 3" pieces of colored fabric.

I bought these fat quarters to use for colored squares.

This is how I made a single block:

Sew the 2 small squares (placed wrong side up) on top of the big square (placed right side up) as shown in the pic on the right below. Then cut the triangle (as shown) leaving a 1/4" seam allowance.

Note that you will waste triangles with this but then those are very small and probably can be used for other purpose but this makes it a lot easier and quick to make so many of these blocks that are needed.

Pahadi Raita

Pahad means 'hill' in Hindi and this raita recipe comes from the hills of Indian state Uttarakhand - my native. This is made in almost every festival in our homes and people love it in variety of tastes. Every time I taste Wasabi I get reminded of this raita. Even though I don't like cucumber, I like this raita. You would be surprised to know that there are specific small restaurants run by locals when you travel to Kumaon hills which are specifically famous for delicious raita and Aloo-ke-gutke.

Yesterday was a lazy day for me. I ended up making Kichdi for lunch and then remembered the saying: 'Kichdi ke chaar yaar, dahi, mooli, ghee, achaar' (4 sides are good to enjoy kichdi - yogurt, raddish, ghee, pickle). Luckily I had a cucumber so I made the raita in no time. Absolutely enjoyed the lunch.

I need to learn food photography!

Ingredients:

1. Cucumber
2. Yogurt
3. Mustard seeds
4. Salt
5. Green chili
6. Turmeric
7. Coriander leaves
8. Water

Preparation:

1. Soak mustard seeds ( yellow or black both will do). with little water and grind it to make fine paste. Keep it aside.
2. Peel cucumber and remove the seeds from inside.
3. Beat yogurt in a bowl and keep it aside.
4. Grate cucumber, squeeze all water from grated cucumber and add it (cucumber) to the yogurt. 
5. Add turmeric, finely chopped green chili, red chili powder and salt to this.
6. Add the mustard paste to it. Start by adding in small quantity as it takes about 30-60 min for the mustard flavor to rise.
7. Add chopped coriander on top.

Matar Paneer

Back after long time. No, no, I didn't stop cooking. I just could not post everything. Made stuffed eggplant (bharva baigan) and egg kadhi (yes kadhi!) recently. I also bought a nutribullet recently and trying different smoothies these days. Thanks to the friend who encouraged to not buy a juicer and instead get nutribullet.

So the lazy sunday started with a big glass of smoothie and then I was so full that I avoided eating anything else. 11am ginger tea is a must have on weekends for this tea addict but the worse effect of tea on me is that it makes me full for another hour or two. So I go in the kitchen at 12pm and find this paneer in the fridge. I had to finish this paneer if I really wanted to avoid letting it go in the trash can next week (ya the next full fledged cooking will be only next weekend). Somehow the paneer reminded me of the so called 'vegetable and paneer biryani' in office cafe. The irony is that most of the time there is no paneer in it and only potatoes in the name of vegetable. the other day I was thinking that they should just cook biryani and keep paneer cubes separately and just put one in everyone's plate. So here is the recipe for matar paneer. Nothing fancy or special.

Ingredients:
1. Paneer
2. Tomatoes - 2 (I had put 1.5 medium size tomatoes).
3. Onion (I used very less)
4. Ginger
5. Green chilli. 
6. Oil
7. Coriander powder
8. Turmeric powder
9. Garam masala
10. Salt, Jeera, fresh coriander leaves.

Preparation:
1. Cut onion and tomatoes. 
2. Toss onion, 1/2 inch cube of ginger and green chilli into oil and fry it till the onions are brown. Add tomatoes and let them turn soft.
3. Put the above in a blender and blend it into smooth paste.
4. Heat 1tsp oil and add jeera (and heeng) to it. 
5. Add the onion-tomato paste to it. 
6. and add water as needed.
7. Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala (as per your taste).
8. Add green peas and paneer cubes to it. 
9. Add salt.
10. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.