“So you are a housewife and you blog at your free time, lucky you” I am still trying to figure out what the young blogger wanted to convey when we met in a blogger meet recently. Am I lucky because I am a housewife, a blogger or because I have extra free time?

To me ‘Time’ is a luxury if you are bound with responsibilities and also have a passion to follow. I feel that only the achievers know the secrets of how to tame this elusive element of life called ‘Time’ and make the most out of both the worlds.

I was at loggerheads with time twenty years back when

World is celebrating International Women’s day today. Hmm…Is a single day enough to celebrate womanhood? May be, who cares…
Though a little late but am glad that I came out of the veil of a daughter, a wife and a mother to appreciate in broader perspective, the most precious gift of God – womanhood!

It was just another day in paradise…spent an evening on beach, had fun and listened to each drop of water tell a story of life! The pleasing sight of vendors selling colorful snacks, lovey-dovey pair lost in their world, elderly couple walking hand in hand and children from the most affluent to common families playing together on the beach…the more I see, the less I know about life.

A trip to beach is always welcoming both to the parents and the children. My kids and hubby love to play in water, make sand castles while I travel to and fro with the waves in my dreamland. Hubby keeps a watch on both children & me, interrupting frequently with “Take care of our shoes, camera, bag …don’t get lost in your own world”.

It really amuses me how our taste buds evolve with time and quickly get accustomed to new foods. Bitter gourd, cluster beans, pumpkin which never made to my favorite list of veggies during childhood are now some of the most cooked vegetables at home.

Though I haven’t succeeded in making my children eat bitter gourd and a few other veggies as yet, they do  like to bite on a pumpkin bread, Zucchini Biscotti, brownie and cakes. May be they need some more time to develop their taste buds before they start liking  the unique taste of these foods.

Turkey berry/wild eggplant or Sundaikkai (in Tamil) was first introduced to me after my marriage in 1996 by my mother-in-law and there was a love at first sight. She plucked these tiny green round berries from her backyard and taught me how to prep the berries with a small stone. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of prepping the berries, soaking in buttermilk and watching her cook the same in her kitchen.

“Dicotyledonous, low in fat, loaded with nutrients, fibers and protein, nodules in their roots, red, speckled, white purple colored beans are some of the salient features of legume family” ….Phew, heard my son muttering from his study room. And I think I know my beans much better after reading & learning with my son.

Lentils are an integral part of any Indian kitchen. Be it a simple Daal recipe with green gram, red lentil, black gram, Bengal gram or a spicy Sambhar fromSouth India, lentil is a star of Indian cuisine.

I reserve the whole beans for weekends, combine it with some light salad or yogurt raita and serve it with either plain Indian flat breads, whole-wheat bread or flavored Basmati rice.

After years of endless cooking and constant blogging, hubby declared that I am serious about my work! And finally I get a new toy to play with and Lite Bite goes digital. Whats more is that this sophisticated gadget as a gift is combined with my 43rd birthday. He is one happy lot now-a-days, for he escaped buying a separate gift for me and is temporarily relieved from his nagging wife 😯 who henceforth will be busy dabbling with her new found love (so says he).

As if PHP’s and HTML’s were not enough to break my head, learning photography, composition, lighting, food styling and all is giving me sleepless nights, all for the love of blogging. Have been bugging friends, reading manuals and  online journals like a zombie to get comfortable with my camera. But then as I read somewhere ‘ Develop a passion for learning. And if you do, you will never cease to grow‘…and learning I am…

Do you follow any particular recipe for making pilaf/pulav? I am afraid I don’t… If there is ample time and the cooking is for some special guests, my Pilaf will have a mix of home ground spices and some exotic ingredients such as poppy seeds, coconut & cashew paste. On a normal day it’s just a few whole spices, veggies, fluffy Basmati rice and my quick aromatic pilaf. And how versatile & flexible a recipe could get, you don’t need to follow any particular recipe and yet come out with some extraordinary results, yes such is the magic of Pilaf!

My favorite is always this simple and quick Pilaf or Pulav recipe, wherein the subtle flavors of Basmati rice, a mild punch of few whole spices and the real taste of fresh veggies could be enjoyed in best form.

Do you have a family dish which you prefer at times when you feel lazy to cook but do not wish to compromise on comfort and health quotient? Its Khichdi for my family. A hotch potch medley of wholegrain, millet, lentils and vegetables, Khichdi is an easy &  filling one pot meal and has all the necessary ingredients of a balanced diet which could be cooked quickly without much fuss. Carbohydrates from rice (or any grain), fiber from millet, protein form lentils and vitamins & minerals from veggies make this recipe a complete meal in itself.

Khichdi is the first solid food I was fed by mom and I followed the same meticulously with both my children barring a few days of formula food. This recipe is the one I often make when I am logger heads with time or just plain lazy and need an easy, quick fix meal.

Biryani is a symphony of aromas, color and texture played by the various spices & condiments that goes into making it. Although the origin of this spicy and decadent dish is from the land of Persia, the endless list of Indian versions will make you believe the authority of India over Biryani. Kashmiri, Chettinadu, Coorgi, Calicut, Lucknow, Tihari, Dindigul Biryani..you name any region of India and they have their own special Biryani to boast upon.

With the countless scrumptious versions of aromatic Biryani coming from different regions, there is no reason left why we should not call this exotic dish an indigenous recipe of India. Every state in India has its own flavor and ways to cook a prefect biryani, if long grain basmati rice is used in the northern region, the short grain rice makes a delicious biryani in south India.