My dad is an avid gardener. If he had not been an engineer, I am sure he would have been a farmer. Ironically, the soil at our place is not fertile enough for his efforts to bear fruit. But he never gives up. These are ‘extra’ coconut saplings lying in my backyard. Now a convenient “hide n seek” play area for the kittens. 🙂
~ by Sree
About ‘Flavors of Life’ ~ Click here
I bake quite a bit and I like the home baked cakes more than the fancy, ornately iced ones from the store. My cakes almost always come out well except for the usual ‘old baking’ powder/ ‘old flour’ disasters. For ages I have followed this recipe given by my mother’s oldest friend, simply whisked all the ingredients (very important that they are all fresh and at room temperature) together for a while and baked it till the delicious aroma of a golden brown cake wafted through the entire house.:) My mom always adds a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of honey as well, she says it makes the cake moist and tastier.
~ by Sree
More from Sree ~ Click here
Bangalore is a heaven for fruit lovers. Seasonal fruit carts and vendors fill the streets all round the year. Be it grapes, mangoes, (which seem to be scarce this year) and of course melons.
I have noticed that watermelonwallas are beginning to vanish. The guy in front of our home is gone. And I haven’t eaten a single one yet! I was too busy hogging muskmelons, which are my favorite. So I am off to find a sweet, red juicy one. 🙂
~ by Sree
(Sree also writes at Sree’s Canvas)
New (Ad)ventures from blog world:
The One ~ A Religious Experience
Mesmerizing Backwater Experience
Cakeworks:
Talented writer-artist, new mom and food blogger friend MS has recently started a pastry business from her home. She can design, bake and deliver one of a kind cakes for birthdays, weddings or any other event in the Delaware, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Baltimore regions. If you live in that area or have family and friends in that area, you could easily surprise them with a fabulous cake gift through Cakeworks. Check her site and support fellow food blogger’s new home-based venture.
That is not my grandmother. It is just a sketch I made while getting bored on the train, on my journey home from Bangalore. I miss so many things post-marriage. One of them is my grandmother and the old kitchen at my mom’s place where I spent most of my childhood. It looked exactly like this and my grandma would sit exactly like this cooking at her small stove making hot dosas and chapatis and more. She would always mix food in the most delectable combination with chutneys, pickles…. yum! I think those tasted better than anything available in any restaurant. She is now bedridden and can hardly walk and the kitchen is now converted into a modern one. I think if I build my own house, I would want an old- fashioned kitchen just like my grandmother’s.:)
~ Sree
Flavors of Life: Introduction
Flavors of Life, Previously:
I actually have ALL these flavors of tea in my pantry! The lemon/mandarin flavors are quite refreshing. The berries are better drunk with ice and the choco-vanilla ones with milk. I haven’t figured out how the tropical ones go. Its ‘pretea’ complicated you know. Some (green tea) are to be ‘infused’ and mixed, others plain boiled… The other day I served hot peppermint tea to my old uncle, a connoisseur of beverages and he said “we can do without that one.” Wasn’t Tea supposed to be a refreshing beverage? Like Lipton Taaza… But I even have a ‘SLEEPYTIME’ tea! I am certain it won’t be long before we have coffee flavored tea. 🙂
By the way there is a tea parlor by the name Infinitea in Bangalore.
~ Sree
Flavors of Life: Introduction
Flavors of Life, Previously:
The heavenly feel of cotton candy melting in the mouth on a happy, fun-filled holiday cannot be matched by any other gastronomic delight. I have dreamt of these. Yes, I dream of food very frequently.:) I must add that these not only make my taste buds feel wonderful, I get a warm, tingly and happy feeling in my heart too. Oooooh, that’s enough mush. 🙂 I wonder what it is about us girls and candy and pink!
~ Sree
Previously on Flavors of Life:
When I tell someone I just got back from Tirupati, the first thing they *don’t* ask is “Did you have a good darshan?” Instead, I hear excited “Did you bring back any laddus?” I guess, they can’t be blamed. I’ve always been among those who ‘eye’ the prasaad long before the Puja has begun!
Well, I just got back from Tirupati, after a good darshan, sights of turmeric and sandal smeared smooth heads, loaded with laddus to share with eager laddu lovers. May Lord Venkateshwara keep showering everyone with blessings the size of his laddus.:)
~ Sree
Previously on Flavors of Life:
It’s rarely that a pumpkin vine grows to its prime to bear fruit in our garden. At my place, we are crazy about the pumpkin leaves (tender ones), buds, flowers and the young pumpkins. Hence any growth is literally ‘nipped in the bud’. Might sound like a heartless act of greed, but just try a pumpkin flower stir-fry or crisp deep-fry, and you will know why! However, this vine crept up beside the home inconspicuously amidst a huge rose tree (yes, the rose bush has grown into a tree beyond the first floor), and one fine day we noticed a huge pumpkin (seven Kilos!) ‘harvested’ in time for Sankranthi.:) I wish the remaining flowers, leaves and buds as much luck this year.:)
~ Sree
Previously on Flavors of Life:
Many like her were selling bananas in front of the Virupaksha Temple at Hampi. The fruits were not offerings to God, but to the large number of cows in front of the temple! I don’t know whether you would agree; to me the banana is the most humble of all fruits. It’s available through the year and affordable to all. The banana selflessly offers itself to mankind. We eat both raw and ripe fruit, the stem of the plant and the banana flower. We use the banana leaves for religious offerings and cooking. I recently read somewhere that the nutrients lie in the ripe skin of the fruit. Any takers?:)
by – Sree
It’s always more fun when food is shared with family and friends. As much as I like to live in my own world at Mahanandi, I feel happy when friends drop by to share their goodies. Today is one such day and the friend is talented artist Sree. Sree is from Kerala, now lives in Bangalore and writes at “Sree’s Canvas“. Sree is an excellent painter and I especially love the way she uses colors to bring life into a subject. She will be starting a new series of sketches called “Flavors of Life” at Mahanandi from today, and the series will be on Saturday’s fortnightly.
Here is more about “Flavors of Life” by Sree:
|
I enjoy food! I love cooking, shopping for ingredients, researching recipes or simply strolling through a vegetable market as much as I love drawing and painting. I hope through “flavors of life” to publish sketches, paintings and doodles of things that add to the joy of life, which to me is synonymous with the pleasure of good food.
A little about myself, I draw for myself, topics that touch me. I don’t dare call myself an artist (that’s an honor bestowed upon those great souls who carved out our ancient temples and monuments with every ounce of their sweat and blood. In comparison I’m just a lazy doodler humbled by all that I see around me). I work mostly with graphite, colored pencils and oils, sometimes ink and watercolor as well. I hope to stick around in this virtual culinary world for a while.:) Cheers, |
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
