Mahanandi

They say Steelers are the underdogs.

They say steelers have no choice, but to lose today opposite Colts.

The victory is going to be that much sweeter!

Go Steelers!

Steelers game today at 1 pm, EST.
Steelers flag Image is taken from this site

The holiday season is my favorite time of the year and our holiday or rather festival season starts with Vinayaka Chavati in August ends with Sankranthi, in January. First Vinayaka Chavati, then Dasera, Deepavali and Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas, rolling right on through the New years eve to Sankranthi. In between all these festivities, both of our birthdays and our marriage day falls. So every year, I look forward to August, for good times. And the Hindu festivals I listed above, are major ones, if one follows a true Hindu calendar, it’s going to be a festival, every other week.:)

To celebrate Sankranthi on 14th, we invited few of our Pittsburgh friends for festival lunch and we are planning to prepare a traditional meal. The menu we finalized is this:

I’ve shopping to do, house to clean, puja mandir to decorate and some prep work to do in the kitchen before Saturday. So, see you all after Sankranthi and have a great Sankranthi celebration or a neat weekend.

My New Camera:

I didn’t know that I’d develop this much interest in cameras and photography. Vijay, who is a master in photography was more than happy to indulge me in my latest hobby, with the new Nikon D70s Camera.

Kittaya, our little darling, playing in snow. He is so excited to see the snow flakes falling and he tries to catch them all with his tongue.

Check out Kiri and the gang at Clare’s and also my new addiction‘Terri, the terrific’. Not only the cutest dog, he is quite a story teller too.

Thank you my dear readers and fellow bloggers who nominated ‘Mahanandi’ for food blog awards. And also to judges of food blog awards and to Kate Hopkins of Accidental Hedonist, who is hosting and doing all the hard work of calculating the votes etc.,
I am very humbled and honored by your show of affection. Because of you, I am very proud to announce that Mahanandi is nominated in Best Recipes Category as one of the five blogs.

Voting to select the no.1 in each category is open now till Jan 18th. All are welcome to participate and I’d greatly appreciate your vote in this final process. Try as I may to show indifference to this whole process, I can’t help but feel happy that a nomination and an award, a sign of appreciation would bring.

I already voted for my favorites in each category and Barbara, you got my vote for ‘Best Post-Reader’s Choice’, congrats. Voting process seems to be legitimate and professional, can vote only once, in each category. We all enjoyed reading and cooking up recipes from food blogs, now is the time to show the support. Click here to Vote and have fun.

We spent New Year’s Eve and half of today in Pittsburgh, at our dear friends Rama and Bhargavi’s house. To celebrate their new baby Vivek and also new year, they hosted a party, yesterday night at their beautiful home. A party of friends and children, the total number was 30. Second time parents of 3 month old baby, as you can imagine, how tired and sleepless, they must be. Even then, they insisted and prepared a splendid meal for all of us, declining our offer of help. We had a great feast and a fine, dandy time. Thank you dear Dadis.

With their permission, here are some photos. The last images we took in 2005 and what a way to remember 2005!

This is my entry to New Year’s Swap hosted by lovely Cannella, Chef Melissa, Elviria and Marcela. No recipes but only images, I hope that’s ok.

Dear family, friends, fellow bloggers and readers

I was tagged by Lulu of Manhattan, who recently moved to London and with a new blog Lulu Loves London, VKN of My Dhaba and Kimbie of Chocolate-Chip to list my 10 favorite foods. Tough to narrow it down to only 10, when there are so many food groups and cuisines to choose from. So I am going to keep it short and simple and list 10 images of my absolute food favorites I blogged this year.

Buggani + Stuffed Brinjal Curry + Gongura Dal + Okra Sambhar + Lime Pickle

Thanks Lulu, VKN and Kimbie, I had fun saying goodbye to 2005 through images of my favorites foods.

If you are interested, feel free to tag yourself and write about your favorite foods like Paul of KIPlog fame, judge for this year’s 2005 Food Blog Awards, did.

All last week, we were in Toronto. This was our first visit to this Canadian city and we also found that it is very tourist friendly. We stayed at a hotel in downtown. One of the things we liked about the city is its public transport system. Trams and subway system were excellent and we never had to use our car, it just sat in the hotel garage.

In addition to regular tourist attractions, we also visited India Bazaar on Gerrard street. Dined at a south Indian vegetarian restaurant on Gerrard Street called Udipi Palace. We enjoyed having hot masala Dosa, Idli and Vada. There is also a new grocery shop, Sabji Mandi, opened in Brampton. They had an outrageous opening sale going and I went nuts. Bought about 150 dollars worth of groceries there. The prices for items like rice, dals and vegetables were unbelievable. Two 10 pound Basmathi rice bags for $8.99, 8 pound dal bag $2.99! I think with the purchases I did, I am set for this winter.

Photos of Toronto in December winter weather:

For this week in Indian Kitchen:

I’m taking few days off from blogging for the holidays. See you all after Christmas.

Food bloggers and fans from all over the world are participating in a fundraising event hosted by lovely Pim for a good cause – helping the earthquake victims of Kashmir area.

You can feel good about yourself and goodbye this year proudly by giving money to this cause. Offer a prize for raffle or participate to win a raffle prize or directly give out money – these are the choices. I chose the last option.

The site Pim set up seems to be very secure and reputable, accepts both Visa and Master Card and I am confident that the money we donate goes to this cause only. Check it out and donate if you feel like it.

“Slurp.. slurp and burp..burp.
The simple pleasure of having dinner sitting on the floor“ – I totally agree.

yum.. my kind of food – “Avocado Parathas“.

Very useful tips on food photography from Food Blog School.

Thank you all, who took time to vote Ma’amoul as one of your favorite cookies. I really appreciate your interest. If I could, I would love to send you all a sample cookie. 🙂

Thanks to Chanit for introducing me to this wonderful cookie and thanks to Jennifer and Alberto for sponsoring this event and prizes. Also congrats to Nupur, my blog friend and to all others, who scored a cookie book.

Lovely Kate of Accidental Hedonist is hosting the 2nd annual Food Blog Awards. She is inviting all to participate in nominating your favorite food blogs in different categories. Now through December 16th, you can nominate your favorite food blog site for consideration, after which 5 finalists will be chosen in each category and then another voting will take place, to select the ultimate crowd pleaser in each category.

Just click on a category, and enter you favorite food blog name. Have fun!

Our small town is making television debut on ABC channel, today. Do you remember my post about ABC’s Extreme Makeover- Home Edition. Today at 8/7 central time, they are going to show the episode filmed in our town, featuring Novak family.

What is this food item? Guessing game, now with prizes for correct guessers – all courtesy of Lulu of Lulu Loves Manhattan.
Go visit and have fun.
Photo from Lulu Loves Manhattan