Coming out of the shell

Life is bright and colorful

I cannot believe that its the last day of the first quarter of 2013 already! 

First of all, my heartfelt apologies to all the readers  of my blog for my unannounced disappearance.  I did not bag that project, towards which I was working so diligently all of last month. That put me in sort of blue funk and though I may not show always, I do not take my getting blue lightly ;)

I finally came out of my shell and noticed the beauty of spring around me. Rohith and I did not even realize that there are cherry blossom trees right across the street from our apartment. So here’s yours truly.  Rise and shine :)

My new favorite look for this spring

The most significant event of April 2013:

Frankly speaking I do not even recollect where the entire month vanished! It began right in front of my eyes and now it’s April 30th today. 

I do remember that Rohith and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on April 11th. We went to a live jazz and whiskey club and spent the much needed quality time together that evening as Rohith worked long hours for most of this month. 

3rd milestone

Later, we decided to have pizza at the neighboring pizzeria, De Mikele, as it was pouring that evening! 

Yummy end to the evening 

I finished my assignment on hands by mid of April and decided to take a break for the rest of the month.  I am working again on another proposal beginning tomorrow for a Brooklyn based nonprofit. 

Things that you see on the streets:

Coming back home one of these days, I spotted this cool fake bill and thought about sharing it with all of you. 

Did you even know that Obama can be Asian?

Cooking at home:

April was sandwich month at Roy’s household. I am posting the pictures with captions mentioning what kind of sandwiches they were.

Fresh toasted bagel with tomatoes and cream cheese

Mixed veggie sandwich with pickle

Grilled cheese and tomatoes sandwich

Ajwain masala aaloo stuffed sandwich

Avocado, cucumber and tomato sandwich

Guacamole sandwich

As the weather improved, our blender also sprung into action and I churned out some very tasty and health smoothies all month long.

ingenious appliance

I also found these beautiful and bright tomatoes recently . The largest one is called ‘Ugly Tomatoes’. Can you believe it? The others are wine and plum tomatoes. I put the lime with them for some contrast.

I also cooked a few other interesting things such as bharwaan baigan (stuffed  baby Indian eggplant), daal fry, masala palak (spinach) and so on. Apologies,  as I was not feeling up to taking pictures, so please bear with me this time.

Working out at home:

I continued my yoga sequence to get rid of muffin top combined with lower back pain after the Sun Salutations 1 and 2. Rohith is also trying to turn over a new leaf and got on to the treadmill last week.  We are seriously thinking of beginning our morning walk regimen, weather permitting. 

Announcement:

After much deliberation, I am deciding to change my blog in to a weekly blog for sometime. Let us see if this works out well or not. 

Questions of the day:

• Which is the most significant happening you remember about April 2013?
• Have you found any funny/unusual/weird thing on the streets lately?

Do write to me at pallavibhar at gmail dot com or comment below. 

Easter weekend and the passing away of a pioneer

Spring is in the air

This past weekend was Easter. It was a good news at many fronts and a not so good one (ultimately good though) at only one front.

The Good first:

• The weather opened up
• Got together with a friend over dinner. She was visiting from Lexington, SC because of the Easter holiday
• Caught a great performance inside the 34th street herald square station (picture below)
• Bought a great bargain dress from Burlington and Gap and a pair of everyday office shoes from naturalizer.com (picture below)
• Got a breather at the laundromat since there was nobody else. Little blessing of the Easter. Yippee!
• Met up with our Aunt after a long long time

The not so good now:

One of my grandfathers (my father’s uncle) passed away on Saturday last week. He was a pioneer in our entire clan. He took the gumption of winding up his life in India and moved to the US in the late 60s. My mother always looked up to him and quoted him as an example, while teaching us about the importance of hard work and sacrifice for the next of kins. An era ended with him. He was gifted with a saint’s death and went away peacefully in his sleep. 

The crowd stomped at their beats

Courtesy Burlington (under 20) 

Courtesy Gap (Under $10)

Everyday heels (under $15)

Cooking at home:

I cooked only sporadically at home for most of the weekend. It was Rohith’s turn in the kitchen and he did his best. How wicked of me! He made his signature filling and scrumptious scrambles eggs north Indian way with colored peppers. We had with them whole wheat toast and home made butter. 

Weekend brunch staple

Later, we left for the city as I met my friend at Tappo. I did not know that they serve wine in water glasses in Italy, so I was a little surprised to see this. Tappo is an Italian joint for one of the best thin crust pizza’s in the city. Read my full review of Tappo on yelp here. 

First time ever

Sunday night dinner:

Rohith tried to make marinara sauce for pasta from scratch this time and boy did it come out right.

Best ever

With freshly grated parmesan and crushed black pepper, it was downright lip-smacker. 

Featured recipe:

My brother’s classmate’s sister, Prachi, is now living in Queens after marriage. Like most of us, she is trying her hands on all the available recipes out there (courtesy online reading and youtube she admitted sweetly).  She told me about this neat trick of making patties the north Indian way. 

©Photo and recipe courtesy: Prachi Verma

She told me that there are pre-made patty sheets available at any grocery stores, including the Indian stores. You can stuff them with the filling of your choice and bake them in your oven. Voila! You have yourself homemade Indian patties. We used to go crazy for these in our school days, while watching movies in a theater. For those of you who are not from India, just imagine these as staple in India while watching movies, as popcorns are for the US. I shall definitely give them a try very soon.  Thanks Prachi for sharing this recipe with us. 

Workout at home:

Still have not been able to get to the cardio back and feel extremely guilty about it. Instead, I continued my weekend warrior yoga series besides the Sun Salutations 1 and 2, post shower, all of the weekend. 

Rest of the week:

I had a very little energy left today, so I stayed in for the day. Internship assignment is on and I am still waiting to hear from my most important project right now. Will keep you guys posted. Please wish me luck!

I will be rooting for you guys. xxxx

World Autism Awareness Day:

Before signing off for the evening, I wanted to take a minute to share some facts about autism. Today is the World Autism Awareness Day and April is the Autism Awareness Month.

Having some close ones suffering from this really moves you. I have two cousins, who are affected by autism. Therefore, I want to take a minute to list down a few facts today.

• Autism now affects 1 in 88 children and 1 in 54 boys
• Autism prevalence figures are growing
• Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
• Autism costs a family $60,000 a year on average
• Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases
• Boys are nearly five times more likely than girls to have autism
• There is no medical detection or cure for autism

To learn more about autism or ways you can be involved, please visit AutismSpeaks.org.

Questions for the day:

• How did you spend your Easter weekend?
• Have you struck any great bargain lately? Online or in store.
• Is there a dish that you have tried and really liked? Please share with me and I will feature it here.

Do write to me at pallavibhar at gmail dot com or comment below.