Fried poha / flattened rice

Last week was spent in trying to understand the technical aspect of blogging, ( I have no idea, what triggered it, but occasionally I do get such impulse in my brain)  I am aware that I am technically challenged. I told myself, "how hard can this be?" "It's all in the mind, if you think you can do it, you can" hmmm...I guess this law does not hold true for everything. You need some basic prerequisite. I did gather a few words, parroted it to my better half, he tried to explain them, all I had to say was "can you do it on my blog?" He did not know what I wanted, and frankly I did not know either. I crawled back to my iPhone, did some blog hopping, spent some quality time on social media, felt alive again. Jeez! It really tired me, I may not understand SEO, to alt tag my images, to view source to figure out keywords...Even if I knew, that's not really where my heart is. I write what I write as it comes from my heart, not because I need to hashtag keywords. I click pictures, cos I love to express my artistic self through photography, I cook, as I love food and enjoy sharing it with people I love. I bloghop and spend time on social media, as I love to interact with like minded people. Now,  that's simple and brings a smile on my face. I see the fog clearing! :) 

A cup of coffee is always a great idea, when you have exercised your brain, like I did. Evening coffee is great when it is accompanied by some snacks.  I think it is such an Indian thing. Cookies, biscuits, fritters and fried snack...there are millions of snack to choose from and you really do not have to break your back to make some of them.  Great for this time of the year, nip in the air, hot coffee and fried poha. Even thou am enjoying the nip in the evenings, it's hard for me to bid goodbye to summer, I love the colors of fall, but, I am not ready to throw away my shorts and embrace the colder temperature. We have been lucky this year to have nice warm days, (see me jinx it). I really miss the outdoors during winter.  Well, if you are imaging me  skiing through a white sheet of snow...hmmm! not really, am not going to elaborate on the details, but I have tried it and let's just say it did not work for me...If I do start talking about it, it's going to be a long hilarious post. For now, some coffee with fried poha and some clicks from my garden. 

Orange spice cake with candied oranges

Early this week was a special someone's birthday. As cliché as it may sound, but he is indeed the nicest guy I have known. He has always pushed me to be 'me', not to over think but to just follow my heart and to live my life on my terms. I am the kind of person, who needs that push and then am on a roll. He certainly provides more than a push. 

He loves desserts, but is picky,  not the one to be blissful on a sugar high. Not crazy about frosting, and I don't have great piping skills to boast. But somehow a cake without frosting looks undressed, don't you think... something missing, so I wanted to bake something that would look a bit presentable and satisfy his sweet or should I say not so sweet tooth.  I went around the blogospher and found the cake recipe here, (sugar is just perfect) now I wanted something to compliment the cake and make it from boring to glam... ( am talking about the glam version for a woman who cannot pipe). Thanks to David lebovitz, I made some candied oranges, recipe here. Paring them was perfect, a dollop of whipped cream and boy! It was a good cake. We had some close family friends who dropped in to surprise the birthday boy (I know, we have some amazing friends) and the cake was almost polished off, am glad I could save a couple of pieces for you guys. 

The candied oranges had a hint, just a hint of bitterness with the sweet, which I loved. So I styled the cake with some whipped cream and a small piece of the candied orange ( if you do not like candied oranges) and the other one with just a big generous helping of the candied orange. 

Uttapam : the Indian Pizza

Rain has always evoked a romantic response from me. Am not restricting romance to just a feeling of love towards a special someone. It's a feeling of being alive, of the lush green, of being comfortable in the moment and enjoying it. Our minds are always running between the past and the future. It's strange that we forget to live in the present. I love to stand by my patio door and watch the rain, nothing on my mind... just enjoying the moment. It probably takes me back to my teen years, coming home from college my mother would make hot adrak chai with some hot savory snack, and both of us would sit and spend some good time, talking about the day. Brings on a sense of comfort,  no matter how many pot-holes life may have, finally in the end, it's worth it. It's 'this' life that has made you who you are and its more than worth it. See, what a pitter-patter does to me. It brings out the sage in me. lol!

Some hot chai is a must on such days... bring on some music, a good book and snuggle in your little corner. Blissful! My reading habits have changed over the years. There was a time when I enjoyed fiction and you would often see me biting my nails while reading a mystery or literally crying with the protagonist in a poignant scene. Now, I love to read about food, history of food, photography and even techie stuff. But the feeling to snuggle with your favorite read, chai, rain and hot uttapam... that has not changed. And last evening I did just that. What did I read ? David Lebovitz's blog. 

Kale and fruit juice blend

We are back to a Monday! Is it me or the pace of time just got faster.  I really wish I could hold on to time, I am impatient to do so much and am always behind. A lot of last week was spent on a liberating exercise of rejuvenating my creative energy. I absolutely enjoyed reading an e-book Sharp Shooter by Martin Bailey, am amazing photographer. I must confess that at one time I did coil myself into a mess of numbers. The science behind razor sharp images. Thanks to my better half, I did uncoil myself to some extent. Am, not really done with the book and have a couple of pages left, and may have to re-read portions. I like books that challenge me and this one certainly did.  I am compiling a list of my favorite bloggers/photographers, so a lot of time was spent, going around blogs and photography sites. If you guys have any recommendations, that would be awesome. There is so much talent and inspiration out there, it is just an amazing world. I feel so energized, you can see the halo of creativity around me. LOL! Some of these artist are just amazing and absolutely mind blowing work.Do you guys want me to share the list ? Should I do it in a post or just the side-bar of TNS.

These photographs are from my archives, but. The morning sun was so beautiful and I was having my kale and fruit juice blend, I was itching to use the camera and I did :). I love the play of light in the photograph, if I may say so myself. Had to share it today and not have it sit in the archives. Am also going to work on a dessert after I am done posting this. Can't wait to create it and then style it, have so many ideas, either am going to overwhelm myself and mess it up or its going to be a liberating exercise. Let's see how that goes :))

Thank you for all the great comments on last week's post . Am so glad that you guys actually read what I write and encourage me to prattle more ;-).

Instant Peda

It's just been a week and it seems like I have not been on the blog for  months. It has been a long week. Phew! Lots of exciting work. That reminds me, I never shared with you guys the pictures of my first onsite photo shoot. This was sometime early May, I was approached by a local Indian restaurant to do a shoot for the launch of their food truck. Here are some of the clicks, nice to see  posters of my photograph used for advertising. Feels good! Am also working with a few authors on an upcoming e-book, some photography for a book cover. Let's see how all that pans out. Sorry guys, if I  sound pompous, I really love sharing my blog adventures with you. Frankly, it feels great to read all the lovely compliments, call me vain but reading your comments gives me the impetus to outdo myself. Believe me when I say this, first thing I do when I get up in the morning : check for your comments :). While we are talking about vanity, I did buy a super cute blue dress, can't wait to wear it. Moving on,  I do have my share of very strong critics, my mother who loves my visuals but will nick pick on minute details and my choice of props, and the grammar police, who is forever after me alias 'finally teen'. I also have my photo clubs, I just love their inputs. The grammar police is the hardest to deal with( rolling eyes). I love exclamation marks, and apparently there are rules,  it's unacceptable to have 3 in a row to have a space before them. If you do see space before exclamation, then you should assume that the grammar police has not come after me yet. ;). Sorry! to all the  grammar sticklers out there (sheepish grin). In a way am glad I do have someone to critique and do some quality control.

Spice coated baby potatoes

It was a relaxing long weekend. We love to spend time with friends but we also need our space - not really party animals. Thankfully, the three of us are similar. Saturday and Sunday was time well spent with friends, and Monday was really quiet... in fact we watched an old Indian movie together (which was hilarious).  I really like weekends where we do a little bit of everything, malling, eating out, spending time with friends, watching silly movies that don't make sense and still having some time to spare. 

The weekend was really productive. I found these cute fingerlings baby potatoes at the farmer's market by my house and instantly I had a recipe in mind. The dish was finger licking good, if I may say so myself. I had exactly 15 min to capture these. It is indeed hard to photograph  when you have a hungry family waiting. So obviously there was no time to use a diffuser. I try not to even look at my camera over the weekend, as it is very stressful to photograph, with a constant 'are you done' unison. I managed to take a few shots. After lunch I  transferred  the pics to my iMac, I was not that happy with the results. And, I got conflicting inputs, my better-half loved it and finally teen was iffy about it, to be precise "you can do better mom" is what she said. So, I decided to share it on my photography group, and guess what - conflicting results there too. Read here if you are interested. I did think the highlights were a bit harsh, making the photograph look a bit over sharpened. So, I had few of my friends help me learn how to post process and they even did a video for me. (click here to view video) Thank you, Borje Ensgard and Viana de Leon. Finally, am somewhat happy with the result, I know I could have done better. But here is a side by side comparison for you guys.